Newspapers in Education (2)

[Mark Hass <Ednetnews@AOL.COM>]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Online Educator......April 1995......(V2.N4).......Part 2 of 2

You are reading the e-mail version of The Online Educator, a
journal dedicated to making the Internet an accessible, useful
classroom tool. This month, it is in two parts. This is part two. If
you did not receive part one, please contact us at:
ednetnews@aol.com.
________________________________________________

***Visit the new Online Educator Web site ***

Check out the latest addition to our Web site: The Online Educator
Newspapers in Education Lesson Plan.

Every Monday, we will post a new lesson that combines online
resources with those in your daily newspaper. These cross-media
lessons will help your students learn the essential skills of gathering
information from diverse sources.

On the home page, you'll continue to find our well-received hot list
of  worthwhile sites for educators, which includes a description of
how to use each site in your classroom. A new list is posted each
week.

Come see us often, because there's always something new: at:
http://www.cris.com/~felixg/OE/OEWELCOME.html.
_______________________________________________

NEWS & NEWLY DISCOVERED: Timely items about
educational resources & the Internet.

***Surveys show growth, potential in school Internet use***

A flurry of surveys released in March offer a view of online
computing in our nation's schools that has something for everyone:
both the skeptics and the optimists.

First, for the "glass-is-half-full" readers:

A surprisingly high 53 percent of school districts surveyed by
Quality Education Data reported at least one school with Internet
access. In large districts, that number jumps to 70 percent.

QED also found that, unlike earlier technologies which tended to
infiltrate the high schools first, schools using online resources are
found proportionately at all grade levels.

Another survey of members of various national education
associations found a higher level of technology in the nation's
schools than expected.

Now, the bad news.

The same survey found that technology has not found its way into
the classroom. Almost 50 percent of school librarians are connected
to the Internet, according to the study by the American Electronics
Association. But only 20 percent of  our teachers are online.

Budget constraints, lack of equipment and inadequate training were
cited in the study as the prime obstacles to implementing technology
in the classroom.

Finally, yet another survey of 625 principals shows a median
computer-to-student ratio of one to 10. Educators consider a one to
five ratio ideal. About half the respondents to the survey by
American School & University magazine said their classrooms had
no phone lines, hence were not able to access online resources.

The only conclusion that is unavoidable from all these studies is that
the subject of classroom Internet use is a hot one, and many special
interest groups are eager to gain insight into what's happening in the
classroom.

***Coalition formed to fight for school connectivity funds***

A group of education-related organizations has proposed that the
Federal Communications Commission redirect money that currently
goes to long distance carriers into a fund that would encourage
local telephone companies to connect public libraries and schools to
the National Information Infrastructure.

Up to $300 million a year could be made available for this purpose,
with special  preference given to disadvantaged areas, the coalition
said

The groups participating in the effort include: the American Library
Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the
National Association of Secondary School Principals, the
National Education Association and the National School Boards
Association

"Our proposal offers the potential for a classic win/win
opportunity," the group said in a statement. "The education
community wins because hundreds of millions of dollars will be
spent each year on connecting public schools and libraries to the
NII; the local telephone industry wins because it is provided with
appropriate incentives to build the education telecommunication
infrastructure; the public wins because the quality of education will
ultimately be improved."

The FCC would have to approve the change before it went into
effect.

For more information: http://policy.net/ed/ed.html, or point your
Gopher client to gopher: policy.net. Questions should be directed
via e-mail to: connect-all@policy.net.

***The world, from the perspective of Boulder***

Vocal Point is a unique monthly newspaper created by the K-12
students of  the Boulder Valley School District. The newspaper
creates a forum in which the youth of Boulder express their ideas on
significant local and national topics. To see it, point your Web
browser to: http://bvsd.k12.co.us/cent/Newspaper/Newspaper.html.

***Environmental awareness in a paper sack***
http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/earthday.html

Earth Day Groceries is a project organized through the Internet to
increase environmental awareness.

To participate, students decorate paper bags with pictures of the
earth, Earth Day slogans or the name of their school. The decorated
bags are then returned to local grocery store, where they are to be
distributed to shoppers on Earth Day, April 22.

