Monday, October 15, 2001

Kids Domain continues to update their various holiday pages. Their Halloween Fun section includes downloadable applications, coloring pages, party and costume ideas, and lots more. Kids Domain is always a great source for elementary teachers looking for holiday activities and ideas.

Erik J. Barzeski has released version 1.1 of iChem. iChem 1.1 (237K) is a $5 shareware periodic table for Mac OS X.

Matthew Monroe has updated his freeware Molecular Weight Calculator for Windows to version 6.0.4. The full download of the program (1.8 MB) "contains a Windows Installer MSI file to install and register each of the required files." The MWC home page also has smaller download links for those who only need the application.

The Washington Post's Michael A. Fletcher reports that on Friday President Bush "personally urged leaders of a congressional conference committee to complete work on his education reform plan, saying the legislation is vital not only to the nation's schools but also to demonstrate that his domestic agenda will not be halted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." In Bush Lobbies For Education Bill's Passage, Fletcher also summarizes: "The Bush plan would require students to take reading and mathematics tests in Grades 3 to 8, with both students and educators held accountable for the results."

In part of the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, President Bush has created a 25-member commission "to give him ideas for improving academic achievement by Latin Americans." The commission is to report back its results by March, 2003.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune Friday carried the Associated Press report, Study: More than 600 unaccompanied youth homeless on on a given night. The article references a report from the Wilder Research Center as saying:

The average interviewee was a 15-year-old who began living on his or her own at age 13. Seventy-one percent had been homeless for at least a month. About one-fourth of them had not had a "regular" place to live for more than a year.

The full report is available online in PDF format (200K).

The Salt Lake Tribune has published an editorial urging Utah legislators to Help Mentally Ill Kids. The editorial states:

Keeping families together by picking up the psychiatric tab would serve Utah better -- not to mention be less expensive -- than adding mentally ill children to an already overburdened foster care system and paying to treat them there.

Apparently not a moment too soon, Yahoo and Reuters report, "Lawmakers Tell Bush They Close to Education Deal."
Each time I post a "blooper" of some sort here on Educators" News, I seem to invariably commit one myself. So, here's your "pre-apology" for whatever mistake has slipped through the spell checker.

The Los Angeles Times reports, Intended to Unite, Displays of Patriotism Divide Some Schools. Times staff writer Stephanie Simon writes, "Rather than drawing all Americans together, the patriotism campaign has proved divisive." Simon notes Friday's Simultaneous Nationwide Pledge of Allegiance and things such as a McCarthy-era "1949 law declaring that every school has a duty to 'arrange its curriculum in such a way that the love of liberty, justice, democracy and America will be instilled in the hearts and minds of the youth,'" might not serve the best interests of education in America. She quotes Nebraska school board member Steven Scherr as saying, "I hope the good sense of teachers in the classroom will temper whatever jingoistic attitudes there are."

The Dallas Morning News got in its two cents worth Friday with an education bashing editorial, When did schools drop patriotism?

In a move sure to improve student test scores, the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday that it "will launch its redesigned website the week of October 15." In other DOE news, the Department last Wednesday (How did I miss that?) posted a schedule of "a series of public meetings with special education experts, educators, parents and advocates...to gather information on the current status and needs of special education across the country in connection with the upcoming reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)." Since the nearest forum for me is farther away than my nearest Apple Store (a long way), I dropped by the Council for Exceptional Children site last week and renewed my membership.

Having now set the mood for the rest of today's posting, The New York Times' Robert Lipsyte offers an entertaining satirical piece in Big-Time College Sports Need Stock Car Racing (free registration required). Mr. Lipsyte has a good time in this column with lines like:

• College sports, their costs rising and their transgressions becoming less forgivable, will be able to further commercialize without losing control of their tenuous affiliation with higher education.
• Someday, when the beer gods are smiling, someone who looks like Britney Spears will cry, "Student-athletes, start your engines!" and the first season of intercollegiate Nascar will roar to life.
• Imagine, I thought later...watching a Big Ten stock car race, or in the pits watching a coed crew change tires, or in the garage watching science majors rebuild an engine. After that, they would surely wring millions out of state legislators, maybe enough for a few library books, too.
• Intercollegiate Nascar, afloat on a river of beer, will be a model merger.

The Boston Globe's staff writer, Patrick Healy, began a two part series on Harvard's quiet secret: rampant grade inflation last week (alternate link -- the Globe charges for anything over about a week old). Part two has yet to surface. Maybe the Harvard crowd have abductd Mr. Healy!

Thermos Bottle Barometer appears today as my latest View from the Classroom column. I've just about given up on writing about cool, educational technology, as my attention continues to be rivited on the travesty currently called educational reform being perpetrated in Washington, D.C..

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Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Laura Pappano, writing for the Boston Globe, tells of rampant teacher poaching (stealing, not cooking) in Massachusetts in Competition to hire teachers raises ethics issue. Pappano writes:

As competition for teachers escalates and the supply dwindles, administrators are raiding each other's classrooms - even as they fret over the ethics of such a practice. Some try to work out amiable terms of departure, but in many cases the poaching is testing tempers and rankling relationships.

The teacher poaching phenomena hasn't yet spread to southwest central Indiana as yet (Darn!), but we also still have a statute on the books that could cause a teacher to lose their license for jumping ship midyear for another instate school corporation. While I'm sure the ACLU might love to test such a law, I wouldn't want to be the test case myself.

