NewsScan Daily, 5 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 5 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       FCC Moves to Protect Wireless Devices From Spam
       Network Vandals Face Prison Sentences
       Sony vs. Apple, Tra-La, Tra-La
       Hooked on Anime
       Come Along, Sing a Song, Join the Jamboree! M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Erwin Schrödinger
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

FCC MOVES TO PROTECT WIRELESS DEVICES FROM SPAM
     The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is issuing new rules
prohibiting marketers from sending commercial electronic messages to
wireless technology users who haven't given them explicit permission to do
so. The agency is also urging the industry to develop technologies to
prevent spam from overwhelming wireless devices the way it now bedevils the
Internet. FCC chairman Michael K. Powell says, "By prohibiting all
commercial messages to wireless phones and PDAs absent affirmative consent
from the consumer, Americans can now use their wireless devices freely,
without being bothered by unwanted and annoying messages." (Washington Post
4 Aug 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41009-2004Aug4.html

NETWORK VANDALS FACE PRISON SENTENCES
     Pleading guilty to attempts to hack into the national computer system
of the Lowe's home improvement chain and steal credit card information,
three Michigan men now face sentences of up to 25 years in prison. In the
indictment, federal prosecutors had said that the men accessed the wireless
network of a Lowe's store and used that connection to enter the chain's
central computer system and eventually to reach computer systems in Lowe's
stores across the country. Lowe's executives say the men did not gain access
to the company's national database and that all customers' credit card
information are secure. (San Jose Mercury News 5 Aug 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9320081.htm

SONY VS. APPLE, TRA-LA, TRA-LA
     Sony, the electronics giant that developed the legendary Walkman
personal stereo, is launching a new version meant to capture the Apple's
iPod's current position as today's leading digital music player. Called the
Network Walkman NW-HD1, the device uses a proprietary file format, works
only on a Windows PC, and will cost $100 more than an iPod when it's
released later this month. Technology analyst Matthew Fordahl of the
Associated Press says the Sony's software doesn't rise to the level of the
hardware and adds, "Sony's format does produce good sound quality while
taking up less space, but users aren't given a choice. What happens if the
unique ATRAC format is abandoned? Just ask anyone who bought a technically
superior Betamax VCR instead of a VHS model." (AP/USA Today 5 Aug 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techreviews/products/2004-08-05-sony-walkthing_
x.htm

HOOKED ON ANIME
     American students taking courses in Japanese used to be middle-aged
businessmen, but now they're more likely to be young followers of Japanese
pop culture and "anime" graphics novels. [Our non-hip readers, if we
possibly have any, would call them comic books.] See
http://www.animeadrenaline.com/ to get an idea what this is all about. Wall
Street Journal writer Ginny Parker writes: "Now, the typical
Japanese-language student is a Japan-culture fanatic like 19-year-old Rachel
Maurer, a UGA undergrad with maroon hair and skull earrings who also goes by
the Japanese name Reiko. Ms. Maurer, who grew up in Daytona, Fla., studies
the language to further explore the Japanese rock bands she's crazy about:
Pierrot, Dir en grey and DuelJewel, for which she runs an English-language
fan Web site. Ms. Maurer likes the Japanese 'visual' bands, which feature
male musicians with wild, colorful hairdos, heavy makeup and a mysterious,
feminine air." Her instructor, Natsuki Fukunaga, says: "I was excited to see
these kids really picking up this authentic Japanese culture." (Wall Street
Journal 5 Aug 2004)

COME ALONG, SING A SONG, JOIN THE JAMBOREE! M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
     Do you ever feel that you're using Mickey Mouse software? It's probably
just a passing mood, but now you can get a Mickey Mouse computer: The Walt
Disney Co. is now offering a PC and flat screen monitor that comes with
games, a digital pen and a drive that plays both CDs and DVDs, and joins a
television, DVD player, clock radio, cordless phone and other products.
Priced at $599 (with the monitor sold separately for $299), the system is
called the "Disney Dream Desk PC." It also comes with proprietary programs
that let users combine their own video clips with Disney characters and
sound effects and create drawings using a built-in digital pen. (AP/Los
Angeles Times 5 Aug 2004)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology12aug05,1,4348660.story?c
oll=sns-ap-toptechnology

