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Some Chinese school officials have gone against the wishes of the national government and removed Internet filtering software becuase it "has strong conflicts with teaching software we need for normal work." On the other hand, many public schools in the US not only tolerate draconian filtering policies, but elect to implement such policies on the local level! Why are we willing to sacrifice educational opportunities for some imagined sense of security about our children? If you haven't looked over the "Unmasking the Digital Truth" Wiki, I highly recommend that you do so. It discusses some of the common misconceptions about Internet filtering in schools and associated laws. (http://unmaskdigitaltruth.pbworks.com/)

Article about how some schools in China have uninstalled the controversial Internet filter (Green Dam), which was required to be installed on all public systems by mandate of the Chinese government.

The public school district in St. Louis, Missouri was awarded an Innovative Technology Education Fund grant to buy iPads for all students with autism in six autism-specific classrooms. This seems to be an example of utilizing an emerging technology in an excellent way with proper teacher training, rather than using technology for technology's sake. The schools will be advised on how to implement the iPads by an autism science and advocacy organization and have two full days of professional development planned.

This is great news on the autism-rights front! I know a severely autistic 21-year-old who is highly communicative because of the technology he has used since he was young.