News Corp has acquired a 90% share of the ed-tech company Wireless Generation for $360 million. The move comes shortly after News Corps hired former NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and leads to further speculation that Rupert Murdoch is interested in the education technnology space. "Education of children aged five through 18 is a '500-billion-dollar sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching,' said Murdoch in a statement about the acquisition .Be afraid. Be very very afraid.

The Opencourseware Consortium is accepting nominations for its Opencourseware Excellence Awards. For more information, visit its website.

Google's Code-In contest is open for submissions. The contest is aimed at students age 13-18 and encourages them to code. Read my ReadWriteWeb story for more details.

While I love e-books, I have a lot of qualms about the ways in which DRM restrictions work, particularly when it comes to sharing books. (My distaste of DRM aside,) The Bluefire Reader may provide a solution as it works with Adobe Digital Editions to make sure that readers are authorized to access the materials. And the app works with libraries that offer e-books for check out. You can find more information in my RWW story here.

The National Association of College Stores has released its latest report on college students, e-books, and e-readers. Among the findings, 13% of college students have bought an e-book within the last 3 months. 60% of these were for books that were required course material. (Honestly, I can't believe that 40% of college students read for leisure. That makes me incredibly happy.)