Author: grabe

Did you wonder how cutting the budget without increasing taxes was going to work? Partly, existing programs will have to go. It appears that the $500 million Enhancing Education Through Technology state block grant program is to be cut (see eSchool News). So if this ends up happening, we now have no PT3 program to prepare teachers to use technology and we have no EETT program to assist schools in supporting technology. We do have “No Child Left Behind” (requiring highly qualified teachers and improved student performance) and we do have the National Technology Plan (expecting improved teacher training, access to broadband, etc.). In other words, we have several unfunded mandates with the most severe consequences for settings with the greatest difficulty in replacing funds at the district level (which of course would simply be a local rather than a federal tax). Seems fair to me 😉

ISTE comment on EETT cuts.

Google intends to offer a map service (maps.google.com) and it is now available in beta. The service uses an interesting interface allowing the user to zoom in or out (see location of my office below – the arrow is my addition).

I did not think the method for getting directions was intuitive. Enter a text description of start and end points (e.g., harvard and university grand forks to minneapolis).

No matter what level of education, laboratory experiences are expensive. The expense may involve the cost of the equipment, the materials, safety accommodations, etc. Even in my field, cognitive and educational psychology, this is the case. While we moved away from specialized equipment and now mostly rely on computers, there is still the matter of the software.

APA’s education directorate (American Psychological Association) and the National Science Foundation have provided resources to create an online lab for psychology. The idea is to offer opportunities to participate in “classic” psychological experiments over the Internet and then download data for analysis and discussion. The site promotes itself to secondary and small college psychology instructors. The site also encourages researchers to generate their own experiments and gather data from Intro students at other institutions.

This site is the first psychology component of the National Science Digital Library.

I just encountered an article (Yahoo News) concerning RSS blog feeds and copyright. Why would anyone generate a blog and then be concerned about people picking up the content through an RSS feed? I am trying to understand how this could be an issue. Perhaps the “author” has some method for generating revenue based on the number of visits to his/her site. Beats me.

I have been exploring the copyright issues associated with the TEACH Act. Anyone who writes about copyright seems to run into the same problem. The answers people want are seldom clarified in the law. There is also the matter of interpreting if some vague concept applies to your situation. That is why we all say – I am not a lawyer and this information is intended for educational use. Contact a lawyer if you are looking for answers. By the way, I called a lawyer with my questions yesterday. He said he would get back to me. 🙂

CNET recently carried an article on the Quest of Nicholas Negroponte (formerly, I think, of the MIT Media Lab) for very inexpensive laptop computers. His intent is to develop a machine for education in countries with many low income families. Digital learning resources would be part of the plan. This is not speculation – a prototype exists.

Wonder how phishing works. Here is an example. I received the following complete with several eBay graphics and lots of official looking text.

I have never used eBay. It also turned out that many of the links other eBay pages from the site (such as to eBay itself) would not function.

Dear eBay Member,
We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due to the violation of our site policy below: False or missing contact information – Falsifying or omitting your name, address, and/or telephone number (including use of fax machines pager numbers, modems or disconnected numbers). Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This prohibition includes the registering of a new account. Please note that any seller fees due to eBay will immediately become due and payable. eBay will charge any amounts you have not previously disputed to the billing method currently on file.

you are required to verify your eBay account by following the link below.

LINK DELETED

We appreciate your support and understating, as we work together to keep eBay a safe place to trade.

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

The BBC reports that forensic experts are concerned adolescent blogs will attract sexual predators. The article suggests young bloggers should be given some guidance as to what to avoid devulging online.