Long-time Slashdot reader theodp tells us Netherlands-based scientist Felienne Hermans shared a radical idea at the 2020 ACM International Computing Education Research Conference for a new programming language to be used for teaching coding -- and for teaching Python: Hermans — an associate professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science — observes In her ICER presentation on Hedy that we don't overwhelm children who are beginning to learn to read with the messy rules of capitalization, punctuation, and sentence construction. So why do we think kids unfamiliar with programming concepts will be able to deal from the get-go with the chock-full-of-syntax-challenges presented by even a "simple" Python loop?

Hedy (proof-of-concept beta) attempts to reduce cognitive load by introducing programming with different "levels" that gradually and gently introduce children to new commands and increasingly complex syntax. Hedy, Hermans explains in a paper, is "a gradual language with an increasingly complex syntax, based on how punctuation is taught to novice readers in natural language education."

"A rebellion against the high cost of a bachelor's degree, already brewing around the nation before the coronavirus, has gathered fresh momentum as campuses have strained to operate in the pandemic," reports the New York Times.

"Who wants to pay $25,000 a year for glorified Skype?" one incoming freshman tells them: Incensed at paying face-to-face prices for education that is increasingly online, students and their parents are demanding tuition rebates, increased financial aid, reduced fees and leaves of absences to compensate for what they feel will be a diminished college experience. At Rutgers University, more than 30,000 people have signed a petition started in July calling for an elimination of fees and a 20 percent tuition cut. More than 40,000 have signed a plea for the University of North Carolina system to refund housing charges to students in the event of another Covid-19-related campus shutdown...

Universities have been divided in their response, with some offering discounts but most resisting, arguing that remote learning and other virus measures are making their operations more, not less, costly at a time when higher education is already struggling.... Moody's Investors Service, which in March downgraded the higher education sector to negative from stable, wrote that even before the pandemic, roughly 30 percent of universities "were already running operating deficits." Since then, emptied dorms, canceled sports, shuttered bookstores and paused study-abroad programs have dried up key revenue streams just as student needs have exploded for everything from financial aid and food stamps to home office equipment and loaner laptops. Public health requirements for masks, barriers, cleaning and other health protections also have added new costs, as have investments in training and technology to improve remote instruction and online courses....

Chapman's president, Daniele Struppa, said the university spent $20 million on technology and public health retrofits for the fall semester, and he estimates that the switch to an online fall will cost the school $110 million in revenue. He has cut spending "brutally" from the $400 million annual budget, he said, freezing hires, slashing expenses, canceling construction of a new gym, ending the retirement match to employees and giving up 20 percent of his own $720,000 base salary. Only students who can demonstrate financial need will get help, he is telling families. "Tuition really reflects our cost of operation, and that cost has not only not diminished but has greatly increased." A survey by the American Council on Education estimated that reopening this fall would add 10 percent to a college's regular operating expenses, costing the country's 5,000 some colleges and universities a total of $70 billion....

Some families have sued. Roy Willey, a class-action attorney in South Carolina, said his firm alone has filed at least 30 lawsuits — including against the University of California system, Columbia University and the University of Colorado — charging universities with breach of contract for switching in-person instruction to online classes, and is closely monitoring the fall semester....

A handful of universities have announced substantial price cuts... But most colleges have kept prices flat, and a few have even increased them. They can't afford to do otherwise without mass faculty layoffs, said Robert Kelchen, a Seton Hall University associate professor of higher education...

"Computer user freedom is a matter of justice," argues a new video released Friday by the Free Software Foundation: The University of Costumed Heroes is an animated video telling the story of a group of heroes falling prey to the powers of proprietary software in education. The university board acquires cutting-edge remote learning software that enables them to continue their operations online, but -- [SPOILER ALERT] -- it may sow the seeds of their downfall.

This video is the second in a series of animated videos created by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and this one is themed around our campaign against the use of proprietary remote education software. We must reverse the trend of forsaking young people's freedom, which has been accelerating as corporations try to capitalize on the need to establish new remote education practices. Free software not only protects the freedoms of your child or grandchild by allowing people to study the source code for any malicious functionalities, it also communicates important values like autonomy, sharing, social responsibility, and collaboration.
"Help give students #UserFreedom," reads a tagline below the video, which shows what happens when the university forsakes an ethical remote-learning platform that safeguards computer user freedom for a proprietary AI-powered alternative. But don't worry, the bad guys eventually learn their lesson.

