Gossip from the Hallways - In the classroom Archives

Teens Expelled for Twitter Posts That Reportedly Threatened Harm

2012-05-23T19:16:52Z

I’ll never forget one of the scariest moments as a seventh grader. Word spread like wild fire about a graffiti message scrawled on a student’s desk that announced the next day all kids and teachers in the school would die. For a building that housed both middle and high school students – and perhaps no more than 500 kids total – you can imagine how quickly word spread. And what was perhaps so shocking was that in a school in which everyone knew each other’s first, last and middle names, how could one want to hurt kids he/she had know since he/she was born?

It was the first time in the district’s history that a threat had been made against the school and panic quickly set in. On the day of the supposed bombing, school remained open, although less than 10 percent of the school’s population attended and those who did were greeted with metal detectors, bomb squad dogs and police officers. The school was certainly trying to send a message: we will not bow down to unsubstantiated threats. But another message emerged as well. Could someone really be capable of harming the family?

Fast forward more than decade later and now administrators are not looking for warning signs etched on desks or on the bathroom walls, but rather posts and status updates shared via Facebook, Twitter and other social media avenues.

Just this week, two West Haven High School students, a junior and a sophomore, were arrested and expelled from school after teachers reportedly found tweets earlier this month in which the junior referenced placing a bomb in a locker and the sophomore wrote about shooting himself and others. Despite both students contending that the messages were meant as jokes, the teens are now facing felony charges, according to Sgt. Dave Tammaro.

“The two happened so close together that we thought someone needs to say to these kids that if you post something, you’re going to be held responsible,” Tammaro said Monday, adding that the names and ages of the students would not be released because they are juveniles.

According to Principal Pamela Gardner, the school is working with police to prevent instances like these from occurring again by holding programs to educate parents about the dangers of social media.

“I think kids don’t really think when they post on Twitter, and it’s really important that kids understand that what they write on any social media, they’re held accountable for, even if it’s tongue-in-cheek because you can’t get the meaning across — you don’t know if it’s sarcasm or how it was intended,” Gardner said.

“And so I think that what is really important is that kids and parents are really aware of how social media is impacting our students’ lives,” she added.

Gardner’s last sentiment couldn’t be more dead on. Students may think that Facebook and Twitter musings are written in jest (particularly when they belittle their classmates and deride their buddies), but the truth is that everything that is said lives on in cyberspace and becomes permanent. As we saw in the recent Tyler Clementi case in which Dharun Ravi was accused of allegedly recording Tyler’s intimate moments with another male and streaming it across the Internet, the prosecution was ultimately able to turn to Ravi’s Twitter account and use previous posts as damaging evidence.

Individuals, especially students, need to start understanding that specific social media use is now being deemed illicit, and posts that was were meant to elicit humor are now being taken a whole lot more seriously.

On the other side of things, administrators and police also need to be aware that for every student that is joking on Twitter about hurting himself or others, there is a student who is speaking the truth. So let us make sure we call out those kids who are crying wolf and also find the ones who really are crying wolf before it is too late. Let’s not ignore the rants and raves in the social media stratosphere.

Got a Bad Grade? Bring it up with the Computer

2012-05-01T19:59:34Z

You’ve certainly heard of the lazy student. You know that kid who pays his pal to write half his English essay, lifts his older sister’s college essay because, hey, she went to a different school, or types a bunch of key phrases into Google about “Romeo and Juliet” and comes up with a killer thesis statement? But the lazy teacher? Perhaps this is a new concept to you (unless you are a teacher and can think of that one less than stellar colleague).

While computers have long graded tests (think multiple-choice standardized tests), the technology is now making a run for teachers’ jobs as some schools are beginning to enlist the help of computers to grade essays; and some experts are contending that the computer can do just as good a job as humans, maybe even better. But don’t fear just yet my teacher friends!

A recent study performed at the University of Akron sent more than 16,000 essays from both middle school and high school tests through automated systems developed by nine companies. The essays, from six different states, had originally been graded by humans. The results? Computer scoring produced “virtually identical levels of accuracy with the software in some cases proving to be more reliable,” according to a University of Akron news release.

"In terms of consistency, the automated readers might have done a little better even," The New York Times Education Columnist Michael Winerip said in a recent article.

So what kind of red pen does the computer use when grading essays? According to the survey, the computer combs through the essay to search for sentence structure, word usage, subject-verb agreement and syntax. Where the computer lacks, however, is in comprehension and determining whether a sentence is factually accurate or not. I mean does the computer really know that “Jane Eyre” wasn’t actually a book about a high school cheerleader who went to great lengths to date the captain of the football team? And when it comes to creative writing such as rhetoric or poetry, perhaps the computer needs to go back to the basics as the research showed that the computer slacked in these areas.

But what the computer lacks in comprehension and prose it makes up for in efficiency as automated readers can grade 16,000 essays in about 20 seconds, as compared to the average teacher who might spend an entire weekend grading 150 essays.

There are so many ways though that automated grading can go wrong, beyond the obvious limitations pointed out in the above. Most importantly, it hampers the students/teacher interaction which is most often fostered when a child writes an out-of-this-world essay or when a child is struggling and needs a little extra TLC. By reading each student’s easy, teachers learn about their students’ strengths and weaknesses and also get to sit by and watch the beauty of a student discovering his voice unfold.

If you deny teachers the ability to see their students grow, you will lose one of the very essences that make education so special. Some of my most favorite moments in high school and college were going over papers with my teachers and professors, arguing over themes, nuances and plot development.

There is certainly a place for automated graders, particularly when it comes to the multiple choice portions of standardized tests, but even multiple choice tests in the classroom should get the eye of a teacher. I would imagine there is no greater gift than a teacher seeing his student improve leaps and bounds and a student feeling as though his teacher really has a vested interest in him.

