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Other than a minor gradebook update and President Bush patting himself on the back, there's not much educational news to be had today. So that you don't feel you wasted an entire click of the mouse, I'll post some interesting filler I found along the way. eSchool News carries the results of a survey that rates the progress state governments "in adopting and using digital technologies to improve the delivery of services to their citizens, including law enforcement, social services, electronic commerce, digital democracy, and education." South Dakota, Illinois, and Utah shared honors for first place.
There's also lots of free clip art available for use from Kids Domain. Check out their Clip Art Index, Winter Clip Art, and Grace Sylvan's Graphics and Web Development page. Also worth a click is their Olympics links page. Or, you could just go straight to NBCOlympics.com. In the process of cleaning up and updating the Freewares on Educators' News page, which is just a cut and paste of freeware listings from the daily postings, I got carried away and turned it into a column, The Educational Freewares of 2001. If you're a science teacher who uses Mac OS X, I ran across a great page of links to OS X science applications on the Macs in Chemistry site. Speaking of science, while Scienceman Joe Martha's site is on Christmas Break, he left behind evidence of evil things he's been doing to a poor Mac Color Classic! From MacNN, ChemDraw has been updated to support Mac OS X. SciFinder has also been so updated. From the SciFinder subscription PDF (243K):
I'll take two:-).
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The champagne is flat and most of the football games are over, so it must be time to get back to work. Philadelphia School Reform Commission Off to Shaky Start The Philadelphia Daily News carries a disturbing report by Barbara Laker that School Reform Commission interim chairman James Nevels has "announced contracts with 10 outside firms yesterday - many of which have tight political ties." In First order of business - giving it: New schools' chief divvies up contracts, Laker quotes the local NAACP President, J. Whyatt Mondesire, as saying, "This was done as a pay-off to political players. . .They're connected and that's what this is about. It has nothing to do with education." Two $10,000 per month consulting contracts have apparently already been awarded and costed out. If the the services are truly needed, it sounds as if Chairman Nevels has committed a PR faux pas. If not, the chances of the Philadelphia schools having the money necessary to improve, under either public or private control, appear slim. Unfortunately, beyond the unsettling Philadelphia report, there isn't much of anything new on the education scene. Again lacking big education news or software releases, I'll just pretend this is a "regular" computer site for the rest of today's posting. Virus Alerts and Updates If you haven't done so as yet, it's time again to download those monthly virus definition updates. General links to the major antivirus providers are:
A brief but related column I missed last week (but found later on MyAppleMenu) is the New York Times J.D. Biersdorfer's Protecting the Macintosh, a Lesser-Known Victim (free registration required). A Business Wire posting made me think about all the schools reopening in just a few days that may have email boxes filled over Christmas vacation with the destructive new W32.Maldal.D@mm virus or the still circulating W32.Badtrans.B@mm worm. I received another email containing the W32.Badtrans.B@mm worm here at home on Monday! If a school server hasn't been updated to screen out email containing the new W32.Maldal.D@mm virus discovered last Saturday, they could be in for a world of hurt. This Windows Outlook virus "utilizes Outlook to mail everyone in the Outlook address book" and deletes critical files, causing system instability. Another Round of Apple Overhype or the Real Thing?
