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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Blog U.: A Google / Microsoft Educational Content Platform? - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed

Blog U.: A Google / Microsoft Educational Content Platform? - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed


  • A Google / Microsoft Educational Content Platform?

    By Joshua Kim June 3, 2010 9:49 pm
    The marvelous Barbara Fister writes in our discussion yesterday about my argument that Google should provide a syllabus platform:
    "…..I am bothered by the idea that Google should do it for us. We're getting awfully dependent on Uncle Google, and he's a little creepy. He goes through our pockets and looks at our e-mail so he can tell advertisers what we're interested in. It may be better than hiring Blackboard to be our expensive and bossy Jeeves, but it's not that hard to publish to the web."
    Barbara's feedback got me thinking about why I am so willing to turn over so much of our "academic" life to Google. And is it just Google? Would I respond equally positively if Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, or SunGard wanted to provide us with a platform to host, distribute, and discover educational materials such as syllabi? No doubt that this issue touches on much larger questions about the role of for-profit companies inserting themselves in the educational process, and the degree to which we have become dependent on these companies.
    Unlike Barbara, my gut seems to be fine with Google providing a platform for exchanging and sharing educational materials. Perhaps because I'm already using Google for my e-mail,

East Side teachers agree to five furlough days - San Jose Mercury News

East Side teachers agree to five furlough days - San Jose Mercury News

By agreeing to the furloughs and an increase in health-insurance copays, teachers hope to avert drastic budget cuts proposed for next year.

Appeal dropped in Conn. graduation-church case - Boston.com

Appeal dropped in Conn. graduation-church case - Boston.com

Appeal dropped in Conn. graduation-church case


June 3, 2010
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ENFIELD, Conn.—Enfield school officials have narrowly voted not to appeal a federal judge's ruling against plans to hold high school graduations in a megachurch.
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The Enfield School Board voted 5-4 Thursday night, meaning graduation will be held on school grounds this year.
A federal judge in Bridgeport issued a preliminary injunction Monday, barring graduation in First Cathedral on June 23 and June 24 until she holds a full hearing on the legal issues. She said an observer would perceive the message that Enfield endorsed the church's religious views.
David J. McGuire of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, which represented two students suing to stop the ceremonies in the church, says the

Remainders: Students’ chances of getting summer jobs improve | GothamSchools

Remainders: Students’ chances of getting summer jobs improve | GothamSchools

Remainders: Students’ chances of getting summer jobs improve

Sacramento Press / Saturday event to mark start of construction of pedestrian and bicyclist bridge over Interstate 80 connecting North and South Natomas

Sacramento Press / Saturday event to mark start of construction of pedestrian and bicyclist bridge over Interstate 80 connecting North and South Natomas

Saturday event to mark start of construction of pedestrian and bicyclist bridge over Interstate 80 connecting North and South Natomas


WHAT: Ground breaking at the site of a long-awaited bicycle and pedestrian overcrossing of Interstate 80, to connect North and South Natomas
WHO: Councilmember Ray Tretheway, community members, City staff
WHEN: Saturday, June 5, 10 a.m.
WHERE: 2890 Gateway Oaks Drive, behind the University of Phoenix
WHY: To mark the start of construction of two bridges for the non motoring public to connect North and South Natomas and make for a safer, faster bicycle commute to downtown. The project includes a nearly two-block-long bridge over the freeway and an at-grade level bridge across the West Drainage Canal along with new connections to existing bike trails. Most of the funding, nearly 90 percent of the $6.1 million project, comes from federal grants, with the remainder from state and local gas and sales tax funds.
To keep updated about traffic impacts during construction, sign up to receive email notifications of traffic alerts. .An I/80 Bicycle and Ped Bridge project web page will be up soon at the Department of Transportation’s website.

Linda Tucker is the public information officer for the City of Sacramento Department of Transportation.

Free Technology for Teachers: Historypin - Historical Images in Google Streetview

Free Technology for Teachers: Historypin - Historical Images in Google Streetview

Historypin - Historical Images in Google Streetview

Historypin is a new service developed by We Are What We Doin partnership with Google.Historypin allows anyone with a Google account to place images within the setting of current Google Maps Streetview imagery. If you don't have images to add, you can simply explore the imagery added by others. To explore the imagery onHistorypin, zoom in on a location then select a range of dates on theHistorypin timeline. Learn more about Historypin in the video below.

