Education news

Survey Shows College Population Shrinking, Online Education Growing

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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>Learning House and Aslanian Market Research have announced the results of the fourth annual survey of online college students in an effort to create a profile of the online student for institutions to better serve them in the future.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>The organizations have jointly released the survey, “Online College Students 2015: Comprehensive Data on Demands and Preferences,” each year for the past four years, looking at students currently enrolled in a fully online college program and those who graduated within the last year.  The goal of they survey is to create a profile of who is studying online — and why — in order for institutions to serve the student population more effectively.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>While some questions are repeated annually with emerging trends noted, others were new this year.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>According to results from this year’s survey, the overall college population is decreasing.  The authors attribute this to the declining national unemployment rate as well as the recovering economy, which they say are causing more people to remain in their jobs rather than to continue their education.data released in 2015 from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show college enrollment declining by around 2%, with the total number of college students reaching 18.6 million today.  Around 5.5 million of these students are studying online either partially or fully.  Meanwhile, competition for these students is increasing, as 421 more institutions introduced online programs between 2012 and 2013, resulting in a 23% increase to 2,250 institutions.despite this, study authors found online programs to be gaining acceptance among prospective students who enjoy the flexibility and access to highly valued credentials.  In total, online enrollment is increasing at a rate of around 1% each year.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihAWufCaaYPpT9lWtoT2vLGFfes2H1FA_u9z4OEUEudwvrtze5muNWUc1i9qzWvdIWOMhyKzLIJ_R60lPZV-msevRmk1v_TIxQHSQmluum9LVci8mNKed2qIyzO8PS_-5FfRm1i8vFXEyf/s1600/images+%252862%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><i><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihAWufCaaYPpT9lWtoT2vLGFfes2H1FA_u9z4OEUEudwvrtze5muNWUc1i9qzWvdIWOMhyKzLIJ_R60lPZV-msevRmk1v_TIxQHSQmluum9LVci8mNKed2qIyzO8PS_-5FfRm1i8vFXEyf/s1600/images+%252862%2529.jpg" /></i></span></a><span style="color: #4c1130;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>A number of factors were considered to hold potential with online providers for an increase in enrollment.  Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center completed in 2015 discovered that 60% of available jobs require some form of postsecondary education, in addition to frequent career changes causing the need for continuing education.  The authors also found that over 31 million students enrolled in college and left without obtaining a degree over the past 20 years.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>Lastly, around 111 million adults in the United States currently do not hold a college degree.  </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>“This report summarizes trends in the online student experience, from recruitment to graduation, and provides insights on how to attract and serve these students. For example, students express a strong preference for selfpaced programs, but few are offered. Reputation is important in selecting a college, but students don’t have a good way to assess it aside from accreditation. Online students believe the value of their experience is equal to or better than that of on-campus classes, but they have a number of concerns that can and should be addressed.”the survey looked at 1,500 individuals across the nation who were at least 18 years old and held at least a high school degree.  Participants must be either recently, currently, or planning to enroll in an online undergraduate or graduate program, or a fully online certificate or licensure program, within the next 12 months</i>.</span></div>
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Survey Shows College Population Shrinking, Online Education Growing

Learning House and Aslanian Market Research have announced the results of the fourth annual survey of online college students in an effor...

Blended Learning, MOOCs Have Opportunities to Improve

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<i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A recent overview of studies on Massive Open Online Courses, also known as MOOCs, explores how they are used by both independent students and in the classroom, suggesting that more discussion and instructor feedback may increase both learning outcomes and student satisfaction.the paper discusses the emerging trends in MOOCs as stand-alone online courses, the ways that MOOCs are integrated in traditional classrooms, the effectiveness of combining MOOCs with face-to-face classes, and how to improve blended learning.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the key problems with MOOCs is the dismal completion rate, which for most courses is less than 10% of the students enrolled. However, Stephen Downes notes that people often engage in MOOCs to meet a specific goal or to complete a specific action, and therefore a student may consider the course a successful learning experience without finishing the course. In one study, students reported that they had multiple reasons to take these online classes, and many of these reasons did not rely on expectations of completion or traditional achievement.the paper also discusses multiple models of blended learning that have been studied.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One variation on blended learning, called “wrapped” courses, integrate the MOOC with the course’s schedule, and assignments are screenshotted and submitted to the instructor. Another model involved students signing up for an MOOC of their own choosing and then using a social mobile learning management system to connect with others in their class. In a third study, students were offered college preparatory MOOCs, and matriculated students did much better than non-matriculated students in terms of math problems submitted and minutes of video watched.the overview found that MOOCs that were incorporated into traditional classrooms led to a positive impact on student learning outcomes, with no evidence of negative effects for any racial, socio-eceonomic, or gender subgroups. However, it did not always lead to student satisfaction with instructor feedback, leading to limited student participation in discussion forums.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The author of the overview suggests that MOOCs can be used as learning resources and can provide students with two points of view on the same subject matter. However, MOOCs are often not designed for traditional classrooms and therefore do not always mesh well. She recommends that MOOC providers should consider making their courseware more modular and expanding their licensing to allow their resources to be used in traditional classrooms.provers can also improve discussion forums by encouraging community among the MOOC’s students, connecting with other similar courses, and forming a network allowing students to communicate with each other.</span></b></i></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEW0RKfmUSSC16KJuvQdI5pVvuqcPEA_gpNuPrgohyTSjPuqovwvqj4k7e9sg5PUvuhqlQWGoBijrGeyDpxW_eCZHQA2MFCWM2TtCyzJ4aD45_pUqbZcFN4G7lODgrFuY8DHOKBGQr0zU1/s1600/images+%252861%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></b></i></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEW0RKfmUSSC16KJuvQdI5pVvuqcPEA_gpNuPrgohyTSjPuqovwvqj4k7e9sg5PUvuhqlQWGoBijrGeyDpxW_eCZHQA2MFCWM2TtCyzJ4aD45_pUqbZcFN4G7lODgrFuY8DHOKBGQr0zU1/s1600/images+%252861%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEW0RKfmUSSC16KJuvQdI5pVvuqcPEA_gpNuPrgohyTSjPuqovwvqj4k7e9sg5PUvuhqlQWGoBijrGeyDpxW_eCZHQA2MFCWM2TtCyzJ4aD45_pUqbZcFN4G7lODgrFuY8DHOKBGQr0zU1/s320/images+%252861%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The preliminary findings in the reviewed blended MOOCs include: Students in blended MOOCs in traditional classrooms performed almost equal or slightly better than students in only face-to-face class environment, no significant evidence of negative effects for any subgroups in the hybrid model, lower levels of student satisfaction, and limited participation in discussion forums provided by MOOCs. MOOCs, in general, have the potential to offer excellent resource materials in the form of video lectures, quizzes, and assignments, though there are challenges in synchronizing them with in-class traditional courses and repurposing MOOCs with on-campus LMS and policies.the study, entitled “Effectiveness of Integrating MOOCs in Traditional Classrooms for Undergraduate Students,” was published by Maria Joseph Israel of the University of San Francisco in the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning.</span></b></i></div>
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Blended Learning, MOOCs Have Opportunities to Improve

A recent overview of studies on Massive Open Online Courses, also known as MOOCs, explores how they are used by both independent students...

