Student blogs can win cash for college
Karissa Snow won $5,000 in scholarship money just by blogging and winning her peers’ approval. She’s among 40,000 students vying for tuition cash every week on CollegeNET, a web site that lets current and prospective college students post blog entries on a myriad of topics. The student who receives the most votes from CollegeNET members every week wins thousands for college. Key words: CollegeNET, scholarship money, credit crisis, University of Hawaii, social networking, education, technology
Fumes from bottle sicken students at Ill. school
Authorities in the Chicago suburb of Lockport, Ill., locked down a high school campus after mysterious fumes from a bottle left in a hallway sent 13 students to a hospital.
Key words: school safety, school evacuation
Palo Alto computer system crashes, erasing data
Teachers put in extra hours to re-enter grades and students even rewrote essays after a computer system used by Palo Alto high and middle schools crashed last month, erasing more than a month’s worth of data, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
Palo Alto computer system crashes, erasing data
Teachers put in extra hours to re-enter grades and students even rewrote essays after a computer system used by Palo Alto high and middle schools crashed last month, erasing more than a month’s worth of data, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
Camera modified into stun gun found at school
A student at a Michigan school district learned to convert a disposable camera into a makeshift stun gun by watching a YouTube video and used the device on his friends at school before officials confiscated it, reports the Detroit Free Press.
California Senate approves software as an alternative to textbooks
California teenagers might be spared having to lug backbreaking loads of textbooks to school under a proposal that would make it easier for campuses to use electronic instructional material, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Smithsonian launches online cultural heritage tours
The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies is offering a series of free online tours that invite educators, families, and students to learn about America’s diverse cultural heritage by examining objects drawn from the Smithsonian’s vast collections. The cultural heritage tours “allow viewers to delve deeper and learn even more about African American and Latino history and culture through the prism of art and historical objects,” said Director of Programs Stevie Engelke.
Bill would legalize online gambling
A bill that would overturn the federal ban on internet gambling has some educators wondering how minors, including students using school computers, would be prevented from logging onto the betting sites from home and during school time.
Key words: online gambling, underage internet gambling, acceptable use policy
Brothers take top spot in programming contest
Every child around the world should be entitled to a primary education, but many are not receiving a full or even a partial primary education, say the creators of MultiPoint Web. They should know; they’re students themselves.
Key words: Imagine Cup, primary education, Microsoft
Forensics help make science cool
Many people fret these days about the state of science education in America and how kids just don’t like the topic — yet at New Rochelle High School in New York, one kind of science class has proved a runaway success, reports the New York Times: forensic science, the application of science to solving crimes.