Group items tagged

modified xboses are in greater demand since the ban from microsoft's online gaming community. (modifying xbox allows playing banned games and games/movies of other regions)

Minnesota reverses decision to ban Coursera after "a staggering amount of backlash" 

The New York TImes continues their efforts to get an explanation from the Department of Education of NY on their reasons behind the cell phone ban. It seems that the district is not budging on their policy and is so far unwilling to listen to educators vouching for phones as useful learning tools. 

Cell phones are banned in NYC public schools, but it is the norm for students who attend schools without metal detectors to bring their phones anyway. If caught teachers are confiscating phones for up to a week, or longer, at their discretion. At schools with metal detectors small businesses have popped up around schools, storing students' phones for the school day for a small fee, similar to a coat check system. Instead of harnessing the power of mobile phones that almost every student already has, they are punishing them and/or causing them to pay money to keep them stored for the school day so that they can have them before and after school. I think this is a missed opportunity for the NYC school system not only because they are missing out on mobile learning opportunities with technology the district doesn't have to buy, but they could also be teaching the students responsible and appropriate use of mobile phones in public spaces.

Minnesota government uses a decades-old law to ban online classes, then reconsiders after public outrage.

Invoking a decades old law that requires any degree granting academic institution to obtain a license to operate in state (and pay a hefty fee for said license), Minnesota has banned universities from offering free online courses through education site Coursera, prompting the site to issue this notice to all Minnesota users: Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so.

Video Games, Violence, Ban Question: Is there a coin here? Do educational video games sit on the opposite side of violent video games? If video games are good for instruction then are violent video games also instructing violence? Perhaps existing violent games are not following good educational design and therefore are bad at instructing violence (which is good)?

how should teachers respond to bans on cellphones, social media?

banned websites issues

Example of AR in biology. Expected ban on animal dissection in India seems to encourage further AR adoption in classroom. I wonder if there are any other external factors that could put AR as ''must consider as an alternative soon'' rather than as ''nice to have in the future''. 

This article attempts to balance the 'rah-rah tech is a panacea' view with a reminder that it might not be essential or desirable in all classrooms. Other than citing some studies that show how tech can distract students during class, I don't think her argument is that convincing. I'm curious what people think about this view.

Worried about security, India threatens to ban messaging services

Articles like that make me glad I live in the USA ... but, then again, "they" are probably monitoring all our messaging. In any case, the article was interesting to me in that it shows, once again, how companies who want to play world wide need to build in more capabilities to their product in order to accommodate government ordinances.

Interesting article about how technology is changing the way we define and share intellectual property. Is a professor's lecture the property of the professor, the University or neither? Does a student "own" the notes he takes in class?

An update on the ongoing case of whether or not a law banning the sale of "violent" video games to minors is constitutional.

One state's response to protect children from sexual predators. It doesn't seem very forward thinking to me. Why not change the rules around social networking in schools, rather than banning it?

That would have an unfortunate impact on projects like OneVille

A ban that likely would have been overturned under free speech provisions.

A fascinating description about how corporate pressures can undermine the "crowdsourcing" model

Article written for mashable by our own classmate Dave Chen. Good work!

Harvard Business Publishing Online forcasts six trends in social media. "70% of organizations ban social media."