A whole lot of knowledge resource on internet

A whole lot of knowledge resource on internet
a list of informational and educational websites

Cursive writing is dying

Cursive writing is dying

Many students increasingly are illiterate when it comes to cursive writing and choose instead to print their words, say U.S. teachers.

In China, Ivy League dreams weigh heavily on students

BEIJING - The book spawned a genre, selling more than 2 million copies in China on the premise that any child, with the proper upbringing, could be Ivy League material. Read the rest ...

No place like home for family's education

No place like home for family's education

Kerri Brown has a class most teachers would give up their teacher's editions to teach.

Budget to dominate Indiana legislative session

Fixing a broken unemployment insurance system. Streamlining local government. Taking -- or not taking -- the next step toward amending caps on property tax bills into the state constitution. Read more ...

Year in Education

Perry turned the big five-o. Half a century of educational excellence was celebrated by the Perry community with parades, dances and special events.

Read the rest ...

Prop. 209 doesn't affect magnet schools, judicial panel rules

Race-based admissions are not prohibited, judges say. An appeal seems unlikely.

Magnet schools in Los Angeles won a significant court victory Friday when a state appellate panel rejected a lawsuit charging that they violated California's Proposition 209, which outlawed affirmative action in the state. Continue reading ...

Tuition woes

Tuition woes

Dec 26 - More families apply for college financial aid and plan ahead after seeing their college funds plummet in value.

Education Center Online Celebrates Black History Month - Offering Online Education for People of All Races

Read the rest ...

Report shows athletes posting low test scores

Report shows athletes posting low test scores

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution study of 54 public universities has found that football and mens basketball players are averaging hundreds of points lower on their college entrance exams than their classmates.

Burnsville-Eagan-Savage Board of Education sees long-time member say goodbye (Eagan Sun-Current)

Burnsville-Eagan-Savage Board of Education sees long-time member say goodbye (Eagan Sun-Current)
It's difficult for Burnsville resident Vicki Roy to say goodbye to the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage Board of Education. Roy, 61, will leave a legacy of her 17 years on the board, but said she saw this as a good time to not seek re-election. She wants to spend more time with her family.

Knol

Both students and instructors use the online collaborative encyclopedia  Wikipedia and both are likely to make use of Knol. The new Google site offers short articles on a very wide range of subjects from Backpacking to Malaria to Barbecue Sauces. Net watchers will be looking closely to see if Knol grows at the same pace and to the same scope as Wikipedia. ____JH
_____

The Knol site has one goal: to help you share what you know.

"The Knol project is a site that hosts many knols — units of knowledge — written about various subjects. The authors of the knols can take credit for their writing, provide credentials, and elicit peer reviews and comments. Users can provide feedback, comments, related information. So the Knol project is a platform for sharing information, with multiple cues that help you evaluate the quality and veracity of information.

Knols are indexed by the big search engines, of course. And well-written knols become popular the same as regular web pages. The Knol site allows anyone to write and manage knols through a browser on any computer."
Read the rest ...

Music Production Education

Learn how to produce music right now from home with Music Producer Pro! Continue reading ...

Pearson Education's OnMicrosoft Podcasts Provide New Learning Tool

Pearson Education's OnMicrosoft Podcasts Provide New Learning Tool

The real education problem

The Dec. 4 Gaston Gazette editorial on school vouchers and the Obama school decision misses the very real problems our school children face right here at home.

Read more ...

Sojourners are there for detainees

"H-26," the guard yelled. "You have a visitor." Locked in a windowless warehouse for three months, Ibrahim Cisse had long given up hope of anyone finding him. Now, his mind raced. How could he possibly have a visitor when no one in this country knew his name? Read more ...

Israel Studies Grows on Campus

Beginning as early as 1979, Arab governments and individuals understood that one route to influencing American public opinion and policy, particularly with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, is through our education system. They have since invested more than $300 million toward this end. Read more ...

YSI encourages the pursuit of a secondary education

Where should I look for money for college? How do I dress for an interview? What will make my college application stand out? What courses should I take to prepare for college? This is just a small sampling of ...

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Ala. students figure out how to profit on stocks

Looking for some advice on how to make money in the turbulent stock market? Some high school students might be able to help. Continue reading ...

The bad economy and corruption -- RI's top stories

The bad economy and corruption -- RI's top stories
Here are the top stories of the year in Rhode Island, as determined by Associated Press staff.

Teens admit setting fire at college

A Bates College student and a visitor have pleaded guilty to reduced charges of criminal mischief for setting a daytime fire at the liberal arts campus in Lewiston. Continue reading ...

No place like home for family's education

No place like home for family's education

Kerri Brown has a class most teachers would give up their teacher's editions to teach.

Prop. 209 doesn't affect magnet schools, judicial panel rules

Prop. 209 doesn't affect magnet schools, judicial panel rules
Race-based admissions are not prohibited, judges say. An appeal seems unlikely.

Magnet schools in Los Angeles won a significant court victory Friday when a state appellate panel rejected a lawsuit charging that they violated California's Proposition 209, which outlawed affirmative action in the state.

Belatedly, China spreads word about HIV prevention

After long neglecting the HIV prevalence in the country, the government has embarked on an awareness campaign.

The student with shaggy hair hanging low over his eyes, his head pulled turtle-like into a leather jacket, was plainly embarrassed by his ignorance. Read the rest ...

Education Groups Compete for Piece of Stimulus Package (CQPolitics.com via Yahoo! News)

Education Groups Compete for Piece of Stimulus Package (CQPolitics.com via Yahoo! News)
Teachers groups and school administrators, citing state budget shortfalls that are strangling local school districts, are continuing an end-of-the-year lobbying push to ensure education funding is part of the 2009 stimulus package.

