Explore the Oceans in Pew Environment Group's New Map

Jun 08, 2011

In recognition of World Oceans Day (June 8), Pew's Global Ocean Legacy campaign has launched an interactive map to spotlight some of the most important and unspoiled places in our seas.

Embark on a virtual journey-from the South Pacific to the North Atlantic-and see six ocean sites where Global Ocean Legacy has played or is playing a pivotal role in establishing marine reserves. The tool provides a rare insight into some of the largest and most fragile places in our oceans.

http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/other-resources/global-ocean-legacy-interactive-map-85899360479

With the help of the Field Museum, students in Chicago and Fiji work together to dive on coral reefs, examine living species, and learn about biodiversity and conservation.
http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/students-use-virtual-tools-to-collaborate-across-the-globe-on-real-world-en/

Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning
http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/when-new-gets-old-redefining-approaches-to-digital-literacy-and-citizenship/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macfound%2FiQaL+Spotlight+on+Digital+Media+and+Learning#When:14:36:00Z
When "New" Gets Old: Redefining Approaches to Digital Literacy and Citizenship

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 07:36 AM PDT

Replacing "new media" with "participatory media" is more than a shift in semantics-it redefines learning, creativity and innovation in the classroom.

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Filed by Christine C.

Ever consider that much of what we call "new media" these days has been around for decades? PowerPoint is more than 20 years old. Video editing, blogging, wikis-they're often talked about as the Next Great Thing, but at this point, these tools and platforms are just, well, the thing.

Antero Garcia, a high school English teacher in South Central Los Angeles and a 2010-2011 U.S. Department of Education teaching ambassador fellow, believes that labeling these digital tools as "new" is not simply a semantic gaffe. In his latest post at DMLcentral, he persuasively articulates how the term "new" acts to marginalize what should be mainstream:

Without redefining the terms we are using to describe these tools and student work, digital technologies can actually be perceived as a cult-like sub-genre of the stuff teachers use; it can be looked on with bemusement by a critical mass of teachers as a pedagogical circus sideshow.

"New" makes low-fi filmmaking in my class, analysis of YouTube videos, and even social networking seem like extra stuff that teachers on the fringe are playing with. It makes the work playful in a way that moves it beyond policy adoption and allows it to be a supplement to how students can learn.

Garcia admits he is not much into labels, but he thinks a linguistic shift needs to happen-and happen soon. To spur the change, he suggests replacing "new media" with "participatory media":

Personally, I like the term "participatory media." It gives a description of the way technology is augmenting learning-increased participation and buy-in through a myriad of strategies. It de-emphasizes the digital nature of the work, highlighting that it can be applied in any classroom (not just the crazy English teacher down the hall or the media coach the school is subsidizing). It is also a term that is being used by numerous researchers already, making widespread adoption an easier proposition.

Participatory media has gained recent prominence through the work of Stanford University professor Howard Rheingold, whose 2008 article "Using Participatory Media and Public Voice to Encourage Civic Engagement" (pdf) presents the challenging question: "Might teachers enlist these young people's enthusiasm for using digital media in the service of civic engagement?" Rheingold's companion Socialtext wiki on "Participatory Media Literacy" is a great introduction to all the possibilities embodied in the term.

Other educators, such as Erica Halverson of University, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, promote the idea of "participatory media spaces," which she defines as non-hierarchical learning environments that encourage collaboration through diverse tools and spaces. To see where this concept is headed, check out her TEDx talk from last month in which she discusses the need, even in a test-crazy educational environment, to foster creativity and innovation through participatory activities in the classroom.

Simran Sethi, who teaches at the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communication and wrote last week on "Teaching Tweeting" for MetropolisMag.com, also sees "participatory" as a powerful, politically-infused term:

I use the term "participatory," rather than "social" because that is truly what it is. Storytellers without access to the hallowed ground of media's Fourth Estate now have collaborative spaces in which to share information. Important stories that serve the public interest-but are often eclipsed by flashier pieces-now have unprecedented opportunities for visibility. The news is no longer mediated by Wolf Blitzers or Greta Van Susterens. It is available straight from sources who live and breathe stories as they unfold-as nearby as Joplin, as far off as Tahrir Square. An abstract piece on plastics pollution in the ocean comes to life via a personal blog, a local revolution becomes global through a handful of texted characters.

