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SpaceX launches 60 ‘Starlink’ satellites for global internet

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image: Twitter/@SpaceX

SpaceX, on November 11, launched 60 mini ‘Starlink’ satellites. This is the second batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global internet coverage.

The ‘Falcon’ rocket launched into the morning sky, marking the unprecedented fourth flight of a booster for SpaceX.

The compact flat-panel satellites – weighing just 575 pounds (260 kilograms) each – will join the other 60 launched in May.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive, wants to put thousands such ‘Starlink’ satellites in orbit, to offer high-speed internet service everywhere. Musk plans to start service next year in the northern US and Canada, with global coverage for populated areas after 24 launches.

Last month, Musk used an orbiting Starlink satellite to send a tweet: “Whoa, it worked!!” Employees gathered at company bases on both coasts cheered when the first-stage booster landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

“These boosters are designed to be used 10 times. Let’s turn it around for a fifth, guys,” company’s launch commentator said.

This also marked the first time SpaceX used a previously flown nose cone. The California-based company reuses rocket parts to cut costs.

Stacked flat inside the top of the rocket, the newest satellites were going to manoeuvre even higher following lift-off, using krypton-powered thrusters. SpaceX said there was a potential problem with one of the 60 that could prevent it from moving beyond its initial 174 mile-high (280 kilometre-high) orbit.

In that case, the faulty satellite will be commanded to re-enter and burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere. Each satellite has an autonomous system for dodging space junk.

In September, however, the European Space Agency had to move one of its satellites out of the way of a Starlink satellite. SpaceX later said it corrected the problem.

SpaceX is among several companies interested in providing broadband internet coverage worldwide, especially in areas where it costs too much or is unreliable. Others include OneWeb and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.

According to Musk, Starlink revenue can help SpaceX develop rockets and spacecraft for traveling to Mars, his overriding ambition.

[“source=moneycontrol”]

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Education

Run for Education on November 24

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

The 21km half-marathon will be a single-loop race from the City Centre to the Kolkata Gate in New Town and back

The 21km half-marathon will be a single-loop race from the City Centre to the Kolkata Gate in New Town and back(iStock)

The running season will take off from City Centre in Salt Lake on November 24 with the Airtel Run for Education partnered with The Telegraph.

The sixth edition of the run will not only a have timed 5km race to encourage first-timers, but will also witness the participation of around 100 ploggers who will pick up trash while running down the route, the organisers said.

The ploggers — people who pick up rubbish while jogging — will be split into groups, and will run in all categories of the race, they said.

This year finisher T-shirts, with name of the runner and his/her timing emblazoned on the back, will be available for a fee. The organisers decided to introduce finisher T-shirts after several runners wanted to take home a memento other than medals and certificates.

The 21km half-marathon will be a single-loop race from the City Centre to the Kolkata Gate in New Town and back.

Telegraph Picture

“The route will be scenic and it will not get monotonous as participants have to do it in a single loop,” Atul Gupta, race director, Round Table India, one of the organisers, said.

This year, the organisers expect more than 8,000 runners across all age groups. Vineet Patwari, CEO of Kredent Money, one of the sponsors, said the race had one of the most scenic routes among all the marathons organised here.

“Every year this event breaks records in terms of participant footfall and this year, too, we expect to break last year’s record,” Siddharth Sharma, CEO, Calcutta and Bengal, Bharti Airtel, said.

“This event is quite close to us as it helps to educate underprivileged children and help them in other ways,” he said.

Funds from the last five editions have been used to build classrooms at Sarada Sishu Mandir in Tanterberia, Howrah, Katadanga Kendra Vidyalaya, Champadani Ram Dulari Hindi School in Champadani, Kanchidiha Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Krishnanagar and Bright Future Nursery School in Kakdwip, South 24 Parganas among others. This year, too Round Table India wants to build classrooms at a school that has already been identified .

[“source=telegraphindia”]

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Education

Elizabeth Warren’s education plan would massively increase funding and her wealth tax would pay for it

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

GP: Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren Holds Town Hall In Norfolk, VA

Presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday released an education plan that aims to quadruple public education funding with a focus on allocating more resources to lower-income students and increasing teacher pay.

