I have an undergrad in Mathematics, and planetarium, museum, and other informal education opportunities are great. I've been teaching in planetariums for 7yrs, and I absolutely love the lack of bureaucracy compared to K-12. Community college teaching is also a viable option.

Apollo-Soyuz was the big joint mission between the two powers.

Along those same lines, I'm sure that global warming will end since piracy is on the rise ;-). (FSM reference)

It takes a bit of digging, but if you look at those test scores, you'll see some major biases there. Take China and India for example: their scores on international tests are not for the country as a whole, but only the rich metropolitan areas.

Same goes for many other countries which track students into trade schools before ever getting to these tests.

If we only tested our best performing schools, we'd look like the cream of the crop, too!

College/University professors, at least in the US, have no training in how to teach. It's appalling that our higher education centers do not require the professors to take courses in HOW to teach, as many of them are piss poor teachers.

We require certification to teach up through high school, but once you hit college, we don't care about your teaching abilities as long as you are a subject area expert.

"Banning laptops is not the answer here. If one student is a problem, address that student directly and respectfully resolve the issue. Don't make capricious rules against everyone because of a few students who are an issue."

How about I quote my above statement for you:

"Banning laptops in the classroom is absurd. It's hitting a nail with an anvil. Establishing proper etiquette protocol and disciplinary procedures for students who disrupt a classroom is a much more sensible solution to outright bans. Computers are increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives, and students need to learn to be able to use them in a professional manner. Just as you don't see people staring at porn in the classroom or in a business meeting (typically), we shouldn't see people staring at their friend's FB page."

Classroom disruption procedures are already in place in almost every student handbook (every one I've looked at both on the student and the instructor side). This is simply accepting that laptops, cell phones, and other media/internet devices can and do disrupt the classroom. They need to be treated like Walkmans, drum sticks, and naked people.

If someone is quickly checking a fact online or is typing an a word processor, it's no more a distraction than a pen and paper being held upright. If someone is playing a flashy game or flipping screens regularly, its no different than excessively tapping a pencil on a desk or jumping up and down saying, "the power of Christ compels you!"

Use the procedures in place to address the issue, and if necessary, simply add the couple words in the handbook to ensure the idiots out there can't run around the rules claiming it isn't explicitly spelled out that their distraction of choice isn't covered.

You seem to think that a disciplinary process means no personal responsibility. As with all disciplinary issues, I subscribe to the reliable "chain of command" principle in which you always confront the offender first. Should that fail, there is an escalation process to resolve the issue through someone with more authority and capability to resolve the issue be it through punitive or persuasive means.

To achieve that end, one needs established rules governing what is considered a violation.

The issue is not finding a device free of working with DRM, but rather a store that sells DRM-free works.

If you want an ebook reader built on open source software, look at the Nook. Many have even rooted them to allow for custom installations. It allows for a variety of DRM and DRM-free formats to be used (should you find those DRM-free stores).

The market is in its infancy, and until one store gains a good monopoly (like iTunes with music), you're not going to see real competition (like DRM stripped books).

Personally, I say let them filter certain websites on the academic networks with the ability to request per-account authorizations when a student is doing a research project dealing with social networking. It's not going to stop anyone from SD, but it will at least stop the casual classroom infringer (for a while). Granted, soon everyone will just have CDMA or GSM laptops capable of getting online from anywhere, and school wifi networks will be bypassed completely. It's a tricky subject, and students will have to familiarize themselves with the network regulations to decide what campus to go to.

Banning laptops in the classroom is absurd. It's hitting a nail with an anvil. Establishing proper etiquette protocol and disciplinary procedures for students who disrupt a classroom is a much more sensible solution to outright bans. Computers are increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives, and students need to learn to be able to use them in a professional manner. Just as you don't see people staring at porn in the classroom or in a business meeting (typically), we shouldn't see people staring at their friend's FB page.