Sunday links.
At the recently completed Consumer Electronics Show officials from AT&T mused about the possibility of inspecting traffic on their networks to check for copyrighted material.
2008 might well be the Year of the Filter, but who knows? It might also be the Year of Filtergate. A single major fiasco could even revive the simmering debate over network neutrality regulation and legislation. Stay tuned; it should be quite a spectacle.
We can only hope the fiasco comes quickly. Assorted Stuff
It is so simple. Want to enforce the illusion that graduation rates are rising so you can use that issue to run for the presidency? Start holding back 8th graders before they ever reach high school. Just enough might be disgusted with school to drop out right then and there and never besmirch a Bill Gates school with their presence. Education Notes Online
It doesn’t seem to me like people are being turned off politics these days. If anything, the Iraq war and the tanking of the economy have heightened interest in politics and the ‘08 elections among all segments of the America - including young people.
So at the end of the day, why is Bloomberg going to run for president? NYC Educator
Developer Eli Broad just donated $12 million to four L.A.-area KIPP schools (plus another $12 million to Aspire, another charter chain).
The L.A. Times followed the news of the donation with an intelligently reported (to the eye of a KIPP skeptic) profile of one of the KIPP schools.
All those who think it’s a good idea to keep fifth-graders in school for 10-hour days and then add two to three hours of homework — and to make a student feel like she wants “to cut her wrists every morning” — raise your hands. (And Sit Up, Listen, Ask Questions, Nod and Track the Speaker With Your Eyes — this is KIPP’s SLANT policy, required of all students.) San Francisco Schools
Daniel Barenboim, the world renowned Israeli pianist and conductor, has taken Palestinian citizenship and said he believed his rare new status could serve a model for peace between the two peoples. Harretz.com
After making remarks in which he directly equated homosexuality with bestiality, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee was attacked at the San Francisco Zoo by a gay tiger. Borowitz Report
There’s a memorable moment in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when Indiana Jones sees a rival’s archaeological excavation and realizes the buried treasure is somewhere else. “They’re digging in the wrong place!” he exclaims.
The line could explain why our national elections leave us feeling empty. By expecting so much so fast from Washington, D.C., we are digging for “change” in the wrong place.
Think about it: The White House can be won only by raising truckloads of cash from moneyed interests looking to preserve the status quo. Likewise, the U.S. Senate’s filibuster rules allow 41 lawmakers, representing just 11 percent of the population, to stop anything. These are institutions designed to prevent change, not embrace it. David Sirota
War on greed.
Fight the war on greed.
More debate over social networks, teachers and schools.
I’m use to the debate over internet access, blogs and social networks when I’m talking to district administrators. But here are my friends in the Ohio Education Association warning teachers to stay away from social networks.
The discussion continues on Moving at the Speed of Creativity:
I think I understand why OEA feels this is the right course for educators, but I completely disagree. Ben has it right: Educators shouldn’t be engaging in inappropriate interactions with students online or F2F (no kidding) and telling educators to stay off social networking sites is literally asking them to firmly plant their heads in the sand and pretend the Internet and the issues it raises will go away.
