Dear Commons Community,

Author J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame, took to Twitter yesterday to slam Rupert Murdoch for saying all Muslims “must be held responsible” for extremist violence such as last week’s deadly attack on the headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

On Friday, Murdoch said via Twitter:  “Maybe most Moslems are peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.”

Rowling’s response:

“I was born Christian. If that makes Rupert Murdoch my responsibility, I’ll auto-excommunicate.”

She didn’t stop there. She also pointed out that the faith of her birth had a few flaws of its own and (sarcastically) took responsibility:

“The Spanish Inquisition was my fault, as is all Christian fundamentalist violence. Oh, and Jim Bakker.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

President Obama as part of his State of the Union speech, will propose a Student Data Privacy Act, which would prohibit technology firms from profiting from information collected in schools as teachers adopt tablets, online services and Internet-connected software.  As reported in the New York Times:

“The administration’s student privacy effort comes as schools across the country are adopting digital education products — including math textbooks and online homework portals — that can collect information about a student’s every keystroke. The premise behind the data collection is to customize lessons to the academic needs and learning preferences of each child.

But these data-mining practices have begun to trouble some parents, who say they are concerned that education technology companies could potentially collect — and later share — sensitive details about, for example, a child’s disciplinary record or a family’s financial status.

To alleviate those kinds of concerns, California last summer enacted a comprehensive education privacy law that largely prohibits companies from collecting student information for advertising and marketing. Children’s advocates applauded Mr. Obama’s plans for a similar law.

“You can’t have all this potentially positive use of technology in schools without privacy protection for students, their families and teachers,” said James P. Steyer, the chief executive of Common Sense Media, a children’s advocacy and media ratings group in San Francisco that has worked with Google, Apple, Amazon and other companies that distribute the group’s educational materials.”

The Student Privacy Act is most definitely needed.  However, it must also be stated that it was U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan who pushed state departments of education hard to establish student databases that would be controlled by private companies without any regard for privacy issues.  In addition, we have had examples of unscrupulous companies (i.e., Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation) that provide student database services and software which have also been accused of hacking into phone and voice mail.

Tony