Warren’s plan, which her campaign says would be paid for by her proposed 2% wealth tax on people whose net worth is more than $50 million, focuses on desegregation, affordability and expansion into programs for students with special needs.

A $450 billion infusion into the system over the next decade will encourage schools to use it in part to pay teachers a higher salary and close the educator pay gap, according to her campaign. The funding can also go toward paying for supplies and resources so teachers don’t have to pay extra out-of-pocket costs.

In its entirety, her education proposal calls for $800 billion more in funding, which would account for the remaining balance of the revenue she says her wealth tax will raise, The Wall Street Journal reported. She has also envisioned using the wealth tax’s proceeds to pay for tuition-free public college education, abolishing student debt and a universal child-care program.

Warren’s campaign estimates her wealth tax, which rises to 3% on net worth of $1 billion and above, will raise $2.75 trillion over 10 years.

Warren said her administration would cover up to 40% of any additional costs for educating students with disabilities, the amount that Congress originally intended for coverage when it first proposed this policy in 1975.

Other proposals include:

  • “Excellence grants” of $100 billion that will go toward expanding resources and activities for students, with the goal of “25,000 public schools transition[ing] to the community school framework by 2030.”
  • A $50 billion investment into school infrastructure, but there’s no indication of whether the money will be spread out over a period of time or given in one lump sum.
  • Housing grants of $10 billion to build parks and schools if cities and states eliminate restrictive zoning laws.
  • A $25 billion fund for health-care access and expanding service at existing clinics.

Warren also took a shot at Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for not having a background in public education. The candidate said her Education secretary would in fact have such a background.

The plan from the Massachusetts senator also takes aim at charter schools. She would end federal funding for the expansion of charter schools and ban for-profit charters.

Warren’s plan has received support from teachers union the National Education Association.

[“source=cnbc”]

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Blogging

DISCOVER THE KEY TIPS FOR GUEST BLOGGING

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for DISCOVER THE KEY TIPS FOR GUEST BLOGGINGLets put the bitter facts first so as you chew or go further down, things become sweeter. If you think you are in business for over 3 months and have still not managed to bag 250 visitors to your blog on a daily basis, it is time you should consider guest blogging. Simply put, you should write for other sites than spending time on your own, with the ultimate aim of getting visitors to your site.

Suppose you start with a new blog about a new idea and start writing on it. Soon you have over 100 posts all full of awesome content. Now what? You also managed to get some likes and visitors with your referrals and social media friends. But then again, now what next? Is that it? All your friends and referrals may have liked or have cared to visit your page once as a mark of encouragement but then again, they do are not actually into the topic you are writing about. And wait, they do not even have to. Even if they do, the number of people actually visiting your blog will not go up and in fact, will gradually dip.

So, here is the catch. You will ultimately be left putting all those efforts for no one but yourself and your core group of friends who just in solidarity will always care to like your posts without even digging into it. This is not business but merely a hobby that you are pursuing for non-monetary gains. But, if that is not what you intended to do then you should consider guest blogging.

What is Guest Blogging?

The Internet is huge and growing by the day. Its an ocean of websites that are trying to bag their share of sunshine from the audience and be known. Alas, 90% of startups fail and meet with a tragic end due to lack of vision, funding, business model and a clear strategy. So, the need for guest blogging becomes even more pronounced for a startup blog to become known. You cannot just continue to write for your own indefinitely. Before going further, let us try and define it.

Guest blogging is a business strategy used by bloggers to increase traffic to their own blogs and websites. As a guest blogger, you write blogs for other blogs that operate in your niche as guests. The guest blogging trend has gone up over the years and has emerged as the most sought-after strategy for marketers to get more traffic.

How to do Guest Posting?

Like every game, this also has a rule book which not only makes the game easier but also beneficial. Here are some of the most notable rules or tips that will guide you through and help you get the maximum benefits of guest blogging.