A Breakthrough for Local-Control-Loving U.S. Schools - Newsweek

A Breakthrough for Local-Control-Loving U.S. Schools - Newsweek


A Breakthrough for Local-Control-Loving U.S. Schools


It’s a moment many education reformers have dreamed of for decades and many thought they’d never see: a set of high-quality national education standards designed to set a higher bar for American schools that states seem eager to adopt. The goal, much discussed since George H. W. Bush was president, was finally accomplished because the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers (rather than the federal government) took the lead, and states were invited to join the process voluntarily. In a country where local control of schools often outranks other educational considerations, the key to success was finding a way to create national but not federal standards.
The lack of nation-wide education standards has long been a key difference between US schools and those of most other developed countries, many of which score higher on international comparisons.
It didn’t hurt, however, that the need for such standards became more apparent by the day. While President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind hoped to accomplish a similar goal by urging states to create their own standards and tests, the results were disappointing. While some states, like Massachusetts, set their sights high, many more states set the bar low to give the illusion of more progress than was actually being achieved, or diluted their standards over time, when progress failed to materialize, in order the avoid federal sanctions. Rather than increasing school accountability, the resulting patchwork of standards (defined as “what all students are expected to know and be able to do”) made it impossible to compare student achievement in one state with another, or even to monitor how many individual states were faring year to year.
One of the coups of the new math and English standards: They are designed to encourage educators to teach deeper knowledge and understanding, rather than laundry lists of superficia

U.S. Education Secretary Appoints Members and Chair of New … | Educational New York

U.S. Education Secretary Appoints Members and Chair of New … | Educational New York

NorthJersey.com: N.J. education commissioner Schundler: 'I made a mistake'

NorthJersey.com: N.J. education commissioner Schundler: 'I made a mistake'

N.J. education commissioner Schundler: 'I made a mistake'
Thursday, June 3, 2010
LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY JUNE 3, 2010, 7:29 PM
STATE HOUSE BUREAU
STAFF WRITER
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler took full blame Thursday for making a deal with the state’s largest teacher’s union on merit pay and layoff policies before checking with his boss.
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler testifies before the Senate education commission Thursday.
CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler testifies before the Senate education commission Thursday.
“I made a mistake,” he told reporters simply. “It’s not myself who gets to make final decisions for the state of New Jersey. It’s the governor.”
Schundler’s mea culpa was his first public comment about Governor Christie’s last-minute rejection of a reform blueprint that the commissioner spent weeks negotiating with the New Jersey Education Association. Schundler said he should have presented his compromises to Christie before finalizing them with the union last Thursday.
He said that when the governor learned on Friday that the blueprint surrendered plans for individual merit pay and using teacher quality as a factor in layoff decisions, the governor was “very direct” in telling Schundler to add those elements back.
The high-profile do-over centered on the state’s application for Race to the Top, a federal competition with a June 1 deadline for submitting proposals to spur school

Furkon Dogan, RIP. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Furkon Dogan, RIP. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Furkon Dogan, RIP.


There are many who have died or suffer as a result of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
One is Furkon Dogan. He was 19 years old and born in Troy, New York. This Nov. 6, 2008 photo made available Thursday June 3, 2010 by his family shows Furkan, one of nine activists killed in Monday’s pre-dawn military

Klein celebrates no layoffs, hits the bar with young teachers | GothamSchools

Klein celebrates no layoffs, hits the bar with young teachers | GothamSchools

Klein celebrates no layoffs, hits the bar with young teachers


Question: If you’re Chancellor Joel Klein, how do you celebrate not having to lay off your newest 4,400 public school teachers?
Answer: By partying with a few dozen of those rookie teachers, of course.
kleine4e
Chancellor Klein spoke to public school teachers, most of them recent hires, hours after Mayor Bloomberg announced there would be no teacher layoffs.
By “partying” I mean sipping what looked to be Coke while addressing a small crowd of young teachers at a Hell’s Kitchen bar. The teachers were a sympathetic crowd: Brought together by Educators 4 Excellence — a group created by teachers who hope to influence the public debate over seniority and teacher evaluations — the teachers gathered Wednesday evening to hear Klein speak.
While some of the teachers in attendance hailed from the Bronx’s P.S. 86, where E4E’s co-founders teach, others came from schools all over the city. Many were in Teach for America and in their first few years of

Most teacher performers beat the Apollo test: Not getting booed

Yesterday’s Teachers’ Night at the Apollo Theater got off to a nerve-wracking start when four of the first five acts were booed off the stage. But the majority of the 17 groups of public school teacher performers got positive marks from a rowdy crowd that included some of their students.
Here’s the Apollo’s video of the winner, Darryl Jordan, a vocal music teacher at Harlem’s Urban Assembly

Oregon City School District teachers to vote on cutting three days, ending classes next week | OregonLive.com

Oregon City School District teachers to vote on cutting three days, ending classes next week | OregonLive.com

Oregon City School District teachers to vote on cutting three days, ending classes next week

By Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian

June 03, 2010, 2:40PM
The Oregon City School District plans to end school three days early, if the district's two employee unions agree.

Union members will vote on the proposal Friday, and the district has scheduled a meeting Monday to approve the plan. If the days are cut, the school year will end June 11 rather than June 16, and eighth-grade graduation ceremonies will move to June 10.

The proposed cuts come in response to state's latest revenue projections, which will require the district to cut an additional $3 million from next year's budget. The proposed reduction in school days this year would save $600,000 of that amount.

Other school districts have taken on

In DC, even the Spelling Bee draws protesters Education news - Boston Globe - MCAS results - latest education news - Boston.com

Education news - Boston Globe - MCAS results - latest education news - Boston.com

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