Last month, I asked readers to give me their thoughts on what school reform truly looks like, so I could begin a conversation on the topic that was to take place at the Educon 2.1 conference in Philadelphia. Both online and in person, I heard a range of thoughtful perspectives [...]
This weekend, I’ll be moderating a discussion at the second annual EduCon conference in which we tackle the question, “What does school reform look like?” It’s such a big topic that no discussion panel could ever capture the full scope of it. So in the spirit of the conversational nature [...]
A group of students from Massachusetts will make the journey to DC to take part in President-elect Obama’s inauguration ceremony. And they’ll be more than mere spectators, as they’re going to use Web 2.0 tools to teach students back home about the experience.
[...]A drama unfolded on the messaging service Twitter last week after a bipolar woman posted a note that she intended as a joke, but was perceived by some people as a threat against her child. Soon, police were at her doorstep. The incident raises some tough questions about what role [...]
This week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $7 million grant to invest in the expansion in broadband access in libraries across seven states. While $7 million may sound like chump change from a foundation that routinely spends hundreds of millions at a time on public heath philanthropy, [...]
Last week, a jury in California convicted Lori Drew on misdemeanor charges related to the Megan Meier suicide case. Though public sentiment wanted to see her convicted specifically on Drew cyberbullying Meier into committing suicide, in the end she was found guilty of violating MySpace’s terms of service. Was justice [...]
Julie Amero, the substitute teacher subjected to a judicial roller coaster ride over whether she intentionally exposed a group of students to inappropriate computer images, ended her legal limbo by agreeing to a plea deal this Friday. It’s the end of a long road for Amero, but was justice served?
[...]It seems you can barely turn on the TV without hearing stories about the rash of piracy incidents that’s been taking place off the coast of Somalia. While it’s tempting to crack wise with references to parrots and peg legs, modern-day piracy is no laughing matter. And now there’s a [...]
The longest presidential campaign in history is over. We now know Barack Obama will become president, but what will he accomplish in the realm of education technology policy? What do you want him to accomplish?
[...]The longest presidential election in history is almost over, and now it’s time to vote. As well all know, sometimes things go wrong at the polling stations. And now the Web 2.0 community is pulling together so we can all document it.
[...]A new survey explores the question of whether U.S. universities are truly becoming 21st century campuses, such as utilizing distance learning or addressing the digital divide. Most interestingly, though, it sheds light on the high expectations students have about universities even before they apply to college. Can K-12 schools learn [...]
Education technology organizations are hailing the passage of legislation in the House and Senate addressing online safety education in schools. The legislation will require schools receiving federal Internet subsidies to educate their students about appropriate online behavior and cyberbullying.
[...]A court has ruled that a school was within its rights for suspending a student who created an offensive fake MySpace page for the school principal. The ruling brings together a number of legal precedents regarding the difficult question of what happens when students’ actions take place beyond the schoolhouse [...]
It’s that time of year again - and no, I’m not talking about Talk Like a Pirate Day. (Arrgh!) I’m talking about OneWebDay, an annual virtual gathering of volunteers around the world who believe the Internet can be used to make a positive difference around the planet.
[...]I’ve gotten a number of questions from people over the last week about how I pulled together all of the content that’s on display at my website, Hurricanes08.org. It’s easier than it looks - and it’s all about the tags.
[...]I’ve talked a lot on this blog about the ways various social media tools can be used for student collaboration and knowledge production, most of the time as a neutral observer. This week, though, I found myself thrown into the middle of the action as a group of volunteers scrambled [...]
The California state legislature has just passed one of the first laws in the country to deal directly with cyberbullying. It gives school administrators the authority to discipline studies for bullying others offline or online. But will legislation translate into enforcement?
[...]This past week, President Bush signed into law a bill that will establish a new national research center for studying digital technology and learning. The center aspires be to edtech what the National Institutes of Health have been for medical research.
[...]This week, PBS Teachers rolled out its curricular guide for the 2008 election. It offers teachers a range of online tools created by the public broadcasting community to encourage civic engagement, embracing social media with each lesson plan.
[...]In an interesting legal twist to the Megan Meier saga, a group of high-powered Internet law advocates have published a brief in relation to the case against Lori Drew, the woman being prosecuted in the wake of Meier’s suicide. In this brief, they argue that the government has overstepped its [...]
This week, Intel announced a major partnership with the government of Portugual to supply half a million low-cost Classmate PCs to Portuguese primary school students. One can only imagine the disappointment of MIT’s One Laptop Per Child initiative, but that don’t count them out just yet.
[...]Last week, a federal appeals court ruled against the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA, a law passed in 1998 to prevent minors from accessing harmful Internet content. It’s a major victory for free speech advocates who felt the act was poorly conceived.
[...]When educators talk about Web 2.0, they often focus on the community and publishing aspects of it - social networks, blogs, user-generated content and the like. And while these tools come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, there’s often one important thing they have in common - something [...]
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about Julie Amero, the substitute teacher whose conviction on child endangerment charges was set aside after computer experts demonstrated that spyware caused her PC to display adult images in a classroom. Thirteen months after the conviction was tossed, prosecutors still haven’t dropped the [...]
Visitors to the PBS Teachers website will see something new today. It’s called PBS Teachers Connect, and it’s the first step in bringing social networking to the website.
