Can real-world lessons be taught in virtual environments? Yes, and perhaps more effectively, according to researchers with the Inter-Life project.
“Private islands,” or 3-D virtual worlds, allow young people to control their avatars in realistic, interactive settings to develop interpersonal, organizational, cognitive, and other skills. Given creative activities and tasks, they learn to cope with a variety of scenarios.
“It’s a highly engaging medium that could have a major impact in extending education and training beyond geographical locations,” says lead researcher Victor Lally of the University of Glasgow.
Source: Economic and Social Research Council, www.esrc.ac.uk.
Home buyers’ demand for energy efficiency and the use of sustainable materials will drive rapid growth in U.S. residential construction, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
“Green homes” will grow from 17% of the residential construction market in 2011 to as much as 38% by 2016, resulting in a fivefold increase in revenues to $114 billion. Remodeling and new construction will both increasingly go green, as buyers seek to lower future energy bills and keep materials out of landfills.
Source: National Association of Home Builders, www.nahb.org.
Tomorrow’s media will be even more personal and flexible, with the ability to filter out more of what we don’t want—and, indeed, to intuit just what that is.
Six megatrends identified by Georgia Institute of Technology’s FutureMediaSM Outlook 2012 report are:
1. Smart Data that delivers what matters.
2. People Platforms that allow us to better customize our social networks.
3. Content Integrity to monitor our data vulnerabilities and vet sources.
4. Nimble Media to ease our movement across platforms.
5. Sixth Sense integrating all our senses in the digital “mixed reality.”
6. Collaboration to harness the power of “an increasingly conversational and participatory world.”
Each of these megatrends will see breakthrough research and innovation in the years ahead, according to FutureMedia director Renu Kulkarni.
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology, www.gatech.edu.
China’s electric cars may be causing more harm than the gas-powered cars they are increasingly replacing, warns a new study by engineers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The electricity used to power e-cars in China comes largely from coal-fired plants. While the cars themselves produce fewer emissions than gasoline cars do, the plants that power them produce acids, organic chemicals, and other harmful particulates, explains researcher Chris Cherry.
China’s power plants are typically located far from population centers, thus mitigating the harmful effects of emissions. However, a better e-vehicle choice may be electric bikes.
“E-bikes, which are battery-powered, continue to be an environmentally friendly and efficient mode of transportation,” says Cherry.
Source: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, www.utk.edu.
Rates of teenage pregnancy, births, and abortions in the United States have fallen to the lowest level in nearly 40 years, according to Guttmacher Institute researchers Kathryn Kost and Stanley Henshaw.
About 7% of girls aged 15 to 19 became pregnant in 2008, representing a 42% decline from 1990, when U.S. teen pregnancy peaked. Births declined 35% between 1991 and 2008, and the number of abortions declined 59% from its peak in 1988.
“The recent declines in teen pregnancy rates are great news,” says Kost. “However, the continued inequities among racial and ethnic minorities are cause for concern. It is time to redouble our efforts to ensure that all teens have access to the information and contraceptive services they need to prevent unwanted pregnancies.”
Source: Guttmacher Institute, www.guttmacher.org.