The challenge is, how should we dispose of these items?

Youchange answers this challenge with an electronic waste collection program that focuses on fundraising within schools to solve the problem in Maricopa County through the launch of its Earth Day Challenge.

“We all have obsolete electronic items collecting dust but what we don’t know is that many of those items still have some value. Youchange’s business is built on empowering students to change the world and solve the problems of electronic waste through school fundraising programs and launching this challenge for our local area just makes sense. With more than 100,000 schools across the nation suffering with serious budget cuts we plan to expand this opportunity to other regions in the coming months.”
- Derrick Mains, youchange EVP

The Earth Day Challenge is an electronics collection competition providing the opportunity for one school to win a cash prize of $ 2,500. The challenge is simple and beneficial to all 30 schools, even if they do not win the grand prize. Hold an electronic collection fundraiser between now and Earth Day and youchange will pay each school for functional electronic items collected. The one school that collects the most items per student will receive an additional $ 2,500 in cash paid by youchange. Because the contest looks at the number of items collected per student it allows a school with only 200 students to compete equally with a school of 2,000 students.

“We have seen schools make between $ 300 and $ 5,000 after completing our two week collection drives. Now adding in the chance to win an additional $ 2,500 prize for their efforts is a win for them and a win for the environment and the school!”
- Dan Fogel, youchange VP of Operations

The contest is open to all schools in Maricopa County, Arizona and can be driven by students, parent teacher organizations or by teachers. To qualify schools need to be one of the first 30 schools to register (with a minimum of 10 schools participating) with youchange and choose a two week time period to run their collection event. In addition, youchange emphasizes the importance for each school to promote their event and discuss with students the importance of recycling electronic waste. Schools will be paid for functional items in a number of categories including computers, cell phones, tablets, e-readers, game consoles, media players and digital cameras. All non-functional items will be responsibly recycled.

“It starts with you…and ends in change.”

The winning school will be announced on May 15th, 2012 and presented with a $ 2,500 check in addition to the cash they raised through their collection event.

Textbook prices have increased considerably over the last four years, at four times the rate of inflation. The average annual cost for college textbooks is now $ 1,260. At California’s community colleges, attended by more than 2.8 million students, textbook costs make up 75 percent of total student expenditures. On average, publishers release a new edition every three years, with each one costing 12 percent more than the last.

State Auditor Elaine Howle will present an audit report on the affordability of college textbooks, followed by testimony from representatives of California’s three public systems of higher education, Academic Senate presidents, Cal PIRG, publishers and non-profit foundations.

“We want to explore what California’s three public higher education systems have done to help students with these unmanageable book costs since the report was issued 900 days ago,” said Lara. “The state auditor’s report strongly suggested new education technology solutions as a way to lower the cost, and we are hitting the ‘refresh button’ to let students know we have not forgotten about them.”

Non-profit 20 Million Minds Foundation has been working on making college more affordable by lowering the cost of textbooks and recently unveiled an “open source” Collaborative Statistics e-textbook, available at Kno.com, which is free and available to professors to adopt, providing students with an interactive experience using videos, applets, graphics, exercises and a variety of navigation and enhancement features.

“California can do better by offering our students quality, free and open access to college textbooks.” – Dean Florez President 20 Million Minds Foundation and past Senate Majority Leader California

“It is unacceptable that students are dropping out of class because they can’t afford a textbook. This hearing comes at a time when students are wondering whether legislators are even aware of the high costs of textbooks. It is a hearing long overdue,” he explained.

The State Auditor’s report can be found at: http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2007-116.pdf.

