Articles by: Peter Baer
About: Peter Baer
Mr. Baer is the Co-founder of Twigmore Inc. Prior to that he was Vice President at Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution where he was responsible for the licensing of motion picture and television content as well as the company's branded entertainment efforts. At Warner Bros, he also managed pay-per-view, video-on-demand and digital initiatives. Mr. Baer has held positions at CBS Radio as Vice President Sales & Marketing and Executive Vice President at LockStream Corporation, a copy protection, anti-piracy and digital rights management company. He holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from NYU's Stern School of Business and a BA in English Literature from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He sits on the Board of Directors of Relevantis, Inc. and is a Co-chair of the Hassenfeld Committee, the New York City Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at NYU Medical Center.
New Advisor Lloyd Bromberg
Posted by Peter Baer on Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Twigmore would like to welcome Lloyd Bromberg as an adviser. Most recently he was the Director of School Programs for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Lloyd also served as Director of Social Studies and Director of Staff Development for the New York City Public Schools. His experience will be invaluable in helping us develop our service. We are very excited to have him on board and look forward to working together.
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Federal Effort to Push Junk Food from Public Schools
Posted by Peter Baer on Monday, 8 February 2010
NY Times article says the Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, french fries and Snickers bars from the nation’s schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that any vending machines that remain in schools should be “filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation’s children.” We think it’s interesting that Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss is involved, given the fact that Coca Cola is based in his home state.
Posted in: Human Interest, Politics | Tagged: arne duncan, barack obama, ny times, public school | No Comments
Yale Faces $150 Million Deficit, Forced to Make Cuts
Posted by Peter Baer on Friday, 5 February 2010
NY Times article on Yale University announcing that it’s planning a number of steps to close a remaining $150 million budget gap, including cutting staff, freezing salaries for deans and officers, reducing the number of graduate students — even turning down all thermostats to 68 degrees. Richard C. Levin, Yale’s president, and Peter Salovey, its provost, said the measures are necessary because of the drop in the endowment to $16.3 billion last June from its peak of $22.9 billion in June 2008. Many other elite universities have been affected by the economic downturn as well.
Posted in: Human Interest | Tagged: education, school, university, yale | No Comments
Apple iPad vs Kindle DX: Which is Better for Education?
Posted by Peter Baer on Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Interesting PCWorld blog on the pluses and minuses of each device. The author points out that if the iPad doesn’t succeed as a consumer electronics device–its initial target market–it may find a successful second career as an electronic textbook reader. The fledgling e-textbook market looks promising, and there’s little competition right now aside from the Kindle DX, which has undergone a few university trials in recent months, including one at Princeton University. It seems likely that new technologies like these will be useful in educating more efficiently.
Posted in: Web/Technology | Tagged: ipad, kindle, pcworld, princeton, technology | No Comments
Experts Say a Rewrite of Nation’s Main Education Law Will Be Hard
Posted by Peter Baer on Friday, 29 January 2010
NY Times article on President Obama holding out the hope of overhauling the main law outlining the federal role in public schools. Since it was put in its current form by the second Bush administration — and renamed No Child Left Behind — it has generated frequent and very divisive debate, partly because it requires schools to administer far more standardized tests and because it labels schools that fail to make progress fast enough each year as “needing improvement.” That category draws penalties and has grown to include more than 30,000 schools. There doesn’t seem to be any way this will get done prior to the November elections. Hopefully next year the Republicans and Democrats will put politics aside and work together to improve the school system.
Posted in: Politics | Tagged: arne duncan, department of education, ny times, public school, secretary of education | No Comments
New Program Combines Technology and Community Service
Posted by Peter Baer on Thursday, 28 January 2010
e School News piece on students putting their tech skills to work in the community through the Service & Technology Academic Resource Team (START) program. The program, launched by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and Microsoft Corp., aims to create a new kind of collaboration between students and teachers through technology-focused service learning. Partnerships between companies like Microsoft and the US public school system make a lot of sense.
Posted in: Web/Technology | Tagged: department of education, education, microsoft, technology | No Comments
Finally, After Ten Years, Federal Money for Technology in Education
Posted by Peter Baer on Monday, 25 January 2010
NY Times article points out that more than a decade ago, Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of both NBC News and PBS, and Newton N. Minow, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, were asked by several foundations to explore how nonprofits like schools, libraries and museums could tap into emerging digital technologies. After a tortuous journey — “It’s been one ‘starting all over again’ after another after another after another,” Mr. Minow said — their organization, what is now being called the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, finally has Congressional appropriation through the Education Department. It will be introduced Monday and could be handing out grants by fall. It’s a shame that things have taken this long, but the initiative seems promising.
Posted in: Web/Technology | Tagged: education, learning, ny times, technology, united states | No Comments
Why K-12 Education Needs Mobile Technology
Posted by Peter Baer on Friday, 22 January 2010
Interesting eWeek piece pointing out the need to fundamentally change the way we teach K-12 students in the US and that mass assembly line education has to be changed into an individualized and personalized educational process. The author believes mobile technology is the solution. Can’t say we agree completely, but the concept is intriguing.
Posted in: Web/Technology | Tagged: k-12, learning, mobile, school, technology | No Comments
Detroit School Kids Learning at Auto Show
Posted by Peter Baer on Thursday, 21 January 2010
Detroit Free Press article on students from 70 schools in Michigan and the Midwest descending on the Detroit Auto Show for Automotive Education Day, sponsored by State Farm Insurance. Lacey Lambert, a project coordinator for the North American International Auto Show’s education day, said the event aimed to broaden young people’s knowledge about jobs in the auto industry and related fields. “We want to teach them about the possibilities,” Lambert said. We like programs that make kids aware of opportunities in real world business.
Posted in: Human Interest | Tagged: learning, public school, school, technology | No Comments
President Obama Seeks $1.35 Billion More for Education
Posted by Peter Baer on Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Fox News article on President Obama visiting a Northern Virginia school today and officially announcing he’ll be asking Congress for $1.35 billion to extend an education grant program he introduced in his first year in office. Mr Obama alongside Education Secretary Arne Duncan, detailed his “Race to the Top” program, which was part of the original $787 billion economic stimulus program signed into law last year. “Race to the Top” encourages states and school districts to do better by amending education laws and polices, and compete for the grants. More money is good, but as yesterday’s post shows, there are problems with the program and results will stem from the implementation not the total dollar amount.
Posted in: Politics | Tagged: arne duncan, barack obama, department of education, united states | No Comments