The Schwab site continues their update of the Assistive Technology Guide this week with more updates to the High Tech Writing Tools section: Proofreading Programs; Outlining; Graphic Organizers; and Speech Recognition. The AT guide update began a few weeks ago with an excellent column on low tech assistive technology.

Schwab Learning Director Richard D. Lavoie shares some appropriate proverbs in Thoughts from the Road: Syracuse and Kalamazoo.

Other highlights from The SchwabLearning.org this week include:

• Priscilla L. Vail on Emotion: The On/Off Switch for Learning
• Holidays! Helping Kids with AD/HD Behave
• Prereferral: The First Step in Addressing Your Child's Learning Needs

Mike VanHorn sent me a nice email yesterday to tell me about his web site, I Use Microsoft Works. Mike wrote:

I run a web site devoted to Microsoft Works, Microsoft's often neglected suite of applications, which many educators use...I try to cover all versions of Works that Microsoft doesn't, including...Macintosh (mine is the only web site I know of that deals with Works for the Macintosh).

I used to use Works 4.0 until I switched to a Power Mac. I remember that I liked some parts of it, but it was just too much hassle to stay with an unsupported product. Maybe Mike's site can help others who are still using Works.

Dean Galloway also sent along a nice email about his site, Desktop Pictures. "All the pictures on our site are by me or my wife, and we've put together a guide to other similar sites. Hope you like it!"

Our Union Dues at Work

There's a new link on the National Education Association site to NEA's Patriot Packet. The pointer page has the following description:

The NEA has compiled a number of resources that can be of assistance to teachers, parents, and others in dealing with the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. As materials become available, they will be added to the site.

Is that "number of resources" zero? Er, maybe we'd better give the folks at NEA a few days... Sure is a pretty background, though.

For Mac fans, the news of the day yesterday was Apple's announcement of improved laptops. Both the iBook and TiBook get speed increases (chip and system bus) and larger hard drives. I've updated the Special Report for Educators I began last July to reflect the new features and prices. I also noticed that Apple is now discounting the $799 entry-level iMac to educators for $749.

Friday, October 19, 2001

Jeff Adkins Mac Lab Report for this week, A Teacher Explains Technology Integration, is a really outstanding column about what we should (and maybe shouldn't) be doing with computers in the classroom. Don't be put off by the column title. Jeff tells what he does with computers (the Galileo demo and such) and a lot more about what we shouldn't be doing with our computers:

If the Internet is not the best tool to get the job done, then maybe you need to go to the library. You know, that room with books in it. Computers and the Internet are such a pain to use and maintain -- even Macs (heresy!) -- that it just isn't efficient to use them unless they are the best tool for the job at hand.

Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Martha Woodall tells about Pennsylvania's online charter schools in Education 2.0: Point, click, learn. Ms. Woodall describes one family's use of the Einstein Academy, along with a discussion of the legal battles surrounding online charter schools. It's an interesting read.

Since Apple's "free" OS X 10.1 update hasn't found its way within a hundred miles of my home, I've delayed switching totally over to Apple's "super-modern operating system that combines the power and stability of UNIX with the simplicity and elegance of the Macintosh." While I knew I was just being a bit ornery because of Steve Jobs smoke and mirrors of a free update/upgrade that actually costs $19.95, I also simply haven't felt the ease of use and increased productivity with OS X (any version up to and including 10.0.4) that I see in the Classic OS as compared to working in Windows. In his Low End Mac UK column, OS X: Stability or Usability, Dirk Pilat succinctly states what has only been multiple random misgivings in my mind to this point:

I know that this OS is supposed to be all about stability, but unfortunately usability seemed to have fallen behind. A Mac with OS X is not the computer for the rest of us: It's the Macintosh for people with a good taste in GUI's and a vast experience in Linux, Unix, or BSD.

Dirk concludes, "This OS is going to cost Apple a lot of credibility in the home sector, mark my words." I'd have to add that it will also cost Apple a lot in credibility and sales in the elementary education market as well. I recently wrote in a letter to my principal that also appeared as part of a recent column:

When I sit down to work at a Macintosh computer, the mouse and computer are simply an extension of my wishes and creativity. Just as when one uses a pencil or pen to write, or a hammer to drive a nail, or drives an automobile without consciously considering the workings of the machine or the art of driving, so too should the use of any computer be an effortless extension of ones thoughts and wishes.

 

The Macintosh operating system has long been acknowledged as the leader in ease of use for computer users. In a school setting, this advantage is especially useful. As a teacher, I can direct students to computer tasks with only minimal assistance in how to use the computer.

 

As a teacher, I found the use of a computer, and especially a Mac, to be an absolute lifesaver.

That last statement is simply no longer true if using a Mac necessitates using OS X in its current form.

Matthew Fahrenbac has released Unscrambler 2.0 (319K) for Mac OS X. While Matt's Read Me files states, "There's not a whole lot to this app - just enter a bunch of letters and it will give you a bunch of words :)," just unscrambling words for some dyslexic kids is monumental task. I just wish there were a 68K version of Unscrambler that I could use on my students' take-home Macs.

Marc Moini has updated his excellent Smart Scroll system enhancer for improving scroll bar features and use. Smart Scroll 3.7.2 (147K) is a maintenance release to add support for Mac OS 9.2.1. Marc's Startup Doubler page currently carries the following advisory, "New Mac OS 9.2.1 version will be available in a few days." The current versions of Startup Doubler (2.6) and his Clean Install Assistant (1.5.1) support Macs using systems through 9.1.

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