Orient Planet, Irish Academy Join on Arab-Focused PR Courses

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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Orient Planet Academy, the first online Public Relations and Communications Academy in the Middle East, has announced enrollment dates for their online PR courses available beginning in the first quarter of the year.the timetable for the courses was created based on increasing requirements within the Arab e-learning segment stemming from the needs of people, businesses and governments in the Middle East region.now that the program schedule has been announced, prospective students of the Orient Planet Academy need to register before the start of classes, set for January 21, February 18, and March 10.</b></i><i><b>According to managing director Nidal Abou Zaki, OPA hopes to help their students further their personal and professional growth by offering relevant courses in popular industries.  These courses will be created by the leading experts in their fields who make use of their own personal experience, as well as practical examples and case studies, to impart their knowledge on students.in addition, all tutors have worked in the industry they are teaching, allowing their advice pertaining to best industry practices to remain up-to-date.</b></i><i><b>“We have received overwhelming response from people across the region. In light of the e-learning industry’s explosive growth over the past few years and in recognition of the Middle East’s expanding economies, we are dedicated to help enhance the skills of people in the Arab world.”</b></i><i><b>Recent studies suggest positive growth within the e-learning sector, with the global e-learning market estimated to have reached $107 billion by the end of 2015 and the Learning Management System  market expected to reach $7.8 billion by 2018.</b></i></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtx5SZGbIvz2fC1kTksTfr-j2E9RezE0y64e80D_co8NfUci5p3EQGAW-Lj2gABK-P_SeOmOgWQH1aPE515MI9suhDRzXEWsqJvN1TyiP_zy9HlQGZVSwumcyGUW66wm5Z8NTqXHjVsmip/s1600/images+%252859%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtx5SZGbIvz2fC1kTksTfr-j2E9RezE0y64e80D_co8NfUci5p3EQGAW-Lj2gABK-P_SeOmOgWQH1aPE515MI9suhDRzXEWsqJvN1TyiP_zy9HlQGZVSwumcyGUW66wm5Z8NTqXHjVsmip/s320/images+%252859%2529.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></i></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><b><br /></b></i><i><b>OPA is working to close the market gap currently in existence through the creation of internationally recognized certificate courses in public relations, online marketing, journalism, event management and English grammar.each course will last between 10 and 12 weeks.  In order to receive a certificate, students will complete 10 to 12 modules and pass all additional requirements.orient planet Academy was created in response to the increasing needs of professionals in the Middle East with the goal of boosting the communications industry there.</b></i><i><b>The Academy is a collaboration of Orient Planet, one of the fastest growing PR marketing and communications consultancies in the Middle East, and the Irish Academy, a private, international online education provider in communications disciplines based in Ireland.  Courses offered through OPA were developed by the Irish Academy specifically for the needs of Arab students, including public relations, journalism, grammar, and event management.“Orient Planet Academy’s mission is to serve as a center of excellence in communications education and training and inspire a new generation of Public Relations, Journalism, Marketing and PR and Event Management professionals capable of meeting the unique needs of the Arab world.”</b></i></span><br />
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Orient Planet, Irish Academy Join on Arab-Focused PR Courses

Orient Planet Academy, the first online Public Relations and Communications Academy in the Middle East, has announced enrollment dates for...

Urban Education Report: Inequality, Disparate Opportunities

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<span style="color: #20124d;"><i>A report released by the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education has taken a closer look at the state of urban education in 50 of the largest cities in the United States, finding “staggering” inequalities for poor and ethnic students.the report, titled “Measuring Up: Educational Improvement and Opportunity in 50 Cities,” found that, on average, white students were four times more likely than Black students to attend a high-performing school.  Black students were twice as likely to be punished through the use of out-of-school suspensions.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><i>Some exceptions did apply.  In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, black students were found to be suspended slightly less than white students, and black and Hispanic students in Chicago participated in advanced courses and college entrance exams at higher rates, writes Anya Kamenetz for NPR.the report found that fewer than 1 in 3 students from the districts analyzed take the ACT or SAT in a given year.  The most students to take either exam were found in Memphis, at 30%. For three-fifths of participating districts, fewer than 15% of students were found to take either of the exams each year.  Although colleges are beginning to lean toward making the tests optional for admissions, most institutions across the country still require one or the other.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><i>In terms of overall performance, 40% of the lowest performing schools remained at the bottom three years later.  However, some schools were able to improve their grades, writes Amy Scott for Marketplace.  On average, graduation rates were found to be around 75%.“In New Orleans, the schools that started in that bottom 5 percent went to zero, so none of them stayed there for three years running,” said Michael DeArmond, a senior research analyst at the center and one of the report’s authors. Washington, D.C., made similar gains.the report made no mention as to what worked in those cities to increase performance.  However, DeArmond said he would like to see the data used by mayors and other city leaders to improve school systems across the country for all students.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzlJZ_FMnSmMTAxjGEYaeE96kytfs-zssWQ0KAgXRCqFK_nru06DH0FsgC0wsItHaI5miv1a4xFa6plsF4hTtREY09XWFS99NpzBFzyTuqiEz-wjCwEyBYtfN29ajBrdrY9MBQSVmeEii/s1600/images+%252853%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><i><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzlJZ_FMnSmMTAxjGEYaeE96kytfs-zssWQ0KAgXRCqFK_nru06DH0FsgC0wsItHaI5miv1a4xFa6plsF4hTtREY09XWFS99NpzBFzyTuqiEz-wjCwEyBYtfN29ajBrdrY9MBQSVmeEii/s320/images+%252853%2529.jpg" width="320" /></i></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><i>While suggestions to increase performance were not included, the report did show how cities measure up on a number of different metrics, including test scores, graduation rates and suspension rates, and cities that are making progress by increasing opportunity were identified. A report released by the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education has taken a closer look at the state of urban education in 50 of the largest cities in the United States, finding “staggering” inequalities for poor and ethnic students.the report, titled “Measuring Up: Educational Improvement and Opportunity in 50 Cities,” found that, on average, white students were four times more likely than Black students to attend a high-performing school.  Black students were twice as likely to be punished through the use of out-of-school suspensions.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBZoLCnOyG7HdVr7rkY_cPw4mYwYOt7ov3D0wNQGeOvjUBgh-q9qVYZm0EpzHU2G4eMMSHoXqiVGVs8yJqGAaaQZINkLF_ONMm2QlecYeAregMBgFki0i51s5ykvElzCQLjlTgc-lDh4c/s1600/images+%252852%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><i><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBZoLCnOyG7HdVr7rkY_cPw4mYwYOt7ov3D0wNQGeOvjUBgh-q9qVYZm0EpzHU2G4eMMSHoXqiVGVs8yJqGAaaQZINkLF_ONMm2QlecYeAregMBgFki0i51s5ykvElzCQLjlTgc-lDh4c/s320/images+%252852%2529.jpg" width="320" /></i></span></a><span style="color: #20124d;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><i>Some exceptions did apply.  In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, black students were found to be suspended slightly less than white students, and black and Hispanic students in Chicago participated in advanced courses and college entrance exams at higher rates, writes Anya Kamenetz for NPR.the report found that fewer than 1 in 3 students from the districts analyzed take the ACT or SAT in a given year.  The most students to take either exam were found in Memphis, at 30%. For three-fifths of participating districts, fewer than 15% of students were found to take either of the exams each year.  Although colleges are beginning to lean toward making the tests optional for admissions, most institutions across the country still require one or the other.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><i>In terms of overall performance, 40% of the lowest performing schools remained at the bottom three years later.  However, some schools were able to improve their grades, writes Amy Scott for Marketplace.  On average, graduation rates were found to be around 75%.“In New Orleans, the schools that started in that bottom 5 percent went to zero, so none of them stayed there for three years running,” said Michael DeArmond, a senior research analyst at the center and one of the report’s authors. Washington, D.C., made similar gains.the report made no mention as to what worked in those cities to increase performance.  However, DeArmond said he would like to see the data used by mayors and other city leaders to improve school systems across the country for all students.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><i>While suggestions to increase performance were not included, the report did show how cities measure up on a number of different metrics, including test scores, graduation rates and suspension rates, and cities that are making progress by increasing opportunity were identified.</i></span></div>
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Urban Education Report: Inequality, Disparate Opportunities

A report released by the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education has taken a closer look at the state of urban ...