"Noo!! Defeated by the Free Software Foundation once again!"

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said on Wednesday the Trump administration is launching a national education partnership to expand access to K-12 quantum information science (QIS) education with major companies and research institutions. From a report: The public-private initiative with the National Science Foundation includes Amazon's Amazon Web Services, Boeing, Alphabet's Google, IBM Corp, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, the University of Illinois and University of Chicago. The National Science Foundation is also awarding $1 million to QIS education. The initiative is designed in part to help introduce students to quantum information themes before college.

Excessive drinking, exposure to air pollution and head injuries all increase dementia risk, experts say in a report revealing that up to 40% of dementia cases worldwide could be delayed or prevented by addressing 12 such lifestyle factors. The Guardian reports: The report from the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care builds on previous work revealing that about a third of dementia cases could be prevented by addressing nine lifestyle factors, including midlife hearing loss, depression, less childhood education and smoking. The research weighs up the latest evidence, largely from high-income countries, supporting the addition of a further three risk factors to the list. It suggests that 1% of dementia cases worldwide are attributable to excessive mid-life alcohol intake, 3% to mid-life head injuries and 2% a result of exposure to air pollution in older age -- although they caution that the latter could be an underestimate.

While some actions can be taken on a personal level to tackle such issues, many require government-led change. The report includes a list of nine recommendations, including improving air quality, and urges policymakers to "be ambitious about prevention." Research has suggested that the incidence of dementia in Europe and North America has fallen by around 15% per decade for the past 30 years -- likely because of lifestyle changes such as a reduction in smoking -- even though the numbers of people with dementia are rising as people live longer. The impact of lifestyle interventions, the team add, is likely to be greatest among the most deprived individuals and in low- and middle-income countries. The impact of lifestyle interventions, the team add, is likely to be greatest among the most deprived individuals and in low- and middle-income countries.

The U.S. military has for years been using streaming channels and video gaming to recruit people. "Several branches of the military -- with the exception of the Marines -- have had esports teams since 2018," reports The Verge. "And according to Military.com, the Army's esports efforts alone generated 3,500 recruiting leads in fiscal year 2019."

But the question is... should they be recruiting on these platforms? According to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the answer is no. She is proposing an amendment that would ban the U.S. military from recruiting on Twitch. The Verge reports: "Children should not be targeted in general for many marketing purposes in addition to military service. Right now, currently, children on platforms such as Twitch are bombarded with banner ads linked to recruitment signup forms that can be submitted by children as young as 12 years old," Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor Thursday. "These are not education outreach programs for the military."

Last week, the Army paused its use of Twitch for recruitment after its channel was criticized for banning viewers who asked about war crimes. The Army told GameSpot: "The team has paused streaming to review internal policies and procedures, as well as all platform-specific policies, to ensure those participating in the space are clear before streaming resumes." And earlier this month, Twitch told the Army to stop sharing phony prize giveaways on its channel that promised an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, only for users to be directed to a recruitment page when they clicked through. The language of Ocasio-Cortez's draft would make that pause permanent, banning US military organizations from using funds to "maintain a presence on Twitch.com or any video game, e-sports, or live-streaming platform." You can watch the congresswoman's impassioned floor speech here.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a release on Friday barring new international students from entering the U.S. for their fall terms if their courses are entirely online. "In accordance with March 2020 guidance, nonimmigrant students in new or initial status after March 9 will not be able to enter the U.S. to enroll in a U.S. school as a nonimmigrant student for the fall term to pursue a full course of study that is 100 percent online," ICE said Friday. "Additionally, designated school officials should not issue a Form I-20 to a nonimmigrant student in new or initial status who is outside of the U.S. and plans to take classes at an [Student and Exchange Visitor Program]-certified educational institution fully online."

Several U.S. colleges and universities have announced plans to hold most or all classes online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many universities rely on tuition from international students, and the directive could dissuade some foreign students from enrolling this coming semester. The rule won't affect international students already enrolled at American colleges and universities.

The New York legislature today passed a moratorium banning the use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric identification in schools until 2022. VentureBeat reports: The bill, which has yet to be signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, appears to be the first in the nation to explicitly regulate the use of the technologies in schools and comes in response to the planned launch of facial recognition by the Lockport City School District. In January, Lockport Schools became one of the only U.S. school districts to adopt facial recognition in all of its K-12 buildings, which serve about 5,000 students. Proponents argued the $1.4 million system could keep students safe by enforcing watchlists and sending alerts when it detected someone dangerous (or otherwise unwanted). But critics said it could be used to surveil students and build a database of sensitive information about people's faces, which the school district then might struggle to keep secure.

