Scientific Credibility On The Big Screen

The online version of Chemical & Engineering News has a service on its website called ReelScience.

ReelScience reviews selected movies in national release. The reviews not only give the standard summaries of plot and character but they also examine the science behind the "plot" and see how it compares with "real" science.

One movie recently reviewed was "The Day After Tomorrow." C&EN writer Bette Hileman gives the flick four of five stars (I, Robot only got two-and-a-half). A sample paragraph from her review says:

To a scientist, the film is interesting because it compresses everything that could happen under an abrupt climate change scenario (and much that could not happen) into a few days, rather than the more realistic decades. A collapse of the thermohaline circulation is a low-probability, but high-impact event. If it did occur in the early 21st century, it would have a huge impact on weather.

Other films currently reviewed inclue "Blue Butterfly" and "Godsend."

Satire

After hearing another example of very effective political satire from Harry Shearer, I couldn't help but include him here.

Check out Le Show. Le Show is Harry Shearer's weekly radio program that airs on a number of stations across the US. This website is a place where you can come and listen to current or past shows (going back as far as October, 1995) and find out if a radio station in your area carries the program.

This is one very talented guy.

The Internet And Its Impact On American Life

The Pew Internet & American Life Project studies how our life is affected and influenced by the Internet. At the moment, featured reports include: "How Americans Use Instant Messaging," "The Internet and Daily Life," "How Americans Get In Touch With Government," and "Internet as Unique New Source."

Categories of on-going studies include

• Online Activities & Pursuits
• Major New Events
• E-Gov & E-Policy
• Technology & Media Use
• Latest Trends
• Your Input
• Our Commentary

In today's What's New category, the question is asked: Do You Use RSS?

A useful site to both keep up with new developments and to help assess which of those new developments warrant the "hype."

A "Fabulous Fruit"

In case the passing of summer and the arrival of autumn has you mourning the passing of what, at least in the house I grew up in, was a summertime staple -- lemonade -- here is a site devoted to that perky citrus fruit.

Called Lemonflower, this site has more information than you might know existed about lemons including the nutritional ("The lemon offers substantial health benefits.") to the legal ("we have included some valuable lemon law resources.")

Pucker up and enjoy!

Autumn Is Here

To celebrate the arrival of autumn today, I invite you to visit a site that explains in understandable terms the chemical changes taking place in our foilage.

Part of the Science Is Fun In The Lab Of Shakhashiri web site, travel to one of Professor Shakhashiri linked sites, Chemical of the Week, where you'll find The Chemistry of Autumn Colors.

Fascinating.

A New National Museum To Treasure

The brand new National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., opened today. The building seems incredibly beautiful and the collection housed within those walls most valuable as it preserves the culture and history of Native Americans in our country.

The museum's mission is to:

.....recognize and affirm to Native communities and the non-Native public the historical and contemporary culture and cultural achievements of the Natives of the Western Hemisphere by advancing-in consultation, collaboration, and cooperation with Natives-knowledge and understanding of Native cultures, including art, history, and language, and by recognizing the museum's special responsibility, through innovative public programming, research and collections, to protect, support, and enhance the development, maintenance, and perpetuation of Native culture and community.

A new national treasure to honor and celebrate....and a wonderful place to visit.

Yup, Flu Season Is Almost Here

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a site dedicated to influenza (flu) which houses a tremendous amount of information related to this potentially deadly disease. In the last couple years I've read two books that look back to the horrendous flu outbreak in 1918 that caused much suffering and death worldwide in the space of weeks. Although I have a lot of faith in the power and knowledge of "modern medicine," influenza is a disease worthy of respect and extremely careful monitoring.


If for no other reason, you should check out the Influenza Home Page of the CDC to get information to help you decide how best to protect yourself in the soon-to-arrive flu season.

Wave The Flag!

As we look around the world at the many people, cultures, and traditions that populate our wonderful planet, Earth, one visible manifestation of our lands is our various flags.

The site, Geographical Index To The Flags Of The World, gives you access to them all.

More Anticipation Of Halloween.....Boo!

Going out to Trick or Treat on October 31 is certainly fun, but so is thinking about costumes, pumpkins, and all things spooky as we get ready for that big day to arrive.

Universial Studios and UNICEF have teamed to sponsor a website devoted to Halloween called HalloweenKids.com.

Kids will enjoy being able to do online coloring, sending friends Halloween "Ghostcards", costume ideas, pumpkin decorating, and Halloween traditions in other countries.

Parents will appreciate tips on safety, party tips, and ideas for having part of one's kids' trick or treating rounds be devoted to collecting money on behalf of UNICEF.

What a fun site! Halloween may be over a month away on the calendar but it's not too soon to dabble in the world of ghosts and goblins!

National Hispanic Heritage Month -- September 15-October 15

Quoting the opening paragraph of this site:

The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to help foster the general public's awareness, understanding, and appreciation for Hispanic culture during National Hispanic Heritage Month. As part of the celebration, this site highlights various publications, properties listed in the National Register, and National Parks that deal directly with the ingenuity, creativity, cultural, and political experiences of Hispanic Americans. Join the National Register of Historic Places in recognizing and exploring the achievements of a people that have contributed so much to American culture.

Check out National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Presidential Debates -- Then and Now

Click here for information about the upcoming presidential debates as well as a look back at previous debates and their impact on their respective elections.

A feature of Poynter Online's Links To The News by David Shedden.

Count Basie

"One More Once" A Centennial Celebration of the Life and Music of Count Basie is a wonderful place to learn about this great musician.

There are essays and photo essays, as well as a discography of Count Basie's life. (Don't miss the fact that some of the pages scroll to the right rather than up and down.)

Assembed by the Institute of Jazz Studies by the libraries at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

What Is Phishing?

Some would say phishing the practice of using the Internet to steal the identify of others.

The Anti-Phishing Group says:

Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them.

Their commitment is to wipe out Internet scams and fraud.

If you wonder or think you've been victimized, or if you're interested in finding out more of what sorts of frauds are being perpetuated online, this site of very useful as a tool for more knowledge and greater prevention.

The Question Mark, aka Questioning.org

A fairly new website by Jamie McKenzie (familiar to some of us from his long-standing web site, From Now On) is called The Question Mark.

The Question Mark describes itself as "an educational magazine devoted to questions, questioning, sound intelligence, strategic reading and quality.

My initial impression is strongly favorable. A great resource for reflection as educators.

They Call It.....Utopia

This site provides a

"digital knowledge gateway into the treasures of libraries, museums, galleries, and laboratories of The University of Texas at Austin. It is designed to open to the public the knowledge, research, and information and share these resources —free of charge."

Includes sections for teachers, students (high school and college), and parents. Features lesson plans (browsable by grade level and subject), articles, activities, book lists, and related materials.

Searchable. Go for it!

Go to: Utopia

How To Give And Receive Criticism

This essay is an apropos way to begin a new school year, one which will be filled (no doubt) with much learning, many debates, and many more opportunities to stick one's neck out and be open to criticism (or compliments!).

Here We Go!

Something To Ponder On Labor Day

From the U.S. Census Bureau, a cross-section of information related to the American workforce as we spend a day paying tribute to the many that labor on our behalf in this country. Click here.

The Rebirth Of The World Trade Center

Project Rebirth -- Chronicling the Rebirth of Ground Zero in New York City -- is a site devoted to capturing the rebuilding and transformation of the World Trade Center.

Made possible by a dedicated team of individuals, the project is lead by Jim Whitaker. There are multiple cameras stationed around the site that take pictures at a set interval -- I believe it is every 5 minutes. Images are then assembled into montages that show the changes.

As we approach the third anniversity of September 11, this is a wonderful site that both reflects the sorrow and shows the hope as new rises from the ashes and destruction.