Smart Phones, App Track Student Illnesses

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIsa4vUZufyr53Nq_6oF1UFeCM1pH9cSSBH1vS20NJ_oPMrJwcPvrQ-RW0t4iHfYS4pjWycFyTcVYyfx3RVapum77dnwFkYf03d_csBLTufD2tbItS_pA_8GpBIRUzxNyPEeaYSBuIq5tX/s1600/images+%252850%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIsa4vUZufyr53Nq_6oF1UFeCM1pH9cSSBH1vS20NJ_oPMrJwcPvrQ-RW0t4iHfYS4pjWycFyTcVYyfx3RVapum77dnwFkYf03d_csBLTufD2tbItS_pA_8GpBIRUzxNyPEeaYSBuIq5tX/s640/images+%252850%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;">One elementary school has partnered with a San Francisco-based startup in the creation of a smartphone application that they hope will prevent the spread of illnesses.eastridge Community Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado was selected earlier this year to participate in the FLUency program, which makes use of a mobile application to offer parents and school officials the ability to keep track of each students’ health using smartphone-enabled thermometers.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;">“The program is a way for schools to keep their communities healthier by knowing more about what’s going on around them,” said Nita Nehru, marketing and community manager for Kinsa, the startup spearheading the program. “We have so much access to knowledge around us with Google Maps and Waze and Foursquare, but we have very little information about when and where symptoms and illnesses are starting.”</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;">Additional symptoms such as runny noses or other pains can be uploaded manually, reports Nelson Garcia for 9News.nehru said the app allows parents to discover a flu going around the school before an entire group of children is infected, writes Quincy Snowdon for The Aurora Sentinel.there are currently about 40 schools across the country participating in the program.  So far, over 1,000 schools have applied to take part.  Eastridge was chosen after Brandon Loy, the school nurse, showed interest.loy said the program has been working well so far in the school, but because it has only been two weeks, not enough time has passed to tell if it is having any effect on students’ overall health.  She said that she hopes more families will join in.  As of November 21, there were 127 Eastridge users of the app.  Nehru said in all, the app has a little over 4,000 users.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;">The app is in its first full school year of use, but saw a high level of success in its pilot program last winter in which 18 schools participated.  Nehru added that all of the pilot schools had less children missing school due to illnesses while the app was being used from January to March.  While she said it is difficult to say that was completely because of the app, she did note that a correlation could be seen.nehru went on to say that one of the important goals of the app was to increase student attendance because schools lose money each time a student is absent.  According to data from the state Department of Education, the cost per absence in the state amounts to $32 per student.  That number is derived from a per-pupil funding formula combined with the number of days per year that children are in the classroom.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;">Although it remains to be seen how the app will influence attendance at Eastridge, </span></b></div>
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Smart Phones, App Track Student Illnesses

One elementary school has partnered with a San Francisco-based startup in the creation of a smartphone application that they hope will...

Robot Gives Hospital-Bound Girl Continuity with School

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<i><b><span style="color: #741b47;">A unique piece of technology is helping a fifth-grade student named Peyton virtually attend school while she’s in the hospital for radiation therapy.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #741b47;">PAVS is an advanced robot that uses a camera-based monitor to feature Peyton’s face and voice and which allows her to attend her elementary class in Montgomery County, Maryland which is about 250 miles away from her hospital.the robot’s name, ‘PAVS’, stands for Peyton’s Awesome Virtual Self, and it makes sure she can attend all of her classes at Poolesville Elementary even if she physically cannot be in the classroom. The robot lets Peyton interact with her class, talk to her teachers and virtually move around the classroom.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #741b47;">PAVS is a rolling machine that’s four feet high. With an attached iPad screen, it shows Peyton in real-time while it lets her view her class and watch her lessons and other activities through the school day. Fellow students and teachers at Poolesville have warmly welcomed PAVS, The Washington Post reports.one of Peyton’s classmates who sits along with PAVS said the idea was ‘really cool’ and recognized how Peyton might feel lonely and bored in the hospital away from her friends, the Christian Examiner reports.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #741b47;">The 10-year-old Peyton is thin with blue eyes, and as The Washington Post says, she loves penguins, the color green, and sparkly fashion. Peyton also loves science and math, two subjects she can still engage in thanks to PAVS.many in the media, including The Washington Post, Food World News and the Christian Examiner, have pointed out that the advanced robot lets Peyton return to normalcy and participate in her classroom lessons and engage in activities her peers do. PAVS gives Peyton the chance to stay connected with her classmates and friends and offers her a sense that she can continue her usual activities despite her health issue.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #741b47;">According to Peyton’s mother, Lynn Schaeber, one significant success of PAVS is that it enables Peyton to retain her socializing activities and to maintain a level of continuity in her life:“We forget as parents that school is their life. They wake up preparing to go to school, and the last thing they do at night is homework.”</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #741b47;">According to the district’s director of technology integration and school support, Kara Trenkamp, there’s currently a learning curve in integrating PAVS into the classroom, but she expressed her gratitude that the project so has had some very positive outcomes.</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #741b47;">The robot has drawn the attention of more schools and districts, Maryland officials say. Teachers from Fairfax County in Virginia visited PAVS’ school to see firsthand the possibilities the advanced robot makes possible in terms of virtual learning for students who cannot attend due to health-related, geographical or other limitations.doctors are also seeing the value of robot technology, among them AeRang Kim, a pediatric oncologist at the Children’s National Health System, who says the potential of such technologies is immense and with multiple benefits for patients.</span></b></i></div>
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Robot Gives Hospital-Bound Girl Continuity with School

A unique piece of technology is helping a fifth-grade student named Peyton virtually attend school while she’s in the hospital for radiat...