Garcia's new call for the use of participatory media is meant to encompass all of these possible applications. But the "participatory" connection between digital tools and digital citizenship is a particularly hot topic right now.

The Media Awareness Network and the Canadian Teachers' Federation, in fact, are focusing on digital citizenship for this year's annual Media Literacy Week in Canadian schools..

And take a look at the Media Awareness Network's MyWorld project, a web-based digital literacy tutorial for high school students. While not specifically geared toward a particular social or political engagement, it uses gaming situations to get students thinking about and developing skills toward becoming responsible, ethical agents in their digital worlds.

NGLC Pumps Funding into Ed Tech Focused on Common Core
By David Nagel 06/14/11

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/06/14/nglc-pumps-funding-into-ed-tech-focused-on-common-core.aspx

The Next Generation Learning Challenges initiative has awarded $7 million to education technology programs focused on Common Core State Standards.
The Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) is a program led by the education organization Educause and is supported by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), iNacol (the International Association for K-12 Online Learning), the League for Innovation in the Community College, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The Gates Foundation in particular has pumped considerable funding into the promotion of Common Core State Standards, including, most recently, $3 million in April to a joint effort with Pearson to develop curriculum centered on Common Core and $3 million to ASCD (also in April) to promote Common Core among teachers.
Common Core State Standards are designed to provide a national, consistent set of academic standards as an alternative to those previously developed by individual states. As of this writing, 42 states, along with the District of Columbia and the United States Virgin Islands, have adopted the standards, according to information posted on the CCSS site.

All told, 19 programs will share in the latest round ("Wave II") of NGLC K-12 grants. All of the programs that received funding are technology-centric and focus on middle school and early high school math and literacy, with the aim of boosting student competence in alignment with Common Core State Standards in those disciplines. Winning programs are all "proof-of-concept and the early-stage adoption of programs."

"We need to enhance our country's educational system in ways that engage students both inside and outside of the classroom and provide them with the 21st century skills required for today's workforce," said Ira Fuchs, executive director of the Next Generation Learning Challenges, in a statement released today. "The innovative work of our grantees demonstrates how the thoughtful application of technology can help us achieve these goals."
Winning organizations included universities, K-12 education organizations, and private companies.

Those programs included:
Adaptive Problem Solving for Mathematics: Assessing and Adapting to Students While They Are Learning (recipient Texas Tech University);
ASSISTments: Using Web-Based Technologies to Support Grades Mathematics (recipient Worcester Polytechnic Institute);
Enhancing Literacy in Science Through Digital Text, Simulations, and Design Challenges (recipient University of Wisconsin-Madison);
Get the Math (recipient WNET);
Gooru Enrichment Program for Students in Grade 7 Math and Science Subjects (recipient EdNovo);
iCivics Argumentation Models (recipient iCivics, with partners from Arizona State University, Tufts University, and developer Filament Games);
Immersive Embodied Interactive Whiteboards and STEM (recipient SMALLab Learning);

Intelligent Digital Mathematics Tutoring for K-12 Students (recipient University of Massachusetts);
Ko's Journey (recipient Imagine Education);

The Labyrinth Challenge: A National Competition for 7th and 8th Grade Math Students (recipient Massachusetts Institute of Technology);

The LearningMatch (recipient Scholar Rocket);
Louisiana Virtual School--Algebra for the 21st Century (recipient Louisiana Department of Education);

Promoting Literacy Education in Rural Schools with Intelligent Game-Based Learning Environments (recipient North Carolina State University);

SunBay Digital Mathematics for Middle Grades (recipient University of South Florida St. Petersburg):

Transit to High School: Drop-in Modules to Prevent Dropouts (recipient Classroom Inc., partnering with Chicago Public Schools and an unnamed innovation school in New York, along with collaborator Filament Games);

Universal Design for Learning Modules: Supporting Literacy in Physics, (recipients CAST and the Education Development Center);

WhyCareers--Integrated Math, Science, and Career Education in a Learning-Based Virtual World (recipient DaVinci Minds);

WISEngineering (recipient Hofstra University);

Wordplay Games: Building World Knowledge in the Core Content Areas (recipient Education Development Center);

PEW RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE PEOPLE & THE PRESS
Public Focused on Economy, Media on Weiner Scandal

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2024/public-interest-too-much-anthony-weiner-palin-coverage

Public Sees Too Much Coverage of Weiner, Palin

June 15, 2011


Americans focused most closely last week on economic news amid continued reports about the weakness of the recovery, while the media gave the most coverage to the scandal involving New York Rep. Anthony Weiner.

