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Intrusive Parenting is Harmful to Children, Says Study
// I4U News

The extent to which parents respond to their children's need set the tone for their personality in future. Expecting good academic performance from children and helping them excel in school is a...
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US student wins tuition refund in Sweden for useless degree
// Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories
A Swedish college has been ordered to refund tuition fees to an American business student for giving her a poor economics education.
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Public educators to teach tots about trannys
// Personal Liberty Digest™
New public education standards that could make their way to your state would require kindergarten teachers to tell children their gender has no basis in biology.
By fall 2017, educators in Washington state public schools will be at the forefront of efforts to further the transgender agenda by incorporating sexual health as a "core idea" in K-12 education.
The state's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) finalized instructional guidelines for the ongoing sexual education instruction in March.
According to reports, sexual health themes taught to the state's youngest schoolchildren will focus mainly on "Healthy Relationships" and helping children to "Recognize people have the right to refuse giving or receiving unwanted touch."
Giving children the tools to recognize differences between "safe and unwanted touch" actually doesn't sound so nefarious at first— even if it is a topic better left to parents. But as the Daily Caller pointed out, OSPI hasn't actually said whether its goal is solely to help children identify red flags of molestation or if the lesson plans amount "to teaching consent to kindergarteners." There's a difference.
And the way things are going these days, nothing would be surprising.
Once children in the state make it to third grade, education officials want them to dive headlong into "self-identity" with regard to sex.
Reports indicate that the youngsters will be expected to believe that "gender roles can vary considerably" and that it's perfectly normal for boys to want to be girls and vice versa.
By fourth grade, they'll learn that family values and regional cultural norms aren't important and how to ignore "social expectations about how people should act, think, or feel based on their assigned biological sex."
A year later, the students will discuss how "media, society, and culture can influence ideas regarding gender roles, identity, and expression." In addition, the 10 and 11-year-olds will be instructed to develop a network of "trusted adults to ask questions about gender identity and sexual orientation."
Washington isn't alone in its triumphant march toward all-out gender confusion through understanding.
Consider this report from Sea Coast Online in Kittery, Maine, earlier this year:
Mitchell Primary School officials have drawn criticism from some parents after a children's book about a transgender child was read to most of the school's students.
During a lesson on tolerance and acceptance implemented by the guidance department, the book "I Am Jazz" by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings was read to 20 of 22 classes in the Grades K-3 school. The story is about a young child "with a boy's body but a girl's brain," who goes through a childhood struggle of identifying with her true self until she and her family speak with a new doctor and come to understand the child is transgender.
And educators in Fairfax, Virginia, recently announced that children in grades 7 through 12 will soon begin receiving lessons in "gender fluidity."
The post Public educators to teach tots about trannys appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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Google Apps update alerts |  |
| More ways for schools & organizations to manage YouTube Posted: 26 Apr 2016 12:27 PM PDT Posted by Matt Ward, Software Engineer (Cross-posted on Google for Education blog) In August 2015 we launched YouTube Settings in Google Apps to give schools and other organizations a way to manage the YouTube experience for users logged in to their domains and on networks they manage. Today we're happy to announce a number of new features to make these more flexible and easier to use. Channel whitelisting Administrators and designated approvers can now whitelist entire channels, not just individual videos. For example, if you want to ensure that all current and future videos uploaded to your organization or school's channel are watchable by your users, you can now simply add the entire channel to your approved list. Learn how to designate approvers.  Using YouTube settings in Google Apps for Education already gives your users access to all the videos on educational YouTube channels like Veritasium, but now your domain's video approvers can add other channels as well, like your school's YouTube channel. More flexible options for administrators Administrators have new capabilities to help them manage YouTube to meet the needs of their organization.
 Admins can select between a strict and moderate level of restriction for YouTube.
YouTube for Schools In August we announced that we would no longer be maintaining YouTube for Schools (YT4S). As of July 1, 2016, YT4S will no longer be available. View the YouTube Settings in Google Apps Help Center for additional details. More information Learn how to enable YouTube settings for your Google Apps domain and join the discussion in the product forum. Launch Details Release track: Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release Rollout pace: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) Impact: Admins only Action: Admin action suggested/FYI Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted Launch release calendar Launch detail categories Get these product update alerts by email Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Google Apps update alerts. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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Try the New Padlet Android App
// Free Technology for Teachers
Just a little more than twelve hours ago I received an exciting email from Padlet in which they announced the launch of their new Android app. Padlet has long worked well in the web browser on Android phones and tablets, but this is the first time that there has been a dedicated Padlet Android app.
