Dear colleagues,

(Apologies for cross posting... )

The paper submission deadline for the ICCE 2011 International Workshop on "Real
Education in Virtual Worlds" has been extended to September 20, 2011. As
previously announced, the Workshop will held in conjunction with The 19th
International Conference on Computers in Education
(http://www.nectec.or.th/icce2011/), which will take place in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, from November 28 to December 2, 2011.

Once again, the Call for Papers for the Workshop is available at the following
URL:

http://bit.ly/pTVm3c

Authors of the best papers presented at the Workshop will be invited to submit
revised and expanded versions of their papers for inclusion in a special issue
of the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments
(IJVPLE - http://www.igi-global.com/bookstore/titledetails.aspx?titleid=1134) to
be published next year. They will have until November 12, 2011 to do this.

The separate Call for Articles for the Special Issue is available at the
following URL:

http://bit.ly/oudZuf

As indicated in the Special Issue Call, prospective authors wishing to
contribute to the Special Issue are strongly encouraged to attend and present at
the Workshop, but those who are unable to do so may still submit manuscripts for
consideration by the Guest Editors. The deadline for this is October 10, 2011.
It should be noted, however, that in the event that more manuscripts are deemed
to be suitable for publication than are able to be included in the special
issue, preference will be given to those submitted by authors who are presenters
at the Workshop. The remaining manuscripts will be recommended to the
Editor-in-Chief for publication in a regular issue of the journal.

All inquiries and submissions should be should be directed to the attention of
Prof. Yu-Ju Lan (yujulan@...), who is both the Chair of the ICCE Workshop
and the Lead Guest Editor of the IJVPLE Special Issue.


Kind regards,


---
Mark J.W. Lee
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Charles Sturt University
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Distance Education Hub (DEHub) Research Institute,
University of New England
Honorary Research Fellow, Graduate School of IT and Mathematical Sciences,
University of Ballarat
AUSTRALIA

Charles Sturt University

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You can help young Australians to go to University and succeed in their studies
by giving generously to the Charles Sturt University Foundation. To find out
more or to make a donation go to the Foundation web site
http://www.csu.edu.au/special/foundation. Australian donations are tax
deductible.

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Consider the environment before printing this email.

NSF ITEST Learning Resource Center at Education Development Center, Inc.
Web: http://itestlrc.edc.org | Facebook:
http://go.edc.org/Facebook-National-ITEST-STEM-LRC


STEM Careers Quarterly Webinar Series
Event 2: Bioscience Careers


Tuesday, September 20, 2011 – 3:00 – 4:00 ET


The ITEST National STEM Learning Exchange, in partnership with ITEST PIs and
STEM professionals who work with ITEST projects, hosts a quarterly public
webinar series designed to provide guidance counselors and educators with
resources and strategies to increase student awareness of STEM career
opportunities. The series features STEM professionals speaking about their
fields of expertise, how they became interested in this career, and how
theirwork contributes positively to society. The session will include
recommendations for transferring these learnings to increase students’
engagement and motivation in STEM learning.

The webinars will be archived for future access, and topics will include the
four major areas of ITEST program content focus: Bioscience, Computer Science,
Engineering, and Environmental Science.

EVENT #2: Bioscience Careers: hosted by Jeanne Chowning, Principal Investigator,
Bio-ITEST project and guest scientists.

Register
http://learningtimesevents.org/itest/
Access information and a reminder will be emailed, closer to the event.
Feel free to share this information with your colleagues.
View the archives. If you have questions, please contact us.

About ITEST
The ITEST program was established by the National Science Foundation in direct
response to current concerns and projections about the growing demand for and
current shortages of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
professionals in the U.S. and seeks solutions to help ensure the breadth and
depth of the STEM workforce.   Learn more about the program at
http://itestlrc.edc.org/about-itest-lrc






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

DIVERSITY FACTS
HTTP://DIVERSITYINC.COM/TOPIC/DIVERSITY-FACTS/

Diversity facts provide summaries of diversity data, statistics and trends about
traditionally underrepresented groups, including Blacks, Latinos, Asians,
American Indians, women, people with disabilities, veterans, and lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
Diversity facts help companies stay on top of the latest numbers about diversity
in the workplace, spending patterns, demographic changes, lawsuits, corporate
governance and much more. These facts are excellent for use in diversity
presentations, diversity training and diversity-management reports. They can
also be very useful for diversity and/or multicultural marketing.
Below is just a small sampling of diversity facts:
Did You Know That …

Nearly 11 percent of the white population doesn't have health insurance versus
19.1 percent for Blacks, 30.7 percent for Latinos, 17.6 percent for Asians and
31.7 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Disability

Over a 12-year period—from 1995 to 2007—the purchasing power of people with
disabilities increased by 26 percent, the equivalent of $45 billion.
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

In August 2009, the unemployment rate of people with a disability was 16.9
percent, compared with 9.3 percent for people with no ADA-defined disability.
(Source: Department of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Latinos

From 1990 to 2013, Latino purchasing power is projected to grow by 560 percent,
while white purchasing power during the same period is only projected to grow by
211 percent.
(Source: Selig Center for Economic Growth)

Between 2005 and 2016, college enrollment for U.S. Latinos is expected to
increase by 45 percent, compared with 17 percent for the general population.
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Or That …
Women

Approximately 2.4 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, up from 0.6 percent in
2000.
(Source: Fortune)

Twenty percent of the highest-paid employees at Fortune 500 companies are women.
(Source: Catalyst)

Veterans

Six million veterans have disabilities, including loss of hearing and
hypertension.
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Since the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, 9,100 veterans have been diagnosed with
traumatic brain injuries.
(Source: U.S. Pentagon)

And That …
LGBTs

About 78 percent of LGBT people and their friends and relatives would switch
brands to companies that are known as being LGBT-friendly.
(Witeck-Combs/Harris Interactive)

Ninety-eight percent of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity have
LGBT employee-resource groups versus 30 percent five years ago.
(DiversityIncBestPractices.com)

Blacks

From 1990 to 2007, the nation's Black population increased by 27 percent,
compared with 15 percent for the white population and 21 percent for the total
population.
(Sources: American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau)

In 2007, the Black share of total buying power was 8.4 percent, up from 7.4
percent in 1990. This was expected to rise to 8.7 percent by 2012, which
accounts for nine cents out of every dollar spent nationwide.
(Source: Selig Center for Economic Growth)








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/09/education-technology-is-an-enabler-not-a-m\
agic-wand/

Education Technology Is An Enabler, Not A Magic Wand
by K. WALSH on SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

NY Times Article Calls Attention To The Need To Do A Much Better Job Of
Understanding Technology’s Role And Potential In Education.
This NY Times Internet article, “In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores”
has been getting a lot of attention this week. The article discusses a U.S.
school district that invested roughly $33 million in education technologies as a
result of a ballot initiative in 2005. The focus of the article’s first page
or so is that reading and math test scores have stagnated in the district, while
at the same time they improved statewide (in all the other districts, where
there was no infusion of technology dollars). It is easy to read this as an
inference that technology does not improve the quality of the education.
Based on the headline, or a brief look at some of the Internet commentary
circulating about the article, many readers may come to the conclusion that it
is a categorical defamation of the ed tech movement. It is not.  The article
goes on to provide a lot of insights and relevant facts for consideration when
pondering the issue of whether or not technology can improve education. It is
very much worth the read if this is a topic you are interested in. It is proper
to question the value and return of these large investments.
Computer technology is not a magic wand. This perception, while it may sound
rather absurd when stated so plainly, has been a thorn in the side of technology
managers for decades. Employees and managers of organizations and institutions
of all types and sizes seem to think that throwing technology at business
problems instantly improves efficiencies and yields myriad other benefits.
Technology is a tool, a potentially powerful enabler, and with proper planning
and implementation it can produce many benefits, but it does in fact require
planning, and so much more, in order to make the investment pay off.
The potential of education technology is still so far from being realized, and
too often dollars are spent without proper oversight and planning. Many
technologists and educators will welcome and applaud these types of
thought-provoking news pieces on education technology. Hopefully people who come
across the article will give it more than just a brief scan, and look beyond the
provocative title and introductory paragraphs. It would be nice to think that
the impact of Mr. Richtel’s piece will be more positive than negative, and
that it will help to open some eyes and minds to a closer look at this
unrealized potential.
Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these
out):
Let’s stop misspending education technology dollars
8 Great TED Talks About The Future Of Education And Teaching
Check out the (Education) Reform Library from The Foundation for Excellence in
Education








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://www.digitalliteracy.gov/back-to-school


As a group, an estimated 209 million Americans—about 72 percent of all adults
and children ages three years and older—use the Internet somewhere, whether it
be at home, the workplace, school, or at a library.1 As the summer comes to an
end and students go back to school, DigitalLiteracy.gov will feature resources
that promote respectful, responsible, and safe online behavior – commonly
referred to as digital citizenship.
Check out some of the resources below to learn more about digital citizenship:

The FTC's Living Life Online Report
Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship Curriculum
WebWiseKids' Tech Safety Checklist
The Big Help Digital Citizen Hub









[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150352893221311


Back to school - what should you be thinking about?


by Parry Aftab on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 11:52am



Milk forms, pencil cases (do they even have them anymore? :-)), backpacks,
laptops, iPads, mobile phones, the "in" clothing, the latest loves, hates and
crushes...it's back to school in North America. And parents are thinking about
everything they need ot do to get their kids in school, learning and safe.

I will be publishing a series of blogs for parents on what they need to know.
Simple themed tips to help you get through this in one piece.

Let's start with an easy one, cell phones:

Most schools have official or unofficial policies about cell phones on campus.
Find out what they are. If the school doesn't permit cell phones in classrooms,
don't think that a note from you will suffice to change this policy. Nor should
it.

Cell phones don't belong in the classroom unless the teacher has a project
designed to use them. They are distracting. They facilitate cheating on tests
(the students take a pic of the test and text it to someone in the hall for
answers). They waste time. They can be used to hurt other students or allow them
to hurt your child.

If the school allows cell phones in lockers, support the rule. Remind your child
that you control the cell phone and if they violate school policy with it, they
lose it.

Show restraint. I know you would like to be able to reach your child whenever
you want, fo any and all reasons, or sometimes no reason at all. But they are in
school. If it's important, call the school office and ask your child to call
you. If it's an emergency, do the same. If it's to send a message, the office
works pretty well too.

Treat text like a call. If they are supposed to use the cell phone, it means
text as well as calling. Don't encourage them to violate the policies, and don't
allow them to violate it on their own.

