Friday Round-up

How Using Social Media In Classrooms Can Backfire (And How To Avoid It)
This article from Edudemic provides great advice on the benefits and risks of bringing social media into the classroom. The author addresses common issues and concerns that teachers have when using social media in the classroom; including bullying, privacy concerns and inappropriate behavior from students. Social Media can be a very effective tool when used properly in the classroom, so hopefully these tips well help hesitant teachers take the leap to use social media in school.

Students Demand the Right to Use Technology in Schools
Students from various inner city schools across in Los Angeles were able to attend the Digital Media and Learning conference in San Francisco this past week with funds they raised via Kickstarter. At the conference the students shared their concerns about the lack of technology available at their schools. The students also complained about the prohibitive policies some their school have on education. The students made the argument that this lack of resources was putting them behind their peers at schools with more technology available.

$10,000 Bachelor’s Degrees Now Available in Texas
This brief article lacks some specific details, but a few colleges and universities in Texas currently offers Bachelors degrees for several fields, including Information Technology, for under $10,000 before aid. Depending on the quality, the opportunity for a $10,000 undergraduate degree could drastically change the way we view the price of our college tuition.

Your Smartphone Might Be Making You Smarter
IQ scores have been steadily improving over the past few years, even in people that already had high IQ’s. The scores improved in the areas of nonverbal and visual reasoning skills, which links to our increased interest in complex video games and computer programs. Therefore our technology could be making us smarter!

Let us know about good articles you’ve read this week in the comments!