Bright sign for tech in Mass.

Massachusetts students significantly outperformed their peers nationwide on a prestigious math and science exam, putting the state on an elite international tier, according to results released yesterday. Read the rest ...

Scam Takes Advantage of Teens

High school students look out, there's a new scam out there targeting you. The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office is warning teens and their families about the scam.

Read more ...

236 Open Courseware and Information Collections

This varied listing of collection sites from the Online Education Database includes everything from Archives, to Broadcast Learning, to Directories, to EBooks, to Encyclopedias, to Open Courseware Collections at selected universities. The range of available resources for learning is impressive. Readers will surely find several sites of worth exploring and bookmarking. ____JH (Thanks to dgCommunities Elearning for this reference.)

_____
" If you're interested in specific open courses, you can find a variety on the Web (or through this list of 100 courses). Usually, those single courses will contain all the materials you need to learn one subject for free. But, if you're after more than a single focus or if you need a deeper perspective on a subject, this list of open courseware collections may be just what you need. Each resource listed below contains a collection or collections of educational materials. You'll find digital archives, a variety of courses, Podcasts, videos and sometimes a mix of everything you can imagine so you can learn any given subject in depth."
Read more ...

Peer 2 Peer University

P2P University has received favorable coverage by a number of bloggers (including ZaidLearn and Stephen's Web).  I just want to add my endorsement of this promising direction of development. ___JH

___
"The Peer 2 Peer University is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.Find out more about what P2PU courses look like, and consider creating your own. If you just want to stay informed, please add your name to our mailing list, and we will send you a message when we launch." Continue reading ...

Caroline Kennedy Education Dept. Record Questioned

Caroline Kennedy Education Dept. Record Questioned
Supporters of Caroline Kennedy point to her record in the NYC Department of Education as proof that she has the experience to be Senator from NY. But on close examination, that argument doesn't really work. During her 22 month tenure as fundraiser for the NYC School System Ms Kennedy rarely showed up to her workspace and did little to raise funds,

L.A.'s new arts school an expensive social experiment

L.A.'s new arts school an expensive social experiment
The campus has long been intended as a local school, mostly serving students from surrounding neighborhoods. Critics say the district's best resources shouldn't be restricted geographically.

With just nine months left before it opens, a new arts high school in downtown Los Angeles still lacks a principal, a staff, a curriculum, a permanent name and a clearly articulated plan for how students will be selected -- critical details for a school that aims to be one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States.

Patterns: More Sleep, Fewer Student Car Accidents

Patterns: More Sleep, Fewer Student Car Accidents
A later school day seems to lead to fewer car accidents for teens, researchers report.

$85 For A Year of Business Training for Women

Women with the desire to start or expand their own businesses can look to Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore, Inc. (WEB) for the knowledge and resources needed to succeed. Elements of their Business Skills Training Course include financing strategies, business skills education, internet and computer use, community networking and a gov. certification. Read more ...

25 Universities offering degrees in ed tech or elearning.

These are some of the most prestigious universities offering fulltime/part time/online/ blended degrees in education technology/ICT in education/ e-learning Continue reading ...

The Army's Lethal New Theme Park

The Army's Lethal New Theme Park
"The Army Experience Center , located in the Franklin Mills Mall just north of Philadelphia , bills itself as a "state-of-the-art educational facility that uses interactive simulations and online learning programs to educate visitors about the many careers, training and educational opportunities available in the Army.""

Nurses continuing education program launched

Nurses continuing education program launched
To strengthen the nursing profession in the US, various universities have also improved the educational system as well as updated programs and policies as far as the continuing education of students and professionals involve in the program. As this developed, nursing faculty members of Misericordia University conducted seminars.

Accountability

Diane Ravitch at Education Week has written one of the most eloquent and succinct arguments I’ve read against the use of standardized testing as the only meter for accountability in schools. By making test scores the sole gauge of progress, one can expect to see cheating and test prepping, and other quasi-legitimate and outright [...]

Diane Ravitch at Education Week has written one of the most eloquent and succinct arguments I’ve read against the use of standardized testing as the only meter for accountability in schools.

By making test scores the sole gauge of progress, one can expect to see cheating and test prepping, and other quasi-legitimate and outright illegitimate ways of reaching the only goal that matters. When teachers, principals, and students are given rewards and punishments for only one measure, that measure may well rise, but at a cost.

What is the likely cost? What will be sacrificed—and is now being sacrificed—is an education of quality. Instead of educating students for post-secondary education, for a life of civic responsibility and for the modern workplace, we may instead send forth young people who have been cheated of an education. They were cheated because the only goal that counted was their score on a standardized test. They were cheated because the adults in charge of them were told that nothing else mattered—not their character, not their sense of civic duty, not their knowledge of history, geography, literature, or anything other than basic skills.

Interesting that Daniel Koretz (in his book “Measuring Up“) treats test-prepping as something that is just a step or two removed from cheating. Yet we know that many districts today spend a lot of time and money giving children “interim assessments” and preparing children for the all-important state tests. The question that remains unanswered is whether students would do just as well on tests for which they have not been “prepped.” The answer, I fear, is no, which means that whatever they learned through test prep was transient, did not transfer to other settings, and was to that extent fraudulent.

There has to be a better way to gauge how well the schools and teachers are educating the students, and how well the students are learning. After a few years of pondering and watching it in action, I’m still convinced that teaching to the test and narrowing curriculum and recess time to make room for said test-teaching (prepping, rote memorization, or whatever they’re calling it these days) isn’t the best plan.