About a quarter of the public (23%) says the economy was their top story of the week, according to the latest News Interest Index survey conducted June 9-12 among 1,002 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. By comparison, 13% say they most closely followed news about Weiner's admission that he sent sexually suggestive photos and messages to several women online.

In that regard, most Americans (63%) say news organizations are giving too much coverage to the scandal involving the Democratic lawmaker. Weiner's troubles accounted for 17% of coverage, according to a separate analysis by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). News about the economy made up 11% of the newshole.

About four-in-ten (39%) say they followed reports about the condition of the economy very closely, more than double the number following any other top story that closely. The level of interest is comparable with one week earlier (35%), when the news included downbeat reports about the health of the job, housing and financial markets.

Just 15% say they very closely followed news about the Weiner scandal, which unfolded over the course of the week with his initial admission, additional revelations and calls for his resignation from Democratic leaders. About a quarter (27%) say they followed this story fairly closely. But more than half say they followed it not too (23%) or not at all closely (34%). Interest was comparable among men and women and among Republicans, Democrats and independents.

View the topline questionnaire and survey methodology at people-press.org.

Now Available! The Nation's Report Card: U.S. History 2010 with Highlights from the 2009 High School Transcript Study

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has just released The Nation's Report Card: U.S.. History 2010. The report presents results for students from across the nation in grades 4, 8, and 12.


Major findings from the 2010 report include:

* The average score for fourth-graders was higher than in 1994 but not different than in 2006. The lowest performing students (10th, 25th, and 50th percentiles) made the greatest score gains in fourth grade since 1994.

* The average score for eighth-graders has continued to rise, resulting in the highest score in 2010. Similar to fourth-graders, average scores for the lowest performing eighth-grade students (10th, 25th, and 50th percentiles) increased both from 1994 and 2006.

* At grade 12, the average score in 2010 was not significantly different from the 2006 assessment, but higher than the average score in 1994.

* Average scores for Black and Hispanic students in grade 8 were higher in 2010 than in 2006; average scores for White, Black, Hispanic, and Asia/Pacific Islander students at all three grade levels were higher than in 1994.

* A higher percentage of fourth-graders and eighth-graders performed at or above Basic in 2010 than in 1994.

* At both grades 4 and 8, students from low-income families (those who were eligible for free school lunch) recorded higher average U.S. history scores in 2010 than in both 2001 and 2006. Low-income students make up 40 percent of fourth-graders and 36 percent of eighth-graders nationally.

Learn more about these findings at http://nationsreportcard.gov/ushistory_2010/. Download the report for additional findings about twelfth-grade U.S. History coursetaking patterns, derived from the 2009 High School Transcript Study, including:

* In 2009, access to AP U.S. history courses increased overall but lagged in low minority schools (schools with less than 10 percent Black or Hispanic students) and in schools in locations other than large cities.

* The percentage of graduates taking AP U.S. history was higher in 2009 than in 1990 for all graduates and was higher than in 1990 for White, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander graduates. In 2009, AP coursetaking in U.S. history was lower in low minority schools and schools not in large cities.

The Nation's Report Card: U.S. History 2010 is a product of the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

To view the full report please visit http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2011468

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/physicsanimation.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51


Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent
Ann Kellan, Science Nation Producer
The best animators know their physics
From drawings to computer animation, the magic of cartoon movies allows audiences to explore a fantastical and imaginary world. To make animated characters life-like on the big-screen, the laws of physics have to be taken into account by film makers. To be believable, every character's movements have to have the fundamentals of physics supporting them. If film makers incorporate scientific principles in the creation of the animated movie, audiences can escape reality and enter a fantasy world.

