Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/29/2013
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Facebook Partners With Suicide Prevention Group for Research Project
In an interesting, but somewhat uncomfortable feeling research project, Facebook will partner with save.org to look at social data of those who committed suicide to see if there were warning signs. Of course, the question is... when they know, what do they do with it? If you see someone is likely to commit suicide - what do you do with that data? This is a question full of ethics worth debate and discussion.
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Facebook Wants to Answer Your Privacy Questions
You can ask Facebook's CPO (Chief Privacy Officer) your questions. If you discuss digital citizenship with your students, they might have good questions to ask.
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Be aware that some apps (like VINE mentioned in this article) have some adult content. This instance points out the importance of checking out apps PERSONALLY that you recommend to kids - just because apple recommends it, doesn't mean that it is safe for kids.
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Revolution Hits the Universities - NYTimes.com
Thomas Friedman pontificates on the meaning of MOOCs and the global impact they can have to lift many out of poverty. I think that one of the questions that will emerge is proving of mastery and also the potential for "microcredits" as Yong Zhao discusses. These are all questions that will need to be answered as we move forward into a very new, changing highered network. All educational organizations are bricks aND clicks and those universities who ignore the clicks may find their bricks being impacted. Whole buildings dedicated to broadcasting video and connecting online will be emerging on campuses that provide excellent learning around the world.
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Can You Boost Your Child's Intelligence? : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR
A set of studies of more than 70 research studies has yielded some interesting results. here is just a glimpse of some of the findings "When it comes to nutrition, there's not much evidence that multivitamins do any good, but having pregnant and lactating moms and young kids take Omega-3 fatty acid supplements (particularly DHA) likely does. Just having books in the home might not help, but interactive reading with children under 4 could boost IQ by around 6 points." I think if this is your area of research, you'll want to drill down into this meta analysis.
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PaperTab: A Flexible Location-Aware E-Ink Screen Of The Future
This Edudemic article gives an overview of PaperTab technology - epaper that is location aware. It could do fascinating things for our kindles, etc. If you watch new technology, read this article.
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MOOC-Covered Towers? Online Education's Coming Impact on Traditional College
Fascinating discussion about how MOOC's are being sold and how outsourcing will likely hit education. Personally, I do think that a well educated, fascinating prof is worth it... of course, what happens when that prof is at a school that is underrated or underappreciated - some amazing people live all over the world. Professors may be the next rock stars. ;-)
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Technology In Schools: Who Does It Best, China Or The U.S.?
The biggest issue about looking at China to compare with the US is that not everyone in China goes to schools and often when schools are reviewed, they are the premier schools in urban areas. This is a good point, however, that they are using technology in all curriculum areas, not just one or two and one that we should note, particularly for college prep, as I think that it is comparing apples and oranges. Having been to China, often things that filter out aren't what they seem-- they tightly control the stories that emerge from their borders.
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Orange County library offers Common Core literacy book bags | The Herald-Sun
Interesting approach. These "Common Core" bags have selecting things on a particular topic and only count as one thing when checked out. If well selected, this would be interesting. I'd love to know more. I also wonder how librarians are creating "packages" of ebooks and materials with the proliferation of BYOD - it seems that free books, etc. could be somehow packaged and distributed. "Each bag contains 10 books on a subject, “carefully chosen by grade level,” Shaver said. “We selected books that present the topic in a variety of formats, making it accessible to many different learners. For instance, many of the new bags include graphic novels and hands-on science guides, in addition to traditional research resources. For the younger grades, there is an equal mix of fiction and non-fiction; for older grades, the bags contain mainly non-fiction materials.” The bags can be checked out from the library for three weeks at a time. Although they contain multiple books, they count only as one checked-out item. One check-out renewal can be requested unless someone else has expressed interest in getting the same bag.