I’ve been working on my own solution to this quandary; admittedly, it’s from way out in left field, but it just might be crazy enough to work. I’m wondering if perhaps increased funding in schools might be the catalyst that sets off a chain reaction of positives that in the end will result in better-educated students. A richer curriculum, better pay for teachers, art, music and computer programs, a return to normal recess times, decreased class size, etc. I realize my proposed solution is probably about as realistic as time travel and will in all likelihood discredit me utterly, but I figured I’d just put it out there.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image credit: veer/james godman

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Maryland Proposes Waiver For High School Graduation

The state Board of Education had planned to vote Wednesday on whether to adopt the waiver process, but the board delayed the vote until Thursday after requesting some minor changes.

Read the rest ...

Scam Takes Advantage of Teens

Scam Takes Advantage of Teens

High school students look out, there's a new scam out there targeting you. The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office is warning teens and their families about the scam.

Rell wants to keep tuition cap

Gov. M. Jodi Rell has informed state university officials that she wants to keep in place a cap on tuition and instead reduce operating costs to save money. Read more ...

Losing Academic Confidence

As a student, it’s sometimes helpful to see your academic situation from the professors’ point of view. It’s also valuable to note the fact that the educators are sometimes as flummoxed by students’ flailings and failings as the students are. When bright young things who were stoked to dive on into their pursuit [...]

As a student, it’s sometimes helpful to see your academic situation from the professors’ point of view. It’s also valuable to note the fact that the educators are sometimes as flummoxed by students’ flailings and failings as the students are. When bright young things who were stoked to dive on into their pursuit of knowledge at the beginning of the year, are crushed and demoralized by the time spring break rolls around and are walking out and switching majors, the students and the profs need to figure out what in the hell happened.

Via Tomorrow’s Professor Blog comes this article by Mica A. Hutchison-Green, a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education at Northwestern University. Most of that previous sentence means Mica is interested in the education of engineering students and wrote an article about why they lose confidence partway through their undergraduate degrees and end up changing majors.

The article is written for educators, but it’s relevant for students as well, regardless of their field of study. It explains to the instructors why the freshmen engineering majors lose confidence in themselves academically and how the situation can be avoided and/or reversed.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image source

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Perceptive Software and ImageNow Document Imaging, Document

Perceptive Software develops ImageNow document imaging, document management and workflow (ECM) solutions used by organizations worldwide in a broad range of industries, such as healthcare, higher education, insurance, government, public sector and more. Continue reading ...

The Ultimate Guide to Using Open Courseware

The Ultimate Guide to Using Open Courseware
Another informative collection of categorized and annotated resource links for self-directed learning--this listing was compiled by Gartheeban Ganeshapillai. I especially like the inclusive scope of this listing. ___JH

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"While you can't get college credit for taking open courseware classes, you can make the most of the information and education they offer both in personal and professional aspects of your life. After all, even if you're not working towards a degree, taking the same courses as those in the ivy league can't possibly hurt you and may even be able to better keep you informed and on the cutting edge of what's going on in your field. So how can you make the most of these free online courses? Here are resources we've collected that can help you search for classes, find information and learn everything you need to know about how open courseware works."

At elite colleges, new aid for the middle

At elite colleges, new aid for the middle
Some of the nation's most elite colleges, trying to ward off perceptions that they've become unaffordable to even high-income families, are bolstering their financial aid packages by offering grants to students whose parents earn as much as $180,000 a year.

Suit accuses R.I. school of anticonservative bias

PROVIDENCE - A former student has sued the Rhode Island College School of Social Work, saying he was punished for his conservative views. Read the rest ...

Elia Gives $42,437 In Bonuses To Education Foundation (The Tampa Tribune)

Hillsborough schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia is donating $42,437 she received in performance bonuses this year to the Hillsborough Education Foundation. Read the rest ...

Telstra treated poorly: Minchin

Telstra treated poorly: Minchin

THE Rudd Government has deliberately revealed Telstra has been excluded from the national broadband bid process on the same day as its major climate change announcement in an attempt to bury the news, the ...

ASPA Honors Seminole Ridge Literary Magazine

ASPA Honors Seminole Ridge Literary Magazine The Seminole Ridge High School literary magazine Mirage has received a First Place with Special Merit award and the Most Outstanding High School Literary-Art ...

Continue reading ...

“Measuring Up 2008″

If you enjoy demoralizing statistical reports and analyses, please be sure to read “Measuring Up 2008.” It’s the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education’s biennial report on how the U.S. is doing educationally and it will make you want to stick your head in the sand and just wait this one [...]

If you enjoy demoralizing statistical reports and analyses, please be sure to read “Measuring Up 2008.” It’s the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education’s biennial report on how the U.S. is doing educationally and it will make you want to stick your head in the sand and just wait this one out.

I stopped reading after these two statistics nuggets: (a) college tuition has increased 439% since 1982-1984 (the median family income has only increased 147%); and (b) about half of American college students attending four-year colleges don’t complete their degrees in six years.

The good news is, someone cares enough about the problem to not only realize there is one, but to research the depth of the conundrum and to (hopefully) work out some solutions.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

photo credit: charlyn w

Read the rest ...

Afternoon update 12.18.08

Afternoon update 12.18.08
California Democrats begin approving budget solutions – Democratic legislators today began approving a complex and controversial package of tax increases and program cuts, an $18 billion effort designed to avoid the need for Republican votes that GOP leaders called illegal. The state Senate and Assembly made their way through the package of bills required for the maneuver, voting along party lines for approval. Republicans opposed the tax increases and accused majority Democrats of breaking th

Cortines hired to lead L.A. schools

Cortines hired to lead L.A. schools
The veteran educator replaces David L. Brewer. 'We will not do things the same way,' the new LAUSD superintendent says.

