As you may know, ning.com is under new management and is moving toward a pay model. I have found some free alternatives that look and work like ning. Here are the links:
socialgo
grou.ps
spruz.com
They are in no particular order. They are very straightforward. It took me about 7 minutes to register and get my own started.
NY Times Texas Curriculum Changed
Texas twists things around in the social studies curriculum to support their agenda, whatever it may be. After reading that it concerns me. Not only are they changing it to favor/influence students to one side of certain arguments while shielding them from others, but it will cause problems for students either moving in or out of the state of Texas to have to deal with such a vast difference in curriculum. Sure there are always minor differences state to state but this seems a bit much.
What do you think? Should any state (whether dealing with this situation or a hypothetical one) be able to change what their students are being "fed" to support their personal beliefs or agenda. (examples, science only teaching creation, politics only supporting capitalism, democrats, or republicans, history that fosters an ethnocentric or even xenophobic look at the world)
I have a friend who works at RIT as a a distinguished researcher in Imaging Science. He has a team surveying Haiti from the air for the World Bank. He has been sending me some of their pictures. The images will be up on Google Earth/Maps soon, but you are seeing them here first.
Give what you can to help.
Click on this link to learn where you can help.
Click here for a link to an article on where to find cheaper textbooks.
20 more visits and xopc29.org will reach 10,000 visits.
Please feel free to submit news of interest. I have to caution you about political campaigning though.
There is a Parent group that works to ban books. Here is the link to the list sorted by author. Is there any book they missed?
