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Serious Games and the Study of Society

This is an issue we should be studying, talking about, and weighing in on. With the blocking that this proposes, say that you claim fair use, that may not matter - you may be blocked for using copyrighted material, period... no matter whether you have fair use claims or not., the way I understand it. Looking for some more good information on SOPA. Please share. "SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is another one of those bills that sounds like it's going to do something mildly positive but, in reality, has serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it. It puts power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This language vague enough to encompass sites you use every day, like Twitter and Facebook, making SOPA a serious problem"

I really like the idea of this app - it keeps up with the last time you did something (go to the doctor, change the oil, took a day off, changed your toothbrush) and reminds you when it is time to do that again. I like this as I don't want my to do list cluttered and then just forward and forward when I really need to know when the last time I did something happened so I can know how serious it would be. Even things like "when is the last time I did something kind for the janitor" or other things that are important but don't necessarily need to hit the list. Cool idea. I'm trying it.

I agree. Students who got to read the passages ahead of time had an advantage - of course, is anyone looking to see if there was a "hit" on other textbook passages - is this luck or is it corruption. Either way - it smells like corruption. There is a conflict of interest if you're testing and selling textbooks to help kids do better on testing.  "students who read the Pearson test before seeing it on the state test had the opportunity to fill the gaps in their own knowledge-whether through class discussion or simply by reading and answering the questions provided in the curriculum-before they took the test. And that means that the validity of a test that aims to differentiate between "good" and "poor" readers is necessarily called into question. Unfortunately, it seems that New York education officials don't realize how significant this problem is. Or even that it is a problem. (Meryl Tisch, New York Board of Regents chancellor, actually defended the quality of the assessments, boasting that, thanks to a rigorous new quality-control review, the Department of Education had avoided the kinds of problems that lead to last year's now-famous pineapple scandal. And that failure to recognize what may be a far more serious and consequential challenge may be the biggest red flag that Common Core assessment decisions are in trouble in the Empire State."

Some really good activities here! Free team building games and exercises ideas to warm up meetings, training, and conferences. Team building games and activities are useful in serious business project meetings, where games and activities help delegates to see things differently and use different thinking styles. Games and exercises help with stimulating the brain, improving retention of ideas, and increasing fun and enjoyment.

This survey shows that iPad with the $199 price tag is a 'serious" contender for the ipad. I had someone ask me about Kindle fire vs. iPad. Definitely people are comparing it. Personally, I think it is going to take an OS update the droid system because every time I've used a droid anything the touch hasn't been responsive, but that update is coming.

Google's Cyber weekend deals are a serious reason to at least download Google Play for iOS on your ipad. I'm picking up Malcom Gladwell's book for 3.49 and reading it in the app for just this reason. Book lovers must go over this list, but the chromecast stick is worth a look as it is basically a Roku/ Apple TV on a stick for just $35.

Remember one thing as you look at these scores - not all students are tested in many countries and in many countries only the brightest go to school. In my opinion, these tests have some serious flaws. For example, I don't play cricket - my scores would be low -- I don't know that I'm so upset about that. While math, science, and reading are important -- standards vary greatly between countries -- so unless we're going to prep for PISA scores. Also on another note -- comparing "Shanghai to nations makes me wonder - I'm sure there are certain cities in the US that would do very well on such a test. Anyway, I want to look deeper, but I think before we rattle cages and get too upset, the report should be looked at deeply but not only the report - but the test. I remember getting upset that my kindergartener scored in the 60th percentile on "environment" only to see that he missed that a judge was supposed to be a guy in a grey wig (who does that) and couldn't identify a subway turnstile (we live in a town of 5,000). Since that time, I always want to see the test. Lots of people will be talking about this so look at it and be prepared to answer questions. This is the post from Aljazeera so you can see what other countries are saying about the report. "Asian countries have topped the rnakings in a global education report which evaluates the knowledge and skills of 15 and 16-year-olds around the world. The report by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), published on Tuesday, shows that children from Asian nations continue to outshine their western counterparts in maths, science and reading. The city of Shanghai topped the table in the three-yearly reported which tested more than 510,000 students in 65 countries. Children in Shanghai were, on average, the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling ahead of the majority of nations tested."