When Los Angeles school board members named Ramon C. Cortines to head the nation's second-largest school system Tuesday, they selected an experienced, respected educator who contrasts sharply with both his predecessor and a recent wave of acclaimed superintendents.

Education Sec. names new higher ed commissioner

Education Sec. names new higher ed commissioner
Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville has officially selected Richard Freeland as the state's next Commissioner of Higher Education.

College Loan Corporation and Regent Form Strategic Alliance

College Loan Corporation and Regent Form Strategic Alliance
Frederick, MD (Vocus) June 25, 2007 -- www.regenteducation.com [Regent Education], the leading provider of financial aid management software solutions for higher education institutions, today...

Veteran administrator picked to lead LA schools

Veteran administrator picked to lead LA schools
The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District has chosen a veteran education administrator as its next superintendent.

Obamas' parenting skills serving as model for others

CHICAGO a ' Seven-year-old Ava Childers will soon be responsible for making her own bed every day.

Read more ...

Veteran administrator picked to lead LA schools

Veteran administrator picked to lead LA schools
The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District has chosen a veteran education administrator as its next superintendent.

Topics Education Awarded Top Honors

Topics Education Awarded Top Honors
Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) June 16, 2006 -- The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), announced Topics Education, an education outreach firm, as the winner of two Distinguished Achievement Awards...

“Measuring Up 2008″

If you enjoy demoralizing statistical reports and analyses, please be sure to read “Measuring Up 2008.” It’s the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education’s biennial report on how the U.S. is doing educationally and it will make you want to stick your head in the sand and just wait this one [...]

If you enjoy demoralizing statistical reports and analyses, please be sure to read “Measuring Up 2008.” It’s the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education’s biennial report on how the U.S. is doing educationally and it will make you want to stick your head in the sand and just wait this one out.

I stopped reading after these two statistics nuggets: (a) college tuition has increased 439% since 1982-1984 (the median family income has only increased 147%); and (b) about half of American college students attending four-year colleges don’t complete their degrees in six years.

The good news is, someone cares enough about the problem to not only realize there is one, but to research the depth of the conundrum and to (hopefully) work out some solutions.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

photo credit: charlyn w

Read the rest ...

$517,500-plus buyout OKd for L.A. schools chief David Brewer

No successor is named, but Ramon Cortines is expected to lead the school district, at least for the interim.

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to pay at least $517,500 to buy out Supt. David L. Brewer midway through his four-year contract to run the nation's second-largest school system. Read more ...

The kids are all right, but their parents . . .

The kids are all right, but their parents . . .

It is the prerogative of every generation of graybeards to look down the age ladder and accuse today's young of sloth, greed, selfishness -- and stupidity.

Focus on Fernley: Parents need to be active in kids' education

'Who will he choose?' a New York Times copy editor chooses to head David Brooks' column last Friday.

Continue reading ...

Fort Wayne Web Design and SEO: Free SEO Tools and Education

Fort Wayne Web Design and SEO: Free SEO Tools and Education
Fort Wayne Web Design and SEO Free SEO Tools and Education. I was able to get all of the information I needed to optimize my site off of www.seofortwayne.com

Peer 2 Peer University

Peer 2 Peer University
P2P University has received favorable coverage by a number of bloggers (including ZaidLearn and Stephen's Web).  I just want to add my endorsement of this promising direction of development. ___JH

___
"The Peer 2 Peer University is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.Find out more about what P2PU courses look like, and consider creating your own. If you just want to stay informed, please add your name to our mailing list, and we will send you a message when we launch."

Drexel University Leader in Education Named Penn Educator of the Year

Drexel University Leader in Education Named Penn Educator of the Year

Bright sign for tech in Mass.

Bright sign for tech in Mass.
Massachusetts students significantly outperformed their peers nationwide on a prestigious math and science exam, putting the state on an elite international tier, according to results released yesterday.

7 vie to head schools in Lynn

7 vie to head schools in Lynn
LYNN - The new leader of Lynn Public Schools will take the helm of the North Shore's largest public school district, with nearly 14,000 students, 1,000 teachers, and the tough task of boosting scores on state and national tests at a time of funding shortfalls.

Feast Your Eyes On Pam Anderson's Bits

I know Pamela Anderson has to work to pay the bills, feed, house and educate her two sons but can't she do it with clothes on? Anderson is still doing magic shows with Hans Klok as his assistant, and perhaps he doesn't pay her enough to be ab ... Continue reading ...

Grants For Free Ensuring A Less Expensive Education

The best type of financial aid you can receive is a grant for the simple reason that grants, unlike loans need not be repaid over a period of time. However, not everyone can qualify for a grant even if it is proven that you are in need of financial aid and need the support of a lending firm or institution. Here’s a list of basic information on how Read more ...

Mixed results on education reform

Mixed results on education reform

It has been 10 years since S.C. leaders set a goal to be among the top half of states in student achievement by 2010 and instituted sweeping education reform focused on high-stakes testing.

Bridgewater-Raynham field trip policy

Bridgewater-Raynham field trip policy
BRIDGEWATER The Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee recently approved a field trip policy that clarifies the kinds of trips that should be school-sanctioned. The goal in developing the policy was to provide consistency for all out-of-school travel. Field trips will fall into three categories: The first includes school-sanctioned trips that carry the approval of principals and the superintendent. Those trips would ...

