A Canadian university has instilled a culture of fear by threatening to expel a student for cheating because he set up an online study group on Facebook, critics said this week. Toronto’s Ryerson University threatened to expel first-year computer engineering student Chris Avenir last week, arguing that his study group on the Facebook networking site might encourage cheating.
Ryerson decided to lift the expulsion threat on Tuesday, but Avenir will get zero credits for the course work discussed on the Facebook forum last autumn, and the university has put a disciplinary notice on his record.
Canadian media analyst Jesse Hirsh said Ryerson’s actions send the wrong message to students, most of whom spend a lot of their time on the Internet.
Author: Reuters, cnet news.com, 20th March 2008
Full article available here.
March 31, 2008
How can we maximize the learning power of participatory Web sites while ensuring students are protected and behave responsibly?
The various scandals around social networking abuses have garnered lots of press in the past couple of years. Predators, bullying, slander, and harassment of all kinds on sites such as MySpace and Facebook are increasingly the subjects of horror stories and play into a renewed wave of fear about the dangers online.
As a professor of educational technology and media in a teacher education program, I have encountered some frightening tales myself.
Rob was a bright, well-mannered young intern whose career almost ended in controversy in fall 2006. He entered his practicum in top form with strong classroom management skills and a brilliant grasp of the high school math curriculum. Rob was well-liked by his students—perhaps a little too much by some. Three of Rob’s female students created a fake MySpace account of the young teacher, populating the site with digital photos they found through Web searches and with information from Rob’s authentic MySpace profile. Students took these acts further, digitally altering photos to produce images of the young teacher “pounding back shooters” at a local nightclub with several high school students by his side.
Author: Alec Couros, Technology & Learning, 15th February 2008
Full article available here.
Dr. Alec Couros is a professor of Educational Technology and Media in the Faculty of Education, University of Regina, Canada.
March 20, 2008
It’s smaller then a textbook and cheaper than many software packages. George Cole visits two schools using the first in a new breed of mini laptops
Arrive at the entrance to St Mary’s RC primary school in Grangetown, Middlesborough, and you’d think a bomb had gone off. In fact, around half the school has had to be demolished after a devastating arson attack last October causing almost £1m worth of damage. Currently without hall, ICT suite or library, its 150 pupils and 19 staff are crammed into half of the building that is being repaired and refurbished.The school only moved back from other premises in January. “One of my first reactions was, how on earth are we going to do ICT?” says ICT co-odinator Janet Lawrence. “We have a totally integrated ICT curriculum - we use it in maths, history, geography, science, for example.” But good can come out of adversity and the school’s plight resulted in donations from various companies, among them 25 Asus miniBooks from the ICT suppier, RM.
These mini laptops have caused a stir in the education sector, not least because they offer many features found on full-sized laptops, including built-in wireless networking. Their low cost (£169) is partly down to their use of open source software like the Linux operating system and free software packages such as Open Office. This does away with many software licensing costs incurred when using Microsoft Windows. So what are they like in practice?
Author: George Cole, The Guardian, 18th March 2008
Full article available here.
March 20, 2008
The game shows all the dangers that go along with binge drinking
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A computer game based on the dangers of drinking has been developed by pupils from two Renfrewshire schools. It is estimated more than a third of 15-year-olds binge drink every week and the game aims to tackle alcohol abuse.
In it the player has to find and help a friend who has been drinking and whose condition is constantly deteriorating.
S1 students at Paisley Grammar School and St Andrew’s Academy designed the concept, features and sound effects for the ThinknDrinkn game.
The project was developed with the help the University of the West of Scotland’s School of Computing.
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 What we tried to do was create a realistic scenario in a city-scape 
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It will also go on Glow, the national schools intranet, to be used by schools all over Scotland and can be used on mobile phones.
Author: BBC News, Scotland, 17th March 2008
Full article available here.
See also ThinknDrinkn post.
March 19, 2008
ThinknDrinkn is a game created by S1 pupils at two local Paisley schools to raise awareness of many of the issues around alcohol consumption. The game was created in collaboration with UWS (my institution) and a local games company, KodeTank. It was launched just the other day, and got some coverage on the BBC.
There is also a more detailed gameplay video on TeacherTube.
Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 19th March 2008
Full article available here.
See also BBC News post on the game.
March 19, 2008
