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Comment Re:School equipment, though (Score 4, Insightful) 379

I work for a school district in the technology department. We clearly spell out in our usage agreements that everything created on district equipment is for educational purposes only, and not to be sold for profit by either students or staff. Since this guy is using a school camera, I think this might be the policy he's running into.

From his Flickr site: "At the end of the [Texas Association of Journalism Educators] class, I approached the teacher confused, and asked that because I was using a school camera, and using a school press pass, do I still own my pictures? She replied that I did."

If he were using his own equipment on his own time, I'd be first in line to tell the school to blow it out his ear. But if he's covering these sporting events as a member of the yearbook staff for the school and he's turning around and selling yearbook pictures privately for his own profit, then no, I don't think he should do that.

This would require a separate agreement that he (and his parents, since he is a minor and therefore cannot enter into a binding contract) would have had to agree to. He's not an employee of the school (and even then would have to sign an intellectual property agreement first), so the press pass means squat. School board policy even states that students retain ownership of their creative works. As for the camera ownership doesn't matter by itself in the eyes of copyright law (see the monkey selfie fiasco).

Comment Re:Or maybe they just care more... (Score 1) 113

Hence banning mobile phones may be not the cause of the better results. Correlation is not causation. Causation needs specific, strong supporting evidence.

Who cared more? This was studied in schools that changed their policies, not a comparison between schools that had the ban and those that didn't. From TFP: "We compare the gains in test scores across and within schools before and after mobile phone bans are introduced. "

Comment Re:Reduce Inequality? (Score 2) 113

Then seriously have the phone locked up at the front office or something. What they should be doing is making the ability to store the phone during school hours more equal, rather than just giving in and allowing them to be carried during the day.

It will be up to each school to determine their own rules. If they don't, then a set of default rules will be used (phones put away during class, can be used during lunch, etc. It's in the article in TFA I believe).

Comment Re:Reduce Inequality? (Score 3, Informative) 113

Comment Re:Reduce Inequality? (Score 4, Interesting) 113

If that's really what lifting the ban does, then I'm fine with it. I just don't see how allowing phones will accomplish this (ie - I have an iPhone 6 and you're stuck with a hand-me-down MicroTac).

Lower-income schools tend to have more security such as metal detectors and bag searches in NYC. This caused an odd business to pop into existence where students would pay private businesses (usually vans that stopped outside the schools in the mornings and afternoons) to store the phones during the day. Public schools in more affluent areas don't have these security measures, so students there could get away with just carrying the devices into the school. Keep in mind a lot of kids walk to school in NYC so the worse the neighborhood, the more you probably want your kid to have a phone to call home in case of emergency, and yet due to the increased school security and the blanket ban on cell phones, they are more likely to be the ones forced to either not do so or pay for storage during the day.

Comment Re:Obvious point of comparison? (Score 1) 211

Considering that the 911 call centers are calling out this specific category of call, it would suggest that it is a strong outlier compared to the rest of their call volume. That would also mean that they are tracking the numbers you are asking about. Therefore I'm sure if you contact some of the agencies mentioned in the FCC proposal one of them would probably supply the statistics you are asking for.

Comment Re:Obvious point of comparison? (Score 1) 211

I assume they have data for other devices as well, although the FCC proposal doesn't list it. Since the call centers are the ones asking for this change (no the phone companies), it's probably because this category of devices is an outlier for them and the problem they pose is much higher than other call sources. The call centers have no financial interest in the sources of the calls the get. Their financial interests are in resource allocation for incoming calls and costs associated with unnecessary and fraudulent calls. I'm sure you could make a few inquiries and get the numbers from some of the agencies mentioned in the FCC proposal.

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