schools

Journalists and engineers could come together to shape the future of news thanks to a new joint Columbia-Stanford media innovation institute funded by Cosmopolitan Editor Helen Gurley Brown.

The David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation will be an East Coast/West Coast collaboration. Housed at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City and Stanford's Engineering School in Palo Alto, Calif., the institute is thought to be a first of its kind initiative aimed at helping the foster a new era of communication between the editorial and technical sides of news organizations.

The … Read more

Streaming radio site Slacker Radio has a brand-new station that might get its more softhearted listeners in the mood for some love-making.

The new DJ-curated "Old School R&B" station takes you back in time with some of the silkiest hits from artists like Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Etta James. But '80s babies (like me), don't fret, because the station also extends into our golden era with more-contemporary, yet still decidedly old-school, crooners like Mint Condition, Boyz II Men, and Maxwell.

Curated and socially programmed stations are available free to all Slacker users, … Read more

iTunes U lets people download college courses with all the included materials, and study a subject on their iOS device.

As a recently released product there are currently not many courses to take at iTunes U (about 30 at the time of release), but it's pretty easy to predict the app will probably gain more traction as we approach the fall when classes resume for a new year. Of the courses offered, many big-name schools have contributed their coursework including Yale, MIT, Harvard, and several others.

The interface for the iTunes U app shares the look and layout of … Read more

In an Apple event this morning in New York, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, took the stage to introduce iBooks 2, an update to the popular e-reader for iOS devices that adds textbooks.

As Apple's flagship e-reader, iBooks is already a crisp-looking app and storefront that runs on iOS devices. But today, iBooks 2 moves into the world of education by adding interactive textbooks with the aim of keeping students' attention (and certainly adding yet another revenue stream for Apple). … Read more

After a long, hard semester of classes, manually calculating your GPA might be the last thing on your mind. Give your brain a rest and try some of these GPA calculators:

Web There are a lot of GPA calculators on the Web, but one of the better ones is from Koofers.com. The Koofers GPA calculator allows you to add up to eight courses and grades before tabulating your final GPA. It's also flexible enough to allow you to modify the GPA scale. If your school uses a unique scale, you can change it to match the one your … Read more

Joseph Kaminski fills in for Wilson again on today's 404 podcast to mediate a most divisive argument: "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" vs. "Dumb and Dumber": who did it better?

We'll also wag a finger at Sony for pushing the U.S. release date back to February 2012, show off a YouTube educational feature guaranteed to upset a ton of schoolkids, and discuss a couple scientists claiming they're getting very close to Matrix-style instant learning.… Read more

Grab your Android device and experience a blast from the past with ChuChu Rocket, the classic puzzle game originally released for Sega's Dreamcast console in 1999.

Previously only available in the iTunes app store, the classic puzzler has finally made its way into the Android Market, and can be had for a mere 99 cents. It's just as fun as it was back in the day, and lucky for us, today's touch-screen interface hasn't slowed it down a bit. In fact, we think the swipe gesture actually lends itself quite well to the game.

In ChuChu … Read more

In ChuChu Rocket, your objective is to guide hordes of frantic mice (ChuChus) to their rocket ship by dropping arrowed tiles on the ground. As the mice move about the screen, simply swipe in front of them to drop a tile and point them in a direction to run. While the game may not sound very difficult, there are, in fact, an assortment of obstacles and an army of evil cats that very well could have you pulling your hair out by level 10.

There are three different game modes to choose from in ChuChu Rocket: Puzzle, Challenge, and Battle. … Read more

Social learning startup Grockit has raised an additional $7 million in venture funding to expand its online test-preparation services.

Although not related to the funding, Grockit also recently launched a new service called Grockit Answers that can turn any YouTube video into a Q&A session. (Here's a company-supplied example on the credit crisis.)

Grockit's tools draw on social networking and online gaming to personalize learning outside of the classroom--ideally, to help students conquer their academic weaknesses and ace test preparation. The company's tag line is "Test Prep Made Fun." Grockit claims one million … Read more