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Umpire's heaven is a place where he works third base every game. Home
is where the heartache is." (Ron Luciano)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: ERWIN SCHRÖDINGER
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin
Schrödinger (1887-1961), who shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics with the
British physicist Paul Dirac.
     In 1926 Schrödinger published four papers that laid out the foundation
of the wave-mechanics approach to quantum theory and set forth the
now-famous wave equation that bears his name. Schrödinger extended the ideas
of Louis de Broglie who had modified the model of the Bohr atom to include a
theory of wave mechanics. Niels Bohr had pictured the atom as consisting of
a nucleus around which electrons rotated in fixed orbits, emitting or
absorbing energy in discrete packets whenever an. electron changed from one
orbit to another. De Broglie theorized that a wave was associated with the
electron circulating around the nucleus, and Schrödinger showed that such
waves could be superimposed on each other, thus relating emission and
absorption frequencies to the orbital frequencies.
     Experimental observations confirmed Schrödinger's concept of how wave
mechanics worked and he went on to develop a new field theory of quantum
mechanics. In his later years, Schrödinger sought to expand Albert
Einstein's theory of gravitation to include electrical and magnetic
phenomena. He was also keenly interested in the philosophical implications
of modern science and technology, a subject on which he published his ideas
in a short 1956 book entitled "What Is Life? And Other Scientific Essays."
     Schrödinger was born in Vienna, Austria in 1887. In 1906 he began his
studies at the University of Vienna and stayed on there, with brief
interruptions including military service in World War I, until 1920. In 1921
he went to Zürich, Switzerland, where he remained for the next six years.
While there, during a six-month period in 1926, he produced the papers that
contained the "Schrödinger Equation," the partial differential equation that
does for the mechanics of the atom what Newton's equations of motion did for
planetary astronomy.
     In 1927 he succeeded Max Planck as professor of physics at the
University of Berlin, where he joined a distinguished faculty that included
Albert Einstein. He remained at the university until 1933, when the Nazi
persecution of Jews drove him for the next seven years to occupy positions
in Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, the Pontifical Academy of Science in
Rome, and -- finally in 1940 --
the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. He remained in Ireland for the
next 15 years, doing research both in physics and in the philosophy and
history of science.
     Much of his later years were spent dealing with the disturbing
philosophical implications caused by the fact that his wave functions
provided only probability solutions, in contrast with the definite solutions
attained by Newton's planetary motion equations.
     In 1956 Schrödinger retired and returned to Vienna where he died in
1961.

[See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521315204/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Schrödinger's "Space-Time Structure" -- or look for it in your
favorite library. Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations
to adult literacy programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

Today's mailbag is a sampling of mail we received on the "kids and
computers" debate. The reader correspondence to which today's entries refer
can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3mptp and http://tinyurl.com/6bahs

THE CREATIVE USE OF SOFTWARE
     I must rise to defend Glen Bledsoe from the shallow barbs of Mr.
Matthew Blaisdell's kneejerk missive. Mr. Blaisdell has reacted to the
words, not the content nor accomplishments, of Mr. Bledsoe and his amazing
kids. And I believe Mr. Bledsoe's greater point was not merely to champion
technology in schools but to champion better _use_ of technology in schools,
an example being creative exploration of software beyond the mindless use of
ever more bloated Microsoft Office products.
     I would suggest a quick look at the variety of projects those kids have
produced to see how Mr. Bledsoe has uniquely advanced "the nurturing and
development of our children's creative thinking, critical thinking, love of
learning and progressive success and confidence" in the 21st Century. See:
http://homepage.mac.com/glenbledsoe/winners/
(Jeff Mallory)

KEEPING AN OPEN MIND ABOUT TECHNOLOGY
     Mr. Blaisdell says: "Mr. Bledsoe seeks to impress us with his litany of
buzz-words such as '3D and fractal... animations' and 'layered-media
projects...'" What else do you call projects using 3D and fractal animations
and layered media projects other than 3D and fractal animations and layered
media projects?  
     Mr. Blaidsell continues by quoting me, "'I have dozens of examples of
student work which could never have been created without technology'" -- but
the point is that, as parents, we are not nearly as interested in fractal
animations as we are in the nurturing [if I were making a list of education
buzzwords, nurturing would be number 1]  and development of our children's
creative thinking, critical thinking, love of learning and progressive
success and confidence."
     How can you pretend to speak for all parents? The parents of my
students have been delighted to see their students learning with the tools
of today's culture and have told me so repeatedly. Technology provides a
rich environment in which students can develop creative and critical
thinking. My students love and take great pride in what they have
accomplished. You are dismissing my students' work and its effect on their
learning without having seen or heard it, by guessing what it is. Shame on
you. 
     Mr. Blaisdell: "Mr. Bledsoe's comments do nothing to persuade me that
computers are an important ingredient to any of those things." I'm very
sorry that you have closed your mind. It's bad enough when anyone closes
their mind to the possibilities of technology, but a teacher doubly-so
because he or she impacts the lives of so many students.
     Mr. Blaisdell: "Mr. Bledsoe might thoroughly enjoy reading Clifford
Stolls' book on computers in education: 'High-Tech Heretic.'" I have read
several of Mr. Stoll's books. I think he makes some very good points.
However, I disagree with his conclusions about the use of technology in
education because of my own experiences as a teacher. I don't need a book by
someone who has never met me, doesn't know the needs or the abilities of my
students to tell me if my work with students is successful or not. We can
judge that for ourselves.
     (Your friendly neighborhood educational technologist, Glen L. Bledsoe,
Tech Liaison, Oregon Writing Project at Willamette University)

