Peer Review

MIT Technology Review

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Aug 7, 2015 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This website covers the technology areas of biomedicine, technology business, computing, energy materials, mobile and robotics. It consists of articles, events, features, opinion pieces, business reports, blogs and discussion forums. It is useful for providing an excellent overview of the current state of affairs in the technology fields described above.
Type of Material:: This is an online technology magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It provides information on news and current affairs in technology fields e.g biomedicine, technology business, computing, energy materials, mobile and robotics.
Recommended Uses:: This will be useful as supplementary reading for students. Students can also read sections of this magazine for homework assignments. Articles may be also be extracted to be used as teaching case study materials for small group work and for student presentations. Faculty can subscribe to the magazine to receive updates at no cost. They could thus link to and encourage students by bringing in current information.
Technical Requirements:: A standard browser will work for most pages. For the multimedia section of the website, Adobe Flash is required for videos to play.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The goals of the website are to keep people in the technology fields biomedicine, technology business, computing, energy materials, mobile and robotics.up-to-date on the latest developments, state of affairs and changes in the field.
Target Student Population:: The online magazine will be useful for advanced-level undergraduate and graduate level students as well as faculty in high school and college.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Some education in biomedicine, technology business, computing, energy materials, mobile and robotics. You must be 13 years of age or over or have parent permission to access the site.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The magazine provides ‘cutting edge’ information on current developments, changes and issues in the fields of biomedicine, technology business, computing, energy materials, mobile and robotics. The articles have an academic slant. They are also well-researched and well written. The magazine has a global reach: it is published in 6 languages - English, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. It also reports on current news and developments in its area in the Middle East, Europe, Latin America as well as the United States.
Concerns:: • Not really appropriate for novices in the fields of biomedicine, technology business, computing, energy materials, mobile and robotics. • No learning model in use. There is so much information that it is almost overwhelming. • No mechanism for assessment of learning

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: * Excellent supplementary resource for advanced-level undergraduate and graduate level university students in the fields of biomedicine, technology business, computing, energy materials, mobile and robotics. * Useful for students already familiar with the foundational concepts in the fields * The magazine consolidates and expands on foundational knowledge by providing current updates on the latest research, issues and developments. * Can be used as instructional resource material by faculty * Can be used as homework reading material for students * Articles can also be used as teaching case study materials in which students engage in small-group work and student presentations on topics. * While there is no immediate alignment with any specific curriculum, the topics of the website can be integrated into the curriculum of disciplines which are covered in the magazine.
Concerns:: * There are no stated learning objectives in the magazine. * There is no intentional alignment between the topics covered in the magazine and university level courses or curriculum in the disciplines covered. * There is no attempt to categorize magazine content according to level of reader competence with the topics. * It will require intermediate and advanced skill levels to develop good learning assignments from this magazine website.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: • This online magazine is very easy to use. • It is accessible by any internet browser and it is available in 6 major languages of the world. • There are sections of the magazine that are dedicated to developments in major regions of the world. • The layout design in all sections of the website is consistent with a very sleek magazine look. • All sections of the magazine are hyper-linked and it is very easy to navigate around the site.
Concerns:: • There appears to be accessibility issues with this website. • There is no close captioning on the videos • Alt texts are missing on images. The material is copyrighted and permission must be applied for to download and use.

Other Issues and Comments:: There is a special section targeted to high school students but the students must fill out a form and subscribe to that part of the site.
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