When she tried to access certain LGBT sites for research purposes, Fioravante was met with a filter notice that cited a “sexuality” filter as the reason for the blocking. She posted a YouTube video detailing her situation and also began a petition on change.org asking the high school to stop blocking LGBT sites. The petition has amassed over 3,300 signatures and drew the attention of the ACLU.

In their letter, the ACLU notes that this sort of filtering is considered viewpoint discrimination that was recently ruled unconstitutional in a recent court case.

They state that the “sexuality” filter seems to be only blocking LGBT-oriented sites.

But it’s not just LGBT sites that the school district’s filter (running Smoothwall software) is blocking. Apparently, the firewall is preventing access to anti-gay websites from organizations like the National Organization for Marriage and the the Family Research Council. The reason given is that these sites are blocked due to “intolerance.”

The ACLU says that this is also ill-advised, as blocking even an “intolerant” viewpoint is an independent violation of the First Amendment.

The ACLU gives the school district until March 14th to address their concerns before they proceed with legal action.

“The ACLU respectfully requests that Governor Mifflin School District immediately reconfigure its Smoothwall filtering system so that it operates in a viewpoint-neutral manner or the District should find an alternate software vendor with a product that satisfies the requirements of both the Children’s Internet Protection Act (“CIPA”) and the First Amendment. Please contact us by Thursday, March 14, to advise us whether you will make the requested changes to the filter and if so, how you intend to do so,” says the letter.

[h/t The Verge]

Parents of children who attend one of the many schools in the Chicago Public Schools system were inadvertently directed to a soft-core adult site, after the school system sent out a mass email containing one slightly altered link.

The point of the email was to notify parents that CPS was raising their standards when it comes to the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, or ISAT. The new standards for the ISAT are being implemented by the Illinois State Board of Education, or ISBE.

A link at the conclusion of the email wanted to direct parents to the ISBE site more more information. Instead, the addition of one extra letter wound up directing parents to ISBEL.com, which happens to be a “private invite only community” with the goal of “enriching the modern woman’s sex life and sensuality.”

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on who you ask), the site’s home page only features an artistic photo of an open Kama Sutra book, placed on a bed. No real hardcore porn stuff or anything.

But of course, CPS had to make a public apology.

“As soon as it was brought to our attention, we sent out an updated letter with a corrected link and apologized for any inconvenience it may have caused,” said a spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Schools system.

Let’s just see how many parents come out and say they were scarred by CPS’ carelessness. Maybe their kids even saw the landing page. THE CHILDREN! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

[CBS Chicago via CNET]

San Antonio school district Northside ISD is implementing new technology called “Smart” Student ID Cards. What’s so smart about them? Well, they contain RFID chips. And those RFID chips can transmit location information to the school administrators, meaning that they will know the exact whereabouts of every student, all the time.

I’m sure you’re sensing an impending controversy. One student and her father have been protesting the new program. ““It makes me uncomfortable. It’s an invasion of my privacy,” said Andrea Hernandez.

“With a smart phone you can use the option to use your locator, but this I can’t turn it off.”

She’s right. The RFID chip will be planted inside the student ID card, which students will be required to wear around their necks with a lanyard. The rules stipulate that students must wear the ID at all times while at school, and they are forced to pay a $15 fee for a replacement ID, if for any reason they “misplace” it.

In a letter from administrators at one of the participating schools, parents were told that they “expect school staff to always know where [thier] children are during the day,” and this new Smart ID helps with that.

“We want to assure you that the “smart” ID cards store no personal information, and the “smart” ID card does not work outside of the school,” said the letter.

“To ensure 100 percent implementation of the new student locator system, we are asking that you talk to your children and impress upon them the importance of this project. Please encourage your students to wear their “smart” IDs all day, every day at school, and discourage students from leaving, forgetting or exchanging tags.”

Are parents cooperating with the initiative? By and large, absolutely according to Northside ISD spokesperson Pascual Gonzalez. He told Fox News that most parents have been “supportive” of the program. Speaking of Mr. Hernandez:

“He is the lone protester. For us, this technology represents an efficient way to locate a student and to always know where our students are in our care.”

The two schools participating in the program, Jay High School and Jones Middle School, have a combined enrollment of around 4,200 students. It’s a little hard to believe that there would be only one protesting student/parent within that group.

