...dedicated to...hmmm, we're still figuring that one out...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Scienceman Is Back Scienceman.com is again being updated after a haitus in support of stiking Alberta teachers. Joe Martha's great site is filled with an impressive array of great science links for teachers and folks who just like science stuff. Teacher, Can You Spare a Dime? You'll have to scroll down towards the bottom of the Notebook section of the February 25 issue of Time to find Teacher, Can You Spare a Dime? It quotes a QED study as saying, "U.S. elementary school teachers spend more than $1 billion a year of their own money on supplies for their classrooms. The average teacher's personal contribution is a surprising $521 annually." School Vouchers The Christian Science Monitor does a good job of framing the voucher issue in What's 'Choice' in Vouchers? Software Releases and Updates Mom's Calendar has been updated to beta 3.2.5. If you need to create a simple calendar with annotations, this Mac freeware, available in both Carbon (808K) and PPC (646K) versions, makes it easy. RPN Calculator and its companion app, PolyRoot, have both been updated to versions 1.6 and 1.0.6, respectively, by J.M. Baker. Also, Comicsoft has updated the starQuiz shareware and the freeware starQuiz Reader. Best of the Mac Web Survey While it's dated March 3, 2002, Dan Knight's 3rd Best of the Mac Web Survey has been available online since at least Saturday. It really shouldn't matter when you vote, however, as this one is supposed to be fixed as a one-vote-per-reader type of deal. It didn't exactly work out that way the last time around and ended up causing a bunch of hard feelings amongst some Mac webmasters. The results are promised by Friday, March 22. If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please . Kayenta Middle School iBook Project I hadn't heard from Jim Crittenden since January and had wondered what had happened with his iBook project at Kayenta Middle School (AZ). Jim wrote yesterday to say that he's "finally coming up for air after doing most of the pricing, negotiating, ordering, receiving, and configuring of 78 iBooks for our middle school." After all of that, Jim still had the energy to begin posting the Kayenta Middle School iBook Project, a compilation of his experiences in setting up the iBooks and iBook carts. Jim commented:
I'm eagerly anticipating Jim's reports on how the iBooks are used in the classroom. As classroom teachers/college professors/sometimes techies such as Jim, Jeff Adkins (Mac Lab Report), and Frank Klassner (The PowerBook Source) post information online, it makes it easier for those of us who hope to benefit from their experience in setting up our own wireless laptop setups. (I have a meeting this morning about our laptop grant.) SchwabLearning.org Updates New items this week on the SchwabLearning.org site include: The Schwab Learning Online Newsletter gives full details on this week's updates. (Note: Link expires 3-4-02.)
The NEA's fifth annual Read Across America reading extravaganza is planned for this Friday, March 1. (Dr. Seuss's actual birthday falls on a weekend this year.) Country singer Garth Brooks will be the event's honorary chairman. Be sure to check out the NEA Resources page for ideas and activities. NEA President Bob Chase yesterday released Read Across-and For-America: People who can't read by themselves are less able to think for themselves. The Cat in the Hat TM & (c) 1957 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All Rights Reserved. The Learning Curve Continues While doing the Tuesday update (Monday night, as usual), I found that the Mac OS X 10.1.3 update hasn't solved the problem of cutting and pasting text from some Classic apps (Em@iler in this case) into Explorer. It still takes down Explorer and everything running under Classic, including 9.2.2. Sigh! APOD For those of us who are space freaks, the letters "APOD" need no explanation. They identify NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day archive. Now well into its seventh year of operation, the APOD archive includes thousands of interesting, good quality astronomy photos and drawings, each with a brief explanation. I especially enjoy the nebula, galaxy, and general star photos often featured, as they make great desktop pictures. Last Wednesday's Oddities of Star Cluster NGC 6397 told of a possible neutron star rotating at 274 rotations per second! Charter School Columns and News There were several good columns published today about charter schools. Washington Post staff writer Michael A. Fletcher continues his coverage of online charter schools in Rocky Start in 'Cyber' Classrooms. Fletcher notes that several of Pennsylvania's online charter schools are experiencing financial problems as funds are withheld by public schools, pending the outcome of "lawsuits and bureaucratic battles." The Raleigh (NC) News and Observer observes that one of the strengths of charter schools is supposed to be their ability to innovate, unfettered by public school rules and regulations. Charters go back in the box notes that charter schools in North Carolina are experiencing the same forces of inertia in innovation as their public school counterparts:
Reginald Fields reports in the Akron Beacon Journal that efforts by the Akron Education Association to start a charter school have been held up in No vote on Akron charter school. Fields wrote, "If the board [Akron, Ohio, Board of Education] were to support the school, it would make the Akron Education Association the first teachers union in Ohio, and maybe in the country, to run a charter school." Maine Laptop Initiative The Lewiston Sun Journal carried two columns about the plan to supply all Maine seventh graders with iBooks next fall. No shortage of opinions on laptops in schools by Lindsay Tice shares the same conflicting views often expressed by EdNews readers that while laptops for all sounds pretty cool, it might not be the best educational methodology. Bonnie Washuk discusses some of the financial "ins and outs" of laptop replacement in Laptops would be leased, not owned, under deal. Software Releases and Updates
Deep, Dark Conspiracy or Happenstance? One of the "improvements" I found this evening under Mac OS X 10.1.3 while doing the Wednesday update was that I could no longer insert graphics into Home Page! When I attempted to use either the menu command or the button bar to insert a graphic, the application crashed under the Classic environment. Wondering if this could be another example of Apple CEO Steve Jobs lust to kill everything Claris, I repeatedly launched and crashed the application and occasionally the Classic environment as well.
