New Texas law requires more class details online
Public colleges and universities in Texas face the cost of making more detailed class descriptions available online so students and parents can get a better idea of what…
Month: July 2010
End of gay teen web site sparks privacy concerns
A now-defunct web site that catered to gay youth is now ensnared in a federal bankruptcy proceeding that its founder says could result in as many as 1…
iPhone 4 contains a design flaw, testers say
Consumer Reports, America’s trusted source of product reviews, said it would not recommend the iPhone 4 because of a hardware flaw with its antenna that sometimes resulted in…
Amazon opens supercomputing service
A new option for Amazon Web Services has arrived, CNET reports: the raw computing power of supercomputing clusters now widely used in research circles.
China seeks to reduce internet users’ anonymity
A leading Chinese internet regulator has vowed to reduce anonymity in China's portion of cyberspace, calling for new rules to require people to use their real names when…
Schools save money with refurbished computers
At less than half the cost of purchasing new computers, buying high-quality refurbished machines is cheaper and more efficient, some education technology directors say—and that’s a big deal…
Project lets users explore the cosmos from a PC
In a project that aims to pull a new generation of students toward science and technology, Microsoft and NASA have teamed up to create what they say is…
Practice the plan
Recently police officers moved through a Florida middle school hunting for a gunman that had opened fire on campus. There was blood everywhere. Students were lying on the…
Student programmers solve real-world challenges
An interface that allows hearing-impaired people to communicate with others using an augmented-reality environment took home the grand prize of $25,000 in the eighth annual Imagine Cup Worldwide…
Students, meet your new teacher, Mr. Robot
Computer scientists are developing machines that can teach people simple skills, like household tasks and vocabulary, reports the New York Times.
Google launches do-it-yourself app creation software
Google is bringing Android software development to the masses, reports the New York Times.
Boston judge cuts penalty in song-sharing case
A federal judge on July 9 drastically trimmed a $675,000 verdict against a Boston University graduate student who was found liable for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs…
Patent holder sues smart-phone makers over patents
The patent-holding company that won a settlement of more than $600 million from the maker of the BlackBerry has sued six other companies in the smart-phone industry, reports…
Judge OKs iPhone class action against Apple, AT&T
A federal judge says a monopoly abuse lawsuit against Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc.'s mobile phone unit can move forward as a class action, reports the Associated Press.
Securing K-12 networks for 1:1 computing
The adoption of 1:1 computing programs and online K-12 learning programs are driving an industry-wide move toward accessible network access. In East Grand Rapids Public Schools, and in…
Survey reveals slow progress in education technology
U.S. schools’ average overall scores on an annual survey designed to measure their progress toward implementing 21st-century classrooms and learning skills increased less than 1 percent from 2009,…
British school launches talking PCs for students who can’t speak English
A primary school where more than half the students do not speak English recently became Britain's first to provide every child with a computerized translator, Asian News International…
Colleges spend more on recreation than class
According to a new study of college costs, American colleges are spending a smaller share of their budgets on instruction, and more on recreational facilities for students and…
First projector-equipped Android smart phone to ship
Video chat is all the rage when it comes to new smart phones like the HTC Evo 4G and the iPhone 4, but Samsung's latest Android smart phone…
One Laptop Per Child to add multi-touch screen to future XO-1.75 laptop
The nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) on July 8 said it is adding a multi-touch screen to its upcoming XO-1.75 laptop and is modifying software to…
Australia delays internet filter to review content
Australia's widely criticized proposal to mandate a national web filter blocking child pornography and other objectionable internet content has been delayed at least a year so the government…
Solutions aim to ease ed-tech deployment
Flexibility was a key theme at the 2010 InfoComm conference in Las Vegas, where a number of companies demonstrated products intended to help schools deploy education technology more…
AT&T network glitch limits iPhone 4 upload speeds
In the latest snag for the iPhone 4, AT&T Inc. said on July 7 that a software defect in its network is limiting data uploads from the phone…
Study: U.S. mobile web use growing, but still low
When it comes to accessing the web over mobile devices, Americans are far behind their internet-connected counterparts in Japan, South Korea, and parts of Europe, reports the Associated…
Sony cuts eReader price to stay competitive
Sony has cut the prices on its electronic-book readers to keep up with competition from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, which both recently slashed prices on their own…
‘Climategate’ inquiry mostly vindicates scientists
An independent report into the leak of hundreds of eMails from one of the world’s leading climate research centers on July 7 largely vindicated the scientists involved, saying…
Louisiana governor signs cyber-bullying law
Cyber bullying is now officially a crime in Louisiana, reports the Advocate of Baton Rouge. Gov. Bobby Jindal announced July 7 that he signed House Bill 1259 into…
Customers question tech industry’s takeover spree
The world’s largest technology companies have been on a buying spree, spending billions of dollars to snap up smaller companies. And often the buyers say they’re doing it…
New rules bring online piracy fight to U.S. campuses
Starting this month, colleges and universities that don't do enough to combat the illegal sharing of digital movies or music over their computer networks put themselves at risk…
Lock the gates
It seems a first-grade student recently slipped away from a Massachusetts school with the intention of walking home. Apparently, none of the school staff noticed him leaving. Fortunately,…
Teacher wants to change education using 40 iPads
Matt Wilson, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Garfield Middle School in Hamilton, Ohio, is asking for some help to outfit his classroom with a set of iPads,…
How video will likely create, rather than kill, the classroom “star”
First it was music. Then it was theater. Now it's ... education? Technology has enabled inexpensive reproduction of a wide variety of media, which has in turn radically…
Teachers’ union shuns Obama aides at convention
In a sign of the Obama administration’s strained relations with two of its most powerful political allies, no federal official was scheduled to speak at either convention this…
Senior-student mentoring can be a win-win
Effectively pairing senior volunteers with students is one of the big win-win opportunities in virtually every community in the country, says U.S. News and World Report.
Pew study: The web is redefining our relationships, reputations
Most people agree that the internet has and will continue to be positive for social relations. But according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, it’s also…
‘Nautilus Live’ lets students follow deep-sea exploration in real time as discoveries are made
Robert Ballard, the explorer best known for the discovery of the Titanic and other wrecks, has not only made deep-sea exploration more accessible for K-12 and college students,…
Judge orders school newspaper to delete stories
Should school newspapers, or any newspapers for that matter, be forced to delete archived stories in order to clear a person’s record online? That’s the issue before a…
Ed-tech grant program aims to boost college readiness
A new initiative will dole out grants to education-technology projects aimed at improving college readiness, especially among low-income students.
To stop cheats, colleges learn their trickery
As the eternal temptation of students to cheat has gone high-tech, educators have responded with their own efforts to crack down, reports the New York Times.
Study: eBooks take longer to read than print
In a recent usability survey, Jakob Nielsen of product development consultancy Nielsen Norman Group discovered that it takes longer to read books on a Kindle or an iPad…