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"Based on our interpretation of the current state law, the public interest demands those e-mails be released." Bubolz said in July he made the request to see if the teachers were doing their job "... the way it's supposed to be done."

"People will know this decision is out there," Jonen said. "The effect will be any public employee that does a personal e-mail at work is subject to having that released."

"There's no misconduct at all; they don't want the public to feel they were misusing resources," she said. "These are e-mails they wrote to their friends, spouse or kids. It's a little unsettling they will be for public view."

The YouTube Wars Prof. Akalın was probably pleased last week when, for a few days at least, we lost our access to that Eurovision winning song. In response to a satirical video that was offensive to the memory of Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, a Turkish court shut down any access to YouTube.com. The offending video was uploaded supposedly by Greeks wanting to antagonize their neighbors, and it prompted a war of offensive and counter offensive videos and endless (and pointless) comments.  It is against the law here to insult Atatürk, but since the offenders were "out there" somewhere beyond prosecution on the Internet, punishment was levied on Turkish Internet users instead. The story is even sadder as I remember attending a conference in Athens last fall with several Turkish colleagues, and we were pleasantly surprised at the warmth of so many Greeks, including several who spoke with us in Turkish.

the leader has not set clear objectives or an agenda, and didn’t assign pre-meeting preparation tasks.

it is certain that every organization has too many meetings, and far too many poorly designed ones

Whoever calls a meeting should be explicit about its objectives.

The report says every aspect of the U.S. education system--from pre-kindergarten to postsecondary and adult education, including after-school and teacher preparation programs--"must be aligned to prepare citizens with the 21st-century skills they need to compete." It encourages U.S. schools to do a better job of teaching and measuring advanced, 21st-century skills beyond simply assessing science, reading, and math. In addition, it outlines several actions at the national, state, and local levels that U.S. leaders must undertake to improve economic results and better prepare citizens to participate in the 21st-century economy. "All Americans, not just an elite few, need 21st-century skills that will increase their marketability, employability, and readiness for citizenship," the report says.  These skills include critical thinking and judgment, complex problem solving, creative thinking, and communication and collaboration.

conventional practices, including homework, grades, and tests, prove difficult to justify for anyone who is serious about promoting long-term dispositions rather than just improving short-term skills.

Some of the features that I’ve listed here will seem objectionable, or at least unsettling, to educators at more traditional schools

A truly impressive collection of research has demonstrated that when students are able to spend more time thinking about ideas than memorizing facts and practicing skills — and when they are invited to help direct their own learning — they are not only more likely to enjoy what they’re doing but to do it better. Progressive education isn’t just more appealing; it’s also more productive.

MLA handbook doesn't, in my opinion, do a very good job differentiating between a static personal home page and other kinds of self-published websites (such as an annotated bibliography or an anthology of short autobiographical essays). Citing a weblog isn't much different from citing any web page, but students may appreciate a clear example.I would prefer to put angle brackets around the URL, but my blogging software chokes when I try that.