Lorrie Faith Cranor, Professor of Computer Science and of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, studied thousands of real passwords to figure out the surprising, very common mistakes that users — and secured sites — make to compromise security. And how, you may ask, did she study thousands of real passwords without compromising the security …more.
Can We Learn Anything From Ants?
I have often wondered how such “simple creatures” are not only able to build such complex structures, but are also able to survive the way they have…and flourish. Here is a great video that may not only answers your questions about the reproduction of ants, but will also open your mind to everything that is around you. I remember one of my favorite courses, an entomology course. I was very fascinated, and this is a subject I often wish I had explored more. Ants are so poorly understand that by just going to the store or doing a simple online search, it appears as though the main focus of society seems to be to find the easiest way to kill ants, rather than getting to know more about such important creatures and how they behave. Here is a link to additional information about ants courtesy of Stanford University. Stanford University has also put together a nifty lesson that allows you, yes you, to create your very own ant experiment. I will also place this lesson in the lessons section of AccuTeach. Enjoy the video!
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
This is a great video courtesy of Sir Ken Robinson via Ted Talks. In this video he explores the various ways that education today appears to be restricting creative thinking by students. There are a number of quotes from the video that really sprung at me.
Education is meant to talk us into a future that we cannot grasp.
Sir Ken Robinson
If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original.
Sir Ken Robinson
As a teacher I see this with many of my students, especially the lower performing students-they are terrified about being wrong. They are so terrified, that some of them become withdrawn from our classroom community. However, when they grow more comfortable and realize that the sky will not fall if they are wrong, they will usually begin to open up. Therefore, as teachers, parents and members of the community it is our responsibility to let children feel comfortable about “being wrong”.
So what do you think? Do you think the current form of education is wrong? Will all students to able to meet and exceed the standards all the time? Are we only teaching to students’ heads, and slightly to one side, as Sir Ken Robinson postulates?
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What is TED and TED Talk?
TED (Technology, Education and Design (TED)) is a nonprofit organization whose stated goal is to “Spread Ideas.” These ideas are usually shared by leaders in their respective fields through short videos of recordings of those presentations. TED was started in 1984 as a corporation that covered Technology, Education and Design (TED). Obviously, today TED’s focus has ventured beyond those beginnings focusing on ideas from anthropology to zoology. We are inspired by the inspirational videos that TED shares with the world. TED is now allowing communities and people just like you the ability to host their own TED Talk. This TED is referred to as TEDx. It’s kind of like a meetup for “ideas worth spreading.” Have a great idea that you want TED to feature? Visit this link to figure out how to get started with your very own TEDx.