educational

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

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

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

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

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

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

We all have an alter ego.

For some of us, it comes out when the drinks are flowing and the inhibitions have taken a vacation.

For Emmaneul Polanco, principal of Junior High School 80 in the Bronx, it comes out when he makes rap videos and posts them online, hangs out with comely ladies, and parties as a good rapper should -- at least if a report in the New York Daily News is to be believed.

According to the report, Polanco uses the name El Siki, and in music videos, he raps in Spanish about the things rappers like … Read more

The third most difficult part with humor is when you have to explain it.

The second most difficult is when someone actually gets offended.

The most difficult part is when a joke might cost you your career because you posted it on Facebook.

That is the prospect facing 33-year-old Melissa Cairns, a teacher in an Ohio middle school. Cairns' heinousness stems from an episode in her classroom at the Buchtel Community Learning Center.

"I made a bad mistake of thinking it was funny," she told ABC affiliate WEWS-TV.

What did she do? Well, a student had a problem … Read more

Google got a big new ally in its Chrome OS push today: Lenovo, the No. 2 PC maker.

Although Lenovo is a notable ally, it's only really a foot in the door for Google. Lenovo's new ThinkPad X131e Chromebook is only geared for schools. Presumably it could lead to greater things for Google if the device gets a good reception, but this shouldn't be confused with Lenovo pushing a mainstream device the way the two existing Chrome OS partners, Acer and Samsung, have done.

It's not clear whether Lenovo has grander ambitions for Chrome OS, something … Read more