NET NEUTERED: Net neutrality could be the latest phrase on every educator's mind, given the FCC's most recent decision to grant internet service providers the ability to charge "commercially reasonable" rates to providers like Netflix for "fast lanes" and better access to users. Edsurge contributor Jessy Irwin describes the potential impact of this change on K-12 environments, including the likelihood that free and open source web tools for education "could be edged out by for-profit competitors who can afford to pay for better access to their customers." At a time when we worry about the have & have nots in technology it seems like giving the well-heeled faster Internet promises to accelerate inequality along with bytes. Just saying.
The South by Southwest Arts and Music festival draws huge crowds worldwide to Austin, TX to party and celebrate a wide range of new music and performance art. Much less known is the South by Southwest Education conference that happens in Austin a month later. The conference draws attendees from all over the US and Canada (some internationals, too) and features a wide range of speakers and topics. Although a lot of the focus is on Ed Tech, there is a lot of attention to overall trends in K-12 public education, education policy, and other "big ideas". Thanks to SmartBrief, here's a convenient summary of the key sessions, with links to videos and discussions.
Google Apps for Education users have voiced concerns about data mining" student email and using it for ad purposes. So it's welcome news that Google is removing all ad scanning and will permanently turn off ads in Gmail. From EdSurge:
SCAN NO MORE: Today, Google announced two new ad-related updates to Google Apps for Education. First, engineers have removed the "enable/disable" toggle for ads in the Apps for Ed Administrator console, i.e. ads in Apps for Ed services are turned off, and no administrators can turn them back on. Next up, Google has permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail, meaning that Google cannot collect or use student data for advertising purposes. Check on the Google Enterprise blog for more details. Nice to see Google putting (away) the money where its mouth is.
Resources for Flipping your Classroom:
eSchoolNews just published a resources page for teachers interested in trying (or improving) flipped learning. "Flipped learning, in which students watch instructional videos for homework and use class time to apply what they've learned, is catching on in many schools. But there are still some misconceptions about this strategy, and some teachers have struggled to put it into practice." Teachers surveyed on the use/benefits of ed tech:
This opinion piece appeared in the T&G on 5/9 - another voice calling for open, neutral net access
ReplyDeleteU.S. needs a net neutrality law - Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com
http://www.telegram.com/article/20140509/NEWS/305099940/0#.U2zQSuhChiI.gmail
On Net Neutrality..[from NPR's Morning Edition] "In a blog post, Chairman Tom Wheeler insists the open Internet rules will help maintain what's called network neutrality." http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/05/15/312666733/fcc-to-unveil-proposed-rules-to-govern-internet-traffic
ReplyDeleteWhy is it so complicated? Here's a simple explanation of the technical aspect to get a glimpse of the tangled knot of players involved. From a NYT piece this morning: http://goo.gl/Aqzp6H
ReplyDelete"What is at issue in the debate over keeping the Internet open — sometimes referred to as net neutrality — is more easily understood in the context of the four basic parts that make up the Internet.
The easiest of those to comprehend is the end user, the consumer who sits at a computer while streaming video, filling out job applications, shopping or any one of dozens of other activities. Connecting that consumer to the Internet is a broadband provider, a company like Comcast, Verizon or Time Warner Cable, which provides the connection between the consumer and that undefined world known as cyberspace.
Out there in the ether are so-called edge providers, like Amazon, Google or Netflix, which provide content, services and applications for public consumption. And in between the edge provider and the broadband provider are backbone networks, a web of transport lines and other infrastructure that bring video, for example, from Netflix to a consumer's screen.
Traditionally, net neutrality has referred to the relationship between the broadband provider and the consumer — known as the "last mile" connection. Net neutrality has meant that a broadband provider must provide a consumer with access to any legal content available online and without making one company's content available faster than another's."