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Inadequacy Here it is April 1 and I really don't have any great prank to pull on the readers. It's hard to believe it was just a year ago that Tom McKenna ran his April 1 spoof of Macintouch on the now inactive G3 All-in-one Stop Shop. (Don't bother searching, as Tom didn't archive the page.:-( Correction (4/5/2002) Tom was kind enough to write and point out where the April 1, 2001 Macinbitch spoof has been archived all along. New York Testing Data I ran a one line news posting Friday about the results from some recent testing in New York schools. Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times has a more complete description of the situation in Racial Gap in Test Scores Found Across New York (free registration required). Apparently, a breakdown of the recent statewide tests revealed "that white and Asian students do much better than black and Hispanic students in English and mathematics," and "continue to lag as they go through school and that in many cases the gap worsens." Ms. Hartocollis notes of the data, "There are individual schools that defy the pattern, where black, white and Hispanic students achieve at high levels. These schools tend to be in more middle-class neighborhoods." This is the kind of stuff that any classroom teacher could have told New York or the feds for free. We've known that achievement often follows economic patterns, but it may spur some positive action on state and/or federal levels to address the seemingly insolvable problem of the effect of poverty on school children's learning. Richard Rothstein has an excellent analysis of what needs to be done to clarify the data in Fuzzy Data on Race (free registration required). Television Viewing and Aggression You've probably already heard the news of a recent study reported in the journal Science, The Effects of Media Violence on Society (paid registration required for full access), that ties increased hours of television watching to increased likelihood of violence. The Washington Post's Shankar Vedantam reports on the findings in Study Ties Television Viewing to Aggression. Vedantam writes: "The more television people watch, the more likely it appears that they will later become violent, an effect that researchers argued bolsters the case that it is television that causes the aggression." Union U The Chicago Sun-Times reports Teachers union launches unique graduate school. Sun-Times education reporter Rosalind Rossi writes, "Chicago Teachers Union officials Thursday unveiled plans to create the nation's first union-run graduate program in teacher leadership." The program leads to a graduate degree or "classes also can be used to meet new state requirements that teachers obtain 120 professional education units to be recertified." Bush Education Nomination Circumvents Confirmation Process "Using the tactic known as a recess appointment," President Bush has appointed Gerald A. Reynolds "to be head of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education." Reynolds had previously faced tough going in confirmation hearings before Senator Edward Kennedy. The New York Times quotes Kennedy as saying of the appointee, "I was struck by his lack of education policy experience and his longstanding hostility to basic civil rights laws." The Times column also notes, "Civil rights groups and advocates for women and the disabled, among others, quickly lined up against the nomination, arguing that he was hostile to their concerns and had little experience in the field." The Kansas City Star reports, "The appointment of Reynolds and four others similarly installed Friday means they can serve until the next Congress is seated in January 2003."
Coast to Coast Coast to Coast: A national briefing of people, issues and events around the country is an interesting compilation of items from around the nation that I found on the Washington Post. This week it includes stories about North Dakota businesses tapping "into the lucrative school lunch programs," making science textbooks in Tennessee error free, Tent City, a makeshift camp for the homeless in Seattle, gaining legal status, and more. Virus Definition Updates (Rerun) I know I posted this item on Friday, but if you forget to update, there could be a nasty April Fool in store for you. 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:
Devotion For April 1-7, 2002 Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is The Power Over Human Flesh. I hope it adds a bit of brightness to your week. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals. Site News Educators' News is now up and running on a new server that promises increased throughput for the readers. Email to mathdittos2.com is still shaky, so if you have something of interest, you'd better use the swood@mac.com account for now. While I've renewed the web hosting contract and mathdittos2.com domain for two more years, I still haven't made a decision on what to do with or about Educators' News. I renewed the site, as I have some great updates nearly done for the MATH DITTOS 2 series and will continue to support it for the time being (the other choice being just saying, "Screw it," and turning it loose as a freeware without any support). I really have appreciated the reader input over the last week or so. It really helps when folks send in their gems about education and/or computing for me to post. Send It to ATAT? The following narrative could more properly appear on the Mac site As the Apple Turns, as it is more soap opera than news. (But...ATAT does a very good job of news commentary, despite their online admonitions otherwise.)
Normally, when I'm servicing the G3, I rely on my incredible Mac IIfx upstairs for light web updates, some column composition, and a quick reminder of what it's like to work at 40 MHz again. Unfortunately, the IIfx has been temporarily displaced by a Compaq Deskpro for use in writing Individualized Educational Plans (with an Access-driven database program -- i.e., Windows-only). So I tried using a Power Mac 7200/90 that I was preparing as a take-home unit, but it proved far too slow for web work. Saturday, I took the 7200 to school, as most of my computing there on the Mac side involves light work in AppleWorks and printing daily spelling, reading, and handwriting papers. I also have the school's Mac server, a Power Mac 8550/200, sitting on my desk if I really need some serious computing muscle. The 7500/G3 is running both of the Barracuda drives I had installed into the G3 minitower without any incident (a 28 gig and an 80 gig). In the parts storage nook of my upstairs sunroom/computer workshop, I also had a brand new 12X SCSI CD-ROM from MacResQ (Click the link quick and buy something terribly expensive!) tucked away that I installed in the 7500. It was supposed to go into an LC or Performa 575, but that unit will now get just a 2X Apple OEM drive (I have a stack of them in stock -- this stuff drives Annie nuts.).
(Look closely at what is in the dish drainer!)
