All Kinds of Minds This site highlights the work of Dr. Mel Levine, who shows students how to compensate for their specific learning dysfunctions. Of particular interest: the library of articles, case studies, and activities to help identify learning problems and correct them. [From Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff, April 18, 2003] 1:25:27 PM     [comment []];[]

Webby Awards I've been looking at the Webby Award nominees. The awards themselves are pretty much just popularity contests, but I need to read up on the nomination process. Does design or content matter more? I looked most carefully at the categories of Community, Education, and Living. There are some very strange but interesting sites out there! 1:20:41 PM     [comment []];[]

Cyber-bullying? Students need to be able to vent, to rant, to communicate about the things that they like and hate. OK, I agree with that, but does this venting always have to take the form of obscenities and insults? There have been newspaper articles about the SchoolScandals site recently, and a recent incident at our school was related to this topic. If students feel that a site is "private" are they justified in "cyber-bullying"? Or is it not really harassment or bullying if you don't mean for the victim to know about it? How does this relate to how we communicate with and about our students? 11:38:32 AM     [comment []];[]

Browser revolution -- 10 years after dwc: This article from ZDnet looks back at what the development of browsers has brought us, and it also points out some ways forward. This falls into the "what does it mean for our students and how we interact with them" category for me. I'm also interested in the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility organization that is mentioned. Speaking of browsers, I'm using a beta version of Apple's new browser, Safari, today. So far I like the tabbed browsing function, and the whole thing looks pretty good. 11:09:06 AM     [comment []];[]

Opinion: Give a child a joystick ... The educational effect of videogames is a field largely unstudied, says James Paul Gee, professor of reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and children may be better served by video games that contain an educational component. The indisputable fact is that children assimilate information through gaming, a fact teachers can exploit. [From Wired, as quoted in the ASCD Smartbrief, April 14, 2003] dwc: I always feel like the library dragon when I have to insist on no games on the library computers. So this opinion piece says we should be encouraging games? Hm... On the other hand, games like the ones on SuperThinkers should perhaps be used more in school. And in the library? 10:48:53 AM     [comment []];[]

dwc: In an email, my son Nate wrote the following. I guess I've done a pretty good job of sensitizing him to the issues and possibilities of libraries. By the way, he's an economist, in case you can't tell. :-) --Check this out. It's a summary of findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project which looks at the demographics and characteristics of people who use and don't use the Internet in the US. One interesting quote: "60% of non-users know of a place in their community where Internet access is publicly available, while 76% of Internet users know of public access sites. Most of those who know of local access points say those access points are easy to reach. The most frequently identified location of public access is a library." Many of their findings indicate a general lack of understanding of what the Internet is and what it can offer. If libraries (ESPECIALLY public libraries) are able to educate people about what the Internet can do for them (many take that for granted, I think) while emphasizing free and public access (i.e. with better hardware, more hardware, maybe even classes for the public) , then perhaps they can capture the millions who do not use it, making the library a more attractive place to go, especially for the low-income and less-literate population. It's like selling eggs at a discount to get the customers in the door and buying milk and vegetables. In the end, the issue is less about the "digital divide", and more about increasing the literacy and education level of the public. I don't know, just rambling.-- dwc: I think all school librarians should be aware of the reports being published by the Pew project. The one about students and their internet use is especially useful for data to take to our administrators and for informing our practice. 10:21:42 AM     [comment []];[]

Inside the Soul of the Web "Mankind's questions unscroll day and night on a computer screen in an office hallway in Mountain View California." [LISNews.com] dwc: One of my sons pointed out this article from Wired to me. Both of my sons and I often have conversations about the changes to the world being brought about by changes in technology, and by the internet specifically. Greg is especially interested in what is happening to language and human communication. We're all interested in the kind of issues this article raises. 10:03:29 AM     [comment []];[]