Beginning with the 2013 volume year, the team of scholars will serve as editors for a three-year term. EEPA, a multidisciplinary policy journal that focuses on educational evaluation, educational policy analysis and the relationship between the two, is published quarterly by the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Appointed by AERA president Arnetha Ball, the new editors have extensive experience in teaching, researching, and publishing on education policy:

• Mark Berends is a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity at the University of Notre Dame. Berends’ research is focused on the relationship of school organization and classroom instruction to student achievement, with special attention to disadvantaged students.
• Laura S. Hamilton, Senior Behavioral Scientist and Research Quality Assurance Manager at the RAND Corporation in Pittsburgh, is an educational psychologist with a specialization in psychometrics. Among her research interests are measurement of student achievement, measurement of instruction, and education reform implementation.
• Luis A. Huerta is Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, and his research focus is school choice reform and school finance policy. His research pairs theory in organizational sociology and economics together with policy analysis frameworks, and aims to discover how school reforms affect equity and quality in schools.
• Ron W. Zimmer is Associate Professor at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. His research interests include charter schools and education finance, and his research has led to publication of numerous articles, book chapters, and monographs on these topics.

The new team will succeed EEPA editors Dominic Brewer, University of Southern California, Bruce Fuller, University of California – Berkeley, and Susanna Loeb, Stanford University, who conclude their term of service in 2012.

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the national interdisciplinary research association for approximately 25,000 scholars who undertake research in education. Founded in 1916, AERA aims to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.

Many corporate institutions see it as something theoretical and elusive, a job only for those in R&D and product development.

Instead, they should be ensuring that everyone — from leaders to front-line employees — plays a role in the process. Management’s key priority today should be to unlock their teams’ innovation potential.

This is according to Scott D. Anthony, Managing Director and head of the Asia-Pacific operation of innovation consulting firm Innosight and author of just-released “The Little Black Book of Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It” (Harvard Business Review Press, January 2012). The book integrates some of the best and most tested innovation insights and practices into one easy-to-read volume and provides a 28-day program that can turn individuals and organizations into more successful innovators. Drawing on his experience working alongside and advising businesses in Asia, Anthony focuses on pragmatic advice rather than just theory.

“Asia is exciting because there’s such a strong appetite for innovation,” says Anthony. “Yet markets here are fairly new and evolving so rapidly that there hasn’t been an opportunity to put robust systems in place. Working on innovation in these markets forces you to focus on what really works — simple, practical principles that can be applied quickly to generate results,” he added.

The book highlights examples of innovation successes from companies in the region and around the world, including Indian conglomerate Godrej & Boyce and Japan-based discount hair salon QB House.

“It used to be that locally based companies could win by being disciplined fast followers leveraging lower input costs, and global outputs would simply sell what headquarters provided them. Now, in order to win in local and global markets, everyone needs to get better at innovation,” he explained.

Avoiding Innovation Pitfalls

In addition to the patterns and practices of the best innovators, Anthony points to “seven deadly sins” of innovation and outlines how to avoid them. The sins are…

• Pride, where an innovator does what they want, rather than what the market wants. Avoid it by taking an external view.
• Sloth, where innovation efforts slow to a crawl. Avoid it by turning innovation from an academic to an active activity.
• Gluttony, where too many resources ironically inhibit successful innovation efforts. Avoid it by limiting resources in the early stage of innovation to force hard choices and spur creativity.
• Lust, where innovators get distracted by “bright, shiny objects.” Avoid it by carefully choosing the opportunities to pursue and by eschewing the rest.
• Wrath, where even smart risk-takers face severe punishment. Avoid it by recognizing that failure is part of innovation and rewarding behaviors that support innovation.
• Greed, where the lure of quick growth leads innovators to target mature markets populated by powerful incumbents. Avoid it by being patient for growth and focusing on creating new markets.
• Envy, where bad relations between the core business and new growth efforts poison innovation. Avoid it by celebrating both the core business and innovation efforts.

The undertaking is co-sponsored by the Villanova University Partnership with CRS, the Villanova University and Seton Hall University athletic departments, and the Villanova University Center for Peace and Justice Education. The event is one of a series of University-wide efforts at Villanova in 2011-12 addressing the situation in Sudan and South Sudan.

