High School
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Official 'Fortnite' circuits are coming to colleges and high schools
The battle royale game millions of young players spend hours grinding is now going to be available to play with the approval their teachers. PlayVS, a company hosting esports tournaments in high schools and colleges, has partnered with Fortnite publisher Epic Games to launch an official competitive circuit for students. Better still, with the company's backing, the first bunch of events will be free to play as long as they're registered with PlayVS direct.
Twitter and Adidas are bringing back their high school football series
Friday Night Stripes, the livestreaming series of high school football games on Twitter, is coming back for a second season later this month. The show, which was created by Adidas, Intersport and Twitter, debuted in 2018 and focused on broadcasting eight football games from high schools across the US. And it turned out to be quite a success. According to Twitter, Friday Night Stripes generated more than 32.6 million total views and had over 15.6 million live viewers tuning into the series, which are great figures for what was essentially a social media experiment.
Google’s ‘Assignments’ tool flags plagiarism and missing sources
Google is setting out to make plagiarism harder than ever. The search giant today announced the launch of Assignments, a new grading software for higher education instructors who use G Suite for Education. Formerly known as Coursework, Assignments will allow instructors to create, assign and grade coursework with Google Docs and Drive. To boot, all student work turned in through Assignments and Classroom (its K-12 counterpart) will receive its own "originality report", a new feature that is essentially a litmus test for plagiarism.
Valve introduces Pipeline, a program for teens seeking careers in the gaming industry
Valve recently introduced a program called Pipeline with the aim of providing guidance for high schoolers that are contemplating a future in video games. Pipeline will host content in the form of videos and a forum that will answer commonly-asked questions about careers in the gaming industry. "Pipeline is an experiment to see if we can take a group of high school students with minimal work experience and train them in the skills and methods necessary to be successful at a company like Valve," the site notes. Pipeline is currently nothing more than a video and FAQ, but that will certainly change in due time.
Alt-week 7.28.12: social mathematics, Pluto's moons and humans-on-a-chip
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. It's a beautiful world we live in. And, while the sweet and romantic part is debatable, strange and fantastic is not. Our universe is one populated by non-planetary celestial bodies with their own non-planetary satellites, high school social hierarchies based on predictable mathematical formulas and military-funded "gut-on-a-chips." It's a weird place filled with weird stories, and we just can't get enough of it. So, what has the last seven days brought us from the fringes of science and tech? Keep reading after the break to find out. This is alt-week.
Five apps for High School and College graduates
It's that time of the year when graduating students proudly receive their diploma and move onto the next phase of their life. Many high school graduates have college on their mind, while college grads are preparing to enter the workforce. Here are five apps that'll help these grads as they move onward and upward. I've included five for high school and another five for college graduates. If you have your own suggestions, please share them in the comments. High school graduates on their way to college will appreciate the following apps to help them get organized and stay in touch with old friends. Path (Free) Path is a social network that provides a more personal alternative to Facebook. Users have tight control over their friends list and share what they want, with the people they want. The Path app for the iPhone has a pleasing UI that makes using the social network an enjoyable experience. It's perfect for high school grads who want to stay in touch with their high school friends. Waze (Free) Waze is a social GPS and navigation app that'll help you get to your destination. It might not be as accurate as Navigon, but the UI and social features are outstanding. The app uses community-sourced information to get traffic data and road reports like the location of speed traps and road hazards. You can also share your location and destination information with friends via text or email. Weather 2X ($0.99) If you're looking for a simple, yet elegant way to view the weather, look no further than Weather 2X. The app shows you the current weather and the forecast with a beautiful backdrop. It's perfect for those mornings when you're getting ready to head out for the next class and need to know whether you should grab that umbrella. It lacks a radar view, but that's not needed when you want a quick snapshot of the weather. Wake N Shake Alarm Clock Pro ($0.99) If you have a hard time waking up for that early morning lecture, then you need Wake N Shake Alarm Clock Pro. The app drops the conventional snooze button and makes it a challenge for you to turn the alarm off by shaking your iPhone. By the time you've turned off the alarm, the shaking motion has woken you up. Don't worry if you sleep like a log, Pro version owners can use the "Merciless" level to ensure the shaking wakes them up. iStudiez Pro ($2.99) and Paper Desk ($3.99) iStudiez Pro is a productivity tool designed specifically for students who want to track their classes, professor's contact info and assignments. The scheduling and PIM app works on the iPhone, iPad and Mac, so you always