Have a Clear Aim

You should have a clear vision of why are you opting for guest blogging. Determining the goal will help you identify the right blogs on which to blog for posting. Guest bloggers often come with prominently three goals- brand positioning of their own blogs in the niche, getting the right traffic and definitely building backlinks to their website. It is possible and okay to aim for all three and even more, but if in case you are betting at only first two then you will have to look for large blogs that have an established audience while if you are aiming at the third option, then you may look for blogs that have a strong root domain authority.

Look for Best Guest Blogging Sites

Once you have earmarked your primary goal, you should now be actively looking at various opportunities that are present in the market. Remember, to limit yourself only to your own niche as only then you will get the right audience. A good blog option will have a sound and engaged following and also a reasonable social media presence. Once you know the criteria, now you should be all set to conduct the much-needed searches on Google, social searches, in order to find the best platform to blog for. You may also look for the bloggers who are highly active in your niche and check out where they have done guest blogs. Alternatively, you may even take up an analysis of the backlinks by your competitors. This will help you know on which sites they have done guest blogging.

Pitching it Right

This is one major step forward. There are a few considerations that have to be kept in mind while you contact the blogs for guest blogging. First and foremost, the content of the blog is supreme and has to be screened minutely. This will also tell you the audience they are looking like businesses, intellectuals, individuals, startups, etc. Next, you should also see the profiles of other guest bloggers on the site to have an idea what is the general preference of the blog owner when he or she picks a guest blogger. You may be able to find this information from the bios of the guest blogger on the blog itself.

Another vital consideration is that what are blog posts generally perform better than the rest. Before you actually make your pitch you can actually start commenting on their best performing and latest guest posts. Again this gives the much-needed recognition from the blog owner, usually considered as a giant leap forward. Finally, the pitch should adhere to the basic guidelines of the guest posting and make your pitches more personalized by including the name of the blog owner in the post. You may also include the name of your own blog in the pitch as most blog owners only allow those guest bloggers who themselves own a blog.

The benefits of guest blogging are obvious but it is not an easy entry into the world. You will have to try multiple options in order to break into the realm. Relationships building, making yourself known to the blog owner is of primary importance. Once you gain entry, another vital consideration is the blog topic. Remember it is not about you or your passion when you do a guest blog, It is all about the preferences and audience of the blog owner for whom you will make the guest post. The bottom line is, delete yourself from the equation as it will let you get to a more focussed topic. The idea of the topic will not lie in the popular keywords of the niche but instead in the most popular posts on the blog, or the most-read posts. This will lead you to the pain point which you should be addressing in your guest post.

Lastly, it is important to seek and engage with comments on your blogs to ensure people are reading and caring to leave a word. Even in terms of metrics, it is a vital stat that Google algorithm takes into account before ranking your pages. Remember most comments are ways to express appreciation and strike a relationship and hence you should be able to maintain the tone of the comment, in your reply. Guest blogging is a great way forward for introducing yourself to a new audience in your niche to spread your reach. It takes depthful and streamlined research to write a guest blog to ensure the audience finds value in it and takes time to reach your own blog for more such insights.

All these points outlined above will help you give shape to a great guest post. Try yours now and do share your experiences.

[“source=bbntimes”]

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Education

UGC recognizes 14 new higher education institutes for open and distance learning

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

University Grants Commission has recognised 14 new Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) for providing courses through distance education. This list is in addition to 82 such institutes that were recognised by the UGC in May this year.

In December 2012, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, dissolved the Distance Education Council which was the erstwhile regulator of Distance Education programmes and transferred regulatory functions to the University Grants Commission.

UGC recognizes 14 new higher education institutes for open and distance learning

Representative image.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development in a gazette notification published earlier recognised all the degrees awarded through open and distance mode of education by the universities established by an Act of Parliament or State Legislature, Deemed Universities, Institutes of National Importance are eligible for posts and services under the central government, provided they have been approved by the UGC and wherever necessary, by All India Council for Technical Education for the programme for which it is the regulatory authority.