Get their cell phone insured. They lose it, drop it into puddles and wash their
jeans with the cell phone in the pocket. They are stolen, dropped under the bus
and tossed like frisbies. It's worth the small insurance charge. It may also be
insured already under your homeowners' insurance or with a gold or platinum
credit card purchase.

The GPS is more valuable to find a missing phone (where they left it) than to
find a missing child. But it can do both, easily.

Limit their ability to spend money with the phone on apps, games and offline
items.

Know your plan, with free calling hours, numbers of texts and anything else that
can sneak up on you.

Check their photos, videos and downloads often. Sexting is a serious and growing
problem and an image of a classmate naked can result in serious sex offender
criminal charges.

and finally remember one thing - you are the parent!
if all else fails - tell them to do it becasue you said so! :-)

Heck, it even sometimes worked for our parents. lol

Parry











[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2011/09/dumbest_generation_author_mark.p\
hp


Dumbest Generation's Mark Bauerlein Berates Baby Boomers and Text-Obsessed Teens


By Dean Schaffer Fri., Sep. 9 2011 at 8:30 AM

Categories: Books and Literature

Share






0
digg






​Mark Bauerlein is an English professor at Emory, and he speaks like one --
calmly and confidently, like conversation is just another lecture on late
Romantic poetry. In his 2008 bestseller The Dumbest Generation, Bauerlein made a
name for himself by arguing that "the digital age stupefies young Americans and
jeopardizes our future," as he says.

His new book, The Digital Divide, debuted this week and places Internet
optimists and pessimists from the past 15 years in a conversation about how the
web affects society. As editor, he wanted to "give a little mini-history, a
series of statements about digital technology and social networking, and deliver
it to people so they can read what the most trenchant and powerful voices have
said on both sides of the issue."
We recently spoke with Bauerlein about his books and who's to blame for this
whole Internet thing.





Lillian Askins

​What do you see as the worst consequence of the Internet?
What I find most worrisome are the cases in which we see not extreme or overtly
damaging things but the more subtle changes taking place. For instance, the
number of texts that a 17-year-old with a cell phone makes -- about 3,500 a
month, sending or receiving. Now, maybe there's nothing wrong with that, but
when you look at the "opportunity cost" -- or, when they do all that texting,
what are they not doing?

This is where I agree with the traditionalist, or maybe the curmudgeonly,
approach -- we're losing the reading of books, we're losing intellectual
activities that might support a more mature individual, a more knowledgeable
citizen, a more discerning consumer. The more time you spend on these tools
contacting your friends -- and let's face it, that's what the tools mean most of
all to teenagers, contact with other teenagers -- the less they're going to pay
attention to domestic affairs, to world affairs, to the fine arts, to history,
to politics. We are losing the intellectual and civic awareness of young people.
The more time they spend talking with one another, taking pictures of one
another, blogging about their own social experiences and their boyfriends and
girlfriends and so on, the less they are growing up. One of the worst things
that these tools do is extend social life into a 24/7 activity. This is
something that pulls them away from their encounter with grown-up culture, adult
issues, and intellectual life.
Do you see socializing as inherently juvenile behavior that counteracts mature
engagement in society?
Adolescent socializing is adolescent. It is anti-intellectual. This is the
general cultural point for me. This is a premise: Youth culture is
anti-intellectual. Youth culture does not favor historical knowledge. Youth
culture does not welcome eloquent speech. Youth culture does not accept a
16-year-old who gets on the school bus in the morning and says, "Hey, did you
guys read that op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning on school
funding?" No, the other kids will look at that person and say, "What kind of
weirdo is this?"
We need to have vertical role modeling -- young people relating to older people
and learning how to behave. It could be parents, aunts and uncles, older
siblings, teachers, ministers -- people who display adult characteristics that
provide a counterweight to peer pressure, peer absorption. Peer pressure is
excruciatingly powerful to young people. Even if they hate it, they can't get
out of it. Life is a matter of trying to wear the right clothes and have the
right hair and know the right songs and not have blemishes on your nose. It's a
deeply insecure period of time, and if they're going without a reprieve from
youth culture, from peer pressure, then they're stuck in this youth culture, and
it holds them back. You can't grow up if you're only relating to people your own
age. You need to get out of that network.
What separates you from finger-wagging adults 40 years ago?
Look: Older generations have been complaining about younger generations ever
since caveman times, no doubt. What makes this not just grumpiness and
complaining? In The Dumbest Generation, I focus on the intellectual attributes
of young people. Young people have many strong measures -- they're going to
college in bigger numbers than ever, they're taking AP courses like crazy, they
have professional ambitions, they get along with their parents and other
authority figures better than they did in the 1960s. So we have to appreciate a
lot of positive movement for young people.
But here is the difference, and here's where I turn the blame. Whose fault is it
that 17-year-olds don't have enough appreciation of civic awareness? It's my
generation's fault. It's the baby boomers' fault. We have not played our proper
role as the stern elders. Too many people my age just don't like the idea of
criticizing young people for their cultural values and their leisure choices.
They feel uncomfortable with that.
For one thing, when they were that age, they got mad at the old people, the
establishment, and the last thing they want to do is grow into conservative,
grumpy old people complaining about the young. The problem is that this makes
them avoid their responsibility for criticizing young people. This is part of
our job as older people, to remind 17-year-olds, "Look, a lot of things happened
before you got your driver's license. There are more important heroes in the
world than Mr. and Mrs. Popular in high school. You've got to realize that what
happens in your social life really isn't of very much importance to anybody
else. Get over your narcissism." That's what we're supposed to do. That helps
young people grow up.
Something happened with the baby boomers, with my generation -- we started
indulging youth. We regarded youth itself as having some kind of integrity. We
started saying things like "Don't trust anyone over 30." We haven't been
critical enough of the young. It is right for old people to criticize the young,
and it is also right for the young to resent it and argue back. I would never
say, "Well the young should just shut their mouths and be obedient." No no. They
need to argue back. They need to say, "You're wrong, you're getting too
narrow-minded, your ideas are too caught in the past, and here's why." And
ideally we have a critical exchange. We have an engagement in which both sides
argue against one another. And out of that process, young people mature. They
grow, they develop.
I wrote this harsh book. The best thing that can happen is for young people to
grow up and prove every negative judgment in that book flat wrong. I do not want
to be right about this. This book is really a provocation, and the provocation
works by making young people write e-mails to me. I write back, and we go back
and forth, and I have to say at one point, "Okay, you got me there, I concede,
you're right." That is the ideal solution here. So I'm hoping that this isn't
just a rant by an old guy but instead is a challenge that young people take up
and overcome.
Have you seen young people answering your challenge?
I've gotten more than 1,000 e-mails from young people over the years. Sometimes
they begin with some four-letter words and various insults, but I respond to
every one. When I do respond, it's interesting how the tone changes. They don't
give up on their contentions, but suddenly they feel like, "Well, this is a
genuine exchange, and this is someone who's going to listen to me. He may not
agree with me, but he will listen to me and respond." And I hope they come out
of that with a more seasoned forensic, that they've learned something.
In the education world, the ideology is "Let's be supportive, let's be
child-centered." And sometimes encouragement and support are the best way to go.
Other times, we do need a hard edge. It's a judgment call for a teacher. You
look at the student and what the student needs, and you make yourself available
for that student, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be critical, that you
shouldn't be tough. And from what I see, we don't have nearly enough of the hard
approach.
Follow us on Twitter at @ExhibitionistSF and like us on Facebook.

Tags:
books, Digital Divide, Dumbest Generation, Internet, Mark Bauerlein,technology





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Another article you might find interesting.......






Sent: Sun, Sep 11, 2011 6:10 am
Subject: [WWWEDU] Dumbest Generation's Mark Bauerlein Berates Baby Boomers and
Text-Obsessed Teens





http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2011/09/dumbest_generation_author_mark.p\
hp

Dumbest Generation's Mark Bauerlein Berates Baby Boomers and Text-Obsessed Teens

By Dean Schaffer Fri., Sep. 9 2011 at 8:30 AM

Categories: Books and Literature

Share

0
digg

​Mark Bauerlein is an English professor at Emory, and he speaks like one --
calmly and confidently, like conversation is just another lecture on late
Romantic poetry. In his 2008 bestseller The Dumbest Generation, Bauerlein made a
name for himself by arguing that "the digital age stupefies young Americans and
jeopardizes our future," as he says.

His new book, The Digital Divide, debuted this week and places Internet
optimists and pessimists from the past 15 years in a conversation about how the
web affects society. As editor, he wanted to "give a little mini-history, a
series of statements about digital technology and social networking, and deliver
it to people so they can read what the most trenchant and powerful voices have
said on both sides of the issue."
We recently spoke with Bauerlein about his books and who's to blame for this
whole Internet thing.

Lillian Askins

​What do you see as the worst consequence of the Internet?

What I find most worrisome are the cases in which we see not extreme or overtly
damaging things but the more subtle changes taking place. For instance, the
number of texts that a 17-year-old with a cell phone makes -- about 3,500 a
month, sending or receiving. Now, maybe there's nothing wrong with that, but
when you look at the "opportunity cost" -- or, when they do all that texting,
what are they not doing?

This is where I agree with the traditionalist, or maybe the curmudgeonly,
approach -- we're losing the reading of books, we're losing intellectual
activities that might support a more mature individual, a more knowledgeable
citizen, a more discerning consumer. The more time you spend on these tools
contacting your friends -- and let's face it, that's what the tools mean most of
all to teenagers, contact with other teenagers -- the less they're going to pay
attention to domestic affairs, to world affairs, to the fine arts, to history,
to politics. We are losing the intellectual and civic awareness of young people.
The more time they spend talking with one another, taking pictures of one
another, blogging about their own social experiences and their boyfriends and
girlfriends and so on, the less they are growing up. One of the worst things
that these tools do is extend social life into a 24/7 activity. This is
something that pulls them away from their encounter with grown-up culture, adult
issues, and intellectual life.

Do you see socializing as inherently juvenile behavior that counteracts mature
engagement in society?