Many-Eyes.com Visualization Tool

Many-Eyes.com Visualization Tool
I first read about Many Eyes in the business section of the Sunday 8/31/08 NY Times, where it was described by the Times writer Anne Eisenburg, "Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data." Eisenburg argues that Many Eyes does for users of data displays what YouTube does for videos and Flickr for photos: "Now they can share more technical types of displays: graphs, charts, and other visuals they create to help them analyze data buried in spreadsheets, tables, or text." Many Eyes was created by IBM scientists and developers to provide sophisticated visualization tools for data analyses and displays. The site should be of interest to students and to instructors, and to the general public. One of the most important contributions of the Web-- beyond quick communications and ready access to information, advice, and opinion-- is the access to sound, video, photo and other tools that were previously the province of specialists. (One caution--because Many Eyes is experimental the server is not always up, sometimes it is closed for development and updating.) ____JH

_____

About Many Eyes

"Many Eyes is a bet on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns. Our goal is to 'democratize' visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis. Jump right to our visualizations now, take a tour, or read on for a leisurely explanation of the project.

All of us in CUE's Visual Communication Lab are passionate about the potential of data visualization to spark insight. It is that magical moment we live for: an unwieldy, unyielding data set is transformed into an image on the screen, and suddenly the user can perceive an unexpected pattern. As visualization designers we have witnessed and experienced many of those wondrous sparks. But in recent years, we have become acutely aware that the visualizations and the sparks they generate, take on new value in a social setting. Visualization is a catalyst for discussion and collective insight about data.

We all deal with data that we'd like to understand better. It may be as straightforward as a sales spreadsheet or fantasy football stats chart, or as vague as a cluttered email inbox. But a remarkable amount of it has social meaning beyond ourselves. When we share it and discuss it, we understand it in new ways."

Who Will Be the Next Secretary of Education

Although everyone seems to agree that America's public school system needs help, experts disagree about how to fix it.

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WANAQUE/RINGWOOD - Lakeland parents review special education pro

WANAQUE/RINGWOOD - Lakeland parents review special education pro

Residents have praised Lakeland Regional High School's education program for helping students grow and develop their real world skills, but also said that there's room for improvement.

Pearson Education's OnMicrosoft Podcasts Provide New Learning Tool

Pearson Education's OnMicrosoft Podcasts Provide New Learning Tool

College Board settles NY, Conn. student loan probe

College Board settles NY, Conn. student loan probe

Register or subscribe now, or login below, to continue reading. EW Archive

DoD Disability Awards in DC and Bringing Water and Electricity to Iraq

Left to right, Army 2nd Lt. Brian Callahanleader of the Civil Affairs Team 33; Lt. Col. Rod, an officer in the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology; Fadil Mottleck, assistant chairman of the Jisr Diyala Council; and Assum Abed, project contractor, cut a ribbon to signify the opening of the Ishtar electric and water substations southeast of Baghdad, Dec. 7, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Evan Loyd Today I want to talk about the Disability Awards in Washington DC recently and also su Read more ...

Bogus Stem Cell Therapies Sold on Internet

Expensive, sham stem cell therapies are being hawked directly to desperate patients over the Internet, experts say.

Read more ...

The long road back

The English High School, a historic icon and once one of Boston's premier learning institutions, has become one of the city's worst schools. This year, it must improve or face closure. This story is the first of several about the students, teachers, and headmaster at English as they try to reverse the school's troubled course. Continue reading ...

New plan would create more F schools

A new grading system ordered by lawmakers last spring -- intended to give a more well-rounded snapshot of high schools' performance and de-emphasize the FCAT -- is likely to have an unintended effect.

Read more ...

Educators respond to media scrutiny

Following last week's column about my daughter's teachers and counselor who didn't seem to think their job description included communicating with parents, I've had a flood of responses from readers who are ...

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Stanford Engineering Everywhere

Stanford is making core courses in computer programming and engineering available for free to non-registered students. This offering is a fine opportunity for self-guided students and for students and instructors in other institutions to share Stanford's intellectual resources. ___JH (Thanks to Free Culture News for this reference.)
____

"For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) expands the Stanford experience to students and educators online. A computer and an Internet connection is all you need. View lecture videos, access reading lists and other course handouts, take quizzes and tests, and communicate with other SEE students, all at your convenience.

This fall, SEE launches its programming by offering one of Stanford's most popular sequences: the three-course Introduction to Computer Science taken by the majority of Stanford's undergraduates and seven more advanced courses in artificial intelligence and electrical engineering."

Example:

Introduction to Computer Science | Programming Methodology

Instructor: Sahami, Mehran

This course is the largest of the introductory programming courses and is one of the largest courses at Stanford. Topics focus on the introduction to the engineering of computer applications emphasizing modern software engineering principles: object-oriented design, decomposition, encapsulation, abstraction, and testing. Programming Methodology teaches the widely-used Java programming language along with good software engineering principles. Emphasis is on good programming style and the built-in facilities of the Java language. The course is explicitly designed to appeal to humanists and social scientists as well as hard-core techies. In fact, most Programming Methodology graduates end up majoring outside of the School of Engineering. Prerequisites: The course requires no previous background in programming, but does require considerable dedication and hard work.

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College application plans change as family budgets shrink

College application plans change as family budgets shrink
Financial aid becomes vital. Students consider the public Cal State and UC systems instead of private, out-of-state universities.

Since Laura Monte was a child, her parents had assured her that if she did well in high school, the family would find a way to pay for college. Now, things are not so certain.

Humorous writing has its place in school

Q. As a senior in high school who reads for pleasure, I find that many of the books assigned by teachers and the way they teach them take the joy out of reading. We're presented with characters and authors of questionable relevance in works that seem dated and deliberately difficult. So what are teachers thinking? Why don't teachers integrate books ... Continue reading ...

