education

Dad says Facebook photo of son with gun brought cops to house

I am sure there are several 11-year-old boys who are terribly proficient at handling a gun.

But, given that I wouldn't trust an 11-year-old boy with a popsicle, I would just as well not be anywhere near them.

This, however, doesn't appear to have been the policy of the authorities in New Jersey. They were allegedly alarmed by a Facebook photo of Josh Moore, aged 11, holding a .22 rifle, and they allegedly wanted to get very near him.

The photo had been posted by his father, Shawn, to Facebook. It showed Josh, in his camouflage outfit and … Read more

Teacher projects student's antiteacher tweets in class

What's the point of communicating privately, when you can whine and humiliate publicly?

This seems to be the motto du jour of the socially networked classes.

It is simultaneously vacuous and powerful.

Consider, please, the case of a young gentleman who was rather cross at his high school teacher. He didn't tell the teacher why he was cross. No, he told Twitter.

"I hate you, Mr. Torrence," he screeched. "You said the test was in (sic) Wednesday, so give it to us on (sic) Wednesday, not Tuesday. #YouNeedACalendar #ScrewYou."

Mr. Torrence doesn't, apparently, follow every word of this lyrical student. Instead, as the Daily Dot reports, one of the student's own friends exposed him to the teacher. … Read more

Apple debuts new $1,099 21.5-inch iMac for schools

Avoiding all fanfare, Apple appears to have quietly unveiled a new version of its low-end iMac. This machine is for educational institutions only, which can snap it up for $1,099 saving $200 over the regular model.

It's unclear when Apple debuted the new iMac on its education institution Apple store, but according to MacRumors it appears to have been very recently. The tech news site says that the $1,099 version has replaced the earlier $999 iMac for educational institutions -- which was launched more than a year and a half ago.

The new iMac is 21.5-inches … Read more

iTunes U hits 1 billion downloads

That old college try seems to be working. Content downloads from iTunes U have surpassed 1 billion.

Apple today announced the passing of the milestone for the repository of free educational content from schools, libraries, museums, and other sources. iTunes U hosts more than 2,500 public and thousands of private courses from over 1,200 universities and colleges, and 1,200 K-12 schools and districts.

"There are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior … Read more

Student sets up video sting, allegedly catches teacher

There are many intelligent teens in America's high schools.

They know how to fight for their rights and how to right their wrongs. They are being well-educated, after all.

Yet one California high schooler was stupefied after she set up a sting operation to catch a thief.

As ABC News 10 in Sacramento reveals, Justine Betti was miffed that money and other valuable items seemed to be disappearing from students' backpacks during gym class.

No kids, you shouldn't keep money in your backpacks, but, as you would say, whatever.

Anyway, Betti decided that she was savvy enough to … Read more

Prof watching porn forgets to unhook laptop from projector

The pressure on the world's educators is enormous.

They are asked to mold genius from raw material that wouldn't fetch much on the commodity exchanges.

It's hardly surprising that they need to find outlets of relaxation wherever and whenever they are able.

Who, then, could not have sympathy with the professor who visited Wageningen University in the Netherlands, only to have technological misfortune visited upon him?

I am largely grateful to Gawker for its patrolling of Reddit, which was alerted by a newspaper article in the Netherlands.

The Dutch seemed keen on pointing out that the unfortunate … Read more

Prof strips, shows Hitler, 9/11 images to teach quantum mechanics

It's very rare that taking your clothes off does any harm.

Often, it gets the distracted to pay attention and the numb to get excited.

This might well have been the genesis of the thought process belonging to Columbia University Professor Emlyn Hughes when he considered how to introduce his students to quantum mechanics.

As his audience became increasingly rapt, the professor stripped to his underwear, put on a black t-shirt, hoodie and pants, and curled up in the fetal position.

So all fairly normal thus far.

But then someone came out and put two toy puppies on stools … Read more

Obama endorses required high school coding classes

President Obama says he wouldn't mind seeing a curriculum requirement for American high school students to learn a programming language.

"I think it makes sense, I really do," was his response to the idea posed in a live Google+ Hangout earlier today. "I want to make sure that (young people) know how to produce stuff using computers and not just consume stuff."… Read more

Crisis: Teens have started sleep-texting

The burden of being a teen never lightens. You think you've got studying cracked, when along comes dating. You think you've got dating cracked, when along come drugs.

And then there are music and clothes and gadgets to deal with. It's too much.

This might (or might not) offer some explanation as to why teens have started texting in their sleep. Yes, it's just like sleepwalking, except you can be really, really mean. LOL.… Read more