Archive for July 2-6, 2001

Monday, July 2, 2001

Secretary of Education Rod Paige addressed the National Education Association's Bargaining and Instructional Issues conference in Los Angeles Saturday. Paige told the NEA assembly that there are many good public schools and teachers, but "these exist as islands of excellence in an otherwise sea of average performance."

In NEA's RA (Representative Assembly) Today email newsletter Paige is also quoted as saying:

Some of you will be surprised that a Republican secretary of education should appear before the National Education Association, a teachers' union. Fear not, I come to praise you, not to bury you.

I am heartened about your words about New Unionism. New Unionism is about taking responsibility for the quality of education -- and using our advocacy tools to make things better for our children, our students. Your words tell me that NEA wants to be part of the solution. We share the same goals of wanting to improve public schools.

In a special report to the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, Indiana State University's Robert K. Goidel discusses the expectations for public education, saying:

We believe that virtually every contemporary American problem, issue, or controversy can be resolved with more - or at least a better - education.

ABCNews.com's Carole Simpson offers an interesting commentary in Feds Ready to Talk About Sex about the current controversy surrounding the Surgeon General's release of a new report on sexuality and the White House's response.

Computerworld has two good online articles relating to the Microsoft antitrust case. Frank Hayes in Pyrrhic victory explains the ramifications of the appeals court's recent decision in the Microsoft trial. He states:

The appeals court's decision finally answers the question of whether the courts can tell Microsoft how to design products.
: Short answer: Yes.

In Despite ruling, Microsoft still faces unresolved issues Patrick Thibodeau points out the court's decision gives both the government and Microsoft good reason to reach a settlement to preclude the case going back to a lower court. He also explores the specter of future litigation from the states against Microsoft.

If you're unfamiliar with Computerworld, the publication reminds one most of the old MacWeek print magazine. Often distributed free to some computer professionals, the online version gives multiple daily updates on computers in the business world. While I rarely link to Computerworld on this site, it's one of my daily "news checks."

Time's Chris Taylor analyzes Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's actions in How Judge Jackson Tamed Microsoft. Taylor takes a more charitable view of Microsoft than many writers:

Look at Redmond these days and you'll see a kinder, gentler Microsoft.
: But Microsoft was never an intentional ogre; it was just a company that grew very big, very fast, very aggressively and never had any adults around in the playground to bring it down to size.

Del Miller found a dead possum in his window box and somehow tied it to Microsoft's new operating system in One Dead Opossum. While Del's Difference Engine column has appeared for years on MacOpinion, this column is carried on AppleLinks.

Electronic School's Socket page currently carries and interesting column on Windows XP and Mac OS X, Windows XP and Mac OS X: Will X mark the spot for schools? Columnist Lars Kongshem begins:

If Microsoft and Apple are to be believed, this could be the year when computer crashes are finally expelled from schools. But will the release of Windows XP and Mac OS X herald the end of the three-finger reboot? One can only hope and pray.

Kongshem takes a down-to-earth look at the new operating systems and the promised stability of each in a school environment. He recommends waiting on Windows XP until new machines are purchased and OS X "until third-party software development catches up."

Carl Hess sent along an interesting URL that may save Pennsylvania readers a few dollars. The new Pennsylvania budget includes the Tax-Free PC PLUS Holiday introduced last year. The provision elimnates the state sales tax from August 5-12, 2001, for the sale of a "personal computer (PC), a peripheral device, or an Internet access device to an individual purchaser for nonbusiness use. Also exempt are single-user licensed software and service contracts purchased in the same transaction with a personal computer, a peripheral device, or an Internet access device."

The Macintosh News Network has posted a page of helpful tips provided by Apple's Charlie McCabe for using Apple's Knowledge Base for downloading software.

ScubaRaven's Reef has released a freeware marine clip art (375K) package that might prove useful for either science or elementary teachers. Note that the file is zipped (for Windows users). Mac users may need to manually decompress the archive using StuffIt Expander (2.2 MB).

Possibly brightening a rather mundane Monday EdNews posting, AppleLinks' Senior Editor John H. Farr humorously rambles about RAM chips made from recycled milk cartons, disappearing hard drives, and rich teenage sluts who can't spell in his weekly Grack! column. While obviously not even close to being educationally related, both John and Del Miller's columns illustrate the drought of hard news, new releases, and updates for the Macintosh that occurs shortly before a MacWorld Expo. Both also contribute excellent columns concerning Microsoft's dominance of the market and spam, respectively, that are entertaining while making the authors' points.

The AppleWorks 6.1.2/6.2 updater for Classic and OS X is now available. The combined updater determines if you are running systems 8.1-9.1 or OS X and installs AppleWorks 6.1.2 or 6.2. Oh yeah, you need to have some form of AppleWorks 6 installed for the updater to work. For education customers, either institutions or individuals, the AppleWorks 6 for Education bundle is still a tremendous bargain at $39 postpaid. It includes both the Macintosh and the Windows versions of AppleWorks 6.