"The biggest win is when the audience feels an emotional connection to the character," says Cassidy Curtis, a character animator for DreamWorks. "Physics is integral to everything we do as animators because when something doesn't feel like it's physically capable of happening, it pops the audience out of the moment. It reminds the audience what they're watching isn't real."

Sitting in front of a computer screen, he shows the early drawings and animations of Toothless, the young flying dragon in the movie "How to Train Your Dragon." Curtis helped develop the character that flies through explosive flames, spins out of control and falls from the sky. "Our job is to convince the audience that, not only could that animal fly, but if he hits the ground, it will kill him," he says.

Physicist Alejandro Garcia, a professor at San Jose State University, advises DreamWorks animators, including Curtis, to create believable characters. With physics in mind, he and other scientists help animators make dragons fly right and explosions look real. "Anatomy is a topic that doctors study, and so do artists," Garcia says. "With animation, physics has become another science essential to the craft of these artists."

Garcia also helps animators create realistic yet whacky worlds of their own. "It's very important for animators to understand motion because that's really what they're doing, they're creating motion," says Garcia.

Animators create worlds that aren't always a plausible fit in the natural world. Damon Riesberg, a DreamWorks animator and the head of character effects for DreamWorks' "Megamind," understands how to mix imagination with reality. "Each movie, each film animation that we do has its own world of physics," Riesberg says. "They're slightly off from what our normal physics would be. 'Megamind''s world wasn't necessarily our world."

But other parts of "Megamind" are much more realistic. To create the perfect cape design, animators took various capes out for a test spin. "Our team built real capes of different fabrics, different materials, lengths and thicknesses to see what the real world physics would be," says Riesberg.

Animators analyze the real world physics of cape behavior while running, spinning and jumping around. The tests give the animators understanding of how to create a reasonable yet individualistic cape. "That's some of the science Garcia teaches," says Riesberg.

Garcia's physics lessons have also taught Jason Spencer-Galsworthy, supervising animator for "Megamind," a few things as well. "He explains how physics actually works," Spencer-Galsworthy says. Garcia gives lessons about gravity to help animators figure out the speed of falling objects or how characters should shift their weight from side to side when they're running, walking or standing still.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Garcia has been able to develop a course at San Jose State University on the physics of animation. The objective is to teach animators-in-training how to make it all look plausible. Students who have taken the course say it's invaluable.

"I learned about the physics of jumps," says student Carlos Nunez. "I learned about light and how light is affected by the world around us and how sound is affected."

Emily Johnstone is another student who appreciates Garcia's course. "Physics is what life is all about," says Johnstone. "What we're trying to capture is how life works and how things behave."

In the classroom, Garcia analyzes a student's animation and points out subtle changes that would make the animation appear more realistic. Garcia's student, Paul Yula, says, "There's a believability that comes into play in animation. You can stretch the rules, but you can never break the rules."

Learning these rules could give future animators a leg up on the competition when they start the job search in the profitable movie, TV and gaming industries.

"It's a very highly skilled industry, both on the art and technology side," says Marilyn Friedman, head of outreach and special projects at DreamWorks. "Not every school is teaching it in the way that will set them up to succeed at a place like this."

With physics as groundwork, prospective animators could make any imaginary world seem as authentic as our own.

ScienceDaily (May 9, 2011) - Online social networking sites, such as Facebook, can help students become academically and socially integrated as well as improving learning outcomes, according to a study by researchers in China and Hong Kong. Writing in the International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, explain that Facebook usage is around 90% across campuses and many educational institutions offer new students orientation on how to capitalize on social networking to improve their experience of their course and their final results.

Many previous studies of social networking have focused on identity presentation, privacy, and how social networks form. Much of the popular response to the advent of web 2.0 tools is that they can have a detrimental effect on students by being nothing more than trivial distractions from serious study. However, Stella Wen Tian of the University of Science & Technology of China (Suzhou Campus) and Angela Yan Yu, Douglas Vogel and Ron Chi-Wai Kwok of City University of Hong Kong, suggest that students' online social networking directly influences social learning and can positively influence academic learning.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110509091557.htm

http://mashable.com/2011/06/11/online-education-infographic/

by Jolie O'Dell

Over the past decade or so, the Internet has become a huge source of information and education, especially for those who might be short on time, money or other resources.