[“source=firstpost”]

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Education

Top 5 Digital Transformation Trends In Education For 2020

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

uncaptioned

It’s that time of year again where we take a look at the top digital transformation trends in the coming year in several industries. First up: education. As we all know, the only thing constant in digital transformation is change. So, how have digital transformation trends in education changed as we move toward the coming decade? And what, if anything, has stayed the same? The following are my top picks for not just technology trends but overall shifts in how we’ll be learning and connecting through technology moving forward.

Customized Learning Experiences

I have a friend in the private school sector who develops such customized learning experiences for her students that they are able to determine how they’d personally like to express their learning from each lesson—book report, song, art work, or even interpretive dance. Unfortunately, we can’t all send our kids to expensive private schools that put this much emphasis on personalized learning. One of the most maddening things for any parent with children in the public school system is the issue of standardized testing. As all parents and teachers know, all children have different ways of learning—visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc. New digital transformation trends in technology are going to make it easier for students of different learning types to learn in the way most appropriate to them, be it through interactive games, modeling tools, video production, etc. I can certainly see advanced analytics, AI and machine learning playing a role in analyzing individual student learning; although that may be a bit further off than next year.

For everyone considering the massive cuts to public education right now, I want to emphasize: it may not be that the teacher or school itself is providing an avenue to use these games for learning. However, new apps and software will make these learning avenues more accessible to students at home, etc.,which in turn will make their learning experiences that much more personalized.

Accessibility

Do we even need to learn to read anymore? With new digital transformation trends in technology, I’m beginning to wonder. The real answer is yes, of course, but it’s a provocative thought to say the least.  One of the most amazing things to me about technology is that it’s making information and knowledge accessible, regardless of how well someone is able to read it. This is true for voice-to-text and text-to-voice transcription technologies that are especially helpful to students with dyslexia and other learning issues. There is also an increasing volume of information available in video and audio form, ensuring that learning is no longer limited by the easy ability to read. Huge!

Accessibility is improving in the geographic sense, as well. Not everyone is lucky enough to live in a great school district or near an amazing college. However, digital transformations trends in education are making it less and less important where you live. For instance, the child with dyslexia mentioned above may live in a rural area that provides little support for learning differences. However, video conferencing makes it easier for even the most remote students to get the specialized support they need.

Internet of Things

While the Internet of Things (IoT) may have yet to pay off when it comes to creating smart cities, it does hold tremendous potential in terms of creating smarter, more connected schools. On the obvious end, it’s helping save money in terms of energy and lighting usage. But in a more obscure way, it’s also helping to keep schools and students safer and more connected. For instance, by using sensors to track traffic throughout the campus, schools may be able to determine where security features like lighting would benefit students and visitors. Using real-time communication tools, they can share homework assignments with parents so they can stay on top of less communicative children. These tools can also let parents know when their child is absent from class. Using time-stamp technology, they can alert parents and students when an assignment has gone missing. The bottom line is that the IoT has the chance to keep all of us more connected, engaged, and on our toes. And that’s always a good thing.

Security

With so many kids online, security is a huge priority for parents. In the past, we’ve relied on apps like Securly. Still, the online world is such a wild mess of content that many parents still wonder how secure their child’s learning environment may be. In the next year, I think we’ll continue to see a push for more transparency and parental controls in online learning. We’ll also see a greater emphasis on things like digital credentialing through blockchain and two-factor authentication to ensure that all students are kept safe, wherever they may be accessing the content that fits their needs.

Schools are strapped

Obviously, one of the growing trends in education overall is a lack of funding. In fact, due to a growing distribution of pension funds in many states, that lack of funding is only going to continue to grow. For instance, in California, school districts paid 8% of their teacher payrolls for pensions in 2013. By 2020, that contribution will rise to 19%. This will force teachers, who already spend a considerable amount of their own money on classroom supplies, into an even tighter corner and will have the potentially to increase the growing tech/educational divide. In the short term, I believe the outgrowth of new technologies and the ease with which even parents can create customized learning plans will lead to an increase in charter schools and homeschooling—completely upending our definition of “education” overall.

