GOOD NEWS:
www.statesboroherald.com
http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/63856/
Bulloch Honors REACH Georgia Scholars
College now in REACH for 10 local students
By HAYLEY G. GREENE
Special to the Herald
Bulloch County Schools honored five new REACH Georgia Scholars at a signing ceremony Sept. 25, at the Board of Education’s central office. Chosen from 66 applicants, the eighth-grade students, and their families, were recognized by state Rep. Jan Tankersley, R-Brooklet, the board, the Bulloch County Foundation for Public Education and Superintendent Charles Wilson. Each now has up to $20,000 available to attend college. This $100,000 investment is made possible by REACH Georgia, the foundation and local postsecondary partners Georgia Southern University, East Georgia College and Ogeechee Technical College, who have agreed to double-match each of the original $10,000 scholarships.
www.georgiatrend.com
http://www.georgiatrend.com/October-2014/2014-40-Under-40/
2014 40 UNDER 40
Edited by Karen Kirkpatrick Kennedy & Christy Simo
For the 18th year, Georgia Trend presents a group of 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40 – the state’s best and brightest. The honorees represent business, government, politics, nonprofits, science, conservation and education.
Eshé Collins, 34, Project Director for Jumpstart, Georgia State University; Shanta Dhar, 37, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Georgia
RESEARCH:
www.cbsnews.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-glass-sebastian-thrun-on-newest-project-udacity/
Man behind Google Glass puts new twist on education
Sebastian Thrun is a world-class innovator with big ideas. The German-born computer scientist is the mind behind the first driverless car and Google Glass. CBS News’ John Blackstone looked at his newest project: creating online courses that translate into jobs… Udacity launched an online master’s program in computer science with Georgia Tech that costs $6,600.
www.digitaltrends.com
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/google-glass-can-now-add-closed-captions-real-life/#ixzz3FMxqJbX4
Google Glass can now add closed captions to real life
By David Nield
Google Glass has yet to break into the mainstream thanks to a hefty price tag and a geeky appearance, but the gadget is finding all kinds of niche uses that show some of its potential. A new app from Georgia Institute of Technology researchers is a case in point — it offers real-time closed captioning to help those with hearing problems understand what’s being said. By using his or her smartphone as a microphone, the Glass wearer can see subtitles appear on screen almost instantly. For someone who usually has trouble hearing what’s being said it can make a huge difference. There’s more in the pipeline too: The software developers are working on a tool that that offers two-way translation between different languages.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/port-economic-project-decade-in-the-making-to-star/nhbgc/#e3bcfb0b.3566685.735512
Port economic project, decade in the making, to start this year
By Greg Bluestein and Dan Chapman – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let the Super Scoop begin. After twenty years of study, bureaucratic delays, environmental roadblocks and political shenanigans, the deepening of the Savannah River – the state’s most critical development project in decades — could get underway by the end of the year. State and federal negotiators are putting final touches on agreements covering $706 million worth of environmental, engineering and financial responsibilities that the two will take on. …The ports of Savannah and Brunswick contribute $39 billion annually to Georgia’s economy, according to the University of Georgia. Metro Atlanta alone tallies 100,000 jobs related to the port.
www.realtybiznews.com
The Biggest Sin on Social Media? Sharing Too Much
by Mike Wheatley
In the year of the “selfie,” you may find it difficult not to think of social media as just a means to promote yourself and get your message out. The more you post, the more connected you look, right? Not necessarily, according to a growing number of surveys that show too many posts can actually disconnect you from others, especially depending on what you say in those posts… A study of 500 active Twitter users by the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Interactive Computing found that others welcome your message more when you limit talk about yourself. Researchers found the most effective approach to tweets is to make them “informative” — in this context, sharing news stories or statistics rather than talking about, say, what you had for dinner. Also, researchers found that users preferred positive messages and did not have a high tolerance for posters who tended to share negative tweets. Other recent studies also have linked oversharers on social networks to narcissism, according to a 2013 University of Michigan study.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/flipping-the-school-script/nhZ9w/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1#fa2cde88.3566685.735512
Flipping the school script
By Kyle Wingfield – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Attention! Attention! Please stand by for an important educational announcement! Effective immediately, the University System of Georgia is instituting a new admissions policy. No longer will Georgia’s public colleges and universities enroll students based on their grades or SAT scores. Rather, all college-bound students in Georgia will attend the campus closest to where they live. This new “attendance zone” policy will bring to Georgia’s colleges the same standard of excellence found in all of its k-12 schools!
www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/opinion-columns/2014-10-05/4-years-4-u-plan-helps-gru-improve-graduation-rates
‘4 years 4 U’ plan helps GRU improve graduation rates
By Dr. Ricardo Azziz and Dr. Robert G. Boehmer
Guest Columnists
In 2012, the University System of Georgia announced the Complete College Georgia initiative, aligned closely with the nationwide Complete College America plan which stipulated that by 2020, 60 percent of young adults in our state would hold a college certificate or degree. This was a bold goal, but essential to meet the future workforce needs of Georgia. Georgia Regents University and East Georgia State College are committed to making the dream of a college degree a reality for more young Georgians. …TO THIS EFFECT, two years ago GRU and EGSC created an innovative partnership to allow students who don’t currently meet the admissions requirements for GRU to begin their college careers at EGSC.
www.getschooled.blog.ajc.com
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2014/10/06/georgia-will-judge-teachers-on-student-growth-but-growth-toward-what-end/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Georgia will judge teachers on student growth. But growth toward what end?
