Four schools in Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand, will be the lucky recipients of weekly fresh fruit thanks to a local initiative.

All Good Bananas is a New Zealand-based Fairtrade importer of bananas, which in March set up a donation section on their Facebook page, encouraging their customers to pledge bunches of bananas.

“Children going hungry is not just a developing world problem,” says All Good Director Simon Coley, “Thousands of Kiwi kids go to school without having had a proper breakfast.”

With this in mind, All Good teamed up with New Zealand-based charity KidsCan Trust, which specifically targets children in low socioeconomic areas, providing food, clothing and shoes to children whose families cannot afford it.

As a part of the food donations KidsCan will now be able to provide 25,000 bananas to Kia Aroha College and St Joseph’s School in Auckland, and North New Brighton and New Brighton Catholic schools in Christchurch- enough for the entire year.

Many children in low socioeconomic areas come to school without breakfast, which affects their learning and concentration for the entire day, which can impact on their ability to access further education.

Many schools, including North New Brighton School, have taken the initiative with the help of KidsCan to set up ‘breakfast clubs’ which provide students with a substantial breakfast to give them a nutritious start to the day.

North New Brighton School Principal Brian Walkinshaw is very appreciative and says students will be too.

“The bananas are a perfect addition, great energy food and a good nourishing snack, packed full of carbohydrates. The fact that they’re Fairtrade adds that double feel good factor.”

KidsCan is always looking for donations, but not only in funds. Currently, KidsCan is appealing to New Zealand knitters so that they can give children beanies to keep their heads warm during the winter.

In 2011 KidsCan gave away 8500 beanies, and in 2012 hopes to reach 10,000 to distribute around the 218 schools in the program.

Beanie donations finish around the end of June, but don’t worry if knitting isn’t really your forte, there are plenty of ways you can help children in poverty in New Zealand.

Go to the KidsCan website www.kidscan.org.nz for some fundraising ideas. They have details of nationwide initiatives, as well as examples of fundraising that schools and businesses have done.

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It’s that time of year again for college students, the dreaded final exams. And with that usually comes a lot of stress, hitting the books, and not enough sleep. While many students have the misconception that pulling all-nighters will score them higher grades on their exams, research is showing that getting inadequate amounts of sleep can actually hurt your test scores.

It’s amazing what the human body is capable of but, in order for it to function to its utmost ability, it needs its rest. According to Dr. Robert Oexman, Director of the Sleep to Live Institute, “it is no surprise that college students are one of the most sleep-deprived demographics in our population.

What may be surprising is that sleep is as important to learning as exercise is to physical stamina. If you want to maximize your time learning you must sleep.” Dr. Oexman explains after extensive research that it is more beneficial for a student to sleep for a few hours before an exam, rather than to cram for a few hours right before the test, where much of the material is often forgotten.

According to the National Institutes of Health, “sleep deprived students have lower GPA’s due to the fact that it impacts memory and concentration.” Around finals time, students come up with every excuse in the book as to why it is more important to study than to sleep.

“I can sleep when my finals are over,” “I have pulled all-nighters before, so it’s no big deal” or “If I cram for my exam right before I take it then I will remember more information.” But what students need to know is that current sleep research findings show that getting enough sleep is actually smart, and according to Dr. Oexman, here’s why:

“Sleep is an active process where the brain works to heal the body by producing hormones beneficial for repair and growth. This is also the time for the brain to consolidate memories of what we studied and learned that day. Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (REM Sleep), which happens in the last part of the night, appears to be associated with learning and memory. This reinforces the mantra that you should be getting eight hours of shut-eye if you want the full benefits of sleep.”

Dr. Oexman points out that sleep and learning have one thing in common-a commitment, and that without enough sleep, your productivity level will not be at it’s utmost potential nor will it get you the grades you are striving for.

As a result, Oexman gives 8 crucial sleeping tips to land the grades you want:

• Turn Electronics Off: Make a commitment to turn off all electronics 30 minutes before bed. Blue light emitted from computers, smart phones, and tablets hurts natural sleep processes.

• Eight — Yes, Eight Hours: Set a routine and commit to getting at least 8 hours of sleep, but preferably more if possible.

• Smart Snacking: If you have to stay awake during finals try low-calorie non-caffeinated foods like sunflower seeds. This activity will keep you awake but will not interrupt sleep when you are ready to snooze.