While Lockport Schools' privacy policy states the watchlist wouldn't include students and the database would only cover non-students deemed a threat, including sex offenders or those banned by court order, the district's superintendent ultimately oversaw which individuals were added to the system. And it was reported earlier this month that the school board's president, John Linderman, couldn't guarantee that student photos would never be included in the system for disciplinary reasons. "This is especially important as schools across the state begin to acknowledge the experiences of Black and Brown students being policed in schools and funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline," said Stefanie Coyle, Deputy Director of the Education Policy Center at the New York Civil Liberties Union. "Facial recognition is notoriously inaccurate especially when it comes to identifying women and people of color. For children, whose appearances change rapidly as they grow, biometric technologies' accuracy is even more questionable. False positives, where the wrong student is identified, can result in traumatic interactions with law enforcement, loss of class time, disciplinary action, and potentially a criminal record."

The U.S. government's approach of letting Silicon Valley drive the country's technological boom has left the government itself scrambling for tech talent. Now, a federal commission led by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work wants to create a university to train new government coders. From a report: The school would be called the U.S. Digital Service Academy, and it would be an accredited, degree-awarding university that trains students in digital skills like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Students would get a traditional school year of coursework, with internships in the public and private sector during summers. The Digital Service Academy would theoretically supply the United States with a fresh stream of young talent already ideologically invested in serving the federal government. However, it would compete with elite institutions like Stanford and MIT, where graduates often have their pick of private-sector work and can still go into the public sector if they choose.

The commission set to recommend the new institution, called the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), unanimously voted to make the recommendation in an upcoming report to Congress during a publicly broadcast meeting on July 20. NSCAI commissioner and former FCC head Mignon Clyburn raised the issue that whatever organization Congress created would have to make an effort to be inclusive in its recruitment. "Talent comes in many forms and from many places," Clyburn said. "If the recruitment only happens where the roads are paved, you've missed a lot of opportunities and a lot of talent." Congress created the NSCAI in 2018 as a response to China's drastic investment into artificial intelligence. It taps industry and government veterans to rethink how the government funds and sanctions artificial intelligence efforts.

Microsoft officials haven't provided a public update on the company's Windows 10X plans since they acknowledged in early May that they were switching gears by making it available first on single-screen devices. Internally, however, things are taking shape and the team is targeting spring 2021 for a first 10X commercial release, ZDNet reported Monday. From the report: Windows 10X, codenamed "Lite"/"Santorini," is not a new operating system. It's a Windows 10 variant in a more modular form and with a new, simpler interface. Originally, Microsoft planned to ship 10X first on new dual-screen devices such as the postponed Surface Neo. I'm hearing Microsoft's latest plan calls for 10X to debut on single-screen devices designed primarily for businesses (especially firstline workers) and education in the spring of 2021. And in the spring of 2022, Microsoft is aiming to roll out 10X for additional single screen and dual-screen devices, my contacts say. The first release of 10X will not include support for running Win32 apps in containers, as originally planned.

This week Medium's editor-at-large argued remote working could kill Silicon Valley in a new article on Medium's business site "Marker" — because working remotely could bring an end to those "serendipitous encounters" which lead to blockbuster products: Tech serendipity is the means to an end in Silicon Valley. "You bring together a density of entrepreneurs and capital with a belief in crazy ideas and a readiness to fund them, and you manufacture serendipity at higher rates than if it were evenly distributed," said Shaan Hathiramani, the CEO of Flockjay, a San Francisco education startup, who is among those wrestling with how to replicate the chance encounter. But in a future remote dispersion of workers that all but excludes the unexpected, face-to-face encounter, what will Silicon Valley lose...?

Dozens of startups and legacy companies are trying to solve the serendipity crisis. Among them are Gather, a Silicon Valley startup, and Hopin, a U.K. company, both of which see the answer in conference apps: You watch online talks, then — just as you would at a physical conference — you go onto a "coffee break," a virtual room where you can "bump into" just about anyone else at the event. You can also sign up to be paired with people with whom you might have similar interests. "It's like a coffee break at TED," said Paul Saffo, a futurist at Stanford. Last week, Microsoft released a new feature for its Teams conferencing app called "Together Mode," which uses A.I. to cut out the images of everyone in a call and assemble them in a virtual setting, such as a theater. The sensation is to remove some of the fake-togetherness of Zoom calls, which is a real advance for the typical work meeting...

