A Ryerson University engineering student punished for his Facebook study group has started a $10-million class-action lawsuit against the Toronto institution.

Chris Avenir faced 147 counts of academic misconduct two years ago for his Facebook group, which let engineering students "discuss/post solutions" to homework problems. The course stipulated that students had to conduct independent work. Mr. Avenir faced expulsion, but a faculty committee ruled he should instead receive a zero for one assignment and a disciplinary note in his file.

A statement of claim filed on Mr. Avenir's behalf says that students enrolled at Ryerson have been denied the right to have a lawyer present at disciplinary hearings. According to the document, the university violated its policy requiring that all hearings comply with the Statutory Powers Procedure Act, which guarantees a right to legal counsel. The

The draft of a new federal plan focuses on improving digital learning at the elementary- and secondary-school level, but it calls for changes in higher education as well.

"Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology," released this month by the Department of Education, is a draft of the National Educational Technology Plan 2010. It calls for an increased role for online learning in kindergarten through 12th grade and says colleges of education must include online learning in their curricula as well.

Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, said students today have grown up with the Internet and are more comfortable with technology, but also have higher expectations for the online learning experience. Ms. Patrick cited Boise State and Michigan State Universities as two institutions whose colleges of education emphasize...

Students at universities in the United States have been pegged as good targets for online criminals, the security company RSA notes in a recent report.

The first month of 2010 marked a new record in the total number of monthly phishing attacks for RSA's Anti-Fraud Command Center, at 18,820, up from 8,497 in January 2009. The center now monitors more than 300 organizations in 140-plus countries. RSA, a division of the information firm EMC, says that it has noticed several attacks focused on servers at American universities so far this year, although no total is given, compared with a "minimal number" of total attacks in 2009.

"This sudden reversal may mark a new trend in phishing and online fraud—and a source for concern within the education sector," the report's authors write.

Scott L. Ksander, chief information security officer at Purdue University, said it's important to note that ...

Librarians spend an average 22 minutes a day reading print publications relating to their job and an average 10 minutes a day reading library-themed blogs, a survey has found.

Primary Research Group surveyed 555 full-time academic librarians in the United States and Canada for the report, released this week.

Librarians who were at least 60 years old spent the most time reading print publications, at 31 minutes a day. Academic librarians 30 or under spent the most time reading library-related blogs, at 19 minutes a day.

James Moses, the company's director of research, said it was interested in monitoring technology use because academic librarians' profession is so information-intensive. "They're sort of the canary in the coal mine for technology in broader society," he said.

The survey also tracked conference expenses, such as the average amount of money spent by librarians on lodging...

The University of California at Los Angeles has restored its streaming video service about two months after temporarily suspending the service amid complaints from an educational-media trade group.

The Association for Information and Media Equipment told UCLA in the fall that the university had violated copyright laws by letting instructors use the videos, some of which were full-length productions. UCLA decided that beginning this semester it would suspend the password-protected video-streaming service, available only to students in specific classes.

UCLA announced Wednesday that it will restart streaming of instructional content. The university hopes material will be back up by the spring quarter, which begins March 29. L. Amy Blum, senior campus counsel for UCLA, says the university wants to take steps to ensure that faculty members explicitly say why they are using the copyrighted...

An associate professor at a Chinese university has been punished after students reported finding an online test, from another college, that matched an open-book exam in his course.

The Shanghai Daily reports that the professor, Wang Hongtao, resigned from his position as deputy dean of Tongji University's department of education and research. He will be ineligible for promotion next semester, the newspaper said.

Mr. Wang taught a course on the theory of socialism and Mao Zedong's philosophy. At the final exam, some students who had brought in a copy of the online test found that the two tests were almost identical. Students later complained to Tongji's test-affairs office and the president.

Mr. Wang admitted to plagiarizing the test on his blog and apologized, the newspaper reports. "I copied the test paper, which was sent to me by another school's teacher, for convenience," he wrote...

A survey of Stanford University undergraduates has found that students love their iPhones, but maybe a little too much.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that a survey of 200 students found that about a third worried about becoming iPhone addicts and more than a third heard concerns that they used their iPhones too much. About 75 percent of those surveyed said owning an iPhone made them happier.

A graduate anthropology class in research methods at Stanford conducted the survey last spring. Tanya Luhrmann, who taught the course, told the Mercury News that one of the most striking things her group found was the way students identified with their iPhones.

"It was not so much with the object itself, but it had so much personal information that it became a kind of extension of the mind and a means to have a social life," Ms. Luhrmann said. "It just kind of captured part of their identity."

A team at Champlain College wants to educate boys about the effects of violence against women. So they are creating a product using two things that appeal to their target audience: soccer and video games.

The university's Emergent Media Center is working on a project with a grant from United Nations Population Fund to design a game for boys between 9 and 13. The project, created with support from the Population Media Center, features soccer matches broken up by narrative sections, with players facing social decisions on and off the field. The game should appear online sometime in March, and the production team will formally debut the game during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Ann DeMarle, the Emergent Media Center's director, said that the group chose soccer because it is a sport popular around the globe -- perfect for a game that the U.N. and Champlain hope will have ...

The U.S. Senate has received a bill that would create scholarships and fellowships for students who agree to conduct research on cybersecurity.

The House of Representatives passed HR 4061, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2009, in a 422-5 vote on February 4. The bill, which has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, would require the National Science Foundation to develop a postdoctoral fellowship program in cybersecurity and information assurance, as well as reauthorize existing funds for students and research centers in the field.

The measure would also create a university-industry task force on cybersecurity research and development.

Other provisions of the bill, sponsored in the House by Daniel Lipinski (D-Illinois) would:

-- Authorize the NSF's cybersecurity scholarship-for-service program, which would offer scholarships to...

Five states have been awarded more than $300-million in grants to expand broadband access at their colleges. The money will be used in part to increase online education.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said on Thursday that the states are among those that will receive grants aimed at improving high-speed access. The five states whose awards specifically include higher education are:

Florida: The North Florida Broadband Authority will use $30.1-million grant, with an additional $9.2-million match by the applicant, to bring high-speed-broadband access to 14 north and central counties considered underserved. A 1,200-mile broadband network will link 300 colleges, libraries, and government agencies, among other entities.

Indiana: Zayo Bandwidth has received a $25.1-million grant, with an additional $10.7-million match by the applicant, to connect 21 Ivy Tech Community College campuses to...