Adolescent socializing is adolescent. It is anti-intellectual. This is the
general cultural point for me. This is a premise: Youth culture is
anti-intellectual. Youth culture does not favor historical knowledge. Youth
culture does not welcome eloquent speech. Youth culture does not accept a
16-year-old who gets on the school bus in the morning and says, "Hey, did you
guys read that op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning on school
funding?" No, the other kids will look at that person and say, "What kind of
weirdo is this?"
We need to have vertical role modeling -- young people relating to older people
and learning how to behave. It could be parents, aunts and uncles, older
siblings, teachers, ministers -- people who display adult characteristics that
provide a counterweight to peer pressure, peer absorption. Peer pressure is
excruciatingly powerful to young people. Even if they hate it, they can't get
out of it. Life is a matter of trying to wear the right clothes and have the
right hair and know the right songs and not have blemishes on your nose. It's a
deeply insecure period of time, and if they're going without a reprieve from
youth culture, from peer pressure, then they're stuck in this youth culture, and
it holds them back. You can't grow up if you're only relating to people your own
age. You need to get out of that network.

What separates you from finger-wagging adults 40 years ago?

Look: Older generations have been complaining about younger generations ever
since caveman times, no doubt. What makes this not just grumpiness and
complaining? In The Dumbest Generation, I focus on the intellectual attributes
of young people. Young people have many strong measures -- they're going to
college in bigger numbers than ever, they're taking AP courses like crazy, they
have professional ambitions, they get along with their parents and other
authority figures better than they did in the 1960s. So we have to appreciate a
lot of positive movement for young people.
But here is the difference, and here's where I turn the blame. Whose fault is it
that 17-year-olds don't have enough appreciation of civic awareness? It's my
generation's fault. It's the baby boomers' fault. We have not played our proper
role as the stern elders. Too many people my age just don't like the idea of
criticizing young people for their cultural values and their leisure choices.
They feel uncomfortable with that.
For one thing, when they were that age, they got mad at the old people, the
establishment, and the last thing they want to do is grow into conservative,
grumpy old people complaining about the young. The problem is that this makes
them avoid their responsibility for criticizing young people. This is part of
our job as older people, to remind 17-year-olds, "Look, a lot of things happened
before you got your driver's license. There are more important heroes in the
world than Mr. and Mrs. Popular in high school. You've got to realize that what
happens in your social life really isn't of very much importance to anybody
else. Get over your narcissism." That's what we're supposed to do. That helps
young people grow up.
Something happened with the baby boomers, with my generation -- we started
indulging youth. We regarded youth itself as having some kind of integrity. We
started saying things like "Don't trust anyone over 30." We haven't been
critical enough of the young. It is right for old people to criticize the young,
and it is also right for the young to resent it and argue back. I would never
say, "Well the young should just shut their mouths and be obedient." No no. They
need to argue back. They need to say, "You're wrong, you're getting too
narrow-minded, your ideas are too caught in the past, and here's why." And
ideally we have a critical exchange. We have an engagement in which both sides
argue against one another. And out of that process, young people mature. They
grow, they develop.
I wrote this harsh book. The best thing that can happen is for young people to
grow up and prove every negative judgment in that book flat wrong. I do not want
to be right about this. This book is really a provocation, and the provocation
works by making young people write e-mails to me. I write back, and we go back
and forth, and I have to say at one point, "Okay, you got me there, I concede,
you're right." That is the ideal solution here. So I'm hoping that this isn't
just a rant by an old guy but instead is a challenge that young people take up
and overcome.

Have you seen young people answering your challenge?

I've gotten more than 1,000 e-mails from young people over the years. Sometimes
they begin with some four-letter words and various insults, but I respond to
every one. When I do respond, it's interesting how the tone changes. They don't
give up on their contentions, but suddenly they feel like, "Well, this is a
genuine exchange, and this is someone who's going to listen to me. He may not
agree with me, but he will listen to me and respond." And I hope they come out
of that with a more seasoned forensic, that they've learned something.
In the education world, the ideology is "Let's be supportive, let's be
child-centered." And sometimes encouragement and support are the best way to go.
Other times, we do need a hard edge. It's a judgment call for a teacher. You
look at the student and what the student needs, and you make yourself available
for that student, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be critical, that you
shouldn't be tough. And from what I see, we don't have nearly enough of the hard
approach.






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

sorry..... I was trying to send to a friend.





-----Original Message-----
From: KColvin2c <KColvin2c@...>
To: wwwedu <wwwedu@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Sep 11, 2011 11:54 am
Subject: Re: [WWWEDU] Dumbest Generation's Mark Bauerlein Berates Baby Boomers
and Text-Obsessed Teens




Another article you might find interesting.......

Sent: Sun, Sep 11, 2011 6:10 am
Subject: [WWWEDU] Dumbest Generation's Mark Bauerlein Berates Baby Boomers and
Text-Obsessed Teens

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2011/09/dumbest_generation_author_mark.p\
hp

Dumbest Generation's Mark Bauerlein Berates Baby Boomers and Text-Obsessed Teens

By Dean Schaffer Fri., Sep. 9 2011 at 8:30 AM

Categories: Books and Literature

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​Mark Bauerlein is an English professor at Emory, and he speaks like one --
calmly and confidently, like conversation is just another lecture on late
Romantic poetry. In his 2008 bestseller The Dumbest Generation, Bauerlein made a
name for himself by arguing that "the digital age stupefies young Americans and
jeopardizes our future," as he says.

His new book, The Digital Divide, debuted this week and places Internet
optimists and pessimists from the past 15 years in a conversation about how the
web affects society. As editor, he wanted to "give a little mini-history, a
series of statements about digital technology and social networking, and deliver
it to people so they can read what the most trenchant and powerful voices have
said on both sides of the issue."
We recently spoke with Bauerlein about his books and who's to blame for this
whole Internet thing.

Lillian Askins

​What do you see as the worst consequence of the Internet?

What I find most worrisome are the cases in which we see not extreme or overtly
damaging things but the more subtle changes taking place. For instance, the
number of texts that a 17-year-old with a cell phone makes -- about 3,500 a
month, sending or receiving. Now, maybe there's nothing wrong with that, but
when you look at the "opportunity cost" -- or, when they do all that texting,
what are they not doing?

This is where I agree with the traditionalist, or maybe the curmudgeonly,
approach -- we're losing the reading of books, we're losing intellectual
activities that might support a more mature individual, a more knowledgeable
citizen, a more discerning consumer. The more time you spend on these tools
contacting your friends -- and let's face it, that's what the tools mean most of
all to teenagers, contact with other teenagers -- the less they're going to pay
attention to domestic affairs, to world affairs, to the fine arts, to history,
to politics. We are losing the intellectual and civic awareness of young people.
The more time they spend talking with one another, taking pictures of one
another, blogging about their own social experiences and their boyfriends and
girlfriends and so on, the less they are growing up. One of the worst things
that these tools do is extend social life into a 24/7 activity. This is
something that pulls them away from their encounter with grown-up culture, adult
issues, and intellectual life.

Do you see socializing as inherently juvenile behavior that counteracts mature
engagement in society?

Adolescent socializing is adolescent. It is anti-intellectual. This is the
general cultural point for me. This is a premise: Youth culture is
anti-intellectual. Youth culture does not favor historical knowledge. Youth
culture does not welcome eloquent speech. Youth culture does not accept a
16-year-old who gets on the school bus in the morning and says, "Hey, did you
guys read that op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning on school
funding?" No, the other kids will look at that person and say, "What kind of
weirdo is this?"
We need to have vertical role modeling -- young people relating to older people
and learning how to behave. It could be parents, aunts and uncles, older
siblings, teachers, ministers -- people who display adult characteristics that
provide a counterweight to peer pressure, peer absorption. Peer pressure is
excruciatingly powerful to young people. Even if they hate it, they can't get
out of it. Life is a matter of trying to wear the right clothes and have the
right hair and know the right songs and not have blemishes on your nose. It's a
deeply insecure period of time, and if they're going without a reprieve from
youth culture, from peer pressure, then they're stuck in this youth culture, and
it holds them back. You can't grow up if you're only relating to people your own
age. You need to get out of that network.

What separates you from finger-wagging adults 40 years ago?

Look: Older generations have been complaining about younger generations ever
since caveman times, no doubt. What makes this not just grumpiness and
complaining? In The Dumbest Generation, I focus on the intellectual attributes
of young people. Young people have many strong measures -- they're going to
college in bigger numbers than ever, they're taking AP courses like crazy, they
have professional ambitions, they get along with their parents and other
authority figures better than they did in the 1960s. So we have to appreciate a
lot of positive movement for young people.
But here is the difference, and here's where I turn the blame. Whose fault is it
that 17-year-olds don't have enough appreciation of civic awareness? It's my
generation's fault. It's the baby boomers' fault. We have not played our proper
role as the stern elders. Too many people my age just don't like the idea of
criticizing young people for their cultural values and their leisure choices.
They feel uncomfortable with that.
For one thing, when they were that age, they got mad at the old people, the
establishment, and the last thing they want to do is grow into conservative,
grumpy old people complaining about the young. The problem is that this makes
them avoid their responsibility for criticizing young people. This is part of
our job as older people, to remind 17-year-olds, "Look, a lot of things happened
before you got your driver's license. There are more important heroes in the
world than Mr. and Mrs. Popular in high school. You've got to realize that what
happens in your social life really isn't of very much importance to anybody
else. Get over your narcissism." That's what we're supposed to do. That helps
young people grow up.
Something happened with the baby boomers, with my generation -- we started
indulging youth. We regarded youth itself as having some kind of integrity. We
started saying things like "Don't trust anyone over 30." We haven't been
critical enough of the young. It is right for old people to criticize the young,
and it is also right for the young to resent it and argue back. I would never
say, "Well the young should just shut their mouths and be obedient." No no. They
need to argue back. They need to say, "You're wrong, you're getting too
narrow-minded, your ideas are too caught in the past, and here's why." And
ideally we have a critical exchange. We have an engagement in which both sides
argue against one another. And out of that process, young people mature. They
grow, they develop.
I wrote this harsh book. The best thing that can happen is for young people to
grow up and prove every negative judgment in that book flat wrong. I do not want
to be right about this. This book is really a provocation, and the provocation
works by making young people write e-mails to me. I write back, and we go back
and forth, and I have to say at one point, "Okay, you got me there, I concede,
you're right." That is the ideal solution here. So I'm hoping that this isn't
just a rant by an old guy but instead is a challenge that young people take up
and overcome.

Have you seen young people answering your challenge?