have your data at your finger tips. There's also Paper Desk, a note-taking app with recording that'll sync the audio to your words. It's great for taking notes and reviewing them before the next exam. College grads looking to move from the classroom to the conference room could benefit from these apps below: Monster Jobs for iPad (Free) Once your done with your studies, you will need to find a job and one of the best places to look is Monster Jobs. The job board has an iPad and iPhone app that is a portal into your Monster account. You can search, view and apply for jobs as well, as view you resume and edit cover letters. It's a great resource for on-the-go job hunters. LinkedIn (Free) One of the best ways to get a new job is by networking and one of the best places to network is LinkedIn. The business social network is filled with professionals in your field of interest who can help you find a job. The iOS app is a basic version of the website. It doesn't let you edit your profile, but you can see your connections and find new ones. Despite this drawback, it's still an excellent way to stay in touch with your colleagues. Mint.com (Free) Though you might not be rolling in the dough quite yet, you'll still need an app to help manage your finances. Mint.com is an excellent online app that makes it easy to keep track of your money from a web browser or your iOS device. The latest iOS version adds support for budgeting and split transactions, making Mint one the best online financial managers. Zillow (Free) Say goodbye to frat houses and dorms. Now that you're out of school, you'll need to find a decent place to live. One of the best resources for finding real estate for sale or rent is Zillow. The iOS app has an extensive listing of homes and apartments that are searchable based on location and property details. You can view property listings, get driving directions and even send an email off to a real estate agent if you're interested in a property. Though its geared toward real estate for sale, Zillow does include rentals. If you want a rental only service, you should check the Rent.com or Trulia Apartment rental app. There's also a decent number of listings on Craigslist which you can find using the +Craigslist+ app. Pocket Resume ($2.99) Before you submit your resume to the Monster job board, you should spend some time tweaking your credentials so you can make yourself stand out from the crowd. To help you effectively present your skills, experience and ambition, you should check out Pocket Resume. The app will help you format your resume and save it as a PDF. You can also upload it to Dropbox for sharing with others and for your own safe-keeping. If you already have a LinkedIn profile, you can easily fill out your resume by importing your information directly from LinkedIn's website.
Khan Academy releases iPad app
MIT alum Salman Khan has an ambitious plan. He wants to provide anyone, anywhere with a quality education. To that end, he's created a website with over 2,700 K-12 lectures spanning math, history, science and more. Now he's bringing all this online learning to the iPad with his new Khan academy app. In keeping with Khan's philosophy of learning, the Khan Academy app and all its resources are available for free. The app lets you login to your Khan Academy account and track your progress as you work through the courses. You can also download videos and playlists for learning on the go and follow along with subtitles that'll help you navigate through each lecture. You can grab the Khan Academy app for free from the iOS App Store.
Switched On: You tell me it's the institution
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Apple rose to dominate sales of digital music by more or less mirroring the way consumers acquired music in the physical world -- that is, purchasing songs, but providing a greater degree of granularity. This worked well for music and has also held true for apps and best-selling books, but hasn't been as in step with consumer media acquisition habits for other content.For example, before Apple brought sales of video material to iTunes, most consumers did not generally own TV shows except for perhaps a few cherished series on DVD. They either watched them as they aired as part of a cable-like subscription or paid a flat monthly fee for the privilege of recording them on a DVR to be viewed after they aired. Furthermore, both Blockbuster physical stores and later Netflix's DVD by mail feature relied on a system of one-time consumption via rental or subscription that eschewed ownership of movies. And today, Vevo.com offers free streaming of many music videos that Apple still seeks to sell.
High school senior kills cancer with nanotech, still can't legally drink
Ever ask yourself, "What am I doing with my life?" No? Well, a little existential crisis is in order then. Because while you and the rest of Team teen America were busy dressing like Gaga, dancing to the Bieber and playing Angry Birds, high school senior Angela Zhang was killing cancer. Yes, this 17-year old medical prodigy from Cupertino was just awarded the Siemens Foundation grand prize -- a $100,000 payday -- for her work "Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells." It's certainly a mouthful, but this nanotech is what one fellow researcher's calling the "Swiss Army knife of cancer treatment," as her gold and iron-oxide nanoparticle does double duty delivering the drug salinomycin to a tumor site, in addition to aiding MRI and photoacoustic imaging. If that's not impressive enough, this real-life lady Doogie Howser's also won Intel's ISEF grand award in both 2010 and 2011 for other health science-related work. Sure, Angela might inadvertently fall into the overachiever category, but girlfriend definitely deserves to win that Prom Queen crown.
