“Hanging out,” “messing around,” and “geeking out.” Those are the three levels of information consumption and creation that Chicago’s main library used to develop it’s newest space for teens called “YOUmedia — a Digital Library Space for Teens,” according to the article, “Digital library aims to expand kids’ media literacy.”
October has been named National Bullying Prevention Month in effort to raise awareness of the negative effects bullying has on students’ social, emotional, and academic well being. Almost 32 percent of students report being bullied at school, according to the Edutopia article, “Bullying Prevention: Tips for Teachers, Principals, and Parents.” Students who are victims of bullying are more likely to be armed with a weapon at school, get in physical fights, and suffer from anxiety, depression, and mental health problems.
“Why are some people so much more effective at learning from their mistakes?” That’s the question researchers are asking to understand why some people respond better to learning by trial and error, according to the article “Why Do Some People Learn Faster,” by Jonah Lehrer.
Did you have a teacher who made learning science, technology, engineering, and math interesting? Were you encouraged by a teacher’s enthusiasm for your proficiency in STEM subjects? Did you tell yourself or were you told that you weren’t good at STEM subjects?
Last week was the end of Harrisburg University’s 2nd annual social media blackout the school called “Back to Blackout.” As a motivator to get students thinking about the “use and abuse” of social media, Eric Darr, executive vice president and provost, blocked 10 popular social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, Hi5, Twitxr, and Plurk, as well as other texting outlets, according to a Campus Technology article. Of course, the university isn’t naive to the fact that many students can tap into their favorite social media outlets via their smartphones.
At this year’s Education Nation Summit, reformers, policymakers, and funders were asked to look at education from a new perspective. A panel of students came before the audience to discuss their own experiences and their ideas on reforming the education system so they and future generations can receive a “world-class” education. Blogger Lisa Nielsen of  The Innovative Educator blog shared 20 key points made by the student panel in her article “20 Things Students Want the Nation to Know About Education.“
Yesterday, YouTube released a new channel for educators at www.youtube.com/teachers. Due to some school district’s filters, many teachers were blocked from being able to use YouTube in their classroom without first converting files and downloading them to a media player. Now, teachers can easily and safely share online videos with their class that can not only help them enhance the class lecture with video, but also allow students to easily share videos in their presentations, study at home, and create videos in the classroom.
If we needed proof that the shape of our economy has changed over the last ten years and that attending college has become a questionable investment, the Census Bureau has released numbers to back up our economic concerns.
In Georgia, a plan to overhaul high school curriculums and move into career-based curriculums will be going before the state Board of Education this fall. High school dropouts are a common problem for many districts due to students not seeing the relevance of a high school course or boredom. Career-based curriculums are believed to engage students more because they can visualize the direct correlation from school to their lives.
In a study, hungry students who had to resist the temptation of eating chocolate chip cookies didn’t score as well on focus and self-control tests as students who didn’t have to resist the chocolate chip cookie temptation prior to taking the test. In the NPR article, “Resistance Training for your ‘Willpower’ Muscles,” author of the new book Willpower, John Tierney, explains each of us only has a set amount of willpower for they day, so we should do our best to conserve it for moments that really matter.