Ever wonder how stories promoted by ‘thought leaders’ on social media get selected? Filter bubbles are bad, including in educational technology.
Here’s what caught my eye the week of March 6, 2017 – news, tools, and reports about education, public policy, technology, and innovation – including a little bit about why. No endorsements; no sponsored content; no apologies for my eclectic tastes.
Strong opinions may be weakly held.
A Thinking Person’s Guide to EdTech News (2017 Week 10 Edition)
Tech devices won't fix our education system | Lockport Union Sun & Journal →
Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently issued a plea for greater student access to high-tech tools. "This sort of pie-in-the-sky belief that simply getting more computers in kids' hands and more app-development elective courses in schools will make the future bright is an oversimplification of a complex issue."
Tagged on: March 12, 2017
Employers could impose hefty penalties on employees who decline to participate in genetic testing as part of workplace wellness programs if a bill approved by a U.S. House committee this week becomes law.
Tagged on: March 12, 2017
WikiLeaks CIA cache: Fool me once | Engadget →
"It should make you uncomfortable - and angry - as hell that the CIA can use your smart toaster to spy on you. But....truth is, the US government isn't the early adopter here; Amazon, Google and Facebook are really the front-line developers of the surveillance state."
Tagged on: March 11, 2017
What the CIA WikiLeaks dump tells us: Encryption works | AP →
"The answer to the fact that your front door might be cracked open isn't to open all your windows and walk around naked, too."
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
New FCC Chairman Is Weakening the Nation's Cybersecurity | Morning Consult →
"FCC Chair Pai has signaled that cybersecurity should not be a part of his security oversight responsibilities. This reversal in policy is a bad decision for all of us."
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
Shaping a digital marketplace that puts consumers first | Ford Foundation →
The 'Digital Standard' aims to help consumers understand how a range of digital products measure up when it comes to security and privacy, so they can make educated choices about what to buy and use—and to help guide companies in building and designing products that take consumer privacy and security seriously.
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
As new technology is paramount, Robertson County gives students laptops | WKRN News 2 →
"As new technology is paramount," Robertson County gives students laptops - funded through a special resolution (and not the regular budget).
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
State reaches $3.5 million Idaho Education Network settlement | Idaho EdNews →
After eight years - and with state-issued checks totaling $3.4M - the state has closed the costly and convoluted case of the Idaho Education Network broadband project.
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
Frederick County Public Schools using social media in the classroom | Your4State.com →
Frederick County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Theresa Alban says that she's considering incorporating social media into the classroom. This from the school district that is still reeling from a major student data privacy breach.
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
Governors are poised to bear down on ed tech and rural education in 2017 | AEI →
Eighteen governors in their state of the state addresses touched on education technology, which "can be a particularly sticky challenge for rural communities and was frequently a central component of governors’ rural reform efforts."
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
Drop it like it's bot: Brands have cooled on chatbots | Digiday →
Many companies have begun dropping their bots, saying that they don't do what they were supposed to: “I would call it overpromising."
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
Albemarle school division (VA) touts progress on internet access | The Daily Progress →
Albemarle County Public Schools has been installing tens of thousands of feet of fiber optic cable across the county in recent years to connect school campuses, and the division also has installed antenna arrays to begin rollout of a project that would provide free wireless internet access to its students at home.
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
Yost questions if ECOT can comply with state attendance requirement | The Columbus Dispatch →
The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow remains locked in a court battle and an administrative appeal of the Ohio Department of Education's conclusion that the online school owes the state $59 million because it could only justify enrollment of about 41 percent of the 15,000-plus students it claimed last year.
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
SJSD Invests $15,000 in Cyber Security After Close Call | StJoeChannel.com →
Move comes AFTER potential problems with user passwords...
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
The Scary Thing You Don’t Know About 'Free' Scholarship Searches | Money →
Dozens of companies are using the lure of scholarships to gather a wealth of valuable personal data from unsophisticated high school students.
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
Larry Magid says, "Even students and teachers who have nothing to fear have the right to digital privacy, regardless of where they are or what that they’re doing."
Tagged on: March 10, 2017
When Extensions Go Bad | The Electric Educator →
Keeping your devices and data private requires vigilance and caution. Case in point: Chrome extensions gone bad.