Whether the first message was an acknowledgment of previous, frequent hype abuses, or the whole campaign is an example of the little boy who cried wolf just hollering louder, it does make one wonder if Apple has something really "new," "revolutionary," and "innovative" up their sleeve this time. If it turns out to just be another round of minor speed bumps presented with Apple CEO Steve Jobs famous "smoke and mirrors," he's going to have a very hard time getting much of an audience in the future from the general press. Various reports of short supplies of iMacs and iBooks abound on the Mac web. Apple is also offering rebates on G4's when bought with an Apple branded display. Such price breaks are often necessary inventory clearing measures so the sales channels aren't clogged with old model inventory when a new introduction or update is made. Beyond that, Apple has to have something more that just a bit more megahertz on each model if it is to have a "big" product announcement next Monday. The long rumored flat panel iMac or an Apple PDA would certainly make a big splash While considered highly unlikely, a G5 announcement and introduction would certainly make my day (if I had the bucks to get one:-(. I'm going to be involved in a laptop grant at my school, so a new iBook with a real keyboard, rather than the plastic thing now used, would be a welcome announcement. With the amount of promotion Apple is putting out for the MacWorld keynote speech, it's probably going to take more than just one introduction for Steve Jobs to maintain some measure of credibility with the press. But with the clues mentioned above, it might just happen! Mileage Programs? Carl Roberts sent along the following email:
I'm not really sure if what Carl is seeking exists out there for the Mac (or Windows). It sounds like the kind of application that might go more with a Palm or other handheld device. If you know of such an application, why not drop both Carl and I an email with the URL. OS X Crash I finally had my first crash under Mac OS X (10.1.2). Actually, crash might not be the correct term, but I ended up with the spinning cursor, unable to even force quit or restart from the finder, necessitating a "three fingered salute" (Command-Option-Programmers/Start key) restart. I had installed the new shareware FruitMenu 1.0 (188K) from Unsanity.com. While FruitMenu shows real promise for folks like me who want an OS X menu that can be customized like the Classic Apple Menu, I uninstalled the shareware, as it currently doesn't support driving down through nested folders beyond 5 levels. Under Classic, both booted from OS 9.2.2 or running under OS X, BeHierarchic allows deep level penetration beyond 5 levels. piDock also does the same job under OS X, but not via the Apple Menu. Anyway, I logged out and back in so I could trash the FruitMenu app and dialed up to the internet to get the screenshot above of the Apple site. Trying to get the whole page on the screen, I changed screen resolutions on the fly, but found that SnapzProX wouldn't work even though it was set to launch at startup. I tried several times before ending up with Explorer displaying the spinning cursor. Snapz didn't even show up in the Force Quit app. Repeated attempts to force quit were unsuccessful. Okay troubleshooters, was it a), FruitMenu; b), the resolution change; c), SnapzProX; d), Explorer (always a good suspect in any crash); d), some combination of the above, or e), pink striped purple gremlins running around on my CPU? I also have DragThing and piDock running in the background. If I were beta testing or in some other way on-the-take from any of the products mentioned above, I'd feel obliged to try to reproduce and accurately document, if not track down, the crash causing culprit. As it is, I'm just content that no serious damage occurred beyond trashing some DragThing preferences.
New and Updated Software MacMuse Software has released Teacher's Toolbox 1.0 (1.1 MB) for Macintosh. The $12 shareware is a utility for teachers and parents that includes 6 modules:
Teacher's Toolbox is another Roger Clary creation. We make pretty heavy use of some of Roger's other applications at school, including SpellTutor, Math Stars, and Math Wizard. Travis East has updated his excellent cross-platform freeware Geometry application to version 2.5.1. While I can do almost all of my figures using the built-in calculator on Macs and Windows, I realize some other folks might need just a tad more horsepower for their calculations. John Manzione has a nice story and review on MacNETv2 about Mathematica 4.1 for OS X. John's review deals just with the Mac version of Mathematica, but the program is available for a wide variety of platforms, including Mac, Windows 95-XP, Linux, several "flavors" of Unix, and even Nextstep. Macworld Speculations Steve Jobs must be ecstatic. Speculation on what new item(s) will be introduced next Monday at Macworld Expo is reaching new heights. Reports include Dual-processor, LCD iMacs, the iWalk or not, a Palm-Apple merger, 1 GHz G4's (or G5's), and iBooks with a real keyboard (snicker). I personally like the Crazy Apple Rumors site's suggestion that Apple will introduce Sexbots next Monday. A