Schools, Universities Largest Market for 3D Printers

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<i>Schools and universities are beginning to incorporate 3D printers into their curricula more often, and now make up the largest market for 3D printers under$2,500.educational institutions buy more 3D printers than individuals. The number of US schools that have 3D printers hasn’t been quantified, but 5,000 schools have MakerBot’s 3D printers, and they are only one of the major sellers. Others include Stratasys, 3D Systems, and Variquest.</i></div>
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<i>3D printer purchases are expected to double in 2016 to 496,500 shipments. By 2019, numbers could reach 5.6 million.these statistics come from a report by Gartner Inc., an independent technology research company.rapid quality and performance innovations across all 3D printer technologies are driving both enterprise and consumer demand, with unit shipment growth rates for 3D printers increasing significantly. The 3D printer market is continuing its transformation from a niche market to a broad-based, global market of enterprises and consumers.Lan Neugent, interim executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), said that technology and career faculty are often instrumental in school’s 3D printer purchases. He said:educators understand that when children have the ability to see the results of their theoretical thinking in a concrete form, it brings reality to the classroom. As schools are working on STEM and college and career readiness, it’s a natural progression that you would get a fairly inexpensive device to cut across those categories.</i></div>
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<i>Some schools are adapting remarkably quickly. The Oakwood School in San Fernando Valley, California, has an entire 3D printing program at the core of its STEAM curriculum, writes Bridget Butler Millsaps of 3DPrint.com. Two school districts in Rhode Island, North Cumberland and McCourt, are incorporating 3D printers into middle school curricula, according to Brittany Ballantyne of the Valley Breeze.Because of the 3D printer trend in schools, there is a growing demand for child-oriented computer-aided design (CAD) software that students can use to create 3D-printed objects, writes John Dogru of Tech Crunch.</i></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNnicnTqLYjYkVQx1Fv423cFzZhhyVM-tiCv93gwQDKOdj3CF1gMD-xZM76hXeOGhT3GkpcF_5TfHvpNBxrt8hI4T5xsAS3lFVFTJAzUOJRpkvkOpJ1XtI_eNoqgGXrCFOXAix_bFaCMk/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><i><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNnicnTqLYjYkVQx1Fv423cFzZhhyVM-tiCv93gwQDKOdj3CF1gMD-xZM76hXeOGhT3GkpcF_5TfHvpNBxrt8hI4T5xsAS3lFVFTJAzUOJRpkvkOpJ1XtI_eNoqgGXrCFOXAix_bFaCMk/s1600/images.jpg" /></i></a><i></i><br />
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<i><i>There are already a few options for students. Apps like Zotebook.io allow users to draw 2D designs and convert them into 3D models for printing. FormZ for the computer comes with student licenses that allow high school and university students to access it for free for a year, where they can use its tutorials to learn how to use the professional-grade software.Another app designed for young children is Dr. Fluff’s Robot Factory for Android. Users create 3D models of fanciful robots, and teachers who don’t have access to a 3D printer can send away for students’ models via mail.Much of the school market is outside of America, writes Alison DeNisco of District Administration. For example, China has made significant investments in 3D printing for schools, and the government plans to offer training to teachers so they can create 3D printing courses. The program will begin in elementary schools, according to a report from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology entitled “National Additive Manufacturing Industry Promotion Plan 2015-2016.”</i></i></div>
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Schools, Universities Largest Market for 3D Printers

Schools and universities are beginning to incorporate 3D printers into their curricula more often, and now make up the largest market for...

UK Children Do Better In Foster Care Than With Troubled Families

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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>A joint study by the Rees Centre of the University of Oxford and the University of Bristol looked into student achievement for children in foster care settings, concluding that children in foster care do better at school compared to children who continue living with their troubled families and get social workers’ support.the study also found that the duration and stability of the child’s foster care placement contribute to the student’s educational success.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>For the study’s purposes, researchers examined the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results of about 640,000 teenage students in the UK. They found that vulnerable children living in foster or kinship care did as better as 6 GCSE grades higher than children living with their parents and receiving social worker support, the BBC reports. The researchers highlighted that the more stable and long-term the foster care, the better the academic achievement of the student. They argue in their report:</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>“The earlier the young person enters foster or kinship care the better their progress, provided that they do not experience many short care periods interspersed with reunifications with their birth families or many placement and/or school changes.”this type of setting offers the protection and sense of safety students need to focus on their education, the researchers say. Children who remain in the same foster care placement for more than one year could achieve a total of 5 higher GCSE grades compared to children switching between birth family and foster family or other settings.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>The study, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, a UK educational charity, included interviews with 26 young people apart from the GCSE grade analysis. Compared to students that are not in foster care or receiving social work support at home, both foster care groups lag behind. The research also reveals that parameters such as days of absence, school moves and type of school contributed to how successful or not a child’s education was.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>Reporting on the study’s results, Community Care said that when a child’s final placement is in foster or kinship care then their GCSE results are better compared to students in at-home care.the education lead for the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Ms. Debbie Barnes, said the findings will help the organization better understand and better serve children in need, the BBC reports. David Berridge, Professor of Child and Family Welfare at the University of Bristol, said about children in foster or kinship care:“[Y]young people said they could only do well at school once they felt safe and secure, that they mattered to someone and that their birth families were also being supported,” Caroline Mortimer reporting for The Independent says.for Josh Hillman, Acting Director and Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation, the study provides a ‘clear agenda’ for anyone involved in care systems and education as to what steps to take next to improve the learning circumstances of children in need, Phys.org reports.finally, the Children’s Minister Edward Timpson emphasized the value of education and family support in a student’s academic and personal success</i></span>.</div>
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UK Children Do Better In Foster Care Than With Troubled Families

A joint study by the Rees Centre of the University of Oxford and the University of Bristol looked into student achievement for children i...

Most Parents Uncomfortable Talking With Kids About Mental Health

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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>A poll in England has found that of over 1,100 parents surveyed, 55% had not spoken to their children about mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and stress. Of those parents, 20% said they did not know how to broach the subject.</i><i>The results of the poll were released as part of a program funded by the British Department of Health to attempt to eliminate the stigma that is often associated with mental health conditions.the BBC reports the poll of parents of children aged six to 18 was given by Opinion Matters, a market research company, on behalf of the Time to Change campaign and implemented by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.the poll revealed that 45% of parents believed they did not need to have a conversation about mental health because it “was not an issue.” But the campaign reports that one in 10 children will experience a mental health problem.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Sue Baker, the Director of Time to Change, said this is the time to be the generation of change. At least three children in every classroom will experience mental health problems, she notes.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>A different survey released last month suggested that 62% of young people have used the internet to search for the word “depression.” The Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said youngsters on their own accord do not have the confidence to ask their doctor for help with mental issues.kate Pickles of the Daily Mail said experts have warned that kids are under increasing stress, which includes social media pressure, cyber-bullying, school expectations, and even early “sexualization.” Cases of depression, problems in social settings, and anxiety have risen a fifth based on statistics that report the number of cases occurring.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Recent studies have also found that two-thirds of teachers are concerned about their students’ mental health. In some circumstances, young people have stopped being with friends, attending school, and having close relationships. In extreme cases, the stigma has driven children to consider suicide.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>As a result of the poll, teachers in the UK are scheduled to receive extra training on how to help students with mental health issues. Thanks to the Time to Change campaign, 60 schools in England, with help from the charity YoungMinds, will be given training and free resources to work with secondary school students (ages 11 through 18). Young people who have had mental health problems will also make presentations concerning their experience of living with the illness, writes Eleanor Busby of TES.</i></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrvTqPbeGt2Gn5IstWT7l7BSy4dz-Zbe8U38kU4_NDdBmuiphljcKvStcqWCYoLLteyj_-arJ3LvZFlGBYXOIXgI9jlMkylVHo-Af02etqJOpge2_zhFQhkKJkmL9tUAeVThl9XHnrwq9/s1600/images+%252839%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrvTqPbeGt2Gn5IstWT7l7BSy4dz-Zbe8U38kU4_NDdBmuiphljcKvStcqWCYoLLteyj_-arJ3LvZFlGBYXOIXgI9jlMkylVHo-Af02etqJOpge2_zhFQhkKJkmL9tUAeVThl9XHnrwq9/s400/images+%252839%2529.jpg" width="400" /></i></span></a><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Two advertisements have been developed as part of the campaign aimed at 14-18-year-olds and their mothers and fathers. The first illustrates how young people should think before they judge a friend or classmate who is going through mental health problems. The second encourages parents to be prepared to have the mental health conversation with their children.nadine Peacock, a mother of a 19-year-old daughter, came to believe that the topic should be discussed in school and by parents after her daughter experienced mental health issues. Peacock said:“My biggest piece of advice, make mental health part of everyday conversation with your child. Even if your child isn’t experiencing any issues, if something does crop up further down the line at least then they feel like they can have an open conversation with you about it.“There also needs to be more education around the topic at school; the more openly this is discussed in the classroom, the less of a taboo mental health will be.”</i></span></div>
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Most Parents Uncomfortable Talking With Kids About Mental Health

A poll in England has found that of over 1,100 parents surveyed, 55% had not spoken to their children about mental health issues such as d...