We know learning needs to continue to evolve and that technology and tools can help to enable that. Our world is becoming a place where we can rapidly learn anything, and in many fields our experience is only a small part of our ability to learn and achieve. The future of education is exciting and scary. Schools and education must evolve to embrace new learning styles and technologies that can captivate students, while concurrently maintaining integrity of the knowledge in areas like literature and history that help create well rounded people. That should really be at the core of our change and digital transformation efforts in education.

[“source=forbes”]

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Blogging

How to Use Guest Blogging for Natural Link Building

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

How to Use Guest Blogging for Natural Link Building

Guest blogging and link building are powerful tactics that belong in every SEO specialist’s toolkit.

Some experts are skeptical of guest blogging because of the vast number of unsuccessful examples you can find online.

However, when used correctly, guest blogging has the power to boost your brand’s online image.

What Is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging (or guest posting) is publishing your content on other companies’ websites, preferably related to your niche.

As a rule, guest bloggers incorporate links to their own sites into their guest posts, driving traffic to their own platforms. However, this is becoming more difficult because many websites add nofollow or even strip out links completely

Guest blogging has been actively used in the SEO world for many years and is not going away anytime soon.

Collaboration within the niche is useful for both the host site and the guest writer.

Large companies often invite partner authors to post on their blogs and in turn post articles on other websites.

How to Use Guest Blogging for Natural Link Building

Benefits of Guest Blogging

There are several key benefits to contributing as a guest blogger:

  • Increased brand awareness. To increase their exposure in the real world, many companies participate in conferences and other important professional events, organize meetings with potential contractors and clients, interact with customers, and make every effort to stay visible. The same principles apply in the digital space. The more sites you visit and leave your imprint on, the more web users know about you, and the stronger your authority.
  • More transitions to your site. Placing a link to your landing page in your bio, or inviting readers to sign up for your newsletter, are a couple of good ways to increase leads and traffic.
  • Useful contacts. You can build partnerships with influential companies, enter a privileged community of contributors within your niche, learn from other’s experiences, and exchange knowledge and resources.
  • Shorter sales cycle. Don’t wait for potential clients to find and visit your website and read about your goods and services. Your guest posts published on popular online platforms provide the perfect forum to promote your brand. Interested readers will follow your links to get more information.

6-Step Strategy for Using Guest Blogging as a Link Building Tool

1. Find Relevant Opportunities

Search for Guest Blogging-Friendly Websites

To achieve impressive and lasting results, devise a strategy for your guest blogging.

Take advantage of Google search to find relevant websites that welcome guest posts.

Use queries that include the name of your niche (design, medicine, art, etc.) and phrases like “guest post,” “write for us,” “guest blog,” or “contributor.”

Analyze Competitors’ Links

Find out which guest bloggers are posting links on your selected websites.

Analyze their strengths and weaknesses.

This is more easily done with small and medium-sized platforms. For larger ones, you can use special tools like Netpeak Spider and Moz Link Explorer.

Search by Influencers

It is always easier to bypass pitfalls when you learn from the experience of others. Successful guest bloggers have already overcome the challenges you are about to face.

Assess the online behaviors of the main influencers in your niche.

Compile a list of websites they contribute to and avoid wasting time and energy on irrelevant or unpopular online platforms.

2. Refine Your List of Websites

Conduct a donor analysis. It is the study of a website’s traffic and the keywords that generate it.

With this data, the placement cost can be compared with the donor’s value.

Check the following criteria before contacting blog administrators:

  • The domain authority of 50 and above. Websites with DA lower than 40 will most likely be a waste of time (but not always).
  • Quality of content. Assess blog posts from the viewpoint of a reader. Are they valuable? Are you interested? Would you like to comment and share them with your friends? Are new materials posted regularly? If the answers are positive, visitors to the website are likely to read your articles and follow your links.
  • Organic traffic. The more traffic a site has, the more keywords are at the top of the search rankings. When keywords are similar to the project being developed, the link equity promoted by the donor is maximized.
  • Author bio. Will you be permitted to include information about yourself and your company in your posts? Will they be published in a prominent place?