This week the SchwabLearning.org again features three new columns for parents and educators:

As a special educator, I appreciate columns such as Kids Who Struggle. We sometimes joke at school that someday the three special ed teachers will be housed in the gym team teaching around 550 students while the regular classroom staff have one child each in their classrooms. Just because a child has difficulty learning at one time or another doesn't necessarily mean they will qualify for special education services. Conversely, and quite important, simply because a child doesn't qualify for special services doesn't mean they don't have problems. One of the greatest challenges for education today is the child who doesn't do well in school but does not qualify for services. Often in the 75-90 IQ range, these kids don't qualify for any special help and frequently fall further and further behind their peers throughout their school years.

MacCentral today describes a site that might prove helpful to educators. NetDayCompass.org provides technology links in the areas of Planning, Infrastructure, Grants & Funding, Classroom Support, and Best Practices & Real Stories.

The Los Angeles Times Sex-Ed Report Pleasantly Surprises Some by Kathleen Kelleher presents the views of some of the experts who were surveyed in the making of new report on sexuality released by Surgeon General David Satcher (see Monday posting).

In Pay lip service to education, and culture goes broke, the Baltimore Sun's Michael Olesker starts out with President Bush's "Is our children learning?" and "How many hands have I shaked?" He goes on with a series of incorrect sentences collected by the chairman of the English department of one of Baltimore's suburban community colleges. My favorite is, "Romeo and Juliet exchanged their vowels." Olesker's point, of course, is that "We have produced a generation of students who handle English as though it were their second language, and a generation of teachers who have let them get away with it."

In the same spirit, the Newport News Daily Press carried History eludes 1 in 5 teens. It tells of a survey commissioned by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation that "reveals that more than one in five American teen-agers don't know from whom their country declared independence during the Revolutionary War." The Daily Press quotes Colin Campbell, president and chairman of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, as saying, "When you look at these numbers, it means that more than 5 million U.S. teen-agers don't understand the true meaning of Independence Day."

And Rodney Dangerfield thinks he doesn't get any respect! Wouldn't you just love to get some of the headline writers, politicians, etc. into the classroom for a week or so:-).

The "software police" may be visiting a business (or school) near you soon! While on the surface it may seem humorous, I can still remember the frenetic scramble to dump pirate software off school hard drives when my school was an Apple Grant School and the folks from Apple were coming for a little visit. CNET reports that the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is conducting a "software truce during July for businesses in several U.S. cities, including New York, Atlanta, Portland, Ore., Kansas City, Mo., and Oklahoma City. With the truce, the BSA said it will refrain from imposing penalties on businesses using software they haven't paid for, if they acquire licenses by July 31." While I'm absolutely certain BSA members, including Apple, Microsoft, Symantec and Adobe, seriously need every licensing buck they can get, their approach reminds me of the "turn in your neighbor" mentality of the old Soviet Union. CNET quotes Bob Kruger, the vice president of enforcement for the alliance, as saying, "I would say to businesses that unless you have no current or former unhappy employees, you are only one phone call away from becoming a target of a BSA investigation."

I always thought BSA stood for the Boy Scouts of America or a troubled, but cool British motorcycle that is no longer made.

For those of us in the United States, tomorrow is our Independence Day celebration. I personally plan to celebrate by sleeping in, rather than doing the daily Educators' News update. Have a happy 4th!

The Detroit Free Press reports that "more than 40,000 teachers have received computers with another 50,000 expecting them by the end of August" as part of Michigan's Teacher Technology Initiative. If you're unfamiliar with the initiative, all public school teachers and many charter school teachers in Michigan were eligible to receive a computer at state expense. Apple's new iBook was one of several computers approved by the state for purchase. Some teachers were able to pool their funds for other technology projects.

NEA President Bob Chase delivered the keynote speech yesterday to the National Education Association Representative Assembly. In his speech he called teachers everyday heroes, who often "are in the business of rescue and redemption." In another development, the NEA Representative Assembly dropped consideration of a controversial resolution "that would encourage schools to develop materials supporting the struggles of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and staff."

Apple officially announced Tuesday that it will "suspend production of the Power Mac™ G4 Cube indefinitely." Many writers have commented that the Cube was a cool concept, but that it just didn't have a market niche.

South Dakota is purchasing 15,000 new Gateways and 1,040 Macs according to the Aberdeen News. Governor Bill Janklow said his goal is to have one computer available per South Dakota student. The current purchase puts them at one computer per 2.3 students.

Apple has voluntarily recalled "certain AC adapters that were sold for use with PowerBook G3 systems shipped from May 1998 until March 2000...The affected AC adapters could overheat, posing a fire hazard." Replacement info is available here. Computerworld also has a column available on the recall.

Tracy Keirns teaches special education in Ohio. Her students painted some Mac SE's as a class project. The results look fabulous! I also thought it was great to see that his kids not only painted the old Macs, but were using them as well.

Gaye Ingram from Ruston, Louisiana, also wrote, telling me of a project she began in 1994 to motivate students in writing. Gaye began a publication featuring "the best writing by southern students in a first-class format." She began with just an LC III and an LC II and absolutely no computer experience. She wrote:

Gaye's email also contained some true gems of advice. Having your work and home computers fairly evenly matched (if you can afford it) and running a similar setup always seems to increase overall productivity. Gaye now works on a G4, but she didn't say whether she had a matching setup at home.

Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, speaks out on the New York Times op-ed page in How to Train and Retain Teachers (requires free registration). Gregorian says, "The public rightly demands quality teaching and accountability but has been unwilling to acknowledge that quality comes with a price...we must change the perception that teaching is a dead-end job."