And it's not just crowdsourced data collections like Wikipedia or single-topic blogs that encourage individual learning; huge corporations and nonprofits are making online education and virtual classrooms a very formal affair these days.

From the first online classes (which were conducted by the University of Phoenix in 1989) to the present day, when online education is a $34 billion industry, more and more students are finding new life and career education opportunities online.

Check out this infographic from OnlineEducation.net about how the world of online learning has changed and grown over the years.

Net Family News
Anne Collier

Facebook and Twitter are very different but social utilities just the same, so there are about as many ways teachers use them as there are teachers. And their creativity is truly inspiring. In his blog post "The Why and How of Using Facebook For Educators - No Need to be Friends At All!," Texas middle school teacher Ronnie Burt has a little graphic showing that 61% of educators have Facebook accounts. So (whether or not they use Facebook for professional or personal purposes or both), Facebook's a logical place to start this post.

Burt starts with showing teachers how, if they and their students' parents are comfortable with school-related Facebook use, to friend students safely. Among the many examples of teachers' uses in the comments at the bottom are:

Jose Aguirre's use of a Facebook community page for his Earth Science High School Class ("I post school photos, lab videos, links to NASA. I even used 'discussions' to have them submit homework as an alternative to [using] Blogger")
Gabe the first-year German teacher who sets up a private group where he posts "study help, extra material, interesting links" and his students "post comments, ideas and any questions they have. I can also post 'tick the box' lists as well as primitive questionnaires. The event reminder and calendar is also a great function."
Teacher and coach Rick has "a Facebook group for each of my classes and the Golf team which I coach. Once the group is set up students can join it and then I okay them to join and my personal stuff is kept personal and yet I can message all the students and even parents who join and they can message me. I find this a great way to be in contact, and not have to write in email addresses, and yet not be friends."
Fewer falling through the cracks?

Rick also reports that using FB helps keep students from falling through the cracks: "Above all, the increased communication in the last few years has meant better monitoring of kids' progress in school. Thus Parents, Admin, Learning Assistance and Teachers can work together more efficiently to support struggling learners. In the last 3.5 years I have taught 619 kids (grades 9-12) and only had 4 failures. I did not have that kind of record before."

For a book chapter she was writing (see "Related links"), Laurie reviewed "several studies that have looked at student perceptions of faculty and teachers on Facebook," finding that "it was all fairly positive - one study included student perceptions of three different Facebook profiles (one with almost no information, one with limited information, and one with personal information including personal pictures). Students thought the instructor who included more information would be the better teacher."

A school counselor's view

Gary McDaniel, a clinical social worker of 20 years who works in the Morgan County School District in West Virginia, finds Facebook and other social-media tools indispensable. He gave me permission to publish this email to a group of risk-prevention specialists: "I and many of the school counselors I coordinate and many of the parents, school administrators and some teachers I work with find Facebook a helpful adjunct to working with students. We've prevented at least one likely suicide this year, had cyberbullying taken down regularly, apprehended several knives, talked kids out of 100 stupid things, and been made aware by parents and other students of kids in crisis. Other counselors, teachers and administrators want nothing to do with Facebook and that's OK too. But with one of me and 2,700 students, Facebook, email, text messaging and cell phones help me get my job done."

Twitter for teachers

As for Twitter, which doesn't have a minimum age of 13, here's the answer to all those who hear the word "Twitter" and reflexively picture a tweet about "what I ate for lunch": Iowa State University education professor Scott McLeod's blog post, starting with "If you were on Twitter yesterday, you might have found…" and listing meaty, useful links people tweeted that day, from "fabulous summer reads from The Atlantic" to "resources for how to rework your acceptable use policy" to "great ideas for doing Webquests in your classroom." And guess how I found this post? Somebody tweeted it (I use Twitter as my professional learning network, or PLN, the same way Scott does and have to say I feel greatly enriched because of it, personally and professionally).

But that's just the day-to-day professional development part outside the classroom. Then there are the ways teachers use Twitter in it: Here's a blog post linking to "100 ways to teach with Twitter," including University of Plymouth Prof. Steve Wheeler's 10 ways. I think it would be great to turn social studies, media, and language arts students into news curators and wrote about that last February at the height of the demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square here.