I've gotten more than 1,000 e-mails from young people over the years. Sometimes
they begin with some four-letter words and various insults, but I respond to
every one. When I do respond, it's interesting how the tone changes. They don't
give up on their contentions, but suddenly they feel like, "Well, this is a
genuine exchange, and this is someone who's going to listen to me. He may not
agree with me, but he will listen to me and respond." And I hope they come out
of that with a more seasoned forensic, that they've learned something.
In the education world, the ideology is "Let's be supportive, let's be
child-centered." And sometimes encouragement and support are the best way to go.
Other times, we do need a hard edge. It's a judgment call for a teacher. You
look at the student and what the student needs, and you make yourself available
for that student, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be critical, that you
shouldn't be tough. And from what I see, we don't have nearly enough of the hard
approach.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Literacy, ELL Students Can Create Daily Comix Diaries to Show What They Learn

Dear colleagues,

If you're looking for an exciting new literacy activity for the new school year
why not start a daily 20-minute comic strip segment during which your students
create a comic diary about something they learned or read or experienced that
day?   Creating such daily comix diaries provides a way for students to digest
and integrate key material that they are taught as well as to reflect on their
lives and experiences. And what better way for all students, including English
Language Learners, to improve writing, reading and storytelling skills!

To help educators, MakeBeliefsComix.com, the free online comic strip generator,
has launched a Daily Comix Diary Page offering many ideas at
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Daily-Comix-Diary/
Students can also draw their own comics with pencil or crayons and use stick
figures or  pictures cut from magazines.  By making their own comic strips,
students will realize that they can create stories and make art. They will learn
that they, too, are capable of generating their own learning materials, their
own memoirs, and that their `'take'' on the world is so very special � everyone
sees things differently.

What to draw and write about?
.For starters, why not  have students create autobiographical comic strips about
themselves and their families or summarizing the most important things about
their lives?  Let each student select a cartoon character as a surrogate to
represent him or her. They might  also summarize what their individual interests
are or some key moments in their lives.
.Maybe students create a comic strip with a new ending for a book that they've
read,  or an extension of the story, or a deeper exploration of a character in
the book.
.Maybe theirs is a comic strip using new vocabulary learned that day.
.Maybe their comic is about a concept they learned in science or in social
studies.
.Maybe their comic captures  an interesting conversation they overheard.
.Maybe their comic is about something  sad or bad that happened to them, such as
someone bullying them.  Or about something special,  such as a birthday wish.
.Maybe their comic is about something fun or wonderful that they or a friend
experienced � perhaps an adventure they had. Or, about a great or important
memory they will never forget.
.Maybe their daily comic contains a joke they heard or something funny a parent
said to them recently.
.Maybe they're exploring a problem at home that's bothering them, such as a
sibling who's driving them crazy.
.Maybe their comic strip is a fantasy story that came to their imagination.
.Or, how about creating a political comic strip commenting on some new
development in government or a news event?

Now, imagine the student's comic-filled sketch book or folder containing daily
diary entries created over the course of a year that will trace each  child's
thoughts and learning, that will reflect what was important to her or him.
They'll have composed a comic book diary that they will treasure for the rest of
their lives.

Most important, the 20-minute-a-day daily comix diary challenge offers students
the chance to become creators as they find their voice, rather than just passive
learners. What better gift can you give them?
Sincerely,
Bill Zimmerman,
Creator, MakeBeliefsComix.com
wmz@...

New Ideas to Advance STEM Education in the U.S.
Education, Technology, Innovation, Competitiveness, U.S. Economic Growth


Save


Download Secretary Rebecca Blank's PowerPoint Presentation (PDF)

Print

E-mail

Share



EVENT SUMMARY
To ensure future competitiveness in the era of the innovation economy,
America’s workforce will need to be highly skilled in science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM). Yet U.S. education efforts in these critical areas
lag behind those of other advanced nations.


Event Information

When
Monday, September 12, 2011
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM


Where
Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC
Map

Event Materials

Reuters/Anthony Bolante

Contact: Brookings Office of Communications

Email: events@...

Phone: 202.797.6105



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On September 12, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a
forum about new policy ideas to advance STEM education, workforce training and
student recruitment in the United States. A panel of leaders from academia, the
administration and the private sector, moderated by Darrell West, vice president
and director of Governance Studies, focused particularly on innovative solutions
policymakers should consider and implement. Acting Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Commerce, Rebecca M. Blank, delivered keynote remarks about what
the data shows to better inform STEM policy, including the unveiling of a new
report, Education Supports Racial and Ethnic Equality in STEM.

After the program, panelists took questions




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi All


I'd like to share this article I have just written based on my experiences of
training teachers over the summer.

It outlines a number of digital tools and how I used them within the courses i
was teaching. These tools could easily be used in mainstream teacher training
too, which is part of the point I'm trying to make in the article.

10 Tech Tools for Teacher Training Courses
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2011/09/10-tech-tools-for-teacher-training.html

I hope you find it useful


Best



Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
Teacher Development: http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
News and Tips: http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
Student Activities: http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
On Social media: http://bloggingandsocialmedia.blogspot.com/
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/NikPeachey

I attended this meeting which you can get the resources from




Study: Minorities underrepresented in STEM jobs
By Valerie Strauss

Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks have over the past decade been
underrepresented in U.S. jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering
and math (STEM) in large part because of a lack of equality in educational
opportunity, according to a new report being released today.
The Obama administration has made increasing and improving STEM education a
priority, asserting that the country’s economic future depends on a strong
workforce in these fields.
The report, issued by the Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics
Administration, says that regardless of race and Hispanic origin, higher college
graduation rates are associated with higher shares of workers with STEM jobs.
But, it says, non-Hispanic whites and Asians are much more likely than other
minority groups to have earned a bachelor’s degree, and, in part for this
reason, have a larger share of STEM jobs.
The report, the third in a series on STEM by the administration, suggests that
equality in educational attainment would virtually eliminate demographic
disparities within the STEM workforce.
The first two reports focused on jobs in science, tecnology, engineering and
math, and gender differences within the STEM workforce. They found, among other
things, that :
*Women are vastly underrepresented in STEM jobs and among STEM degree holders,
despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce and half of the
college-educated workforce. Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the
U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs.
*In 2010, there were 7.6 million STEM workers in the United States, representing
about 1 in 18 workers.
*STEM occupations are projected to grow by 17.0 percent from 2008 to 2018,
compared to 9.8 percent growth for non-STEM occupations.
This third report looks at the demographic composition and educational
backgrounds of STEM jobs in the U.S. economy, and it reinforces the importance
of higher education for minorities seeking to attain equality of opportunity in
the workforce.
The report says that 22 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 14 percent of
Hispanics have bachelor's degrees, while 54 percent of Asians and 35 percent of
non-Hispanic whites do, and only 17 percent of American Indiana and Alaskan
Natives do.
Among the other findings, according to a summary of the report, are:
*Seven out of ten STEM workers are Non-Hispanic whites, which aligns closely
with their share of the overall workforce.
*Workers with a bachelor’s degree are significantly more likely than those
without a bachelor’s degree to go into a STEM profession, regardless of race
and Hispanic origin.
*Non-Hispanic Asians are the most likely (42 percent) to graduate college with a
STEM degree.
*Half of all non-Hispanic Asian STEM degree holders go into a STEM job. But the
likelihood is lower — 30 percent — among Hispanics and non-Hispanic Black
and American Indian and Alaska Native workers.
*Sixty-three percent of foreign-born STEM workers come from Asia, with most from
India or China.
*STEM workers in all demographic groups, including the foreign-born, earn more
than their non-STEM counterparts. Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks receive a
significantly larger STEM wage premium than do non-Hispanic Whites.






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello WWWEDU List members and Friends of Bullying.org,

My name is Bill Belsey. I am the founder of Bullying.org and longtime member of
this Yahoo! Group.

Each year, for over a decade, it has cost thousands of dollars to keep
Bullying.org's Websites; http://www.bullying.org, http://www.cyberbullying.ca,
http://www.cyberbullying.org, http://www.bullyingawarenessweek.org and
http://www.bullyingcourse.com online and "Free" to those who may need help,
information and support with regards to bullying.

We make this happen through the sale of our "Stand Up to Bullying!" wristbands,
http://www.bullyingcourse.com course tuitions, speaking engagements and
donations, but it is often not enough.

Bullying.org needs your help... PLEASE!

We are excited to share the news that Luster Premium White has agreed to donate
$1.00 for every new person who clicks "Like" on Facebook at the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/LusterPremiumWhite?sk=app_131273513637494

With a few seconds of your time and the simple click of a mouse, you can help
Bullying.org continue our vision of preventing bullying through education and
awareness.

Please forward and share this message with as many of your own contacts,
networks and Facebook Friends as you can!

Thanking you in advance for your support,

Bill Belsey
President,
Bullying.org
"Where You are NOT Alone!"

Who Needs Parental Controls?
http://www.fosi.org/research/900-who-needs-parental-controls.html







A Survey Of Awareness, Attitudes, And Use Of Online Parental Controls
Findings From A National Survey Among Parents
FOSI believes that a grounding in facts is necessary for proper initiatives,
legislation and development of best practices. For our new research initiatives,
the Institute will be partnering with renowned research groups to obtain
information on the latest trends and behaviors of children online. By doing
this, we hope to achieve a basis of evidence on which further projects will be
based.
The Institute has high hopes for a future in research that will cover a wide
variety of topics, and is thrilled to have worked with Hart Research Associates
on our first piece of data, Who Needs Parental Controls? The project would not
have been possible without the support of its sponsors, AT&T, Google, Microsoft
and Verizon.
Please see below for the Executive Summary and full report, and stay tuned for
upcoming features.




