One school district has banned UGGs — and similar knock-off boots — under the dress code. Here’s why:

School officials in Pennsylvania decided to ban the popular boots after students started smuggling their cell phones into class inside the boots.

In a letter to parents, the school explained that students:

• are allowed to wear the boots on the way to and from school, but must change into other shoes and store the boots in their lockers during the school day, and
• would face discipline — including possible detention and phone confiscation — if the rules continue to be disregarded.

As you probably guessed, the school has received backlash from students and parents for the new rule.

Do you think banning UGGs is reasonable or over-the-top? Chime in below — and don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The ACLU sure did.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of Newark parents and schoolchildren asking for the release of emails and other documents about the gift.

And now a state supreme court judge ruled that the city, in particular Mayor Corey Booker (D), must produce them.

Facebook founder Zuckerberg donated $100 million after meeting Booker at a conference. He hoped the money would improve city schoolrooms and technology infrastructure.

Then the truth came out: Political consultants and contractors associated with Mayor Booker and New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf pocketed $4.3 million last year from the initial installment of Zuckerberg’s gift.

Oh well, guess it could’ve been worse. Former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (D) somehow lost track of $1.2 billion – $4 million is peanuts in comparison!

Will Newark’s schools ever benefit from Zuckerberg’s gift? Let us know below.

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But artificial intelligence (AI) expert Sebastian Thrun is anything but cushy.

The renowned computer science prof’s course at Stanford attracted more than 160,000 online students.

Now Thrun is leaving his Stanford position and launching Udacity, a low-cost online university which he hopes will attract millions of new learners.

Thrun is a visionary among academics: “We had the industrialization, we had the invention of celluloid, of digital media, and miraculously, professors today teach exactly the same way they taught a thousand years ago.

“Having done this [reaching 160,000 students online], I can’t teach at Stanford again.”

Now avid learners who can’t afford a Stanford education will benefit from Thrun’s genius – at a fraction of the cost.

Is online learning the future of higher ed? Share your opinion below.

A New York teacher has agreed to retire after she was caught submitting a fake jury summons to play hooky from Manhattan’s High School of Graphic Communication Arts.

Mona Lisa Tello faces three counts of criminal fraud after she allegedly forged a jury summons, supposedly from a New Jersey courthouse.

According to reports, Tello used the summons to take 15 days of paid leave, collecting more than $3,300 in salary.

But school officials were skeptical about the document, and launched an internal investigation.

The fraudulent summons was rife with errors, such as:

• stating Tello was needed at “trail” instead of “trial”
• using the word “sited” for “cited,” and
• replacing the word “manger” for what should have been “manager.”

If those glaring errors weren’t enough to tip off the school, Tello’s fake summons also listed the wrong address and phone number for the New Jersey courthouse that purportedly issued the summons.

Tello has agreed to repay the school for her unexcused paid leave.

And, in light of this event, maybe it’s a good idea that she’s not teaching anymore.

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Those days are long gone.

Case in point: An Oklahoma 9th grader caught a sub snoozing in a classroom. So the student clicked a few images of the teacher, then posted them on a social-media website.

The Mustang Public School system found out about it and suspended the 9th grader for possession of a phone in class.

Maybe the school should thank the student instead – chances are there are competent subs available who won’t sleep on the job. No word on whether the sleepy sub will be working for the school again or catching up on his morning ZZZs instead.

Sharing passwords as a sign of love … call it a digital token of affection.

The New York Times reported young people are sharing their Facebook, email and cell phone passwords with significant others in attempts to create intimacy and trust in the relationship.

In 2011, The Pew Internet and American Life Project found:

• 30% of teens who are online regularly share passwords with friends and romantic partners, and
• girls are twice as likely as boys to share their passwords.

Problem is, young love doesn’t always last. And when a romance fizzles out, things can get ugly — in the time it takes to click a mouse.

For example: Research conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center found many students use technology to intimidate and threaten their romantic partners. And there’s certainly no shortage of online betrayal stories. For example:

• Jessica Logan hanged herself after her ex-boyfriend circulated nude photos of her.
• These students ridiculed a classmate online, claiming she had a sexually transmitted disease.
• Many students, including Phoebe Prince, have committed suicide as a result of online bullying.

Studies have shown that schools aren’t doing enough to educate students about online safety.

Love is in the air

February’s almost here — which means many students will be thinking of ways to direct Cupid’s arrows into the hearts of classmates. Sharing passwords isn’t the best way to aim for true love.

February is also National Teen Dating Abuse and Awareness Month. It’s probably a good time to address this new trend with students.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found school-level intervention can cut the rate of dating violence among sixth- and seventh- grade students by about 50%!

Additional resources to help educate students about online safety is here.

Apple’s new iBooks 2 and iBooks Author software are a challenge for the textbook industry: Start creating better products at more affordable prices.

The company introduced the two new, free apps last week at New York’s Guggenheim museum. It touts iBooks 2 as “gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animation, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more.”

iBooks 2 is optimized for the iPad but will work with other tablets and laptops besides Macs.

With iBooks Author, publishers (eventually educators?) can create e-books using word-processing tools and the wealth of images, video and audio bytes available through iTunes.

From the get-go, Apple will sell all textbooks for $14.99 and less.

Sea change for textbook industry

The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets described the giants of textbook publishing – McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Cengage Learning, the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity – as “partners” in Apple’s new venture.

Don’t bet on it for the long-term.

All of these publishers have no choice but start creating superior content for multi-media textbooks or lose out.

Consider that the iPad has changed classrooms faster than any tech product like it. There are 1.5 million iPads in grade schools after Apple launched it just two years ago. Teachers and parents are especially amazed at how the iPad helps learning-disabled students.

Before he died, Jobs met with textbook publishers. He believed all books should be “digital and interactive, tailored for each student and providing feedback in real time.”

Apple is already providing much of the content for the next wave of textbooks. Don’t be surprised if it dives deeper into the content-provider pool at the expense of its current “partners.”

Do you think Apple’s new products are a game-changer? Let us know about it below.

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