When the Villanova University men’s basketball team takes on Seton Hall University on Jan. 18 at The Pavilion (7 p.m.), the teams will be playing for more than just a victory. Villanova and Seton Hall will join forces with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in “Playing for Peace.” The Playing for Peace initiative, “Stay with Sudan: Build a Future,” aims to harness the power of college athletics, in order to shine a light on the Sudanese people who remain at risk of violence, hunger, displacement and human suffering.

As part of this initiative, CRS will provide the coaching staff of both teams with special Playing for Peace ribbons to wear during the game. Villanova and Seton Hall have also designed shooting shirts for players to wear during pre-game warm-ups and halftime.

CRS student ambassadors will greet fans as they enter the arena to distribute half-page fact sheets with information about “Playing for Peace,” and instructions for an important legislative ask. A halftime ceremony featuring remarks from the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, Villanova University President, will further shine a light on the importance of “Staying with Sudan.”

Villanova alumnus and Sudanese “Lost Boy” Malual Deng-Duot ’11, as well as other Lost Boys living locally in Philadelphia, will be in attendance for the event.

“The Playing for Peace initiative is unique in that it unites the justice-oriented mission of Villanova University with its community passion for basketball.” – Dr. Jennifer Joyce Kissko Villanova Center for Peace and Justice Education

“By concentrating the game on an important and timely global issue of peace, it enables the Villanova community to come together and reflect on how athletics, as sport, can also serve as a vehicle for justice – offering a distinctive opportunity to educate, advocate, pray and play in pursuit of peace for greater humanity,” added Kissko, principal organizer for the event.

In anticipation of the 2011 Sudanese referendum vote, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and CRS launched the Campaign for Peace in Sudan initiative to raise awareness, advocacy and prayers for the people of Sudan. The Villanova University community actively participated in the campaign. Despite a peaceful vote that resulted in South Sudan seceding to become the world’s newest nation, peace and stability in all of Sudan remain at a critical juncture. Political tensions and allegations of attacks on civilians are occurring in the disputed border areas daily.

“CRS sees the shared Catholic mission of Villanova University and Seton Hall University, which educates their students to become global citizens committed to a peaceful world, as an opportunity to use the power of their voice and their resources to advocate for and give continued support to peace in Sudan.”  - Joan Rosenhauer Executive Vice President U.S. Operations Catholic Relief Services

By utilizing lamp-free illumination, such as LEDs and lasers, versus traditional bulbs, the projectors can offer high quality imaging and enough brightness (approximately 2000 lumens each) to light up today’s classroom spaces, while increasing the lifespan of the projectors and reducing long-term maintenance costs.

These new models join exiting solid state illumination projector models from Casio to incorporate other in-demand features, such as 3D-Ready capabilities, connectivity and interactivity to best fit current as well as future teaching demands. These and other products will be available for demonstration at the TI stand, J30, at the Olympia in London throughout the week.

By dispensing with the most expensive part of projector ownership – lamp replacement – these latest models, like all lamp-free projectors with DLP technology, allow for a lengthy 10,000-plus hours of operation with practically no loss of light output, which enables teachers and their schools’ technology administrators to not worry about operational downtime.

“In the current economic climate, budget cutting remains a key priority for the public sector. Consequently, schools are finding themselves under increasing pressure to deliver stronger long-term results with fewer associated costs.”  - Roger Carver Manager Front Projection DLP Products

Beyond larger-scale models that are best suited for the full-sized classroom, the benefits of lamp-free projection can also be found in every DLP Pico(TM)-based projector currently available. Typically small enough to easily fit in a backpack or laptop bag, there are now more than 30 products with DLP Pico technology inside, ranging from iDevice, laptop and mobile phone/tablet accessories and docks, to Wi-Fi/Bluetooth-ready standalone units, multimedia players and even cameras, camcorders and mobile phones. With extreme portability, instant on capabilities and multimedia features, these products available from brands like Acer, Asus, Dell, LG, NEC, ViewSonic, Vivitek and others can take small group collaboration and learning to new levels.

