Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/29/2011
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Importance-Of-Happiness-At-Work-1.png (1000×3022)
Principals and administrators should print out this infographic and discuss it around tables. This is a link to an infographic about happiness at work. Interestingly, the 3rd happiest job in the US is a "teacher" (although I bet this has changed.) Also, those who have security in their jobs tend to be happier. Also, if you have highly engaged and satisfied employees you have a better organization. Is that a surprise?
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Firewall Law Could Infringe on Free Speech - NYTimes.com
The New York Times oped that opposed SOPA and said it would take censorship in America to a new high. Maybe we'll be the ones buying VPN's like my friends in China do. the biggest point of this article is:
"Adding to the threat to free speech, recent academic research on global Internet censorship has found that in countries where heavy legal liability is imposed on companies, employees tasked with day-to-day censorship jobs have a strong incentive to play it safe and over-censor — even in the case of content whose legality might stand a good chance of holding up in a court of law. Why invite legal hassle when you can just hit “delete”?"- The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial.
- Compliance with the Stop Online Piracy Act would require huge overhead spending by Internet companies for staff and technologies dedicated to monitoring users and censoring any infringing material from being posted or transmitted
- Adding to the threat to free speech, recent academic research on global Internet censorship has found that in countries where heavy legal liability is imposed on companies, employees tasked with day-to-day censorship jobs have a strong incentive to play it safe and over-censor — even in the case of content whose legality might stand a good chance of holding up in a court of law. Why invite legal hassle when you can just hit “delete”?
- While American intellectual property deserves protection, that protection must be won and defended in a manner that does not stifle innovation, erode due process under the law, and weaken the protection of political and civil rights on the Internet.
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SOPA: Educators Speak Out - Google Docs
If you are an educator, teacher, or thought leader and want to make sure you're included in a piece I'm working on about SOPA, you are invited to add your thoughts to this Google doc. Thank you.
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The Cleveland public library has added MyTunes Freegal, a service that lets patrons download 3 free music downloads a day. Now, their patrons are downloading over 5,900 songs per month. This is seen as a service that is bringing back patrons to the local library.
As libraries go digital, this is just one way that it is going to happen. -
A guide to maximizing your money in 2012 – USATODAY.com
As teachers try to make things tighter for 2012 including budgets this is a great checklist to print and put on the front cover of the folder where you keep your bills to pay.
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Launching an iPad 1-to-1 Program: A Primer -- THE Journal
A detailed discussion from the journal about launching a 1:1 ipad program beginning with leadership and cost and moving through other issues. I do wish this article had a few more links but it is a great read for those who are discussing this (like we are at my school.)
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One Wyoming school district says, "One iPad per child." | ZDNet
A Wyoming school district is mandating one ipad per child.
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Why the High School Guidance Counselor Needs a Makeover - Education - GOOD
Guidance counselors are really doing administrative work that principals have shifted to them instead of the work of advising students according to this article and the cited research from education trust. Perhaps helping students should begin in the counselor's office.
"The Education Trust found that more than 90 percent of counselors say advocating for students is the "ideal mission for their profession," but only 45 percent say that's what they do at work. Things are even worse at low-income schools, where students may need a counselor's advice and guidance even more than their wealthier peers....art of the problem is that counselors "are saddled with menial tasks that are unrelated to preparing students for success after graduation,” researchers found. -
Marshall Kirkpatrick's Blog » The Next Era of Tech Blogging: 3 Things That Could Make it Better
If you're wondering if the golden age of blogging is really over, read Marshall Kirkpatrick's take on it. As one of the original people mentioned in Jeremiah Owyang's post, it is great to hear his reflections. I agree that outbound links is the big thing. If you go to many of the major sites, they now have a policy to only link to their own content. I'm sorry, but I resent that like crazy. Take me to the original source, please. If you don't, I will read you less.
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A Passion for Teaching and Opinions: Avoiding the Terrible Teacher
A review from Coach Borwn and reflections on the terrible teacher blog post I wrote. I keep these posts to reflect and encourage myself when I need it sometimes.