• Say No to Stimulants: From caffeine to energy drinks — stimulants, both legal and non-legal, have been shown to impact sleep, and that will impact your ability to remember what you just stayed up late to learn.

• Remember to REM: If you have to stay awake before an exam get at least 6 hours of sleep the night before. This will allow you to get at least some amount of REM sleep, which occurs later in the night and helps consolidate your memories.

• Dorm Room Rules: If you sleep in a dormitory, use eye masks and earplugs to drown out the light and noise. You will be amazed how this can impact your sleep and your grades.

• Limit Naps: If you nap, keep it to 30 minutes or less. You are better off studying during this time and sleeping later in the night.

• Everyone Should Exercise: Exercise helps students in two ways — making you more alert when it’s time to study and helping you to relax when it’s time to fall asleep.

Happy Studying!

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The 20 Million Minds Foundation (20MM) and SlugBooks.com have announced their partnership making course-level bookstore-to-online price comparisons mainstream with real-time pricing available on the non-profit’s website 20MM.org . The real-time pricing product moves significantly further than current efforts aimed at meeting recent federal requirements seeking to curb the escalating cost of college textbooks.

In 2008, Congress passed the HEOA— a groundbreaking federal law designed to tackle the rapidly rising cost of textbooks— directing colleges nationwide by requiring disclosure of college textbook costs for students during the registration process on their websites.

Most colleges are complying with Federal law by disclosing the new and used textbook costs offered at their own college bookstores –where inflated prices are discouraging students to continue their education and are forcing many to pick their courses by textbook cost and not necessary benefit toward their academic goals.

HEOA compliance technically discloses enough information for significant savings to occur, but for most students the ISBN and price information by itself is not actionable, so they continue to pay higher prices than necessary. 20MM has partnered with SlugBooks given their product is independent from main stakeholders hurting affordability in this space, including publishers and the bookstore.

Students are typically directed by their institutions to go to the campus bookstore in most cases, despite affordable online options. The Foundation’s initial beta price transparency initiative allows students to look through college courses when shopping for textbooks and compare prices between the college bookstore and online alternatives.

Dean Florez, President of 20MM pointed to student frustrations given the lack of transparency in college textbook pricing saying “College bookstores are complying with federal requirements when it comes to servicing students – and most allow students several options between purchasing from the bookstore new, used, rental or even digitally – but each of those purchasing options incorporates different economics.

These bookstore-provided options are rarely ever compared apples-to-apples with the prices of reputable online alternatives or free open source offerings. The 20MM textbook tool aims to bridge this gap, and exposes courses where savings are significant.”

David Miller, CEO of SlugBooks pointed out that 20MM and SlugBooks currently plan to expand the school offering to over 1,000 higher education campuses in time for the Fall term beginning later this year. “Between various online marketplaces and new OER materials, course materials are now more affordable than they ever have been.

The only problem is that students and professors both, in large part, are unaware how easy it is to save money online. Instructors will be able to use this tool to search for various classes at schools and get ideas for which books their peers are using, along with the various price points of those books at college bookstores to make sure students can purchase these adoptions at a fair price.”

“Upon its release, the 20MM Textbook Tool is already demonstrating that students are not being served well by our bookstores, especially at the community college level,” said Florez.

“In fact, we are already exposing predatory pricing schemes that publisher’s use, which include loose leaf, packaged and customized textbooks, for which there is no secondary marketplace online.”

“The product already provides valuable adoption insights at both the course and textbook level – professors can either browse courses at specific schools to see what books are being used, or they can search for books by ISBN/Title and see all of the schools and courses in our database that are using that same edition.

A lack of online marketplace availability for a specific ISBN can be a red flag that a given textbook is not an affordable option and alternatives should be considered. This tool gives professors a much needed price-check to truly control how their textbook adoption choices will affect students,” said Miller.

20MM and SlugBooks plan on building out the product offering to also double as an early adoption discovery tool for professors who will be able to compare traditional hardcopy textbooks, rentals, e-textbooks and growing open educational resource (OER) textbooks in a one-click comparison.

Florez went further and pointed out that at full buildout, 20MM plans to index over 15 million textbooks based on 10 years of adoption that will provide faculty a trusted roadmap and a easy one-click “kayak experience” that will provide adoption information, textbook ratings, and side-by-side comparisons among peers on campuses throughout the nation.

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The economic crisis has raised unemployment, universities have reduced their available spots, and tuition is becoming inaccessible to the poor and middle class. So, is a college education really worth it?

