Archive for July, 2009

Can Removing Computers From Classrooms help Teaching?

Source: chronicle.com

This week’s College 2.0 column explores a proposal by a dean at Southern Methodist University who is taking computers out of classrooms in an effort to improve teaching.

The dean, José A. Bowen, wants to discourage professors from using PowerPoint because they often lean on the slide-display program as a crutch rather than using it [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 24th, 2009 under DEL Newsletter  •  No Comments

Videoconferencing Engages Students in Mobile County Public Schools

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Source: thejournal.com

By: Denise Harrison

As with many school districts, the Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS) in Alabama had challenges delivering consistent education to many and varied schools across a large area. Mobile is one of the largest in the country, however, with more than 100 schools across 1,644 square miles, which made it difficult to [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 23rd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

Discovery Launches Service To Embed Digital Media into Curriculum

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Source: thejournal.com

By:Scott Aronowitz

Digital media–streaming video, interactive presentations, photo slideshows, audio programs–are today a common component of many educational curricula. Now Discovery Education has launched a service it hopes will be the logical next step: working with school districts to integrate digital content directly into lesson plans and day-to-day instruction.

The company is deploying a team of [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 23rd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

YES Program Expands Online Cross-Cultural Collaboration

Source: thejournal.com

By: David Nagel

The Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES) is expanding its efforts to connect students across cultures, is expanding its efforts into more countries in Africa and bringing collaborative technologies to bear in order to help exchange students communicate before, during, and after their programs.

The YES Program, funded by the United States Department [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 23rd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

Are Parents Thinking Differently About Education?

Source: nytimes.com

By: Javier C. Hernandez
The phone keeps ringing at the Upper West Side office of Robin Aronow, an educational consultant and schools guru: anxious families suddenly rethinking whether they can afford private school, distressed parents wondering what to do if their children don’t make it into vaunted gifted and talented programs.

Reader Reactions

With the jittery economy [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 23rd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

Texting Teen Tendonitis- Another Technology Abuse Ailment

Source: nytimes.com

By: James Kendrick

The human body doesn’t like it when we do things repetitively. That’s why the number of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome cases has increased with the computer age. We often hear of other afflictions caused by “technology abuse,” the latest that doctors are reporting being Texting Teen Tendonitis. This is a new syndrome caused [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 23rd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

Md. School Joins Test of Online Courses Tailored to Girls

Source: washingtonpost.com

By: Michael Brinbaum

When the Online School for Girls flickers to life this fall on computer screens across the country, students will take part in an unusual experiment that joins two trends: girls-only schooling and online teaching.

A consortium that includes the 108-year-old Holton-Arms School in Bethesda is driving the project, in the belief that girls [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 23rd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

Online — and in the Loop — With D.C. Police

Source: washingtonpost.com

By: Theola Labbé-DeBose

Kent Boese was watching television in his Northwest Washington home when he heard a series of popping sounds. So he did what has become natural to thousands of D.C. residents eager for up-to-the-minute information about crime in their neighborhoods.

He sent an e-mail.

“Does anyone have any details about the shooting that just happened [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 23rd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

Does Social Networking Breed Social Division?

Source: nytimes.com

By: Rive Richmond

Is the social media revolution bringing us together? Or is it perpetuating divisions by race and class?

Many of us would like to believe the Internet is a force for unity, but Danah Boyd, a social media researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 22nd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments

Facebook ‘breaches Canadian law’

Popular social networking site Facebook is breaching Canadian law by holding on to users’ personal information indefinitely, a report has concluded.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk

An investigation by Canada’s privacy commission found the US-based website also gave “confusing or incomplete” information to subscribers.

Facebook says it is aiming to safeguard users’ privacy without compromising their experience of the [...]

Posted by Melissa on July 22nd, 2009 under Current Events  •  No Comments