Tagged on: March 9, 2017
New Solutions—Not Just New Winners—In the Curriculum Marketplace | Washington Monthly →
Innovative uses of OER offer an entirely new way of answering the question of how we solve for inefficiencies in the curriculum marketplace
Tagged on: March 9, 2017
The US and UK Show Key Differences in the EdTech Management Platforms & Tools Space | Futuresource →
This week, Futuresource’s education technology team published its latest report on the adoption of mobile PC’s in K-12 schools globally.
Tagged on: March 9, 2017
Belgrade schools may tap $1.5M fund to boost technology for kids | Belgrade News →
The idea behind the initiative is to set up every student in the district with their own computing device. He anticipates needing to purchase around 2,000 to meet that goal. Thanks to some changes in staff health insurance and a recent audit finding, Belgrade schools may be able to do so.
Tagged on: March 9, 2017
Indiana schools superintendent awards technology grants | The Kansas City Star →
The Indiana Department of Education has awarded grants to 32 school districts to help boost students' use of technology in the classroom.
Tagged on: March 9, 2017
Hacked school bank accounts hadn't been reconciled for nearly 12 years | KBAK →
Who took $19 million dollars from local government checking accounts remains a mystery, but how they got away with it isn't. Checking accounts used by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools and the Kern Community College District have not been properly reconciled for nearly 12 years.
Tagged on: March 9, 2017
Move Fast and Break Trust | Slate →
Google’s alternative facts and Uber’s self-driving accidents are symptoms of a deeper problem that is only going to get worse: we are beta-testing the future - with increasingly serious consequences.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
New Solutions—Not Just New Winners—In the Curriculum Marketplace | New America →
Innovative uses of OER offer an entirely new way of answering the question of how we solve for inefficiencies in the curriculum marketplace, rather than just advocating for new winners.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
The History of the Future of E-rate | Audrey Watters →
The decision by the new FCC to rescind its report on E-rate raises plenty of questions about the future of the program under President Trump.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
Software vendor says it's not to blame in false jobless fraud findings | Detroit Free Press →
The system had a 93% error rate and the vendor argues it has no liability: "It's not our decision to do or not do these things," and "it's generally not our role to tell a government what action to take." Hopefully, not shades of future conversations about learning analytics.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
Benchmarking U.S. Government Websites | ITIF →
The public relies on federal websites to access information and services from the U.S. government, yet 92 percent of its most popular sites fail to meet basic standards for security, speed, mobile friendliness, or accessibility.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
Nevada bill puts cameras in all special education classrooms | Reno-Gazette Journal →
A bill proposed by state Sen. Becky Harris, R-Las Vegas, will require every school district to install cameras in classrooms where a majority of the students have a disability.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
Data system a tool to improve education | TroyMessenger.com →
The Alabama Legislature is considering HB 97 to establish a statewide system to measure student achievement over time. Alabama currently does not have a statewide platform for collecting longitudinal data that are gathered from year to year to plot change.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
Under the proposed law, anyone acting “for or on the behalf of” a public school—whether that’s the police or school officials—could search through student, teacher, and possibly even parent digital data without a court issuing a warrant or any other outside oversight.
Tagged on: March 8, 2017
Student Login Records at Ohio E-Schools Spark $80 Million Dispute | Education Week →
The Ohio education department could seek repayment of more than $80 million from nine full-time online schools, based on audits of software-login records that led state officials to determine the schools had overstated their student enrollment.
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Three More Schools Targeted By Email Phishing Scam | CBS Connecticut →
The leader of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents says he has heard of three more districts that were targeted by a scam seeking to steal the personal tax information of school employees.
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Hakuna Metadata (1) - Exploring the browsing history | Privacy Pies →
This article is an explainer about the power of metadata and the reason why we need stronger privacy policies in that context.
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Google Home Lambasted For Spreading Fake News And Conspiracy Theories | WCCFTECH →
"Featured Snippets in Search provide an automatic and algorithmic match to a given search query, and the content comes from third-party sites. Unfortunately, there are instances when we feature a site with inappropriate or misleading content."
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
How Chattanooga aims to cut poverty with superfast internet | CSMonitor.com →
The city's gigabit network has earned it a reputation as a flourishing tech hub. Now, city leaders are trying to figure out how to spread the digital wealth to residents left behind.
