Quick teaching topic: The tactics and cost of the US telecommunication cartel

For a quick summary of the Cartel's tactics and their cost to the nation, listen to Brooke Gladstone's six minute interview of David Johnston.

Johnston is the author of the book "The Fine Print: How big companies use plain English to rob you blind" and Gladstone is co-host of OnTheMedia, an award winning NPR podcast covering the Internet and other media.

I use this podcast for classroom discussion of telecommunication policy (within the US and in other nations) and alternative ways to finance telecommunication infrastructure. For more on the excesses of the telecommunication cartel, see these posts.

Quick teaching topic: Syria taken off the Internet

I present current events that are relevant to my class each week. This week I created a short PowerPoint presentation on Syria being cut off from the Internet. The presentation can be used for a discussion of topics like citizen journalism, the "dictator's dilemma" and IP packet routing.