It appears GraphicConverter 4.2 for OS X plays some part in the crashes, as each time I used it during use of Home Page, a crash resulted with the next graphic insertion in the web page editor. The usually trouble free Mac graphics standard also has crashed all by itself several times recently. I'm not sure whether this is a result of the system upgrades (10.1.2 and/or 10.1.3), Classic, Home Page, some combination of the above, or tiny little gremlins dancing across the motherboard (more likely, dust bunnies). I later was able to launch the Classic version of GraphicConverter 4.2.1 and later insert a graphic into Home Page without incident! Maybe I need to update my X version. In my efforts to become at least familiar with Mac OS X, I keep finding minor annoyances along the way that keep pushing me back into OS 9.2.2. When I launched DiskTracker (Classic version) this evening, Internet Connect quit. Interestingly, my dial-up connection to the internet wasn't broken by the crash and DiskTracker searched in vain for the piece of software I needed. What keeps me going is the knowledge that my four year old G3 minitower is no longer aging gracefully and will need to be replaced in the next 6-12 months. When I make that change, I know I won't be happy if I can't operate efficiently under OS X, so I keep plugging away at finding things I like about OS X. Plump You just know it's going to be "one of those days" in the classroom when you're trying to get the meaning of "plump" across to a small group of eager learners, and everyone else in the room looks at you (as the definition). Henrico County iBook Initiative Annie McCallum, a senior at Godwin High School, speaks out about the recent recall and reconfiguration of laptops provided by the Henrico County Schools in iBook: the revised edition: Apple laptop changes at core of controversy, feelings of distrust. Writing for the Richmond Times Dispatch, Miss McCallum notes the causes of the limitations enforced by the school corporation, but suggests "The county scrambled for a quick fix." She asks, "Why have the actions of a few condemned us all?" Flat-panel iMac Delays? Joe Taylor alerted me to the CNET posting, Analyst: New iMacs slow in coming. While news of a possible shortfall in production of new iMacs clobbered Apple's stock price today, I think Joe is more concerned with when HIS new flat-panel iMac will arrive. What a bummer! Short Posting I'm writing this update late Wednesday evening, as I spent most of my evening on schoolwork and getting a new hard drive ready for my aging G3/7500 at school. The 7500's main hard drive began to act erratically last Friday, but fortunately has hung on until the replacement drive arrived today. I was running two 4.5 gig drives in the 7500, but will probably try to go now with just the 9.1 gig Seagate ST19171WC I purchased from Surplus Computers. The drive is a "new pull" half height drive and came properly terminated and configured for ID 0. At $34.95, plus $14.95 for an SCA 80 to 50 pin adapter, the drive didn't break my budget. It also formatted nicely with Apple's Drive Setup. We'll see tomorrow (today!) how it works in the 7500. If you're into the Power Mac 7500, I've "penned" more than a few words about the model:
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:
Testing An Associated Press posting by Greg Toppo suggests that the Department of Education may allow a good bit of latitude to states in the choice of tests used for national testing scheduled to begin in 2005.
Wisconsin Cyber Schools A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online posting by Amy Hetzner, Virtual schools see big enrollments, reports two Wisconsin school districts are getting ready to offer virtual schooling for elementary students in that state. Approximately 1,000 applications from across the state have been received by two school districts that decided to offer virtual education to their students via virtual charter schools to their own district's and other district's students. Four Freewares for Science Classes The latest Mac Lab Report by Jeff Adkins, Four Apps for Your Science Class, reviews four freewares that might be useful for science teachers. Jeff reviews Graphing Calculator, Digital Oscilloscope, NIH Image, and Chipmunk BASIC in this week's column. Have a great weekend!
Ads shown on this site do not represent an endorsement or warranty of any kind of products or companies shown. Ads shown on archive pages may not represent the ads displayed in the original posting on Educators' News. |
Read Across America
Rainbow Island
Sanity and clarity of thought briefly reared their ugly heads, however, when I remembered that I had successfully inserted graphics last night after the system upgrade to 10.1.3. Reverting to one of the most tried and true Classic OS troubleshooting techniques, I thought, "Restart, Dummy!" Sure enough, a simple restart works the same wonders of miracle system healing under Mac OS X as it did under the Classic OS (or for that matter, any version of Windows).| Previous Week |
|
|
|
|
|
|