Is Multi-tasking Really More Productive And Efficient?

Maybe I show my age or generational bent by wondering about the buzz about how people (including our students) can do multiple things at once -- watch TV, play a computer game, IM with friends, make an entry into their blog -- and do them all well. Not that I underestimate what the human (amazing) brain can do, but I do wonder how much quality attention can be paid to multiple activities at once without something not getting its due.

Click here for an interesting article from AZ Central.Com that explores this issue.

YouSendIt -- A Solution For Sending Large Files?

YouSendIt offers a service where, apparently for free and not even requiring a registration and/or exchange of registration information, you can send attachments of up to 1 GB to anyone you want.

You type in the recipient's e-mail address, browse to the file you wish to send, and then click Send.

YouSendIt puts the file on their server and sends a note to the recipient notifying them that this attachment is waiting for them to download and gives them the link to retrieve it.

This may be handy, especially if you're interested in sending something to someone whose e-mail provider has low-ish limits on attachments it will allow on its service.

I have tried it a couple times and it worked like a charm.

Webby Awards 2004

Each year The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences presents The Webby Awards designed to showcase the best there is out there on the web.

For this year's nominees and winners, click here. You'll find a wide range of categories, some of which include: Best Practices, Community, Education, Film, Finance, Government/Law, Health, Humor, Living, Music, Print+Zines, Politics, Children, Science, Travel, and more.

Also, don't miss a whole category of winners chosen in the People's Voice Awards. A lot of great sites!

More About Schools And Schooling

As an educator, it's impossible not to include some sites having to do with schools, student, teachers, education, and learning. As someone who works in technology in schools, it's also hard to resist looking at all the things revolving around how we teach and how our society views education.

The PBS site, The Story of American Public Education, is quite wonderful. As bright and exciting as our future is, there is much to learn from the path we've already trod.

Halloween Already?

Here it is August 27 and I just have returned from a local grocery store that already has major Halloween candy displays out as you enter the store. Halloween is still months away. I can't believe it!

But if it is really time to start thinking about Halloween, I thought I'd better supply you with an online resource for those of you who want to make sure you identify all those pumpkins correctly. And, as a bonus, these are organic pumpkins, yet.

Go to The Organic Pumpkin ID Chart.

A Sobering Moment For Boomers

For those of us entering the phase of our life when the former belief we held that not only were our spirits immortal but so are our bodies, getting older is having a way of bringing a new sense of reality to that optimism. I have the feeling that a number of folks in their 40's - 60's are discovering those gradual changes in what our joints and muscles can and can no longer do. Another dose of reality will come in the filling out of the online survey at the Living To 100 Calculator. When you're finished answering the questions, the calculator will give you your lifespan prediction.

I just completed mine and was pleased to get the result of 88.1 years. As encouraging as that number is, going through the process of answering the site's questions can't help but get you thinking about your lifestyle habits such as exercise, diet, and stress along with the influences you inherit and have no control over, such as your family health history. Responding to those questions also reminds you about what your daily habits and lifestyle are. It's not difficult to be reminded about the things you might be doing that aren't really that helpful in terms of sustaining long-term health, not to mention 100-year lifespans.

Again, it was somewhat a relief to find out at least someone thinks I'm going to head out well into my 80's. But maybe, just maybe, if I change and improve some of my habits, I have enough time to improve my changes of making it into my 90's. It's certainly worth giving it a try!

A Resource For International Study

The Library of Congress is one of the world's largest collections of knowledge and much of this wealth is accessible via the Internet.

Many sections of the LOC's web presence is focused on making available treasures from our American history.

But the LOC also has a great deal of information about the world beyond our shores. Visit LOC's Global Gateway: World Culture and Resources.

Just The Facts, Please

As much as it is my intention to steer pretty clear of the whole realm of politics even though when knee-deep in a very partisan presidential race, there's a site that takes on politic questions -- including advertising and claims made by one or many candidates -- and tries to look at the facts in a non-partisan manner.

Sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation, a site you may find useful as you're trying to separate the truths from the half-truths from the no-truths is FactCheck.org.

A useful resource in this period of many claims and counter-claims.

Oh, The Words We Use

If you've ever wondered what the most often-used words are, the Word Count site is for you. Not only do you see a list of words ranked in their exact order of common use and repetition, but you can search for your favorite word to see where it fits in, or you can type in a number and find what word ranks at that point in order. And, of course, you can simply click through the list and see the words, one by one, in numerical order.

The presentation of this information is also quite artistically done:

By the way

the most common word: the

last word on the list (86,800th place): conquistador

It's Time To Blog A Blog

I figured the time was right to blog a blog here at the Motley Miscellanea. One called Future Now is out there to track "emerging technologies and their social implications" and seemed like a good place to start.

The three contributors to this blog are: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Bill Cockayne, and Franz Dill. Each is associated in one way or another with the Institute For The Future.

These guys obviously have a wide range of interest and explore all sorts of developments out there. Both these sites are worth checking out.

Legal Decision in Realm of P2P File Sharing

The two lead sentences from the summary at Wired.com of the decision rendered yesterday by a federal appeals court is:

"Peer-to-peer file-sharing services Morpheus and Grokster are legal, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The decision is a blow for record labels and movie studios which sued the peer-to-peer operators claiming that the services should be held liable for the copyright infringement of their users."

Click here for the full article.

I'm Going To Miss Julia Child

Of the many tribute and remembrance articles and sites devoted to the late Julia Child, I've taken note of three.

From PBS: Julia Child: Lessons With Master Chefs

From NPR: Collected stories and remembrances

From the Smithsonian Institution: What's Cooking? Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian

I'm not a great cook or all that interested in cooking, but I was a big fan of her TV shows on PBS in the '70s, watched them religiously. I found them interesting and informative, yes, but also entertaining and sometimes quite funny. She made a great impression on me during that time and I will miss her.

Special Report on Schools and Their Future from CNN

I'm not a constant viewer of CNN but I came across this special report about teaching, schools, students, and future prospects called America's Changing Classrooms.

The major categories include Exploring Options, Then And Now: Timeline and Gallery, and Alternative Schools. Much fascinating material to read here.

Google Equals Billions?

The day of the final stock price and offering is here. Producing billions of dollars in an IPO is pretty heady stuff. This article by John Markoff at the New York Times lays out some of the heightened expectations that grow out of all the attention that's been directed toward Google as it has finally arrived at its date of its stock going public.

And Now For Something Completely Different -- Part II

If you have a few extra minutes (yeah, right), check out the Museum of Hoaxes. Lots to investigate....some funny and light-hearted......some questionable......some serious....most, well, kinda interesting.

A Vast Treasury of Art Just a Click Away

Thanks to this article in the New York Times -- "For Art History Scholors, Illumination Is a Click Away" -- I've learned of ARTstor, a fantastic online resource for viewing and learning about works of art.

Underwritten and supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, ARTstor makes available 300,000 images online (!). And, according to the article by Karen W. Arenson, ARTstor is designed to be particularly useful for educators and students studying works of art, offering well thought-through cataloguing and search systems. Their mission is "...to use digital technology to enhance scholarship, teaching and learning in the arts and associated fields."

Another amazing resource to explore!

Home Again

It certainly is great being back in Seattle. San Diego was a wonderful place to visit but, as they say, there's nothing like home.

In the spirit of...."and now for something completely different".....I offer you the, uh, various fascinating -- or should I say, unpredictable -- sites listed in the Museum of Online Museums.

As you might expect, you can find links here to the -- uh -- conventional museums such as The Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art.

But MoOM offers much more and much less. Much more of interest and much less of the predictable.