Toward re-humanizing school

Sometimes we think technology removes the human factor, when the exact opposite is true - at least when we're talking about social (interactive and collaborative) media. Two-and-a-half years ago, I read a thoughtful New York Times Magazine piece about Twitter and wrote "A (digital) return to village life" and, at the bottom under "Twitter in the classroom," thought out loud about the benefits I was seeing. I said it then, and I'll say it again now:

Powerful things can happen when people can come to understand each other on even slightly deeper levels afforded by the kind of frequent, candid, humanizing communication that happens in social media. Empathy emerges. Think about what can happen when people feel empathy toward one another: compassion, civility, encouragement, empowerment, engagement, etc. Disinhibition - that condition of online experience that allows for cyberbullying, harassment, hate, etc. by dehumanizing people - tends to be disempowered. And students go from being passive consumers to citizens and (class and school) community members - collaborators in each other's and owners of their own learning experiences.

Related links

A true 21st-century educator: Amazing 6th-grade teacher Heidi Siwak's recent discovery, "My Students Need Me After All" (and how they do need her)
"Facebook in the classroom. Seriously."
"100 ways you should be using Facebook in your classroom"
Teacher Ronnie Burt's very helpful, plain-English "Complete Guide to Maximizing Success with Facebook"
Teaching Generation M: A Handbook for Librarians and Educators
"Your Students Love Social Media … and So Can You"
"Join the Movement to Transform Learning: A Guest Blog" by George Lucas, founder of Edutopia
A principal's reflection on "communicating and connecting with social media," from Eric Sheninger, co-author of a new book on the subject (he blogged an excerpt on "using Twitter to build your school brand" (I loved a comment at the bottom from an educator in Indonesia, who says that his country is the third-largest in Twitter use, but "but in the school environment, twitter is not as popular as facebook").
Clearheaded advice to teachers from Todd Finley, East Carolina University education professor: "Siphoning the Fumes of Teen Culture: How to Co-opt Students' Favorite Social Media Tools"
"Facebook for Educators"
ConnectSafely.org's "A Parents' Guide to Facebook"
"Social media in the classroom: +1 or -1?"

By Ben Kuchera

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/the-old-republic-interview.ars

It's hard to show off an MMO title within the constraints of a trade show, so I rarely feel like I walk away from such meetings with a good idea of what the game is actually like to play. It was stressed to the press during the game's latest demo that this is a game built on a strong story, and you can play your character however you'd like. In one scene we saw the ramifications of both being merciful and executing an NPC. The idea of an online game with such a rich world and story is appealing.

But what happens if I'm a Jedi who consistently does the wrong thing? Will I ever fall and join the ranks of the Sith? I wanted to find out.

Building a culture versus striking a pose

I sat down with Daniel Erickson, the lead writer of The Old Republic to figure out how your decisions affect your class and your standing among the Jedi or the Sith. If I'm playing a Jedi, is it possible to do so many evil acts that I turn into a Sith character? The movies present the slide as being something chosen by your actions and motivations, but in The Old Republic things are very different.

So what happens if I'm unfailingly evil as a Jedi? Do the Sith try to recruit me? "No, and the reason is... this is a hard one to look at because we made them entire cultures," Erickson told Ars. "The Sith we see [in the movies], even Vader, are not actually Sith, they are harkening back to a tradition from years ago-they are fallen Jedi. The Sith in our game are actually Sith; they are from a different empire that was almost wiped out of existence by the Jedi."

We're getting into some seriously nerdy territory here, but as a Star Wars fan I'm right in my element. I've never thought about it this way: the Sith in the movies were mostly given Jedi training first, and then fell to the dark side and began to call themselves Sith Lords. It's an anachronism more than a title at that point.

"I always take it back to the World War 2 analogy: if you were a very evil British soldier in World War 2, you wouldn't join the Nazis; you were torturing them in the basement," Erickson explained. "You're a bad man, but that doesn't mean you're going to leave your country. You're going to do what you're trying to do in the worst possible way."

The thing is, this goes the other way as well. "This is what's really hard for people to wrap their heads around sometimes. A light-side Sith is going to try to make his horrible screwed-up country better," Erickson said. "A Sith is given, by his society, unlimited power to do whatever he wants unless a stronger Sith can stop him. So a light-side Sith warrior can walk out there and protect the Imperial people, because he thinks the other side is crazy."

