Guest Thinkers — February 16, 2011

ROTW: Assessing students with disabilities

The latest installment of the Report of the Week (ROTW) comes from Education Sector:

Labeled: The Students Behind NCLB’s ‘Disabilities’ Designation

Here’s a quote from the report:

[B]ecause the majority of special education students have disabilities that do not preclude them from reaching grade-level standards there doesn’t seem to be a need to rollback NCLB’s accountability measures for students with disabilities. To the contrary, doing so could hurt such students by reducing schools’ responsibility for ensuring that they are taught to high standards.

Happy reading!

Strange Maps

America’s news deserts are growing

Most counties in the U.S. have only one local newspaper, often one that publishes weekly instead of daily.

Two people walking past a dark brick wall with numerous security cameras pointing in various directions.

The Present

Are smart cities a wise idea?

When Google runs a smart city, who owns the data?

Illustration of a young woman with closed eyes, smiling, next to a large, detailed eye and surrounded by vibrant, abstract elements and smiley faces.

Neuropsych

Eyes wide shut: Why closing your eyes intensifies psychedelic trips

A recent study suggests that exposure to visual stimuli can diminish the effects of psychedelic drugs.

Starts With A Bang

The big idea of Grand Unified Theories of physics

If the electromagnetic and weak forces unify to make the electroweak force, maybe, at higher energies, something even grander happens?

Microscopic image of a small electronic component with clear details of its structure and connections against a gray background.

The Future

Making microbots smart

What would it take to create a truly intelligent microbot, one that can operate independently?

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Implementation dip

In his comment last week, Jack Phelps, founder of ChitCh.at (which looks interesting, by the way!), noted that there’s always an adoption curve. The challenge, of course, is to reduce […]