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.

"These state-wide agreements enable schools and districts to benefit from centralized resources such as deployment support and training materials, paving the way for an easy transition to Google Apps—including Gmail, Docs, Sites, Calendar, Video, and Groups—in their classrooms, immediately," says Google Apps Education Manager Jaime Casap.

Colarado Governor Bill Ritter had this to say: "I’m pleased to see the Statewide Internet Portal Authority (SIPA) continue its tradition of bringing innovative tools to members of the Colorado public. By leveraging the Internet, educators are able to bring new ways of learning to the classroom and connect with students in exciting and challenging ways."

Google has also announced the extension of its free Google Message Security service to K-12 institutions, as well as a new training solution.

This includes a free online training center, a set of qualification exams for teachers, and a Certified Trainer and Partner program.

Let’s face it. As smart as some kids are, they don’t always use their brains, and it would be a shame if certain lapses in judgment affected the rest of their lives negatively, particularly if these lapses could’ve easily been avoided by not posting incriminating photos on MySpace/Facebook.

Sadly, some universities don’t see it the same way, and are screening applicants using social network profiles (yeah, yeah….Facebook’s not a social network). To be fair, I don’t know how harshly they are scrutinizing these profiles. If people are posting pics of themselves with illegal firearms like the guy on YouTube that got busted, that’s one thing, but it’s another if the kid is using profanity on their MySpace page or something.

A recent study has shown that 10% of admissions officers are factoring in MySpace/Facebook profiles, and 38% of them say that findings had a "negative impact" on the applicants. "The finding highlights a technological world moving so fast that neither the students nor the schools have had time to factor in all the implications," says an article from the Chicago Tribune.  "What’s clear is that students have yet another potential obstacle to navigate in an increasingly fierce competition for slots in the country’s top universities."

What you do online can come back to haunt you. It’s not a new idea. It goes to show the earlier in life that people grasp this concept, the more prepared they will be in their future "real world." Perhaps high schools should (maybe some already do) teach online reputation management in their professional development classes. Parents should emphasize the point as well.

Kids need to learn about this stuff. If they’re going to get into shenanigans, they shouldn’t be posting evidence of said shenanigans online, and if they do, they should at least set their profiles to private. Either way, it is an important life lesson that seemingly will become more so as time goes on.

On the Google LatLong Blog, Anna Bishop writes, "We know that the last thing teachers have is tons of free time to spend learning about new teaching tools.  That’s why I’m thrilled to point out some new YouTube video tutorials that offer up basic tricks for using Google Earth and can serve as inspiration for lesson plans. . . .  [I]t’s our hunch that educators will find them particularly useful."

Now, whether the move is sneaky or not, it sounds like a good idea.  Google Earth is the sort of thing that’ll cause kids to say "oh, cool," and that’s an important step in the learning process.  If teachers can get familiar with Google Earth in less than ten minutes, all the better.

So Bishop continues, "These short clips (there are 5 total) will walk you through some of the most popular features in Google Earth. . . .  More videos are in the works, and, of course, the Google Earth User Guide is also a great training resource.  We hope that you’ll soon be developing and sharing your own educational content just like these awesome literary field trips!"

And that’s Google for you – keeping one eye on improving the world and another on its market share.  Hey, whatever works.

This is a great new search tool. However, the search results show the desperate need for those educational institutions–or Google, to clean up their websites.

After first hearing about the new College Kingdom educational search tools, I headed over to the site. The site uses the Google Custom Search Engine(TM). The search results come from Google, but those search results have been customized to include search results only from the schools’ websites. What’s cool is that you can easily search the websites of over 7,000 Colleges, Universities, Career Schools and Adult Education programs. What’s not cool is the amount of spam that still plagues these websites.

As you probably know, I’m a few years past my college years, so the “online marketer” in me decided to use the College Kingdom search tool to search for links. I first tried a search for “add url”. There literally appear to be thousands of results, but what’s disturbing is the amount of spam that appears:

There are a few search results that are appropriate, but the fourth search result shows a “acne” spam that appears on the NYU.edu site. I also see spam for Wellbutrin, Flomax, and other pills–in the top 10 search results. Just try performing a search for “wellbutrin” using College Kingdom’s search and the results are riddled with spam. Tamu.edu, sdsu.edu, and even ucsd.edu are even offenders: they have plenty of spam content on their websites.

Another interesting search is the search for “sponsored links”. If you’re searching for sponsored links–or places where you can buy a text link on a university website there are plenty of them available.

Don’t Blame College Kingdom

I certainly do not blame College Kingdom for showing all of this search spam. After all, there are generally two parties to point the finger at here: the educational institutions themselves for allowing the spam on their sites and not cleaning it up, and Google. Surely Google would be able to make sure that spam pages on .edu sites shouldn’t show up in their search results.

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