Educational CyberPlayGround

NetHappenings Newsletter

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NHN: 5/3/05 NETHAPPENINGS NEWSLETTER #24

NEW THIS WEEK for NHN
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NHnewsletter.html>
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Dear Readers,

Net Happenings Newsletter, launched by the Educational
CyberPlayGround, features both news and resources.
Karen Ellis* Founder of the Educational CyberPlayGround,
Guavaberry Books and the National Children's Folksong
Repository invites others to help sponsor NHN sent
to members of the NetHappenings Mailing List.

NETHAPPENINGS NEWSLETTER
Written by Classroom Teacher Alan Haskvitz
1997 National Teacher's Hall of Fame
All USA Today First Team Teacher
Reader's Digest Hero in Education
Cherry International Award for Outstanding Teachers
1994 National Middle Level Teacher of the Year (NCSS)
[e]
[w] http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Ringleaders/al.html
Edited by Karen Ellis Founder of ECP
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/AboutUs/

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IN THIS ISSUE
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IN THE NEWS

- U.S. Secretary of Education Spellings continued her campaign to make No Child Left Behind Act seem flexible.
- Meanwhile, back at the Texas ranch, NCLB fines totaling nearly a half million are levied against Texas for non-compliance.
- National Board Certification for Teachers published research questioned. NBPTS research work gets blistering assessment.
- Kansas revisits the evolution debate A more conservative State Board of Education will review science standards
- Ten highest-radiation cell phones (U.S.) & a new cell phone thats designed specifically for little kids.
- Voice and video files streamed over the net could be made untappable and ultra-secure in the next few years
- State Attorney General Steven Rowe to join a lawsuit against NCLB filed last week by the NEA.
- FTC seeks comment on rules protecting children's privacy online
- The Spys in the next cube - Industrial Espionage


INTERESTING SITES

- CorpWatch counters corporate-led globalization through education, network-building and activism.
- ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management
- Federal Reserve Education
- Music And Copyright Laws
- Top Ten US Psych Hospitals


SITES YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW EXISTED

- Free video: Yoga with Your Cat
- Weird Patents from the UK
- Fight Censorship
- internet Tech Tools
- The $100.00 Lap Top

WE ARE NOT ALONE

- Canadian study reveals bulling and victimization at a significant level
- The crisis in education in the Muslim World

FACTOIDS

- Is the younger population is more educated than the older population?
- What motivates middle school students?
- The U.S. Department of Education has fined Texas $444,000
- The single stringed instrument with the wire strung between two nails


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IN THE NEWS
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U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings tried to gain support for No Child Left Behind Act by telling educators she remains open to more ways of relaxing standards.
http://tinyurl.com/cka8u

The Texas Department of Education was fined $444,282 by the U.S. Education Department on Friday for not providing state test results to school districts on time as a requirement of NCLB.
http://tinyurl.com/b9hvc

National Board Certification for Teachers published research questioned.
The NBPTS has been in existence for 20 years and what little research they have produced is now being questioned.
http://tinyurl.com/9dhre

Kansas revisits the evolution debate
A more conservative State Board of Education will review science standards
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7644056/
Teaching Evolution vs. Intelligent Design Theory
http://tinyurl.com/create.php

Ten highest-radiation cell phones (U.S.)
http://tinyurl.com/avjso
Before a cell phone can be put on the U.S. market, it has to live up to a lot of federal regulations and one of them is the maximum SAR level. 1.6 W/kg maximum, confirmed by the Federal Communications Commission "The FCC limit for public exposure from cellular telephones is an SAR level of 1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg)."
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/sar/
And a new cell phone from FireFly Mobile Inc. http://www.fireflymobile.com thats designed specifically for little kids.
Among other things, Firefly has a 911 button on its side for emergencies and its battery isn't removable because, according to the company's CEO, kids put their tongues on batteries.