If the past is instructive, the pandemic will pass and many daily routines will return. Hordes of people will return to the office, but large numbers won't. Some will pick up and move. At that point, today's effort to digitalize serendipity will pick up more urgency. Video conferencing and other software will get better, and some companies will claim their product fosters the unscripted moment in truly innovative ways, blind to demographics. The question is whether that solution will include a continued place for Silicon Valley.

South Korea announced it's investing $61 billion by 2025 to become a "net-zero society," according to a statement from the country's Ministry of Environment, reports a local news source. Interesting Engineering reports: As part of the South Korean New Deal, this "green" policy is the Asian country's response to the rising tide of climate change, while also boosting its economy -- hit hard by the COVID-19 coronavirus -- in hopes of achieving what trade ministries have called a "net-zero society." The five-year, 61-billion-dollar (U.S.) initiative calls for the construction of zero-energy public facilities, many of which will be remodeled with eco-friendly materials. This move is expected to create 660,000 new jobs, in addition to reducing greenhouse gases by 12 million tons over the next five years.

The government will also spearhead a country-wide public education upgrade to offer eco-friendly schools. Schools will receive roughly 240,000 Tablet computers, with WiFi installed in all elementary, middle- and high schools throughout South Korea by 2022. The South Korean government also aims to adopt green technology for city infrastructure and buildings. Once completed, South Korea should have 25 "smart green cities." If and when the country reaches its goal, energy will shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources, including solar, wind, and hydrogen power. The South Korean government will also create 10 "smart green" industrial complexes, with more than 1,700 "green factories."

California said public schools in the state's hardest hit counties won't be able to open for on-campus classes until the spread of the coronavirus in that area is contained. The order means that students in counties accounting for more than 70% of the state's population will likely switch to remote learning for the beginning of the school year. Bloomberg reports: "The virus will be with us for a year or more, and school districts must provide meaningful instruction in the midst of this pandemic," Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. "In California, health data will determine when a school can be physically open --- and when it must close -- but learning should never stop. Students, staff, and parents all prefer in-classroom instruction, but only if it can be done safely."

School districts in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento had already decided they would offer remote learning only, despite calls by the Trump administration for classrooms to fully reopen. Schools located in counties that are on the state's virus monitoring list must not physically open for in-person instruction until their county has come off the list for 14 consecutive days. All staff and students in 3rd grade and above will be required to wear a mask or face covering. Students in 2nd grade and below are strongly encouraged to wear a face covering.

Google is in advanced talks to buy a $4 billion stake in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's technology venture, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter, seeking to join rival Facebook in chasing growth in a promising internet and e-commerce market. From the report: The Mountain View, California-based company has been discussing the investment in Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Ambani's Reliance Industries, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. An announcement could come as soon as the next few weeks, according to the people. Jio is at the center of the Indian tycoon's ambition to transform his energy conglomerate into a homegrown technology behemoth akin to China's Alibaba Group Holding. The venture has turned into a magnet for Silicon Valley investors, attracting almost $16 billion from Facebook to KKR in the past three months. Should the talks with Google result in a deal, that would further burnish Jio's credentials in its push to upend online retail, content streaming, digital payments, education and health care in a market of more than a billion people. Google said on Monday that it plans to invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years.

Google today announced three new online certificate programs in data analytics, project management and user experience design. From a report: The certificates are created and taught by Google employees, do not require a college degree, can be completed in three to six months and are offered through the online learning platform Coursera. Google says it will consider all of its certificates as the equivalent of a four-year college degree for related roles at the company. "This is not revenue-generating for Google," says Google vice president, Lisa Gevelber, who leads Grow with Google and Google for Startups and serves as the company's Americas chief marketing officer. "There's a small cost from the Coursera platform itself -- the current pricing is $49 a month -- but we want to ensure that anyone who wants to have this opportunity, can have it." The tech giant has committed to funding 100,000 need-based scholarships for individuals enrolled in any of these career certificate programs and will be awarding over $10 million in grants to YWCA, NPower and JFF -- three nonprofits that partner with Google to provide workforce development to women, veterans and underrepresented Americans. Gevelber says Google chose the specific fields of data analytics, project management and user experience because they can lead to "high-growth, high-paying careers."