I asked him if this is the logical progression to "might makes right," and he nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly, and in our game, it could actually be right." It's a subtle thing: the Sith and the Jedi aren't the good and bad guys; instead, it's more of a cultural distinction this far back in the Star Wars timeline. So you can be a good man and still fight the Jedi, and you can try to end the Sith through evil means. The choice is in your hands, as it should be in games of this scope.

Photo illustration by Aurich Lawson, utilizing concept art from Lucasfilm Ltd.

Submitted: June 9, 2011 - 3:29pm
Originally published: June 9, 2011
Last updated: June 9, 2011 - 3:35pm
Source: Federal Communications Commission
Author: press release
Location:
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC, 20554, United States
The Federal Communications Commission's Working Group on the Information Needs of Communities delivered an in-depth analysis of the current state of the media landscape along with a broad range of recommendations.

The staff-level report was delivered to the FCC at an open commission meeting. The report was produced by a group of journalists, scholars, entrepreneurs and government officials, led by Steven Waldman, a successful digital media entrepreneur and former journalist. Waldman worked for many years as a highly-respected reporter and editor at Newsweek, U.S News & World Report and WallStreetJournal.com. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Beliefnet.com, which won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online and was later acquired by FOX Networks Group.

Key findings and recommendations include:

Fueled primarily by broadband-enabled innovation, the news and information landscape is more vibrant than ever before. Digital technology is creating a world of opportunity to keep the public informed in ways unimaginable just a few short years ago.
The disruptive impact of the Internet has enabled an unprecedented free exchange of ideas and information. Breakthroughs in hyperlocal news and citizen journalism are on the rise, empowering individuals with a wealth of new information to better inform decisionmaking and engender more accountable government.
There are nonetheless serious gaps, including in local accountability reporting. These deficits increase the likelihood of corruption, wasted tax dollars, worse schools and other problems for communities.
Accelerate move from paper to online disclosure. Disclosure information required by the FCC should be moved online from filing cabinets to the Internet so the public can more easily gain access to valuable information. FCC should eliminate burdensome rules and replace the current system with a streamlined web-based disclosures focused on providing information about local programming.
Remove barriers to innovation and online entrepreneurship by pushing for universal broadband deployment and adoption. Achieving this goal would remove cost barriers, strengthen online business models, expand consumer pools and ensure that the news and information landscape serves communities to the maximum possible benefit of citizens.
Target existing federal spending at local media. Existing government advertising spending, such military recruiting and public health ads, should be targeted toward local media whenever possible. Each year, the federal government spends roughly $1 billion in advertising without maximizing potential benefits to local media.

Inside the US-Anglo-French plan to civilize the Internet
Submitted: June 10, 2011 - 8:41am
Last updated: June 10, 2011 - 8:55am
Source: Ars Technica
Author: Nate Anderson
Location:
Paris, France
Get ready for international Internet regulation; top leaders from the US, UK, and France are making increasingly public statements about their plans to draft new rules that will make the 'Net more secure and will crack down on copyright infringers.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/06/western-governments-mount-major-push-for-internet-rules-of-the-road.ars

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI
Growth in the volume of text messaging is slowing sharply, just as new threats emerge to that lucrative source of wireless carrier profits.

Wall Street Journal


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Online computing: The crowded cloud

By Richard Waters, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Joseph Menn

Published: June 3 2011 22:30 | Last updated: June 3 2011 22:30



Financial TImes

Will the FCC stay committed to rural America? The Hill Op-Ed By Former Senator Byron Dorgan Almost every month, a new telecommunications innovation is launched that has a profound impact on our lives. Lately we've seen the impact of these telecommunication changes in ways we never could have imagined. In past months we've witnessed the Egyptian government being toppled by citizens using their cell phones to organize mass rallies and send videos of shocking violence against the demonstrators around the world. And in just recent days we learned it was through sophisticated tracking of a cell phone that led our soldiers to Osama bin Laden's doorstep in Pakistan. In both cases, a broadband wireline network infrastructure transported these important communications and changed history. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/164691-will-the-fcc-stay-committed-to-rural-america