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We have been hacked
First it happened to Target. Now, evidently, the colleges and universities in North Dakota have been hacked and personal information may have been compromised.
An entity operating outside the United States apparently used the server as a launching pad to attack other computers, possibly accessing outside accounts to send phishing emails.
So, is it time to change my social security number?
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Reboot
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM – the computer science folks) have released a revision of an earlier report calling for an increased focus on computer science in K-12. I just read the previous version for some writing I am trying to complete. A quick skim of the newest release appears indicates a heavy focus on vocational opportunities. The only criticism I have of this content area concerns claims made for the development of general problem solving skills.
More money than you need?
I write this post understanding that some will make fun of my “back when we were kids” mentality. So be it!
The Wall Street Journal has an article examining how student loan money is spent.
The government lets students use a portion of federal loans for living expenses on the grounds that it allows students to devote more time to studying and improves their chances of graduating. Even when schools suspect students are over-borrowing, they are restricted by federal law and Education Department policy from denying funds.
The article is particularly critical of loans to students in online programs and schools that allow loans when students are taking no credits.
As a college faculty member, the thing about the student loan situation I resent is the assumption so many make that it is the tuition costs that are responsible for high debt loads carried by graduates. Ask young working professionals who place their young children in child care and I would bet they are paying far more for their children to be cared for than they paid for college tuition. It is all a matter of perspective.
It is true that I did not have a car for the first several years when I was in college, etc.
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States Color Coded
I like those US maps that color code states by some characteristic. Here is a set of 25 maps provided by the Washington Post that code states by various “political” issues.
I learned that you do not want to be a student from a low income family in Texas.
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Textbooks and standards
You may have read this summary of Morgan Polikoff and William Schmidt in Education Week. The researchers wanted to address the claims made by textbook companies that their products addressed Common Core standards. The researchers, to but it conservatively, argue that the textbook companies are over reaching. Their logic is that books show be different pre and post CC.
“Page by page, paragraph by paragraph,” many were identical to the old, pre-standards textbooks, he said.
I certainly trust their detailed analysis, but I find some standards something like a Rorchach test. What you see in an ambiguous image reflects your perspective (or in this case your bias). After looking a little more, I probably should look more carefully.
Something like:
Explain how the criteria for triangle congruence (ASA, SAS, and SSS) follow from the definition of congruence in terms of rigid motions.
is more specific than something like:
locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources (ISTE NETS)
Without taking sides on the CC standards issue, I think I could more easily make the case that I can find evidence of the second standard than the first.