In addition to being lamp-free, the new BenQ and Optoma are also part of the extensive group of DLP projectors that are 3D-Ready. Though widely known for its use in today’s movie theatres, video games and elsewhere, 3D can also have a notable positive impact on pupils’ potential at school. Recently, Professor Anne Bamford, Director of the International Research Agency, released findings from the LiFE research project, which aimed to measure the value and impact of 3D experiences on pupil learning and achievement, and determine the most effective types of 3D experiences.

Aside from product demonstrations of the latest lamp-free projection solutions during BETT, TI DLP will also be further showcasing the complete results from the LiFE study. Professor Anne Bamford, along with Kathryn Macaulay, whose school in Reading was among those that took part in the study, will be presenting their findings and insights during two separate seminars at BETT:

In its analysis, Glass Lewis notes that shareholder return and operating performance have compared reasonably or favorably with that of its peers in recent years and that the board appears to us to be making an earnest attempt to maximize shareholder value and resolve the proxy fight.

Commenting on the business plan put forward by Ned Sherwood, Glass Lewis commented that the Dissidents’ plan if fully implemented, could potentially leave the Company with a dangerously weakened working capital position that the Dissidents have not been adequately addressed.

Glass Lewis additionally expressed their concerns in agreement with those raised by the incumbent Board regarding one of Mr. Sherwood’s nominees, Derek Feng, stating that “We are inclined to believe that a potential conflict of interest could exist should Mr. Feng be appointed to the Company’s board.”

The Company issued the following statement regarding the Glass Lewis recommendation:

“ChinaCast Education is pleased that this leading independent proxy advisory firm recognizes the value that has been created by the current Board and the potentially damaging impact of Ned Sherwood and Mr. Feng being elected to the board. The Company urges shareholders to vote the BLUE proxy card for all proposals, including the board’s nominees.”

Any shareholders with questions or that require assistance in voting their shares should contact the Company’s proxy solicitors, MacKenzie Partners, toll free at 1-800-322-2885, or Advantage Proxy, toll-free at 1-877-870-8565.

Full Sail University has incorporated Tour-Smart, by Martin Atkins, into its curriculum.

Martin Atkins is an instructor in the Entertainment & Media Business (EMB) program at Madison Media Institute.

He leads courses on Touring, Advanced Entrepreneurship, Artist and Event Management, and Online Marketing.

Atkins wrote his book Tour:Smart in 2007 and has since spoken around the world at major industry conferences, recognized universities, and nonprofit organizations.

“I’ve been down to Full Sail a few times to guest lecture and that place is amazing,” said Martin Atkins. “It’s great and humbling to think that they’re using my book to infect more brains down there in Florida while I’m up here in Madison doing the same thing in person,” he said.

At Madison Media Institute, students can earn their Academic Associates degree, than go on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Entertainment & Media Business.

Students are actively creating their own futures, preparing for careers in a variety of sectors within the entertainment and media industry.

“The great thing about the EMB program is that the disciplines and the mind set are not confined to the music or media businesses, they gain transferable skills – our students can carve out a niche for themselves anywhere!” said Atkins.

“We’re thrilled that students at Full Sail will have access to the insight and advice that Martin provides in Tour:Smart. Our students at MMI have established connections and relationships through Martin that have proved invaluable in their career search, we’re honored to have him as a member of our faculty.” -  Rich Denhart Entertainment & Media Business Department Chair Madison Media Institute.

Kiewit Building Group received a 2011 Build Nebraska Award from the Associated General Contractors for its successful execution in constructing UNO’s Mammel Hall. (Photo: Business Wire)

The construction of University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Mammel Hall won the
company the 2011 Build Nebraska Award for projects greater than $ 15
million. KBG’s construction of the Blue Cross Center in Omaha received
honorable mention. The awards are especially meaningful to the Kiewit
people responsible for delivering outstanding building results.