“We have seen attemtps to use RFID’s in schools before and have opposed such efforts, not only because we don’t want to see this kind of intrusive surveillance infrastructure gain inroads into our culture, and because we should not be teaching our children to accept such an intrusive surveillance technology, but also because RFIDs are a generally insecure technology not appropriate for use with children,” says Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“[T]his story in Texas is a reminder that despite the technology’s lack of security, chipping identity documents and using RFID’s to track people remains an attractive idea to those in authority. And of course, many technologies of control are imposed on prisoners, immigrants and children before anyone else.”

What do you think? Smart plan to keep kids safe and in class? Or terribly invasion of privacy?

“With classes just getting started, freshman students, transfers and even empty-nesting parents can now familiarize themselves with college campuses around the world, including UCLA in the U.S., Pembroke College in the U.K., McGill University in Canada and Sophia University in Japan,” says Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Earth.

Here’s a look at Royce Hall at UCLA:

This is only one of a handful of Google Maps-related announcements the company made. It’s also expanding Google Maps Navigation (Beta) to thousands of towns in India (with live traffic conditions), and rolling out biking directions and Map Maker to New Zealand.

Google put together the following video in celebration of all of the progress it has made with Maps:

YouTube For Schools allows schools to access educational videos for free while limiting any other access to other content that is probably considered less than educational (so no more Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat videos for you kids while you’re at school). In order to focus the attention on the video’s content, The YouTube for Schools service will do away with the related videos you see cluttered on the right toolbar as well as prohibit any comments from being displayed; viewers will literally only be able to see the video.By aggregating content from forward-thinking educational video providers such as TED and PBS, schools will be able to compile material that will only be available within their school network. Educators will be able to search for videos throughout YouTube EDU’s collection of educational videos, which have been categorized by education levels and subjects. Check out the video below that YouTube put together to highlight some of their goals with their new endeavor:

The new YouTube-integrated education service will be a great tool for any distance learning programs that schools may have struggled to provide in the past. Students will be able to watch videos on science experiments, get help with math homework, learn and practice foreign languages, and keep up with global events both past and present.

More information can be found on the YouTube for Schools FAQ or by posting a question on the Google Product Forum.

As current tech is the focus, it only makes sense that the iPad 2 gets into the mix. Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh, who is the Director of the school, who tells WebProNews,  ”The iPad 2 offers a bundle of capabilities that enhance its performance as an educational device.”

“The two that stand out most are video mirroring and the new dual cameras,” he says.  ”At the Patterson School, we have already been using iPads for presentations, but with the iPad2 improvements (and a $39 cable) all of our rooms with HD televisions are transformed into conference centers.”

“Last month we used iPads and Altec Lansing’s Octiv Stage in a 24-hour crisis simulation we held concerning a nuclear accident in North Korea,” he explains. ” In the scenario, students were divided into six teams (corresponding with the official Six Party Talks — US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea) and had to handle the political fallout that resulted from the radioactive fallout that occurred when a North Korean weapons development site malfunctioned.  The use of the two devices (iPad and Octiv Stage) was helpful in communicating, reading pdfs or maps as a group, and watching video reports regarding the crisis.”

“The University of Kentucky’s School of Journalism was a partner in this effort producing some excellent accounts of diplomatic and dangerous developments,” Cavanaugh tells us. “What was lacking and desired, however, was an ability to video chat within and between team delegations.  That function will now be simple with FaceTime and iPad 2′s new cameras.  The cameras, and the ability to do HD video recording, also open up an ability to have our students capture and convey some of their experiences serving in internships around the world to their fellow classmates.”

Apple is providing support throughout the 18-month trial period, and will assist with program development and strategy, train students, faculty and staff, and help get them access to developers when necessary.

“We are already weighing how best to organize this,” says Cavanaugh.  ”With students bound for Cambodia, Macedonia, Uganda and Latin America (they may be able to test whether the iPad’s operating and non-operating temperature ranges are valid).  I also believe these new capabilities will facilitate study groups in some interesting ways.  While the Patterson School does not support distance education and always prefers that students meet directly, we often have a few who are at a disadvantage in preparing for their final comprehensive examinations because they are away at US internships or jobs (in locations like Washington, DC or New York).  The iPad2 will now put them in the room.”