With Missing Kids on the Rise, Schools Revisit Notification Policies

2012-04-24T19:50:49Z

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare – and the type of news that sends a shiver down spines – he/she hears these four piercing words; your child has gone missing. From abductions to runaways, the U.S. Department of Justice reports that almost 800,000 children (younger than 18) go missing in a one-year period, or an average of 2,185 children a day.

And in the case of Sierra LaMar’s parents, the nightmare is not yet over. Sierra, a 15-year-old boisterous girl from Morgan Hill, Calif., reportedly never got on her 7:15 a.m. bus to school on March 16. As student after student filtered into Sierra’s classes throughout the day, teachers simply entered “absent” next to Sierra’s name in their computer system. It wasn’t until 6 p.m. that night, more than 12 hours after Sierra had gone missing, that her parents first received word through an automated email and phone call from the school that Sierra never made it to class that day.

"They had no idea of the situation before they got that email," Sierra's older sister Danielle LaMar said of her parents. "Especially in this case, time definitely matters."

After dozens of frantic calls to friends and family to see where Sierra was, the LaMars called the police. Since the initial report, police have received more than 1,200 tips but have few leads and Sierra has still not been found.

While police, volunteers and Sierra’s parents feverishly look for the high schooler, others are asking the tough question that many might be afraid to ask: in an age rife with technology – from text messaging to instant messaging to email to apps – why weren’t Sierra’s parents notified earlier? According to a recent newspaper article, an informal survey of nine school districts around the Bay Area, from Oakland and Concord to San Jose and Morgan Hill, found that most schools wait to notify parents of a child's absence until the end of the day, especially at high schools.

“There's nothing illustrating the flaw in that system more than Sierra's disappearance," said Marc Klaas, whose daughter, Polly, was kidnapped from their home in Petaluma, Calif., and killed in 1994.

Although experts say it is hard to know whether a few extra hours could have made the difference in Sierra being found, statistics show that most kidnappers with insidious intentions kill their victims within three hours.

So all of this raises the question: at what point should school officials be tasked with notifying parents that a child is missing? Especially at the high school level where kids can frequently cut class or skip the whole day, at what point should school administrators suspect that foul play has been involved and notify parents?

It’s a tricky situation as each school environment and the levels of perception are so different.

For example, in high schools with fewer than 100 students a grade, and in those schools where students often have the same teacher for years in a row, one would surmise that it is easier to detect if something has gone wrong. Specifically, teachers might be more in tune to the fact that a solid, dependable student is missing (and that the parents have not called to report the child sick). In these instances, teachers and administrators might not think twice to call the parent after the first period that child is missing.

But most districts around the world are much larger than these types of schools, and in many of these school atmospheres students move from class to class, falling through the cracks if they are not standout pupils. In these schools, teachers might note that a student is missing but not necessarily know if this is something that should worry a teacher or should be addressed later.

As a result of just how different educational institutions are around the world, each school needs to create a notification policy that is in line with their school profile, but every school must consider the following: it is just as important to determine how to use technology for security measures as it is to figure out how to enhance the classroom learning environment. Technology can do so much more than bring kids science lessons in 3D and allow students to experience video conferencing firsthand; it can save their lives.

So what will Sierra’s high school do different after her disappearance. According to Claudia Rossi, an elected trustee for the Morgan Hill Unified School District, the district will look into the issue and explore the possibility of connecting alerts with parents' cell phones and alerting earlier in the day.

"Obviously with this missing case, we're all wondering what can we do better?" Rossi said. Still, "can everything we do safeguard and keep a tragedy like this from happening? Sadly, no."

I'll Take an Order of Textbook, Please Hold the iPad

2012-04-19T19:52:46Z

Let me paint you a picture of what is undoubtedly occurring on college campuses all over the world these next few weeks. Students are rushing to their campus bookstores, shooting the breeze as they wait in line with their peers to sell back their hefty textbooks. After all, if their parents were so kind to shell out $150 in the first place to help pay for their books, surely they would be fine with their kids pocketing the $25 they receive after selling back their text books.

The scene is chaotic as students will be haggling to the last dollar to get the most bang for the buck for their barely used book because, let’s be honest, senior week, formals and beach trips are on the horizon. It’s that beautiful second semester tradition – one that will slowly be phased out in the next few years, though.

That’s because everyone from elementary schools to high schools to higher education institutions are going the way of the iPad, a tactic administrators are touting as a cheaper option to students or parents purchasing dozens of textbooks. Slowly, iPads are infiltrating school classrooms and kids are becoming just as (or more) tablet-savvy as their parents who depend on these devices for business uses.

In fact, most recently, New Trier High School in Illinois announced its plans to give parents– who in one school year can pay more than $1,000 for textbooks if they have two kids in the district – a break by taking advantage of agreements between Apple and some publishers to offer textbook titles for $14.99 through the iPad.

According to a Chicago Tribune report, New Trier allocated $375,000 so that it could put the popular tablets in the hands of 600 of its 4,200 students in the fall. If the program meets with success over the next three years, administrators say it could be expanded by fall 2015 to include every student. Officials estimate the average family will save about $30 in book costs the first year and about $60 the following year. Students in the selected courses will pay a $60 fee to receive an iPad. In future years, a student could pay $40 each year of high school and own the device.

"I think it could be one part of a strategy to help people save some money and not have to carry heavy books around," said Judy Schnecke, of parent in the district.

iPads in the classroom boast countless benefits. Aside from their technological supremacy – from high resolutions to tactile elements to video and audio features – they help prepare students for college and the “real world,” which are quickly becoming rife with tablets. Moreover, it is hard to find fault in any device that provides cost savings and eradicates back problems that result from toting around heavy backpacks filled with textbooks.

