Internet History, Technology, and Security

by the University of Michigan

The impact of technology and networks on our lives, culture, and society continues to increase. The very fact that you can take this course from anywhere in the world requires a technological infrastructure that was designed, engineered, and built over the past sixty years. To function in an information-centric world, we need to understand the workings of network technology. This course will open up the Internet and show you how it was created, who created it and how it works. Along the way we will meet many of the innovators who developed the Internet and Web technologies that we use today.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/insidetheinternet

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The 64-Bit Mobile Processor Race Is On

By David Nagel, THE Journal

Tablet and smart phone processors will increasingly shift toward 64-bit architectures, though it will be a few years before these chips power the majority of devices. The shift is being driven, at least in part, by Apple’s rollout of its 64-bit A7 processor, according to market research firm ABI Research. According to a new report released this week by ABI, “Intel, Marvell, MediaTek, Qualcomm and Nvidia all announced their first 64-bit mobile processors at Mobile World Congress this year but 64-bit-compliant smartphones are unlikely to hit the market before the release of the next Android update, expected in the second half of the year. By the end of 2014, ABI Research expects shipments of 64-bit mobile processors to exceed 182 million, of which only 20 percent will power Android devices.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/03/12/the-64-bit-mobile-processor-race-is-on.aspx

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States Show Improvement on Digital Learning Report Card

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal

Digital Learning Now has released the 2013 Digital Learning Report Card, which grades K-12 education policy in each of the 50 states against the group’s 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning. This year only two states, Utah and Florida, received As, while 14 states received Fs and another 13 received Ds. “In 2013, more than 450 digital learning bills were debated and 132 were ultimately signed into law, bringing the total of enacted legislation since 2011 to more than 360,” according to a news release from Digital Learning Now. “More than 20 states advanced an entire overall letter grade as measured by the Report Card.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/03/13/states-show-improvement-on-digital-learning-report-card.aspx

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Smartphone “Kill Switch” Proposed By New Federal Law

by Chad Buenaflor, the Droid Guy

The rise in the number of mobile device theft all across the United States has prompted several Senators to introduce a smartphone kill switch on the federal level. This past Thursday, a proposed law called the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act was introduced by Democratic Senators Barbara Mikulski (MD), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), and Mazie Hirono (HI). According to Sen. Amy Klobuchar who is the founder of the bill , “Cell phone theft has become a big business for thieves looking to cash in on these devices and any valuable information they contain, costing consumers more than $30 billion every year and endangering countless theft victims. This legislation will help eliminate the incentives for criminals to target smartphones by empowering victims to take steps to keep their information private; protect their identity and finances; and render the phone inoperable to the thieves.”

http://thedroidguy.com/2014/02/smartphone-kill-switch-proposed-new-federal-law/

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How To Use Smartphones For Language Learning

By Colleen Lee, Edudemic

I am working on trying to balance the need to know that my students ‘have it’ with the practical realities of a modern language class. For that reason I have been looking at more and more choice in not only what language students use to demonstrate learning but also in how they do it. This year I have been making more use of the ‘quick conversation’ as a means of measuring learning. So an interaction, recorded on the phone, and then forwarded to me is a new way to offer some formative assessment.

http://www.edudemic.com/phones-language-learning/

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Let’s take a byte out of snow days

by PAUL W. BENNETT, Chronicle Herald

Now comes news from the American “snow belt” states that the storm day itself may be threatened by, of all things, the gradual advance of 21st century e-learning. lready, U.S. school districts from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Westerville City, Ohio, to Trimble County, Ky. are beginning to take full advantage of the Internet to convert snow days into cyber-learning days. Since August of 2011, the State of Ohio has authorized school districts to develop “e-day plans” for storm days, implementing them once five days have been lost in the school year. It’s a very ingenious response to the significant loss of student learning time.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1185467-let-s-take-a-byte-out-of-snow-days

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