Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Correction: MacArthur Foundation, not McCormick (Score 1) 46

by theodp (#48792099) Attached to: Chicago E-Learning Scheme Embraces Virtual Badges For Public Schoolers

The MacArthur Foundation, not McCormick, is the nonprofit listed on the Chicago City of Learning page, and is the foundation that teamed up with Gates and on The Badges for Lifelong Learning and Mozilla on The Badge Alliance. The Presidents of both the MacArthur and McCormick Foundations are on the Thrive Chicago Leadership Council (the McCormick Foundation is the one listed as a "contributor"). Sorry for the confusion!

Comment Correction: MacArthur Foundation, not McCormick (Score 1) 1

by theodp (#48791127) Attached to: Digital Badges? Kids Don't Need No Stinkin' Digital Badges! Or Do They?

Oops, confused MacArthur and McCormick foundations...sorry about that!

Two corrections needed:

1. Change "the McCormick Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Mozilla" to "the MacArthur Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Mozilla"

2. Change "Not only that, Thrive Chicago's Leadership Council includes employees of the McCormick Foundation (as well as Microsoft and IBM}, and its funders include the McCormick foundation."" to "Not only that, Thrive Chicago's Leadership Council includes the interim President of the MacArthur Foundation (as well as Microsoft and IBM employees}."

Submission + - Digital Badges? Kids Don't Need No Stinkin' Digital Badges! Or Do They? 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Over at the Chicago City of Learning, children are asked to join the CPS Connects initiative and instructed to provide their Chicago Public School (CPS) student ID to "connect your learning experiences in your school and around the city". Doing so, explains the website, will allow kids to "earn digital badges that unlock new, related opportunities and can give access to live learning experiences throughout Chicago from program partners," which will serve as "an indicator of achievement to colleges and employers." The initiative aims to "get 80% of all 3rd-12th grade students to claim their accounts by January 30th." Before you scoff at the idea that a child's future could depend on his or her Digital Badge collection, consider that the supporters helping government make it happen include the McCormick Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Mozilla, and a number of business and education partners have made public pledges committing to help accelerate the spread and scale of digital badges for learning. Digital badge-based employment has also earned a thumbs-up from the White House. It's unclear, but might make sense that Chicago kids' digital badges will be collected and shared in the citywide data warehouse being built by the 'cradle-to-career' Thrive Chicago initiative, which is working with the Mayor’s Office and CPS to develop a "data system that integrates data from multiple partner agencies, links program participation data to other youth data, and provides a web interface where partner agencies can access youth data targeted on improving youth outcomes at the individual and aggregate levels." After all, the data collected will include "student demographics, school attendance, grades, student behavior, out of school time program participation, and progress to graduation." Not only that, Thrive Chicago's Leadership Council includes employees of the McCormick Foundation (as well as Microsoft and IBM}, and its funders include the McCormick foundation.

Submission + - Back to the Social Media Future 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Scores of decades before WhatsApp, Gmail, Facebook, and multiplayer Call of Duty, there was TERM-talk, P-Notes, Notesfiles, and Battlestar. Brian Dear goes back to the future, penning A 1980 Teenager’s View on Social Media, as written by his 19-year-old UDEL undergrad self, an avid user of PLATO, the 55-year-old granddaddy of today's MOOCs. Of old-school texting, Dear notes that you-are-how-you-type: "Every character is displayed in real time as each of us types. So *how* you TERM-talk with folks becomes part of your reputation. Kind of like what your handshake is like. We all know when we shake somebody’s hand and they have a firm, confident grip, full of vigor and life, a quick shake and release and you know this person is with it. And then there are those with cold, clammy fish hands that feel like they have no bones, it’s all just cushion all the way down Well in TERM-talk, if you type fast, that’s cool."

Submission + - A 1980 Teenager's View on Social Media (medium.com)

Submitted by platohistory
platohistory writes: Written as a response to the recent popular "A Teenager's View on Social Media" that appeared in Medium this past week, about a 19-year-old college student's views on Facebook, Instagram, etc. Well, social media has been around a lot longer than people think. This is a detailed account of what it was like to be a 19-year-old immersed on the PLATO system in 1980.

Submission + - Zuckerberg and Gates Looking to Hire a CTO Who Can Get Them Free Stuff

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "There just aren't enough people who are trained and have the skills we need," bemoaned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in What Schools Don't Teach. So it's interesting that apparently one of the most important qualifications Zuck's Fwd.us PAC is looking for in candidates to fill its Chief Technology Officer position is their ability to get free stuff ("experience negotiating in-kind (pro bono) contributions is a major plus") for the tech billionaire-backed PAC as it lobbies to "accomplish our goal of passing comprehensive immigration and education reform" (aka Microsoft's National Strategy). Among the benefits to a consultant or business to take on pro bono work, explains Ennergize, is that it can lead to paid gigs. Hey, kind of like an unpaid 2014 FWD.us Summer Apprenticeship, but without the unlimited ride MetroCard perk, kids!