For example, MoOM has links to:
The Fading Ad Collection
The Essential Vermeer
The Museum of Fred
Ansel Adams At 100
The Museum of Temporary Art

Interesting, yes....but there's more! Such as:
The Treasury of IBM-manufactured Clocks
The World's Largest Collection of the Smallest Things
The Candy Wrapper Collection
The Dome-A-Rama Gallery of Snow Globes

.....or...

The Gallery of Amish Buggy Plates
The Museum of Obsolete Computers
The Museum of Coat Hangers
and The Catalogue of Less-Known Superheroes
(and for the especially adventuresome among you: The Circus of Disemboweled Plush Toys!)

Now that's what I call a whole bunch of "somethings different"!

ESRI Conference -- Looking Back

As I think back on these four days of concentrated focus on geography, cartography, databases, GIS, and ESRI, I come away pretty excited. The thing I came away with that is crystal clear is that GIS is a very real tool for studying and learning about our world. It is also obvious that there are many ways in which this approach to studying our world can be of great benefit to our work in teaching our students about the world they live in and preparing them for the stewardship of that world that they are going to inherit.

It seems that GIS can and should be an important tool as we work to fulfill Lakeside's Mission Focus. Certainly GIS is well-suited to show us much about countries beyond our borders. It is also a powerful tool for us to learn more about our own country and culture. Part of the process of our reaching out to the global community will all the more effective when we know ourselves well. GIS can have a crucial role in helping us fulfill our goal of becoming a school with a global focus.

The educational side of ESRI does still seem a little like an add-on. It's not just because there were 800 of us attending the Educational User Conference and 13,000 at the International User Conference, although it was not easy to lose sight of the differences in scope represented by those numbers. Though the commitment that ESRI has made to the educational community (market?) is definitely there, their software and the availability of database information still has layers of complexity that result in a very steep learning curve for teachers and students.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that a lot of the jobs represented in those 13,000 users were civic planners and engineers from all over the world. Many of these people sit in front of computer monitors for hours (or maybe days) at a time collecting and manipulating data. They use GIS day-in and day-out. This is not the typical scenario for a teacher. I believe that ESRI sees the need to make their products more (I hate to use the term) "user friendly." I also believe they see the power unleashed by making these resources available online with GIS tools built-in, saving teachers and students the very time-consuming task of collecting data, shaping the data, and then constructing an effective lesson using that data and GIS software. Some of the sites I have listed in previous postings offer exciting examples of how this potential can be realized. Again, the prospect of more and more these tools coming along seems very real and quite exciting.

It's a natural response to the markets ESRI has to support that their greater effort has been in new applications and features and less in simplifying how to get from raw data to usable databases to easy user interfaces and logical structures. At the same time, I know that people at ESRI see his need and are working to address it.

We'll see how the actual implementation of projects using GIS at our school pans out in the coming year. The colleagues that attended this conference seemed to leave energized and interested in building GIS into their curricula. I will do whatever I can to support that effort. With the complexity of using the Arc/ESRI products such as it is -- bearing in mind the oft-cited (and true) principle of "use it or lose it" coupled with the competing demands on our time in working with kids -- we'll need a few months to see how the greater integration of GIS into our school goes.

ESRI Conference -- Day Four

The transition to the International Users portion of the ESRI Conference continues. Yesterday brought the keynotes talks and plenary sessions. Today the first set of sessions and presentations begin. (Actually, there was also a final set of presentations in the Educational Users Conference first thing this morning.)

Since a colleague, who has already returned to Seattle, requested that I sit in on a session he was interested in, I began my day in a International Users session called "Poverty Mapping: Spatial Analysis for Poverty Reduction."

This session began with a series of three presenters. First up was Christopher Legg and his talk was entitled: "Mapping Poverty and Nutrition in Nigeria." Mr. Legg presented much information about conditions of poverty in Nigeria and probably causes. Much of what he had to say was quite sobering and disturbing. Much of his talk was also quite technical in nature, having less to do with the contribution ERSI/GIS can make in studying such an issue and more to do with a presentation of his findings. Mr. Legg is part of an organization called Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS). This appears to be a very important agency and one worth our support. They do offer access to maps and other information, so I look forward to exploring this resource.

The next presentation was by Dr. Bonita Chamberlin and was called: "Afghanistan: Yesterday ,Today, and Tomorrow?" Dr. Chamberlin has dedicated 28 years of her life to this part of the world and her talk effectively traced some history to show what has lead up to the current very serious situation in that country. Although similar to a talk you might expect in a history or social issues class, her presentation was fascinating. She did include various maps to illustrate some of the changes (like deforestation and drought) that have dramatically weakened the country and its peoples. The amount of hunger is staggering. One resource for information she pointed us to was United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Again, an effective presentation with little overt connection to ESRI and less having to do with accessing data that can be used in classroom projects and assignments.

The final paper to be presented was "Spatial Analysis of Food Poverty in Ecuador" by Andrew Fallow. Like the first of these three talks, Andrew's was more statistical and technical in natures. While many concerns about poverty and hunger in Ecuador were reflected in what he had to say, not much dealt very directly with how to get one's hands on data that can be turned into assignments to use with kids. He did mention a site called Poverty Map and this appears to be a place where data might be available. He also mentioned the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Centro International de Agricultura Tropical -- CIAT) as a place to check for data. I noted that CIAT's homepage includes links to CIAT in Africa and CIAT in Asia, both of which I'm betting will lead to useful resources.

The last session for me of this day -- and of this ESRI trek to San Diego -- was a set of papers under the umbrella-title: "Creating Resources for GIS Education."

The first paper was presented by Lisa Theo from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire. Her subject was "Simplifying Urban Georgraph Concepts: A Teaching Toll for K-16 Educators." The main focus of her talk was a project she began revolving around billboards in the south central region of Wisconsin. She and two grad students plotted billboard locations, types, and proximity to advertised businesses. One of her main points, I think, was how something as mundane as billboards can really teach a fair amount once you decide what factors are important to tally and track.

The next presentation was "Chinese and Taiwan Historical GIS" by Hsiung-Ming Liao. In some ways, Mr. Liao brought many resources to the fore in that important region of the world. Some of those sites include:

Chinese Civilization in Time and Space Project -- this seems to have tremendous potential with historical and cultural information

Taiwan History and Culture in Time and Space -- another place with information about a region in Asia with much potential

The minor snag here is that there is a backlog of material not yet available in digital form but the big problem is that much, if not all, of what is available online is not yet available in English. As a taste of what's to come, though, it's hard to imagine the coming explosion of what's going to be available online in a few months, let alone years, down the line.

"Using a Global Resource for Teaching About Global Inequality" brought this session to an end. Presenter Brian Fulfrost from University of California at Santa Cruz focused on the UC Atlas of Global Inequality. I don't have a way of reviewing all his PowerPoint slides, but one of the things that immediately stood out to me in the list of goals Brian displayed was the site's dedication to education, teachers, and students. It's going to take a while to explore this site, but, based on what Brian showed us, the online tools, built-in databases (and the commitment to add yet more diverse data sources), the capacity to compare countries based on a variety of criteria, the creation of charts and/or graphs, and other resources being developed -- seeing this was an exciting way to end my stay at ESRI. Not only did this demonstration illustrate the increasing availability of tremendous amounts of data online but, most importantly, it showed that tools are being designed and being made available online that make it easy to use the data to learn something. And that there are people out there -- like Mr. Fulfrost and the team of which he is a part -- that keep foremost in their minds that easy, simple access to this kind of data by the community, including we teachers and our students, is of crucial importance in making the power of this information a huge asset in kids' education and teacher curricula. Bravo!

ESRI Conference -- Day Three

If you've been following the ESRI thread here you know that the ESRI Educational User Conference has been going on for a couple days now. I've known since I signed up for this conference that the dates for the event I was attending overlapped with another conference being held also in San Diego...namely the 2004 ESRI International User Conference (August 9-13).

