education

Despite the lagging economy and slow job growth, the tech sector is booming. And according to some estimates, it's only going to get better. This may be one of the reasons why some politicians and educators are pointing kids in the tech direction.

New York City's Economic Development Corp. and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship announced the launch of NYC Generation Tech today. It's an initiative aimed at teaching the city's high school students hands-on tech training while also pairing them with mentors in the biz.

The purchase, reported by several local media outlets, is said to be one of the largest educational iPad rollouts in the U.S. K-12 market. The 26,000 iPads will be spread out in 340 classrooms starting this fall.

Apple's push to get iPads and digital textbooks in the classroom appears to be paying off. The SDUSD was able to draw on funding though Proposition S, a fund approved in 2008 by a 69 percent vote, dedicated to getting classrooms up-to-date technology.

The iPad is nothing if not up-to-date. And, despite some local head-scratching (read: "Why would we … Read more

Codecademy, a site that helps users learn how to code for free, has raised $10 million in a second round of financing.

The company announced today that the round was led by Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. Those investment firms now join Unique Square Ventures and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson among the company's investors. Codecademy raised $2.5 million in its first financing round.

"With this new funding, we're going to keep doing what we've been doing," Codecademy wrote on its blog today. "We've reached millions of students in more than 100 … Read more

We'll be frank: Quick Conversion is one of the ugliest programs we've seen. It's also fairly light on features. But if you're looking specifically for a program that can convert between both English and metric units of length, it can get the job done.

Quick Conversion's interface consists of a list of units of measurement: inches, feet, yards, fathoms, rods, furlongs, miles, and leagues, as well as millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, meters, decameters, hectometers, and kilometers. A drop-down menu lets you select the unit of measurement that you want to convert from and enter the number … Read more

Science, rationality's clever henchman, sometimes has strange ideas.

One that has entered the firmament is a "Galvanic" bracelet that uses physiological signs to measure just how engaged a child is in school.

I am grateful to the Washington Post for revealing that such bracelets are now subject to a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

I hadn't been aware that one's skin could be such a giveaway of my mental state. Sometimes, it's just dry because I forget to lather myself in lovely Philosophy body lotion. (Try it. It smells wonderful.)

And … Read more

Ask not why people do things. Ask how it felt when they've done them.

I wonder, indeed, how Robert Dale Esparza Jr. must have felt last year when he set up a fake profile on a porn site. It was in the name of Frank Hendricsen.

Not necessarily a sexy name, that. But it so happened to be one belonging to the assistant principal at the school attended by Esparza's then 13-year-old son.

I find myself moved by the reporting of the Arizona Republic on the conviction of Esparza Jr. for taking the identity of another and computer … Read more

It seems that certain schools in Texas are having trouble with their math.

No, it isn't the kids. It's the school administrators. They keep losing kids. And, well, state funding depends, at least to some extent, on attendance.

So Northside Independent School District in San Antonio has decided to insert a little technology into the problem. For it intends to insert RFID chips into the kids' IDs, so that it will know precisely where little Chet is at all times.

I am grateful to the San Antonio Express-News for expressing this development, one that might cause some to … Read more

Announcing the full commencement of the battle between school principals and recalcitrant children who think they should be more open and connected.

It seems, you see, that school principals have had enough of the under-13s having Facebook accounts.

The first salvo was emitted by a British school principal a couple of weeks ago. Paul Woodward threatened to report parents of underage Facebookers to child protection services.

Now, principal of Australia's Harlaxton State School, Leonie Hultgren, has reportedly made an even more draconian threat: she will simply expel the kids.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that her threat was unequivocal.… Read more

Without machines, Zachary Thomason wouldn't live very long. The boy has been on a ventilator for all of his 12 years because he suffers from a rare muscle disorder that makes him extremely weak.

Until now, X-linked myotubular myopathy has prevented him from going to school regularly. But since the Paragould School District in Arkansas purchased a $5,000 VGo telepresence robot, chances are he'll become an avatar-style student soon.

Zach likes to play PlayStation, so he can remote-control the VGo, which is basically a Webcam on wheels. At 4 feet tall, it's designed to project the user's presence into a remote location with two-way audio and video, allowing for richer interaction than a phone call or stationary Webcam. … Read more