This week, I introduced the K-12 Cyber Incident Map. Thanks to those who helped spread the word of its release and for offering feedback. It remains a modest gesture toward addressing much bigger questions. Questions that have been a long time coming…
Otherwise, here’s what caught my eye this week – 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 13 Edition)
In three years, no one will be able to explain why it was that colleges and universities continued to hand more than half of their tuition to companies marketing and supporting their online programs – the online program managers.
Tagged on: April 1, 2017
School IT Leaders Share Strategies on Defending Against DDoS Attacks | EdTech Magazine →
This article claims students are primarily responsible for denial of service attacks on schools. Wish there were publicly available data to support this claim.
Tagged on: April 1, 2017
Exclusive: Pisa data may be 'incomparable' | tes →
Falls in Asian high-flyers' math scores could simply be down to switch to computer tests.
Tagged on: April 1, 2017
What keeps cybersecurity experts up at night? | Passcode →
For Passcode’s last Influencers Poll, we asked an open-ended question: What’s the most urgent cybersecurity or privacy challenge right now, and what’s one way to fix it?
Tagged on: April 1, 2017
Brands need to fire adtech | ART + marketing →
Adtech = tracking-based advertising. It spies on people and violates their privacy. It’s full of fraud and a vector for malware. It incentivizes publications to prioritize “content generation” over journalism. It’s gives fake news a business model. It is that bad.
Tagged on: April 1, 2017
Company degree programs come to the rescue of Nevada’s skill gap | Las Vegas Review-Journal →
"He’s a guinea pig for one of the state’s first accelerated education programs tailored for a specific company."
Tagged on: April 1, 2017
Computer-based testing reflects technological shift | Eagle-Tribune →
As MA begins the roll out of its “next-generation” MCAS exams this week, students across the region will be adjusting not only to a new test, but to taking the yearly exams on a computer.
Tagged on: April 1, 2017
Mobile App Behavior Often Appears at Odds With Privacy Policies | Carnegie Mellon University →
An analysis of almost 18,000 popular free apps from the Google Play store found almost half lacked a privacy policy, even though 71 percent of those appear to be processing personally identifiable information and would thus be required to explain how under state laws such as the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA).
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
A (Electronic) Textbook Case of Disruption | The American Interest →
Schools are starting to take advantage of cheap tablets and open-sourced learning materials to give their students touchscreen, on-demand textbooks that—and here’s the kicker—can save school districts millions of dollars every year.
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
New software tool to provide students with personalized feedback to improve learning | Phys.org →
Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have partnered with five international universities to create a software tool that provides timely and personalized feedback to help students adjust their studying throughout the course.
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
Volusia County schools to launch bus Wi-Fi program | ClickOrlando.com →
Students from a few Volusia County schools will participate in a pilot program that offers students Wi-Fi on their school buses, officials said.
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
Students pen literacy tests after last fall's exam cancelled by cyber attacks | CambridgeTimes.ca →
The region’s Grade 10 students went back to pen and paper to write their literacy test today, six months after cyber attacks forced the cancellation of an online version of the provincially-mandated test.
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
E.C. Glass student scammed through teacher's hacked email account | WSET →
The superintendent stated it wasn't a failure on their security system, but if the email was hacked, obviously it was a failure on their firewalls. The bank also declined to reimburse any funds, but did issue her a zero-interest loan to pay it all back.
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
Ofsted to 'snoop' on parents' and pupils' social media | iNews →
Its like Klout, but for school accountability.
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
The field of predictive analytics has developed more quickly than an ethical framework around it, and some experts advise caution.
Tagged on: March 31, 2017
Libraries have become a broadband lifeline to the cloud for students | Ars Technica →
The role of the library in the digital age has grown thanks to cloud tools.
Tagged on: March 30, 2017
Pending legislation in Washington state could give teachers free access to resources that would help them make students more media literate and help them grow into good citizens of the digital world they’ll inherit.
Tagged on: March 30, 2017
The Digital Divide: A Quarter of the Nation Is Without Broadband | Time →
Politically, the persistence of the digital gap defies logic.
Tagged on: March 30, 2017
Imaginaries and materialities of education data science | code acts in education →
"In this talk, I want to show you how education is being imagined by advocates of a field of research and development becoming known as ‘education data science.’ The social consequences for the field of education in general are significant."
Tagged on: March 30, 2017
IRS Data Retrieval Tool to be offline until the start of the next FAFSA season.
Tagged on: March 29, 2017
Without Internet Privacy Rules, How Can I Protect My Data? | Consumerist →
Here’s what’s true (and what’s bunk) about the now defunct FCC privacy rule, and what you can do to shield your behavior from prying eyes.
Tagged on: March 29, 2017
Driverless Ed-Tech: The History of the Future of Automation in Education | Audrey Watters →
A driverless future offers us only more surveillance, more algorithms, less transparency, fewer roads, and less intellectual freedom. Skinner would love it.
Tagged on: March 29, 2017
"There is not one voter anywhere in America who asked for this," says Stephen Colbert.
Tagged on: March 29, 2017
European Commission considering leap into open-access publishing | Science →
The European Commission, which spends more than €10 billion annually on research, may follow two other big league funders, the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and set up a “publishing platform” for the scientists it funds, in an attempt to accelerate the transition to open-access publishing in Europe.