Contrary to popular belief, teenagers do not need less sleep than others. In fact, as they move through their teenage years, adolescents need increasing amounts of sleep - about nine hours nightly, as compared to eight hours needed by adults. Excessive sleepiness in teenagers and young adults is related to physiological changes during puberty. Yet, school starting times get earlier and earlier as students mature, despite the fact that puberty demands more sleep. This may have serious physical, mental, and social consequences for adolescents and negatively impact their academic performance.

Describes MI's problems w/ adding serious wind power to the existing electrical grid. Calls for an improvement of transmission lines to be able to handle new energy sources.

The ustream for the Web 2 smackdown and a list of links from the session on a wiki page. Some people don't like the term "smackdown" which originated from wrestling (guess it shows my southern roots) -- just meant to be a lot of fun and sharing - not supposed to be too serious. Lots of great tools shared here. The ustream is great if you have time, if you don't, there are quite a few links in the diigo list I share here.

FaceBook is fun and tweets have a short shelf life. However, for those who are serious about building a professional network, then LinkedIn is the service for managing their career. In today's job market an invitation to "join a professional network" has become obligatory and more useful than swapping business cards or sending out résumés.

NASA calls for Citizen scientists to help map Mars and says that citizen scientists "have helped to answer serious scientific questions, provide vital data to the astronomical community, and have discovered thousands of objects including nebulas, supernovas and gamma ray bursts." It is time to join your classrooms into the citizen scientist movement. How would your students feel about science if they helped discover a star?

Citizen science website for NASA.

SCHOOL CHOICE is a controversial public education reform -- but not as controversial as it should be. Support for choice remains strong in the face of mounting evidence that long-standing controversies are being decided in favor of the critics of choice. Our study of the choice program in the Boulder Valley School District adds to the growing body of research documenting serious flaws in the theory, procedures, and outcomes of school choice. Advocates of school choice contend that competition gives parents a voice and the power to vote with their feet. Schools that consistently perform poorly will lose "clients" and be forced to go "out of business," resulting in overall improvement in both achievement and parental satisfaction. Advocates of choice also contend that school choice can better accommodate a diversity of student interests and needs than the "one-size-fits-all" approach they ascribe to traditional public schools. Finally, they contend that school choice can reduce inequities. School choice is really nothing new, according to them, for parents have long chosen schools by choosing their place of residence.

I bookmarked this, in spite of the column title, because I know that many of us from time to time will refer to the many things you can do with the iPhone in your pocket. Carrying around that kind of power in your pocket SHOULD change SOMETHING about how we view the role of education today, don't we agree? Add to this list the ability to control Radio Controlled cars and helocopters, play music, and so MANY more of OUR favorite apps and... the technology is just too important to ignore. Or worse - to ban! This is just a nice collection of apps and descriptions in ten categories, from arts, to science, to math, to litereature, and more. Yes, it omits as many categories (or more) than it includes, but it's a nice place to start.

A serious look at learning spaces and how the new ways of learning demand a different perspective of learning spaces and what they look like. Very rich.

If you use Wordpress the Yoast SEO plug in is by-far the best. This is the definitive guide to optimizing your SEO for Wordpress and is something appropriate for serious bloggers or school webmasters/ IT to read and understand, especially if you're using their SEO optimizer for wordpress (which is free and awesome.)

"Teacher burnout is regarded as a serious problem in school settings. To date, studies on teachers' stress and burnout have largely centred on teachers' own characteristics, socialisation, and behaviours, but few have explored the connection between teachers' burnout and students' motivation via their own perceptions of teachers' behaviour and emotional well-being."