But – and I give you full permission to call me old fashioned, antiquated, or whatever else springs to mind – I still think textbooks should have a place in the school environment. There is something about taking notes in a book, glossing your fingertips over the textbook and knowing that that book was solely designed for education purposes that is pure in its very form. A textbook is one of the founding principles of education and something that I still hold sacred.

While I would be wrong in hoping that schools keep favoring textbooks instead of iPads – as iPads certainly are the wave of the future and for good reason – I must admit that I will be a little bit slower to hop off my nostalgic memory lane train. And I gather that a few of you will still be sitting there right next to me as a world of “touch,” “slide” and “share” does not seem all that exciting at the end of the day.

For more on this topic and others, follow me on Twitter.

Administration's Response to Teacher's Facebook Posting Extremely Troubling

2012-04-03T18:13:48Z

What started as an innocent joke between two co-workers on Facebook has resulted in the loss of two teaching jobs and the murmurs of others asking “Is nothing we do on social networking sites safe?”

In past weeks, headlines have dominated the news feeds proclaiming that prospective employees are being forced to log in to their Facebook accounts during job interviews, that kids are being expelled for using expletives on social media accounts after school and in the privacy of their own homes, and that social media monitoring is taking on a whole new life in the schools.

Case in point: Kimberly Hester, a grade school teacher’s aide in Michigan, became the latest victim of this hyper monitoring after a parent saw an image displayed on Hester’s Facebook page that did not sit well with the individual and reported it to Frank Squires Elementary where Hester was employed, prompting the investigation. So what was kind of picture was deemed so inappropriate that it warranted an investigation?

According to reports, Hester posted a picture that her co-worker had sent her earlier in 2011 that displayed the co-worker with her pants around her ankles with the message “thinking of you.” While the image was far from pornographic in nature, as the picture only displayed the pants, part of the coworker’s legs and the tips of her shoes, a parent thought otherwise.

The parent, who was Facebook friends with Hester but did not have a child in Hester’s class, showed the picture to the school superintendent, characterizing it as unprofessional and offensive. Since Hester’s photo was only viewable for those that were friends with her, the superintendent of Lewis Cass Intermediate School District Robert Colby asked Hester to come to his office.

"Instead of asking to take the photo down and viewing it from my friend's point of view, they called me into the office without my union," she said. Hester is a member of the Michigan Education Association, which represents more than 157,000 teachers, faculty and support staff in the state, according to its website.

Reports indicate that the superintendent then asked that Hester show him her Facebook profile page. After refusing to give her employer her Facebook password and let him search her account without her union present, Hester received a letter from the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District said, "…in the absence of you voluntarily granting Lewis Cass ISD administration access to you[r] Facebook page, we will assume the worst and act accordingly."

Hester – and her coworker who was pictured in the photo – received seven weeks of paid administrative leave and were suspended for 10 days. Her coworker, who was up for tenure, was ultimately forced to resign, according to Hester. When Hester returned to school last September, she was removed from her previous post as teaching assistant for impaired students in kindergarten through fourth grade and was instead assigned another program and placed under a harsh directive. Some of the stipulations were that she could not speak with coworkers unless it was about a student and she could not go to the bathroom before asking. As the school year progressed, she found out she wasn’t allowed to use paid days off, had to take 49 online classes and was instructed to read books about communication.

By November of 2011, she reportedly experienced a nervous breakdown that landed her in the hospital and prevented her from working in the school. A few weeks later, the school allegedly stopped giving her benefits. Hester begins her pre-trial next week in which she will contend that she should have her job back and be paid $15,000 to date, she told reporters.

"My name has been dragged through the mud. Still, to this day, I'm under a directive where I cannot speak to my coworkers. People think I'm a horrible person and I'm a criminal,” Hester said.

This latest example of extreme social monitoring sheds light on just how misguided some parents and administrators can be. Instead of focusing on catching child predators and teachers who abuse their relationships with their students, they are instead out to scapegoat a young woman who posted something after school hours to her personal Facebook account that had nothing to do with students. Sure, it might have been a bad judgment call on Hester’s part, but to keep a teacher like that under such tight surveillance demonstrates just how ill-advised school administrators acted.

Hester is not a monster. She is not a Mary Kay Letorneau or a Jerry Sandusky. She is not someone who took advantage of a student. She is simply a young teacher who showed poor judgment and has now been crucified for it.

Let this be a lesson to all administrators out there. With the number of suicides related to cyberbullying climbing exponentially fast and details coming forward about many illicit affairs between student and teachers, perhaps you should be taking your social networking police squad down a different street.

A Short and Tweet Message Results in Student's Expulsion

2012-03-29T18:56:24Z

The question “Is that a First Amendment violation?” is certainly reverberating in the industry as of late as word has spread that an Indiana high school administration expelled a high school senior for cursing over Twitter… wait for it, wait for it… after school from his personal computer.

At first that statement might seem truly preposterous to you. After all, what jurisdiction does a school have to chastise a student for using poor language on a social media site when the student was doing so from the comfort of his/her own home and after school? And the answer should be clear – none.

In what clearly has to be a violation of an individual’s first amendment right to public speech, Garrett High School in Indiana expelled a high school senior for dropping the “F” bomb a few times in a tweet, which has been described as nonthreatening. The tweet was posted at 2:30 a.m. on his personal computer from his house.

The school, however, has a computer system that actively tracks the social media presence of its students and because the student had logged on to his Twitter account at some point in school one day, the system was able to find this tweet and report the teen to administrators. Just three months shy of graduation, the school expelled Austin Carroll, who is now forced to enroll at an alternate school to receive his diploma.