This being my first time in joining any ESRI convention, I wondered how many people would be attending the educational user conference. I soon found out that it was upwards of 800 people, a healthy number it seemed to me.

Then, yesterday, as the International User Conference is about to begin, someone happened to mention that the expected number of participants at this related event is 13,000. Yes, that's 13 with three zeros!

With that little tidbit of information in mind, I knew that the scope of things was about to change. First on today's agenda was a video orientation to the IUC. I duly headed over to the San Diego Convention Center (the IUC is being held in the huge San Diego Convention Center, not the Marriott) wondering what 13,000 chairs looked like. Well, it looks like a sea of chairs in row after row after orw. Three convention halls were combined into one. Above our heads were sets of huge pairs of video screens which projected whatever was onstage. Wow! I thought. This is a BIG DEAL!

The video did a nice job of laying out the IUC day by day. There followed a talk by the Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI. His presentation went on for an hour or so. A most effective speaker, Mr. Dangermond welcomed all of us to the conference, noting that the first ESRI conference in 1981 was attended by a grand total of eleven. The next year the grand total grew to 17. Amazing to think about the growth since then.

I hope the Mr. Dangermond's talk is sometime made available. To an extent it was cheer-leading and a sales talk. But much of it was a good discussion of and demonstration of many of the powers of GIS and its software in ways that contribute to society, including in our work in the classroom.

He spent some time looking back and looking ahead. One of the "wow" demos he included was a table that served GIS images on it on a touch-screen that could be manipulated by people gathered around it. I'm guessing it was 4'X5' or so. What a great invention and collaborative piece of hardware. No one mentioned the price and I'm not about to request one for school, but it was a tantalyzing taste of some of the amazing things we're going to see come along in the not-so-distant future.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Rita R. Colwell, former Director of the National Science Foundation, gave a heartening talk. She has dedicated 25 or more years of her life trying to eradicate cholera, particularly in Bangladesh. She obviously feels deeply about the need to address world health issues and included examples of how GIS can help chart disease and predict outbreaks.

A different sort of day, then. More looking at ESRI from the standpoint of the company and a more general application of GIS in the world. Tomorrow the final sessions in the EdUC Conference take place. There also are some presentations in the IUC that look well worth attending.

ESRI Conference -- Day Two -- Part II

If not every presentation (or "paper") I attended today was the most applicable or relevant, it was almost always true that something mentioned or someone I met and talked to at each session produced either a new idea or a subject to pursue.

I didn't have time yesterday to list them, but there were a number of things I put on a "check these out" list.

They include:

Reference was made to Bloom's Taxonomy in two or three sessions. While familiar, I'm hard pressed to recall exactly what Bloom's Taxonomy is and what its relevance and/or importance are. A simple search took me to a resource at the University of Victoria's Counseling Services website which provides a clear chart laying out learning objectives formulated by Benjamin Bloom back in 1956 [Bloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto: Longmans, Green]. Learning is divided into competencies (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation). Another column lists the skills that grow out of the attainment of those competencies. Bloom's Taxonomy, then, is a systematic way of analysing learning and a tool to use in framing projects, assignments, and tests.

A number of sessions, when talking about materials used in GIS, talked about "orthophotographs." Doubting that this was talking about pictures of the mouths of middle-school kids, I needed to look this up. A pretty good -- maybe a little wordy -- primer about orthophotographs is here (.pdf file).

If you think our society, in general, is way too full of acronyms, don't come to this conference. People referred to DEMs and DLGs, among many others. DEM stands for Digital Elevation Map and DLG for Digital Line Graph. Both of these are important potential elements in maps and there are many online resources out there to download them.

Another acronym from GIS/ESRI is Arc IMS. ESRI says ArcIMS is "...the solution for delivering dynamic maps and GIS data and services via the Web." One reason I was curious about ArcIMS as a category is because it seems that such sites, as ESRI says, are ways to get access to already exisiting geographic information via the web. One site shown in a session today was OakMapper -- Monitoring Sudden Oak Death in WebGIS. Obviously a task to add to the long "to do" list is looking into more ArcIMS sites out there. Knowing the range of ArcIMS sites already out there could well save having to "reinvent the wheel" since something might already exist that meets my needs. Click here for a list of sites compiled by ESRI itself.

A book mentioned in one of my sessions seemed to hold promise in helping us get connected to data sources, particularly ones that are free or inexpensive and readily available. The book is "GIS and Public Data" by Bruce Ralston (published by OnWord Press in 2004). It appears to be a bit pricey ($75) so I'm not going to run out and buy one, but would like to take at least a look at a copy to see how useful it might be (it does come with a CD & DVD as additional resources).
Another online resrouce that seems worth checking out in more depth is CountryWatch.com. Seems this could be quite a resource for a number of courses.

I'll stop here for the time being. Not that I needed reminding, but, boy is there a lot of stuff out there!

ESRI Conference -- Day Two

This second day of attending the ESRI Conference here in San Diego began with an 8:30 session entitled "Transforming Middle Grades." Three presenters were on tap for the start of this Sunday.

Bob Coulter, from Missouri Botanical Garden, titled his talk "Mapping the Environment: Free GIS Curriculum Modules. MOBOT has programs in place that make use of GIS data and also training programs for teachers. He pointed us toward his web site which includes some curricular materials available for download and use.

Bob continued into the second presentation and was joined by Joseph Kerski. Joseph is from United States Geological Survey. Their paper was called "Using GIS to Transform the Mathematical Landscape." As one would gather from that title, their strong emphasis was on the possibilities they see in having GIS a much greater contribution to Math curricula (echoes of one of yesterday's presentations).

Next came "Why Do Kids Want GIS in Their Classroom?" by Barbaree Ash Duke from North Carolina State University. Ms. Duke presented a convincing set of examples and some testimonials from students (via video) of the great interest the students she's worked with had for the projects and explorations they had done using geographical data and GIS software. They specifically mentioned that these projects were more interactive.

Michelle Frankel, of Earthspan, Inc., brought this morning session to an end with her paper, "Eye of the Falcon: An Environmental Science Curriculum Utilizing GIS and Satellite-Based Wildlife Tracking." Ms. Frankel presented some fascinating examples of projects done with birds, using the satellite data to plot hibernation paths and, in another case, the nesting patterns of eagles.

After a brief coffee break, the 10:30 session began. I attended a set of presentations under the heading, "Designing Project Based Instroductory Programs."

All three of these presenters focused on the role GIS was playing in the respective institutions:

• Curtis Edson from the military academy at West Point ("Improving GIS and Cartography Topic Integration and Assimilation")
• Yasser Ayad from Clarion University of Pennsylvania ("GIS Education in Rural Pennsylvania: GIS Curriculum at Clarion")
• Wiliiam Harmon from Cabrillo and Ohlone Colleges ("Articulation of GIS in Lower Division Community College Geography Courses")

In retrospect, I think I read too much into the reference to "project based introductory programs" in this session's title and I probably should have made another choice for this time slot. Still, it was interesting to hear of developments in the curricula of some higher ed institutions.

After a lunch off in the Gaslight District, came the first afternoon session. With the moniker "Using Great Data From The Net", I was definitely looking forward to this session. One of the challenges in using GIS well in the classroom is having the data prepared and ready for use by students. This process is complex and not at all like falling off a log. GIS has a fairly complex syntax for organizing and assembling data.

As you'll see from the list of great resources to follow, the potential for finding wonderful data -- and often GIS-ready -- is here and it's quite exciting. Exploring these many great data sources and figuring out how best to use them will take time, but, as I say, this was indeed a most rewarding session.