Who Needs Parental Controls, Final Report (PDF)


Who Needs Parental Controls, Executive Summary (PDF)


Using Parental Controls? You're not alone. (Infographic PDF)








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-magid/parents-children-internet-use-_b_96040\
1.html


Survey: Parents Mostly Savvy on Kids Internet Use

Posted: 9/14/11 09:00 AM ET




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For many years I have said that the best way to protect children on the Internet
is to develop the filter that runs in the computer between their ears and, based
on a recent survey commissioned by theFamily Online Safety Institute (FOSI), a
lot of parents apparently agree.
For the most part, parents do have a clue when it comes to helping their kids
stay safe online.
FOSI commissioned Hart Research Associates to interview 702 parents of children
eight to 17. The study, which has a margin of error of plus/minus 3.7%, found
that "Nearly all parents surveyed (96%) say they have had a conversation with
their child about what to do and not to do online."
Controls have their place
But that's not to say parental controls tools don't have their place. Just over
half the parents (53%) said that they do use some type of tool to control or
monitor their child's online behavior using products ranging from filtering
programs on their PC that limit what sites a child can visit to services that
monitor children's activities online or on mobile devices.
Even though 47% of parents don't use these tools, 87% of them are aware that
such tools are available for personal computers, but parents are less likely to
use and be aware of parental control tools on other devices that kids use to go
online. For example, while 75% of parents feel very or somewhat comfortable
about monitoring their kids' online use, awareness of parental controls drops to
37% for game consoles (44% among parents whose kids use consoles to access the
Internet). Just over a third (35%) of parents say they are "aware of parental
controls offered by wireless companies" and only 39% of parents whose child uses
a smartphone to access the Internet "say they know of parental control
technologies," according to the study. Just over half (51%) of parents said that
their child uses something other than a computer to access the Internet.
Parents set rules
It's good news that 93% of parents say they have set rules or limits on their
children's online with nearly eight out of 10 (79%) saying that they only allow
kids to use a computer in a common area of the house rather than a bedroom. Of
course, in an era when many kids are using laptops or even tablets and phones to
go online, I'm not sure if parents can easily enforce that rule, but at least
they're thinking about it.
Three quarters of the parents (75%) have rules for how much time or the time of
day their kids can be online but as kids get older, parents become more relaxed
about these rules. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the child.
Many teens have pretty well developed internal "filters between their ears," but
there are some who actually take more risks than younger children. While
monitoring teen behavior is always trickier than monitoring behavior of young
children, it's sometimes even more necessary, though often an occasional
conversation is all that's needed.
Family 'Online Safety Contract'
Ten percent of the parents said they have signed a "family online safety
contract" that outlines rules and expectations. Several years ago I created
separate online safety pledges for kids and parents.

(Source: Family Online Safety Institute)
The fact that nearly half parents sampled don't use parental control tools isn't
necessarily a bad thing. When asked why, the most common reason was that they're
not necessary, "either because of rules and limits already in place (60%),
and/or because they trust their child to be safe (30%)."
I completely understand where these parents were coming from. Even though I was
one of the first people on the planet to test out parental controls in the
nineties when my kids were young (and testified as to their efficacy in a
federal court trial), my wife and I elected not to use them at our house because
we preferred more old fashioned "tools" like frequent conversations with our
kids and placing computers in public areas of the house.
Parental controls can't replace old-fashioned parenting

Filters and monitoring tools can be a valuable resource and I urge parents to at
least think about including them in their vast arsenal of parenting tools, but I
also urge parents to never rely on them as the only safeguard. The best way to
protect your kids online is to talk with them about their Internet use and
anything else on their minds. Have dinner together as a family, ask your kids
what's going on in their lives and be as non-judgmental as appropriate so your
kids trust you and confide in you. Studies have shown that - despite outward
appearances - children and even teenagers heavily rely on their parents for
advice and guidance.
Besides, with any luck your kid will someday grow up and move somewhere where
there are no filters, no monitoring programs and no parents over their shoulder.
Let's just hope that, by then, that filter between their ears is well developed.
For more on internet safety visit Larry's SafeKids.com blog and
ConnectSafely.org








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

National Hispanic Heritage Month

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Law Library of Congress
presents this guide providing commentary and recommended resources.

National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates and recognizes the contributions
Hispanic Americans have made to American society and culture and to honor five
of our Central American neighbors who celebrate their Independence days in
September.




This service is provided by the Library of Congress at www.LOC.gov.

Unsubscribe or change your subscriber preferences
For questions or problems with subscriptions, contact support@...

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GovDelivery, Inc. sending on behalf of Library of Congress · 101 Independence
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New STEM Schools Target Underrepresented Groups


Zipporiah Bush, left, and Sadie Lisk photograph clay creations during a science
and engineering class at a STEM-focused high school on the campus of North
Carolina State University. It's one of a new crop of schools reaching out to
populations that are underrepresented in the STEM fields.
—Sara D. Davis for Education Week


By Erik W. Robelen
Raleigh, N.C.
Few Americans may know about the Grand Challenges for Engineering—from making
solar energy affordable to ensuring access to clean water—but the students at
a new schoolon the campus of North Carolina State University are getting to know
them firsthand.
The set of 21st-century challenges, devised by the National Academy of
Engineering, serves as a frame and inspiration for the curriculum at this
school, one of a relatively small but rapidly growing number of STEM-focused
schools cropping up across the country.
At a time of heightened national attention to improving education in the fields
of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the development of such
schools has gained momentum as a strategy to boost knowledge and...
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/14/03stem_ep.h31.html?r=973364840




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Successful K-12 STEM Education


In response to a request from Representative Frank Wolf (VA) to the National
Science Foundation (NSF) to identify highly successful K-12 schools and programs
in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM), the NRC held a
workshop in May 2011. The 2-day workshop featured research on STEM-focused
schools and practices, and examples of STEM-focused schools.  Two reports, based
on the workshop, have recently been released.   Successful K-12 STEM Education:
Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics explores what education leaders and policy makers can do to provide
high-quality STEM education for all students. Successful STEM Education: A
Workshop Summary describes the discussions and presentations from the May
workshop.


The Board on Science Education and the Board on Testing and Assessment will be
participating in an NSF conference on September 19: STEM Smart: Lessons Learned
from Schools Successful in STEM . Aimed at national, state, and district science
education leaders, the conference will focus on putting the recommendations of
the NRC reports into practice.






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bonnie and all,

Are you using any type of on-line data aggregation tool to collect and
share all the information that might be available to show how youth in all
high poverty areas of the country might be reached with school based and
non-school mentoring, tutoring and STEM awareness/inspiration and education
programs?

I found this platform that I've used to frame my own work in helping kids
from poverty to jobs and encourage you and others to add to this your own
ideas, strategies and resources.
http://debategraph.org/mentoring_kids_to_careers

If someone already has created something like this please share it and we
can link to it from other platforms that may be doing the same.

I host a conference in Chicago every six months and the next is Nov. 4. If
any of you would like to organize a workshop or panel on STEM education and
ways volunteers can be mentors, tutors, leaders, etc. of STEM programs
please use the http://www.tutormentorconference.org web site to submit a
proposal.

Dan Bassill
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Tutor/Mentor Connection
Chicago

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Bonnie Bracey BBracey@...
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 03:27:39 -0400 (EDT)
To: wang@..., sigde@..., frank@...,
wwwedu@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [WWWEDU] Successful K-12 STEM Education




Successful K-12 STEM Education


In response to a request from Representative Frank Wolf (VA) to the
National Science Foundation (NSF) to identify highly successful K-12
schools and programs in science, technology, engineering, and/or
mathematics (STEM), the NRC held a workshop in May 2011. The 2-day workshop
featured research on STEM-focused schools and practices, and examples of
STEM-focused schools.  Two reports, based on the workshop, have recently
been released.   Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective
Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics explores
what education leaders and policy makers can do to provide high-quality
STEM education for all students. Successful STEM Education: A Workshop
Summary describes the discussions and presentations from the May workshop.


The Board on Science Education and the Board on Testing and Assessment will
be participating in an NSF conference on September 19: STEM Smart: Lessons
Learned from Schools Successful in STEM . Aimed at national, state, and
district science education leaders, the conference will focus on putting
the recommendations of the NRC reports into practice.






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“Digital Promise” Factsheet
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/15/fact-sheet-digital-promise\
-initiative
Digital Promise is a new national center created by Congress with bipartisan
support to advance technologies that can transform teaching and learning. It is
being launched today with startup funds and support from the Department of
Education as well as the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Answering the President’s call to action, a number of prominent leaders in
education and technology will help lead Digital Promise. Board members, who were
appointed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan based on recommendations from
the House of Representatives and United States Senate, include John Morgridge
(Chairman Emeritus of Cisco), Larry Grossman (former President of NBC News),
Irwin Jacobs (co-founder of Qualcomm), Gilman Louie (founder of In-Q-Tel), Eamon
Kelly (President Emeritus of Tulane University), Mark Dean (IBM Fellow and Vice
President), Shae Hopkins (Executive Director and CEO, Kentucky Educational
Television), Vince Juaristi (CEO & President, Arbola, Inc.), and Shirley Malcom
(Head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs, American
Association for the Advancement of Science).  For more information, go to:
www.digitalpromise.org.
To realize the potential of learning technology, Digital Promise will work with
leading educators, researchers, technology firms, and entrepreneurs on three key
challenges:

Identifying breakthrough technologies. For years, researchers have been working
on developing educational software that is as effective as a personal tutor. 
Preliminary results from a DARPA/Navy “digital tutor” project suggest that
we can reduce the time required to become an expert in IT from years to months. 
Achieving similar results in subjects such as math would transform K-12
education.  Digital Promise will begin its work by partnering with technology
firms and researchers to map the R&D landscape,identifying opportunities for
breakthroughs in learning from the cradle through a career.
Learning faster what's working and what's not. Internet startups do rapid
evaluations of their sites, running test after test to continually improve their
services. When it comes to education, R&D cycles can take years, producing
results that are out of date the minute they're released.  Digital Promise will
work with researchers and entrepreneurs to develop new approaches for rapidly
evaluating new products.
  Transforming the market for learning technologies. With more than 14,000 school
districts and outdated procurement systems, it’s difficult for entrepreneurs
to break into the market and it’s also tough to prove that their products can
deliver meaningful results.  Meanwhile, the amount we invest in R&D in K-12
education is estimated at just 0.2% of total spending on K-12 education,
compared to 10-20% of revenues spent on R&D in many knowledge-intensive
industries such as software development and biotech.   Digital Promise will work
with school districts to create “smart demand” that drives private-sector
investment in innovation.

Other Initiatives Being Announced with the Launch of Digital Promise
Creating a League of Innovative Schools:In partnership with Digital Promise,
leading schools, school districts, and networks such as the District of Columbia
Public Schools; Mooresville Graded School District, North Carolina; High Tech
High in San Diego, California; York County School Division, Virginia; E.L.
Haynes in Washington, DC; Malden High School, Malden, Massachusetts; and the New
Tech High Network, are coming together to launch a League of Innovative Schools.
The League will be a coalition of schools dedicated to innovation in learning
technologies and significant improvements in educational outcomes. The League
will explore key steps it can take to help the learning technology market,
including:

Rapid testing of promising new technologies.Internet companies like Netflix and
Amazon don’t make decisions on the basis of hunches.  They use rapid, low-cost
experimentation to continually improve their products.  Similar opportunities
exist for learning technologies. Schools with the flexibility to try new things
and the data systems to capture the results offer opportunities for trials, both
identifying what works and doing rapid prototyping to refine new tools. Working
together, these schools can accelerate the pace of learning and innovation.
Creating a buyers’ consortium to demand better prices and higher quality.New
Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine formed a consortium called the New
England Common Assessment Program to buy testing materials together, getting a
higher quality product at a lower cost.  Members of the League can band together
to improve their purchasing power for emerging solutions.
Encouraging entrepreneurs to develop game-changing innovations by promising to
buy them.By using what’s called an “Advance Market Commitment,” five
countries and the Gates Foundation agreed to purchase large quantities of a
vaccine that hadn’t been developed yet – a vaccine to immunize kids in
developing countries against diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis. The
private sector responded, and today that vaccine is on the market and could help
save the lives of 7 million children by 2030. Similarly, a consortium of schools
and school districts could encourage entrepreneurs to develop new solutions that
deliver dramatic improvements in student learning outcomes.