The new Padlet Android app does everything that makes me love Padlet. From the app I can create new Padlet walls, share walls with my students, customize the background, change the layout, and even moderate notes appearing on my Padlet wall. I can use the Padlet Android app to post notes containing pictures and videos that are saved on my phone and tablet. The sharing features of Padlet are extended on the Android platform as you can quickly share your walls through a variety of social apps including Twitter, WhatsApp, and Google+. Students can use the app's QR code option to scan QR codes for my Padlet wall and instantly join my wall in the Padlet Android app.
My favorite ways to use Padlet with students:
Padlet as a simple blogging platform:
Padlet walls can be arranged in free-form, grid, or stream layouts. Creating a Padlet page in the stream format could be a good way to create a simple, collaborative blog for students. You could create the page, select "stream" format, and make the page accessible for students to write short posts on. Their posts could include images and videos. If you want to, you can password protect your Padlet pages and moderate messages before they appear on your Padlet page.
Padlet Mini as a bookmarking tool:
Padlet Mini is a Chrome extension that you can use to bookmark websites. When you click the Padlet Mini extension in your browser you will be presented with the option to save to one of your existing walls or create a new Padlet wall. Click here for a video on using Padlet Mini.
Padlet as a KWL chart:
Padlet can be used to create a KWL chart that students can contribute to anonymously (or not anonymously if you want them to sign-in). Create a wall, make it public, and ask students to share what they know and what they want to know about a topic. If you allow anonymous posting you might get contributions from shy students who might not otherwise speak-up in class. Of course, if you allow anonymous commenting you should have a conversation with your students about what an appropriate comment looks like. (You could also turn on moderation and approve all notes before they appear). Padlet works well when projected on an interactive whiteboard.
Padlet for group research and discussion:
A few years ago I showed my special education students a short (18 minutes) video about cultural changes that took place in the US during the 1920's. After the video we discussed what they saw. Then I had students search online for other examples of cultural change in the 1920's. When they found examples they put them onto a Wallwisher (Padlet's previous name) wall that I projected onto a wall in my classroom. The wall started with just text being added to the wall and quickly progressed to YouTube videos being added to the wall. Once every student had added a video to the wall we stopped, watched the videos, and discussed them.
Padlet as a showcase of your students' work:
If your students are creating digital portfolios, creating slideshows, or producing videos you could use Padlet to display all of your students' best work on one page. Create the wall, call it something like "my best work this year," and have your students post links to their works.
Join me in July for the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps. Discounted early registration is available now.
This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.
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Man arrested by U.S. Marshals over student loan default
// Personal Liberty Digest™
When you think of the kind of fugitives U.S. Marshals routinely pursue at behest of the federal court system, you may picture dangerous international criminals, prolific bank robbers or ruthless murderers. But you'd probably be surprised to learn that the federal law enforcement agency is sending heavily armed officers to drag people into court over delinquent student loans.
So too was Paul Aker, according to Fox 26 in Houston, when seven agents dressed in full combat gear arrived at his home near Houston to collect a debt on a student loan he took out way back in 1987.
Aker said he first thought something was up when he noticed a strange vehicle parked outside his home. When a suspicious person approached him, he retreated into his house as most people would. But later that day, the federal government's heavily armed henchmen showed up in full force.
"They grabbed me, they threw me down," the 48-year-old told local reporters. "Local PD is just standing there."
Aker was unsurprisingly very confused by the government attack and wouldn't learn until later that it was related to a $1,500 student loan debt from nearly three decades ago.
"I say, 'What is this all about?'" Aker said. "They say, 'Shut up, you know what this is all about.' I don't have a clue."
Aker was then placed into the back of a truck and hauled to court where a "prosecutor"— actually a collection lawyer— informed him that he would be forced to pay $5,700 for the loan and its interest in addition to $1,300 to cover the cost of the government operation to apprehend him.
When the question of why the Marshals were so heavily armed came up, the agency claimed it was because Aker is a registered gun owner.
