LEGO announced this week its Education Professional Development program that enables teachers to choose STEM, hands-on, playful courses for their classrooms. Built on competency-based learning, this free program is modular and contains four categories: Pedagogy, STEAM Concepts, 21st Century Skills, and Classroom Management. It includes two kinds of self-guided modules: Learning Bursts for quick and focused skills practice and Learning Quests for deeper competency development. Teaching can be developed in-person, remote, and virtual classrooms. LEGO Education has been working with seasoned classroom practitioners at Tufts University Center for Engineering Education Outreach (CEEO) to ensure the program was designed for the needs of educators. "When teachers are truly confident in playful hands-on learning, they deliver more motivating, engaging, and joyful learning experiences," said Esben Stærk, president of LEGO Education.
A new study that investigates authoritarianism and political discrimination among colleges and universities, shows that a "majority of conservative academics experience a hostile environment for their beliefs in U.S., Canadian, and British universities." "A significant portion of academics discriminate against conservatives in hiring, promotion, grants, and publications. Over 4 in 10 US and Canadian academics would not hire a Trump supporter, and 1 in 3 British academics would not hire a Brexit supporter." However, most professors do not back "cancel culture" in its most authoritarian forms. The study, titled "Academic Freedom in Crisis: Punishment, Political Discrimination, and Self-Censorship", was authored by Dr. Eric Kaufmann, professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. According to the data of the research, in the U.S., "over a third of conservative academics and Ph.D. students have been threatened with disciplinary action for their view, while 70% of conservative academics report a hostile departmental climate for their beliefs." • Summary of the Report • Full Report (PDF)
Harvard University's 2021 live commencement—scheduled for May 27—will be virtual for the second year due to the pandemic. "The delay of our Commencement Exercises for two years running is deeply disappointing, but public health and safety must continue to take precedence," said Lawrence S. Bacow, President of Harvard University. "We will gather as a community online on Thursday, May 27, to award degrees and celebrate the achievements of our graduates. After degrees are conferred, each School at Harvard will follow up with its own special virtual event and afterward deliver diplomas through the mail." Ruth Simmons, the president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college near Houston, will deliver the principal address.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) canceled Google as a sponsor for the fourth annual Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT), which takes place online March 3-10, 2021. The association had been facing pressure to address a recent event at Google, which is the departure of two female computer scientists: Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell (in the picture). Inside Higher Ed reported the story. Timnit Gebru, former co-lead of Google’s ethical AI team, abruptly left the company in December. She explained—see the tweet below—that she’d been fired after executives wanted to censor an unpublished paper she’d co-authored with academics about the ethical and environmental risks of large language model AI. I was fired by @JeffDean for my email to Brain women and Allies. My corp account has been cutoff. So I've been immediately fired 🙂 — Timnit Gebru (@timnitGebru) December 3, 2020 Google argued that Gebru’s paper ignored important bias mitigation developments within AI. Many employees and computer scientists said that Google failed to live up to its stated values about diversity in firing, effectively or directly, Gebru, a Black woman who researched ethical technology. Last month, Google also fired Gebru’s former co-lead on ethical AI, Margaret Mitchell. I abruptly lost my job 9 days ago. Tomorrow I lose my healthcare. This is the "view from the top" for a successful female AI research scientist who has built her career for over 15 years. — MMitchell (@mmitchell_ai) March 1, 2021 Mitchell said on Twitter that she’d written an email to Google about Gebru’s termination and its relationship to sexism and discrimination — and then promptly had her own work email access cut off. Google later fired her. Google has said it terminated Mitchell, who is white, for violating company policies.
The U.S. colleges and universities will receive nearly $40 billion in new aid as Congress approved the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, this week. Colleges and universities will be required to spend approximately half of the funds in the bill on emergency grants to students. Whether undocumented and international students can get the help, however, still hasn't been decided by the Education Department. This is the largest infusion of help to higher education approved during the pandemic. President Biden called the bill "a giant step forward” in providing help to Americans during the pandemic. ACE (American Council on Education) President, Ted Mitchell, said yesterday this federal help "falls short of our most recent estimate of at least $97 billion in student and institutional needs." The measure also provides additional dedicated support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and other Minority-Serving Institutions. The Senate approved several amendments to the House-approved version, including one that would exempt all student loan forgiveness from federal taxes for five years, in the event the president or Congress decides to cancel any debt.