Students must be certain that they want to go to a college these days. Though motivations vary – pressure from home, aggressive marketing, or social tendencies in the political arena – a university education is considered a good investment because higher pay has traditionally followed a higher education. However, many students argue that their decision is not only about money and that they see the value of a college education as a way to expand their knowledge and learn independence.

Students have to learn the hard lesson that going to a university is not enough. You also have to study the right subjects, not just your preferences. This way, you will have business contacts for when you graduate. Many students try to avoid the toughest subjects, such as math and chemistry, and instead, they choose the “easy” or ” fun” ones. They waste their time by choosing fields in the humanities that give little prospect of landing a job.

For instance, some students receive futile degrees in media, photography, or fashion, so they can get interesting jobs. However, employers will take advantage of them because they have many candidates to choose from since the market is already over-saturated.

I am not saying that the humanities is the wrong way to go, but graduates in those subjects have lower wages and are less likely to find work in their fields compared to those who graduate with a degree in science. According to a study conducted by Andrew Sum, a labor economist at Northeastern University and leading expert on the youth labor market, more than half of all humanities graduates get jobs that do not require university degrees.

The tuition fees and certain majors are the two main reasons to discourage students from going to college. First, the idea that they will be spending their twenties and thirties paying off their university or college debts once they have graduated is a big negative, and second, their preferred major will not guarantee them a job in their field, or they will end up working menial jobs.

According to a report by myUface in 2009,  U.K. tuition is between $5,500 and $28,500 USD per year, whereas in the U.S., the tuition is between $5,000 and $30,000. On top of that, you must add $8,000 for living expenses, if the student moves away from his or her hometown.

I am not discouraging students from going to a university, but they have to take tuition fees and their chosen field of study into account before they make their final decision. Choosing a science degree is a safer investment than a humanities degree because there are more jobs and less competition. Nowadays, majoring in the humanities field is a gamble, but if students want to succeed in this competitive field, they must know that there will be blood, sweat, and tears all the way.

If students do not choose higher education, there are other interesting professions, such as becoming an electrician or plumber. You can make good money, and skip three or four years at a college or university and the financial struggle from student loan debts. Dear students, the decision is yours.

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Nancy Silberkleit, the seasoned anti-bullying and literacy advocate, is proud to announce the Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event, a new anti-bullying initiative for 2012. This inspirational event, open to students across the country, encourages youth to share their true stories and insight to raise awareness and stop the harm that bullying can do.

Led by a panel including Former New York Governor David Paterson, Stan Davis of stopbullyingnow.com and Nancy Silberkleit, the contest will raise funds for the International Bullying Prevention Association. Selected youth will also have their story serve as the inspiration for a forthcoming educational, not-for-profit comic book written by Nancy Silberkleit. Selected essays may also be published anonymously in other ways.

Nancy Silberkleit, co-CEO of Archie Comics, is using her educational training and experience to inspire self-confidence and strength in children of all ages. The Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event was conceived by Silberkleit as a way to create an inspired community while also furthering her philanthropic reach.

She is currently working on a series of educational comic book focusing on children’s issues such as bullying. She aims to share her words of strength and inspiration with today’s youth. She advises, “Never let anyone define who you are. You know who you are.”

The Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event, open to all students across the country ages 8-18, will be open for submissions February 1st- May 1st. To enter, children must write a 250-word true essay on the topic of bullying. They may send their own true story about what made things better when they were bullied, or how they supported someone else who was bullied.

These essays will be used as the inspiration for one of Nancy Silberkleit’s upcoming educational comics. For the first 200 essays sent in, Nancy Silberkleit will donate $5 per essay to the International Bullying Prevention Association.

“Creating a school environment free of harassment and discrimination has been a long term goal of mine,” says Governor Paterson. “I’m proud to further align myself with causes such as this contest that encourage our youth to speak out and unite against bullying.”

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Nearly one in four American children attend rural schools and enrollment is growing at a faster rate in rural school districts than in all other places combined, according to ‘Why Rural Matters 2011-12’, a biennial report by the Rural School and Community Trust.   In addition, rural schools show increasing rates of poverty, diversity, and students with special needs.

These widespread trends are most evident in the South, Southwest, and parts of Appalachia. ”As the evidence mounts that rural education is becoming a bigger and even more complex part of our national educational landscape, it is becoming impossible to ignore in the quest to improve achievement and narrow achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged groups.