"I don't think the school or anybody should be looking at [my account]. Because it's my own personal stuff and it's none of their business," Carroll said following the incident.

His mother, Pam Smith, expressed a similar sentiment and also expressed frustration over the fact that her son was expelled as opposed to suspended for a few days or even fined. “To kick him out of school, his senior year, three months to go, is wrong,” she said.

Does this sound like a multi-million dollar lawsuit to anyone else? I can only imagine the lawyers who will be lining up to represent this kid.

Lawyers aside, I just don’t see how a school could ever find the grounds to expel a kid for cursing on a social media site, in private, after school, unless of course the language was directed at a fellow school community member and embodied a threatening nature. But in this instance, there is simply no way the school had any right to expel a child for expressing how he felt after school hours. What’s next? Administrators expelling a student who texts a few four letter curse words to his friend on the weekend? Or administrators suspending a student who joined a group in Facebook called “I hate homework?”

In the past few days, the Internet has been abuzz with outcry over the fact that a student could be so closely monitored in the comfort of his own home. And an incident like this raises the question of at what point has a school become too “Big Brother” like?

Perhaps school administrators should keep on doing what they do best – teaching – and leave the parenting and raising to the parents.

A Teacher's Aide to Catch a Cheater

2012-03-22T20:22:50Z

Cheating in class just got a whole lot harder for students.

This week, in an attempt to make sure that students are really getting the most out of school – and not taking short cuts by cheating on tests to get As – security expert and Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS) CEO Scott Schober unveiled PocketHound, a hand-held device that is capable of detecting unauthorized cell phone use (like cheating) in class.

“Students are tempted during exam time to do a quick search on Google for the answer that slipped their mind,” Schober said in a recent statement. “There is also a temptation to text their buddy sitting across the room asking for some assistance. Many students are so proficient at texting they don't need to look at the keyboard for more than a millisecond. They hide their mobile phone under their desk, between their legs, or in their pocket, making it all the more challenging to catch the culprit.”

In fact, cheating has moved beyond the halls of the school as individuals are cheating on everything from government exams to high school quizzes, particularly as everyone seems to hop aboard the smartphone bandwagon. Remember the days when students would write the answers on the back of their hands? Boy, how the classroom must look different now.

And with this new classroom comes new teaching aides, this time in the form of handheld devices. Specifically, the PocketHound, which can fit easily into a pocket, alerts teachers to cheaters by vibrating when unauthorized cell phone use is detected. It also has a row of blue LED lights that flash at the same time. The receiver is capable of continually scanning all cell phone bands and utilizing an algorithm constantly sampling the Radio Frequency (RF) noise floor to distinguish real cellular activity vs. ambient RF noise, according to company officials.

The premise of this device is brilliant. Cheating is an epidemic in schools – from kids Googling answers on their history quizzes to others passing along the answers to their friends who will be taking the test later. Perhaps if a teacher announced at the beginning of the school year that he had PocketHound and then asked a kid to Google something to show that he is not messing around, it would deter kids for the whole year from cheating. And that’s a step in the right direction because let’s face it, while kids may not realize it now, that corny cliché is true: they are only cheating themselves. Sure, some of what you learn in school in pointless (sorry teachers!), but the lesson you learn in taking tests is valuable; when you put your mind to it, you can learn something new.

Despite my being impressed with PocketHound, I am not about to give it an “A” though, which may shock some of you. The reason being that I think it takes away a level of responsibility from a teacher that he/she should possess. Call me old-fashioned, but what happened to the good ol’ “walk around the classroom to see if kids are copying or using their phones as accomplices?” Something tells me a teacher will be so dependent on his trusty device to alert him to a cheater that he will miss the simple chance to catch the kid on his own.

While PocketHound offers a solution to a vital problem in today’s society, perhaps it is more suited for specific environments – such as those taking their learner’s permit tests, those taking government tests, and those trying to pass a financial test for their dream job. But to show our kids that we have such little faith in them to be honest on tests (and little faith in ourselves to catch a cheater) rings a little sad for me.

But I could be wrong. And if I am, I’d love to hear from you!

For more on this topic and others, follow me on Twitter.

Hey Teachers - Good Luck Trying to Compete with March Madness

2012-03-15T19:27:09Z

As we speak right now, my Syracuse Orangemen are kicking off their NCAA tournament against 16^th-seeded UNC Asheville in Pittsburgh, albeit without our star center Fab Melo (But enough of my rant about losing Melo for the tourney… I got my frustrations out (largely) Tuesday when word spread like wildfire and people frantically started adjusting their brackets).

Ah, March Madness. A month chock full of brackets, bets, booze and bumming (if your alma matter gets out early). It’s also a month characterized by heightened employee distraction and college students mentally checking out of class. For if I know one thing, it’s this: if it is killing me to focus right now on work when I know I could be watching the game at home and rooting on my team, god only knows that the attention span of a bunch of 18-year-olds actually at Syracuse has flown out the window.

We have already heard the reports of how March Madness wreaks havoc on the work place, particularly as employees frantically whip out their laptops, iPods, and iPads for live streaming. In fact, it's been estimated that 2.5 million workers will access online coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament, and those fans will spend an average of one and a half hours a day watching games and highlights. Another survey revealed that more than 40 percent of IT professionals said that the spike in Internet use has affected their office computer operations in recent years, in some cases causing their systems to come to a screeching halt.

One can only imagine the intense level of distraction that is taking place in the classroom, especially this week as the madness kicks off.

