http://www.educatednation.com Education Blog. News, humor, advice, and opinion on education and career, graduate school, college degrees, and university life. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:48:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Reuters has this article up about a middle school in Boston that has stopped using textbooks, paper and pencils in favor of laptops. The laptops are handed out to every student at the beginning of the school day, the kids use them all day for math, reading, etc., and ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/17/technology-reshapes-americas-classrooms/ Dr. Julie-Ann McFann over at Around the Academy wrote a beautiful post about the new GI Bill issue. She writes from the perspective of not only the daughter-in-law of a WWII veteran who benefited greatly from the GI Bill, but also as an educator who has taught students that ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/16/unique-perspective-on-the-gi-bill/ I think we (and by ‘we’ I mean Americans) used to be a little prone to taking the commuting portion of our college education for granted. That is no longer the case. There’s an article in the NY Times about the rising cost of commuting coinciding with the ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/15/high-cost-of-driving-ignites-online-classes-boom/ PrepPoint, a test prep, academic tutoring, and college advising group, has a great list of books and resources for students in the pre-college phase of their existence. The list is long enough that I won’t regurgitate it here, but it includes several resources in the following four categories: Academic Performance Test ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/14/helpful-resource-list-from-preppoint/ When I was a college student, the courses I always felt I learned the most from, took the most away from, and enjoyed the most while I was in them were the lab courses: chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, etc. Witnessing the tangible proof of the information the professors ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/11/eye-candy-and-intellectual-stimuli-for-lab-geeks/ Author’s note: In this post we get to watch Alexa (that is me) attempt to maintain some degree of composure, dignity and professional distance with regards to the subject matter: The newest version of the GI Bill. Not to ruin the ending, but I fail miserably. Attempt #1 I ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/09/new-gi-bill/ Does anyone have summer jobs any more, or do the learning opportunities, résumé-building bullet points, key letters of recommendation, and invaluable experience of the summer internship far outweigh table-waiting wages? Summer’s half over; if you’re in the midst of your own personal interning adventure, here are some beneficial words ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/07/summer-internship-advice/ According to the Wall Street Journal, recent college grads are giving up on trying to find a decent job in the currently crappy job market, and are opting instead to spend a year or two working and/or volunteering for one of the following world-improvement organizations: Peace Corps AmeriCorps Teach for America Jesuit Volunteers WorldTeach The applicant ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/04/altruism-meets-a-weak-job-market/ And now here’s some good news (and some super cheerful flower pictures) to balance out the bad news of the previous post (and my constant ranting about the SAT). The San Francisco Chronicle had a happy story about Carolyn Barnes, a young woman who grew up with way more ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/03/the-good-news/ The bad news is this story about tenured faculty positions being slowly made extinct. Not a shocking bit of info as it’s been going on for quite some time, but distressing nonetheless. Colleges and universities have been steadily decreasing their tenured-professor numbers for the past few decades, all ... http://www.educatednation.com/2008/07/02/bad-news-first/