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Facebook program at school causes controversy | Cincinnati.com →
The dispute centers around the new Summit Learning Platform, an online program developed by Facebook and a group of California-based charter schools.
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Sunnyside Unified School District email gaffe exposed employees’ info | Databreach.net →
Personal employee information was accidentally emailed to every Sunnyside (AZ) Unified School District employee. That’s more than 2,000 people.
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Schools use technology to improve gym classes | The Sun Herald →
"Every gym has heart-rate monitors, sticks with electrodes that students can hold to determine their heart rate. We also have monitors that project on the wall and show each student their heart rate and the phys-ed teacher can determine if each one is working hard enough."
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Uber Uses Ubiquitous Surveillance to Identify and Block Regulators | Schneier on Security →
I agree with Bruce: "Because if we don't align government against this kind of behavior, it'll become the norm."
Tagged on: March 7, 2017
Predictive Analytics in Higher Education | New America →
"It is crucial for institutions to use predictive analytics ethically. Without ethical practices, student data could be used to curtail academic success rather than help ensure it."
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Three misunderstandings about open resources | The Hechinger Report →
Nine superintendents jointly write an article to discuss OER approaches and materials that work.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
NERD – National Education Researcher Database →
Coming soon: the first ever comprehensive, easily navigable, freely available database of education researchers in US
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Testing products for data privacy and security | Boing Boing →
A team consisting of Disconnect, Ranking Digital Rights, the Cyber Independent Testing Lab, and Consumer Reports has come together to build a new testing standard for digital products for sufficiency of privacy and security.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Tech-Savvy Poachers Hack GPS Signals to Hunt Endangered Animals | Heat Street →
A reminder that technology designed for good can have unintended consequences that are awful.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
What Happens to Education Spending if the Budget Stays in a Holding Pattern | Education Week →
A reminder that we still don't have a 2017 federal education budget approved by Congress, as we near the 2018 budget request.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Kindles replacing textbooks at Edison | The Review →
Edison High School continues to incorporate 21st Century learning as technology slowly replaces textbooks in the classroom. Students have been utilizing Chromebooks and other high-tech tools as they gain their education, and now Kindles have been added to the curriculum.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Coursera chief on the future of online learning and the Trump era | Financial Times →
More than 30 per cent of all content on Coursera is now related to business and big-name business schools, which were initially reluctant and feared cannibalisation of their courses.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Arkansas Lawmaker Introduces Bill Banning Howard Zinn Books | The Huffington Post →
A bill introduced in the Arkansas state legislature aims to bar public schools in the state from assigning books by the late author and historian Howard Zinn.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Lawmakers call for more computer science in California schools | GoldenIsles News (AP) →
Half a dozen bills before the CA state legislature address the growing concern that students don’t have the computer science skills necessary to thrive in the modern workforce.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Since every student in this school district is equipped with a Google Chromebook, it only made sense for fifth-graders to do their DARE unit online instead of using traditional workbooks.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Twitter’s timeline algorithm, and its effect on us, explained | Slate →
Did you know that 'a complex, opaque software program' decides which tweets you’ll see when you open the app?
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Amazon Education GM leaves; company says it 'remains committed' to K-12 technology | GeekWire →
Meanwhile, Amazon Inspire remains in perpetual beta. One wonders if it will ever get publicly launched.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Universities are partnering with data brokers to gain an edge in student recruitment; deploying adtech with questionable ethics. The college admissions/financial aid sectors seem rife with issues.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Law would help eighth-graders pick career | The Star Press →
"A student would take an aptitude assessment to determine what they might be really good at doing as a career." I took a similar test, and it suggested I should be a forest ranger. I'm all for expanding horizons, but my 8th grade self did not resemble who I am today.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
Justice Dept. drops Playpen child porn case to prevent release of Tor hack | ZDNet →
A court filing says the government has 'no choice but to seek dismissal of the indictment' because it refuses to release details of how it used a Tor browser hack.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
The biometrics landscape may be about to get more complicated.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
U of California, Berkeley, to delete publicly available educational content | Inside HigherEd →
Starting March 15, the university will begin removing more than 20,000 free video and audio lectures from public view as a result of a Justice Department accessibility order.
Tagged on: March 6, 2017
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