Quantum leap in secure web video Algorithms of 1s and 0s are used to encrypt data, making it secure
Voice and video files streamed over the net could be made untappable and ultra-secure in the next few years
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4496893.stm

Vowing that Maine must "fight back" against the federal government's underfunding of NCLB mandates, Gov. John Baldacci is urging state Attorney General Steven Rowe to join a lawsuit against NCLB filed last week by the NEA.
http://tinyurl.com/autay

FTC seeks comment on rules protecting children's privacy online
The Federal Trade Commission is examining whether to retain five-year-old rules aimed at protecting the personal information of children using the Internet. The rules restrict how Web site operators and online services may obtain personal information from children under 13.
http://tinyurl.com/7pgww
The rules restrict how Web site operators and online services may obtain personal information from children under 13. To help the FTC decide whether to retain, eliminate or modify the rules, the agency is asking for
public comment on current practices for collecting and disclosing children's information; children's ability to access information they want, and the prevalence of child-targeted sites. Comments are due June 27.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/04/coppacomments.htm

The Spys in the next cube - Industrial Espionage
"Corporate America ought to be darned worried," Davis said. "If you are a major corporation with very sensitive technology, you have been targeted. Somebody is spying on you right now."
http://tinyurl.com/d8yqw


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INTERESTING SITES
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CorpWatch counters corporate-led globalization through education, network-building and activism.
<http://www.corpwatch.org/>

Copyright, Copyleft. Music Law, Self Publish, Plagiarism
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/SECURITY.html
Music And Copyright Laws
CopyRight Free Composition
The Open Audio License
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Lawsuit
JIBJAB, This Land is Your Land

Top Ten US Psych Hospitals
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/000839.html
and http://tinyurl.com/7n9tc

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SITES YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW EXISTED
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Free video: Yoga with Your Cat
<http://www.yogakitty.com/>

Singing Fish for audio and video
http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp

Weird Patents from the UK
Not for the conservative reader
<http://www.patent.freeserve.co.uk>

Fight Censorship
censorware vs. privacy & anonymity, filters, Cyber Patrol , Net Nanny
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/censor.html

Internet Tech Tools
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Internet/tools.html
How to make a tiny URL, it's very useful
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/tinyurl.html

$100.00 Lap Top
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
The MIT Media Lab is launching a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptopa technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. The idea was announced by Nicholas Negroponte, Lab chairman and co-founder, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005.
update 2006: Cheap computers for the world's poor could mean big security headaches. The $100 One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is inviting hackers to break test out and even break the security on the upcoming computers. Speaking at the Toorcon computer security convention, OLPC representative Ivan Kristic said the OLPC will create the largest monoculture in history and the it will present some "very scary" security problems.

The low-pricedLinux-based computers will be sold to third-world countries and will have a 500 MHz AMD processor along with 128 MB of system memory and 512 MB of Flash storage memory. Standardized hardware along with a standard software image is one reason why the machines will be so cheap, but Kristic explains that this standardization will cause security issues.


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WE ARE NOT ALONE
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Canadian study reveals bulling and victimization at a significant level
<http://tinyurl.com/drnuj>

The crisis in education in the Muslim World
Large population gains threaten the system.
<http://www.usip.org/fellows/reports/2004/0610_fandy.html>

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FACTOIDS
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The younger population is more educated than the older population.
In 2003, high school attainment levels by age generally increased up to 45 to 49 years (89 percent) and then decreased successively for each older age group. The oldest age group, those 75 and over, had the lowest high school attainment at 68 percent. Similarly, for postsecondary schooling, the percentage who had obtained a bachelor's degree was substantially higher for younger than for older age groups15 percent of people 75 and over had a bachelor's degree, compared with 28 percent of people 25 to 29.

Walls & Little research in the Journal of Educational Psychology looked at what makes success and well being for young adolescents and found a strong personal belief system involving motivation and effort and confidence in their ability.
Internal motivation was one of the strongest motivators bringing into question the value of extrinsic rewards. The research indicated that the more rewards the lower the performance. A must read for all educators.
Walls, T. & Little, T. (2005). J. of Ed Psych. Vol 97(1),23-31.

The U.S. Department of Education has fined Texas $444,000 for failing to inform parents quickly enough that their children were eligible under the No Child Left Behind Act to transfer out of struggling schools.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/04/25/34texas_web.h24.htm
The single stringed instrument with the wire strung between two nails
called A Diddley Bow, as in Bo Diddley backwards.
Knew y'all couldn't live another day without that info !


Thanks for reading,

Al
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Ringleaders/al.html>

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