“Build Nebraska award winners are selected based on a project’s
complexity, innovation, coordination with partners and contribution to
the community.” – Ron Duce KBG senior vice president

“While this award was quite an honor, the most important part of this program is the
fact that it contributes directly to the AGC – Nebraska Building Chapter
scholarship fund,” he stated.

Mammel Hall is a 120,000-square-foot Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified building, home to UNO’s
College of Business Administration. Among its features include 21
classrooms that can accommodate up to 60 students, six conference rooms,
faculty offices and a cafe. The project, Duce said, was a success in all
areas – safety, quality and environmental. The building was also on
budget and opened a month ahead of schedule.

“In today’s construction and design industry, it is a siginificant win
when a team comes together to meet or exceed all of a building project’s
goals,” Duce said.

“The success of this project was fundamentally based
on a strong partnership between the client, architect and Kiewit,
focusing on communication, superior service and aligned agendas,” he added.

The Build Nebraska Awards honor AGC members who build Nebraska’s most
impressive construction projects.

In the words of AGC Nebraska Building
Chapter Executive Director Jean Petsch, “these projects, with their
vision, scope and grandeur literally dare to challenge, dare to change.
The 2011 Build Nebraska Award winners have demonstrated the very best
when it comes to building a better Nebraska and improving our quality of
life.”

This represents a 13 percent increase over the 153 officers killed in 2010 and an alarming 42 percent spike when compared to the 122 officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2009. The primary cause of death in 2011 was gunfire, which claimed the lives of 68 officers and nearly matched the decade-long high of 69 firearms-related deaths in 2007.

For the past 13 years in a row, traffic-related incidents had been the primary cause of law enforcement fatalities. In 2011, though, the number of officers killed on the roadway dropped by 10 percent.

There were 64 traffic-related deaths among officers in 2011, which matched 2005 for the second-lowest total in the past 15 years. Of that total, 44 died in automobile crashes, 11 were struck and killed while outside of their vehicles, seven died in motorcycle crashes and two were killed when their car was struck by a train.

“Drastic budget cuts affecting law enforcement agencies across the country have put our officers at grave risk.” –  Chairman Craig W. Floyd NLEOMF

“At a time when officers are facing a more cold-blooded criminal element and fighting a war on terror, we are cutting vital resources necessary to ensure their safety and the safety of the innocent citizens they protect,” he said.

Floyd also noted that the NLEOMF is partnering with the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, among others, on a number of law enforcement safety initiatives to combat this growing problem.

He cited a recent survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police that found 60 percent of responding law enforcement agencies had cut back on training, 64 percent had cut back on buying or upgrading major equipment, and 58 percent had cut back on buying or upgrading technology.

In addition to the officers killed by firearms or traffic-related incidents, 27 officers died as a result of job-related illnesses, four died as a result of falls, two drowned and two were stabbed. One officer died due to each of the following causes: aircraft accident; beating; bomb-related incident; struck by a falling object; electrocution; and strangulation.

During the past year, more officers were killed in Florida, 14, than in any other state; followed by Texas with 13; New York with 11; and California and Georgia with 10 each. Ten of the officers killed nationwide in 2011 served with federal law enforcement agencies. Seven of the officers who died during the past year served with correctional agencies. Eleven of the 173 fatalities were women. On average, the officers who died in 2011 were 41 years old and had served for 13 years.

The preliminary 2011 law enforcement fatality report was released by the NLEOMF in conjunction with Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.), a non-profit organization that provides critical assistance to the surviving family members and loved ones of officers killed in the line of duty.

“The hard fact is that for the first time in 2011, more officers were killed in firearms-related incidents than traffic-related incidents.” – Linda Moon Gregory National President Concerns of Police Survivors

The statistics released by the NLEOMF and C.O.P.S. are based on preliminary data compiled and do not represent a final or complete list of individual officers who will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in 2011.