Tag: education
FCC Commissioner brands WoW as a leading cause of college dropouts
This is something that I’ve seen evidence of first-hand. The US Federal Communications Commissioner, Deborah Taylor Tate, has seen fit to label World of Warcraft as one of the biggest enemies of the education system:
“You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction – such as World of Warcraft – which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide”
Now it’s true that World of Warcraft, when taken to extremes, can annihilate everything else in your life. However, it’s not an addiction – the vast majority of players know how to get the work/play balance right. Don’t condemn the many for the actions of a few.
(via Kotaku)
Related posts: Swedish kid collapses after 24-hour WoW marathon | Gaming Addiction Centre Chief: “Compulsive Gaming Is Not Addiction”
OPINION: Exams haven't met the 21st Century yet
It’s easy to forget sometimes that the 21st century is now. Information is the currency that the world runs on, and is far more transferrable and globally relevant than actual cash. However, despite its focus on knowledge, the education system is hopelessly out of date. The traditional “exam” involves sitting down with a pen and some dead tree, and trying to remember when the battle of Sevastopol was. A school in Australia is trying to change that…
InFocus launching IN1100 and IN1500 series of video projectors
InFocus has launched two new projectors aimed at those in business and education. While they’re not the most sexy projectors going, they pack some nifty features that’ll make them the envy of the conference room or classroom (if that’s possible).
The IN1100 series of projectors are small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, so are easily transportable…
BBC Micro creators gather at Science Museum (not the Natural History museum)
The BBC Micro may be a bit of a dinosaur now, but its creators have gathered at the Science Museum in London to discuss its legacy.
Forming the introduction to school IT for many an 80s school kid, the BBC Micro was launched in 1982 by Acorn’s Hermann Hauser and Steve Furber…
Opinion: Amazon's Kindle won't make E-Books popular but how hard can it be?
Jonathan Weinberg writes…
I don’t read as much as I used to, one look at the amount of books in my house is enough evidence to tell that story. Not that I don’t have many, oh no, I’ve got shelves full of novels and non-fiction. It’s just most of them are bought on a whim, and then a few pages in swapped for something else or put down to play the Xbox 360 or check out the telly.
Children too aren’t reading as much as they should. In fact, David Cameron, the Tory leader, is about to announce plans to try and get every
youngster up to speed with their reading by the age of six. It’s a massive failure in any education system when kids can’t pick out enough words to enjoy a story without it being spoken to them…
September storm of spam coming, targeting students
There’ll be a 40 per cent increase in email spam in September, thanks to spammers perfecting their new techniques, and things are only going to get worse according to the email security firm SoftScan.
They believe that many spammers will target students returning to colleges and universities, because they have the potential to connect unprotected laptops to large, fast, educational networks which may themselves be poorly secured.
SoftScan say that a typical student’s surfing habits — careless use of the Net, including spending a long time in chat rooms and playing online games — makes them the perfect target. Their shiny new laptop may already be part of a “botnet” before being connected to a college’s network.
Bullet-resistant backpack offers protection from gunshot and other weaponry
In both the US and UK, the safety of kids both on and off school campuses is a high priority, and rightly so. Now Massachusetts-based MJ Safety Solutions is offering a special backpack containing a bullet- and edged-weapon-resistant panel, certified as a NIJ Level II plate which can withstand medium and low caliber rounds.
Adding 20 ounces in weight to the regular backpack, it will provide either back or front protection – but of course has to be held or worn in the appropriate place. I suppose if you had $350 to spare, and didn’t mind looking like an idiot, you could wear two.
MJ Safety claims that, of the 328 shootings in the US since Columbine in 1999, 97% could have been prevented by using their bags.
UCAS provides A-level advice on virtual island in Second Life
One of the latest organisations to create a presence for itself on Second Life is UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
Having created their own virtual island, they’ll be offering free advice from professional advisers about the clearing and application processes.
It’s supposed to be a pressure-free environment where those who’ve just got their A-level results can find out what happens next. The island features a series of bio-domes, each containing useful information.
Study suggests educational DVDs and TV may not be so good for baby after all
A new study from researchers at the University of Washington suggests that using educational TV and DVD, such as the “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” series, or “Sesame Street”, may not be as beneficial for babies and young children as many hoped.
It’s hardly a crime for parents to let their children watch some TV, and if it’s teaching them something too, so much the better (at least, better than letting them watch Big Brother). Even so, the study suggests that for every hour per day that babies watch these DVDs and videos, they learn six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who hadn’t watched them.
Now, parents being told what’s best for their kids by University boffins often leads to emotions running high. While these studies suggest that children who sit passively in front of TV shows don’t do as well educationally, child-raising is a helluva lot more complicated than that.
Is Google right to ban adverts from essay writing companies?
Andy Merrett writes…
University authorities have “warmly welcomed” the news that Google is to refuse advertising from companies which offer to write research essays for students.
After recent complaints from various universities that students have been passing off essays that they’ve paid for as their own, Google has decided to refuse these ads.
