Big deals: New programs tackle counterfeiting, support teacher development, and enhance distance learning

George Mason University’s Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) announced its second annual Bring Down Counterfeiting Hackathon. This event awarded $50,000 in prizes last year in a policy-focused competition that attracted over 200 registrants from around the world. This year TraCCC is partnering with the US Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center to challenge teams from U.S. academic institutions, companies, or other affiliations to design and propose novel technical and policy solutions that prevent counterfeit and pirated goods from entering the stream of commerce and reaching the hands of consumers. They are also seeking tools that help recognize the spoofing of official US government websites, trademarks, and other services. The hackathon has announced a grand prize of $20,000 for the best solution presented. Strategy and analytic firm Blue Clarity returns to administer the competition.

This year, challenge organizers are looking for novel technical solutions such as new technology to advance counterfeited product identification devices or advanced algorithms to secure supply chains and identify counterfeit goods. The most desirable solutions should have direct applicability to stated challenges that government agencies like the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and others are actively working to overcome. 

Dr. Louise Shelley, Director of TraCCC at George Mason University explains TraCCC’s commitment to studying and addressing the industry-wide, global challenge of counterfeiting: “Counterfeiting is a crime that affects us all. This hackathon will bring students together with policymakers, academic institutions, domain and private sector experts, and other professionals to raise awareness of the threats and generate powerful new ideas to stop this criminal activity. The results will also be used to inform our ongoing research on counterfeit and other criminal supply chain networks.”…Read More

The best colleges for teachers

New report reveals the best teacher preparation programs

teacher-preparation-programThe National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its 2014 Teacher Prep Review – an annual assessment of the nation’s teacher preparation programs – with what the Council says is a much expanded and more comprehensive evaluation.

The Review uncovers early evidence that teacher preparation programs are beginning to make changes, which the report says arrives at a time of “heightened, unprecedented activity across the nation to improve teacher preparation.”

According to the report:…Read More

Report: Teacher preparation programs an ‘industry of mediocrity’

In a new report that’s already dividing the education community within hours of its release, findings based on eight years of research are supposedly able to rank U.S. teacher preparation programs in colleges and universities. According to the report, the country’s teacher training system is broken, directly affecting “America’s educational decline.”

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) says it went through 10 pilot studies to develop the standards used to rank the 1, 130 teacher preparation institutions that prepare 99 percent of the nation’s traditionally trained new teachers (around 170,000 novice teachers annually).

The reason behind the effort, explains NCTQ was inspired by a study conducted more than a century ago, the Flexner Report of 1910, which evaluated the nation’s medical schools and led to consolidations and upgrades that “transformed the system of training doctors into the world’s best,” states the report.…Read More

Panel: Teacher preparation needs overhaul

Reshaping teacher preparation courses can not only enhance student learning, but also keep the U.S. competitive globally, many experts agree.

Today’s digital-age students are expected not only to communicate effectively, think critically, and collaborate with one another, but also to analyze information while meeting rigorous state and national benchmarks.

To meet these challenges, teacher preparation programs must be reexamined and restructured in order to promote what digital learning consultant Mary Ann Wolf calls “learner-centered education.”…Read More

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