The first presenter, who I'd already run across yesterday and earlier today -- Joseph Kerski from USGS -- had the first slot at 1:30. His talk was called "Downloading, Formatting, and Using USGS Base Spatial Data Within ESRI GIS Software." Joe proceeded to zoom through his very informative PowerPoint slides and, in the process, showed us a tremendous set of data resources. To whit:
Status Graphics -- Availability of USGS Geospatial Data
The National Map Viewer
Delaware DataMIL (Data Mapping and Integration Laboratory)
National Atlas
Terraserver -- Aerial photos
there is a terraserver tool for GIS available at ESRI Support Site
Earth Explorer (USGS)
USGS Educational Map Catalog
MapLink
National Mapping Program Standards (USGS)
U.S.G.S Topographic Maps California Digital Raster Graphics
Geo Community (source of free DEMs, DRGs, DOQQs, FEMA Flood Data, and more)
USGS Geographical Data
Global Land Cover Facility -- Global imagery
GIS In Education at Rocky Mountain Mapping Center
Downloading and Formatting Earth Images (Topographic Maps and Aerial Photographs) from Terraserver for Recreational, Scientific, Educational, and GIS Use

Whew! When Joseph was finished, I was reeling. It's hard to know where to start other than to say that there are incredible resources out there and so much more to explore and learn. It's also obvious that there is a lot out there for making use of this information and many a rewarding way for it to be used in school. As always, though, the issue of time to explore and dig around remains.

The next presenter was Lyn Malone and she actually had two presentations to do back-to back. The first she called "Online GIS -- The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection." Ms. Malone introduced an incredible site where Mr. Rumsey has made his (apparently) extensive map collection available online. She showed us two specific online sites, one covering Boston and the other the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We were able to see how easy it was to view and compare historical maps going back to the late 1700's up to around 1900. This is a winner!

Lyn next went on to "Online GIS -- Geography Network in the Classroom." This was another incredible site. One great feature here is a web-based GIS tool that seemed to make it possible for mapping projects to be done using this site. This is yet another site that warrants a good long look!

My final stopping place in the late afternoon was a computer lab session addressing "Managing Metadata with ArcCatalog." Taught by ESRI trainer, Peter Kaslanchuk, we got to do a series of exercises and get practice with metadata files and ArcGIS 9.

Looking back, this was a long but exciting day. There is so much material to return to and explore. Much to look forward to!

ESRI Conference -- Day One

The day began with a 7:30 jaunt to get registration materials for the ESRI Educational Users Conference. I’ve wondered for a while just how many people would be attending this event since this is a first for me and, frankly, I have not been sure how many schools out there are making use of geographical information like GIS.

The registration area was fairly busy. As soon as I saw the number of registration cards in the J/K/L box, I realize there were going to be a lot of people here. A lot.

It also became clear that many of the folks arriving here are attending the ESRI International Users Conference which overlaps with the EdUC event. In fact, both groups attend the same plenary sessions and keynote speaker on Monday.

Anyway, we had our own keynote speaker today. As I said yesterday, it was originally scheduled to be Dr. Roberta Johnson. We were informed this morning that, unfortunately, Dr. Johnson had some serious health problems arise in her family and she was unable to attend. In her place we had Dr. Sandra Henderson who is from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) out of Boulder, CO. She spoke of the importance of science, and particularly Earth Science, in the education of our students K-16. The applicability of using ESRI/GIS geographical data in Earth Science is a natural, of course.

ESRI itself also made some announcements about upcoming events and applications. One is a competition called “Best Practices in Science Modeling Competition”. A new, free products called ArcExplorer was also announced. It’s expected to be available in the fall.

Other subjects mentioned that I put on my “check these out” list include:

Virtual Job Search
ESRI Virtual Campus
ArcLessons at ESRI
The GLOBE Program

Then came the first session. I attended the one called “Examples and Suvey of Model Curriculum – K-12 and Universities”. The presenters here focused on “Bloom’s Taxonomy and the UCGIS Model Curriculum Learning Objectives”. The focus of presenter Mike DeMers was the “Strawman Report” being worked on at University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) and urged all of us to take the time to read this report and offer any ideas for additions or changes that we felt were warranted.

Stephen Moore made the second presentation in this session. He was from a non-profit company called Center for Image Processing in Education (CIPE) which describes itself as an organization “that promotes computer-aided visualization as a tool for inquiry-based learning.”

After a noon-time walk around San Diego and lunch, the 1:30 afternoon session for me was “Fieldwork and Class Work”. A series of three presentations that began with a program called Great Outdoors Digital Inside (GODI). This was a great, real-life (and “hands on”) way of getting kids to discover ways to use measurements to study the world around them (in this case, wildfires in Yellowstone Park). Next came Robert MacArthur. He showed his program called Tucson Community Technology Education Network and projects where kids in schools and in after-school programs study aspects of where they live using GIS and ArcView.. The last of these presentations was by Roger Palmer from a company called GISetc. He and his wife have just returned from a trip to Costa Rica where they used GIS data to study many aspects of that country. It was fascinating and he made quite a convincing case as to Costa Rica’s beauty.

My final session of the day was one by ESRI itself which covered the reasons involved in migrating from ArcView 3.x to their current version of ArcGIS (version 9). This was quite fascinating, particularly since one of the first people I talked to this morning (a fellow tech guy from Toronto) was in the midst of moving his computer labs from 3.x to 8. He recommended unhesitatingly to begin the transition. It will not necessarily happen without frustrations but he strongly felt it would be to our advantage to not postpone the shift until later, particularly since we have a license to 8.x (which is very similar to 9), our computers are robust and current enough to support the recommended specs, and our kids all have their own laptops. After this afternoon’s session, I found myself in agreement with his advice.

On to Day Two!

Hello From San Diego

I write from the bright blue of San Diego. I'm here to attend an ESRI Conference.

ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is focused on making the most of geographical information and mapping. You can find a brief summary of ESRI's history here.

Perhaps you've heard of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) or ArcView. One of ESRI's goals is to develop software that allows users to combine geographical, agricultural , population, and topographical information to learn about the world around us and our societies.

ESRI's Educational Users Conference starts tomorrow with a keynote speech by Dr. Roberta Johnson. According to the convention web site, Dr. Johnson's work "emphasizes the power of modeling for understanding changes in the environment." I'm interested to hear what she has to say.

The rest of the conference seems to have a number of sessions that look nicely focused on how to use ArcView/GIS in schools. I'm looking forward to what's in store.

Computers and 3D Design

Although I consider myself to have an appreciation of design and, in particular, architecture, I have not spent much time exploring drawing or design software.

I've come across an application that seems to provide the ability to draw, design, and modify drawings in 3D and to do so with, if not absolute simplicity, at least with a relative lack of complexity which makes it seem great for students to use, even at Middle School age.

The program is called SketchUp. To quote from their introductory blurb:

"Developed for the conceptual stages of design, this powerful, easy-to-learn software allows for quick and easy 3D form creation, modification and communication. Sophisticated enough for complex projects yet accessible for beginners......"

This may be something "down the road" in terms of use at the Middle School, but SketchUp seems to provide a great deal of power and "user-friendliness". In other words, this is an application to keep in mind for a long time.

What Do You Mean COPYRIGHT Does Not Mean I Have the Right to Copy?

Diane Painter begins her story:
A few years ago a sixth grade student came up to me and asked,

"I really like that CD Explorers of the New World. Can I take it home this weekend and make a copy? I will bring it back on Monday.
I responded by saying, "No, you can't do that."
He said, "Oh sure I can. I have a CD burner!"
"No, that's not what I meant," I replied. "You MAY NOT copy the CD. It is copyrighted."
"I know," he answered.
"What do you think I mean when I say, "copyrighted?" I asked.
"I have the right to copy it," he confidently replied.

