Large social media companies should have to proactively remove harmful content from their platforms, undergo regular “risk assessments” and face hefty fines if they don’t comply, according to an independent review of online safety laws in Australia. The federal government has today released the final report of the review conducted by experienced public servant Delia Rickard, more than […] … learn more→

Teachers at a school in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, are planning industrial action – not over pay but the behaviour of their pupils. It’s not the first time school staff in Scotland have taken this step. Teachers at a school in Glasgow took strike action in 2022 over “violent and abusive” pupil behaviour. A 2024 survey of staff in Aberdeen found that […] … learn more→

We live in a golden age for space exploration. Scientists are gathering massive amounts of new information and scientific evidence at a record pace. Yet the age-old question remains unanswered: are we alone? New telescope technologies, including space-based tools such as the James Webb Telescope, have enabled us to discover thousands of potentially habitable exoplanets that […] … learn more→

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether Oklahoma can open St. Isidore: an online Roman Catholic charter school named after the patron saint of the internet. If affirmed, the school would be the nation’s first faith-based charter – a sea change in education law, expanding the boundaries of government aid to faith-based schools. On Jan. 24, 2025, the justices […] … learn more→

Although geography is often seen by middle and high school students as an ancillary subject to history, it is just as much a part of their civic education and is also marked by ideological discourses. The “national novel” constructed by school history is the subject of lively debates that contrast with the deafening silence surrounding geography programs. […] … learn more→

The higher education sector continues to grapple with the advent of generative artificial intelligence (genAI), with much of the concern focused on ethical issues around student misconduct. GenAI models such as ChatGPT offer students untraceable and economic means of churning out answers and term papers on any given subject. For many instructors, this means traditional forms of […] … learn more→

I am currently working on a second edition of one of my co-authored writing books, Writing for peer reviewed journals. Strategies for getting published. The book was published in 2013 and written in 2012. A lot has changed in the publishing world since then. My co-author Barbara and I now have to decide how to address: […] … learn more→

Many of us have witnessed unusual and even anti-social behaviour at an airport or on a flight. These may range from benign acts such as sleeping on the floor or doing yoga in front of the flight information display system to serious incidents like early morning drunken arguments or even trying to open the aeroplane doors mid-flight. These more […] … learn more→

Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research. These paper mills are profiting by undermining the literature that everyone from doctors to engineers rely on to make decisions about human lives. It is exceedingly difficult to get a handle on exactly how big the […] … learn more→