NO SIGNFICANT DIFFERENCE
     As someone who gives the occasional presentation to teachers called
"Danger in the Distance" in which I examine and debunk a lot of what passes
for teaching and learning through computer delivery (local or distance) and
who finds his lecture lined to the walls with teachers eager to learn more
about this "holy war" (as suggested by Matthew Blaisdell in his note of
August 3rd) I think I would like to make one or two remarks.
     After referring some professors in one of my lectures to a compilation
site containing the published conclusions of more than 40 years of media in
learning research (used to be known as "No significant Difference" in New
Brunswick, Canada -- no longer available) I got an e-mail in a listserv run
by our University for discussion of Distance Learning issues in which the
professor suggested that until such time as Lecturing is proven to be an
effective method of education it should be suspended as a practice.
     And, quite correctly, Sherry Turkle's book "Life on the Screen"
(mentioned in August 2) examines a phenomenon of media immersion capability
quite beyond what I am capable of in late middle age. It is very true the
desire to learn must be put into a child.  Among my most favourite quotes,
appearing in my presentations, is from Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth"
(1933) in which she writes: "There is still, I think, not enough recognition
by teachers of the fact that the desire to think -- which is fundamentally a
moral problem -- must be induced before the power is developed.  Most
people, whether men or women, wish above all else to be comfortable, and
thought is a pre-eminently uncomfortable process." (Sorry if this preempts a
future Flash Card.)
     I also agree when Marshall McLuhan speculated that perhaps one day we
would find a way to externalize our memory into databases so we would not
have to maintain the effort to remember anything.
     When I listen to the kinds of things parents are saying to teachers
today (in all grade levels) about their expectations from our schools I have
to shake my head and wonder what kind of world they want the future to be?
     Your e-publication provides me with the latest information (although
sometimes fooled by the hype) to monitor the progress being made toward a
successful integration of various new teaching methodologies, based on
computer technology, within the slowly evolving environment of our school
systems. Much more time will pass before a consensus is reached about the
"purity" of learning and the "crass commercialism" of various info-tainment
technologies.
     I, for one, have discovered no significant difference in the
performance of students using computers for classroom or distance learning
and those who have little or no access (politically or economically) to such
things. The most significant differences can be found in the teacher or
guide for the process of learning and this is where the issue terminates.
Learning is fundamentally part of a "relationship" formed between students
and teachers. If something becomes a barrier to that relationship it
obstructs learning. If looking out the window is more interesting to a
student than what is being presented before them (in whatever method you
wish) then no learning can result. Where teachers learn to integrate various
sources, and include the internet and local software titles into their
explorations, they get better results from even the lowest performing
students.  The idea of a single text for all subjects was common at the turn
of the Twentieth century. Would we want that today?  (Dave Trautman
Edmonton, AB Canada)
[Careful there, Dave. NewsScan is never "fooled by the hype"! Now stand in
the corner and face the wall!]

WHY MUST THE TAIL WAG THE DOG?
      In response to Glen Bledsoe's Mailbag piece: I couldn't say it any
better than Matthew Blaisdell, who writes that "as parents, we are not
nearly as interested in fractal animations as we are in  nurturing and
development of our children's creative thinking, critical thinking, love of
learning and progressive success and confidence."
     Mr. Bledsoe asks what theory of cognitive development I am following.
He also writes "But creativity, imagination and love of learning have no
connection with the kinds of tools or medium we use to express ourselves."
Actually, there is a growing body of evidence which suggests that the tools
and methods we use to teach young children (or allow our children to use) do
have a direct effect on their future cognitive abilities.
     Educational psychologist Jane Healy's book "Endangered Minds" explores
how the growing brains of children are physically shaped (i.e., hard-wired)
by experience. The book "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards" by child
psychologists and authors Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Diane Eyer, Roberta Michnick
Golinkoff debunks the myth of the "Mozart Effect" and show that attempting
to hurry intellectual development doesn't pay off, but is rather more likely
to produce "trained seals". [Beg your pardon, Dan, but the reason that
Einstein never used Flash Cards was that he thought a Flash Cards is just a
Flash Card, he didn't know about NewsScan Flash Cards. -- J&S]
     Dr. Arthur C. Zajonc, a professor of physics at Amherst College states
that most studies about computers and education have had serious flaws,
while the better designed studies have shown the effects to be at best
neutral, or negative. According to Dr. Zajonc, "There is no clinical or
experimental data to back up the importance of these technologies for
education, much less exploring any kind of damage that might be
inadvertently done along the way."  He suggests the best research is being
done inside corporations, with the aim being to use knowledge about human
perception to influence consumer choices.
     To be sure, the proliferation of computers in elementary schools is
only part of the concern in our education system; the bigger issue is a
system which seems solely geared toward producing suitable or "competitive"
worker automatons rather than creative, balanced, responsible, free-thinking
individuals who are able to impart meaning to their lives.  Neil Postman and
John Taylor Gatto are excellent thinkers to read on this subject.
     One last word to Mr. Bledsoe concerning Waldorf education:  it is
hardly a profit-oriented elitist private school system. Waldorf's roots are
rather more egalitarian; the first school was designed for the children of
the workers of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Germany in 1919.
The schools by necessity do charge tuition, since in most jurisdictions they
receive no funding from the public purse.  However, most Waldorf schools
have families from across the socio-economic strata; parents send their
children because they believe in the approach and are willing to make the
sacrifices necessary to do so. (Dan Hamilton)

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We call our news section "Above The Fold" to honor the tradition of the
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