New Investments by NSF on Cyber-learning:  In support of the Administration’s
initiative, the National Science Foundation will announce $15 million in new
awards to support research that is developing next-generation learning
environments.
Innovative research projects and prototypes include:

"GeoGames" that help students analyze data across geographical areas to solve
real-world challenges;
Robots that use non-verbal cues to teach vocabulary to kids;
Systems that create augmented reality for students with hearing disabilities;
Tools for family learning about energy management using data from home
thermostats; and
Online tutors that assess a student's real-time comprehension and tailor
learning strategies.

New Analysis by Council of Economic Advisers on Learning Technology Market:  A
well-trained workforce is essential to economic growth and competitiveness, and
the skills of the entire workforce depend critically on the educational
foundation established during the K-12 school years.  Well-designed
instructional software can provide personalized learning, adapting to the needs
of individual students and evolving as the student progresses, which can be an
important complement to other educational reform efforts.  Educational
technology holds the promise of substantially improving outcomes for K-12
students, but there are significant challenges in bringing new products to
market.
A new analysis by the Council of Economic Advisers, to be released in
conjunction with the launch of Digital Promise, examines the learning
technologies market and steps that could be taken to reduce barriers for
entrepreneurs. The CEA analysis found substantial promise for education
technology, but identified two key challenges for entrepreneurs: (1) it is
difficult for producers of these technologies to demonstrate the effectiveness
of their products to potential buyers, and (2) market fragmentation creates
barriers to entry by all but the largest suppliers. The CEA analysis concluded
that the spread of broadband Internet and Common Core State Standards have
improved the landscape for educational technologies, but these factors alone are
likely insufficient for a “game changing” advance.  Additional steps are
needed to identify measures that could provide local school systems with greater
access to good information about the effectiveness of various educational
technology products and give prospective developers of these products access to
customers on a scale sufficient to encourage entry into the market.




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Successful K-12 STEM Education


In response to a request from Representative Frank Wolf (VA) to the National
Science Foundation (NSF) to identify highly successful K-12 schools and programs
in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM), the NRC held a
workshop in May 2011. The 2-day workshop featured research on STEM-focused
schools and practices, and examples of STEM-focused schools.  Two reports, based
on the workshop, have recently been released.   Successful K-12 STEM Education:
Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics explores what education leaders and policy makers can do to provide
high-quality STEM education for all students. Successful STEM Education: A
Workshop Summary describes the discussions and presentations from the May
workshop.


The Board on Science Education and the Board on Testing and Assessment will be
participating in an NSF conference on September 19: STEM Smart: Lessons Learned
from Schools Successful in STEM . Aimed at national, state, and district science
education leaders, the conference will focus on putting the recommendations of
the NRC reports into practice.







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HTTP://WWW.BROOKINGS.EDU/OPINIONS/2011/0923_NCLB_OBAMA_WHITEHURST.ASPX


SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 —First graders participates in a music class with their
teacher at Eagleview Elementary school in Thornton, Colorado. ← Teachers@ED:
Lisa Vazquez, Information Resource Specialist
The White House announced details today of its long-signaled intent to use
waivers to states to sidestep the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
and to advance its own education agenda. States that adopt “college- and
career-ready standards” (a code phrase for the national learning standards
promoted by the administration), teacher and principal evaluation systems based
on student test scores, and turn-around strategies for the lowest performing
schools will be allowed to design and implement their own accountability systems
and will have greater flexibility in how they spend federal dollars.



View Larger
Rick Wilking / Reuters


The political calculus is straightforward. States and school districtsare
chaffing under the accountability provisions of NCLB, in large part because the
law took what in the ordinary course of federal action would have been an
aspiration goal (“every child proficient in reading and math by 2014”) and
turned it into an actual requirement, with teeth. States are no where close to
getting there, and having exhausted the remedies that can be derived from gaming
the law, they are eager for relief from Washington. The administration, no
longer having billions in stimulus funds with which to bribe states to adopt its
education policies, is substituting relief from the requirements of law as its
carrot. It expects Congressional leaders, who are none too happy with this
usurpation of their authority, to be relatively powerless to act because doing
so would involve crossing swords with their state governors and education
chiefs, most of whom will want the waivers.

But this is a dangerous and internally conflicted path for the administration to
go down. It is dangerous because it takes boilerplate secretarial waiver
authority, present in almost all major legislation and intended to allow an
administration, with informal congressional approval, to tweak laws to make them
fit realities on the ground, and turns it into a virtually limitless authority
for the executive branch to substitute its preferred policies for the law of the
land. Imagine the person as president you could least imagine being suited to
that position armed with this precedent.

It is internally conflicted because it provides further leverage for states to
adopt common national standards—which the administration touts as essential to
comparability between states—but gives away common accountability in exchange.
Standards and accountability go together like Sonny and Cher. Separate them and,
well you know what happens. So we’re to have the same college- and
career-ready standards for what children should learn in Minnesota and
Mississippi, but different definitions of what schools and teachers are to be
held accountable for accomplishing against those standards? Where does that get
us? It is like the federal government requiring that car manufacturers meet
common standards for fuel efficiency but allowing each automobile maker to have
its own definition of miles per gallon.

The federal role in K-12 education is not working nearly as well as is needed.
It must be seriously rethought and restructured. Congress is about this work.
The administration can address the pressing issue of too many schools being
identified as in need of improvement by such simple means as setting back the
proficiency deadline from 2014 to 2016, or capping the percentage of schools
within a state that are subject to the accountability provisions of NCLB. It
would surely get the nod from Congressional committees for pursuing such
temporary and practical fixes. In contrast, gutting NCLB and setting its own
policy direction using the waiver authority is misguided, confused, and will
prove to be counterproductive.


What NCLB Flexibility Means for You →

Obama Administration Offers Flexibility from No Child Left Behind
Posted on September 23, 2011 by Cameron Brenchley

Today, the Obama Administration outlined how states can get relief from
provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – or No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) – in exchange for serious state-led efforts to close achievement
gaps, promote rigorous accountability, and ensure that all students are on track
to graduate college- and career-ready.
Get the Facts:

Brochure: Looking Back and Moving Forward (PDF)


Brochure: Supporting State and Local Progress (PDF)


FAQ: What ESEA Flexibility Means for Students, Teachers, and Parents (MS Word)


Detailed info can be found at ED.gov’s ESEA Flexibility page

Sign up for email updates from ED to continue to receive information about ESEA.


ADD YOUR VIEW








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Moving beyond 'blame the teacher'
The problem with schools isn't teachers; it's a management system that pushes
them aside.





The documentary "Waiting for "Superman" questioned this country's public
education system. (Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)



















By Saul Rubinstein, Charles Heckscher and Paul Adler
September 16, 2011


Most of the current efforts to improve public education begin with the flawed
assumption that the basic problem is teacher performance. This "blame the
teacher" attitude has led to an emphasis on standardized tests, narrow teacher
evaluation criteria, merit pay, erosion of tenure, privatization, vouchers and
charter schools. The primary goal of these measures has been greater teacher
accountability — as if the weaknesses of public education were due to an
invasion of our classrooms by uncaring and incompetent teachers. That is the
premise of thedocumentary, "Waiting for Superman," and of the attacks on
teachers and their unions by politicians across the country.

We see distressing parallels between this approach to quality in education and
the approaches that failed so badly in U.S. manufacturing. Recall the reaction
of domestic manufacturers in the 1970s as Japanese competitors began to take
market share: Many managers and an army of experts blamed American workers. They
denounced workers' "blue-collar blues," lackadaisical attitudes and union job
protections as the chief impediments to higher quality, productivity and
competitiveness.

It took nearly two decades for manufacturers to realize that this diagnosis was
deeply flawed and that the recommendations that flowed from it were leading U.S.
industry further into decline. Recall the success of Japanese-run auto
transplants operating in this country during the 1980s: They reached world-class
quality levels with a U.S. workforce, in some cases a unionized workforce, while
domestic auto companies continued to blame American workers and saw their
quality levels stagnate.

Noticing the discrepancy, a growing number of manufacturers turned to the
teachings of the quality guru W. Edwards Deming. Deming argued that U.S.
industry's failure was not in its workers but in the system they labored under.
He taught that pushing workers to work harder in a poorly designed system cannot
improve outcomes. U.S. firms were being outcompeted because they relied on an
outdated management system in which decisions were all top-down, tasks were
narrowly specialized and workers were told to leave their brains at the factory
door. To fix quality, manufacturers needed to fix these systems, and to do that,
they needed to involve workers in that effort. Do those two things, and American
workers were willing and able to achieve world-class levels of performance.

Much of the current wave of school reform is informed by the same management
myths that almost destroyed U.S. manufacturing. Instead of seeing teachers as
key contributors to system improvement efforts, reformers are focused on making
teachers more replaceable. Instead of involving teachers and their unions in
collaborative reform, they are being pushed aside as impediments to top-down
decision-making. Instead of bringing teachers together to help each other become
more effective professionals, district administrators are resorting to
simplistic quantified individual performance measures. In reality, schools are
collaborative, not individual, enterprises, so teaching quality and school
performance depend above all on whether the institutional systems support
teachers' efforts.

There are, thankfully, some examples of education reform that have moved beyond
the blame-the-teacher view. A 2010 study by researchers at Rutgers University
unpacked the lessons of six cases — from across the country, urban and rural,
large and small — in which teachers, unions and administrators have worked
together in their school districts to improve student performance. One case, the
ABC Unified School District, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, created a
partnership between the administration and the ABC Federation of Teachers that
goes back more than 10 years.

