Learning Aloud

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has released the results of a survey of children’s use of the Internet – Connected to the Future. While the report demonstrates the continued existence of the digital divide, the report concludes that underserved groups are connecting.

Some findings:
Home use of Internet by income level – high income – 66%, middle income – 49%, low income – 29%.
Parents influence how children use the Internet and a proportion are satisfied with how it is being used.
37% of homes with children have broadband access
Time spent online similar to time spend viewing television (3.1 television vs. 2.9 online).

Learning Time offers an interview of John Bailey – U.S. Department of Education Director of Educational Technology. The Learning Times Network does require that you register before you will be allowed to connect. Note that a direct link to this presentation is not available available. If the link to the “No child left behind” interview does not appear on the home page, look for in in the archives.’

I am visiting my mom for a couple of days. She uses a webtv box to access the Internet. This system uses a standard tv as a monitor, a very simplified computer (not storage device), and connects to the Internet through a built-in modem. It is kind of the model for some of the educational approaches that feel Internet access using standard computers is too expensive. It is a little different, but it works.

I happen to be looking through my sever log file and I noticed hits from “turnitin.com.” I was not certain what this was. TurnItIn provides educational institution plagiarism assessment services. I suppose my web site would potentially be a source of information students might “lift” for classroom papers.

So long from Iowa – that’s where the tall corn grows.

Here is a good source for information about the educational potential of blogs – a page authored by Jay Cross entitled “Learn to blog — blog to learn.

This is the type of thing that drives me crazy. I am developing interative web pages using PHP and MySQL. I am getting things to work, but the process is slow. I see a Macromedia Dreamweaver MX ad indicating that Dreamweaver allows for easy integration of database content using PHP and MySQL. I install the software and I can get it to connect to the web site,but not to the database server. After fooling around for a few hours, I find the following page offered by Macromedia Support. The message suggests that OS X users download the trial version and test it first before they purchase MX. The message, in clear terms such as “this is still a buggy product and you might want to test it to see if it really offers the services we say it offers”, did not appear on the web site. I am not used to reading the technical notes until AFTER I purchase a product.

C/NET News reports that the inquiry of vendor fraud associated with the e-rate program continues. It appears that lax oversight as encouraged inaccarate reporting of actual costs.

It is spring break and a chance to get out of town. I have been planning a trip to Iowa. I understand this is not what everyone considers an exciting spring break getaway. Anyway, the weather for mid-week looks a little “iffy” – perhaps a winter storm. Why take a safe trip to a warm climate when you can enjoy the “excitement” of a winter storm.

I cannot leave until Wednesday morning so I have been watching the progression of the storm using the Weather Underground. This is a great source for info, forcasts, maps, etc.