USG NEWS:
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/university-system-searches-for-middle-georgia-pres/nYJbN/
University System searches for Middle Georgia president
By Laura Diamond
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chancellor Hank Huckaby announced a 15-person search committee to help the State Board of Regents select the next president of Middle Georgia State College. The group is scheduled to meet Thursday. They will work for several months and recommend three to five candidates for the position.
www.macon.com
http://www.macon.com/2013/06/11/2513869/search-committees-set-for-next.html
Search committees set for next MGSC president
By JENNA MINK
Middle Georgia State College is a step closer to getting a permanent president. The University System of Georgia has formed two committees to search for the college’s next president, according to a news release. John Black is the college’s interim president. The Special Regents’ Search Committee, which will recommend finalists to Chancellor Hank Huckaby, will include some members of the Board of Regents and will be chaired by Regent Larry Walker of Perry. A second committee, the Presidential Search and Screen Committee, will be responsible for finding and examining presidential candidates.
www.dailyreportonline.com
http://www.dailyreportonline.com/PubArticleDRO.jsp?id=1202603815874&Olens_Back_In_Spotlight_Over_Open_Records&slreturn=20130512112116
Olens Back In Spotlight Over Open Records
Attorney general to defend university system in lawsuit, citing laws he helped overhaul
By Kathleen Baydala Joyner Contact All Articles
A lawsuit filed this week in Fulton County Superior Court by a former journalism student against the University System of Georgia Board of Regents over public records requests will thrust the state attorney general back into the open government spotlight. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens spearheaded an overhaul of the state’s Open Records and Open Meetings Acts, which passed the General Assembly in spring 2012. Olens touted the overhaul, which established new exemptions but also increased penalties for violations, as clearer and fairer statutes for both records-holding government bodies and the public. Olens’ office is constitutionally obligated to defend the Board of Regents and Georgia Perimeter College against accusations that they violated the Open Records Act by overcharging for open records and withholding them.
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/body-found-on-dekalb-college-campus-identified/nYHpN/
Body found on DeKalb college campus identified
By Mike Morris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The body found Monday morning on the Clarkston campus of Georgia Perimeter College has been identified as Alpha Oumar Diallo, 23, of Stone Mountain. …Lang said Diallo, who was not enrolled at Georgia Perimeter College, was last seen at 4 p.m. Sunday at his Stone Mountain home.
USG VALUE:
www.statesboroherald.com
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/50828/
Willow Hill Center aiming beyond festival
GSU students involved in projects at historic school
By AL HACKLE
Herald Writer
Willow Hill Heritage & Renaissance Center volunteers are planning beyond this year’s Labor Day weekend festival. Students from several departments at Georgia Southern University are getting involved in historic preservation, a community survey and plans to revive the old Willow Hill School as an active education site with a summer program in 2014. Next year will be the 140th anniversary of the Willow Hill School’s founding by former slaves. The existing building, constructed in 1954, served as part of the Bulloch County school system until 1999, then was purchased in 2005 by descendants of the founding families.
STATE NEEDS/ISSUES:
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/two-bomb-threats-reported-near-state-capitol/nYHf5/
Bomb threat evacuates offices near state Capitol
By Aaron Gould Sheinin and Chris Joyner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State law enforcement officials have issued the “all clear” after a pair of bomb threats near the Georgia Capitol resulted in the evacuations of several state office buildings. State employees in the Judicial Building, home to the attorney general and state Supreme Court, as well as the Health building were evacuated shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday. Authorities urged those in the area not to use radios or cell phones to communicate while police with bomb dogs searched the building. The evacuations lasted about two hours. …The Judicial building is at 40 Capitol Square, across the street from the Capitol, while the Health building is a block away on Trinity Avenue.
