TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION DIGEST
Digest No. 31 -- December 22, 1997
A Moderated Mailing List
Steve Wildstrom (steve_wildstrom@businessweek.com), Moderator

Return to Technology & Education

Jonathan Ezor (jonathan.ezor@poppe.com) writes:

I have recently enhanced my year-old 3Com PalmPilot (www.3com.com/palm/index.html) with a very small and portable keyboard, namely the Newton keyboard sold by Apple. This can be done with the aid of a hard-ware/software solution called Pilokey, marketed by Landware www.landware.com/products/pilokey/pilokeyps.html). The result is an incredibly portable writing and organizing machine, designed for easy linking up to and synchronizing with a PC or a network, which weighs under 1 pound complete. Be-sides that, the PalmPilot can be slipped into a pocket and used without the key-board (once students learn the Graffiti character set, which is very easy), and can be inexpensively extended through any of the hundreds of freeware, shareware and commercial software products available over the Internet .

While the Pilot has its limitations (the primary one being a 4K limit on each text file created, although software workarounds are being developed as I write this message), it is a wonderful, compact, inexpensive and fun machine which can be used for everything from keeping a calendar to e-mail to playing games to browsing the Web. There are a number of educational software (gradekeeping, sci-entific calculators) packages available for the PalmPilot as well. And hey, I even let my three-year-old play with it without fear of destruction, since I easily back everything on it up just before leaving work each day. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any other questions. on the PalmPilot or its uses. {Jonathan}

-- Jonathan I. Ezor, jonathan.ezor@poppe.com
Director of Legal Affairs, Poppe Tyson
v: 212-367-3992
fax: 212-367-4045
40 W.23rd St.
NY NY 10010

The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Poppe Tyson or its affiliates

Schools with the Internet can have students "earn while they learn" sound finan-cial principles by having an Internet School Banking Program. SAVE FOR AMERICA, the national U. S. Departments of Education and Treasury school savings and U. S. Savings Bonds for Kids program is looking for partners interested in expand-ing SAVE FOR AMERICA's line of available financial products for children.Now students can have a savings account and buy U. S. Savings Bonds online but they and their parents also need to learn about insurance, mutual funds and other financial instruments. SAVE FOR AMERICA is also looking for local organizations to help make a match between schools and financial institutions. Currently there are 300 financial institutions in 45 states and 6000 schools participating or waiting to come on-line to bank with SAVE FOR AMERICA.

Sherry Avena
Chairman

[I'm betraying my age, but I remember buying savings stamps every week in grade school. You stuck the stamps in a book and when you accumulated enough, you turned them in for a $25 savings bond. Sound's like this old idea has gone high-tech.--MOD]

>Kevin Sullivan (KSull@compuserve.com) wrote:
>An article appreared in Government Technology Magazine regarding
>laptops and students. Earlimart School District in a small farming
>community in central California partnered with CompUSA to provide
>laptops to 1,800 students from kindergarten thru eighth grade. The
>students can opt to buy one at $1,400 which is equipped with
>Microsoft software.

I thought an update might be in order. Since that time, three school board mem-bers were recalled, the chief administrative officer was fired, and negotiations are underway to return as many computers as possible. In the first three months of the program, more than 50 computers were stolen or lost, and over 100 re-quired out-of-warranty repair. Most computers will not be returnable, since they have been engraved to protect them from theft. They are generally not be-ing used in the classroom now, and the new superintendent is attempting to se-cure a $1 million loan to make the payment due next spring.

These are uncharted waters, and there is much to learn.

Mark Richmond
District Technology Coordinator
Tulare City School District, California

"And of course, Microsoft will be deemed as demi-god-like. Research has proven that extensive computer use by children who cannot yet read can very well result in future learning dysfunction."

I have a lot of difficulty with the concept of research proving anything but, trying to keep an open mind, would appreciate the citation that led to the above.

