Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

What’s different about the brains of people with autism?

Like a lot of people with autism, Jeff Hudale has a brain that’s really good at some things.

“I have an unusual aptitude for numbers, namely math computations,” he says, NPR reports. Hudale can do triple-digit multiplication in his head. That sort of ability helped him get a degree in engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. But he says his brain struggles with other subjects like literature and philosophy.

“I like working with things that are rather concrete and structured,” he says. “Yeah, I like things with some logic and some rules to it.”…Read More

Med schools fall short on LGBT education

How well are medical schools preparing the next generation of doctors to care for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patients? Not too well, it seems, NPR reports. In a survey of medical school deans in the U.S. and Canada, a group of researchers found that the median number of teaching hours dedicated to LGBT content during an a four-year medical education was just five hours. While the researchers said there was a lot of variation between schools, they noted that five hours as a median was “small.”

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Yale being investigated as ‘hostile sexual environment’

A group of 16 Yale University students and have filed a complaint against the school for failing to eliminate a “hostile sexual environment”, NPR News reports. The complainants, both male and female, say Yale failed them in the school’s handling of sexually-related complaints. They also claim the university has violated a federal law that requires gender equality in all education programs that receive government funding. Guest host Allison Keyes speaks to Russlynn Ali of the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office, which is investigating the allegations…

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Community Colleges: Where’s our $12 billion?

The Obama administration has touted community colleges as the one institution in higher education that can best adapt to the nation’s economic realities and still deliver the education and training Americans so desperately need, reports NPR. During a 2009 speech, President Obama promised $12 billion for community colleges. But they never saw any of that money because the president couldn’t sell his plan to Congress. Now the ongoing cuts in state funding for higher education are so deep that community colleges are struggling to deliver the very services they’ve been praised for…

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The story behind ‘Free Public WiFi’-It’s not

You’ve probably seen it a thousand times and even thought “Hey, why not?” but it never seems to work, says ReadWriteWeb. Don’t worry – you’re not alone – and this weekend NPR ferreted out the story behind the ever present and never functional “Free Public WiFi”. Everywhere you go, there it is…but it isn’t because the government finally started offering ubiquitous WiFi for public use without you knowing. Instead, it’s a bug in Windows XP that started years ago and has spread computer to computer, like a virus. According to wireless security expert Joshua Wright, the bug has been around for about four years now and, although mostly harmless, could provide an entry point for mal-intentioned visitors…

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