California Legislature Moves on Requiring Vaccinations

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcFc2-B1FdXdt-QtvrNPFpes5hyphenhyphenzWO8sJryX7VJwTIR9VADE4mF_U5aCaqyuvleejJqU4S8UjfzX7RPGTk0Tzn_YCLFLFIcm5jPgmAqozOl6b4D4T1uClolJF3PccnX7g3zFAKcT_Cb0OZ/s1600/download+%252814%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcFc2-B1FdXdt-QtvrNPFpes5hyphenhyphenzWO8sJryX7VJwTIR9VADE4mF_U5aCaqyuvleejJqU4S8UjfzX7RPGTk0Tzn_YCLFLFIcm5jPgmAqozOl6b4D4T1uClolJF3PccnX7g3zFAKcT_Cb0OZ/s400/download+%252814%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">California is taking steps to require vaccines for schoolchildren even if parents state religious objections.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">California’s Assembly passed a strict new proposal this month requiring that parents have their children vaccinated regardless of religious or personal belief. The state Senate approved an earlier draft which bodes well for Senate approval on the new measure. After that, the bill will travel to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature, writes the Los Angeles Times.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Quartz’s Gwynn Guilford writes that the bill originated after a December 2014 outbreak of measles at Disneyland in Southern California, where a woman who had not been vaccinated started an epidemic that infected approximately 131 Californians and many from other states. Eighty-one patients from California had immunization statuses that were known, and of those 81, 70% had never been immunized.only Mississippi and West Virginia, along with California if the bill is signed, require immunizations in spite of parents’ religious or personal stances, reports the National Conference of State Legislatures. The only exception in the California bill is a physician-approved exemption because of medical conditions like allergies and immune-system deficiencies.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Associated Press quoted Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) in her presentation of the bill:“Do we wait until we have a full-fledged crisis to protect the most vulnerable?” the bill passed on a bipartisan 46-30 vote after significant opposition from thousands of parents calling their representatives and marching on the Capitol. Those in agreement were equally as fervent and stood by 7-year-old leukemia survivor Rhett Krawitt who, because he could not be vaccinated after chemotherapy, was nervous to return to school in the acutely under-vaccinated Marin County.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“We should fight for the liberty not just of those who don’t want to vaccinate their kids, but for those who cannot,” said Republican Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-Pleasanton, during Thursday’s floor debate.still, opponents feel they are being bullied into making the decision to have their children vaccinated or to take their children out of school. Bill author Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), a pediatrician himself, and Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) said they have been targeted for recall by those against the bill. In Monning’s district, which includes Santa Cruz, there are a high number of parents who opt out of vaccinating their children. Monning says he has been forced to shut down his office because of safety concerns.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“If anyone can tell me where the line for medical necessity reasonably ends to justify a law, then I will vote for this bill,” Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) said. “Until then, this is a slippery slope.”</span></i></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL56npCPb9uOd9_yWSBDuJnJwXuK4zZIRr7zdevGciBCtc_fgFOdyyeqoOx6rk9igoHw-BS1SowTLT1xQ_IX4LD3vyPeNVLDpF-lVQwknfJIRMAGAH_boUiWdlA8coA-8LiJLM-18wX0Sa/s1600/images+%252837%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL56npCPb9uOd9_yWSBDuJnJwXuK4zZIRr7zdevGciBCtc_fgFOdyyeqoOx6rk9igoHw-BS1SowTLT1xQ_IX4LD3vyPeNVLDpF-lVQwknfJIRMAGAH_boUiWdlA8coA-8LiJLM-18wX0Sa/s1600/images+%252837%2529.jpg" /></span></i></a><i></i><br />
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<i><i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One group opposed to the passing of the bill is Californians for Vaccine Choice. On their website they warn that the measure would “eliminate a parent’s right to exempt their children from one, some, or all vaccines, a risk-laden medical procedure.”  The group continues by stating that California parents will be forced to vaccinate children with more than 40 doses of 10 federally recommended immunizations or homeschool their children unless a doctor will sign a release, which 99.99% of doctors refuse to do under federal guidelines, report Michael Martinez and Amanda Watts of CNN.</span></i></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Denise Hassanzade Ajiri of The Christian Science Monitor writes that according to professor Mark Largent, a historian at Michigan State University in East Lansing who authored “Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America,” parents who are against vaccinating their kids are not anti-vaccine, but are vaccine-anxious.health professionals are of the opinion that the risks of vaccines are lower than the diseases themselves. They add that the study that linked the vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella to autism has been discredited, but some parents are still wary.</span></i></div>

California Legislature Moves on Requiring Vaccinations

California is taking steps to require vaccines for schoolchildren even if parents state religious objections. California’s Assembly pas...

Schools Considering Later Start Times for Safety

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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), earlier this year released a statement that adolescents who do not get enough sleep can suffer from physical and mental health problems, an increase in automobile accidents, and a decline in academic performance. Unfortunately, teens’ natural sleep cycle makes it difficult for them to fall asleep before 11:00 p.m. and then attend a 7:30 a.m. — or earlier — first class the next day.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The AAP recommends that middle and high schools delay the start of class time to 8:30 a.m. or later. This would bring school times in alignment with the biological sleep rhythms of adolescents, for whom sleep-wake cycles begin to shift up to two hours later at the start of puberty.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common – and easily fixable – public health issues in the U.S. today,” said pediatrician Judith Owens, MD, FAAP, lead author of the policy statement, “School Start Times for Adolescents,” published in the September 2014 issue of Pediatrics.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">“The research is clear that adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life,” Dr. Owens said. “Studies have shown that delaying early school start times is one key factor that can help adolescents get the sleep they need to grow and learn.”</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">In Guilford, Connecticut, several school districts are considering giving an extra hour of sleep to its older students, believing that the change will reap safety, physical, and academic benefits, writes Kate Ramunni of the New Haven Register. Although changing schedules is always a headache for school districts, it can be done. The Wilton School District was one of the first to do it in 2003; at that time, teachers were against the shift, but parents supported the change.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">“It can be costly in terms of rearranging bus schedules, and a lot of students and parents are concerned with sports programs because changing times can affect their ability to participate in sports,” said Rachel Gary, director of the Greater Hartford chapter of Start School Later. “There are always obstacles, but if there are things we can do to make lives healthier and safer, we owe it to them to address that. I feel like there has to be a way to come to a middle ground, and that has been done in a lot of different ways.”in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County, a survey has shown that most people think that changing school starting times to a later hour is best for students. Annapolis Patch‘s Deb Belt writes that four options were presented on how to make this change happen, all of which would result in high school students starting their first class at least 30 minutes later than the existing 7:17 a.m. bell.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">New Jersey legislators have endorsed a bill to study the advantages of later start times for middle and high school students as well. The New Jersey Association of School Administrators supports the change, but believe it should be decided by local districts and not by a statewide mandate, according to Phil Dunne of the Courier-Post .teens who sleep later are less prone to have car accidents, researchers have found. An excellent example of this can be found by comparing two adjacent counties in Virginia, says Nicholas Bakalar writing for The New York Times. These two counties are almost identical when it comes to ethnicity, percentage of congested roads, and socioeconomic characteristics. One difference, however, is that in Henrico County, high school begins at 8:45 a.m., and in Chesterfield County, school begins at 7:20 a.m. In 2009-2010, the rate of accidents involving 16- to 18-year-old drivers was 48.8 per thousand in Chesterfield. In Henrico County, the rate was 37.9. In 2010-2011, in Chesterfield the rate was 51.9 per thousand and in Henrico 44.2. However, for adults during that same time, accidents fluctuated between 13 and 14 per thousand in both Chesterfield and Henrico Counties.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The November issue of The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine included the Henrico/Chesterfirld experiment, but gathered no information on other risky behaviors or other factors that could have affected the results. Dr. Robert Verona, associate professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School understands that the study does not specifically prove causal effect, but he does say:</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">“There is a growing literature that shows that early start times are a problem, and school systems should take a look at the data and seriously consider whether they should delay them.”</span></i></div>
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Schools Considering Later Start Times for Safety