15 Minutes of Fame: Honors student hits the mark in WoW and life
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. This might be just a little bit embarrassing, but by way of introduction this week, I'd like to reprint the note this week's featured player emailed us last December in response to a call-out for WoW-playing honors students. Its summary of achievements really can't be beat. Hello Lisa, I'm 17, and ... I've played World of Warcraft since late Burning Crusade while maintaining a 91.2 GPA. I've even taken several Advanced Placement courses, which offer me college credit including world history, human geography, literature and composition, and physics. In addition to completing multiple 10-man hard modes of Icecrown Citadel, I've taken on a lot of other responsibilities as a student. I've been a National Honors Society member for three years along with a member and co-captain of an award winning robotics program sponsored by FIRST. On top of that, I don a swimsuit after school for the varsity level swim team. I've played trombone throughout my years of WoW (nine years of the trombone total), playing in the school's jazz band, symphonic band, symphonic orchestra, and marching band, in which I also hold the position of associate drum major. Just this year, I became one of the founding members of the Math Honors Society, in which I spend my mornings before school tutoring other students who just don't quite understand the work. As another bit of school community service, I head over to the middle school as a co-coach, mentor, and former member of the FIRST Lego League robotics club/team. Now, as if my schedule outside of World of Warcraft wasn't busy enough, I'm a second-degree black belt who has studied martial arts for nearly 13 years while also teaching classes, aiding at seminars, and working with disabled/mentally impaired individuals. You'd think I'd have no time for anything at this point, but somehow I squeeze in another job cooking in a New York City restaurant. It's more of an on-call basis, but I cook, wait tables, and assist in instructing cooking classes as well. For my summers, I will admit I do end up taking small breaks from WoW, but it's allowed me to see the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Egypt, and a decent amount of other countries/places. It's also given me time to become a certified SCUBA diver who's Rescue certified and qualified as an Emergency First Responder as well as picking up some International Yacht Training sailing certifications. Oh, did I mention I have four 80's and a 72? Today, Kuhfleisch (Kirin Tor) is an 18-year-old freshman at Texas A&M University at Galveston. He's still keeping up the grades, still keeping up the extracurriculars -- and still keeping up World of Warcraft.
Iowa school replaces workbooks with MacBooks
The school district in Van Meter, Iowa has ditched their workbooks and replaced them with MacBooks in a four-year digital learning experiment. John Carver, Superintendent of the Van Meter school district in Iowa, has taken a bold move into the realm of digital learning. In the 2009-2010 school year, the district handed out laptops to all its seventh to twelfth grade students. The school district signed a four-year lease agreement with Apple to provide the students with MacBook laptops. The program costs about US$149,000 per year and is funded by the district's Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) and School Infrastructure Local Option (SILO) tax. It hopes to have the funds to extend this program to K-12 students by the 2012-2013 school year. Unlike other schools that plop computers on a student's desk and walk away, Carver did away with traditional paper-based learning and actively used the laptops in a new digital curriculum. The response towards the program has been enthusiastic. School board member John Seefeld was "amazed at students' attentiveness, how engaged they were and how they seemed to be learning better under the new format." Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass took a tour of the program and remarked that "after two years of exploring the capacity of the devices, the kids and teachers are learning and evolving in their own knowledge of how powerful new technology can be." Well done, Van Meter School District! May the program bring continued success.
Gabe Newell speaks to a high school marketing class
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell recently discovered another thing he could do instead of releasing Half-Life 2: Episode 3 -- speaking to a high school class about the business of interactive entertainment. Check out a lengthy video of the teleconference below -- you might just learn a little something.
Tennessee school requires iPads of all 4th-12th grade students
Starting next year, fourth to 12th grade students attending the Webb School in Knoxville, Tennessee will be required to have an iPad for classes. Jim Manikais, technology director at the private school, said this new policy was designed to let students "use that technology whenever they need it." Currently, students have to "check out a cart, a laptop cart, or schedule lab time to take a class to a lab" which made it difficult for both teachers and students to use technology regularly in the classroom. The school has a three-year rental plan for parents who are unable to purchase an iPad. This payment plan will cost about $200 per academic year or $20 per month for the ten-month school year. School officials will block Facebook and Twitter on the school campus and English teacher, Elli Shellist, already has a plan to monitor web browser usage in class. The savvy teacher will randomly perform a flip check that requires students to flip their iPad towards the teacher so he can check what application they have opened. Of course, it won't take very long for even more savvy students to write an app that switches back to the appropriate application when the iPad is flipped forward rapidly. We won't even mention the antics that may ensue when the dual-camera iPad 2 makes its inevitable debut in the classroom. Despite the potential for abuse, this is an excellent use of technology that will continue to expand in the future. Other academic institutions like Seton Hill and the University of Notre Dame encourage the usage of iPads in the classroom, while textbook publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are developing applications for use in academic settings. [Via KSLA]
Schools in Singapore issuing iPads to teachers and students
Reuters is reporting that, at an initial cost of S$135,000 (about US$100,000), a pilot program handing out iPads to 140 students and 10 teachers at Nanyang Girls High School, Tampines Secondary School, Nanhua Primary School and Dunman Secondary School in Singapore aims to replace textbooks and increase interactivity in the classroom. Students can connect to the internet, download books and notes, share workbooks and access course materials all from their iPads. In talking to Reuters, 14-year-old student Chloe Chen said, "It's much more convenient. Teachers can just tell us to go a website, and we can immediately go and do our work." While the iPad has been used to help feed the hungry and by doctors in surgery, the education world seems to be where it is destined to have the biggest impact. So far, we have seen examples of colleges in the US handing out iPads to students and of textbook publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt testing a full year Algebra course app, so one can imagine just how many places tablet computers will show up once they become even more popular than they already are. I have heard from two teacher friends that they would love to have an iPad in their classroom, saying that it would help them stay up-to-date and organized, but neither one of them said they would want the students to have them because it would just be a distraction. However, if for no other reason, iPads in the classroom would help them facilitate paperless courses for students, and that alone could save them a lot of headaches. [via MacStories and 9to5 Mac]
Street Fighter High: The Musical, in 2 parts
Some Street Fighter fans showed their love by purchasing both Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV. Others made an elaborate high school musical.