Submission + - Why Rip Van Winkle Might Yawn at Coverage of President Obama's Coding Lesson

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If a modern-day Rip Van Winkle woke up from a twenty year nap and read the White House's 2014 Year in Review, he could be excused for wondering what the big fuss over President Obama's 2014 coding lesson was all about. While Quartz scoffed at the idea of a Bush dipping a toe in code, the last thing Rip could remember before dozing off in 1991 was seeing President George H.W. Bush get introduced to coding at an eerily similar-looking event at the Saturn School of the Future in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Tom King, the founder and Director of Saturn School, said in e-mail that Bush 41 was "the first of American Presidents to see and try K12 coding," recalling that students showed President Bush how LEGO-LOGO worked and how to enter computer code. "What George H.W. Bush did here," King added, "would have been similar to what Clinton or Obama did years later: Enter codes to solve a problem, such as moving a graphic around a computer screen. It's not trivial to do, but it's not 'rocket science' either. Obama used a modern computer or iPad screen, and typed in code, or 'chunks' of code, to make things move about the screen. To say any of them had learned to code is a stretch, but they did learn some basics of what coding is all about."

Submission + - Monica Guzman is Ashamed of Her Selfie Stick

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "As a tool for taking better pictures," writes GeekWire columnist Monica Guzman, "selfie sticks are fantastic." And while she didn't buy one of the gadgets just to include herself in pictures, Guzman still confesses to being "ashamed of my selfie stick", perhaps worried that she'll be lumped in with or — even worse join — the swelling ranks of monopole narcissists. So, is the selfie stick one of The 25 Best Inventions of 2014? Or is it one tech insanity too far?

Submission + - White House: Petition to Remove US DA in Aaron Swartz Case is Inappropriate

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: One year and 90K signatures after We the People petitions were submitted to 1. Remove United States District Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz and 2. Fire Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Heymann, the White House has responded with a non-response: "As to the specific personnel-related requests raised in your petitions, our response must be limited. Consistent with the terms we laid out when we began We the People, we will not address agency personnel matters in a petition response, because we do not believe this is the appropriate forum in which to do so." So, the Administration is commemorating the 2nd anniversary of Swartz's tragic suicide by calling on citizens to Tell Us What You Think About We the People and This Petition Response on U.S. Attorney's Office Personnel Matters. Unfortunately, prosecutorial overreach shows little sign of letting up. Georgia Tech CE/CS student Ryan Gregory Pickren, the NY Times Reports. faces a possible 15 years in prison and a $50,000 fine after being charged with computer trespassing for allegedly posting a calendar entry stoking a football rivalry days before the Georgia Tech-Georgia game ("Sat., November 29, 2014/ 12:00 pm/ Get Ass Kicked by GT"). Pickren's sister is trying to crowdfund her brother's defense.

Submission + - From Poop to Potable: Bill Gates Enjoys a Glass of Water from Human Waste

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Bill Gates can lead us to water recycled from feces. But can he make us drink? GeekWire reports that BillG is certainly leading by example, appearing in a video in which he sips "a glass of delicious drinking water" produced from human waste processed by Janicki Bioenergy's OmniProcessor, which can take sewer sludge and turn it into clean drinking water, electricity and clean ash. So how was it? "The water tasted as good as any I've had out of a bottle," said Bill. "And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It's that safe."

Submission + - Better Learning Through Expensive Software? One Principal Thinks Not.

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Instead of improving the instructional practices of teachers," laments Chicago public school Principal Michael Beyer, "we are throwing vast sums of money and time at software and digital solutions that are largely untested, unproven and highly questionable." Ed-Tech vendors' so-called 'weapons of mass instruction,' argues Beyer, may show 'gains' on the high-stakes tests because they mimic the targeted test format, but the learning gains don't necessarily transfer to the real world, or last much longer than the end of the school year. But technology in the classroom is not going away, as one commenter notes. So, what to do? Well, since U.S. CTO Megan Smith is looking for bigger technological fish to fry than weaning the White House off floppy disks, why not give her a crack at Ed-Tech, including a healthy budget and some Lab Schools where she could have educators and technologists brainstorm-and-prototype to separate the Ed-Tech wheat from the chaff without undue vendor influence and short-term test score pressure?

Slashdot Top Deals

"When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical." -- Jon Carroll

Close