The day of closing our eyes and hoping rural education will just go away are ending,” said Jerry Johnson, a co-author of ‘Why Rural Matters 2011-12’. More than 9.6 million students are enrolled in rural school districts in the United States, which is over 20 percent of all public school students in the United States.

An additional 1.8 million students are enrolled in rural schools in districts not classified as rural by the federal government.  Together, these 11.4 million students who attend rural schools comprise more than 23 percent of all public school students, according to the Rural School and Community Trust, a respected national nonprofit organization.

Of those students attending schools in a rural district, two in five live in poverty, a rate that has increased by nearly a third in nine years.  One student in four in rural areas is a child of color, and one in eight has changed residence in the past 12 months.

Between the 1999-2000 and 2008-2009 school years, rural districts’ enrollment increased by well over 1.7 million students, showing a growth rate of more than 22 percent.  In comparison, non-rural enrollment increased by only 673,000, or by a 1.7 percent increase, for the same time period.  As a result, the rural districts’ share of national public school enrollment increased from 17.4 percent to 20 percent over the decade, according to federal data in the report.

These enrollment gains were particularly strong in the most rural states in the South and Southwest.  Ten states are among the top 13 in both the number and the percentage of rural enrollment growth — Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

The top five states with rural enrollment increases — Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona — had a total gain of over 1.1 million, more than half the gain for all states that gained rural enrollment.

“Rural minority students are concentrated in certain states, and that concentration is increasing,” said Jerry Johnson. Over 69 percent of all rural minority students now attend school in states where they represent more than one third of the rural student enrollment.  That is up from 58 percent as reported in ‘Why Rural Matters 2009’.

The report uses 25 statistical indicators grouped into five “gauges” to take the measure of rural education in each of the 50 states.  The five gauges are then combined to produce a “rural education priority” gauge.  The higher the ranking, the more important and challenging rural education is in a state’s overall education system and the more urgent it is for policy makers to pay attention to it.

The 13 highest priority states are all in the South, Southwest, and Appalachia, except Alaska, and all, but three, of the 12 next highest priority states are adjacent to them with the exception of Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The report notes that rural education ranks high in importance in many Northern states, including Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, and Vermont.  However, these states tend to rank low on other measures such as student poverty, diversity, or poor student performance and low graduation rates.

“These states symbolize rural education to many people. They are the basis for a myth that all of rural America is uncomplicated, stable, and reasonably well-off. That myth is part of what keeps rural education on the margins of the national debate about education policy,” said Marty Strange, the policy director for the Rural School and Community Trust and co-author of the report.

“But these classic Yankee and Prairie-Plains states are simply an important part of a much more varied, complex, and challenging rural America that education policy makers must better understand,” said Strange. The report found that states most responsive to rural schools have above average fiscal capacity.

For example, the report points out that of the 13 states with the lowest expenditures for rural teachers, all but Nebraska and South Dakota are below the national average in state fiscal capacity.  On the other hand, states with the highest rural teacher salaries are primarily in the Northeast, the West, and the Mid-Atlantic. All these states are above the national average in state fiscal capacity per capital.

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While K-12 schools around the country search for funding to provide iPads to every student, an education researcher in North Carolina has found that even a single iPad can make a huge difference in the classroom.

The results of her experience with student teachers at Wake Forest University appear in the December/January issue of Learning & Leading With Technology, the magazine of the International Society for Technology in Education.

“Because they’re truly part of the digital generation, our pre-service teachers and the K-12 students they teach have a natural aptitude for tablet devices,” said Kristin Redington Bennett, an Assistant Professor of Education at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Though iPads can cost more than $500 with 3G access and a budget for apps, Bennett said, “Don’t discount the device because of its price. We found that just one iPad allowed teachers to design creative lesson plans tailored to individual learners.”

One of her pre-service teachers even used the iPad to solve a problem with a disruptive student who made trouble in the reading center every morning. When the teacher showed the student how to download books on the iPad, he read with focus for 20 minutes each morning – a goal he had not achieved until then.

“Anything new and different is engaging for kids,” said Nancy Davidson, a senior elementary education major at Wake Forest who used an iPad in her student teaching last semester. “Tracking student growth through apps, pictures, and videos became more efficient for me and more interesting for the children. Using the iPad in class started as a luxury, but quickly became a normal part of their learning process.”

