How to stay safe online and avoid cyberbullying [Independent.ie]
- Published: 17 August 2009
Cyberbullying is one of the sinister new offshoots of the age we live in where bullies use technology, such as mobiles and the internet, to harass other people. It can take many forms:
- Texting threatening or nasty messages to people.
- 'Happy slapping', which is when people use their mobiles to film and share videos of physical attacks.
- Posting an embarrassing or humiliating video of someone on a site such as YouTube.
- Setting up profiles on social networking sites to make fun of someone, or excluding people on social networking sites.
- Stealing someone's identity by hacking into their account.
Change is the enemy [Guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 16 August 2009
Decades of meddling have shown clearly that politicians should keep out of the classroom
Take one motivated teacher, one eager class - and the answer is education. Take that same teacher, same class and a ruck of politicians shouting the odds, and you'll be lucky to hear the question, let alone find an answer. "In countries [that] perform best educationally, from Finland to South Korea, it's academics, not politicians, who preside over the exam system," says Michael Gove, one of David Cameron's more wide-awake shadows. He's absolutely right. Time for him to shut up and sit down, then? Alas not.
Full Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Do Teachers Need Education Degrees? [NYTimes]
- Published: 16 August 2009
In a Room for Debate forum in June on the value of liberal arts master's degrees, one group of readers - teachers and education administrators - generally agreed a higher degree was well worth the investment. They pointed out that pay and promotion in public schools were tied to the accumulation of such credentials and credits, specifically from colleges of education.
But current teacher training has a large chorus of critics, including prominent professors in education schools themselves. For example, the director of teacher education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Katherine Merseth, told a conference in March that of the nation's 1,300 graduate teacher training programs, only about 100 were doing a competent job and "the others could be shut down tomorrow." And Obama administration officials support a shift away from using master's degrees for pay raises, and a shift toward compensating teachers based on children's performance.
Full Story: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/education-degrees-and-teachers-pay/
Fast food 'makes you less intelligent' [Independent.ie]
- Published: 14 August 2009
Fast food can make you less intelligent, according to new research.
A high-fat diet over less than 10 days was found to damage the short-term memory of rats used in the experiment from scientists at Oxford University.
The research team studied rats fed a low fat diet, comprising 7.5 per cent of calories as fat, and compared them with rats fed a high-fat junk food diet, with 55 per cent of calories as fat.
It found that after four days the muscles of the rat on the high-fat diet were less able to use oxygen to make energy needed to exercise, causing an increase in heart size.
Full Story: http://www.independent.ie/
Schools told job priority must go to qualified teachers [Examiner.ie]
- Published: 14 August 2009
FEW newly graduated teachers will be left without work as long as schools no longer use almost 4,000 unqualified staff, Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has claimed.
Responding to criticisms about the number of graduates who may be unable to get teaching jobs because of cuts in school staffing and other education resources, he said there should be no difficulties.
Full Story: http://www.irishexaminer.com/
