The price of education

One of my pet disgruntlements is the changes in education by 'levelling the playing field'. Absence of competition and the challenges to ensure each child is passed has resulted in a general 'dumbing down' that is just unbelievable. Just look at these horror stories from Dirk Dagger at the 'Outa Meh Head' blog.

Here is my own horror story: Just keep in mind this was submitted by the students at UNIVERSITY, and is an actual assignment from last year. The assignment is in black, the answer submitted in green. You assign a mark....

Investigate your companies further to get details on their PRODUCTS.

1. Describe some sample products from your industry and the BENEFITS they are trying to provide
2. for each product identify product features that are CORE, TANGIBLE and AUGMENTED
3. identify one product from each of the stages of the product life cycle and explain why you put it there
4. Create a BOSTON MATRIX with one example in each quadrant from the products from your industry and explain why you put them in that category

1) Products and their Benefits

• Hub - Provides multiple networked computers the ability to communicate with each other by broadcasting the information they send to all computers connected.
• Switch - Provides multiple networked computers to access their network more efficently than a hub as it distributes the data to the correct computer.
• Router - Allows connections to different types of networks not normally accessible via a switch or hub. Also determines the best/fastest route for connecting computers connected via many different paths/media/routers.
• Antivirus Software - Provides protection on computers agaisnt malicious software such as viruses, and in some case integrates protection agaisnt malware.

2) Core, Tangible, and Augmented.

• Hub

Core - Connecting multiple network devices.

Tangible -

Augmented - Brand name

• Switch

Core - Connecting multiple network devices more efficently.

Tangible -

Augmented - Brand name

• Router
• Core - Connecting to other networks.
• Tangible -
• Augmented - Brand name
• Antivirus Software

• Core - Protection agaisnt viruses.
• Tangible -
• Augmented - Brand name, extra features such as popup blockers.

3) Switch Life Cycle (or Hub to Switch Life Cycle)

• Designed in : ------------- by:
• First prouct in: ----------- by:
• First on the market: ----------- by:
• etc. Majour Improvements etc.

4) Bostom Matrix

I shit you not, this was what was submitted, spellings, grammar et al. Exactly as is.