Returning, as is my wont, to some subjects more than once (or twice even), I'm back to the challenge of copyright and fair use principles. In this age of digitized information and multimedia, how do those prinicples -- and the law governing them -- apply or not apply to our work as teachers. And how aware are our students of all of this?

The above is the title and the beginning of a very interested, thought-provoking, and motivating article at techLEARNING. It looks at the whole question of cyberethics and copyright in our age and addresses it to 5th and 6th graders. Reading this also provides a reminder, if any were necessary, that we can't really ignore or plead ignorance about this issue, particularly since it boils down to one of ethics.

For me, this article also reminds me that I need to be more intentional and proactive about working with and talking to students about this issue.

Take a look at "What Do You Mean COPYRIGHT Does Not Mean I Have The Right to Copy?" by Diane D. Painter. I suspect you'll see what I mean.

Considering A New Browser?

Because of some on-going online security concerns, some people are advocating using browsers other than Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, because of its ubiquity, IE has been repeatedly attacked by hackers who find some vulnerability or another to take advantage of.

I've been trying out an alternate browser in the last month or so. Called Firefox, it's one among a group of browsers available from the Mozilla organization (other browsers include Mozilla and Netscape).

Although some particular features don't seem to always work as seemlessly with Firefox as they did with Internet Explorer, my experience thus far with this new browser has been pretty good. One relatively unimportant but nice side-benefit is that people have put together various themes that change the standard look of Firefox and make the interface more lively and colorful.

If you're looking around for a browser to try, take a look at Firefox.

P.S. Oh, and the price is right.....it's free!

Religions Of The World

As I noted a while back when showing off a terrific web resource about us humans, the BBC World Service continues to amaze and fascinate.

If you have any interest or questions about various religions around the world, the BBC World Service's Your Guide to the Religions of the World will provide you a great deal of information and perspective. Besides text, the site offers multimedia presentations as well, many originally aired on the BBC New Service.

Listening to a family talk about their preparations for Ramadam was most intriguing. I learned a great deal from a capsule biography of the prophet Muhammed. And there was much, much more.

The other major religions covered include Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Sikhism.

Encouraging The Exploration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

The Gender and Science Digital Library (GSDL) is a project aimed at meeting the needs of students from primary grades through college.

To quote from their mission:

The Gender & Science Digital Library (GSDL) aims to provide high-quality digital resources to 1) help educators promote interest and engagement with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education by learners of all ages, particularly females, 2) encourage learners to pursue science education and future careers in science, 3) provide an inter-disciplinary examination of the role of gender in the creation, teaching and learning of science, and 4) build community among all interested users for the purposes of inquiry, information exchange, best practices development and mentoring.

The collection will offer exceptional resources and services that help educators in promoting and implementing gender-equitable science education in both formal and informal settings, to both male and female students, and assisting in increasing female involvement in the sciences. In addition, it will provide resources to researchers and others working to understand the link between gender and science, including how gender influences the development of science and the role of women within science.

To get some idea of the breadth and wealth of material here, start by visiting the FAQ page. There are separate portals for Students, Teachers/Faculty, Adult Learners, and Research. GSDL contains a wealth of useful information.

This is another valuable site and one well worth repeated visits and much exploration.

A Legacy of Star Wars

If you've ever wondered what George Lucas spends his time doing -- when he's not working on a new Star Wars movie, that is -- I've found one place where he has obviously devote time and effort.

Mr. Lucas has a foundation called the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF). This non-profit organization's goal is to document and disseminate "models of the most innovative practices in our nation's K-12 schools." It calls its web site Edutopia Online.

Although my first contact with the GLEF site was about a year ago, I had reason to revisit it this week and was, once again, blown away by the wealth of material here.

For starters, take a look at the videos "Great Team, Great School" and "Laptops For All." GLEF has upwards of 70 additional videos available for online viewing.

The site offers thirteen topics organized in three categories:

Innovative Classrooms

• Assessment
• Emotional Intelligence
• Project-Based Learning
• School-To-Career
• Technology Integration

Skillful Educators

• Mentoring
• Ongoing Professional Development
• Teacher Preparation
• Technology Professional Development

Involved Communities

• Business Partnerships
• Community Partnerships
• Digital Divide
• Parent Involvement

GLEF has a monthly magazine and a weekly e-mail newsletter, both of which are free.

George Lucas' dedication to learning and teaching is manifest in this foundation and website that offers much to those of us interested in helping our students get the most out of their years in school. Well worth a thorough look.

Image Typing

A downloaded picture using Hello & Picasa 

Time and Time Again

Finding time seems to be a challenge for a lot of us. Most of the people I run into are hurrying from one thing to another, trying their best not to be late. Or taking out their day planners and trying to squeeze in that doctor's appointment or quick errand.

When you think more globally about time, you can get quite taken up with thinking about what people the world over are doing at any particular moment. Or you might have relatives or friends some distance away. Imagining what they're doing -- or if it's not too late to give them a call -- can be fun.

A site to check out if you want to think about all sorts of measures of time is Time and Date.Com. You can start with the World Clock and see the time in the most remote places. There are calendars you generate according to your own specifications.

You can even enter your birthday and see what time/day/year it is when you've been alive for, oh say, 2,000,000,000 seconds or 15,000 days old.

Useful tools here include being able to determine the time in any time zone at the moment or at some other specified date/time of your choosing. There are also places where you can find out what the time zone abbreviations mean and what places do or don't observe daylight savings time.

When you have a sec, check out Time and Date.Com.

Just Amazing!

It does not take a degree in rocket science or a stint in medical school to recognize that the human being is one amazing (and amazingly complex) organism. Whether from a psychological or physicological standpoint, we are -- I can't help saying it again -- amazing.

We figured out that we were pretty complex animals (and way cool compared to just about anything else out there on two or four feet) long before there was an Internet or computers were around supposedly making our lives better. Human beings have long recognized that we are made up of incredibly intricate systems and elaborate structures that hold us together and keep us going (and growing). If anything technology has helped us see even greater complexities than we ever knew existed.

I do think, though, that the power of computers and the Internet can make the study and appreciation of what makes us tick all the more rewarding when applied effectively and creatively..

And that's exactly how I'd characterize the BBC's Human Body and Mind web site. Actually part of the BBC's web presence -- which has other resources including Health, Lifestyle, Children's, Entertainment, News, Sports, Music, and Business/Money -- start by clicking the link to Science and Nature.

This portion of the BBC site is incredible in and of itself. With information about Animals, Prehistoric Life, and Space there as well, go to Human Body and Mind. From there you can diverge off into the portion covering The Mind or The Body.

We used the interactive features in our study of muscles and joints last year. Kids and teachers alike were pretty much blown away by what the BBC has made available here. I really can't begin to describe the depth and imaginative presentation of this material.

Rather, I urge you to take a few moments and visit this site. Oh, and pick a time when you don't have a lot else going on. Once you start exploring, you'll be endlessly fascinated. Like any amazing story, you won't want to stop discovering more and more.

Hurray! It's The Weekend

It's Friday and, while not technically the weekend yet, it's not too early to think about things to do.

As a sort of follow-up to the movie database I wrote about a few days back (the Internet Movie Database), I got to thinking about: so you figure out a movie I'd like to see, then what do you do?

One option to consider is a service like Netflix. For a monthly fee (around $22, I think), you can choose DVDs from their extensive collection which are mailed to your home. You can have up to 3 movies at a time. When you're finished viewing a flick, you pop it back in the mailer and return it to Netflix. As soon as they receive it, they send you another movie from your list. There are no late fees; you can keep movies as long as you wish.

