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JUNE 2008 EduTech News
News
Archive Back to 2005
NOTE:
Not all news services and online journals
and zines maintain their content in archive.
As a result, some of the links to the full
text
of some of our older news features are no
longer active.
We believe, however, that there is enough
information of interest
in our news summaries to make for informed
reading.
One tonne 'Baby' marks its birth
Sixty years ago the "modern computer" was born in a lab in Manchester,
UK
 Technology
~ June 20, 2008
The Small Scale Experimental Machine, or "Baby", was
the first to contain memory which could store a program. The room-sized
computer's ability to carry out different tasks - without having to be
rebuilt - has led some to describe it as the "first modern PC". Using just
128 bytes of memory, it successfully ran its first set of instructions
- to determine the highest factor of a number - on 21 June 1948.
Mr Tootill, and three other surviving members of the Baby team, will be
honoured by the University and the British Computer Society at a ceremony
in Manchester. Baby was the successor to machines such as the American
ENIAC and the UK's Colossus. ENIAC was built to calculate the trajectory
of shells for the US army, whilst Colossus was used to decrypt messages
from the German High Command during World War II. Both computers were able
to be reprogrammed but this could involve days of rewiring. Baby was designed
to overcome this limitation. The key to this ability was its memory, built
from a cathode ray tube (CRT), which could be used to store a program.
Baby morphed into the Manchester Mark I and eventually the first commercial
general purpose computer, the Ferranti Mark I. A working replica of Baby
is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. More>>>
Firefox claims download success
BBC
News ~ June 20, 2008
Mozilla is claiming a download record for the release
of Firefox 3.0. In the first 24 hours the web browser was available the
software was downloaded more than eight million times, says its creator
Mozilla. More>>>
Web use at work can be constructive,
study says
 AP
~ June 19, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) -- It's no secret that people sneak in
some personal e-mail and Web surfing when they're supposed to be working.
A new study attempts to shatter perceptions that these Web surfers are
just slackers trying to avoid work. In fact, it turns out everyone does
it, from senior managers to entry-level employees -- and researchers figure
that means management attempts to clamp down on Internet use may be missing
the mark. Many legitimate reasons may be at play, speculates R. Kelly Garrett,
one of the study's authors and a communications professor at Ohio State
University. For instance, people may use the Web at work to help balance
job and life responsibilities; with the personal matters taken care of
from work, they can focus on the task at hand. Installing filters to block
access to Web sites and e-mail services could backfire by reducing job
satisfaction and thus productivity, researchers wrote. The study on "cyberslacking,"
based on statistical analyses of responses in a phone survey of 1,024 people
during the summer of 2006, was published in the June issue of the CyberPsychology
and Behavior journal. Garrett said more research is needed to determine
motives and measure effects on productivity. Those studies, researchers
say, would then help companies figure out how best to control and accommodate
personal use. More>>>
Firefox fans download 9,000 copies a
minuteStory Highlights
CNN
Technology ~ June 19, 2008
* In 5 hours, Firefox 3 beat its predecessor's first
day download count
* Supporters try to set a world record for most software
downloads in a 24-hour period
* Guinness World Records must certify it, a process that
could take a week or longer
* Release was delayed as visitors checking for the update
overloaded Firefox's servers
More>>>
'Oldest' computer music unveiled
 Technology
~ June 19, 2008
A scratchy recording of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a truncated
version of In the Mood are thought to be the oldest known recordings of
computer generated music. The songs were captured by the BBC in the Autumn
of 1951 during a visit to the University of Manchester. The recording has
been unveiled as part of the 60th Anniversary of "Baby", the forerunner
of all modern computers. The tunes were played on a Ferranti Mark 1 computer,
a commercial version of the Baby Machine. "I think it's historically significant,"
Paul Doornbusch, a computer music composer and historian at the New Zealand
School of Music, told BBC News. "As far as I know it's the earliest recording
of a computer playing music in the world, probably by quite a wide margin."
Documentary evidence of the Manchester machine's musical abilities exists
thanks to a BBC outside broadcasting team who had gone to the University
to record an edition of Children's Hour. "It was the start of the computer
age. Although we didn't know it was going to be epoch-making or earth-shattering
other than for weather forecasting and other scientific disciplines." More>>>
Aging boomers fuel 'brain fitness' explosion
"Reasonable evidence" that challenging brain can stave off cognitive
decline
Technology
~ June 19, 2008
Teenagers cramming for tests and people worried about
"senior moments" can now turn to an explosion of brain-assisting video
games, such as Nintendo's Brain Age; puzzles that are said to ward off
dementia, such as Sudoku and crosswords; and online tips that claim to
train the brain. Santos, the 2008 USA Memory Championship winner, can memorize
a shuffled deck of cards in three minutes and learn 100 random words and
100 new names and faces in 15. "People are capable of doing so much more
with their brains than they think is possible," says Santos, who recently
quit his software job to teach his memory techniques full time. The brain
fitness boom might seem counterintuitive in an age when technology has
eased memory stress: cell phones store numbers, GPS systems give directions,
Web sites store passwords and e-mail programs automatically recall used
addresses. "People are worried," says Dr. John Hart Jr., medical science
director of the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas.