So what should teachers do to fight the March Madness madness? Well here’s one approach certain teachers appear to be taking. Last week, during the Big East tournament, a friend that I follow on Twitter thanked her professor at Newhouse, Syracuse’s communications school, for dismissing class that day so that everyone could watch the game instead of being stuck in class. That message was retweeted by many and that status was “liked” by countless number of ‘Cuse fans on her Facebook page.

Do I think teachers should cancel class for March Madness, even when your team is the No. 1 seed? Of course not (sorry Newhouse). But I do think there is a unique opportunity here.

So today, my message is to you teachers. Don’t be shocked when your students pay no attention whatsoever to your pivotal lesson that you have worked weeks to prepare. They are not listening; they are streaming. So perhaps you should teach them about something else, just for this week – about the power of the Internet. The power of apps and the World Wide Web to bring one of the most watched sporting events to your tablet, smartphone or laptop wherever you might be. The power of social networking sites to allow you to share your excitement, despair and exasperation with others.

So here’s hoping for a competitive, good-spirited March Madness season! And Go Cuse J!

A Teacher's Nude Facebook Pic Leak Exposes Internet Dangers

2012-02-14T19:40:00Z

If you needed any more proof that perhaps it’s not a wonderful idea for students and teachers to be friends on Facebook, here it is; this week, a revered high school football coach and math and science teacher in the Oxford Hills School District in Maine resigned after a nude photo taken of himself that was originally intended for his girlfriend was accidentally shared on his public Facebook page.

While the picture was unintentionally made accessible to coach Paul Withee’s entire social network – and not just his Valentine – the faux pas was enough to make Withee bow his head and resign after the parent of one of his football players discovered the completely nude photo of Withee on his Facebook profile page.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, Withee has refused to comment on the incident, but the Oxford Hills Superintendent assured school and community members that the photo was online for only 10 minutes before it was removed.

This 10-minute period, however, shed light on the very reason that community members are often concerned about teachers and students connecting via social media sites – because they can become privy to highly personal information. Ironically enough, this school district had a policy that allowed for teachers to become friends with students on Facebook.

But around the world, the sentiment is different as educators argue that these types of interactions can quickly become illicit, that students gain unnatural glimpses into their teachers’ personal lives and vice versa, and that these types of interactions are not happening in a safe environment. While I certainly agree that this incident illustrates the very dangers surrounding the teacher/student social network relationship – particularly because these kids could have seen this photo – I think it more importantly reminds teenagers of the dangers associated with sending nude photos over the Internet (or taking them in the first place).

From the Kim Kardashians to the Paris Hiltons to the Scarlett Johanssons, there are certainly a fair amount of young adults and teens shedding their clothes to send intimate pictures to loved ones (or those that loved them at the time). However, students nowadays need to realize that with the advent of the Internet, these pictures can stream over cyberspace in a matter of milliseconds and that a publically viewed picture could potentially be something you have to carry with you during every college admissions meeting and job interview thereafter.

Withee’s carelessness demonstrated two things a grown adult has failed to realize – no picture is safe anymore and something that you attempt to make for private eyes only can become public with the wrong click of a button. And in just moments, a decades-long career and reputation can be shattered.

So students, let this educator’s huge mistake be a lesson to you. The Internet may be one of your greatest friends, providing you with the likes of SparkNotes and Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter. But, it is also your greatest adversary – there to exacerbate what could have been an otherwise innocuous moment and tarnish your reputation for years to come.

ITEXPO StartupCamp5 Produces Fan Favorite from Harvard

2012-02-07T18:41:06Z

It is hard to dislike anything about ITEXPO’s traditional StartupCamp event. Startup companies are given five minutes to bask in the spotlight and give insight into their innovations; a panel of expert judges throws a few curve balls at the presenters to make sure they are sweating just enough; and the audience gets to vote on which startup company deserves investor backing and a promising future.

Miami’s StartupCamp5 last week brought all the usual delights of the event and a fan favorite in Monica Liu, a Harvard undergrad student and co-founder of Townhall 140, a startup company that competed against three others at last week’s event. Simply put, Townhall 140 is an online platform that relies on Twitter and video to bolster civic engagement.

On one side of the website, users can tweet (that’s where the 140 in the company name comes from for all you who were wondering!) which issues they would like to discuss with a politician. Visitors to the site can then vote on which Tweets designated political leaders should address first. Once leaders agree to participate in a live Townhall event, authors of posts at the top of the Twitter feed will get a chance to live video chat with these political figures.

According to the Harvard masterminds behind the site, Townhall 140 is aimed at making influencers and elected officials accessible, encouraging democratic participation and increasing issue awareness. Last November the site held its first town hall, hosting Trey Grayson, the director of the Institute of Politics, to talk about Occupy Harvard. The startup has plans to tackle the White House in the coming months.

While Monica did not win the Startup Camp vote for funding – as LawLoop.com, a Salesforce.com for lawyers, marginally edged her out – she sure walked away from the event with a ton of respect.

Putting aside what Townhall 140 is about, many remarked about how exciting it was to see that a young woman felt comfortable enough in the male-dominated technology space to take to the mic in front of hundreds of guests (who were predominately male) to talk about her innovation. It should be noted that the three other presenters, four panel judges, moderator and keynote speaker Sir Terry Matthews were all male as well. And at shows were oftentimes the only women you see are “Booth Babes,” it was nice to see a woman, a college student nonetheless, take the spotlight to talk about her solid contributions to the tech space.

But now back to the innovation.

While some might say that this is a futile attempt to correct the issue of civil nonchalance that characterizes most of this country, the vast majority of StartupCamp5 attendees felt this had much promise, as did I. There is something so intrinsically simple yet brilliant about this idea. Take individuals who care about politics and give them the chance to get a hold of politicians through platforms they are accustomed to using every day –Twitter and video conferencing. And, in so doing, maybe get a couple of people who are politically indifferent to join in on the fun and in the process become informed citizens.

