OLDaily

The Empathetic School
Carol Ann Tomlinson, Michael Murphy, ASCD Express, 2018/03/09

Strictly speaking, 'empathy' is the capacity to feel what someone else is feeling. That's not how it is used here. The authors write, " An empathetic school asks everyone in it—teachers, leaders, staff, and students—to diminish some of their self-focus and respond in a fuller and more informed way to those around them." Expressed more fully, this means countering "'the deeply flawed belief' - often exhibited in the way we do school - 'that teachers and students are interchangeable parts, rather than thoughtful, unique, caring, experienced, and often passionate human beings.'" The article points to an ethical dimension to education. But it's not clear here whether education is at its core an ethical activity, or whether education is some other sort of activity (growing, playing, doing, whatever) that is informed by ethics.

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Who spreads fake news? On Twitter, humans are more likely culprits than bots, new study suggests
Matthew Braga, CBC News, 2018/03/09

Reports of this study on the spread of fake news are all over the media today. There are several major threads (and it's interesting to see which news outlet points to which). First, humans, rather than robots, are the ones that really spready fake news. Second, fake news spreads much more quickly than real news. Third, it reaches more people than real news. Why? " We found that false news was more novel than true news, which suggests that people were more likely to share novel information. Whereas false stories inspired fear, disgust, and surprise in replies, true stories inspired anticipation, sadness, joy, and trust." More: New Scientist, Vox, Gizmodo, The Atlantic, USA Today, BBC, Reuters.

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How Canadian student newspapers are going digital
Audrey Carleton, J-Source, 2018/03/09

As a long-time former denizen of the student newspaper office I'm still interested in what they're up to, and these days (for the last few years, actually) they're moving to digital. It only makes sense. " Despite the historical legacy that comes with printing a newspaper, the fact remains that students, like most audiences, consume news differently than they did years ago, and it’s up to campus publications to meet these demands." Ah - but it was so exciting, and terrifying, to publish in print for the first time.

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