Blog
Federal Effort to Push Junk Food from Public Schools
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 |
Yale Faces $150 Million Deficit, Forced to Make Cuts
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 |
Apple iPad vs Kindle DX: Which is Better for Education?
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 |
My Time at Twigmore
It was a bit less than a month ago that I wrote my first post for Twigmore marking the beginning of an experience that I will truly cherish. I have learned a lot from working with the Twigmore team in terms of the challenges and rewards of starting and running a business. It has been a pleasure to be a part of Twigmore’s growth this month and I have enjoyed watching the success of a company so dedicated to advancing the way people learn. I look forward to Twigmore’s continued success as the company continues to grow.
Editor’s Note: Cory joined us as part of the MIT Externship Program.
Posted in: Twigmore Company | Tagged: internship, mit-externship-program, twigmore.com |
Donating Sound to the “Bass Guitar With No Sound”
My brother and his wife recommended Donorschoose.org to me over a year ago. I finally got around to trying out the site and recently making a donation. Donorschoose.org is “an online charity connecting you to classrooms in need.” In other words, teachers post descriptions of class projects and materials needed, donors choose the projects they want to contribute to and then the students follow-up to thank the donor and show what they learned.
As an example, I chose to contribute to the “Bass Guitar with No Sound” project. This project caught my eye because I grew up humming bass lines and wanting to play the bass guitar, but only getting that chance later in life. I love the fact that I can help a group of students to follow their dreams and twig a musical instrument. We at Twigmore like this kind of grassroots initiative – improving one classroom at a time!
Posted in: How To, Web/Technology | Tagged: bass-guitar, charity, donation, donorschoose.org |
Join the Discussion and Shape Your Digital Photography Class!
We have been polling our audience over the past week and so far over 40% of the respondents say they would pay to take a class on Digital Photography. We encourage you to join our discussion on Facebook to tell us which specific Digital Photography classes you would find useful. Thanks and look forward to twigging from you!
Posted in: How To, Twigmore Company | Tagged: digital-photography, discussion, facebook, poll |
Experts Say a Rewrite of Nation’s Main Education Law Will Be Hard
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 |
New Program Combines Technology and Community Service
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 |
Finally, After Ten Years, Federal Money for Technology in Education
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 |
Can Phones Finally Fulfill on the Promise of Laptops in Education?
The 21st century brought the introduction of computer technology and many initiatives are underway to increase usage of laptop computers in schools. With programs like the One Laptop per Child in many developing countries as well as funding to support laptops in American school, the laptop is a portable means in which students can connect to the internet and access the ample amount of information that the internet provides.
However, with the advancement of mobile technology, is the mobile phone replacing the laptop? Today, the mobile phone is no longer used simply for making phone calls or sending text message but rather it has become a universal application device that provides networking between users. Companies like Apple iPhone, Google Android, Palm OS among others have introduced multiple applications to their platform that can enhance education in schools. There are applications for higher education like Lexi Comp, a multiple mobile OS application used by Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine among other medical schools for Medical students; this application provides easy access to pharmacology and toxicology information. There are networking applications like Blackboard mobile that can give students access to teachers to views and submit assignments as well as blog amongst classmates on a specific topic in specific classes. There are even applications like Monkey Preschool, a program for kids as young as three to use phones to learn about matching, counting, reading and more.
With advancements in technology, the new decade will definitely bring a new range of advanced mobile technology and high intensity education applications. Don’t be surprised if soon the iPhone is on your child’s list of items required for school. Maybe we’ll see a Twigmore app for mobile phones thus furthering phone use for education.
Posted in: Web/Technology | Tagged: education, iphone, laptop, learning, Mobile phone, smartphone, technology |