Bennett’s pre-service teachers used the iPads in three ways:

*Comparing students’ progress on identical tasks using the iPads, interactive whiteboards, and desktops to see if the less-expensive iPad would work as well.

*In groups of two or three, working out a problem together. This approach required a set of rules (only one set of fingers on the iPad) and specific tasks for each team member. The group would capture an image of their work and store it in the iPad’s photo album for teacher review.

*For the teacher only, taking the place of other digital displays. One teacher took photos around the school and flipped through as she explained geometric shapes occurring in the school and in nature.

“What often happens in schools is that they purchase this new technology and expect teachers to use it with little training in how to design successful instruction with it,” Bennett said. “My goal is to train our elementary education candidates to graduate from our program with the skills and fluency in the use of mobile technology to support teaching and learning. This has allowed many of our graduates to be leaders in their schools even as a first-year teacher.”

Based on her experience, Bennett recommends these top 10 apps for use with elementary-school students:

1. Google Earth: (all ages) Take a virtual field trip to anywhere through this app that uses global satellite and aerial imagery with a swipe of a finger.

2. DoodleBuddy: (all ages) Students and teachers can use this across all content areas as a whiteboard equivalent to paint, draw, sketch, and write.

3. Story Buddy: (K-2nd) This app allows kids to create, read, and share stories that they create with the iPad.

4. Stack the States: (2nd-6th) An animated, game-based way to learn state locations, capitals, shapes, abbreviations, and nicknames.

5. Geocaching: (3rd-6th) In this global treasure hunting game, participants hide and seek containers, called geocaches, outdoors, then share their adventures online.

6. Numberland HD: (PK-1st) Twin heroes teach numbers using the Montessori Method.

7. Corkulous: (2nd – 6th) This app allows students to collect, organize, and share ideas through notes, labels, and photos.

8. iThoughtsHD: (3rd-6th) This mind-mapping tool can be used to sequence ideas, write mind-maps, organize thinking, and assess interrelatedness.

9. Coin Math: (K-3rd) Students learn both sides of a coin, how to add them, and how to pay for something with the correct coins.

10. StarFall ABC’s: (PK-1st) Students learn to recognize letters and develop skills as they begin to learn to read.

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Nickelodeon‘s live-action telenovela-style series, “House of Anubis”, returns for Season 2 (45 new half-hours) beginning Monday, Jan. 9, at 7:00 p.m. (ET/PT). House of Anubis follows a group of students who uncover and solve mysteries at an English boarding-school while dealing with the highs and lows of their teenage years.

In Season 2, a new mystery unfolds as Nina (played by Nathalia Ramos) and her friends return for their second year at Anubis House. The season will also introduce several new characters and feature series-regular Eddie (Burkely Duffield), a self-styled punk bad-boy from America. Duffield will also star as the dim-witted stepbrother in Nickelodeon’s brand new Cinderella -inspired original TV movie, “Rags”, set to premiere in 2012. New episodes of House of Anubis will roll out in a daily format, Monday-Friday from 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon.

“Nickelodeon viewers responded in a big way to the cool setting and edge-of-your-seat suspense that the first season of ‘House of Anubis’ offered,” said Marjorie Cohn, President, Development and Original Programming, Nickelodeon. ”For Season 2, Nick brings this series to the next level with heightened social stakes, a few fresh faces and more mystery that will keep fans coming back for more.”

In Season 2, the teens of Anubis House undertake a series of challenges in order to find a powerful and long-forgotten treasure. They realize their boarding-school experience consists of more than just pillow fights, midnight feasts, heartbreaks and betrayals, when an ancient force stirs within the house and sends them on a dangerous mission.

In the premiere episode, ‘House of Hello,’ the students return after the holidays, but who is Jerome avoiding and why? The Sibuna Gang has a midnight feast in the attic and finds a dollhouse. Nina also looks for a new hiding place for the Cup but will Victor find her first?

Viewers can visit iTunes.com/HouseOfAnubis to download all of Season 1 of the show for free from Dec. 19 – Jan. 10. Nickelodeon’s website, www.nick.com, currently features full episodes and show-clips from Season 1, character journal-entries, sneak-peek photos from Season 2, quizzes and more. Additionally, fans are encouraged to submit their own fiction stories on the House of Anubis message-board. Beginning Jan. 9, fan stories will be highlighted on the website each week.