Another choice for checking out DVDs is to go through your local public library. If the fact that you have to take your turn and wait until the people ahead of you "in line" have returned the movie is a disadvantage, the advantage is the price: in most places....free (remember, it's one of my favorite words!). You also get to practice your virtue of patience!

And, of course, you can always go to your local movie rental store.

However you get your hands on a DVD to watch, this may be a good weekend to fire up the DVD player, the popcorn in the microwave, and bring the cinema home!

Thinking About Technology and Schools

Although you already know this, if you've nosed around this blog at all, the topics entertained here range widely, if not randomly (....maybe....).

Since I spend a lot of time working and thinking about it, you won't be surprised, however, to notice that technology and its integration into the school setting and, especially, the classroom is a subject area to which I return.

A couple important resources in thinking about and doing something about finding the tools that will help technology do a better job -- and teachers do a better job -- at enhancing kids' learning are the Teacher Quality Collaboratory (part of 21st Century Education project at jointventure.org) and Least Tern.

The Teacher Quality Collaboratory has numerous resources that focus and professional deveopment for teachers, including guiding principles and rubrics to measure growth.

Least Tern is an extremely rich resource. I can't do much better to summarize this site but to quote their opening statements:

We provide training and support for the integration of technology into the curriculum.
We support and encourage learning through collaboration, inquiry and communication.

Both of these web resources are outstanding.

The New iPods

If you believe everything you hear and read, Apple's iPod is in the hands (and ears) of just about everybody who's anybody. I guess I'm not anybody because I don't yet have one. But they do look very cool, compact, and beautifully engineered. I assume, with the right set of headphones, the music sounds great, too.

Matt Lauer even did a segment on the new iPods announced by Apple during today's Today Show.

In case you're interested in a little peek at how the iPod came to be, check out the article "Inside Look at the Birth of the iPod" by Leander Kahney in Wired News.

One of the Best, Historically Speaking

Finding the "best" of something is what a lot of people spend a lot of time doing. When it comes to finding the highest quality web sites for just about any purpose, simply typing in a search string into Google typically gives you a lot of links to check out but no real way to judge how good or relevant each of those sites is.

Not surprisingly, a number of "Best of........" sites have sprung up to help people find really useful sites without having to spend hours checking hundreds of sites themselves.

In the realm of history and social studies, I recommend a web portal called Best of History Web Sites. Historical sites are grouped by era (e.g. Prehistory, Ancient/Biblical, Medieval, 20th Century, US History, Art History, etc.) and by rating (top rating is five stars). There are also links to Maps, Multimedia, Lesson Plans/Activities, and Resources.

There is a vast amount of material represented here and I've only begun to scratch the tiniest surface layer. My early sets of exploration, though, have taken me to fascinating and very useful resources. And that luck included the exploration of lesson plan and classroom activity resources that are included here.

I would highly recommend Best of History Web Sites for all students of history.

Are You A J.K. Rowling Fan?

I'm not a rabid Harry Potter fan but I must say that my first impression of author J.K. Rowling's web site is....wow!

Maybe I'm easily impressed by animations and interactive elements. Still, I'd give it a "thumbs up" and suggest you consider a visit.

Movies, Movies, and More About Movies

One of the things people like to do on weekends -- although maybe not on weekends with the beautiful weather we had on this particular one -- is go to the movies.

An online place where you can find just about anything you might want to know about movies is The Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Information about movies currently in theatres, movies of the past, movie stars, the creative folks behind the scenes, movie reviews....and more.....is available here.

Check it out before, or after, you go to the show!

Have A Question About Computers? Ask Leo!

The web has many sites that offer tutorials and how-tos about just about any software application you can name. In lots of cases, the quality of these sites is very high. Often there are resources for beginners, as well as intermediate and experienced users.

There are times, though, when you have a question that you'd like the answer to. Sure, you can do a Google search and maybe come up with the solution.

But there are times when the search doesn't do it or you just would like to ask somebody.

A site I've explored a bit is called Ask Leo! Leo Notenboom says he's been in the industry 25 years. At this website, he provides a place where you can submit a question and he'll send out an answer. As nice as that is, the site is set up so you can easily scan the recently asked questions. Plus, there's a way to search the archive of questions narrowed by category or the whole shebang.

Seems like an excellent resource.

Interested In Wireless Networking?

Connecting to the Internet via a wireless connection is becoming quite common. We've had wireless access at school for a couple years. In some parts of the country there are cities trying out wireless access in some neighborhoods. And we all see more and more wireless access
being offered in places like McDonalds and Starbucks.

The technologies that make wireless systems work are continually evolving and, in particular, getting faster and faster.

The article "New Zip for Networking" by Sean Captain in today's New York Times Circuits section spells out some of the changes and improvements underway.

Too Good To Be True?

Wouldn't it be great if we could access our high-speed broadband ISP by simply plugging our computer into a standard electrical wall socket?

Sounds like this scenario is now a distinct possibility. Take a look at "Is Broadband Out of a Wall Socket the Next Big Thing?," written by James Fallows and published July 11 in the New York Times.

I-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g.

OneLook and Over Six Million Words

As I'm clicking and clacking away on e-mail or word processing, I've gotten more and more in the habit of nabbing definitions or checking spelling online. Not long ago I discovered that, among the many other things it can do, Google can give you short, succinct word definitions. All you have to do is type in the search field "define:" [no quotes] followed by a space and the word you want defined. For example, type "define: miscellanea" [again, no quotes] and in a split second you'll get a concise definition of miscellanea and a link to the source of that definition. Kind of a handy feature right there in our familiar search engine....but.....

Consider checking out OneLook. This is like an online meta dictionary. Like meta search engines, which sends out your search string to multiple separate search engines and brings back the separate results, OneLook sends out the word you want defined to multiple online dictionaries. The results are listed by specific dictionary.

OneLook says "6,097,226 words in 970 dictionaries indexed". That's quite a lot of words to explore!

But there is more: OneLook also offers translations and a "reverse dictionary" feature. Check out their About OneLook page which does a good job of laying out the tools they offer.

OneLook may not be the answer to all your questions about words, but I think you'll discover, as I have, the more you use OneLook the more you'll like it and find it useful.

Nothing Is Much Better Than The Word.....FREE!

Seeing the word "Free" attached to something always catches my eye, I must confess. But I've also been around the block enough to know that the promise of getting something for nothing rarely turns out as, well, price-less as the word "free" tempts one into believing.

Still, the allure of the label "free" continues to lure us in.

In the world of computers programs and utilities, there are many talented and generous-minded creative minds out there creating handy things we can use on our computers. They often are in the freeware/shareware slice of the online world out there.

I've come across a site that has a range of free and not-too-expensive support sites. The main page features a listing of the 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities. In addition to that you'll find links to handy shareware (programs that are not free but often inexpensive) and sites where you can get answers to support questions.

I want to explore the site more thoroughly, but, like I said, that word FREE gets my attention every time.

Fiery and Spectacular!

I know it's a little on the late side for the 2004 celebration of July 4th, but I came across this site called Kaboom! that I couldn't resist. Actually fireworks displays take place more often than just the 4th of July (I've seen them at a Mariners game and, heck, even at Seattle Opera [indoors no less]), so this fascinating information is relevant many times of the year.

If you've ever wondered what makes fireworks tick (and then explode!), you'll love this site sponsored by NOVA and PBS.

More About Copying and Copyright -- This Time With DVDs

As a sort of follow-up to yesterday's post about copyright and fair use, here's an article reviewing some of the issues involved in the debate about the legality -- again an aspect of the fair use doctrine in copyright law -- in people being able to copy DVDs they own.

DVDs come with anti-copying protections built into the disks but programs have been written and distributed that over-ride those protections and allow the DVDs to be copied.

Lawsuits have been filed and decisions rendered. Programs making the copying possible have been outlawed; new programs (many free and available for download via the 'net) have been produced to continue to make copying DVDs possible.