Aker rightly pointed out that the government's overzealous debt-collection mission could have ended tragically.
"It's out of control. Out of control," he said. "What if they had seen a gun on me? They would have shot me for 1,500 bucks."
Aker's story is shocking, but it isn't unique.
According to a source familiar with the U.S. Marshals' debt collection practices, the agency is planning to initiate between 1,200 and 1,500 identical operations in the months ahead.
And as student loans become increasingly prevalent while economic realities make it harder and harder for borrowers to meet their payment obligations, the problem could get much worse.
Currently, some 70 percent of all bachelor's degree recipient graduate with student loan debts. The average burden for borrowers is about $35,000.
As of 2009, student loan borrowers who graduated had a default rate of around 3.7 percent and those who dropped out of school had a default rate of 16.8 percent. As a whole, just under half of student loan borrowers are either still in school and not making student loan payments or they've had payments deferred due to economic hardships.
The Obama administration has done its best to exacerbate the problem.
According to the Treasury Department, the amount of student loan debt owed to the federal government has increased by 463 percent to $674,580,000,000 in the years since President Barack Obama took office. The major increase is due in part to the Health Care Education Reconciliation Act — one of the laws making up Obamacare — which essentially made it easier for students to borrow money directly from the Treasury.
Arrests like Aker's are the result of how student loan debt differs from other forms of debt. Student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy court like other forms of consumer debt and government-backed collectors have more leeway in using extreme tactics to collect the debts than do other types of lenders. So when a student loan issuer is able to get a ruling in federal court, which is becoming more common, a borrower's failure to pay puts them in the Marshal's crosshairs.
For more on student loans, read:
Unemployed college grads can lose driver's, professional licenses in many states
Student Borrowing Increases More Than Fourfold Under Obama
Student Loans Swallowing America
Student Loan Debt Could Cripple Economy For Decades
Why Does Obama Want New Graduates In Perpetual Debt?
The post Man arrested by U.S. Marshals over student loan default appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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New research uncovers hidden bias in college admissions tests
// Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories
A little over two years after the College Board released research rebutting findings by an Indiana University Kelley School of Business professor concerning the board's testing methods, the professor and his colleagues have raised new questions in a paper about test bias, based on the testing service's own data.
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How to Gain Access to Thousands of Free eBooks for Kids
// Free Technology for Teachers
As I do every year, I am taking this week to relax, recharge, and ski with friends. While I'm away I will be re-running the most popular posts of the year. This was one of the most popular posts in October, 2015.
Zing is a service offering thousands of free fiction and non-fiction ebooks to teachers and students. On Zing you can browse for books by topic, language, or reading level. You can read the books in your web browser on a laptop or tablet. Zing is more than just a repository of free ebooks. In the Zing reader students will find a built-in dictionary and tools for taking notes while they read. In the video embedded below I demonstrate some of the features of Zing.
Earn three graduate credits while learning how to use Google Apps for Education .
This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.
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Why Google Doesn't Hire Based On Ivy League Credentials
// ReadWriteWeb
This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.
One of the world's most sought after employers doesn't care much about Ivy League credentials or a sterling college transcript. "It's one of the flaws in how we assess people," explained Laszlo Bock, Vice President of People Operations at Google Inc. He continues:
We assume that if you went to Harvard, Stanford or MIT that you are smart. We assume that if you got good grades you will do well at work... there is no relationship between where you went to school and how you did five, 10, 15 years into your career. So, we stopped looking at it.
Bock, who sat down with Medium's Steven Levy at the Next Economy conference earlier this month, released new research from Google on why college degrees matter so little to the search giant.
In a blog post, Google claims that 'psychological safety' is one of the foundation factors in the company's best teams. "The safer team members feel with one another, the more likely they are to admit mistakes, to partner, and to take on new roles," Bock explained.
For Google, college degrees and grades, evidently, don't indicate whether employees can perform well in the real world. This isn't to say that Google has given up on higher education. Just last month, the company announced a partnership with an online course provider, Udacity, to offer a low-cost business school alternative to teach startup entrepreneurship.
Google is skirting around traditional universities in the process of pursuing an expanding educational business agenda. If others follow Google's lead, it could portend big changes for the future of higher education.
*For more stories like this, subscribe to the Ferenstein Wire newsletter here.
Lead photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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