An established Nickelodeon hit in Europe, House of Anubis is the first-ever Nickelodeon U.S. live-action show produced in the U.K. and airs on other Nick channels around the world. The first season of ‘House of Anubis’ (new episodes Mon-Fri at 7 p.m.) averaged a 5.5/1.2 million kids 6-11 rating, 4.7/1.0 million tweens 9-14 rating and delivered an average of 2.9 million total viewers for its first season.

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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention released Bullying in Schools: An Overview, the first of five bulletins examining bullying in schools and support schools can provide bullying victims.  Bullying is a complex social and emotional problem impacting children and schools.  In extreme cases, victims face shooting, physical assaults, or other harassment that may cause them to turn to suicide.

“Parents and schools across the country worry about the devastating harm bullying can cause, and we share this concern for our nation’s children,” said Jeff Slowikowski, OJJDP’s Acting Administrator.  “This new study highlights the impact of bullying and recommends effective anti-bullying strategies that schools can implement to keep students safe.”

Conducted by the National Center for School Engagement in 2007, the OJJDP-funded study focused on the connection between bullying, truancy, and low academic achievement and examined whether engaging students in academics or extracurricular activities mediates these factors.

Bullying does not directly cause truancy, researchers found.  A caring school community where students are challenged academically and adults support them can serve as a powerful antidote.  Victimization often distances students from learning and contributes to a myriad of other problems, including truancy and academic failure.

The researchers found “bullying in a box” curriculums—generic, pre-fabricated, anti-bullying curriculums—to be an ineffective substitute for intentional, student-focused engagement strategies.

The researchers further recommended these strategies for schools:

• Offer mentoring programs;
• Provide students with opportunities for community service;
• Address the difficult transition between elementary and middle school (from one single classroom teacher to teams of teachers with periods and class changes in a large school); and
• Start prevention programs early.

OJJDP’s bullying series examines the relationship among bullying, school attendance, school engagement, and school achievement; presents survey findings of young adults bullied in grade school; provides teachers’ observations on efforts to ameliorate school bullying; and compares findings to existing research on bullying.

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The new social network name as SOCL (Socialized) will integrate three factors that nowadays specialists see as future trends: tastes, searches and communicative interaction. Consumers want to read things that matter and grasp their interest. Therefore this new social network tries to integrate this platform as a platform towards education.

Microsoft has chosen students as the main target for this new network. The purpose of the new social network is to allow students to share useful information in a fast and effective way. The platform has been developed and tested in an experimental way. And the main objective is to expand the way that the students use the social media and expand their educational experience by learning to communicate in a better way and convert this platform into a “the new classroom”.

Several Universities such as: Washington University, Syracuse University and New York University are the only institutions that have been allowed to try this new service. Although in the future hopefully a lot more add to the list.

According to a post exposed on the Microsoft Research website, this new network has been exclusively designed to broaden their educational experience and propose a new way in how students learn and communicate.

SOCL will basically allow its users to perform any other tasks featured in other networks, such as posts, uploading pictures and videos, or sharing content among friends. But something unusual and a section that it highlights form the others is the possibility of searching and finding students with similar tastes, build communities that have the same educational aspirations.

The Exchange of ideas and knowledge is something that is going to be a valuable aspect in this network. Throughout the project: Montage. SOCL will expose a visual collage of images, videos and stories. Allowing the user to choose what he wants to read, hear or learn.

An application called “Video Party” will enable the possibility to share a video. Several people will be able to watch a video on the same time and thought-out a chat they can interact, discuss and talk among each participant.

Lili Cheng, general manager of FUSE Labs exposed: “What we’ve seen in the last year or two is innovation in the way schools are teaching and learning from students, creating new programs to study how information spreads, motivates learning, and creates expertise,” Cheng says. “A hugely popular freshman course in some schools is Social Media 101, which often leads to a project-based innovation course where students build and deploy their ideas.

“These are not just computer-science students, but also business, design, or humanities students. They don’t necessarily write code, but they can be encouraged to re-imagine how social software and the way people are sharing and exchanging information shapes the world. We are experimenting with So.cl to use our own tools to partner with more students and learn from students with a broad base of expertise.”

Noticing how students have adopted new skills and search for new ways of acquiring knowledge, Shelly Farnham, a FUSE Labs researcher working on So.cl. Said: “Today, social media is a really active part of the learning process,” Farnham says. “It’s a common story that we hear: Someone will first hear about something because their friend mentioned it on Facebook or they saw it mentioned on Twitter and from there, they search in Wikipedia or through a search engine. Then they’ll go back and do searches within Twitter to find out not just the content of a news story, but also how their friends are responding to that news story. There’s this real sense of a conversation happening within social media around what they are learning.”

