‘Open book examination’ takes on new meaning as state officials aim to save schools money on curriculum materials.

Source: eschoolnews.com

By: Maya T. Prabhu

In what could be a first-of-its-kind statewide initiative, California education leaders are working together to compile a list of free, open digital textbooks that meet state-approved standards and will be available to high school [...]

Source: nytimes.com

By: Katie Hafner

They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.

Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility [...]

Source: nytimes.com

By: Chris Albrecht

It was made public this weekend that an is a half-hour program “that provides a forum for viewers to simultaneously discuss and debate the news of the day through the prism of Twitter.”

MTV’s will incorporate social media elements from both Twitter and Facebook.

E! isn’t building a straight-up show, per se, but [...]

Ericsson is courting major banks with a security service the company thinks could cut down on credit card fraud as well as eliminate an inconvenience for travelers using cards overseas.

Banks are increasingly blocking credit card transactions in certain high-risk countries due to increasingly levels of fraud. A business traveler who lives in the U.K. but goes to Russia can likely have a transaction rejected if the person hasn’t informed the credit card company of their travel plans. It’s embarrassing and inconvenient.

Ericsson’s IPX Country Lookup service uses a person’s mobile phone to provide a confirmation that a person is actually in the country where the transaction is carried out, said Peter Garside, U.K. and Ireland regional manager for Ericsson’s IPX products.

Source: nytimes.com

By: Laura M. Holson

“IT is my mission in life to get this job,” said Amanda Casgar, who is better known to executives at Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County as applicant No. 505.

Three weeks ago Murphy-Goode began a search for a “social media whiz,” a wine enthusiast interested in moving to Healdsburg, Calif., for six [...]

Source: online.wsj.com

By: M.P. McQueen

Be careful what you post online. You could get sued.

In March 2008, Shellee Hale of Bellevue, Wash., posted in several online forums about a hacker attack on a company that makes software used to track sales for adult-entertainment Web sites. She claimed that the personal information of the sites’ customers was compromised.

About [...]

Source: Elinor Mills

By: news.cnet.com

Phishers were having a field day with Facebook and Twitter on Thursday.

A new phishing scam hit Facebook users that, like others in recent weeks, sends them to a Web site which steals their log-in information and also secretly downloads malware onto computers when they visit the malicious Web site in what is [...]

On the heels of an administration that sometimes acted as if higher education could do little right, college leaders now have in the White House a president who seems to think their institutions have the answers to many of the country’s problems.

From economic recovery to scientific discovery, President Obama has put higher education front and center in many of his most important policy goals. And on Friday, he added unemployment as the latest problem he believed colleges (and particularly community colleges) were uniquely positioned to help solve, and announced a relaxation of federal rules to make it easier for unemployed Americans to get more education or training.

“In a 21st century economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, education is the single best bet we can make — not just for our individual success, but for the success of the nation as a whole,” the president said in a speech during which he detailed government data showing 539,000 new unemployed workers in April. “So if we want to help people not only get back on their feet today but prosper tomorrow, we need to take a rigorous new approach to higher education and technical training. And that starts by changing senseless rules that discourage displaced workers from getting the education and training they need to find and fill the jobs of the future.”

The next generation of American students might be in for a rude awakening over the next decade. More than half of today’s veteran teachers—1.7 million—could be gone because of retirement, taking with them a mountain of teaching expertise developed over many years of hands-on instruction. What’s equally troubling is that schools might not be able to rely on new teachers to fill the gap: The percentage of new teachers who leave the profession within five years continues to climb. At least that’s the gloomy forecast given by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a Washington-based education advocacy organization.

Reed College President Colin Diver suffered writer’s block. Debora Spar, president of Barnard College, wrote quickly but then toiled for hours to cut an essay that was twice as long as it was supposed to be. The assignment loomed over Wesleyan University President Michael Roth’s family vacation to Disney World.

The university presidents were struggling with a task that tortures high-school seniors around the country every year: writing the college admissions essay. In a particularly competitive year for college admissions, The Wall Street Journal turned the tables on the presidents of 10 top colleges and universities with an unusual assignment: answer an essay question from their own school’s application.