Revolt in the Making? Andrew Orlowski writes in The Register How I learned to stop worrying, and abandoned Mac OS X. He states that he's gone back to OS 9 due to the OS X user interface. I found Andrew's comments and quotes quite appropriate, as I too, find the interface of the new Apple operating system to be difficult and considerably less user friendly than the Classic OS. If you're considering upgrading to Mac OS X, or already have and are wondering why you're not enjoying it more, this column is a must read. One of my all-time favorite columnists, Henry Norr, gives his take on what's going to be introduced Monday in his San Francisco Chronicle column, Jobs is all talk before Macworld. Interestingly, Norr adds, "After months of forcing myself to use Mac OS X, I've gone back to Mac OS 9 and Office 2001." Dan Gilmore writes on SiliconValley.com:
As the Apple hype for Macworld Expo reaches its pinnacle, it appears a user revolt is fomenting over Mac OS X! Serious Money Charles W. Moore on Applelinks reports Maine Dept. Of Education Inks Four Year $37.2 million iBook Supply Contract With Apple. This sets into motion Maine Governor Angus King's plan to supply laptop computers for all public school students when they reach grade seven. While many Apple personnel take well-deserved vacations over the holidays, I'm a bit miffed that I haven't heard back from Apple Education. We lost our excellent Apple Ed representative to a promotion this fall. Not having heard from a new rep, I sent her past manager an email on December 19, with the URL for a grant announcement that totaled $100,000. The newspaper column reported:
I had good reason to write to Apple Ed, as I'm the LD teacher for grades K-6 at that school! I was under the impression that Apple was in the business of selling carts of laptops to schools. While I'm not a big fan of the current iBook, it certainly is preferable to 30 PC laptops. Sometime this month the platform wars (selection committee) will begin at school with me as the chief Macintosh proponent--with absolutely no help or communication from Apple Education. I guess Apple Ed considers $100,000 as chump change anymore and not even worth an email response. Update on Chump Change As you might have guessed, my little rant (and a number of strongly worded emails to various Apple sources) about not being contacted by an Apple Ed representative produced some timely responses. One I didn't expect was Jeff Gagne, an EdNews reader and former director of the Claris Solutions Alliance when I was a member, who wrote, "I gotta tell ya, $100K is not chump change! ;-)." Although it wasn't in Jeff's department, he offered to get some contact going. Thanks, Jeff! As it turns out, the Apple Ed representative postion for my school's district is open (need a job?), so the area manager is now serving as our Apple Education contact. Now we can begin to focus on how to get the hardware/software combination that will best serve my students. In Georgia, the Atlanta Journal Constitution's James Salzer reports, Governor slows school reform pace. While Governor Roy Barnes appears to be "backing off this year to give his grand plan to improve schools a chance to work," Salzer reports "teachers say...Barnes wants to avoid further riling educators still upset over his earlier reforms, which some considered an attack on the profession." Previous reform bills included plans for reduced teacher-pupil ratios, an accountability system, and testing that determines teacher bonuses and student promotion. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Ovetta Wiggins covers a new wrinkle in the Philadelphia school takeover by the state of Pennsylvania in Takeover opponents get a boost. A Commonwealth Court Thursday overturned the state law that allowed Pennsylvania to take over control of the Harrisburg schools. While a different law was used in the recent state takeover of the Philadelphia schools, those involved in litigation against the Philadelphia takeover point to similarities in the cases. In the Philadelphia court case now pending before the state's supreme court, both the legality of the takeover law and possible violation of state conflict-of-interest laws by contracting with Edison Schools, Inc. are in dispute. Lawyers allege Edison Schools must be excluded from participating in or profiting from the state takeover as they were one of the consultant groups that recommended the takeover. From the Sacramento Bee, Federal teacher goal is blasted: Congress' mandate that instructors get credentials in 4 years is called unrealistic. Macworld Keynote Viewing Info Steve Jobs keynote speech at Macworld Expo on Monday (9 A.M. PST) can be viewed via QuickTime webcast or satellite. The Grant Since yesterday's posting, I've traded several emails with Apple Education personnel. They're on the job now and trying to see how they can help in presenting the best case possible for using Apple hardware and software in my school and for the grant. The actual grant announcement from the state appears here. As noted yesterday, the grant announcement was also covered in the Terre Haute Tribune Star. Have a great weekend!
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