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), earlier this year released a statement that adolescents who do not get enough sleep can suffer ...

Safety Experts, Doctors Urge Parents to Be Vigilant Around Water

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<b><i>With summer in full swing, parents are being warned by health professionals and child safety advocates to monitor their children more closely around water.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>When Lindsey Kujawa took her eyes off her son for just a few seconds at a pool party, her toddler jumped into a hot tub and the jets pushed him to the other side. After about 20 seconds Kujawa pulled her son out and he seemed fine. WCHS-TV reports that Kujjawa, in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America”, said after about an hour, she noticed that her son was coughing and lethargic and rushed him to the emergency room. There she was told that her son was was suffering from a little known, but very dangerous condition, often called secondary drowning.the condition, which is a result of fluid that is left in the lungs after the intake of water, prevents tiny air sacs in the lungs from sending oxygen into the bloodstream.  This can eventually cause the heart to stop beating.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>“This case is not a total surprise and it can happen, but not in the majority of cases,” said Dr. Paul Pepe, chair of emergency medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who has conducted numerous studies on drowning in Texas and in Florida, where rates are high.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Pepe added that although this is not a common event, it does occur. In medical terms, even when a child is resuscitated after falling in water, pulmonary edema can develop in the first three to four hours after water has been taken into the lungs.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Last week, the USA Swimming and the Pool Safely campaign announced that 95 children under 14 have drowned in pools and spas in the US this year as of May 31. Of that number, 74 involved children under 5 years of age. The organization does not keep records of deaths from secondary drowning.ellyn Pollack, spokesman for the organization, said “secondary drowning” is not a phrase that her group uses because the child has died from drowning even if the death occurs two days later. The data used comes from the Consumer Product Safety Commission which urges parents to teach their children how to swim. The CPSC reports that there are up to 400 drownings per year in the US among children under the age of 15. Approximately 75% of the children are under 5 years old. Drowning is the number one cause of death for children under 5.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Another type of drowning is known as “dry drowning” says Asher Fogle, writing for Good Housekeeping, with some experts estimating that dry and secondary drowning account for about 1 to 2% of these fatal events.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>“This smaller percentage, while rare, is really scary because the symptoms can be delayed,” Dr. Mark Zonfrillo, from the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, tells GoodHousekeeping.com.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>In cases of “dry drowning”, however, water never reaches the lungs, but occurs when a small amount of water is taken in through the mouth or nose making the airway spasm and close up. It can take place in water or briefly after exiting.for both dry and secondary drowning, the symptoms to watch for are trouble breathing, coughing, sputtering. Additionally, with secondary drowning, parents should look for vomiting, sleepiness, lethargy, chest pain, fever, or unusual mood change.waiting too long to administer CPR, or to take the child to an ER, can cause complications. Swimming lessons are crucial according to the CDC, along with learning CPR, close supervision, and constructing barriers around pools and spas.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Jenna Birch of Yahoo! Health details 6 types of drowning, and although the World Health Organization simplified things in 2005 by putting all types of drowning under the one umbrella term “drowning,” knowing the distinctive manners in which people can drown may be helpful.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Wet drowning is when a body is underwater and the victim inhales water into the lungs making it impossible to take in oxygen. Dry drowning is when the throat reflexively closes and the victim dies of asphyxiation. Silent drowning takes place when there are no warnings, no sounds, no splashing, and no cries for help. The victim silently goes underwater and drowns.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Active drowning is when the victim is fighting and flailing. This type of victim’s thrashing can make rescue dangerous or impossible. Passive drowning describes a victim who is unconscious and in the last stages of the drowning incident. Secondary drowning occurs when a person has a near drowning experience, or a serious intake of water, but does not show symptoms until up to 24 hours after the episode.the settings in which drownings can occur differ dramatically. Children can drown in larges bodies of water, lakes, pools, spa tubs, bathtubs, and even in large buckets. Emergency medicine physician Darria Long Gillespie, an assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine, implores parents to never let their guards down. One moment of distraction is the first step to most childhood drowning events.</i></b></div>
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Safety Experts, Doctors Urge Parents to Be Vigilant Around Water

With summer in full swing, parents are being warned by health professionals and child safety advocates to monitor their children more clo...

Virginia School Bans Open-Flame Science Labs After Accident

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<i><b>W.T. Woodson High School in Virginia’s Fairfax County was the location of a fire in its chemistry a week ago, leading the superintendent of one of the largest school districts in the country to suspend all science experiments that would include open flames, write Moriah Balingit, Justin Jouvenal, and T. Rees Shapiro of The Washington Post.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>The fire occurred when a teacher used a flammable liquid to demonstrate how chemicals can change the color of a flame. Five students in the classroom were hospitalized, the teacher was burned, and all students were evacuated from the school. Students said no one was wearing protective garments.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Fairfax County Schools Superintendent Karen Garza said a review of the county’s curriculum would ensue and safety guidance education for teachers would occur. The county plans for security updates for all science teachers before the semester ends.high school students will be most affected by the ban. Lab procedures in physics, biology, and chemistry classes all include open flames, said a veteran teacher.the teacher repoured flammable liquid on a dying flame, causing a “splash of fire” to hit the observers. Two students were taken by helicopter to hospitals in the area, three students were taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, and the teacher’s burns were minor. Officials described the fire as accidental.t</b></i><i><b>he US Chemical Safety Board and the American Chemical Society say that “the rainbow experiment” that was the lab performed has left students with severe injuries and should not take place in classrooms.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>“These demonstrations present an unacceptable risk of flash fires and deflagrations that can cause serious injuries to students and teachers,” the American Chemical Society said.calais Weber knows about preventable accidents like the one that happened at W.T. Woodson High School. Weber was 15-years-old when ten years ago the same event occurred in her chemistry class.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>“It was called the rainbow experiment,” said Weber. “It was meant to show how different chemicals burn at different light frequencies, so the flames end up being different colors when you burn them.”</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Her teacher took out a bottle of methanol at her desk in front of the classroom. She poured it into the open fire, reports Laura Evans for Fox 5 Washington, D.C. The flame exploded, and since Weber was in front of the experiment she bore the brunt.she says the solution to the problem is proper training, the reduction of complacency, and increased knowledge.“I really think there are teachers that for whatever reason don’t understand the chemical properties of methanol and exactly why it’s so dangerous and therefore don’t understand how to use it properly,” she said.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>The flame burned Weber over 40% of her body and she was in the hospital for two and a half months. She was a model, so the accident changed her life dramatically. Weber has worked tirelessly to raise awareness so no one else will go through what she has endured.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>But in the last year and a half there have been four accidents across the US like the one at Woodson that have injured over 20 people. Still, Weber continues working with lawmakers and educating students and parents.</b></i></div>
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Virginia School Bans Open-Flame Science Labs After Accident

W.T. Woodson High School in Virginia’s Fairfax County was the location of a fire in its chemistry a week ago, leading the superintendent ...

