No Child Left Behind

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the last session on the theme of "Challenges of the Next Generation", we will zoom-in on the so called fix for the American education system,  No Child Left Behind, and its successor, Common Core. 

Here is a TED Talk critical on the concept of standardized education.

Here is a student letting his state legislator know what he thinks of Common Core.

Things look bleak for US education in a competitive world, but will the next generation succeed it spite of it? There is a poll on the upper right corner of this page. Please take time to add your option on the future prospects of the Millennials.


Update 2/27/14:

Here is a link which explains the Common Core standards.

World Education Competition

Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

This meeting has been rescheduled for Feb. 20 same time and place

The Unites States spends more per student than any country in the world but is getting only mediocre results when compared to other countries. For the next meeting we will explore how US education compares with the rest of the world. We will use these talk by Amanda Ripley, the author of The Smartest Kids in the World, as the the starting point of the discussion:

• Amanda Ripley: Ask the kids
• Amanda Ripley "The Smartest Kids in the World"

The PISA test is used to rank the countries. Here is a TED Talk which will attest to  the validity of these tests.

Challenges for the Next Generation

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Note: We are meeting one hour earlier!

This month, we are starting a new theme, Challenges for the Next Generation. In the first meeting we will take the broad view by looking at the next generation as a demographic group known as The Millennials. We will be show excerpts from the following videos:

• Gen Y acting entitled? New facts. You decide.
• Young Americans Are the Dumbest Generation
• Generation jobless
• Millennials Will Change the World
• Millennials: The Most Diverse Generation
• How To Sell To Millennials
• RSA Millennials Debate

For those the want more background, here is the study of the Millennials by the Pew Research Center.

Please come with suggestions on topics about the next generation topics we can cover for the remainder of February. This can include but not limited to:

1. The failed education system
2. Lack of job prospects
3. Increased health issues
4. Living in technology vs the real world
5. Inheriting our problems
6. The performance of boys vs girls
7. Lack of interaction between generations

Zoom-In on CyberCrime

Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Starting in February we will be meeting One hour later, 10am to 11:30

By now we should know what the four kinds of cyber attacks in CHEW are. We talked about the last three kinds, Hackivism, Espionage and War. This week we will focus on the first kind, Cyber-Crime, the part of CHEW that might affects us most personally.

The meeting will show excerpts from the following videos:

• Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the net
• Misha Glenny: Hire the hackers!
• Extreme Identity: Jeff Carter at TEDxKC

Also note the poll on the upper right of this page. The poll will close on Feb. 3 at 9am. This is an experiment so please email me if you have technical difficulties.

Afghanistan Rescheduled

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Meeting Cancelled due to weather

Skye will give her presentation on her experience in Afghanistan. This is a rescheduling of the 1/9/14 meeting. You can check on the previous post for related videos and comments.

Starting in February, we will meet and hour later. So our time slot will be from 10am to 11:30. Hopefully, this will allow more people to attend our meetings. For the remainder of January, we will meet at the same time, 9am to 10:30.

As reminder here are the themes for January to March. In February we will start the theme, Challenges for the next generation. You can add comments below if you have suggestions for topics we could cover which apply to the next generation. You can also add suggestions for future themes and topics for April and beyond.

Cyber CHEW (Crime, Hacktivism, Espionage and War)

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In our meeting on Cyber Privacy, Ron pointed out that Cyber Espionage was a much more serious problem. Certainly it is a serious problem, as well as Cyber Crime, Hacktivism and War.  We can argue if any of these are more important than Privacy.

This presentation by Richard Clark about his book Cyber War, covers the four-headed Cyber monster a called CHEW. We will show Richard Clark's presentation at our meeting and use it to set up our discussions.

Here are seven short YouTube videos which provides some background on the topics covered by Clark. We will show these videos only if time permits.

1. Obama issue executive orders to improve Cyber Security
2. Action against China
3. Cyber Attacks by Iran
4. Stuxnet
5. Military Cyber Command
6. Internet of Things
7. Anonymous

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Update 1/15/14

Here is a link to the Economist article on Cyberwar.

Afghanistan Presentation

Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

This meeting has been rescheduled for Jan. 23 same time and place

This meeting will be rescheduled

For next week's meeting, we will take a break from the normal program. Skye will give a presentation on  her experience in Afghanistan. 

Here are some interesting TED Talks which are about the Afghan people. These talks are not central to our meeting, by they are interesting and may provide background to help in our discussion.

• Monika Bulaj: The hidden light of Afghanistan
• Shabana Basij-Rasikh: Dare to educate Afghan girls
• Alberto Cairo: There are no scraps of men