Lyft Settles With Justice Department Over Disability Lawsuit

Lyft has settled with the Justice Department in a lawsuit alleging the company discriminated against customers with disabilities. Engadget reports: Now, drivers will be required to help fold and stow wheelchairs and walkers for customers. The rideshare company has also been ordered to educate its drivers as well as pay complainants and a $40,000 civil penalty. Lyft will pay various amounts…

Moon sweeps through Leo July 25 and 26

Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion.  The moon can help you find it at nigtfall June 24 and 25, 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-pairs-up-with-royal-star-regulus…

Education and Coronavirus: Lessons From Emergency Remote Teaching

By Matthew Rascoff In recent months, almost every university in the world has shifted to emergency remote teaching—a kind of “first aid” for higher education in a pandemic. When the Chinese government closed all higher education institutions in early February, Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in Kunshan, China, was among the first universities to make this […]
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Robinhood Changes Trading App After 20-Year-Old’s Suicide

CNBC reports on the odd circumstances around the suicide of 20-year-old college student options trader Alex Kearns:
It was less than 24 hours after Alex had checked his account at the wildly popular trading app, Robinhood. In his note, he said he thought he had quickly racked up a negative $730,165 cash balance. But Alex may have misunderstood the Robinhood financial statement,…

MIT Ends Elsevier Negotiations

New submitter gam shares an announcement from MIT: Standing by its commitment to provide equitable and open access to scholarship, MIT has ended negotiations with Elsevier for a new journals contract. Elsevier was not able to present a proposal that aligned with the principles of the MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts. Developed by the MIT Libraries in collaboration with the Ad…

Announcing Guided Projects: Gain Job-Relevant Skills with Short, Hands-On Learning Experiences

By Namit Yadav, General Manager, Rhyme In our research interviews, we find that learners consistently share their desire to work on projects that will demonstrate to employers their ability to apply a skill, or use a tool like Google Sheets, Python, or TensorFlow. In addition, educational psychology research shows that projects help students learn how […]
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College Tests Called Unfair To Homebound, Tech-Poor Students

A group of high school students sued the College Entrance Examination Board claiming its advanced placement tests are unfair to teens trapped at home by the coronavirus pandemic without adequate computers or internet connections. From a report: The board, which offers college-level curriculum for courses and exams to high school students, and Educational Testing Services, which administers the advanced placement exams,…

Connecting With Global Learners: Meet May

May, a pharmacist from Florida, recently tried an online class through edX for the first time. One of the most surprising and exciting parts of her experience was connecting with fellow learners around the globe. “It was an amazing experience to learn alongside students from all over the world. The silver lining in COVID-19,” May said. Read on to learn more…

Over 500,000 Zoom Accounts Sold On Hacker Forums, the Dark Web

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bleeping Computer: Over 500,000 Zoom accounts are being sold on the dark web and hacker forums for less than a penny each, and in some cases, given away for free. These credentials are gathered through credential stuffing attacks where threat actors attempt to login to Zoom using accounts leaked in older data breaches. The…

The ACM Digital Library Is Now Open Access During Coronavirus Pandemic

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has made the ACM Digital Library open access to help support the computing community during the coronavirus pandemic. Founded in 1947, the ACM is the world’s largest scientific and educational computing society and publishes over 50 journals, including the prestigious Journal of the ACM, and two general magazines for computer professionals, Communications of the ACM…