Last year over 10,000 school children in 43 schools decorated over
13,000 bags. Arbor Heights Elementary School in Seattle,
Washington, is acting as a hub where schools can report how many
bags they made.  Those who join in will receive an e-mail
compilation of all participants, their location, and the number of
bags decorated.

For more information, send e-mail to: mahlness@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us,
or check out Arbor Heights' Web page at:
http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/arborhts.html.

***Current affairs from an Australian POV***

A new Australian Web site has been established that features
current affairs and curriculum materials for K -12. Its frequent
updates (every two weeks) make it a useful place to visit for fresh
information.

You can see it at: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~reed/index.html.

For more information, send e-mail to Will Paker at:
ednet@ozemail.com.au.

***Global Jewish Network adds museum sites***

You can see the Global Jewish Network Home Page at
http://www.huji.ac.il/www_jewishn/www/t01.html,
or telnet www.huji.ac.il. Login as: jewishnet. New items include:

-- The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, which includes two photography
exhibits, one of Israeli photographers and another of old  photos of
Jerusalem.

-- The Tel Aviv Museum, which includes schedules and guides to
exhibits.

--  Hebrew: A Living Language, which is a set of lessons to see,
hear and read about Hebrew. It contains Hebrew words, phrases
and stories, displayed and recorded, in Hebrew and in translation.

**Students get prime view of extraterrestrial volcano***

The JASON Project recently captured live footage of an
extraterrestrial volcanic eruption. The outer space eruption, the first
ever witnessed live, occurred on one of Jupiter's moons, Io, during
one of JASON's live broadcasts.

Thousands of students around the world participating in the JASON
Project via satellite were watching at the time. The project is an
effort to explore Earth's place in the universe.

"An eruption of this magnitude happens very infrequently.  To catch
it live, with a huge audience of students studying volcanoes, is
incredible," said Dr. Bob Ballard JASON Project
founder and discoverer of the Titanic. "By using satellites, the
students are truly able to experience the thrill of scientific discovery
first-hand."

Information about the eruption and the project is available on the
JASON homepage at : http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/JASON.html.

***As the monarch flies, tell the world***

Students have a chance to participate in a unique international
science project this spring, as schools across North America map the
monarch butterfly's dramatic migration from Mexico.

Millions of monarchs are set to return to eastern North America
after spending the winter in a handful of small mountain sanctuaries
west of Mexico City. They flew up to 2,500 miles to get to Mexico
last fall and have survived since November on the energy contained
in their fat reserves. With just a few weeks left to live, they begin
their journey north.

 The project organizers, Journey North, ask all students in grades 4-
12 to report the first  monarch they see this spring. To report
observations, send e-mail to: jn_monarch@informns.k12.mn.us,
and include the student's name, school, date of  the sighting, the
nearest town, and the school's  latitude and longitude.

To get migration updates:

-- Send e-mail to majordomo@informns.k12.mn.us, and in the body
of the message write, subscribe jn_news_monarch.

 -- Point your Gopher client to "informns.k12.mn.us"  (Pathway:
Best of K-12/Journey North)

-- On the Web, go to http://informns.k12.mn.us/~jnorth.
_____________________________________________

E-MAIL EXPLORATION:  Using your powerful e-mail capabilities
for learning & research.

***A list for Latin American/Canadian educators: Canala-l is a list
for information sharing among Latin American and Canadian
academic institutions.

The list owner hopes to motivate student exchanges, research
collaboration and other agreements between the diverse groups. The
list is conducted in Spanish, French and English.

To subscribe to Canala-l, send e-mail to:
listserv@cunews.carleton.ca. in the body of the message, type
subscribe Canala-l <Your Name>

For more information, send e-mail to: Jennifer Humphries, at
jhumphries@cbie.ca.

***Restructuring public education: RPE-L, Restructuring Public
Education Discussion List, aims to join people with an interest in
investigating and supporting school restructuring.