Although it’s known as the Health building, 47 Trinity Avenue actually houses non-health agencies, including the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Building Authority, Georgia Technology Authority and several transportation agencies. Sirens could be heard in several state buildings and authorities also evacuated the Coverdell Legislative Office Building at 18 Capitol Square. That building houses offices of most state lawmakers and staff as well as several media outlets, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.thehill.com
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/304241-cdc-harnesses-technology-to-protect-people-and-save-lives-
CDC harnesses technology to protect people and save lives
By Carlos Dominguez
I was in Mexico when the H1N1 influenza pandemic began to make international news several years ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists and health experts—called disease detectives—were racing against the clock to develop a vaccine and accelerate its manufacture. They harnessed immense amounts of data and used cutting-edge technology, which is always a great way to get my attention. And I was impressed enough with what I saw that I joined the board of the CDC Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping CDC do more, faster. As a technology evangelist, I’m always investigating intriguing problems with innovative solutions. What other technological developments were going on at CDC, I wondered? …And today CDC continues to work with cutting-edge technology to address public health challenges. For instance CDC is collaborating with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Oakridge National Laboratory and the NVIDIA Center of Excellence to leverage supercomputers and 3D printing to speed the discovery processes related to preventing 20 million hepatitis E infections each year.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53873/
Diverse Conversations: The Failure of Higher Education
by Matthew Lynch
Growing up, many Americans are told that education is the doorway to happiness and a way to break the cycle of poverty and anti-intellectualism that pervades the country. However, when many college graduates complete their degrees and hit the job trail, their faith in conventional wisdom is often tested. Many of them have a hard time gaining professional employment, and subsequently end up unemployed or underemployed. Because of this, many people are beginning to question the viability of obtaining a higher education. I sat down with Peter Stokes, Vice President for Global Strategy and Business Development at Northeastern University, to find out if they have a legitimate argument.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/bubbles-online-education-and-confused-reporting
On Bubbles, Online Education, and Confused Reporting
By Joshua Kim
I’m sure that Forbes staffer John Tamny is a good reporter, and that Forbes is a quality publication. It is the quality of Tamny and Forbes that cause me so much frustration when I read columns such as Online Education Will Be the Next ‘Bubble’ To Pop, Not Traditional University Learning. When Tamny is saying that online education is the next bubble he is of course not talking about the sort of online education that any of us working in the field of designing, teaching, or supporting online courses would recognize.
Tamny is talking about MOOCs. He writes:
www.fastcompany.com
http://www.fastcompany.com/3012818/edward-snowden-doesnt-have-a-ba-why-thats-the-future-of-the-tech-industry
EDWARD SNOWDEN DOESN’T HAVE A BA–WHY THAT’S THE FUTURE OF THE TECH INDUSTRY
HALF OF THE NATION’S SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH WORKFORCE DOESN’T HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE.
BY: ANYA KAMENETZ
This post branches off our NSA surveillance tracker, for ongoing coverage of the NSA leaks.
NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s formal education stopped with a GED, a fact that the New York Times’ David Brooks and others have spun into a caricature of him as a loner or outsider. In fact, Snowden’s lack of formal credentials made him mainstream, and maybe even the wave of the future. The Brookings Institution reported in a paper titled “The Hidden STEM Economy” that half of the nation’s workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math don’t have or need a bachelor’s degree. They do their work with an associate’s degree or even just on-the-job training. When you add in these less formally trained STEM specialists, you arrive at 26 million STEM workers, making up one-fifth of the U.S. workforce.
Education News
www.savannahnow.com
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-06-11/georgia-major-generals-push-pre-k-program-support#.UbiCduCTpGM
Georgia Major generals push for pre-K program support
By Jenel Few
Georgia’s pre-kindergarten students have friends in high places who are advocating for their academic well being. Tuesday, retired Army Major Generals Robert C. Hughes, Jr. and Ronald L. Johnson stopped by Kicklighter Academy Preschool in Savannah to read “The Rainbow Fish” to youngsters and push for increased state and federal investment in high-quality preschool programs. The best way to start, they said, is with President Barack Obama’s proposal for a federal-state preschool partnership. Some 33 percent of Georgians do not graduate on time, and 25 percent of Georgia graduates don’t score high enough on the Armed Forces Qualification Test to join the Army, according to the generals.
www.forsythnews.com
http://www.forsythnews.com/section/1/article/18518/
College picks up tab for some students
Program encourages high school students to take college level courses
By Jennifer Sami
Staff Writer
For high school students, it pays to start college early. Starting this school year, if students enter a dual enrollment program at Lanier Technical College, it won’t be on their dime. The college has recently announced that it will waive the difference in tuition cost for what the Hope Grant doesn’t cover.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/12/first-year-shopping-sheet-doesnt-make-big-splash#ixzz2W0PhD1uZ
No Magic Bullet
By Libby A. Nelson
Few single pieces of paper have been greeted with as much fanfare in higher education circles as the Education Department’s “shopping sheet,” meant to provide a standardized one-page summary of a college’s financial aid offering to help students easily compare the packages they receive. The Obama administration has promoted the shopping sheet, and its companion, a searchable online tool called the College Scorecard, as a significant accomplishment. (The scorecard even got a mention in the State of the Union address.) Colleges, on the other hand, reacted with skepticism to the form, an alternative to the traditional financial aid award letter that’s meant to make it easier for students to compare packages of loans and grants while displaying statistics like average student loan debt and graduation rates for each institution.
www.usatoday.com
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/11/real-classrooms-better-than-virtual/2412401/
Study: Students prefer real classrooms over virtual
Devin Karambelas, USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent
Virtual classrooms and MOOCs (massive open online courses) are growing rapidly, but students still prefer face-to-face interaction.
