July 2006 archive
Panic! at the Capitol: The House Passes DOPA
Yesterday, the US House of Representatives unexpectedly moved forward in voting on the Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA. This legislation, proposed on May 9 of this year, would require all schools and libraries receiving federal Internet subsidies known as...
City Voices, City Visions
Last week I had the opportunity to attend an education technology institute at WNED public television in Buffalo, New York. The purpose of my trip was to deliver a conference keynote, but I feel I got the better end out...
Insuring Online Content is Accessible to All Students
Can you spot the difference between these photos? If not, maybe you should ask a student who’s blind. Their answer will demonstrate the importance of the new accessible digital media guidelines published last week....
BlogSafety.com: An Online Social Network About Online Social Networks
This week, noted Internet safety experts Larry Magid and Anne Collier launched BlogSafety.com. The website is intended to be an online social network about online social networks - and how to ensure that teens use them safely....
Making Mobile Phones Mandatory: A New Educational Trend?
While some K-12 schools are leery of students possessing cell phones in the classroom, a growing number of universities are becoming downright enthusiastic. Some colleges have gone so far as to make cell phones a requirement for incoming freshmen. What’s...
Should Principals Be Allowed to Review Students’ Cell Phone Records?
A Boston-area school district is asserting the right to search students’ cell phones for inappopriate information. Does this policy, one of the first of its kind in the US, cross the line?...
Wikipedia in the Classroom: Consensus Among Educators?
Last summer, after writing about the role of Wikipedia in education on my personal blog, I got an email from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who disagreed with me when I suggested that many educators were hostile to the online encyclopedia....
