Here’s what caught my eye this past 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 19 Edition)
"Facebook, Inc. should immediately release all documents describing how it collected and analyzed psychological information it recently collected about its youngest users, some as young as 14, and college students, Public Citizen and a coalition of 26 groups said in a letter to the corporation today."
Tagged on: May 14, 2017
The Hard Truths and False Starts About Edtech Efficacy Research | EdSurge News →
We can't and won’t make progress on building a knowledge base about edtech evidence, efficacy, and effectiveness until we know how and why these tools work.
Tagged on: May 14, 2017
Inside Microsoft's AI ambitions | Mashable →
When AI is influencing user interactions and choices in Office, this could (will) have massive implications for education and student learning.
Tagged on: May 14, 2017
Gov. Mary Fallin signs digital learning legislation into law | Altus Times →
"Republican Governor Mary Fallin recently signed HB 1576 — digital learning legislation, into law."
Tagged on: May 13, 2017
Online Exam Proctoring Catches Cheaters, Raises Concerns | Inside HigherEducation →
"Some Texas Tech test takers were asked by live proctors to remove pictures from their surroundings and some minority students were told to shine more light on themselves."
Tagged on: May 12, 2017
More kids could go to school online under Texas bills to expand virtual learning | DallasNews →
"Texas could greatly expand the reach of virtual charter schools even after the digital campuses have faltered across the state and nation."
Tagged on: May 12, 2017
Tracking of Teachers and Students in Edmodo | FunnyMonkey →
"As documented in this post, the presence of ad trackers for both teachers and students can be observed when we inspect traffic via an intercepting proxy."
Tagged on: May 12, 2017
How Google Took Over the Classroom | New York Times →
"The tech giant is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps. But schools may be giving Google more than they are getting." If you read one story about the state of technology in U.S. K-12 schools, let this be the one. Pleased to be able to share my perspective in the piece and very interested to see the rest of this series.
Tagged on: May 12, 2017
Broken Technology Hurts Democracy | The Atlantic →
"We can help improve our democratic processes by using technology to improve schools. I don’t mean that we should put iPads into every school, or give every child a laptop. I mean something more fundamental: We should use technology to make sure every public school in America has all of the books, supplies, and learning materials that they need."
Tagged on: May 11, 2017
Congressional and tech leaders convene at Stanford for educational roundtable | The Dish →
"Congressional representatives from around the country gathered at Stanford Graduate School of Education this week for a meeting with a small group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Stanford faculty, where they talked about the future of educational technology and its role in sustaining a vital American workforce."
Tagged on: May 11, 2017
Hacker Steals Millions of User Account Details from Education Platform Edmodo | Motherboard →
"A hacker has stolen millions of user account details from popular education platform Edmodo, and the data is apparently for sale on the so-called dark web."
Tagged on: May 11, 2017
"The company...announced the launch of its own streaming stick, called the PBS KIDS Plug & Play, which delivers a combination of on-demand video, sing-alongs, and games, as well as access to the PBS KIDS’ live stream when connected to Wi-Fi."
Tagged on: May 10, 2017
Tech’s Frightful Five: They’ve Got Us | New York Times →
"This is the most glaring and underappreciated fact of internet-age capitalism: We are, all of us, in inescapable thrall to one of the handful of American technology companies that now dominate much of the global economy. I speak, of course, of my old friends the Frightful Five: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google."
Tagged on: May 9, 2017
Google Is as Close to a Natural Monopoly as the Bell System Was in 1956 | ProMarket →
"The rise of digital platforms has had profound political, economic, and social effects, not least of which on the creators of content. While the internet brought immense benefits to consumers of content, the so-called “creative class”—authors, journalists, filmmakers, musicians, artists—has been particularly ravaged by the digital economy."
Tagged on: May 9, 2017
Pared down school websites re-launched | Richmond-Times Dispatch →
"The various websites run by Powhatan County Public Schools have been successfully re-launched following an investigation by the Office for Civil Rights, but what is left is far less than what school staff wanted."
Tagged on: May 9, 2017
Insights into the current status, issues, and funding of the Missouri Virtual Instruction Program, founded in 2007.
Tagged on: May 9, 2017
Heart rate monitor grades students’ activity | Fort Madison Daily Democrat →
"The software allows the teachers to collect information about the fitness level of each individual student."
Tagged on: May 9, 2017
Intel's AMT Flaw: Worse Than Feared | BankInfo Security →
The critical Active Management Technology - AMT - flaw present on many Intel chips since 2010 is worse than feared, security researchers warn. In particular, the flaw can be easily exploited to allow a remote attacker to take control of vulnerable systems without even having to enter a password.
Tagged on: May 9, 2017
How Privacy Became a Commodity for the Rich and Powerful | New York Times →
"We’ve arrived at a place where public institutions and figures can be precious about their privacy in ways we’re continually deciding individual people can’t." That's a problem.
Tagged on: May 8, 2017
The ‘S’ in Smart Cities really stands for ‘Surveillance’ | Discours.es →
Doug Belshaw has found perhaps the creepiest vision of the future of surveillance I've yet seen, courtesy of NVIDIA. Worth the 2 minutes of your time to watch the video and decide for yourself.
Tagged on: May 8, 2017
Department of Education Announces Five Finalists in EdSim Challenge | U.S. Department of Education →
Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced the five finalists in the EdSim Challenge, a competition to design the next-generation of computer simulations that strengthen career and technical education.
Tagged on: May 8, 2017
"If you took a math class at some point in the US, there is likely a bulky $100 calculator gathering dust somewhere in your closet." I say, good riddance.
Tagged on: May 8, 2017
U of Georgia adopts iris recognition for hands-free authentication | Inside HigherEd →
"Such a system could be beneficial from a marketing perspective, Miller said, since it would enable a college to send students targeted information based on their behavior rather than blanket the campus with emails. Of course, that data would be also highly attractive to companies looking to sell products or services based on student behavior. While the capability to collect data from facilities all across campus is still far from becoming reality, the university is already stressing it has 'no plans' to sell data."
Tagged on: May 8, 2017
"Four Madison public schools are blocking student access (over WiFi) to a host of popular social media apps during the school day to test whether student behavior, school safety and grades improve with fewer online distractions."
Tagged on: May 7, 2017
A Taxpayer-Supported Version of Facebook | The Atlantic →
"We might well end up hating it. But we probably need it. And, either way, the stakes are too high not to attempt to find out."
Tagged on: May 6, 2017
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