Perhaps most importantly, Townhall 140 allows politicians and citizens to connect at a time when many feel that “those in charge” are not listening.

So does it matter that Monica didn’t win the Startup Camp vote? Does it matter that perhaps the vote was swayed as the audience was LARGELY made up of men – and maybe some men who are still a little backwards in their thinking? Not at all.

Monica and her team aren’t going anywhere and with an election looming, I encourage you to keep your eyes on these Harvard students because I assure you, they will blow it out of the park.

So I Like iBooks 2 But I Can't Afford an iPad. What Now?

2012-01-19T17:24:47Z

When I think back on high school, some of my fondest memories include being able to take electives like Creative Writing and Introduction to Psychology, enjoying “Senior Beach Day” (which marked the start of second semester), attending basketball games decked out in school colors and, of course, making lifelong friendships. One memory I would rather forget – the back pains associated with four years of carrying around up to five textbooks a day (which was only exacerbated in college).

Fortunately for current students out there, Apple has your back (literally) as the tablet empire today unveiled iBooks 2, a platform that “reinvents the textbook.”

“The textbook is not always the ideal learning tool," Philip Schiller, Apple's vice president of marketing, explained to audience members at New York City’s Guggenheim Museum in New York City this morning. Textbooks are too cumbersome, worn out, scribbled on and not portable, he noted. "They're just not the ideal modern teaching tool."

With iBooks 2, kids can trade in the scuffed up, passed down textbook for a new iPad experience which allows them to enjoy interactive features like 3D models, videos within chapters, and manipulatable elements throughout the books. For example, when the book is rotated vertically, users can enjoy a reflowed layout that emphasizes text. Conversely, when the book is held horizontally, the emphasis is on images and interaction.

Some of the neatest features of iBooks 2 include the fact that it allows kids to view 3D images of the frog they dissect, swipe their finger to get to the next page, tap words that they don’t know to connect with the book’s glossary and get feedback if they were right or wrong with how they answered questions at the end of a chapter quiz.

The app is available via download toady through the iBookstore and textbooks can be purchased immediately at $14.99 or less. Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have already made their books available through the app. While the platform will eventually include all grade levels, for now Apple is concentrating obtaining high school level textbooks.

Among all the hoopla and kudos thrown around at today’s event, one very crucial question became evident. What is a kid or school supposed to if it can’t afford an iPad?

Let’s argue that you are a college student, for example, who has to buy five textbooks for a semester, all of which are now available through iBooks 2. Here’s some math for you: Say your average college textbook costs $100. Well, $100 a book multiplied by five books a semester comes to $500, the exact price of a low-end iPad. So, in theory, you could rationalize that if you spend $500 for the iPad and buy your five books at $14.99 through the iBookstore, that will come to $574.75. And after that initial upfront investment for the iPad, you will essentially pay yourself back for the iPad over your next four years in college because you never have to buy expensive textbooks again. But, this equation (and maybe Apple’s marketing team) is not taking into the account that after every semester you can sell your books back, you can share a book with a classmate to defray costs, or you can find the material online used for much cheaper.

Either way you slice it, to enjoy iBooks 2, you have to be willing to fork over a large amount of money. I feel comfortable speaking for the 20-somethings when I say that vast the majority of us do not have tablets, as we are constantly grappling with whether we want a big chunk of our hard earned money going to a device that in some ways is no different than a laptop. I can only imagine that a college student, who has limited if no income, might feel even more strongly.

Now, for high school and middle school students, I would assume Apple is ready to make some sort of discounted deal with districts who agree to purchase X amount of iPads for students and textbooks through iBooks 2. Apple might even argue that this in some way will be cheaper for the school than paying for new hardcover books each year. But, in a time in which districts are facing the pressure to keep their budgets low so towns don’t have to raise taxes, I don’t know how well that will go over.

And for the district that says the onus is on the parents to make this innovation possible, I bet the vast majority of parents do not want their kids begging them for any more expensive technology.

So, is Apple going to consider reducing the price of the iPad to make their latest offering more desirable? Will Apple give schools discounts to buy iPads in bulk? And will textbook distributors still remain on board when they start to see their revenue take a toll?

I don’t think the Magic Eight Ball has a clear answer just yet.

Are Kids Bored in School Tech Classes?

2012-01-12T19:53:09Z

For all of you out there who were (or are) bored to tears in middle school went you were forced to laboriously calibrate the amount of words per minute that you could type during computer class, I’ve got news for you – the UK government is picking up on this disinterest.

This week, the UK's Education Secretary Michael Gove announced his plans to overhaul the way technology is taught in schools because, simply put, children are “bored out of their minds.”

“Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations," Gove said.

“By 16, they could have an understanding of formal logic previously covered only in university courses and be writing their own apps for smartphones,” he added.

According to Gove, pupils are not adequately prepared to handle the work environment based on the current technology curriculum. Consequently, Gove’s plan calls for the scrapping of current technology curriculums that teach how to use programs such as Microsoft Word and the introducing of classes designed around students’ wants and interests.

The education secretary also plans on reviving the legacy of Alan Turing, the British mathematician dubbed the father of computer science, who worked on cracking the German Enigma code during World War II.

Echoing Gove’s sentiments, Ian Livingstone – one of Gove's advisors and a computer games and fantasy entrepreneur – told BBC radio that the lessons currently being taught in schools were "completely irrelevant."

"It's a travesty given our heritage as the most creative nation in the world," Livingstone said. "Children are being forced to learn how to use applications rather than to make them. They are becoming slaves to the user interface and are totally bored by it."