As to the possible column I mentioned here a few weeks ago, Illustrated G3 Minitower Teardown, maybe I should rename it, "You Too Can Destroy Your G3!" Actually, I still plan to do the column sometime this summer. When I tore down the G3 and cleaned it this week, the only digital camera I had available was the old Fujifilm DS-7. It about a negative 1 megapixel, so I just took a few snapshots of the G3 carcass (see above) and let it go at that for now. I did learn that all of the plastic panels except the side door panel can be completely removed for immersion in some cleaning agent. I used liquid Spic 'n Span, which I find cleans off tar and other stains quite well. The door panel has the metal shielding permanently affixed, so it didn't get the same cleaning as the other three sides and top. Anyway, that's the Educators' News/MATH DITTOS 2 home technology destruction update for today. We're still online, if just hanging on by our fingernails.
If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please . |
I'm writing this update on my 
The G3 is quietly reposing on a worktable upstairs, awaiting a replacement power supply bought on eBay. I'm also secretly (well, it's not a secret anymore) hoping I didn't fry the motherboard as well. In the meantime, I'm negotiating with the local chancellor of the exchequer for a new Mac, complete with 17" LCD screen. Whether I get a new Mac or not, the G3 minitower will be repaired for use at school or here at home (remember that my primary backup box is an eleven year old IIfx). The 7500/G3 eventually must go back to school, as I depreciated it on my taxes at 100% business use.
During this experience, I again am reminded that the first upgrade a user should usually make to a machine is RAM. The now dormant G3 minitower ran 640 MB of RAM, while the 7500/G3's 128 MB, while usually sufficient for school use, simply doesn't cut it when I'm simultaneously running one or more graphics apps, a web browser or two, an email client, Home Page (set to a much higher memory setting than the default), and whatever other goodies I need. At times, I can feel the 7500 drop into virtual memory. It's like trying to pedal a bike with the handbrake on.
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Software Updates and Introductions AppleWorks has been updated to version 6.2.4 for Mac OS X and version 6.2.3 for the Classic Mac OS. The AppleWorks updater is a combined updater that will install the correct version for your operating system. As far as I can tell, Apple has again ignored any update for the companion AppleWorks 6 for Windows. Roger Clary of MacMuse Software has released Music Tutor 1.0 for Macintosh. Music Tutor provides "a virtual keyboard for the music student to study note names, scales and intervals. The "Music Buttons" feature also provides a timed game for a fun and challenging study of notes, symbols, and composers. Players compete to top their best personal time as well as the best time posted by all players." Crosswordz has been updated to version 1.3. The $39 Mac shareware now supports backgrounds and stretchable puzzles. Winning the Class "Dennis the Menace" Petaluma, California, kindergarten teacher Dan Gurney tells his method of winning over the class "Dennis the Menace" in The class menace: a barometer for how much the teacher cares. Writing for the Christian Science Monitor, Dan says, "Finding the key to Dennis's heart requires intuition, gentleness, complete honesty, clear expectations, firm limits, and sensible consequences, all applied with patience, courage, consistency, calmness, and compassion." Bush Early Childhood Initiatives Announced Two recent postings on Yahoo News tell of President Bush's plans for early childhood education and Head Start. SchwabLearning.org Updates New items this week on the SchwabLearning.org site include: iBooks in Henrico County Joe Taylor sent along a link to a John Farr commentary about the student suspensions and iBook use in the Henrico County, Virginia school system, Inside Story on Henrico County iBooks, Part I. It gives an insiders view of what is going on there. John goes on to give his take on the situation in Comments: Henrico County iBooks, Part II. Correction to Monday's Posting Tom McKenna was kind enough to write and point out where the April 1, 2001 Macinbitch spoof has been archived on the G3 All-in-one site all along. That's great, but the real news followed in Tom's next paragraph:
Congratulations to Tom and family. For newer readers, the void left when Tom stopped updating his excellent G3 All-in-one Stop Shop site was what inspired the creation of this site a year ago. Software Updates and Introductions Travis East has released updates for his excellent educational freewares, FractionCalc and Geometry. FractionCalc 1.2.2 adds a multiple operation mode, and Geometry 2.6.2 features a new interface with popup menus, along with the addition of rectangular pyramids to the 3D section and some miscellaneous bug fixes. All of Travis's freewares are available in both Mac and Windows versions from his download page. Question of the Day? Robert White wrote asking for help with one of those PC monitor adaptors. I had to plead ignorance, as I use the kind without the DIP switches. Here's Robert's email. If you can help, please contact Robert directly.
Opposition to Bush Early Childhood Initiatives USA Today reported yesterday, Bush's education plan faces criticism. "Sarah Greene, president and chief executive of the National Head Start Association...questioned why Bush is tinkering with the 37-year-old federal program when it has proven effective and is constantly being revised." Ads While my pages carry the disclaimer, "Ads shown on this site do not represent an endorsement or warranty of any kind of products or companies shown.," I really do sweat the quality of the advertisers posted. I've recently placed and received orders with both Computers4SURE On the down side, I'm still waiting for a $100 ink cartridge order placed on March 17 or a reasonable explanation to arrive from 123Inkjets.com. You'll notice their banner ads have disappeared from this page. You'll also not see any advertising here for AppleISP after they took my registration last year when the dial-up numbers they posted (still there) turned out to be bogus! I never did get a refund from them. This site really isn't a real revenue producer. If you've had a less than positive experience with an order placed through one of my affiliate ads, please let me know. A forty or fifty cent commission here and there just isn't worth it. Update: 123Inkjets.com got the idea and made things right. 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. |
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