University of Georgia professor Peter Smagorinsky offers another provocative essay today on the student growth model, the yet-to-be-proven but soon-be-used way of assessing how much teachers enriched each of their students.
By Peter Smagorinsky
The Georgia Department of Education has introduced a new assessment vehicle, the “Student Growth Model,” to measure student and school progress. According to the DOE, it produces “[t]he metric that will help educators, parents, and other stakeholders better understand and analyze the progress students make year to year.”
Very enticing. Who wouldn’t want such an instrument to track students’ growth?
www.onlineathens.com
http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2014-10-03/interns-desk-how-my-perception-uga-has-changed
The Intern’s Desk: How my perception of UGA has changed
By IVEY TANNER
As a high school senior, the beginning of fall meant one main thing for me: the beginning of college application season. I have never been good with change, and I am even worse with decision-making. …Growing up so close to UGA definitely shaped my perception of it. Each year, I have watched 30 to 40 students from each graduating class of my high school leave to attend UGA. This led me to believe that it was the easy option, the option local students chose to avoid leaving home and trying something new. I could not have been more wrong. …I think my first hint of how wrong I was came from a conversation I had with a family on my tour of Duke University. After telling us they were from Maryland, they asked where we were from. When I answered, “Athens, Georgia,” the dad of the family looked shocked and replied, “Then, why are you here and not at the University of Georgia? That’s a great school.” The fact that someone from Maryland, who happened to be visiting one of the most prestigious schools in the Southeast, recognized UGA’s reputation was eye-opening for me.
www.saportsreport.com
http://saportareport.com/blog/2014/10/georgia-research-alliance-adds-morehouse-school-of-medicine-mercer-university/
SaportaReport
GRA adds Morehouse School of Medicine and Mercer University
By Maria Saporta
For the first time in its 24-year history, the Georgia Research Alliance has expanded the number of universities that are part of its member institutions. The Morehouse School of Medicine and Mercer University now have joined the ranks of Emory University, Georgia Tech, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University and Georgia Regents University (formerly the Medical College of Georgia). By becoming a member of the highly respected Georgia Research Alliance, the institutions become eligible to seek state and private funding to attract internationally renowned Eminent Scholars in targeted areas of research.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/many-questions-benefits-on-technology/nhcpB/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1#b9e02933.3566685.735512
Many questions, benefits on technology
By Michael Hunter
Like many of you, I am excited about the prospects for self-driving or driverless cars. It seems every day, there is another story about their tremendous potential. I look forward to when I will be able get in my car, tell it to take me to Georgia Tech, and spend the rest of the trip searching the Internet, watching “Game of Thrones,” checking Facebook, taking a nap or maybe even getting some work done. Maybe I will even be able to send my car off to get my groceries and pick up the dry cleaning without me. I don’t know if this future is 5 or 25 years away, but it certainly seems to be coming.
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/views/online-threats-call-for-action-by-university-faculty/article_88aa3b98-48e3-11e4-929f-0017a43b2370.html
Online threats call for action by university faculty
Shelby Masters
In the wake of the Yik Yak horror which hit the SLC, comes equally frightening threats to the world of the SEC, mainly targeting sororities. The University of Alabama has found itself handling a threat much like our own, but one that cannot be passed off as a prank made in exceptionally poor taste. An alarming comment showed up on a YouTube video, made by a man referring to himself as Authur Pendragon. It targeted sororities and made death threats against them, all in the name of retribution for the mistreatment of minorities. Tutwiler, an all-girls dorm, was locked down in response. Police went on high alert and parked around the dorm as well as near the sorority houses. …To me, it is clear that a pattern has been created. Mr. Arias, the Yik-Yak terrorist. has now created a trend that is lighting up the south. It seems the amount of attention and response that UGA received due to the attacks has incited other thrill seekers to try their hands at mass panic.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Beware-Higher-Ed-Doom-Sayers/149087/
Beware Higher-Ed Doomsayers
By Barry Glassner and Morton Schapiro
As college presidents, we regularly hear dire warnings about higher education from parents, donors, trustees, public officials, family, friends, even total strangers. Sometimes the comments take the form of panicked accusation: “If colleges don’t do something about mounting student debt, there’s going to be another economic meltdown.” Other times it gets personal: “If Lewis & Clark and Northwestern don’t replace small seminars with MOOCs, they might cease to exist.”