To subscribe, send e-mail to: listserv@uhccvm.uhcc.hawaii.edu.
In the body of the message, type: SUB RPE-L <Your Name>.

For more information, contact David W. Zuckerman, at
dwz2@columbia.edu.

***Educating migrants: Migrant-l  is a listserv to promote discussion
about the needs of migrant children and their families.

Teachers and other professionals are invited to discuss such issues
as innovative program design, empowering professional
development for educators, inspiring approaches to teaching and
learning, early childhood education and language acquisition.

To subscribe, send e-mail to:  listserv@netcom.com. In the body of
the message, type subscribe Migrant-l.

For more information, send e-mail to Charles Naumer, at
naumer@rmc.uucp.netcom.com or Margery Ginsberg, at
ginsberg@rmc.uucp.netcom.com.

***Students at risk: Teachers and parents of students who are
having significant difficulty at school are invited to take part in
discussions at Starnet.

To subscribe, send e-mail to: Listproc@services.dese.state.mo.us.
In the body of the message, type: subscribe Starnet <Your Name>.
_________________________________________________

DIALOGUE: Electronic discussion and feedback from our readers.

***A reader wonders: Is the Internet all hype?***

Dear Online Educator:

I am a computer lab instructor at our school.  We have a lab of 30
networked PCs.  One of my "assignments" is to look into the
feasibility of  hooking up the school to the "net".  My first reaction
was, "Great idea!"

That was before I became a newbie and now a more experienced
member.  Now my question is: Why? Why give elementary students
access to the Net?  Are we playing into the "ours is better/bigger
than yours" game when we get our third, fourth and fifth graders on
the Net?  As a publisher of a magazine that focuses on teaching and
the Net, I was wondering if you could help me. I would appreciate
your thoughts a great deal.
                        -- Randy Cummings rrc@teleport.com

Dear Randy:

The short answer to your question is simply that your students
will need to understand this new interactive medium now called the
Internet if they are to succeed in a modern world that more and
more depends on sophisticated information and communication
skills.

I am an ardent believer in the notion that the way we all learn and
live has been changed in a very fundamental way by the marriage of
high-speed networks and desktop computers. It is historically
comparable to the invention of the printing press in terms of how it
will affect the dissemination of knowledge.

Now, if you and I were monks in the Middle Ages we might wonder
what the point was of teaching kids to read, what with the limited
availability of  printed material. It took hundreds of years for the
printing press to spread around Europe and really change the way
people learned. The need to be a reader was a need that grew
gradually.

This digital revolution that George Gilder, Nicholas Negroponte and
a lot of other people are now writing about will change us much
more quickly. By decade's end, I'd bet. By then, we'll start to see a
divergence among people who use the technology and people who
don't. Those who do will be able to think more critically, find and
sort information more effectively and generally learn more and get
more done. One of our goals at The Online Educator is to help
teachers understand that and get them excited about creating the
first generation of people who can use the new medium naturally
and easily.

On a more practical note, my approach in getting my own children
to be Netwise is simply to make sure they understand what's out
there and basically how to get at it (or how to avoid it). I don't
expect them to be expert or even proficient, just comfortable. So,
that as they grow and the technology changes, they are always able
to make it part of their lives.
-- Mark Hass, publisher, The Online Educator, ednetnews@aol.com

Here's what others said to Randy when he sent them similar e-mail
messages.

Dear Randy:

 I can understand your reluctance to "jump on the Internet
bandwagon."  The Internet (a.k.a. Information Superhighway) has
been getting more press & hype than the last A. Schwarzenegger
film, and some feel it is as little justified (apologies to Arnie fans).

I like to think of the Internet as an educational tool.  Perhaps you
can't measure objectives using the Internet, but neither can you
measure objectives using a bulletin board, a classroom globe, or
construction paper.  This does not mean I won't use them in my
classroom.  The Internet (like construction paper) has a variety of
uses, but it won't be of any help in the classroom unless it is
incorporated into the learning goals of the class itself. Since the
Internet is so new, and so many teachers have only a little
experience with it, this is no easy task.

