Sadly, five people have died during 2015 while taking photos or selfies on active railroad tracks. Those deaths are a disturbing sliver of a growing phenomenon known as “death by selfie.” This has become a large enough issue to merit its own Wikipedia page; the debate over whether more people have died in 2015 from…
Japanese electronics manufacturing firm Sony made official a marketplace decision rendered nearly thirty years ago: By March 2016 (if not sooner), Sony will stop manufacturing all Betamax video cassettes. The news marks the end of a 40-year run for a video-recording format once hailed as a market leader in picture quality (so much so, in…
Earlier this fall, I had the pleasure of appearing on a podcast hosted by Cheri Roberts. The show, called “Challenging the Rhetoric,” is an interesting weekly show in which Roberts leads “an engaging analysis of the week’s current news and events.” Recently, Roberts has created a spin-off program called “A Sickness of Silence,” a special…
Over the last several years, I have had the pleasure of working with the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC). The organization recently issued its call for proposals to present at the 2016 Annual Conference next June in Philadelphia, and I am pleased to announce that I have been selected…
In mid-September, a young couple in Boyds, MD spent part of a sunny fall afternoon posing for photos. Like dozens of other teens and even some professional photographers, they decide to use the railroad tracks running through town as an attractive backdrop. While 16-year-old Natalie Crim and her twin sister Sarah flipped through the photos…
Child suicide is a serious problem in the United States. According the Center for Disease Control, over 4,500 young people between the ages of 10 (!) and 24 kill themselves each year. It is the second leading cause of death for that age group. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) children are particularly at risk.…
The following are a few policies that parents might want to discuss between themselves and with their young device users before handing over their technology. Policies for Parents I/We will supervise our child when he or she is using any electronic device. I/We will make sure that our devices are configured to prevent unauthorized downloads…
On the last day of a visit to Bloomington, IN, my wife Dr. Amy Werbel and I had a very interesting lunch with Professor Bryant Paul, who teaches in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University – Bloomington. Professor Paul and I have widely overlapping interests, and I was pleased to hear that he has…
A rude Facebook comment, combined with some other inappropriate classroom conduct, nearly cost a Queensland, Australia teacher his license this spring. In the end, however, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal determined that Dion Ashley Paulsen had taken sufficient steps to reform his behavior and allowed him to continue teaching. Paulsen, who teaches in the…
It Does in Fact Take a Village In 1996, then-First Lady (and now presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton wrote It Takes a Village, in which she argued that the raising of successful, accomplished children is a task that requires the commitment and contributions of our entire society. The book acknowledged the central role of parents in…
