Category: General

Friday afternoon and I have time to do some online exploration. It would be interesting to know if I post more frequently on Fridays than on other days of the week.The Apple Education Site has a feature on Digital Kids. The concept is essentially that our kids live in a different world and think different (I apologize, but I thought Apple might like that last comment. If you have no idea why that was supposed to be funny, you can still access the site on your Windows machine). Their daily experiences and their tools of choice are different than our own were or are and these differences shape motivation and priorities. While I can’t believe this is really true for all/many kids, it is an interesting challenge. I encourage you to explore the site (video clips, etc.) and see what you think.

Modern search engines make it easy to locate online resources. Some (Google) make use of data gathering techniques that even move supposedly “better” (translate “more popular”) sites toward the top of the list. Still, it is nice to locate a portal that offers a human touch – opinions and descriptions connected with web URLS. techLEARNING.com (the web site associated with Technology & Learning magazine) offers a resource of this type. This is a good site to explore.

This link falls into the category of “must see” and provides a virtual tour of the Sydney Opera House. The technology demonstrates both the potential and the practical application of Flash.

Cindy and I had the opportunity to visit Sydney in the summer of 2002 and these images take me back to boat trip we took past this very impressive structure.

I should have expected this – campaign blogs. It makes sense I guess. Get your evolving message out to those who care, rally the troops, etc.

I backed in to this one. Howard Dean (candidate and govenor of Vermont) has posted his Internet Principles. I did not not examine his web site in sufficient detail to determine how “Internet Principles” fit into some larger agenda. I gather that a serious discussion of the “Internet as Gift” is part of some broader “Great American Conversation.”

Does President Bush have a blog? There appear to be several parody sites, an official re-election site offering material for other blogs, etc. I don’t know if George Bush has a blog.

I am always interested in new blogging tools and services. .Mac (the set of online services you can purchase from Apple) now includes iBlog (the client software) and the templates, database space, server resources necessary to create and serve blogs. The version of iBlog given away without cost to those with a .MAC account works only with .MAC. The full commercial version ($30 if I remember correctly) allows content to be uploaded by FTP and WEBDAV so this might be a possibility for anyone with access to server storage space.

Would I purchase a .Mac account so I had access to iBlog? Probably not. However, if I had no other resources at my disposal a .Mac account would not be a bad investment. Demo

Blog was developed by Lifli Software.

Secretary Paige recently hosted a showcase providing examples of the use of technology to meet NCLB expectations in rural settings (eSchool News). Rural schools have difficulty meeting requirements for “highly qualified teachers” and technology can facilitate the efforts of rural teachers to improve personal qualifications or can bring more qualified teachers to rural schools through distance education.

Tne National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has released the most recent CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act) study. This is a good current source for descriptions of protection measures and statistics associated with Internet use in schools.

Issues of overblocking and underblocking are discussed, but the general tone of the review is positive.