“I also believe the announced enhancements to AirPlay in iOS 4.3 will be helpful in the classroom,” he adds. “Finally, no one could ever complain about thinner, lighter, and faster — at the same cost.”

Apple is giving buyers of the first iPad a refund of a hundred dollars when they buy the iPad 2. It’s a little better than the solution offered in Conan O’Brien’s parody.

We reached out to Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh, who is the Director of the school, who told us a bit about the initiative and the apps they’ll be using. 

"While the iPad as a device is great, there is no doubt that what will be key for us is the vast range of applications that exist today or are currently in development," he tells WebProNews. "Students will be using Pages and Keynote from the beginning for basic report and presentation tasks and we now have them assessing a wide variety of free apps to see which will be most helpful for handling pdfs, notetaking, etc.  They will report on their assessments of the utility of these apps on the blog site that is now up and running (iPatt.uky.edu).  

"In the area of productivity, they are going to utilize PocketInformant HD and the whole range of applications that Omni has developed for iPad (OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, OmniGraphSketcher)," he continues. "These are amazing applications (I assume you heard there will be a 2.0 version of Pocket Informant in about a month which should make it even better). Graffle and GraphSketcher are invaluable for report preparation — the diagramming and graphing abilities are amazingly refined and fit well the requirements of our students.  Students are also already using Things and Agendas."

"Two apps with direct relevance to the program that all of them will be using are PressReader and Teleprompt+," he says. "PressReader gives the students access to more than 1,700 daily papers on their iPad and we have already explored how to use this app to enhance classroom instruction and the program overall. In the classroom, this will be tied to sharpening student’s analytic skills." 

"Many of our graduates head for diplomatic assignments with the Foreign Service or analytical positions in the intelligence community," Cavanaugh explains. "They must be able to quickly take current information and generate cogent policy analyses to support top leaders (Secretary of State, DCI, President, or CEOs for that matter). PressReader will enable us to have students examine recent media coverage in a foreign country (from current newspapers across the political spectrum) and produce an assessment of where and how the US might engage on a particular issue."

"This is a typical assignment at an American Embassy overseas, but one that would be impossible to do at a university without access to so wide a range of the foreign press," he says. "Most of our students have already spent time abroad so this also means that we can have a students in the same class do such an assignment — say examine the political and popular reaction to the recent upheaval in Tunisia — with one using French language press, another the German, and a third Saudi Arabian (all the while maintaining and improving their foreign language skills).  With PressReader, this can truly be done globally.  While the best university library might let you explore dated press from France or Italy, PressReader will provide today’s news from places as vital as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China),, but also more remote corners like Iceland, Korea and Argentina.  It will also help students prepare for overseas internships.  This summer, for example, we have a student headed to Cambodia to do humanitarian work and another to serve as an intern at the US Embassy in Macedonia.  Both with use this app and subscription service to prepare for those assignments.  Finally, for foreign students, we believe this being able to keep up with the news from their country and perhaps feel a little less detached from home.  Already last week, one of our Chinese students noticed that she now can read (in Chinese of course) the newspaper that she read every day before coming to the United States."

"Teleprompt+ is an app that literally converts the iPad into a teleprompter," he says. "We believe this will help our students sharpen their public speaking abilities and, once again, be better able to support principals (President, CEOs) when they are supporting major events.  What we have found already in testing is that the app is having an impact on the smoothness and cadence of oral presentations, as well as a greater ability to control time.  Time in the diplomatic and corporate world is key.  We already instruct our students in how to make "elevator speeches. "  We actually put the students on elevators to do it, giving them 18 floors to make their pitch — a luxury given that the State Department and CIA have only seven floors, the Pentagon five, and the White House for all practical purposes two (the 18 floor ride, with interruptions as it keeps stopping, is actually provides about the same amount of time you would have to brief a Senator on  the underground train from the Senate Hart Building to the Capitol).  We also believe it may help them write more effectively and succinctly, but we can report more on that later."

The school is the first professional one to undertake a full degree cycle iPad initiative like this, and why this is only a trial, it seems pretty clear that the school is confident in the approach. While Cavanaugh reached out to Apple to get this thing going, Apple does have a whole Education unit, which encourages schools to "extend their classrooms" with Apple products. It will be interesting to see if Google reaches out to schools to encourage similar career-driven use of Android tablets as more come to market. That company is already getting schools to "go Google" with Google Apps.   