In this partnership, teachers, union representatives and administrators have
developed rigorous peer assistance, mentoring and evaluation systems that have
raised the level of teaching quality. They have worked together on recruiting,
compensation and retaining high-quality teachers and administrators. The
district has collaborated with teachers on planning, curriculum design and
improving instructional practices. They have brought teachers together in teams
to integrate student learning across disciplines and evaluate student progress.
They have expanded opportunities for parent involvement.

Performance results have been outstanding. Although 25% of students are
English-language learners and about 46% get free or reduced-price lunches, over
the last decade the district has performed well above the state average on
California's Academic Performance Index, with strong growth in these scores of
about 10% per year. The district's graduation rate is 89.1%, while the statewide
rate is 74.4%.

Another example is the Plattsburgh City School District in upstate New York,
where the Plattsburgh Teachers' Assn. participates in, and sometimes leads,
committees that oversee textbook selection, professional development, teacher
evaluation, mentoring and peer coaching, curriculum development, long-range
planning for the use of information technology and analysis of student test
scores and performance. Since 1977, the union has been an integral part of the
search and hiring process of teachers and administrators, including the
superintendent. Here, 52% of students receive free or reduced-price lunches, yet
student performance exceeds the averages for proficiency across the state in
language arts, math and science. The Plattsburgh high school graduation rate
improved from 72% in 2004 to 88% last year; the statewide average was 73.4%.

These cases and many others like them were highlighted in February at the U.S.
Department of Education's conference on "Advancing Student Achievement Through
Labor-Management Collaboration," and in October at the "National Conference on
Collaborative School Reform," organized by the American Federation of Teachers
working with Rutgers University, Cornell University and MIT. These districts
offer proven models consistent with the best practices of U.S. industry.

As school begins, we would do well to remember Deming's lesson: In education as
in industry, progress toward quality will require collaboration among
administrators, teachers and their unions.

Saul Rubinstein and Charles Heckscher are professors at Rutgers University and
co-directors of the Center for Organizational Learning and Transformation; Paul
Adler is a professor at the Marshall School of Business at USC. The Rutgers
study referred to is available at
http://smlr.rutgers.edu/collaborating-school-reform.


Opinion L.A.
OBSERVATIONS AND PROVOCATIONS
FROM THE TIMES' OPINION STAFF
« Previous Post | Opinion L.A. Home | Next Post »
Defending teachers unions [The reply]
September 22, 2011 |  6:13 am



0 3




Blaming teachers won't improve public education, wrote Saul Rubinstein, Charles
Heckscher and Paul Adler in their Sept. 16 Op-Ed, "Moving beyond 'blame the
teacher.' " They suggested collaboration instead: "In education as in industry,
progress toward quality will require collaboration among administrators,
teachers and their unions." Here they respond to some of the backlash on our
discussion board.


We are delighted our Op-Ed generated debate. Our public schools are at the
center of growing anxiety about our children's economic prospects. Education has
become far more important to a person's prospects in life than it was, say, 50
years ago. That raises the stakes for everyone involved -- and the emotional
intensity of the debate too.


Of the many issues raised in the comments on our piece, we want to add our
voices to those who insisted that the future of our education system depends on
the active involvement of parents and communities. Our research provides strong
support for this view, as can be seen in the full report. The education system
whose reform we urged is deeply intertwined with the broader social system, and
this broader system too will need to change if we want to see better educational
outcomes, particularly for children in poverty.


Some of our commentators disagreed with our argument for the need to involve
teachers unions. Their claim seems to be that these unions are only interested
in defending their members. We would agree that if unions took such a purely
defensive view of their role, they wouldn't have much to contribute to resolving
the challenges ahead. But all the unions we studied saw improving educational
quality as one of their primary professional responsibilities, and they were
working enthusiastically with other stakeholders toward that goal.





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Poll: Young People Say Online Meanness Pervasive

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS




Associated Press

Catherine Devine, 22, reads instant messages on her laptop screen at her home in
Kings Park, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. Devine had her first brush with an
online bully in seventh grade, before she'd even ventured onto the Internet. A
new Associated Press-MTV poll of youth in their teens and early 20s finds that
most of them _ 56 percent _ have been the target of some type of online
taunting, harassment or bullying, a significant increase over just two years
ago. (AP Photo/Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke)




Associated Press

Catherine Devine, 22, reads instant messages on her laptop screen at her home in
Kings Park, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. Devine had her first brush with an
online bully in seventh grade, before she'd even ventured onto the Internet. A
new Associated Press-MTV poll of youth in their teens and early 20s finds that
most of them _ 56 percent _ have been the target of some type of online
taunting, harassment or bullying, a significant increase over just two years
ago. (AP Photo/Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke)




Associated Press

Catherine Devine, 22, reads instant messages on her laptop screen at her home in
Kings Park, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. Devine had her first brush with an
online bully in seventh grade, before she'd even ventured onto the Internet. A
new Associated Press-MTV poll of youth in their teens and early 20s finds that
most of them _ 56 percent _ have been the target of some type of online
taunting, harassment or bullying, a significant increase over just two years
ago. (AP Photo/Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke)




Associated Press

Chart shows reponse to survey question related to online harassment




text size A A A
WASHINGTON September 27, 2011, 03:24 am ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — Catherine Devine had her first brush with an online bully in
seventh grade, before she'd even ventured onto the Internet. Someone set up the
screen name "devinegirl" and, posing as Catherine, sent her classmates instant
messages full of trashy talk and lies. "They were making things up about me, and
I was the most innocent 12-year-old ever," Devine remembers. "I hadn't even
kissed anybody yet."
As she grew up, Devine, now 22, learned to thrive in the electronic village. But
like other young people, she occasionally stumbled into one of its dark alleys.
A new Associated Press-MTV poll of youth in their teens and early 20s finds that
most of them — 56 percent — have been the target of some type of online
taunting, harassment or bullying, a significant increase over just two years
ago. A third say they've been involved in "sexting," the sharing of naked photos
or videos of sexual activity. Among those in a relationship, 4 out of 10 say
their partners have used computers or cellphones to abuse or control them.
Three-fourths of the young people said they consider these darker aspects of the
online world, sometimes broadly called "digital abuse," a serious problem.
They're not the only ones.
President Barack Obama brought students, parents and experts together at the
White House in March to try to confront "cyberbullying." The Education
Department sponsors an annual conference to help schools deal with it. Teen
suicides linked to vicious online bullying have caused increasing worry in
communities across the country.
Conduct that rises to the point of bullying is hard to define, but the AP-MTV
poll of youth ages 14 to 24 showed plenty of rotten behavior online, and a
perception that it's increasing. The share of young people who frequently see
people being mean to each other on social networking sites jumped to 55 percent,
from 45 percent in 2009.
That may be partly because young people are spending more time than ever
communicating electronically: 7 in 10 had logged into a social networking site
in the previous week, and 8 in 10 had texted a friend.
"The Internet is an awesome resource," says Devine, "but sometimes it can be
really negative and make things so much worse."
Devine, who lives on New York's Long Island, experienced her share of online
drama in high school and college: A friend passed around highly personal entries
from Devine's private electronic journal when she was 15. She left her Facebook
account open on a University of Scranton library computer, and a prankster
posted that she was pregnant (she wasn't). Most upsetting, when she was 18
Devine succumbed to a boyfriend's pressure to send a revealing photo of herself,
and when they broke up he briefly raised the threat of embarrassing her with it.
"I didn't realize the power he could have over me from that," Devine said. "I
thought he'd just see it once and then delete it, like I had deleted it."
The Internet didn't create the turmoil of the teen years and young adulthood —
romantic breakups, bitter fights among best friends, jealous rivalries, teasing
and bullying. But it does amplify it. Hurtful words that might have been shouted
in the cafeteria, within earshot of a dozen people, now can be blasted to
hundreds on Facebook.
"It's worse online, because everybody sees it," said Tiffany Lyons, 24, of
Layton, Utah. "And once anything gets online you can't get rid of it."
Plus, 75 percent of youth think people do or say things online that they
wouldn't do or say face to face.
The most common complaints about online behavior include people spreading false
rumors on Internet pages or by text message; taking a victim's electronic
messages and sharing them with others without permission; impersonating someone
by logging onto their social network page; or spying by logging onto the
victim's electronic account. About one-fifth of the young people said one of
these things had happened to them. Sixteen percent said someone had posted
embarrassing pictures or video of them without their permission.
Some of these are one-time incidents; others cross into repeated harassment or
bullying.
Sameer Hinduja, a cyberbullying researcher, said numerous recent studies taken
together suggest a cyberbullying victimization rate of 20 to 25 percent for
middle and high school students. Many of these same victims also suffer from
in-person abuse. Likewise, many online aggressors are also real-world bullies.
"We are seeing offenders who are just jerks to people online and offline," said
Hinduja, an associate professor of criminal justice at Florida Atlantic
University and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center.
And computers and cellphones increase the reach of old-fashioned bullying.
"When I was bullied in middle school I could go home and slam my door and forget
about it for a while," said Hinduja. "These kids can be accessed around the
clock through technology. There's really no escape."
"Sexting," or sending nude or sexual images, is more common among those over 18
than among minors. And it hasn't shown much increase in the past two years.
Perhaps young people are thinking twice before hitting "send" after publicity
about adults — even members of Congress — losing their jobs over sexual
images, and news stories of young teens risking child pornography charges if
they're caught.
Eight percent of those ages 14-17 said they had shared a naked picture of
themselves; among those 18-24 years old, it was 14 percent. But almost
one-fourth of the younger group said they'd been exposed to sexting in some way,
including seeing images someone else was showing around. And 37 percent of the
young adults had some experience with "sexting" images.
Many young people don't take sexting seriously, despite the potential
consequences.
Alec Wilhelmi, 20, says girlfriends and girls who like him have sent sexual
messages or pictures — usually photos of bare body parts that avoid showing
faces. Once a friend made a sexual video with his girlfriend, and showed
Wilhelmi on his cellphone.
"I thought that was funny, because I don't know what kind of girl would allow
that," said Wilhelmi, a freshman at Iowa State University.
Technology can facilitate dating abuse. Nearly three in 10 young people say
their partner has checked up on them electronically multiple times per day or
read their text messages without permission. Fourteen percent say they've
experienced more abusive behavior from their partners, such as name-calling and
mean messages via Internet or cellphone.
The AP-MTV poll was conducted Aug. 18-31 and involved online interviews with
1,355 people ages 14-24 nationwide. The margin of sampling error is plus or
minus 3.8 percentage points.
The poll is part of an MTV campaign, "A Thin Line," aiming to stop the spread of
digital abuse.
The survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks, which used traditional telephone
and mail sampling methods to randomly recruit respondents. People selected who
had no Internet access were given it for free.
___
Associated Press Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta, AP Global Director
of Polling Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius
contributed to this report.
___
Online: http://research.athinline.org




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Greetings, WWWEDUers. Here is the Call for Speakers for the
Internet@Schools track (the k-12-dedicated track) at Computers in
Libraries 2012 next March in Washington, DC. Please pass this on to
any school librarians/media/technology specialists among your
colleagues as well.
Thanks,
David Hoffman
=============
Call for Speakers
Internet@Schools track at Computers in Libraries 2012
March 21 and 22, 2012
Washington, DC
Deadline: October 14, 2011

from David Hoffman
hoffmand@...