UK Government Approves First New Grammar School in 50 Years

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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Weald of Kent school in Tonbridge, England will build an ‘annexe’ new grammar school in Sevenoaks, Kent after Education Secretary Nicky Morgan gave the green light. The school, which is not considered a separate grammar school establishment, but rather an annexe of the existing school, is expected to welcome its first 450 students by 2017. It is the first new grammar school to be approved in 50 years.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Opening new grammar schools have been banned since 1997, and the Education Minister says the Kent grammar school case should not be construed as a ban lift, nor should it make other schools hopeful they can get their proposals approved. Explaining her decision, Morgan said it was a natural expansion, the Daily Mail reports, and that the decision shouldn’t be thought of as government approval of selective schools.several proposals for grammar schools have been rejected in the past largely in view of bureaucracy, the UK Telegraph reports.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Proposals for new grammar schools are prohibited by law and they can only be considered when they “meet the criteria for being a genuine expansion” — in other words, when there’s sufficient demand for new school places, Morgan said.“I don’t want to fight the battles of selective and non-selective… This is one particular application with one particular set of circumstances. Why would I deny a good school the right to expand?”“I don’t think this will open any kind of precedent or floodgates,” the Education Minister added.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Labour party characterized the decision as a “backward step”. The party banned the introduction of more grammar schools in the late 1990′s on the grounds that academic selection shouldn’t determine students’ educational opportunities.shadow education secretary Lucy Powell said the decision makes equal access to education difficult for students:</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">”David Cameron should look at the clear evidence on grammar schools: They do not increase equality of opportunity, they make it worse.”the Weald and Sevenoaks sites will be under one leadership and management while governance, curriculum and admission processes will also be centrally administered.grammar schools in England are run by the state and choose their students through the 11-plus examination, an exam students take at the age of 11 and which determines the top students qualified to attend. The rest attend a standard secondary school.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The system is highly controversial in view of its discrimination against students with less-than-excellent academic abilities. Hannah Richardson of the BBC says of the grammar school concept:</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“[T]he system effectively divided students into two types – those destined for university and better jobs, and those deemed more suitable for less celebrated professions.”</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Currently there are 164 state-run grammar schools in England. Citing the pros and cons of grammar schools, The Week says in a balanced analysis of the news that they help the brightest children thrive.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Grammar schools proponent Boris Johnson, London Mayor and an MP, says the ban of selective schools is a ‘tragedy’ considering how they have helped children from poorer backgrounds access quality education. He characterizes a grammar school as “a great mobilizer and liberator,” TheWeek says.another oft-cited advantage of grammar schools is the sheer number of successful alumni these schools boast and the fact that grammar school students excel at national exams.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the other hand, Grammar schools can discriminate against less able students at a young age, which critics say is something that places hurdles in front of the aspirations and social mobility of students, The Week writes.</span></i></div>
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UK Government Approves First New Grammar School in 50 Years

The Weald of Kent school in Tonbridge, England will build an ‘annexe’ new grammar school in Sevenoaks, Kent after Education Secretary Nic...

UK, China Increasing International Education Cooperation

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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The UK and China, which already have tight educational connections, are planning on expanding their partnership with programs designed to increase exchange between the nations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many Chinese students who want to study abroad go to the UK. China’s Minister of Education Yuan Guiren says that both countries have initiated programs to enhance their higher education collaboration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In each of the past few years, China has increased the number of full scholarships. In 2014, 64,000 Chinese students studied in the UK.according to Richard Macauley of Quartz, even young children are going to the UK from China for schooling and make up 14% of the country’s total population of international students.programs will be encouraging students to travel from the UK to China, too. The government invited 200 British students to study in China at no cost. The British government will be sending 80,000 students to study in China in the coming years, according to CCTV.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Statistics show that Chinese universities are growing in quality, meaning that British students who want to study there will not be missing out on opportunity. Four of the nation’s universities were included in the Times Higher Education top 100 rankings, writes Alice Gast.earlier this year, the government tried teaching math in English schools with traditional Chinese teaching methods. According to Schools Minister Nick Gibb, this was extremely successful, with students who historically scored poorly in math doing particularly well. Now, groups of school teachers have traveled to Shanghai to study Chinese teaching techniques, and 30 Chinese teachers were transported to the UK to work with students and educators. Gibbs said:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When that’s brought to England and the approach has been tried in English schools, it’s been hugely successful. Teachers have been pleasantly surprised by how much some of the less-able children are achieving in maths as a consequence of this approach.gibbs described one Chinese teacher in a Harris academy, who spent an entire lesson describing how to multiply two double-digit figures ending in zero. He said:i walked around the classroom and all the children were understanding what was happening and could perform the calculation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The program’s focus on math was inspired by China’s notoriously successful math achievement. They consistently score the highest in the PISA exam, the Programme for International Student Assessment test administered by OECD. In 2012, Shanghai ranked first in math, reading, and science, ahead of both Singapore and Hong Kong, according to Xie Qiao of CRIEnglish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, not everyone’s assessment of the program is as optimistic as Gibb’s. The three-part documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? showed that Chinese teachers struggled to discipline and control Western students, and the UK teachers disagreed with their methods. Over the course of four weeks, five Chinese teachers took charge of 50 students at a comprehensive school in Hampshire. The experience was very different from what the students were used to: the teenagers wore uniforms, attended from 7am to 7pm, had two meal breaks, and had the responsibility of cleaning their own classrooms. Lessons involved repetition, note-taking, and some group exercises. After the month was over, the students scored 10% higher in math and science than their peers.research so far has shown that Chinese teaching methods bring about a small improvement in performance, but experts say that there isn’t enough data and the methods need to be tested with a larger base.</span><br />
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UK, China Increasing International Education Cooperation

The UK and China, which already have tight educational connections, are planning on expanding their partnership with programs designed...