The idea is to foment learning and allow students to find people with the same interests and provoke subjects of conversation where the exchange of ideas is a constant activity.

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The past week, the first Campus Party was conducted in Quito, Ecuador in the Cemexpo expo center. The event lasted five days starting the 19th of October and lasting until the 23rd, there were more than 2000 people in attendance. Known as the major technology, leisure, and digital culture event of the world, Campus Party has gathered a lot of success and popularity among the people.

In previous years, the event has been carried out in several countries such as: Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. The origin of this event comes way back in 1997, starting  in Mollina, Malaga.

The main mission and values of the event is to focus on a general and informative character, which reunites diverse platforms and collectives of the informatics world, in order to encourage the exchange of ideas and knowledge. Public and private institutions formed part of the event’s audience.

The areas of focuses are: innovation, creativity, science and digital leisure. Which highlight the main principle that is based on the human factor and says: Internet is not a computer network, Internet is a people network”. Being the first time that the event happened in Quito, it was well received with the participation of two thousand participants.

Conferences, workshops and competitions were carried out. It counted with the presence of International and National experts such as Neil Harbisson, Eduardo Arcos and Andreu Vea. The velocity in which the participants could surf on the internet was something to behold.

Movistar’s representative Dagmar Thiel, explains that among the total 3GB that were available to perform different tasks and exercises only 1.8 GB were utilized, which means that the participants did not encounter any limitations in regards of surfing and sharing contents.

The closure of the event lead to the awards of the contestants who faced several challenges created and planned by different companies. The majority of the challenges focused on awakening the creativity of technology fans, in order to obtain solutions to problems that are being faced daily.

The following are some of the winners of the different contests:

The first Challenge was named 2020 Quito, which consisted in generating a Facebook Page, try to gather as many followers as possible and find answers to the question: How do you project Quito to look within 9 years? The winner, Israel Mena (24) created a Facebook page named “The future Quito”, and within one week he was able to gathered 1300 followers.

Another challenge consisted on finding a way of transmitting values of the city, and how do we want the city to become and look like. Fernando de Sucre won the contest by creating a jingle which emphasized the city’s values, and to do so he used technology to create and mix the different components of the song such as sounds, melody and lyrics.

Juan Regalado, a student of the National Polytechnic School won the Iron Geek Award. It consisted of an application to filter information in social networks. He won a flight to the upcoming Campus Party in Brazil and a three month internship in Movistar.

Many companies sponsored and supported the event such as: Movistar, Quito Metropolitan District, Ecuador’s Central Bank, Microsoft, Raptor, Sharp, Direct TV, Telefónica, and many other.

Besides offering lectures and activities, it is important to note that about 2,000 people were baptized digitally. Therefore, children, parents and students who had never had access to a computer, were trained and approached to the digital world

Video: 

http://blog.campus-party.com.ec/resumen-final-cpquito-2011

Image Courtesy of    http://www.facebook.com/CampusParty

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On the September 8, two young and determined Libyan activists stormed their embassy in the Philippine capital demanding the resignation of Gadhafi diplomats. The Associated Press (AP) reported that two men scaled the embassy’s steel gate, barging into the building and scuffling with guards.

They were yelling loudly and tried to look for two of four Libyan diplomats inside, who they accused of remaining loyal to Gadhafi. “We are Libyans, this is our embassy,” Elyosa Fathi Elgardag, one of the intruders and a former student in the Philippines, said before storming the complex in front of Filipino guards.

The two Libyans said they left the embassy after the staff showed them a senior diplomat’s resignation letter, according to the Associated Press. The other diplomat the two activists were seeking wasn’t identified, and the Libyan Embassy staff refused to comment. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs also did not comment Friday on the situation.

Elgardag said that the embassy later informed the activists that the other diplomat they were interested in seeing is not a Gadhafi loyalist. Elgardag said they were satisfied with the development: “We are happy with that,” he said, adding that they left the building in an embassy car without any further cause.

A number of other Libyan activists, mainly Philippine students, were barred from entering the upscale gated community in Manila’s financial district, Elgardag said. A crowd-control team stood by in case Libyan protesters tried to get near the embassy.

