Want to borrow a robot? Try Chicago public library (The Sacramento Bee) – In an effort to get students of all ages interested in science and technology the Chicago Public Library has become the first in the nation to allow patrons to borrow a robot. Patrons can take the robots home and use a variety of codes or software to program the robots to do tasks such as moving, lighting up, and making noise.
Ohio issues new school report cards after scandal (Education Week) – The Ohio Dept. of Education is working to restore confidence after the data scrubbing scandal was revealed a few months ago. All 143 schools from the six districts involved have been issued new performance ratings based on corrected data sets, which caused 20 schools to lower their rankings.
Massachusetts invests in open cloud project, big data (GCN) – Massachusetts is invested $3M in a public-private collaborative project that is working to build a public cloud infrastructure that will provide a space for developers to create new big data tools and applications.
The Internet of Things Goes to College (Ed Tech) – As more and more objects become connected to the internet app developers are working on ways of using this information. College campuses offer a great testing ground for these apps due to the prevalence of technology. Already students are able to check where their bus is or see if a washing machine is free in the laundry room.
Obama Signs Nation's First 'Open Data' Law (Information Week) – A new law has been passed that is being billed as the first open data law at the federal level. The new DATA Act requires federal agencies to publish all of their financial records on an open website using standardized methods so that the public can monitor the agencies spending and activities.