Many-Eyes.com Visualization Tool

I first read about Many Eyes in the business section of the Sunday 8/31/08 NY Times, where it was described by the Times writer Anne Eisenburg, "Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data." Eisenburg argues that Many Eyes does for users of data displays what YouTube does for videos and Flickr for photos: "Now they can share more technical types of displays: graphs, charts, and other visuals they create to help them analyze data buried in spreadsheets, tables, or text." Many Eyes was created by IBM scientists and developers to provide sophisticated visualization tools for data analyses and displays. The site should be of interest to students and to instructors, and to the general public. One of the most important contributions of the Web-- beyond quick communications and ready access to information, advice, and opinion-- is the access to sound, video, photo and other tools that were previously the province of specialists. (One caution--because Many Eyes is experimental the server is not always up, sometimes it is closed for development and updating.) ____JH

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About Many Eyes

"Many Eyes is a bet on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns. Our goal is to 'democratize' visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis. Jump right to our visualizations now, take a tour, or read on for a leisurely explanation of the project.

All of us in CUE's Visual Communication Lab are passionate about the potential of data visualization to spark insight. It is that magical moment we live for: an unwieldy, unyielding data set is transformed into an image on the screen, and suddenly the user can perceive an unexpected pattern. As visualization designers we have witnessed and experienced many of those wondrous sparks. But in recent years, we have become acutely aware that the visualizations and the sparks they generate, take on new value in a social setting. Visualization is a catalyst for discussion and collective insight about data.

We all deal with data that we'd like to understand better. It may be as straightforward as a sales spreadsheet or fantasy football stats chart, or as vague as a cluttered email inbox. But a remarkable amount of it has social meaning beyond ourselves. When we share it and discuss it, we understand it in new ways."

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Short Course on Structured Course Development, LOs, and Standards

Short Course on Structured Course Development, LOs, and Standards

This excellent online course is available for free from CAREO (a Wiki version of the course is also provided for readers who might like to contribute to the presentation). The course was developed by the Resource Pool Project. The topics covered should be of especial value to developers of educational resources and resource repositories.
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Course Overview

This short course is intended to provide a basic overview of structured course development, learning objects, and e-learning standards and specifications. This course is meant to be non-technical in nature, although it is hard to make it so.

Course Goal

A Short Course on Structured Course Development, Learning Objects, and E-Learning standards will provide an introduction to using a structured language such as Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) or eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a basis for producing a learning design and describing course content, activities, and assignments. The course will tell you what SGML and XML are and distinguish them from HyperText Markup Language. You will understand the concept of learning objects and the issues related to their use in e-learning, and you will learn about the standards and specifications initiatives that are shaping the e-learning world.

Key Concepts

• Semantic markup languages
• Instructional design using a structured approach
• Characteristics of learning objects
• Learning objects and metadata
• The difference between a standard and a specification
• Why standards and specifications are important
• E-learning standards and specifications initiatives

Knol

Knol
Both students and instructors use the online collaborative encyclopedia  Wikipedia and both are likely to make use of Knol. The new Google site offers short articles on a very wide range of subjects from Backpacking to Malaria to Barbecue Sauces. Net watchers will be looking closely to see if Knol grows at the same pace and to the same scope as Wikipedia. ____JH
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The Knol site has one goal: to help you share what you know.

"The Knol project is a site that hosts many knols — units of knowledge — written about various subjects. The authors of the knols can take credit for their writing, provide credentials, and elicit peer reviews and comments. Users can provide feedback, comments, related information. So the Knol project is a platform for sharing information, with multiple cues that help you evaluate the quality and veracity of information.

Knols are indexed by the big search engines, of course. And well-written knols become popular the same as regular web pages. The Knol site allows anyone to write and manage knols through a browser on any computer."

Mixed results on education reform

Mixed results on education reform

It has been 10 years since S.C. leaders set a goal to be among the top half of states in student achievement by 2010 and instituted sweeping education reform focused on high-stakes testing.

Irrational Pessimism

Irrational Pessimism
This has nothing to do with education (other than the diminished capacity for paying for it) but the phrase “irrational pessimism” was too good not to take note of. In recent years I’ve made a concerted effort to be a less sarcastic and a more cheerfully optimistic girl, mostly because I feel like I [...]

This has nothing to do with education (other than the diminished capacity for paying for it) but the phrase “irrational pessimism” was too good not to take note of. In recent years I’ve made a concerted effort to be a less sarcastic and a more cheerfully optimistic girl, mostly because I feel like I should grow the hell up.

It’s gone mostly well, but sometimes my morbid sense of humor or my cynical side comes out. Today when I was reading the CS Monitor the concept of irrational pessimism brought to mind an entire nation of cranky, pessimistic grouches wandering around, bitching and moaning about the nasty, brutish shortness of life and it cracked me up. Perhaps that’s funny only to me…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

photo credit: noppadol paothong

More With the Education, Less With the Simulation

It sucks that there is poverty in the world, and there’s something to be said for promoting poverty awareness, but I’m not sure Princeton and Dartmouth are going about it in the most effective way. It’s probably possible to educate people about poverty, but I don’t think there’s a feasible way to simulate the [...]

It sucks that there is poverty in the world, and there’s something to be said for promoting poverty awareness, but I’m not sure Princeton and Dartmouth are going about it in the most effective way. It’s probably possible to educate people about poverty, but I don’t think there’s a feasible way to simulate the true poverty experience for college kids.

College kids are often lacking in disposable income, yes, but if they were actually living anywhere near enough to the edge to be capable of looking starvation in the eye, they would have bigger things to worry about than midterms and research topics and they would not currently be working to cross “College Degree” off of their To Do lists.