[...]At the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City this week, participants discussed and debated the impact of Web 2.0 on journalism, politics and governance. For two days, I couldn’t stop asking myself: what skills should we be teaching students to make them 21st century citizens - and should teaching [...]
A San Francisco-based startup named Grockit is working stealthily on what they call an MMOLG - a Massively Multiplayer Online Learning Game. What the game is and how educational it will be remains to be seen, but venture capitalists are throwing money at them. Something is afoot.
[...]If that five-megapixel camera isn’t cutting it for your students any more, have I got the gizmo for you. Carnegie Mellon University is prototyping a robotic camera mount that will allow any consumer digital camera to capture gigapixel-resolution - yes, I said gigapixel - images. They’re already working to get [...]
This afternoon, a federal grand jury indicted Lori Drew, the woman at the heart of the Megan Meier tragedy. The indictment is a major turning point in the cyberbullying suicide case that shocked the nation.
[...]In a blow to parents and school groups fighting the New York City Department of Education’s prohibition against mobile phones on campus, a judge has ruled that the board was within its rights to institute the ban.
[...]For those of you who get as bored as I do watching PowerPoints and other passive slide presentations, there’s a new generation of presentation tools embracing interaction, discussion and community building. I’ve been particularly fascinated by the educational potential of two of them: SlideShare and VoiceThread.
[...]Like many universities, Georgia State University distributes electronic reading materials to students, often copying sections of copyrighted materials. But a group of academic publishers have concluded that GSU’s actions go beyond the notion of fair use and they’re suing the university over its actions.
[...]Around the country, community groups offer free Internet access to young people as a way to keep them off the streets and away from gangs, just as gangs have started using social networks to recruit teens. Are they offering the proper media literacy training to combat the problem?
[...]The sad case of Megan Meier, the girl who killed herself after being bullied by her neighbors in an online hoax, is back in the news again. One of the perpetrators of the hoax is speaking out for the first time, as federal prosecutors explore filing charges against the mother [...]
A new report commissioned by the British prime minister tackles the thorny challenge of addressing online safety for young people. The report urges people to put the relative threat of online predators in perspective, while at the same time noting that schools and parents must to more to give students [...]
A teacher at a private school in the San Francisco Bay area is inspiring students to become more civically engaged by having them produce podcasts about global policy challenges. The podcasts tackle international issues from a local perspective, and are giving students direct exposure to people who are trying to [...]
A group of Virginia high school students who sued a plagiarism detection service on the grounds of copyright infringement has had its case dismissed. Ironically, the judge concluded that the company’s storage of student researcher papers constituted fair use.
[...]A Senate bill that would appropriate $50 million for a competitive grant program funding educational online safety initiatives has now hit a parliamentary snag. Online safety organizations are now pushing to get things moving again.
[...]A Canadian student learned yesterday that he won’t be expelled after all. What egregious crime did he commit on campus? He coordinated an online study group using Facebook.
[...]An Australian teacher renowned among educators for his use of blogging in the classroom has just had his latest blogging project shuttered by state authorities. Are other edubloggers next?
[...]If you’re wondering why my eyes look so bloodshot and my voice is so hoarse, it’s because I just left Austin, TX and the annual South By Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi), one of the most exciting events on the digital media industry calendar. The conference was a five-day mashup of [...]
Educators have lamented the quality of search results since the invention of the first search engine. All too often the results pages are littered with links that are useless in the classroom - or worse. But what if those search results pages were generated by people - educators and students [...]
MediaWiki, the wiki tool used by Wikipedia and thousands of other wiki sites around the world, just got a lot more powerful. The for-profit companion project to Wikipedia announced this week that they were releasing free tools that will allow MediaWiki sites to include a range of social networking features. [...]
You may recall a blog post of mine from a few months ago when I encouraged readers to pitch innovative education projects to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, which was interested in investing resources in the development of educational networking and social media projects. Last week, they announced [...]
A new study published by the American Psychological Association (APA) raises tough questions about the conventional wisdom regarding online predators. The study takes aim at the mainstream media’s coverage of online predation, labeling its portrayal of the phenomenon as “largely inaccurate.”
[...]Microsoft has just come out with a new survey on student’s attitudes towards online copyright. The research suggests that very few students have a strong understanding of the issue, but it also makes me wonder just how they’re defining the nature of copyright, and whether it takes into account fair [...]
In a vote that could potentially rock the publishing world, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) have unanimously adopted a new policy that would allow them to retain the copyright of scholarly research. As a result, students and the public at large could have much greater access to these [...]
There’s a new twist on policymaking efforts to make the Internet safe for young people: denying them access to it altogether. A bill in the Utah state legislature would require public wifi providers to ensure that minors can’t access the Internet. If passed, Utah libraries and community networks could find [...]
A New Jersey lawsuit between an HMO and a family whose daughter was denied insurance coverage for her anorexia may not sound like the kind of thing you’d read about on this here blog. But the legal tactics being used to get to the heart of the matter are a [...]
Last November, MIT’s One Laptop Per Child program (OLPC) launched an initiative that would allow individuals to purchase their very own XO laptop - better known as the $100 laptop - while making a donation so that another laptop would be given to a child in the developing world. Tens [...]