While I’m all for Gove’s mission of introducing more dynamic tech classes (particularly since the world needs more Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerbergs who can harness creativity into real life visions), Gove is remiss in stating that students need not concern themselves with how to navigate Microsoft Word and Excel. Conversely, these skill sets are of the utmost importance as the work environment which Gove references demands the use of these programs.

Much as kids take history, language and science classes each year until they graduate, with each year becoming progressively more encompassing, perhaps students should be required to take technology classes in succession. For example, second grade would be about the basics of computer navigating and each year could get harder until you get up to electives by high school such as “Advanced Web/App Design.”

Sure our kids should be able to take classes where they can explore app developing and website design, but they can’t ever take those interests to the next level if they don’t know the basics. Perhaps Gove should be suggesting a revision to the existing UK technology program, rather than a complete overhaul.

To All Males: Better Make Room for Females in the Tech World

2012-01-10T19:25:52Z

It’s a common picture that spans all states and countries: the lone girl in an AP physics class or advanced engineering BS program at a university who is desperately trying to prove herself among a sea of male students.

Or, for those of us that have graduated to the real world: the one girl in a large tech company that is desperately trying to prove that she deserves to be the next CTO of the company. (After all, how many women CTOs do you know?)

Sadly, whether we want to admit it or not, these pictures have become more and more common despite women out-enrolling men when it comes to college and the fact that women outperform men when it comes to becoming gainfully employed. The stats reveal that less than a quarter of the high-tech jobs are held by women, according to a FINS.com analysis of Labor Department data. Moreover, the percentage of undergraduate degrees in computer science awarded to women has been declining since 1984. In 2009, it was only 18 percent, reports the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

What do these figures tell us? That women still need to take great leaps forward to shatter the glass ceiling when it comes to technology.

Last year at ITEXPO West 2011, the world’ largest communications conference, I was presented the wonderful opportunity to attend an inaugural networking and educational event called “Women in Telecom and Tech Breakfast” – a conference that had the simple goal of uniting women in the technology and telecom sectors.

Spearheaded by Suzanne Bowen, vice president of business development and marketing for AstraCom, and Ruth Bridger, vice president of marketing Xorcom, the breakfast brought together dozens of women from all over the globe in various technology sects. And let me tell you that what the women had to say to me about their place in the tech world was fascinating.

“It’s a good old boys’ club sometimes,” Melony White, channel director at VAR Dynamics, a provider of private-labeled enterprise class SaaS, told me at the time. “Coming in, I have met some wonderful women in technology but on a daily basis I am pretty much the only woman in the office. It’s nice to collaborate with other women who are likeminded. We bring different perspectives as well and probably on a softer side but also we bring a lot of smart s to this business and we are breaking through.”

For those of you out there who missed the chance to attend this educational lecture, Bowen and her team are gearing up again to hold the event at ITEXPO East 2012, taking place in Miami, Fla., from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3. The year’s event, called “Women in Wireless and Telecom Breakfast at 4GWE and ITEXPO,” will take place from 8 to 9:30 a.m. EST Feb. 2.

“Share the power and motivation of being successful women in the wireless and telecommunications industries with breakfast and short success story talks by each * sponsor at 4GWE (4G Wireless Evolution and ITEXPO East),” Bowen wrote of this year’s event.

For some of you out there, you might feel forced to defend yourself against those know-it-all boys in your class who make you feel out of place in your male dominated lectures. But for others of you, you might not even be considering a career in tech because you have no role models in your life in that space.

But just remember that women all over the world are helping pave the way for you once you graduate with events like these. Stick by your majors and class decisions as a supportive network of strong women awaits you when you enter the tech sector.

I know where I will be at 8 a.m. Feb. 2. Will you be joining me?

BYOD, Steve Jobs Classes... What Can we Expect in 2012 in Schools?

2012-01-03T21:32:33Z

I know what you are thinking: between all the holiday shopping, eating, revelry and milliseconds spent considering that you should make a New Year’s Resolution, why on Earth would you have had the time to think about what the tech space might look like in 2012? Well lucky for you, TMCnet has had your back these past few weeks and continues to have it moving forward as we have been outlining what you can expect in all your favorite tech sectors in the future. Whether it’s VoIP, SIP, FoIP or any of those other silly acronyms, we’ve got you covered.

But for me, nothing is more fun than surmising what is in store for the education realm when it comes to technology and, in that vein, here is the inside scoop on the gossip in the hallways about how technology will affect schools in 2012. Recently, I stumbled across an entry that shared 12 education technology trends to watch in 2012. I’ve highlighted my favorites for you below.

The Surge of BYOD

Sure we hear about BYOD (that’s bring your own device – not bring your own beer you college students!) happening everywhere in the tech sector, particularly in the business world where employees are hoping to bring their tablets, cell phones and laptops in for business use. But experts are predicting the BYOD phenomenon to really find its niche in schools this year as students are more interested than ever before in bringing their own devices to school. Whether it’s their iPhone, tablet, e-reader, netbook or iPod Touch, administrators will definitely have their hands full in the coming year trying to administer the “no phones” in class rule.

The Big, Bad Bandwidth Wolf

Even the school that prides itself on high broadband access might find its resources strained in the coming months as the heightened number of mobile devices brought to schools, coupled with growing demands for streaming video content, means a greater likelihood for bandwidth issues. Last year, the FCC made broadband access a prominent focus of many of its efforts, arguing for its importance to both the U.S. economy and education. With kids showing no sign of slowing down when it comes to wanting to use bandwidth-hogging sites in school, it appears the big, bad bandwidth wolf may need to be slain in 2012.

