How five U.S. innovations helped improve schools in Finland even as American’s ignore the same reforms

finland schools

Finland has a staggering record of education success.

Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish educator and scholar, is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and educational practices. He is the author of the best-selling “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?”and a former director general of Finland’s Center for International Mobility and Cooperation. Sahlberg is now a visiting professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has written a number of important posts for this blog, including “What if Finland’s great teachers taught in U.S. schools,” and “What the U.S. can’t learn from Finland about ed reform.”

 

 

Continue reading… “How five U.S. innovations helped improve schools in Finland even as American’s ignore the same reforms”

New York Times has called federal government to repeal marijuana ban

marijuana-legalization

The Times said marijuana should only be available to people over 21 years old.

The New York Times has called for the federal government to repeal its ban on marijuana. They likened the federal law outlawing the drug to the failed prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s and ’30s. (Video)

 

 

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Here’s why automakers want 4G technology in cars

4g tech

Automakers are counting on the connected car.

Today’s cars are trying to replicate the smartphone experience. Touchscreen interfaces are common. Dashboard designers take UI tips from iPhones, and automakers want to build apps for cars. Large automakers like General Motors are taking the next obvious step and integrating 4G LTE service into their cars starting this year. Drivers pay a monthly service fee for in-car 4G that’s separate from their smartphones, and use it for an array of services from movies for kids in the backseat to sophisticated GPS-on-steroids solutions. It’s a win-win for automakers, the dealers who sell the 4G add-ons, and carriers like AT&T. But is it a win for consumers?

 

 

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Mass incarceration may be the greatest social crisis in modern American history

prison

More than 2.4 million people are behind bars in the United States today.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously last week to allow nearly 50,000 nonviolent federal drug offenders to seek lower sentences. The decision of the commission retroactively applied an earlier change in sentencing guidelines to now cover roughly half of those serving federal drug sentences. Both the Department of Justice and prison-reform advocates have endorsed the change. It’s a significant step forward in reversing decades of mass incarceration, though in a global context, still modest.

 

 

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The future impact of the Internet of Things can’t be underestimated

iot

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a hot new buzzword. Its purpose and definition are grossly misunderstood. When some people hear the term IoT they immediately associate it with a refrigerator reminding us to order milk or our Fitbit wearable device tweeting how we just ran 4 miles. Neither of those uses are very compelling to most of us which makes it hard to fathom how experts can predict that by 2020 there will be greater than a one trillion dollar market that vendors will be trying to claim a piece of.

 

 

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Job growth is faster in states that raised minimum wage

minimum wage

The 13 states that raised their minimum wages on Jan. 1 have added jobs at a faster pace than those that did not.

The Department of Labor released new data that suggests that raising the minimum wage in some states might have spurred job growth, contrary to what critics said would happen.

 

 

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