Dartmouth recently hosted the “Two Dollar-a-Day Challenge” and Princeton will host their own Princeton Poverty Simulation on Saturday, Nov. 22nd. Again, it’s excellent to be making people aware of how this lifetime is going down for a large portion of the human population, but I’m not on board with the attempt to simulate anything.

Nina Shield at IvyGate nails it superbly with this:

We had something like this once a year in elementary school gym class. It was called TRAFFIC and we all wheeled around on scooters and if we sped or veered off the roads or ran through the stop sign we were sent to traffic-jail, and when we went through the car wash Mr. Hennessey spritzed us with water. It was exactly like real driving.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

photo: maximolly

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Pokémon Economics

Anyone needing an excellently oversimplified way to teach a kid about the economic crisis might want to use this Pokémon analogy from economist Kevin Nguyen: The following is an actual conversation I had with my younger sister, Olivia. She likes to draw, play World of Warcraft, and now, she’s the only fourteen-year-old girl who understands the [...]

Anyone needing an excellently oversimplified way to teach a kid about the economic crisis might want to use this Pokémon analogy from economist Kevin Nguyen:

The following is an actual conversation I had with my younger sister, Olivia. She likes to draw, play World of Warcraft, and now, she’s the only fourteen-year-old girl who understands the U.S. economic crisis.

Kevin: Have you been following the news?

Olivia: Yeah, I don’t really get it.

Kevin: Imagine that I let you borrow $50, but in exchange for my generosity, you promise to pay me back the $50 with an extra $10 in interest. To make sure you pay me back, I take your Charizard Pokémon card as collateral.

Olivia: Kevin, I don’t play Pokémon anymore.

Kevin: I’m getting to that. Let’s say that the Charizard is worth $50, so in case you decide to not return my money, at least I’ll have something that’s worth what I loaned out.

Olivia: Okay.

Kevin: But one day, people realize that Pokémon is stupid and everyone decides that the cards are overvalued. That’s right—everybody turned twelve on the same day! Now your Charizard is only worth, say, $25. More..

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Studying online is the practical way to earn an education

Studying online is the practical way to earn an education
St. Augustine is the most affordable compared to other Medical Assistant Schools program are designed and reviewed by professionals in the field to give you the best training possible. MedAssistant.org provides a great way for nurses and other to learn medical assistant studies online.

Education | Hempstead: No Debate on This: Hempstead School R

Education | Hempstead: No Debate on This: Hempstead School R
Efforts of students and teachers prevailed and a Long Island school was named after the president-elect, apparently the first such school.

WMD Commission Releases “World at Risk” Report

WMD Commission Releases “World at Risk” Report
On December 3, 2008, the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism released its “World at Risk” report. This report predicted a high risk of a major terrorist nuclear or biological attack by 2012. The Commission members explained that the risk of such attacks is increasing because Al Qaeda and other terrorists have demonstrated continued interest in using such weapons of mass destruction and could try to hire rogue scientists. Accordi

Education notes: News from schools near you

Forty-seven students at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights earned AP Scholar awards for exceptional achievement on their College Board Advanced Placement exams.

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Free Internet Marketing Education

Free Internet Marketing Education
Free Internet Marketing Education Posted in December 6th, 2008 Category:Internet Marketing Education is the key to any business success. You will definitely need to spend some time each day for your education. There are many ways that you can learn whatever you need to. You just want to make sure that you don’t waste your money or your time trying to further your education. You may [...]

Mass. High Ed board recommends new commissioner

Massachusetts Board of Higher Education has voted to recommend Richard Freeland as the next Commissioner of Higher Education. Read the rest ...

NAMI | Education, Training and Peer Support Center

NAMI | Education, Training and Peer Support Center
There is education and support for persons, and families of persons, with mental disorders. Until you have lived in the mind of mental illness,you have little understanding. Gain understanding, by training for programs to help support the individuals in your area.

College receives $280,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded a $280,000 Sustaining Grant to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) for the Initiative to Promote Opportunities through Educational Collaboration, an effort that was launched in 2004. Read the rest ...

New Media is Good for Youth - Like eVitims

New Media is Good for Youth - Like eVitims
Youth could benefit from educators being more open to forms of experimentation and social exploration that are generally not characteristic of educational institutions," the authors write.

SQH Course Five: 360 Degree Review

SQH Course Five: 360 Degree Review
As many of you will know I am currently undertaking my Scottish Qualification for Headship (School Principle). I am now one the final ‘home run’ of the course. In Course One I had to conduct a 360 degree feedback exercise on how I met the some aspects of the Standard for Headship. As I believe in sharing. I posted some of the detail of my Course One 360 analysis on-line back in June 2007. I’ll reflect back on this below. As part of Course five, I have had to complete the same analysi

Name by name, Obama's Cabinet taking shape

Name by name, Obama's Cabinet taking shape
Day by day, name by name, President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet is taking shape, and other top jobs are being filled.

School District to Bailout: We Want In

School District to Bailout: We Want In

A financially struggling suburban Cleveland school district has joined the queue of companies and local governments asking for funds from the $700 billion TARP.

Opening Up Education

Opening Up Education
Opening Up Education is an MIT Press book edited by Toru Iiyoshi and Vijay Kumar; the subtitle is "The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge." The free ebook is, appropriately, available in an open access ipaper edition (Flash format) or via pdf files. (A print version may also be purchased from MIT Press.) The book includes a useful Foreword by John Seely Brown and valuable Introduction and Conclusion sections by the editors; the core of the book contains 27 chapters by diverse authors, many of them leaders in their fields. 
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"Given the abundance of open education initiatives that aim to make educational assets freely available online, the time seems ripe to explore the potential of open education to transform the economics and ecology of education. Despite the diversity of tools and resources already available—from well-packaged course materials to simple games, for students, self-learners, faculty, and educational institutions—we have yet to take full advantage of shared knowledge about how these are being used, what local innovations are emerging, and how to learn from and build on the experiences of others. Opening Up Education argues that we must develop not only the technical capability but also the intellectual capacity for transforming tacit pedagogical knowledge into commonly usable and visible knowledge: by providing incentives for faculty to use (and contribute to) open education goods, and by looking beyond institutional boundaries to connect a variety of settings and open source entrepreneurs."