 One example: many schools are using the Internet to display their
students' work.  By creating a WWWeb home page for their school,
they are able to put students' work out where anyone can see it.
This sort of public display has been shown to increase students'
motivation toward excellence.

I think it is wise to doubt the hype, but don't dismiss it altogether.
                                -- Dug Steen, Seattle, Washington

Dear Randy:

I agree with Dug.  The Net is a place where kids can see what other
people in the world of various cultures and ethnic backgrounds do
and think and talk about.  It is also very motivating to write or to
solve problems when you know your work may be read by
thousands of others.

I had a student write an article on the band Green Day for our home
page.  He wrote a lot, including some information that he was not
sure was true.  After he finished, he decided to go back and rewrite
and take out all the information that he wasn't 100 percent sure was
true. This is what anyone who teaches language arts fights with kids
to do all day long.

My students also exchange math problems with two other classes via
the Net. They love it, and it makes teaching problem-solving a lot
easier.

The bottom line is that it motivates the students and pushes them to
work harder than they might have without the Internet.
                                -- John Finch, Dauphin, Manitoba

______________________________________________

ONLINE BASICS: Software tools and other essentials.

***How to take part in a virtual e-mail community
      based on your interests, not geography***

Some people think of the Internet as a gigantic bulletin board that
they use to post notes and messages to friends, colleagues and
business associates. Others think of it as a place where like-minded
people from all over the world gather to share information and
ideas.

Both of those views of the Internet are merged in listservs, a
software system that allows people with common interests to
communicate easily and efficiently with one another via e-mail.

Let's say you're passionate about Chaucer and would like to meet
others who share your interest. You could send an e-mail message
to subscribe to a Chaucer listserv list and automatically be enrolled
in a worldwide discussion group that's focused on your favorite
writer.

From then on (at least until you cancelled your subscription to the
list), you would receive every message from all the fellow Chaucer
lovers who were members of the list. Every message you posted
would automatically be sent to every other member of the group.

There are thousands upon thousands of listserv discussion groups on
the Internet devoted to topics from the most obscure computer
languages to professional sports teams and television stars. As a
teacher, you will no doubt find dozens of groups devoted to specific
educational topics, as well as many devoted to general education
issues.

An important rule to remember once you're subscribed to a list:
Send messages to the list address;
Send subscription commands to the listserv. The listserv address
usually begins with either "listserv@" or "majordomo@."

If you end a subscription and send the "unsubscribe" command to
the worng address, not only will you stay on the list, but your
"unsubscribe" message will be copied to every member of the list.

So how do you find out what's available and how to subscribe?
Send an e-mail message to listserv@bitnic.educom.edu. In the body
of the message, type: list global. A huge list of thousands of
discussion groups will be e-mailed back to you along with
information on how to subscribe to them.
_______________________________________________

About The Online Educator

The Online Educator is a copyrighted publication of Hass Associates
and appears monthly during the school year. Its contents should not
be reproduced without permission. It is written, edited and designed
by:

Mark Hass, a former senior editor at daily newspapers in Detroit,
Miami and Syracuse who is currently a new media consultant for
business and educational institutions.

Dave Farrell, who writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column
about the Internet, called Roadside Attractions. He is an
investigative and projects reporter for The Detroit News and has
also written for newspapers in the San Francisco area.

Felix Grabowski, an editor with The Detroit  News Interactive News
Division who spent six years as graphics director at the paper. He
has earned more than 60 awards from the Society of Newspaper
Design for graphics and design.

Subscriptions are $25/year for the printed edition ($30 in Canadian
funds) or $20/year for the e-mail version ($25 in Canadian funds).
Send checks or purchase orders to Box 251141, West Bloomfield,
MI 48325. To subscribe and receive a bill, send your name, billing
address, and your preference of e-mail or printed edition to:
ednetnews@aol.com.

Among the online lists monitored for news items in this issue were:
Net Happenings, LM_NET, EDRES-L, New-List, various K12
Usenet groups, and the INCLASS Digest.

Please visit our Web site at:
http://www.cris.com/~felixg/OE/OEWELCOME.html.
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________