Other useful tips:

  • Discard donors with small numbers of keywords and low traffic. They will not benefit you, and they can sometimes be harmful.
  • The best donors are sites with a narrow theme relevant to your own, and sites with a general format (for example, news sites). If the site has a general theme, select an anchor according to your promotion plan. If it is narrowly specialized, try to use an anchor based on the donor’s top keywords.

3. Brainstorm Content Ideas

Now that you know where to post your content, the next question is what to post.

Above all, your articles should correspond to the thematic of the host website and be useful to its readers.

Analyze current trends, controversies, and the hottest news in the target industry to find inspiration and get an idea of popular topics.

Constantly tracking important events and innovative ideas can be time-consuming, but you can automate this process by taking advantage of helpful tools like BuzzSumo, or use CoSchedule to help you generate great titles.

Target your posts to both beginners and pros, to diversify your readership and provide relevant solutions to specialists in your field.

4. Begin Your Outreach

Now it is time to make useful contacts with administrators of the selected blogs.

Use data in the “Contact Us” section, a contact form on the website, or search for email addresses using tools like Interseller or Anymail finder.

Be prepared to wait for a response. Large website owners are not always receptive to outreach emails because they receive dozens of similar offers every day and have a well-established publishing schedule.

It may take much time to build good relationships with influencers or get them to notice you. Reach out to administrators of reputable websites in social networks, and comment on their photos, posts, and other content.

Adhere to the following rules when sending a personal message:

  • Since you are sending a cold email, use a neutral address to avoid spam filters.
  • Write the original text.
  • Greet the email recipient warmly and introduce yourself.
  • Refer to materials on their website or personal page, and mention that you like their content.
  • Be straightforward about why you are writing, and indicate where you think would be the best placement for your article.
  • Offer a few interesting guest post ideas.
  • Provide examples of your articles.
  • Offer to advertise the host website on your social media platforms.

5. Create Your Posts

Once you get approval from a website owner, start writing posts for their platform. Here are some important nuances to be kept in mind:

  • Become acquainted with the host’s guest blogging guidelines and adhere to them, to avoid conflicts with administrators and deleting of your content. If there are no specific instructions, read other contributors’ articles to identify patterns.
  • To optimize your content, take SEO principles into account.
  • Provide a link to your website or other relevant resources, but make sure it fits organically into your text. Blatant promotion of your platform will do more harm than good.
  • Do not use anchors like “follow this link” or “here”. You can refer to your blog, but first, prepare the articles you are going to link to. You can redirect link juice from there to your “selling” pages.
  • Before submitting, take a break and look at your post with fresh eyes. Make sure it is reader-friendly, rephrase awkward sentences, and eliminate grammar and spelling errors.

6. Track & Measure

Do not expect fast results. It takes time to become a good guest blogger.

You should have a well-organized tracking system to determine the efficiency of each post and host website, distinguish positive trends and patterns, and improve the position of your brand in the future.

This may be done using a spreadsheet with data on views and referring traffic. Also, you can take advantage of Google Analytics to measure the influence of guest blogging on your SEO indicators.

Pro Rank Tracker can help you understand changes in your search ranking position over time.

How to Use Guest Blogging for Link Building

Summary

Guest blogging key concepts:

  • Guest bloggers publish original content on partner websites.
  • Guest blogging helps boost brand awareness, draw referring traffic, shorten the sales cycle, and build strong relationships with influencers in your niche.
  • To use guest blogging efficiently, you must find relevant websites, generate interesting content ideas, reach out to website owners, write impressive posts, organically incorporate links, track and measure the efficiency of your strategy, evaluate donors, and attract only those with a large number of keywords and high traffic.
  • Additional ways to get backlinks include scholarships, discounts, forums, and interviews with experts.