Collaborative Learning to Soar

Whether it’s through Facebook groups, Twitter feeds or apps, social learning gained a strong foothold in 2011 and will most likely carry forward in 2012. With a plethora of technologies that afford students with ways to communicate and collaborate – whether they are two feet away from each other in science class BBMing about how to dissect the frog or miles away – schools will continue to see the effects of peer to peer learning. We have already seen evidence of how social learning is of great service to students, and experts posit that 2012 will also show us glimpses of how teacher to teacher collaboration can greatly benefit educators.

And now… a few predictions of my own

Cell Phones Become a Cheater’s Best Friend

If you are a teacher about to bust your student for looking up on his smartphone the answer to “When was the Bill of Rights ratified?” don’t forget to also chastise the number one accomplice in this crime – the cell phone. Thanks to countless educational apps, easy access to Wikipedia and dozens of instant messaging features, expect to see a whole lot more detentions for kids cheating in class on tests. The ability to cheat on a test has become super easy thanks to advances in technology and, accordingly, in might be smart this year for administrators to make sure their teachers are well informed of all the ways that kids can use technology to cheat.

Recess Moves Inside

In 2012, we shouldn’t be surprised if schools decide to hold recess every other day from the physical environment to the virtual one. Think of baseball on the Wii or Dance, Dance Revoluiton in the classroom as opposed to tag or hopscotch outside. With such an emphasis on Xbox and the Wii these days, and of course the prevalence of interactive apps, schools might soon see potential in having students trade in the slides at recess for the Wii remote control so as to still make good on the promise that recess will be fun.

Buh-Bye Home Ec

Classes like Home Economics, Wood and Creative Writing might soon get some competition from electives such as “Technology in the 21^st Century” “How to Become the Next Steve Jobs” and “Facebook and Social Media” as high schools around the world consider offering more technology-centric electives in 2012. Much as FLES (foreign language in the elementary schools) has become a requirement for many elementary schools, technology classes might also become mandated. Here’s hoping school budgets can accommodate for more computers the way they do for cloth and fabric.

Is Tech Making it Easier for the Letorneau's and Sanduskys Out There?

2011-12-20T19:52:05Z

More than 10 years ago, the world stood aghast to learn that then 35-year-old Mary Kay Letorneau, a school teacher, was having sex with her 13-year-old student, Vili Fualaau. How could a teacher have taken advantage of such a vulnerable child? How did no one detect it sooner? And how could Letorneau, who was imprisoned from 1997 to 2004 and went on to give birth to two of Fualaau’s children, and Fualaau claim it was true love when they later got married?

This case was a pivotal moment as administrators and families had to ask the chilling question of at what point does a helpful teacher become a child predator? Letorneau’s actions showed that perhaps our children aren’t as safe as we thought they were and perhaps there are more predators out there taking advantage of our children than we think.

Fast forward more than a decade later and the United States public is still in a state of horror, this time to find out that Jerry Sandusky, a revered defensive coordinator for the Penn State University football team, is embroiled in a sexual abuse case – one in which he allegedly sexually abused at least 10 young boys through his charity work.

In both Letorneau’s and Sandusky’s cases, there is no clear indication that technology was a leading factor in the relationship entering dangerous territory, but these instances beg the question of how much more likely is it for students to become assaulted by teachers because of the advent and ubiquity of technology?

Unfortunately, the stats don’t lie.

This past year in Illinois, a 56-year-old former language-arts teacher was found guilty on sexual abuse and assault charges involving a 17-year-old female student with whom he had exchanged more than 700 text messages, according to a recent “New York Times” article. Out West in Sacramento, Calif., a 37-year-old high school band director pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct stemming from his relationship with a 16-year-old female student; law enforcement later determined that the girl had received more than 1,200 private messages from him through her Facebook page, some about massages. Over here on the East Coast in Pennsylvania, a 39-year-old male high school athletic director pleaded guilty in November to charges of attempted corruption of a minor after it was determined that he offered a former male student gifts in exchange for sex.

“It can start out innocent and get more and more in depth quickly,” said Lewis Holloway, the superintendent of schools in Statesboro, Ga., who unveiled a policy this fall prohibiting private electronic communications after learning that Facebook and text messages had helped forge a relationship between an English teacher and her 14-year-old male pupil. “Our students are vulnerable through new means, and we’ve got to find new ways to protect them.”

With social media sites like Facebook and Twitter well in the public domain, experts have been contending that is easier than ever before for teachers to target their students in illicit manners. And the proof is in the pudding as Richard J. Condon, special commissioner of investigation for New York City schools, said there had been a steady increase in the number of complaints of inappropriate communications involving Facebook alone in recent years — 85 complaints from October 2010 through September 2011, compared with only eight from September 2008 through October 2009.

When we hear stories about Letorneau and Sandusky, and the fact that in many cases other adults help cover up such behavior, it often evokes a visceral reaction – chills, nausea and disgust. We are quick to throw these monsters to the stake and scapegoat any adult who knew something and could have stopped it.

When we learn about people like Letorneau, Sandusky, and other predators, it makes us question the educational system and demand from superintendents and school boards answers as to how this could have gone undetected.

But there is a more important component to this– equipping our kids with the tools to defend themselves in trying situations and the resolve to report on strange behavior.

Whether it’s a babysitter, teacher, relative or employer, the world is not immune from predators and just as important as it is to find and punish the abusers, it is perhaps more imperative to teach our kids about how to detect uncomfortable behavior. And distinguishing between “good touch” “bad touch,” is not enough.

It’s about teaching kids how to make sure they are safely navigating the social media world. It’s about teaching kids how to handle tough situations. And, most importantly, it’s about teaching kids that it is OK – and necessary – to speak up about anything that rubs them the wrong the way.