"The focus of the Patterson School is Diplomacy and International Commerce so this demands a fairly wide set of skills for our graduates," Cavanaugh tells us.  "All of our students need to have exceptional communication skills — oral and written — and a strong comfort level with not just international politics, but also economics and statistics.  Indeed, most of our students take courses in economic statecraft, economic modeling, or agricultural economics.   We have just begun to explore which apps will best support those areas of study."

As the school has both Apple and developers at its disposal, the possibilities would seem to be nearly endless.

The school’s website says, "This initiative will be ‘soup to nuts,’ encompassing student recruitment, admissions, seminars, graduation, and everything in between. We aim to completely integrate the iPad into our program, transforming the student learning experience, enhancing overall school operations, and preparing graduates to advance diplomacy and international business in the digital age."

The initiative began from some inspiration that came from a screening at the school of the HBO documentary "For Neda", which focused on the Iranian woman who was shot during a protest, and whose death was captured in images, which went viral online as a result of modern technology. 

Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh, who is the Director of the school, wrote in a blog post, "Unfortunately, digital tools and skills are anything but standard diplomatic fare.  Throughout my 22-year Foreign Service career I was appalled at the State Department’s slow adoption of new technology…"

"As Apple’s latest creation captured the world’s imagination, I began to weigh how the iPad might be used to enhance teaching international affairs at the masters degree level," he wrote. "In particular, could using the device help provide a cohort of future leaders who would enter the public, private, and non-profit sectors equipped with the expertise needed to advance what Secretary Clinton has deemed “21st Century Statecraft?”  I also thought that graduates who had sharpened their technological skills using iPads might create a kind of demand pull as they enter the workforce and lobby that they must continue using the device to maintain their productivity.  Learning with iPads might help address both shortcomings: ensure graduates enter international careers equipped with the knowledge and tech skills that are increasingly an essential component of their tool kit; and help pave the way for greater acceptance of such mobile devices in official government settings."

Cavanaugh decided to contact Apple, who ended up sending its Southeast Area Director for Education into town to discuss his ideas. This turned into the school becoming the first professional one to have all its students, faculty, and staff using an iPad for a complete degree cycle, and a trial that Cavanaugh hopes will become a blueprint for other schools to follow. 

Dr. Robert Farley, an assistant professor at the school, specializing in national security and intelligence, says he’s looking forward to answering questions like: Does the iPad significantly enhance productivity, is the iPad uniquely useful in the classroom, or in the associated extra-curricular activities of the school, how does the iPad affect the classroom setting itself, and does it help tear down the wall between student and instructor that the laptop has created?

Apple is providing support throughout the 18-month trial period, and will assist with program development and strategy, train students, faculty and staff, and help get them access to developers when necessary. 

The Google TV team has been working with Google’s Student Ambassador Program and University Programs to give students and faculty around the country access to Google TV. 

"This initiative began last semester when Google Student Ambassadors hosted Google TV study breaks on over thirty campuses," explains product marketing manager Miriam Schneider. "The ambassadors had students compete to win Sony Internet TVs for their friends and school. They hosted pizza breaks, tech challenges, YouTube marathons and of course, college football viewing parties. The top seven most creative study breaks won two Sony Internet TVs to give back to their college as a reward for their school spirit and enthusiasm for Google TV." 

"The momentum from the Google TV study breaks has carried over into the classroom," says Schneider. "Already, the web on TV has proven itself as a great platform for early education and reading skills with web apps like PBS Kids and Meegenius. However, professors have expressed interest in expanding these opportunities to all levels of learning."

Google says it is asking faculty how their research could generate new interest in TV engineering, make computer science tangible for students, help in the development of smart TV curricula/new education tools, contribute to in-classroom/distance learning over TV, and/or reach a wide audience.

iTunes U includes content from Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, University of Melbourne and Université de Montréal. Users can experience university courses, lab demos, sports highlights, campus tours, and special lectures from participating universities.

Apple says that new content has also just been added from universities in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and Singapore. Users now have access to over 350,000 audio and video files from educational institutions around the world.

"iTunes U makes it easy for people to discover and learn with content from many of the world’s top institutions," said Eddy Cue, Apple’s VP of Internet Services. "With such a wide selection of educational material, we’re providing iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad."

iTunes U users can access the content from a variety of devices such as Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPods, and iPads.

All iTunes U content is free.