The New York Times (you may have to register to review this article) ran an article in the Sunday Book Review section entitled (You get what you pay for). This article addresses online sites willing to sell students term papers, book reports, etc. The author describes purchasing some papers and offers a review.
If you are cheap, you paper may be believable. Great …
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It is my opinion that tablet PCs are the next big thing for education. Contrary to the promotion of Palm-like products by some very influential sources, the present PDAs lack an adequate display, lack a reasonable method for input, and are simply not powerful enough to provide students useful and efficient tools for education. It is kind of like going back to the old Apple 2e days without the keyboard. An inexpensive tablet (I would hope about $750) would be small enough and powerful enough. I obviously am very interested in Apple products and have been hoping Apple would create a product for the tablet market. I have even predicted (incorrectly) that a tablet Mac would be the big announcement at previous Apple trade shows.
So here are a couple of rumors …
1) A tablet is on the way – see The Register
2) HyperCard will rise again (I can’t reveal my source on this one) 
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Most folks do not worry about things like whether or not Internet should begin with an upper-case I. The outlets for my writing do seem to care. Actually, they probably only care that I have some rule in my head that I am able to follow consistently. Until now, my rule has been to begin references to THE Web in “caps” (e.g., Internet, Web).
Now, it appears I will have to unlearn my rule. Wired magazine now reports that the rule has changed. This makes sense to me, but it also means I will have to use my word processor to search for all of the “Internets” and “Webs” in the ms. I am now revising and make changes. I would not want to appear unknowledgeable on such matters.
So — repeat after me — the Internet is just the internet.
P.S. – I am not editing previous posts to this blog. All errors – punctuation, spelling, capitalization — will stand as originally committed.
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I hate it when someone takes a term I think I understand and links it with something else in a way that confuses me. “Literacy” is a good example. It seemed to me that there used to just be “literacy.” Now there is “computer literacy” “media literacy”, “digital literacy”, and “information literacy.”
What confuses me even more is when the same new term seems to mean multiple things. A link (Mandate for Digital Literacy) that I encountered today is a good example. Digital literacy is described in this source as the computer skills competency of an individual to function in the workplace. This link, describing the work of the Global Digital Literacy Council, commercial enterprises (e.g., Certiport , and ISTE is pressing for “digital literacy” standards and assessments.
Here is what confuses me – what this group describes sounds like what I understand to be “computer literacy” – hardware, software basics, productivity apps (word processing, spreadsheet), Internet basics, etc. “The GDLC, or Global Digital Literacy Council, is playing a lead role in the development of desktop application standards and professional competence certifications, and is garnering the collective wisdom of experts worldwide to help drive work towards a general Information Technology (IT) literacy definition.”
On my bookshelf is a 1997 book entitled “digital literacy” (Paul Gilster). Is this book about hardware, software, and productivity apps? No. It is about it about Internet “information” and what makes this source of information unique and what skills are necessary to use information in this form productively.
Maybe this is one of those “political coalitions” attempting to work together to get their skills listed among the required standards.
Are these skills related? Well, kind of, but so is writing and penpersonship.
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Following the Olympics? The Official Olympic Web Site provides a window on the games. The Official USA Site provides a more focused perspective.
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Most of us recognize that the Internet operates under few constraints and recent events have revealed just how groups with diverse and competing agendas use the web.
Educators are concerned that students will find “information” that will promote beliefs inconsistent with the common educational agenda. Some are unfamiliar with the reality of such concerns. An article from the Guardian provides comments about such sites.
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EdTech types seem less interested in gender issues than used to be the case. Perhaps it is now assumed that there is no longer a “digital divide” in this area.
There is clearly at least one exception and that concerns the interest in “Computer Science.” Newsweek offers a recent article on this topic.
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