MSG Varsity launch in HD & ESPN RISE football kickoff ensure future Uncle Rico's moment in HD
Now that pro and college football are broadcast almost exclusively in high definition, framed for 16x9 and even 3D, no wonder it's even trickled down to high school sport coverage. Instead of just a few games here and there, Cablevision's launching MSG Varsity HD to cover games in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersy, Connecticut,) with a live HD broadcast of the game of the week every Friday night. For the rest of the nation trying to scout some prospects, ESPN RISE is bringing a number of high school games to ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU in high definition all weekend, check after the break for a full schedule.
Rocket Project team successfully launches a Vaio into the stratosphere
Earlier this spring, Sony's Rocket Project gave eight lucky high school students several Vaios, a crash course in rocketry, and the opportunity to design and build a rocket that could make it to the stratosphere. Well, what do you know? After a few weather-related setbacks, the thing finally launched on Friday, July 23 from its launchpad in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, achieving Mach 2.8 (nearly three times the speed of sound) in the process. Wernher von Braun never had it so good! Video after the break.
This Apple really is for the teacher (and students)
iPads for high school students? Yes, thanks. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that Monte Vista Christian School has 60 iPads ready to serve advanced placement students with e-books instead of the clunky old paper variety. The pilot project may expand to more students if all goes well. Teachers love the ability to get definitions of words with a click, and the access to video and newspapers. In some classes, students are using the iPads for anatomy demonstrations. The paper says English teacher Marcus Schwager is excited to show students how to look up obscure words in Shakespeare and get the proper pronunciations. While the school is among the first to explore the iPad as an educational resource, it surely won't be the last. To smooth the way, Apple has provided a US$50 discount on the iPads, and it has a program to train teachers in how to use them. [Via MacDailyNews]
Sony's Rocket Project helps students reach the stratosphere, unloads some Vaios in the process (video)
We've seen plenty of cockamamie rocket stunts in our day, but there are still few things cooler than an amateur project that reaches for the stars. To this end (and for some free advertising) Sony's announced the imaginatively named Rocket Project, wherein eight high school science students will be selected to receive Vaio CW-series laptops which they'll then use to design and build a twenty-five feet tall, 500 pound rocket capable of reaching the stratosphere (at least theoretically). Qualifying designs must also incorporate a Vaio Z-Series (Intel Core i5) laptop to control the rocket, and a Vaio F-Series (Intel Core i7) as mission control for the launch. As Tom Atchison, Director of the Association of Rocket Mavericks puts it, "the laptops from Sony and Intel have more computational processing power than some of the first spacecraft to reach the Moon. But can a Sony Vaio laptop launch a rocket? That is what this extraordinary group of high school students is going to find out, and I am very excited to give them an accelerated course in rocketry and the unique hands-on experience of building something capable of blasting off into space." Sounds great -- now, how about a similar project for embittered bloggers? PR after the break.
Did a Pennsylvania school district use iSight to iSpy?
The FBI and lots of parents want to know if school-issued MacBooks were used to spy on students at a suburban Philadelphia school. Earlier today, a federal judge was asked to stop the school from destroying any records or logs from the 2,300 laptops that were used by high school students that attended Harriton High School in the Lower Merion School District. The district admitted that it activated the iSight cameras to find more than 40 missing student computers. Officials claim that the district is no longer turning the cameras on remotely. Meanwhile, other lawyers are pursuing a potential class-action lawsuit against the district. The FBI is investigating if the school district broke any federal wiretapping or computer intrusion laws. The district noted that students must sign a release when they get the laptops, but the release does not state that the iSight cameras might be activated without the permission or knowledge of the students or their families. The parties met in court today as a judge ruled on the preserving of evidence. Some students say they are now putting tape over the camera and microphone on the laptops to keep school employees from seeing or hearing anything. According to one student involved in the legal action, the controversy began when an Assistant Principal at the school said the student was acting inappropriately at home. The student wondered how the Assistant Principal would know, and that started the investigation. The school district has said that it has not spied on students, but activated the cameras on computers it said were lost or stolen. Creepy.