Tagged on: March 28, 2017
Louisiana schools show little interest in free internet plan | News & Observer →
A plan to provide high-speed internet access to Louisiana's public school districts at no cost to them has died because local educators showed too little interest.
Tagged on: March 28, 2017
A lesson plan from tech giants on how to transform education | CNBC →
"I think what you'll see in the next couple of years is that most schools become part of a platform network," says Tom Vander Ark.
Tagged on: March 28, 2017
New Themes Emerge in Second 1:1 Computer Initiative Survey in Livingston | TAPinto →
Results of the second of three surveys being issued to Heritage Middle School (HMS) and Livingston High School (LHS) students, teachers and parents involved in the 1:1 computer initiative are in.
Tagged on: March 28, 2017
As a system administrator (or sysadmin), Matt has had a front-row seat to the increasing use of technology in his rural, public school district. When he started to raise the alarm about educational technology in his school district, he knew it would ruffle some feathers.
Tagged on: March 28, 2017
Hackers hit Forsyth schools server, cause disruptions | KTVQ.com →
Forsyth Public Schools (MT) were hit with computer malware over the weekend, causing problems for teachers, students, parents and district administrators.
Tagged on: March 28, 2017
How the Republicans Sold Your Privacy to Internet Providers | New York Times →
"Apparently, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress value privacy for themselves over the privacy of the Americans who put them in office. What is good business for powerful cable and phone companies is just tough luck for the rest of us," says Tom Wheeler, former FCC chair (and Democrat).
Tagged on: March 28, 2017
Who's Tracking Your Faceprint? | The Atlantic →
Who Owns Your Face? Advertising companies, tech giants, data collectors, and the federal government, it turns out.
Tagged on: March 27, 2017
Apple’s Bid To Reclaim The Classroom From Chromebooks May Be Too Late | Fast Company →
With price cuts and new features, Apple is making iPads more school-friendly–but only after Chromebooks became go-to educational machines.
Tagged on: March 27, 2017
Got tech problems? Call the CatSquad | Idaho Press-Tribune →
CatSquad students are responsible for providing tech support to the 1,300 students and 100 teachers and administrators at the school.
Tagged on: March 27, 2017
California pressed to stop collecting students’ citizenship data | SFGate →
Civil rights groups asked California’s attorney general Monday to investigate dozens of school districts across the state that require parents to provide children’s Social Security numbers, their citizenship status and other sensitive information such as when they entered the country.
Tagged on: March 27, 2017
‘Selfie epilepsy’: Teenage patient’s reaction suggests new risk of iPhone photos | National Post →
Selfie epilepsy would add to the rare but bizarre hazards of a seemingly innocuous modern phenomenon that has nonetheless caused numerous deaths worldwide.
Tagged on: March 27, 2017
San Diego schools to begin posting records responses online |The San Diego Union-Tribune →
Facing a backlog that has pushed even routine public-records requests to three months or longer, the San Diego Unified School District will begin posting documents on the internet as they are released.
Tagged on: March 27, 2017
The call center company behind the SchoolMessenger service, which specializes in helping schools across the country instantly communicate with parents, students and their communities, is in federal court in Chicago.
Tagged on: March 27, 2017
Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science | Ubiquity Press →
Affordable education. Transparent science. Accessible scholarship.
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
Doxed by Microsoft’s Docs.com: Users unwittingly shared sensitive docs publicly | Ars Technica →
Thousands of docs with sensitive data still reachable from search engines, including health data. A quick search suggests student data, too.
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
Schools collect reams of data, inspiring a move to make sense of it all | The Hechinger Report →
Every school collects and stores information on how students perform, but many struggle to understand and use it.
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
This free game puts you in the shoes of a fake news peddler | Rappler →
'Fake It to Make It' is inspired by real teenagers, and shows the mindset of someone who wants to start their own fake news empire.
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
NPS teachers receive laptops in one-to-one initiative | The Norman Transcript →
Funded by a 2014 bond issue, the first laptops were handed out to teachers over the weekend as Norman Public Schools begins to implement its one-to-one program.
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
Four schools in Pulaski County Special School District seek 'innovation' status | Arkansas Online →
"Blended learning, mastery of content, adaptive technology, content aligned to Arkansas standards, and school-to-career connections are among the terms used to describe the Pulaski County Special district's school of innovation model." But, wait, there's more...
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
I Took the AI Class Facebookers Are Literally Sprinting to Get Into | Wired →
Facebook is now organizing formal classes and longterm research internships in an effort to build new deep learning talent and spread it across the company.
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
Deleting data like ‘book burning’ | InnovationsAus.com →
It's a challenge: “We can’t access data for health or education purposes, due to regulation intended to protect us, the sources of that data. And yet survey after survey says that we expect that this data is being used to obtain medical or educational breakthroughs.”
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
Hackathon aims to improve Boston school bus times | The Boston Globe →
The problem: getting about 30,000 students who are assigned to ride 642 school buses to and from school — on time — each day in a city with notoriously congested streets. The solution: to be determined.
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
Guppy A WYSIWYG Mathematics Editor →
Enter mathematical expressions. Click the buttons to render the expression in various plaintext formats. Seems like it could be useful
Tagged on: March 26, 2017
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