Although we often believe we act without bias or stereotyping, we’re all subject to unconscious biases: automatic, mental shortcuts we use to process information and make decisions quickly. These shortcuts are useful, but can also subtly and negatively influence our actions. And in the classroom, they can have serious consequences—educators could unintentionally discriminate against some of their students, discouraging them from pursuing certain fields of study.
Google announced last week that it is shutting down the goo.gl URL shortening service. A URL shortening services is an online service that takes long, unwieldy addresses and creates a new, shorter address that it is easier to share. I’ve covered the Chrome extension before, which made it very easy to use. The timeline for…
Source: Google Workspace Updates: Office editing mode is now the default editing mode for Office files in Drive on the web Google Drive will now open Microsoft Office documents (.docx, .xlsx., .pptx, etc.) directly in editing mode. In the past, when you double-clicked on a Microsoft Office Document, the file opened in preview, giving you…
There’s a lot of talk about digital media. Increasing screen time has created worries about media’s impacts on democracy, addiction, depression, relationships, learning, health, privacy and much more. The effects are frequently assumed to be huge, even apocalyptic. Scientific data, however, often fail to confirm what seems true based on everyday experiences. In study after study, screen time is often not correlated with important effects at a…
To graduate from a public high school in Chicago, students will soon have to meet a new and unusual requirement: They must show that they’ve secured a job or received a letter of acceptance to college, a trade apprenticeship, a gap year program or the military. Source: Chicago won’t allow high school students to graduate without…
We asked prominent voices in education—from policy makers and teachers to activists and parents—to look beyond laws, politics, and funding and imagine a utopian system of learning. They went back to the drawing board—and the chalkboard—to build an educational Garden of Eden. We’re publishing their answers to one question each day this week. Responses have…
When I think of my role as a teacher, I consider my dual roles: a high-school science teacher and an instructor who prepares new teachers to teach science. These roles are very different, and each offers its own set of rewards and challenges. At the same time, I approach each with the same two mindsets:…