David

David Sejda
Jersey City State College
Assistant Dean
2039 Kennedy Boulevard
School of Professional Studies &
Jersey City, NJ 07305-1597
Phone: 201-200-3322
Fax: 201-200-3141
e-mail: davids@jcs1.jcstate.edu

FREE LIST and Information

a. For those of you new to CU-SeeMe, or those who haven't been reminded in a while, the Global Schoolhouse maintains a list of over 2500 schools around the world that use CU-SeeMe. You can find this list at http://www.gsn.org/cu/_cfm/statelist.cfm

b. Also, White Pine now sponsors the Distance Learning Resource Center, a web page that now houses a few case studies of CU-SeeMe and Reflector/MeetingPoint use in K-12 and University. This is an area that will grow in 1998, and it will grow by having you provide input and direction. Visit it at http://www.wpine.com/edu/DLRC.html

A quality camera AND video capture card AND (2) CU-SeeMe's for US$199

White Pine has an excellent holiday bundle. Purchase a Winnov capture card, a Winnov Chat Cam, and (2) Copies of CU-SeeMe 3.1 for $199. Wow! Great price, and you can have two sites up and running (one sending video, the other receiv-ing) for less than $200! Or, a great way to supplant your systems if you al-ready have one camera. Check out http://www.cuseeme.com for details.

As always, your busy holiday elf,

Gary

K-12 educators can win a Compaq Presario ES PC, technology grants and Micro-soft(r) software by sharing their creative uses of technology in the classroom in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and Micro-soft Corp. Lesson Plan Contest. ASCD and Microsoft are collaborating to reward K-12 educators for original lesson plans, projects or programs that use Micro-soft Office 97, the Microsoft FrontPage(r) Web site creation and management tool, Microsoft Internet Explorer software, Microsoft Publisher 97, Microsoft Internet Information Server, and the Windows(r) 95 and Windows NT( Server oper-ating systems. A panel of ASCD members will review entries and select winners in four categories: grades K-2, grades 3-5; grades 6-8 and grades 9-12. Judging criteria include role of the teacher; clarity, content and organization of the plan; level of student responsibility; application of the plan to real-world problems; appropriateness of technology; and differentiation of instruction. An educator can submit more than one lesson plan.
Grand-prize winners in each category will receive free enrollment in one of ASCD's Professional Development Online Courses and, through the generosity of Compaq Computer Corp., a Compaq Presario ES PC. Runners-up in each category are eligible for the following prizes:
* First prize - a $500 technology grant
* Second prize - a $250 technology grant
* Third prize - a $100 technology grant
* Honorable mention - choice of Microsoft software: the Microsoft Encarta(r) 98 Reference Suite or Scholastic's The Magic School Bus(tm) Library.

Winners may use technology grants for hardware, software, installation, training or support. The grand-prize through third-prize winners will also receive ASCD materials, including the CD-ROM "Only The Best: The Annual Guide to the Highest Rated Educational Software" and the book "Visual Tools for Constructing Knowl-edge," by David Hyerle.

Why:
Microsoft and ASCD are collaborating to recognize the creative ways that teach-ers integrate technology into teaching and learning, and to provide them with opportunities to share their ideas with other educators. The Lesson Plan Con-test is part of Microsoft's effort to give educators resources to integrate technology into curricula and to create a global Connected Learning Community in which all students and educators have access to technology and information on-line and the tools and skills to use information effectively today and for a lifetime.

How to Enter:
Educators can view official rules and submit entries electronically through the ASCD Web site (http://www.ascd.org/) or the Microsoft K-12 Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/). Educators can also obtain official rules or enter by mail by writing to Microsoft Corporation, K-12 Lesson Plan Contest, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399, ATTN: Bldg.22. No purchase is necessary. The contest is open to current or past teachers, librarians and teaching staff members in private, public, charter and alternative schools in the United States and Canada, excluding residents of Quebec, serving students in any grades from kindergarten through 12th.

When:
Entry period: Dec. 15, 1997 through Feb.27, 1998. ASCD and Microsoft plan to announce the winners at ASCD's annual conference in March 1998, and all winning entries will be published on the ASCD Web site and the Microsoft K-12 Web site.

For More Information: Andrea Fox/AndreaFox@monyek.com
Mark Bouffard/MarkBouffard@monyek.com
Marcy Monyek and Associates
312-263-2135

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