FCAT substitute tests boost graduate rate

FCAT substitute tests boost graduate rate

Florida's improving graduation rate is strongly driven by students who failed to pass the FCAT exit exam, but still managed to get a diploma through an exemption: a high enough score on another standardized ...

Teachers' Domain

Teachers' Domain
Teachers' Domain is a one-stop site for collected media resources from public television. Registration is required, but is free. The site is divided into Teachers' Domain for K-12 resources and Teachers' Domain College Edition for higher education resources. The materials in Teachers' Domain can be searched by keywords or browsed under broad subject areas. To switch from the K-12 to the College Edition click on the "Change Editions" link at the bottom the the search page. ___JH

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"Teachers' Domain is an online library of more than 1,000 free media resources from the best in public television. These classroom resources, featuring media from NOVA, Frontline, Design Squad, American Experience, and other public broadcasting and content partners are easy to use and correlate to state and national standards.

Teachers' Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. Once you register, you can personalize the site using 'My Folders' and 'My Groups' to save your favorite resources into a folder and share them with your colleagues or students.

Teachers' Domain strives to strengthen teacher knowledge by providing innovative teaching methods that incorporate technology in the classroom and inspire students to learn."

Report gives California passing grade in college affordability; rest of nation fails

But the state's C grade is misleading, say the study's authors: It's skewed by the bargain-basement prices of two-year campuses.

An independent research report gave failing grades to every state but California on keeping college affordable -- and the problem will get worse as the full weight of recession bears down on American families, researchers at the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education said in a report to be released today. Read the rest ...

MCAS results released today

The Massachusetts Department of Education today released the results of the 2008 MCAS tests and the department said statewide they show impressive math gains in all grades and strong improvement in eighth grade science and gains in English language arts, math and Science, Technology/Engineering in Grade 10. Read the rest ...

The long road back

The English High School, a historic icon and once one of Boston's premier learning institutions, has become one of the city's worst schools. This year, it must improve or face closure. This story is the first of several about the students, teachers, and headmaster at English as they try to reverse the school's troubled course. Read more ...

Write Or Die V2.0

Anyone who has more writing to do than motivation to get it done should check out Write or Die from Dr. Wicked, who claims to “put the ‘prod’ in productivity.” Write or Die is a lovely little web application that implements the Psych 101 principles of Operant Conditioning and Negative Reinforcement to get the [...]

Anyone who has more writing to do than motivation to get it done should check out Write or Die from Dr. Wicked, who claims to “put the ‘prod’ in productivity.” Write or Die is a lovely little web application that implements the Psych 101 principles of Operant Conditioning and Negative Reinforcement to get the writer’s ass in gear.

The writer sets a word count goal, a time goal, whether they want the grace period to be Forgiving, Strict or Evil, and then chooses the level of negative consequences: Gentle, Normal, Kamikaze, or Electric Shock (sadly, that one’s not actually selectable). Then the writer just has to start typing words in the box until the goals are met.

If writing stops, the negative consequences begin. In Gentle Mode, a little box pops up reminding you to keep writing. In Normal Mode, a really grating song starts playing and you will have it in your head for the remainder of the week. And in Kamikaze Mode, if you stop writing, your text begins deleting itself. A little bit evil, but it could certainly help anyone with procrastination issues.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image credit

Continue reading ...

Physical Fitness Test shows California students improved slightly

Only about a third are in the 'healthy zone.' L.A. Unified's scores also edged up but are below the state average.

When it comes to their physical fitness, students are taking baby steps toward better health, according to results from the 2008 California Physical Fitness Test released Tuesday. Read the rest ...

Topics Education Awarded Top Honors

Topics Education Awarded Top Honors
Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) June 16, 2006 -- The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), announced Topics Education, an education outreach firm, as the winner of two Distinguished Achievement Awards...

FCAT: Summer retakes, Parent Network eliminated

FCAT: Summer retakes, Parent Network eliminated

In a cost cutting move, the Florida Department of Education is making some changes to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT.

A Biograpy of America

A Biograpy of America
This video series from Annenberg Media/Learning.org sets a high standard for online resources. The flash media presentations are exceptionally well produced to include clips from historical records and commentary by historians. Maps, a webography, and transcripts are also included with each module. Registration is required to access the free resources. Viewers who visit A Biography of America will also want to examine other programs available from Annenberg. ____JH

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"Annenberg Media is a unit of The Annenberg Foundation. Our mission is to advance excellent teaching in all disciplines throughout American K-12 schools. Former names of Annenberg Media are: Annenberg/CPB, The Annenberg/CPB Project, and The Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project.

We pursue this mission by funding and broadly distributing multimedia resources for teachers to help them improve their own teaching practice and understanding of their subject. Annenberg Media makes use of telecommunications technologies—the Internet, including broadband video streaming, and satellite television broadcast—as well as hard copy media to disseminate these multimedia resources, ensuring that they reach as many teachers as possible."

China AIDS activists say education fights stigma (Chinapost.com.tw)

China AIDS activists say education fights stigma (Chinapost.com.tw)
BEIJING -- AIDS activists were skeptical of a pledge by China's government to fight discrimination against people with the disease, saying Monday the move would mean little without improvements in education to increase awareness and alter mindsets.