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Pay-for-Success-Financing/149217/
How Pay-for-Success Funding Might Help Low-Income Students
By Megan Golden
Policy makers, college administrators, and parents are all searching for ways to help needy students graduate. They have offered a variety of solutions to accomplish this: freezing tuition, reducing student-loan interest, allowing graduates to refinance, increasing community-college enrollment, improving freshman advising, ranking colleges on the basis of graduation rates. But one option is missing from the debate: pay-for-success financing. Under pay-for-success financing, which started in Britain in 2010, the government pays for outcomes that programs achieve rather than for the services themselves.
www.redandblack.com
http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/inclusion-of-title-ix-language-on-course-syllabi-discussed-as/article_6a3e39b4-4a7a-11e4-af95-001a4bcf6878.html
Inclusion of Title IX language on course syllabi discussed as potential way to prevent sexual assault
Mariana Viera
Having Title IX language as it relates to sexual harassment on course syllabi could help inform potential victims of the resources they have on campus as well as deter possible offenders.
Education News
www.valdostadaiytimes.com
http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/business/article_da01121e-4b86-11e4-99a2-8fc8b89f1b34.html
Growing Downtown Business
Valdosta chamber plans downtown business incubator
Stuart Taylor, The Valdosta Daily Times
VALODSTA — Business leaders, professors, chamber members and concerned Valdostans came together to discuss Valdosta’s present, its future and how to mold it moving forward at the Economic Summit held last month at Valdosta State University. Ideas included increasing the average weekly wage of Valdosta and Lowndes County (the Summit report found Valdosta’s average weekly wage placing 14 out of 15 peer communities), grow more jobs for college and university graduates and keep more college and university graduates in town. To this end, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce wants to develop a business incubator.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/67214/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=2a6a8d0ff7744e86ad7f5a85c6e65681&elqCampaignId=415
Experts: ‘Opportunity Gap’ Key Impediment to Black Male Academic Achievement
by Autumn A. Arnett
What if the academic achievement problems with young Black males were not actually a problem with the students themselves, but a problem with those charged with educating them?
That is a question debated by scholars and policymakers at the 3rd Annual International Colloquium on Black Males in Education held last week on the campus of Morehouse College.
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/67217/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=2a6a8d0ff7744e86ad7f5a85c6e65681&elqCampaignId=415
Can Focusing on Workplace Skills Increase College Completion Rates?
by Emmanuel Felton, Hechinger Report
…On one side are those who embrace aligning higher education with the needs of employers. The other side argues that such a shift would block countless students from the richer offerings available in traditional liberal arts settings. Speakers at a conference in New York hosted by The Economist mostly lined up behind the idea of providing workplace skills.
www.washingtontpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/03/students-ask-harvard-university-to-cut-ties-with-teach-for-america/
Students ask Harvard University to cut ties with Teach For America
By Valerie Strauss
Teach For America has a deep association with Harvard University. The Graduate School of Education has a page on its Web site called “Stories by Teach For America,” which features, not surprisingly, heartwarming stories about students who joined TFA. Now, a group of students have sent a letter to President Drew Faust asking the school to sever ties with TFA unless the organization makes big changes.
www.news.sciencemag.org
http://news.sciencemag.org/policy/2014/10/battle-between-nsf-and-house-science-committee-escalates-how-did-it-get-bad?rss=1
Battle between NSF and House science committee escalates: How did it get this bad?
By Jeffrey Mervis
Four times this past summer, in a spare room on the top floor of the headquarters of the National Science Foundation (NSF) outside of Washington, D.C., two congressional staffers spent hours poring over material relating to 20 research projects that NSF has funded over the past decade. Each folder contained confidential information that included the initial application, reviewer comments on its merit, correspondence between program officers and principal investigators, and any other information that had helped NSF decide to fund the project.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/06/group-asks-federal-government-stop-giving-colleges-information-students-choices
FAFSA Transparency
By Ry Rivard
A national association of high school counselors and college admissions officers wants the federal government to stop providing student information to colleges that some institutions are using to disadvantage students who apply for admission and financial aid.
www.insidehighered.com
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/06/federal-government-needs-revamp-its-oversight-higher-education-says-conservative
‘Modernizing’ Federal Regulation
By Michael Stratford
The federal government needs to revamp its oversight of higher education so that colleges and universities are held more accountable for the federal funds they receive, according to a new policy paper published today by a prominent conservative think tank. The report, by the American Enterprise Institute, also calls on federal policymakers to do a better job of promoting a transparent higher education market, which would allow consumers to reward good colleges and punish bad ones.
www.nytimes.com
Students Not Always Drawn to Fixed-Rate Tuition
By REEVE HAMILTON
This fall semester, for the first time, all public universities in Texas were required to offer incoming students the option of a payment plan that fixed their tuition at a particular rate for four years, alleviating the uncertainty of variable annual increases. The measure sought to address concerns that tuition was rising too fast and graduation rates were not rising enough. Fewer than a third of the state’s public university students graduate in four years, and the statewide average of tuition and fees at public universities in Texas has jumped more than 75 percent in a decade.