Timeframe: Ongoing starting Month 3

Results detected: 4-12 months after implementation

Average links sent per month: 4

Tools needed:

  • Netpeak Spider
  • Moz Link Explorer
  • BuzzSumo
  • CoSchedule
  • Interseller
  • Anymail finder
  • Google Analytics
  • Pro Rank Tracker

Benefits of guest blogging:

  • Increased brand awareness. The more sites you visit and leave your imprint on, the stronger your SEO authority.
  • More transitions to your site. Placing a link to your landing page in your bio, or inviting readers to sign up for your newsletter are good ways to increase leads and traffic.
  • Useful contacts. You can build partnerships with influential companies and enter a privileged community of contributors within your niche.
  • Shorter sales cycle. There is no need to wait for potential clients to find and visit your website. Your guest posts would promote your brand and invite readers to get more information.

Hopefully these tips will contribute to your success.

Take advantage of the many opportunities provided by guest blogging, and enjoy a robust influx of new visitors to your website!

[“source=searchenginejournal”]

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Internet

Amazon asks FCC for permission to launch internet satellites

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Amazon is moving fairly quickly on its plan to deploy thousands of internet satellites. The company has filed for FCC permission to launch 3,236 satellites as part of Project Kuiper. The spacecraft would be grouped into 98 orbital planes, and fly at altitudes between 366 and 391 miles. The filing reiterated Amazon’s plans to connect “tens of millions” of people around the world, although the company warned that it couldn’t cover everything — it asked for a waiver on a requirement to serve the whole US as its satellites wouldn’t cover parts of Alaska.

They’d use Ka-band frequencies like those Iridium is using in its latest satellites, and Amazon is asking for clearance to use anti-interference technology to avoid headaches. And yes, Amazon is aware of the potential problems with space debris. The satellites would deorbit themselves in less than 10 years whether or not they were still in contact with Earth.

Amazon didn’t mention a timeline for putting the satellites into orbit. However, the FCC filing shows that it has been thinking about this plan for a while. Whether or not it’s timely is another story. SpaceX is already launching its first broadband satellites, and plans roughly three times as many. Although it will take years for satellite constellations like these to roll out, there’s a concern that Amazon might already be at a disadvantage.

[“source=engadget”]

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Education

Opinion | Planning higher education for your little one

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

(Illustration: Sudhir Shetty)

Most of us have been part of family conversations that go, “When I was young, everything was so cheap” with multiple examples thrown in ranging from food items to petrol prices. The absolute changes in values are very significant, but when you put them down in numbers, the changes are mostly in line with inflation over the years. However, costs of education and health care have gone up at a significantly faster pace than other products.

Over the last 15 years we have been working with clients and their families on setting and monitoring their financial goals. One of the biggest shifts that we have noticed with respect to financial goals is the desire and dream to ensure that children get access to international education—either overseas or in institutions that offer international curriculums in India.

The shift to the dream of an “international” education has been driven by a combination of factors.

These include increased international exposure due to foreign travel for work and vacations, the proliferation of international schools over the last few years that have an experiential learning system rather than rote learning, the brutal competition domestically for the best institutions for higher studies, and of course, the significantly higher disposable incomes driven by salaries that are at global standards, as well as the increase in double income families.

How much money do you need for it?

The starting point to achieve this objective is to estimate the cost of education accurately. The cost will depend on the type of the course and the location of the educational institution. While estimating the amount, remember that factoring in only tuition fees is not enough. You should also consider other costs such as extra-curricular activities, living expenses, medical costs, books, supplies and travel cost of the child and parents. Living on or off campus could make a huge difference in costs too.

Impact of total inflation, not just education inflation

Since planning for education is usually a long-term goal, considering the right inflation rate is important as most people underestimate inflation rates and its compounding impact.

While that is probably true for general inflation, education inflation globally does tend to be much higher than general inflation.

Education inflation in the US, for example, is currently between 4% and 5% per annum, down from 6-7% per annum that it used to be, but still high enough that education costs double in 12-15 years. In addition, the exchange rate movement will also need to be factored in.

How you can save for this goal

Using a combination of the estimated cost of the education today, the total inflation and the number of years before this money is required, the total corpus needed can be estimated. The good news is that not all this money is likely to be required together, so a year-wise amount can be arrived at.