Difficult to know how this will utlimately play out. It's clear that the major movie studios are pressuring hard to keep the anti-copying protections in place. It's also clear that a number of people are feeling that, if they own the DVD (just like with their audio CDs), they should be able to make a back-up copy in case the kids mess up the original or if they want to view a movie they bought on their laptop without schlepping around the disks.

I suspect we'll hear more about this as the battlelines get drawn.....

Copyright and the Classroom

Getting a grip on the state of copyright law in the digital age is one great big challenge. Teachers, students, administrators, and parents have to be aware of the basic tenets of the actual law in the form of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998.

Ah, but there's more. All of us also have to get well-acquainted with the concept enshrined in the DMCA called "fair use". Intended to allow for access to material in the furtherance of research and education, and also to provide a mechanism for copyrighted work to be "transformed" (as in commented on or parodied). Much information about fair use can be found such as the Copyright and Fair Use Overview at Stanford University.

One way to test your own knowledge of the implications of educational fair use and your teaching and your students' research is to take a quick online quiz by Hall Davidson. You may be surprised at the results! (Quiz answers available here.)

As educators, we have the obligation to know the law and to model the proper use of copyrighted materials. Some of the resources I've included here can help you figure out how to stay within that ethical framework.

Yeah Spiderman!

I don't know about your household, but ours has been quite excited of late with the opening last Wednesday of Spiderman 2. Its arrival was the number one priority of our 5-year-old and, yes, we went to see it on opening day.

The theatre (the Cinerama -- what a great movie theatre!) was sold-out. The movie was great. We had a wonderful time. And it's a hit!

Now the challenge is to not break the bank by going back too often!

Filtering Web Access? No Easy Answers

The decision handed down by the Supreme Court at the end of the '03-'04 term that kept in place an injunction blocking enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) "until its validity can be resolved" has brought to center-stage the question of what is the best way to offer our students online access while, at the same time, protecting them from the dangers and inappropriate content out there.

As a member of the adult community in a school that does not currently filter any of the online access provided to students or adults -- and especially as a member of the technology team -- we have struggled, especially in recent years, with how to balance what some might view as academic freedom or freedom of speech with the responsibilities we have, as faculty and staff, to provide protection for the students who are in our charge.

Three articles from the New York Times form a fairly good summary both of the case, the issues, and some thoughts about the effectiveness (or not) of filters. The article about the court case can be found here, a more general look at the challenges of writing a law such as the COPA that must meet the test of free speech as laid out in the US Constitution is here, and some thoughts on filtering can be found here.

One resource mentioned in the article that seems well worth taking a good long look at is called GetNetWise. In the brief look I was able to give it, there are obviously many very helpful tools and information that can help us as parents and teachers as we try to navigate these unclear waters.

Selling Soap.....I mean....Electing a President

Although things haven't really gotten fired up -- what with the fall-out from the primaries determined long ago and the Republican and Democratic conventions yet to happen -- but pretty much everyone is aware that a presidential election is happening.

One place where it's pretty difficult to escape the convention, even now these months before the election, is on the tube. Both the Kerry and Bush campaigns have been spending big bucks on political commercials trying to demonize the other guy and/or reinforce their own proximity to perfection.

An online site that enables us to not only look at the current crop of commercials, but to take a look back at presidential politic polemics, at least through the view of the tv screen and political advertising.

The site is called The Living Room Candidate and is part of the American Museum of the Moving Image.

I'm still back looking at the commercials used during the Eisenhower/Stevenson and Kennedy/Nixon eras, but they have them, as I said, right up to the present campaign.

By the way, you can view them by campaign year but also by categories (biolgraphical, fear, documentary, commander-in-chief, etc.) or by issue (civil rights, taxes, war, welfare, etc.).

One amazing source that gives us a look at the political process and cultural change, not to mention the change in television as a medium and advertising as an "art."

Spyware? Should You Care?

The installation of "spyware" and similar programs that can record activity (keystrokes, web site visits, etc.) on your computer has, no doubt, already happen unbeknownst to you.

More and more of this category of invasive computer "malware" is getting added to people's machines as they click around the Internet. Again, unless you have a program installed on your computer to counter (and delete/destroy) spyware, you have no idea that this stuff is getting placed on your computer.

Like most things, the best place to start in becoming able to combat spyware and keep it from reporting things about your computer activity, not to mention slowing down your computer's performance, is knowing what you're up against.

Mike Emery, of New Philadelphia City Schools, has written a very good summary that describes what we are all up against. He also includes some excellent and practical advice on how you can minimize or completely avoid these invaders. This description is well-written and well-worth the time to read.

Mike's document is called: Spyware, Malware, and Adware (this is a .pdf file)

If you would like to really dive into the whole question of adware, spyware, and maintaining your computer's security and integrity, you might want to read Removing Spyware by Michael Horowitz. Mr. Horowitz goes into a great deal of detail and is also quite fascinating.

Clippy's Demise

Not everything in the world of computers is simple and uncomplicated. Heck, not everything is trouble-free, let alone "user friendly." Some would say (would I?) that anyone using a computer must prepare her/himself to be downright annoyed now and then!

While there's not always a solution or the thing will freeze or it will blithely delete the new revisions or it will shutdown of its own accord (and lose everything you didn't save AGAIN!), a web site provides some help and, maybe, comfort.

It's called -- logically enough -- Annoyances.org. What will you find there?

Annoyances.org lays out some of the truly annoying things about using computers and some explanations as to what is going on. It also gives you some how-to advice to improve the reliability and performance of your computer (we're talking the Windows OS, here).

Other subject areas covered include networking, customizing Windows, and trouble-shooting. If that's not enough, there are discussion forums covering the various versions of Windows. Last, but not least, is a whole section on "humor" (speaking of....their home page features an animation in which a foot squishes dear-old Clippy [that animated "helper" in Office]) to take away the sting on those not-so-good computing days.

Next time your computer gets annoying, stop by Annoyances.org for the antidote!

Got questions about MS Office?

There are many, many online resources that offer a wide range of help with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
One that I'd invite you to consider looking at is The Office Letter. Current and previous issues of the Standard Edition are available free. You can also subscribe to an online newsletter (at the "standard" level) for free.
For $12/year, the Premium edition offers all the content of the Standard edition plus more (and no advertising).
This seems like a very helpful resource for questions about using Office apps.

So you want to do an Internet Search?

Doing an Internet search for information is something most of us do many times each day. The search engine of choice for a lot of people is (no surprise, here): Google

My guess is that a lot of you out there do what I often do: I find that I need to find out something about something and so I type something into the search field and click Search. One of the reasons so many gazillion people use Google is that it's darn good and coming up with results to queries that often hit the proverbial nail on the head or it's the third or fourth result shown on the first page.

That's not to say that the quality of the results you get could not be improved by entering better crafted search inquiries to begin with. And we haven't seen the many other things Google can do.

So, today I want to point you to a tool provided by Google itself about itself. There's a GoogleGuide that provides information, tutorials, hints, and tips galore.

You have built-in options to skip the most basic introductory information and move to tips for more experienced users.

Searching is covered, of course, but so are some of the features you may not realize that Google offers. Like what? Like being an online dictionary. Like being your calculator. A way to find someone's phone numbers. And there are more..........

With the GoogleGuide, start with the link to Contents. Nose around as much or as little as you have time for. I have no doubt that we will be confronted with an ever-increasing (ballooning?) amount of information on the Internet in coming weeks, months, years (duh). To me this (obviously) means that smart searches will save ever-increasing (ballooning?) amounts of time while giving us more of the information you actually need!

I figure time spent getting to know Google better will be time well spent. Check out the GoogleGuide!