The Internet@Schools track at Computers in Libraries 2012 is a two-day
track created especially for library media and technology specialists
and other educators who are using the internet and technology in K-12
schools. Sponsored by Internet@Schools magazine, the track covers
technology, tools, trends, and practical topics, and takes place March
21 and 22, 2012, the first two days of Computers in Libraries at the
Hilton Washington in Washington, DC.

You Are Invited�
If you are running an innovative program through your school library
or media/technology center that is helping your students learn or your
colleagues teach, or if you are willing to share your practical tips,
tools, or techniques about using technology and the internet in
schools, we want you! Please volunteer to speak at the
Internet@Schools track at Computers in Libraries.

All speakers receive a full, complimentary registration to Computers
in Libraries 2012 conference, plus great recognition from their peers.
So think over your latest success stories or technology ventures, go
to https://secure.infotoday.com/forms/default.aspx?form=isespeakers,
and submit your proposal today.

Thanks! We look forward to hearing from you. The deadline for
proposals is October 14, so think quickly and send in your ideas! And
tell your professional colleagues friends, too!

Internet@Schools Track Organizers
David Hoffman
Editor, Internet@Schools magazine
hoffmand@...

Susan Geiger
Librarian, Moreau Catholic High School
Hayward, California
sgeiger@...


--

=====================================
David Hoffman
Information Today, Inc./Internet@Schools
14508 NE 20th Ave., Suite 102
Vancouver, WA 98686

360/882-0988
Fax: 360/882-9174

www.infotoday.com
www.internetatschools.com
=====================================

National Security Agency to Award $84,000 in
Scholarships to Student Winners of the 2011 Maryland Cyber Challenge

College and high school teams will compete for
top honors on October 22 at the Baltimore Convention Center

Baltimore, Md. � September 28, 2011 � The
National Security Agency (NSA) will fund college
scholarships for the high school and college
student winners of the Maryland Cyber Challenge &
Conference (MDC3) � a move to encourage young
Marylanders to pursue degrees in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

�We have an obligation to get the country�s youth
more interested in math and science and to
understand the importance of cyber security to
ensure a larger and more diverse hiring pool in
this field for the good of the country,� said
John �Chris� Inglis, Deputy Director, NSA. �We
are pleased to be able to support the education
of the talented young Americans competing in the Maryland Cyber Challenge.�

Each first-place winner of the high school and
college team competitions will receive a $5,000
scholarship, and each member of the second-place
high school and college teams will receive a
$2,000 scholarship to support their higher education.

�Of necessity, cybersecurity professionals are
discreet about their work. This event enables us
to promote the industry and to excite young
Marylanders about defending our nation�s cyber
systems,� said Freeman A. Hrabowski, III,
president of the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County. �We�re delighted NSA has joined
us in this effort and that the agency is
committed to cultivating new talent and
supporting the robust cyber industry in Maryland.�

MDC3 was created by the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County (UMBC) and Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI], in
partnership with the Department of Business &
Economic Development (DBED), the Tech Council of
Maryland (TCM) and the National Cyber Security
Alliance (NCSA). MDC3 is leveraging federal,
state and private sector resources to effectively
address a critical area of national need.

�Cybersecurity is a challenge that affects every
single industry in our nation�s economy, and we
have a strong need to increase the young talent
within this field,� said Larry Cox, SAIC senior
vice president and business unit general manager.
�We applaud NSA for this significant investment
in the future of our national security by
creating more educational opportunity for
Maryland�s brightest and most-talented future cybersecurity professionals.�

About the Maryland Cyber Challenge & Conference (MDC3)

The inaugural Maryland Cyber Challenge &
Conference (MDC3) will be held October 21-22 at
the Baltimore Convention Center. The event will
give teams of high school students, college and
university students, and professionals the
opportunity to learn more about cybersecurity and
develop practical skills for defending computers
while competing for scholarships in a fun
environment. The conference will feature keynote
speakers, breakout sessions and cyber innovation
exhibits for an audience of students, parents and
professionals from academia, industry and
government. Sponsorship and exhibitor
opportunities are both available. MDC3 was
founded by Science Applications International
Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI] and the University
of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in
partnership with the Department of Business &
Economic Development (DBED), the Tech Council of
Maryland (TCM) and the National Cyber Security
Alliance (NCSA) with the goal of encouraging
Maryland students and young professionals to
pursue education and careers in cybersecurity.
MDC3 supports the State of Maryland�s initiative
to become the nation�s epicenter for innovation
in cybersecurity. For more information, please
visit <http://www.MDC3.org>www.MDC3.org.


Full information about the Maryland Cyber
Challenge & Conference can be found at
<http://www.mdc3.org>www.mdc3.org. The conference
agenda (in its almost-final form) can be found at
<http://mdc3.org/files/MDC3Schedule_9.21.11.pdf.>http://mdc3.org/files/MDC3Sched\
ule_9.21.11.pdf.


Karen Ellis
Educational CyberPlayGround, Inc.
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/>http://www.edu-cyberpg.<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/\
>com

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http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d6a59354e4441774e5442384e6a41354d7a6b354e54673d0d\
0a&sb=1



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

K12 Surveillance and College Surveillance Privacy Nightmare: Data
Mine & Analyze all College Students' Online Activities

K12 Schools are the non traditional sources of "intelligence" surveillance.

Now there is a particularly invasive idea being pitched to
universities as a "crystal ball" to stop future violence by data
mining and analyzing all college students' online activities. In K -
12 schools, "new military and corrections technologies are quietly
moving into the classroom with little oversight." It's making our
schools a "fertile ground for prison tech," Mother Jones reported.
"For millions of children, being scanned and monitored has become as
much a part of their daily education as learning to read and write."
All of this surveillance is supposed to keep students safe, but there
are some states that would like to dump public school surveillance
data into federally-funded fusion centers. In fact, KC Education
Enterprise reported that the "Kansas Fusion center wants to gather
intelligence in public schools." At a Kansas Safe and Prepared School
conference, Jeremy Jackson, who is associated with the Kansas
Intelligence Fusion Center (KIFC), spoke on how schools could
participate in and benefit from KIFC's "intelligence analysis and
information sharing capabilities."
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/Surveillance.html

<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
The Educational CyberPlayGround
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/
Funk Brothers Standing in The Shadows of Motown

National Children's Folksong Repository
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/NCFR/


Net Happenings, K12 Newsletters, Network Newsletters
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/

7 Hot Site Awards
New York Times, USA Today , MSNBC, Earthlink,
USA Today Best Bets For Educators, Macworld Top Fifty
<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>

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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Project Officer/Manager (Requisition ID: 016JE)
Job: Academic (Level B)
Faculty / Office: Dept of Education
Schedule: Part-time
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Description

Project Officer/Manager
Fixed term/part time

The School of Education, Macquarie University has an opening for a Project
Officer/Manager on an exciting Australian Learning and Teaching Council project
investigating how synchronous technologies (desktop video-conferencing,
web-conferencing, virtual worlds) can be most effectively utilised to unite
remote and face-to-face university students. The successful applicant for this
academic position will work with a national team of academics to identify,
characterise, and evaluate technology-enhanced ways of bringing together
on-campus and geographically dispersed students, as well as help coordinate a
community of practitioners from across Australia. While the appointment is
initially for approximately two-years at 0.6 of a full-time load, there are
opportunities for further research and teaching work for the right applicant.

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

* Higher degree research qualifications (or completing higher degree research)
in the educational technology area
* Excellent written and interpersonal communication skills
* Demonstrated ability to critically analyse educational literature
* Ability to operate and innovate with educational technologies
* Proven ability to work according to objectives and deadlines

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

* Track-record of successful project management experience
* Demonstrated educational technology leadership

FURTHER INFORMATION

This individual will be based at Macquarie University with the project leader,
and will:
* maintain an up-to-date literature review
* undertake data collection as part of a survey of current practice
* help to develop a contact list of potential collaborators across the sector
and establish online communication channels with this group
* organise meetings
* visit the institutions of collaborators to set up and then evaluate
implementations
* assist with the development of project reports, and
* assist with the dissemination workshops
* other supportive activities in conjunction with the project team that will
lead to the successful and timely accomplishment of project goals.

Appointment type : Part time, fixed term available from January 2012

Enquiries: Moira Davidson-Copping on 02 98509821 or moira.copping@...

Package: Academic Level B, base salary $80,807 - $95,824 p.a. (depending on
successful applicant's skill and experience) plus 9% superannuation and leave
loading.

Applications Close: 11.59 pm on 16th October 2011

Macquarie University is an EO Employer committed to diversity and social
inclusion. Applications are encouraged from people with a disability; women
(particularly for senior and non-traditional roles); Indigenous Australians,
people who identify as GLBTI; and those from culturally and linguistically
diverse backgrounds

Applications need to be submitted through the Macquarie University online
recruitment system. Where circumstances such as disability or remote location
prohibit your access to our online system please contact the enquiries person
listed in this advertisement for assistance.

*** For more information and to apply for the position, please visit the "Jobs
with Macquarie" website at
https://mq.taleo.net/careersection/mqcareers/jobsearch.ftl ***


---
Dr Matt Bower (Macquarie University)
Associate Professor Gregor Kennedy (The University of Melbourne)
Associate Professor Barney Dalgarno (Charles Sturt University)
Mark J.W. Lee (Charles Sturt University)

Charles Sturt University

| ALBURY-WODONGA | BATHURST | CANBERRA | DUBBO | GOULBURN | ONTARIO | ORANGE |
SYDNEY | WAGGA WAGGA |

Give Generously - Support Young Australians

You can help young Australians to go to University and succeed in their studies
by giving generously to the Charles Sturt University Foundation. To find out
more or to make a donation go to the Foundation web site
http://www.csu.edu.au/special/foundation. Australian donations are tax
deductible.

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