Last month, Libyan diplomats in Manila raised the flag of the temporary rebel government, the National Transitional Council, as Tripoli’s diplomatic missions across the world defected from Gadhafi, underscoring his rapid fall after nearly forty two years in power.

The rapturous, young Libyans rampaged through the embassy compound in August, smashing Gadhafi’s glass-covered portraits, shouting “Die Gadhafi, die!” and ripping his “Green Book,” with his ruling philosophy. However Elgardag said the Libyan diplomats in Manila were under pressure after he and some other Libyans stayed in the Philippnes forced them to defect.

Elgardag’s companion, an anonymous student, said that they were refused from entering the embassy and they had no choice but to storm it because the embassy failed to arrange for the continuation of financial aid to Libyan students abroad. This lack of funding made things difficult for many students, according to the AP.

Elgardag believes that despite Gadhafi’s condemnation, the Libyan people should remain vigilant and ensure that succeeding leaders stomp out problems like massive corruption, the AP reported. “It’s not yet over,” he said and added that the Libyan revolt should “move all the corruption from the country. It’s not just to move the president.”

The Philippines in August recognized the opposition-led interim government in Libya after initial reluctance over concerns for safety of 1,700 Filipino workers, mostly nurses, still in the country. Gadhafi used to bankroll Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines but later brokered a historic 1976 peace accord between the main Muslim group and the Philippine government.

Libya also reportedly paid millions of dollars in ransom for the release of Western hostages held by the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group in 2000.

 
William Attard McCarthy / Shutterstock.com

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The sexting phenomena increases as the days go by. According to a recent survey done by the University of Rhode Island faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, 56 percent of 204 college students have received sexually suggestive images by text messaging; nearly 80 percent have received suggestive messages.

The survey investigates the impact of technology use on physical and mental health, as well as interpersonal relationships in college students. It has revealed that while most of the messages (73 percent) were sent to a relationship partner, 10 percent were sent without the permission of the person who originally sent the message.

Nowadays for most of the students, texting is a primary communication tool used both for maintaining existing friendships and establishing new ones. However, using it in a bad way can lead to some negative effects.

As Tiffany S. Kisler, one of the professors who led the study, pointed out, “the danger for many students is that they don’t realize the lack of control they have over who is seeing their messages.”

Kisler thinks that it is vital to help students, understand the importance of using technology in moderation.

The issue of younger people sending explicit suggestive images and messages via cell-phone is getting worse every day.  In March, the New York Times about covered the story of a student named Margarite, who sent a message to her boyfriend with a picture of her naked. In in less than 24 hours, the picture spread through the rest of her colleagues and unknown people.

Everyday, hundreds of thousands of kids unconsciously open themselves up to not only ridicule, but also the threat of being labeled a sex offender.

On the other hand, the research has found that texting and cell phone usage is affecting important aspects of students’ physical health.

Out of the 236 colleges junior and seniors sample, 47 percent always answered the text messages even when they receive them while they were sleeping. In addition a 40 percent of students answered phone calls while sleeping.

The research stands out because all students who use their phone during the night lost around 44 minutes of sleep per week. These night interruptions can affect the sleep quality and also cause some serious issues such as depression and anxiety.

As a consequence, Sue K. Adams, another professor that participated in this survey, said “more often than not, the interruptions caused by texting come with the first few hours of sleep, which is the most important time for restorative sleep. If students are constantly interrupting their sleep cycle, they place themselves at risk for sleep debt, which can impact multiple areas of their life, including academic performance.”

Texting while driving

Text messaging while driving is banned throughout 34 states in U.S. However, many students have passed their own distracted driving bans. According to this survey more than 93 percent of students surveyed reported texting while driving, and more than 82 percent reported they had sent messages while at the wheel since the state law banning texting and driving was passed. In addition, as Adam stated “it is possible that students do not believe that they will get caught, or that the penalty is minimal enough to risk texting while driving. Many students are also confused about the definition of the law. They are unclear if it includes sending or reading a text while driving or stopped.”

In today´s society texting has converted in a fundamental tool to communicate with each other not only among young people but also among adults. Accordin to the online media outlet AARP plenty of older adults also send spicy messages on their cell phones, but it´s usually a private matter.

Transmission of sexually explicit images of individuals under age 18 is also a serious legal issue that may subject those who are guilty to child pornography charges. Regarding this aspect Kisler pointed out the importance of setting boundaries around technology, both in terms of what people share and how often they are sharing it.

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