Google said today it'll invest about $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years. The company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, said that money will be divided into investment equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure, and ecosystem investments. Investments will focus on four main areas: Information access in Indian languages.
Building products for the Indian market.
Empowering local businesses.
Leveraging AI for good in areas such as agriculture and education.

theodp writes: From the Home Office in Cupertino: "Apple today announced a new set of tools to help educators teach coding to students from grade school to college. In addition to significant enhancements to the Develop in Swift and Everyone Can Code curricula, Apple is also starting a new professional learning course for Develop in Swift, available to educators at no cost. The course is designed to supplement the need for computer science educators in the US, and helps instructors of all skill levels build foundational knowledge to teach app development with Swift. In addition, with many institutions operating remotely, Apple is adding resources for educators and parents to help ensure they have the tools they need to help students learn and grow from anywhere. [...] To support parents with kids learning to code at home, Apple is adding a new guide to its set of remote learning resources. 'A Quick Start to Code' is now available and features 10 coding challenges designed for learners ages 10 and up, on iPad or Mac. [...] In 2016, Apple launched Everyone Can Code, a comprehensive program and curriculum to help students of all abilities, from kindergarten to college, learn coding to solve problems and prepare them for the workforce. Develop in Swift was released in 2019, and today more than 9,000 K-12 and higher education institutions worldwide are using the Everyone Can Code and Develop in Swift curricula from Apple."

Back in 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed that most students shunned programming before Apple introduced Swift "because coding languages were 'too geeky.'" As Apple introduced Swift in 2016, Cook called for requiring all children to start coding in 4th grade (9-10 years old), which Cook reiterated to President Trump in a 2017 White House meeting with tech titans.

Jack Dorsey, the billionaire CEO of Twitter and Square, is donating $3 million to help fund Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), a new coalition of 15 mayors across the country who want to explore the idea of universal basic income -- a recurring payment to residents -- in their cities. Forbes reports: The coalition was created on June 29 by Michael Tubbs, the 29 year-old mayor of Stockton, California, who has been running a guaranteed income pilot program in his city since the winter of 2018. The majority of the gift will help the mayors create pilot programs for universal basic income (UBI) in their cities, which include Newark, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, Compton, Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Oakland and more. The rest of the money will go to a new pilot program in Stockton, which Tubbs will announce in the fall.

For now, the roster of mayors in MGI are moderate to liberal-leaning, but that will soon change. Dorsey is making the donation from #startsmall, his philanthropic limited liability company, which he launched on April 7 by transferring $1 billion worth of Square shares -- then 28% of his net worth -- to the LLC. Dorsey said he would primarily focus his charitable efforts on Covid-19 relief, and also fund efforts to improve girl's health and education, as well as UBI experimentation. Tubbs hopes that with more successful experiments of guaranteed income around the country, the federal government will follow with a national guaranteed income program that will extend beyond the pandemic.

UK universities are testing a new online teaching link for students in China -- which will require course materials to comply with Chinese restrictions on the internet. From a report: It enables students in China to keep studying UK degrees online, despite China's limits on internet access. But it means students can only reach material on an "allowed" list. Universities UK said it was "not aware of any instances when course content has been altered." And the universities' body rejected that this was accepting "censorship." A spokeswoman said the project would allow students in China to have better access to UK courses "while complying with local regulations." But in a separate essay published by the Higher Education Policy Institute, Professor Kerry Brown of King's College London cautioned of the risk of universities adopting "self-censorship" when engaging with China. MPs on the foreign affairs select committee have previously warned against universities avoiding "topics sensitive to China," such as pro-democracy protests or the treatment of Uighur Muslims. Chinese students have become an important source of revenue for UK universities, representing almost a quarter of all overseas students - and Queen's University Belfast is chartering a plane to bring students from China this autumn.

Shag writes: Two days after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said international students must leave the US if their fall classes will be taught entirely online, MIT and Harvard are suing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. "ICE is unable to offer the most basic answers about how its policy will be interpreted or implemented," said former international student L. Rafael Reif, President of MIT. Massachusetts' state Attorney General has announced that her office will also challenge the ruling in court. Of course, MIT also develops various technologies for DHS.