Accordingly, a portfolio investment strategy with a robust asset allocation will need to be developed in light of risk tolerance and historical returns of various asset classes.

Based on these estimations, you can arrive at an investment amount. While most investors tend to be overwhelmed by some of these numbers, it is important that the numbers are broken down into smaller amounts like monthly savings amounts and then increased over a period of time. Like most other goals, a high quality education goal(s) can be achieved, with the right planning, discipline and execution.

[“source=livemint”]

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Education

Closing the early education gap for rural families

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

The mountain of evidence that early childhood education has profound and life-long effects for students has been building for decades. Educators have made efforts to expand access to high-quality early education opportunities, but that access is not evenly distributed–rural communities are often left out of the loop entirely.

Approximately one in five Americans live in rural areas, and, according to the Center for American Progress, 59% of rural areas are defined as “child care deserts.” This term refers to areas that have fewer available child care spots than there are children in need of them. Even more concerning, there’s no guarantee that those available spots even offer high-quality preschool instruction.

My formal title is director of curriculum and instruction at Greenburg Community Schools, but I also serve as the coordinator for our Federal Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV and Rural and Low Income Schools grants, as well as those for high ability and gifted students.

These positions allow me to see where students are when they enter our school system at the kindergarten level and watch them evolve, experience, and mature through graduation. We see students who have been enrolled in childcare facilities since they were six weeks old, others who have attended preschool for two or more years, and still others who have never been away from home before they enter kindergarten.

I have found that there is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution to providing early learning opportunities for rural communities, but at-home, online programs are helping to fill the gap.

The Challenges

A lack of available preschool options isn’t the only challenge facing rural parents seeking to educate their children. With more than a quarter of rural children coming from economically disadvantaged families, cost is also a significant issue. In my own experience working with rural populations in Indiana, I’ve seen this firsthand. Many parents are unemployed or underemployed. They may be working but no longer able to earn a living wage after factories that paid upwards of $20 an hour have closed, forcing them to make due on part-time work from temporary staffing agencies that pay $9–$15 an hour. Some preschool options can cost as much as $200 per week, which puts them firmly out of reach for many rural families.

Transportation is another significant hurdle. Rural communities are geographically isolated. Coupled with the grim economic picture, this means many families cannot take their children to preschool, either because they cannot afford it or because they don’t have flexible enough working hours to take them. A lack of public transportation in these rural areas often takes preschool completely off the table as an option.

The Solution

Luckily, the answers are suggested by the challenges themselves. If high-quality early education is too expensive for rural families, let’s educate their children at no cost to them. If transportation woes prevent them from taking their children to free high-quality options, let’s bring those options to them.

One organization I partner with–the nonprofit Waterford.org–offers an online early learning solution called Waterford UPSTART, which is designed to help children develop early literacy, numeracy and science skills.

I had previously worked with this organization when I was at a larger district. While there, I saw how the platform helped struggling and at-risk students prepare for kindergarten. When I moved to my current position at Greensburg, we adopted it as an early intervention tool with the help of an Early Intervention Literacy Grant.

All of our kindergarten students and our seven kindergarten teachers at Greensburg use Waterford UPSTART. I also serve as a local education partner with the organization for a project in which they provide the program free to pre-K students. Participating children are asked to spend 15 minutes a day, five days a week working with the program. If the family doesn’t have a computer, Waterford provides one. If they don’t have internet access, that’s provided free of charge as well through programs such as an EIR grant.

Families get their own academic coach, who monitors the frequency and duration of use and checks in with them frequently to ensure their children are neither over- or under-using the program. My role is to help promote the program in our district and identify students eligible for the free benefits.

Connecting with Families

As an educator, it has been a joy getting to know the local families I’ve had the privilege to work with and watching “my” children grow from our first meeting through our frequent family engagement events. In April, Greensburg Community Schools will hold its annual Kindergarten Round Up, where we’ll hold an open house for our new students and their families before administering baseline assessments for all incoming kindergartners. I look forward to comparing my online pre-K students’ results to those of their peers and cheering them on as they progress through their academic careers.

[“source=smartbrief”]

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