Open University Facing Staff Shakeup Amid Changing Needs

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<i>Staff at the UK’s Open University, which offers distance learning and education options for non-traditional students, are currently in a strike ballot over job losses and the closure of seven regional centers that has put more than 500 jobs at risk.</i></div>
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<i>The OU is looking to close seven locations, including Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Gateshead, Leeds, and Oxford, in an effort to streamline student support.  The institution is also considering closing its London location, although it may consider keeping a smaller location in the capital.</i></div>
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<i>According to a spokesman for the university, the decision comes as a response to the changing needs of its students rather than a change in funding.</i></div>
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<i>The staff members who currently work in these locations, who total around 500, would be offered the opportunity to transfer to one of the two other offices that focus on student support services, or to the OU’s headquarters in Milton Keynes.  Those who choose not to transfer would need to take voluntary severance or early retirement.</i></div>
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<i>Staff members argue that following through with the plan would limit opportunities for face-to-face interactions and change the ethos of the institution.  After a senate meeting last week resulted in a rejection of the plan, calling it “high risk” and “failing adequately to support the academic mission of the university,” the University and College Union (UCU) has decided to ballot for strike action over the closures because the university has decided to continue with the plans.</i></div>
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<i>UCU Open University branch president Pauline Collins said: “Axing over 500 staff across seven centres would be catastrophic to the Open University’s ability to provide the kind of support that students need.  We hope the university will now see sense and work with us to find a better solution for staff, students and the future of the Open University.”</i></div>
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<i>The OU maintains that the offices which may be closed were not mainly used as teaching centers.  Therefore, student services and support would not be affected.closing the centers could save the university around $7.5 million of a total budget of over $600 million.  The money could be beneficial to the institution, which has seen a decrease in the number of part-time students by about 10%, a result of changes to higher education funding, including the introduction of tuition costs, reports Harriet Swain for The Guardian.</i></div>
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<i>A new structure is set to be in place by February 2017 that would allow offices to remain open in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Milton Keynes, Manchester and Nottingham along with a smaller sub-office in Dublin.the university added that the plan calls for an expansion of the centers in Milton Keynes, Manchester, and Nottingham.</i></div>
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<i>Peter Horrocks, Vice-Chancellor, said: “This recommendation, if approved, would allow us to enhance student support in a way that’s simply not possible in our current office network, and offer our students the sort of support they expect and deserve.”a final decision will come from the university’s council in late November.the OU currently enrolls around 200,000 students, many of whom have jobs and other commitments along with their schoolwork.</i></div>
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Open University Facing Staff Shakeup Amid Changing Needs

Staff at the UK’s Open University, which offers distance learning and education options for non-traditional students, are currently in a ...

Flatiron School Guarantees Full-Time Web Development Job

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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">A fast-track learning program at the Flatiron School in New York offers web and mobile development courses through an online Learn-Verified Web Developer Program, a course which Flatiron says guarantees a full-time job within six months of graduation.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">The courses takes 600 to 800 hours to complete and costs $1,000/month. However, there’s no fixed timeframe – the faster learners study, the less they’ll pay.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Up until now, Flatiron was exclusively offering its courses in a classroom, with 99% of its graduates getting full-time jobs and an average entry-level salary at $74,000. Now, thanks to Learn-Verified, the school is offering its complete curriculum online. The school provides an all-your-money-back guarantee if graduates don’t get a full-time job offer within six months of graduation.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Unlike many MOOCs, Flatiron’s online course revolves around community and communication. Adam Enbar, co-founder and CEO of  the Flatiron School says:</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">“The current field of online education resources is simply inadequate for people who want to develop the breadth of skills necessary to begin a new career. Community is where education succeeds and the lack of it is why MOOCs fail. We created a platform that facilitates personalized attention, high-quality curriculum and comes with a job placement guarantee.”</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Enbar added that current online learning platforms are ineffective due to their emphasis on content consumption:</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">“Online education today expects students to watch videos and post questions to forums or wait a week to speak to a mentor, which given available technology is equivalent to sending a letter in the mail rather than sending a text message.”</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">The Learn-Verified curriculum offers 600 to 800 hours of web development content and a learning platform that facilitates learning through cutting edge tools and workflows. The course includes more than 100 videos and interactive quizzes and over 200 coding labs, TechCrunch says.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Learn-Verified students will have access to the school’s academics 18 hours per day and be able to reach and interact with other students on a 24/7 basis.flatiron’s curriculum is open-source and constantly improving, thanks to the feedback that learners, faculty and graduate provide.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Following their graduation, the school’s placement staff will seek appropriate full-time jobs for its graduates, the school says. Some of the most notable companies hiring Flatiron graduates include Intel, Microsoft and Google.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">“Thousands of people come through the doors at Flatiron School to learn to code and successfully launch careers,” Enbar says. “We have now created a platform that allows anyone in the U.S. at anytime of the day to develop those same hirable skills and then be placed in a well-paying job.”</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Flatiron was founded in 2012 and offers online and traditional mobile and web development classes taught by highly skilled instructors. The online course costs $1,000 per month – a heavy price tag considering that other schools offer courses at no cost, with competitors like Codecademy priced at $29/month, QZ.com observes.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 19.6px;">Flatiron School trains creative, passionate people in web and mobile development.  Established in 2012 by founders </span><span class="xn-person" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #404040; line-height: 19.6px; margin: 0px;"><span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px;">Adam Enbar</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 19.6px;"> and Avi Flombaum, 99 percent of Flatiron School's adult graduates have launched careers companies like Google, Intel and Microsoft. All classes are facilitated by highly skilled instructors. Flatiron School is a recognized partner of NYC Department of Small Business Services, creating opportunities for all New Yorkers</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">.</span></span></i></div>
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Flatiron School Guarantees Full-Time Web Development Job

A fast-track learning program at the Flatiron School in New York offers web and mobile development courses through an online Learn-Veri...

Three Illinois Schools Close Due to Legionella Bacteria

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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">School officials in Elgin, Illinois have reported the evacuation of 2,900 students from three schools in the area after high concentrations of Legionella bacteria were found in the cooling towers for the facilities.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Higher than normal” levels of the bacteria that causes Legionnaire’s disease were found at Larkin High School in Elgin, Eastview Middle School in Bartlett and the administration building of Elgin School District U46, causing the closure of all three buildings.  Students were relocated until parents were either able to pick them up or the district was able to bring them home.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“While risk of exposure to the bacteria was low, we decided, in consultation with the Kane County Health Department, to evacuate staff and students to safe locations as a precaution,” the school district said.while students in classrooms heard a public address announcement asking everyone to leave the building, students who were eating lunch said they did not hear anything official concerning the school’s closure.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“All of a sudden somebody said, ‘Let’s go,’” said sophomore Jonathon Davis of Elgin. “We said, ‘Who’s fighting now?’ We didn’t know what was going on. They said to go out in single file but everybody ran out. In five minutes the school was empty.”</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Other students who had been in the lunchroom at Larkin said they thought it was either a fire drill or live-shooter drill.  It was not until they went outside that a Facebook announcement from school district CEO Tony Sanders explained the evacuation, writes Dave Gathman for The Chicago Tribune.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some parents also reported that they had not heard of the evacuation and they were merely showing up at school to drop something off to their child.sanders said he made the decision close to 10:30 am on Wednesday after reading the annual report concerning the air quality testing of the school cooling towers, which described “higher than normal” levels of Legionella bacteria.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He added that Educational Services Center staff had been asked to report to either Bartlett High or Elgin High to help students there.  Because the central office was closed, key district leaders would be moved to district’s plant operations building where a news conference was held this afternoon.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A decision has not been made yet concerning whether or not the schools will remain closed.  In the meantime, all 19 towers are being thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.the state is currently dealing with an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia, which has already resulted in the deaths of 13 people.</span></i></div>
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Three Illinois Schools Close Due to Legionella Bacteria

School officials in Elgin, Illinois have reported the evacuation of 2,900 students from three schools in the area after high concentratio...