Despite the rapid growth of online learning, many college students say they still prefer the traditional classroom setting. According to results of a new national research study, 78% of more than 1,000 students surveyed still believe it is easier to learn in a classroom. But as the cost of a college education steadily rises, some experts say the data suggest virtual campuses are likely to grow — largely because they need to.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/12/star-professors-start-their-own-university-and-dont-ever-plan-make-money#ixzz2W0Q55Mdc
Tip of the Iceberg
By Ry Rivard
Tyler Cowen, star economics professor, co-founded online university about a decade after he helped start the popular blog Marginal Revolution. He wants to offer a whole basic economics education online and has no plans to make money from it.
Tyler Cowen, a star economics professor at George Mason University, isn’t interested in making money off the online university he co-founded last fall. Instead, Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, who also co-write the popular blog Marginal Revolution, have a simple motto for their growing series of online courses, branded as Marginal Revolution University: “Learn, Teach and Share.” “We think learning on the Internet, like blogs, is not something you can charge for,” Cowen said.
www.ccnewsnow.com
http://www.ccnewsnow.com/ierc-at-siue-study-affirms-community-college-pathway-to-bachelors-completion/
IERC at SIUE Study Affirms Community College Pathway to Bachelor’s Completion
The Illinois Education Research Council released a study today showing that there does not appear to be a disadvantage against community college students transferring to 4-year institutions with regards to bachelor’s degree completion. The study indicated 85 percent of community college transfers earned a bachelor’s degree within five academic years of transitioning to a 4-year institution. Comparatively, rising four-year juniors completed at a rate of 86 percent during the same time period.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/53861/
Duke Launches Program to Aid Minority Students in Science Majors
by Vikki Conwell
…Duke University found that many of its minority undergraduate students enrolled in science majors only to exit the program before graduating. Its graduate students entered at a lower rate but remained in the program longer. Now, the prestigious college can better support minority students like Martin thanks to a $1.8 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). In May, Duke used the award to launch the Biosciences Collaborative for Research Engagement (BioCoRE) program to promote diversity and develop scientific talent while addressing undergraduate retention and graduate school recruitment.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Seeks-Members/139725/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Education Dept. Seeks Members for Panel on ‘Gainful Employment’ Rules
By Cory Weinberg
Washington
The U.S. Department of Education announced on Wednesday that it would renew its flagging efforts to devise stricter standards for career-focused higher-education programs. The department’s call for a negotiated rule-making committee to debate new “gainful employment” regulations this fall is only the agency’s latest effort to clamp down on vocational programs, which can advertise big employment rewards but end up saddling student with unsupportable debt.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/bomb-threats-disrupt-princeton-u-and-u-of-new-hampshire/61691?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Bomb Threats Disrupt Princeton U. and U. of New Hampshire
Princeton University evacuated its campus on Tuesday in the wake of a bomb threat against what it said was “multiple unspecified campus buildings,” and the University of New Hampshire also received a “nonspecific” bomb threat that it said the police had determined to be a hoax.
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/classroom-in-laos-is-first-experiment-in-chinas-moves-to-set-up-college-campuses-abroad/2013/06/11/4392501c-d266-11e2-9577-df9f1c3348f5_story.html
Classroom in Laos is first experiment in China’s moves to set up college campuses abroad
By Associated Press
BEIJING — In the capital of tropical Laos, two dozen students who see their future in trade ties with neighboring China spent their school year attending Mandarin classes in a no-frills, rented room. It’s the start of China’s first, and almost certainly not its last, university campus abroad. …Education officials in China are promoting the notion of the country’s universities expanding overseas, tapping new education markets while extending the influence of the rising economic power. China so far has been on the receiving end of the globalization of education, with Western institutions rushing to China to set up shop. Now it’s stepping out.
www.edweek.org
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2013/06/12/03game-coding.h06.html
Educators develop creative ways to teach coding through gaming
By Michelle R. Davis
South Hills High School teacher Saleta Thomas bills her class as a digital game-design program for students. But once students opt to take the class, they start learning computer coding through basic programs like Alice, then move on to Flash, JavaScript, ActionScript, and other coding languages. Since the students in the Fort Worth, Texas, school are focused on digital-game creation, often they don’t even realize they’re learning computer coding, Thomas says. The “marketing” ploy of labeling the course digital-game design has had an impact, she says. …”If we get the hook into them through gaming, then when they go to college they can see there’s a whole lot more offered in computer science,” Thomas says. “If you major in computer science, your world is really open.” Computer programmers and software engineers are urging that K-12 students be introduced to computer coding—designing and writing source code for computers—earlier in their educational careers, even as early as elementary school.