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Doctor Offices In Wisconsin Step In To Help Register Voters

Maayan Silver

October 14, 2020 |

NPR |

Podcast |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

VotERdoctors partners with doctors, clinics, community centers, and hospitals to register voters. Staff can wear badges with a QR code that patients can scan with their cellphone, which takes them to a webpage that offers information about how to register to vote, including a live help line if the patient gets stuck. Some facilities, such as Progressive Community Health Centers in Milwaukee, send monthly text messages to their patients to remind them to register. VotER is being used by more than 300 U.S. hospitals and about 40,000 patients have gotten help registering or requesting ballots.

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With unemployment hotline overloaded and stimulus on hold, PA boosts chatbot 90x

Layla A. Jones

October 13, 2020 |

Billy Penn |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Accessing information about unemployment compensation online just got easier for residents of Pennsylvania. The current chat box capacity is 500 but will be increased to 50,000 by the end of the year. The phone hotline currently receives about 20,000 daily calls and has been difficult to get through since the unemployment benefits began in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown. The website also features a virtual assistant, which answers hundreds of commonly asked questions.

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This game can stop people from falling for COVID-19 conspiracies

Ruth Reader

October 13, 2020 |

FastCompany |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, Cambridge, England

To combat the spread of conspiracy theories, researchers at Cambridge’s Social Decision Making Lab have created an interactive game that puts users in the shoes of "manipulators" to teach them how to "question social media posts that have the hallmarks of engineered virality." Although experts say playing the game just one time will likely not result in sustainable change, a similar game that focused on understanding how fake news was created found that users' beliefs in fake news decreased by an average of 21%.

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How will Lithuania's contact-tracing app work?

Giedrius Vitkauskas

October 13, 2020 |

Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Lithuania

Lithuanian officials are launching a contact-tracing app to better trace the path of coronavirus cases and alert people when they have potentially been exposed. Although there have been delays in the roll-out of the app, other countries have already released the technology and have seen success in people downloading the app as well as quarantining when alerted that they've been in contact with the virus.

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How one state is sending thousands of WiFi hotspots to keep students in school

Anne Maxwell

October 12, 2020 |

WSPA-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Travelers Rest, South Carolina

In South Carolina, 180,000 households don’t have access to Wifi, according to estimates. A problem for students who are trying to attend virtual classes. Using CARES funds, the state purchased hotspots. In one county, almost all of the students are connected. “The hotspots are working well, with just about all of the county’s 77,000 students logging on to learn.”

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How one school district is closing the equity gap with a school bus and a card table

Laney Valian

October 12, 2020 |

KXAN-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Hutto, Texas

While virtual learning can work for some, for special education students, many services and lessons get lost. “When it comes to those occupational needs and those speech needs, they’re not getting those services met because they’re not in school.” In Texas, one school district is using a bus to provide curbside education to special education students. A teacher, a table, and materials are all inside the bus. Once inside, students receive lessons from specialists. “As soon as Arwyn got on the bus the first time, she was super excited to see her teachers, to see her occupational therapist."

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‘Smart Buses' roll WiFi to students without access

Lex Gray

October 12, 2020 |

WAVY-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Virginia

In order to bridge the digital divide one school district in Virginia is putting Wi-Fi routers on its school buses. They call them Smart Buses. They buses drive out to neighborhoods where students don't have access to fast, reliable internet. “Four of the Smart Buses go out every day. Each can serve about 40 students, covering about three-quarters of the need in the district.”

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Old learning concept can help students without resources learn online amid the pandemic

Lori Jane Gliha

October 12, 2020 |

KDVR-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

In Denver, learning pods are helping students access virtual classes during a pandemic. At the Adams 12 school district, 4000 students, district-wide, participate in the pod. Similarly, HOPE Online Learning Academy Co-Op launched a learning center. Students can sit in a classroom, access Wi-Fi, and count on the support of an adult. They also distributed 600 computers, 400 webcams from PCs, and 1,077 laptops to enrolled middle and high school students.

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How a #Litterati army on Instagram sparked a global fight against litter

Michael J. Coren

October 12, 2020 |

Hothouse Solutions |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

What started as a small group of people taking pictures of waste in their communities and tagging it on Instagram with the hashtag #Litterati, turned into a global effort, and even an app, to map and dispose of trash. Users can upload to the app an image of trash and machine-learning algorithm can tag it location, material, and company who made it. The city of San Francisco asked the makers of the app for help documenting cigarette butts and tobacco products on its streets and ended up winning a legal victory over the tobacco industry to increase the taxes on their products.

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How Nigerians coped with mental stress during COVID-19 lockdown

Ifedayo Ogunyemi

October 10, 2020 |

Nigerian Tribune |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria

Funding from a professional coaching, therapy, and counseling academy has helped a certified life coach and non-clinical psychotherapist offer free sessions to people in Nigeria who are struggling to cope with setbacks brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program, which utilizes video calls and WhatsApp messaging, has broadened access for those who may not be able to seek help due to financial constraints.

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