Margaret A. Powers
Apr 1, 2016; 34:70-80
Position Statements

The ocean is a naturally noisy place full of singing whales, grunting fish, snapping shrimp, cracking ice, wind and rain. But human-made sounds -- from ship engines to oil drilling -- have become an acute threat to marine life, says science journalist Nicola Jones. Watch (and listen) as she discusses the strange things that happen to underwater creatures in the face of ocean noise pollution -- and shares straightforward ways we can dial down the sound to see almost immediate impacts.

How comfortable are you with robots taking over your life? Covering a wide range of potential applications -- from the mundane (robot house cleaner) to the mischievous (robot sex partner) to the downright macabre (uploading your brain to live on after death) -- technology strategist Lucy Farey-Jones shares data-backed evidence of how our willingness to accept AI may be radically changing.

The world is more connected than ever, but some communities are still cut off from vital resources like electricity and health care. In this solution-oriented talk, activist Johanna Figueira discusses her work with Code for Venezuela -- a platform that gathers technologists to address Venezuela's needs for information and medical supplies -- and shares ideas for how it could be used as a model to help other communities in need.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks offers thoughts on how we can navigate the coronavirus pandemic with courage, hope and empathy. With wisdom and clarity, he speaks on leadership, fear, death, hope and how we could use this moment to build a more just world. Watch for a special, impromptu prayer about halfway through the conversation. (This virtual conversation is part of the TED Connects series, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and head of curation Helen Walters. Recorded March 30, 2020)

By Emily Reynolds. Study finds viewers had slightly more negative perceptions of people with mental illness after seeing the movie.

The decision by a federal appeals court recognizing the right to a basic minimum education may be felt far beyond the substandard Detroit schools underlying it, but hurdles could remain.

The proposed legislation would require the 1.1-million student district to publish the source code behind algorithms used to assign students to high schools, evaluate teachers, and more.

Hopson became the interim superintendent in Shelby County, Tenn., in 2013 after the Memphis City School system merged with Shelby County schools. That merger then led six suburban communities to break away from the merged school system to form their own school districts.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who helped initiate a shakeup of Denver Public Schools, has announced that he's running for president as a Democrat in 2020.

The decision by a federal appeals court recognizing the right to a basic minimum education may be felt far beyond the substandard Detroit schools underlying it, but hurdles could remain.

Biden's campaign announced March 31 that the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate backs two local attempts to raise more tax revenue for schools.

All of Hawaii's public schools were closed down last week in anticipation of a powerful hurricane.

Hawaii teachers have joined the Red for Ed movement: Last week, dozens of teachers across the state staged a "walk-in" protest to spread awareness about what they see as a lack of funding for public schools.

There could be an 8.4 percent reduction in the U.S. teaching corps, and some states could see reductions as large as 20 percent, according to a new analysis by the Learning Policy Institute.

Mario Cristobal loves his guys in the trenches

Colts quarterback Philip Rivers is signed for the 2020 season and he hasn't made any decisions about whether he'll keep playing in 2021, but it looks like he knows what he'll be doing when he does hang up his helmet. Rivers said when he signed with the Colts that he looked forward to coaching his [more]

The Knowledge Sharing for the Development of Learning Resources tutorial provides a professional step forward, a learning experience that leads to recognition that your leadership is well founded as well as ensuring that participants in the development of learning resources recognize they are contributing to an exceptional achievement.

A dystopian science fiction bordering on reality and fantasy, each page accompanied by a high-quality illustration -- Australian authors.

"The objective of the audit was to assess whether the award of funding under the RJIP program was informed by appropriate departmental advice and that processes complied with the grants administration framework."--Page 8.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building links between China’s civilian universities, military and security agencies. Those efforts, carried out under a policy of leveraging the civilian sector to maximise military power (known as ‘military–civil fusion’), have accelerated in the past decade. Research for the China Defence Universities Tracker has determined that greater numbers of Chinese universities are engaged in defence research, training defence scientists, collaborating with the military and cooperating with defence industry conglomerates and are involved in classified research.1 At least 15 civilian universities have been implicated in cyberattacks, illegal exports or espionage. China’s defence industry conglomerates are supervising agencies of nine universities and have sent thousands of their employees to train abroad.

"It is timely that the higher education sector examines paths forward to address and indeed engage in the new environment in which it will work in the future. This fellowship explored two approaches to engage students more deeply in their education. The first approach is generally termed 'interdisciplinary studies' where students define their own program of study; the second approach focuses on topic structure where students are given a wide range of choice and in effect can build a topic that suits their interests."--Page iv.