Category: economics
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Thoughts on health care reform and corporate lobbying power
These are my comments tonight to Scott Weidig’s post, “National Pharmacy, National Plans, National Health Care…” I share your sentiments. The thing that concerns me most, however, is the constitutionality of mandating people pay for coverage. I’m glad we’re seeing some states challenge this. I definitely think there’s consensus the system needs to change, but…
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Poll Results: How much would you / your school pay for PollEverywhere?
Here are the results of the two polls I included in this weekend’s post, “PollEverywhere grappling with Monetization and Free Educator Plans.” There were 24 respondents to the first poll, and 20 respondents to the second. Those participation totals are not sufficient to give these informal polls much statistical power, but they do highlight the…
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PollEverywhere grappling with Monetization and Free Educator Plans
Web services are not free to provide. Someone pays. Sometimes those paying are advertisers, but in many cases content and service providers pay costs but rationalize those costs because they are offset by income from other related sources. It’s very interesting as well as instructive to watch the development of pricing schedules and “free” access…
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Bribery apparently not a “new argument” for the Oklahoma Supreme Court
Today’s AP article, “Oklahoma Supreme Court rejects request to reopen rate case,” raises some interesting issues about AT&T. If a past state supreme court case was decided by a 2-1 vote, and one of the justices voting with the majority to close the case was later sentenced to prison for taking a bribe related to…
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Fair Elections Now: Why we must change campaign finance in the United States
We need a populist political movement in the United States, powered in part by the social media tools now at our fingertips, to curb the influence of corporations in our government, economy, and lives. The organization Change Congress is poised to be a key catalyst in this movement, and deserves our time as well as…
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Learning about Xinjiang, Urumqui, and China’s Uygur People
Matthew Teague’s December 2009 National Geographic article, “The Other Tibet,” should be considered must-reading for anyone interested in understanding modern China. In my November 5, 2009 podcast, “Reflections on Social Media, School Change, 21st Century Learning Skills, and China” I addressed some of the recent challenges the Chinese government has faced in maintaining tight control…
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Global Awareness, Community Service and Classroom Project Ideas
It is very important we help students in our classrooms develop deeper, broader, authentic world views through the information we share and collaborative activities in which we engage together during and after class. It is also critical we help students develop values like respect, empathy, and compassion. Learning is most powerful when it is experiential…
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Perceptions of Beauty, PhotoShop, and Media Literacy
The “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty” is a marketing campaign for Dove soaps, but also an effort to address widespread, destructive advertising which creates false perceptions of beauty among girls, boys, women and men worldwide every day. The following video, “Evolution,” is an advertisement for Dove soap but also makes a powerful statement in 75…
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Incentive for better learning about communism, capitalism, and government
Parents, government, civics and economics teachers: This request is for you. I received the following message this past week in my YouTube inbox, doubtless as a result of my delayed moderation of this user’s comment on my 9 year old daughter’s YouTube response video to President Obama’s speech to students in September. The short message…