"You have a large group of the population getting to the age where they
are sort of vulnerable to degenerative neurological diseases that seem
to be prevalent." Hart says there is "reasonable evidence" that challenging
your brain by learning new things can stave off the cognitive decline that
comes with aging. But brain fitness programs differ from traditional learning
by focusing on drills for specific cognitive abilities, such as concentration
and retaining information. More>>>
Gadget for online calls boosts company
 AP
Technology ~ June 19, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) -- What's the fastest-growing fixed-line
phone company in the United States? [All the traditional companies] are
being beaten by a small Palm Beach, Florida, company called YMax Corp.,
judging by its own figures. YMax may not be well-known, but the company
has been running TV ads for its product, the MagicJack, which works with
a broadband connection. It's about the size of a matchbox and plugs into
a PC. After plugging a regular phone into the MagicJack, the user can make
and receive calls much like using a regular landline. That's a meteoric
trajectory in the phone business, propelled by the pricing: The MagicJack
costs $39.95, including one year of free calls in the United States and
Canada. Another year of service costs $19.95. Unlike most voice-over-Internet
Protocol -- or VoIP -- providers, YMax is licensed as a phone company in
the continental United States and operates a wide network of servers to
carry its calls. VoIP providers generally outsource that side of the business.
YMax's subscriber numbers are "significant," Beckert said, but he noted
that its revenue is much lower than that of competing providers because
it charges about as much for a year of service as its rivals do for a month.
Even eBay Inc.'s Skype, which uses computers for calling, charges significantly
more. It's unclear what effect the MagicJack is having on competitors.
More>>>
As Bill Gates departs, educators mull
his legacy
Love him or hate him, Microsoft's founder has had
a tremendous impact on schools and technology--and he's not done
yet
 eSchool
News ~ June 18, 2008
Gates has been a leading proponent of high school reform.
Three years ago, he addressed the nation's governors and urged them to
redesign America's high schools to meet the challenges of the new century.
"America's high schools are obsolete," Gates told the governors that day
(see "What's wrong with U.S. high schools--and how we can make them better").
"By obsolete, I don't just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed,
and under-funded--though a case could be made for every one of those points.
By obsolete, I mean that our high schools--even when they're working exactly
as designed--cannot teach our kids what they need to know today. Training
the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying
to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. It's
the wrong tool for the times." Through his charitable foundation, Gates
has committed tens of millions of dollars to projects that aim to redesign
high schools and make them more relevant for the 21st cent
"Bill Gates is a rare and unique individual who has used
his wealth and gain to promote and reinvigorate public education," said
James Harmon, an English teacher and Apple Distinguished Educator at Euclid
High School in Ohio. "Gates understands that large, comprehensive high
schools have become far too impersonal for the unique needs of current
students. He recognizes the importance of students making personal connections
to their education and their teachers through collaboration and technology,"
Harmon said. "The proof will be in these students' ability to participate
in the new global economy. I wish him well in his future philanthropic
endeavors and look forward to his next initiative." More>>>
Movie: Science 'expels' Intelligent
Design
In hot-button curriculum issue, new film pits proponents of evolution
against intelligent-design advocates
 eSchool
News ~ June 18, 2008
"Expelled" claims some scientists have been discredited
for questioning evolution in the science curriculum.
In Missouri, where the battle for control of the science
curriculum has been raging, public officials have been afforded a special
screening of a documentary-style film advocating on behalf of "intelligent
design," the term for a view that the universe is too complex not to have
been fashioned by a higher power. The movie, released to the general public
April 18, claims serious scientists have been ostracized for questioning
the tenets of evolution.
In "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," Ben Stein, a
former speechwriter for President Richard Nixon, interviews scientists
who say they have been blackballed for acknowledging intelligent design
as a valid theory. The documentary was expected to add to the debate about
the validity of teaching evolution and intelligent design in science courses.
In a landmark 2005 court case, a U.S. district court judge said there was
"overwhelming evidence" that intelligent design "is a religious view, a
mere re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory." In the case,
a Pennsylvania school district was barred from teaching intelligent design
in biology classes. "Expelled" has been roundly criticized by many of those
who advocate including evolution in the curriculum. They say teaching intelligent
design would inject religious instruction into the classroom. One scene
in "Expelled" that its opponents deride shows Stein drawing parallels between
Darwinism and the policies of Nazi Germany.
"Intelligent design is completely devoid of any positive
scientific content, and consists of nothing more than a religiously motivated
attack on evolution," said Keith Lockitch, a resident fellow at the Ayn
Rand Institute, a California-based nonprofit that describes its mission
as promoting rationality, capitalism, and individual rights: "To the extent
intelligent-design advocates are facing obstacles in academia, it is because
they are not doing real science--they haven't been expelled, they have
flunked out of the scientific community, just as a faith healer would flunk
out of medical school." Lockitch said he saw "Expelled" on its opening
night. He claimed the film is replete with distortions and half-truths.
The movie painted "proponents of intelligent design as the victims of a
totalitarian regime," he said, by interspersing interviews with black-and-white
footage of Soviet Union soldiers beating dissenters in the streets. "To
equate [responses to intelligent design] to the real oppression that happens
in totalitarian regimes . . . I'm offended by that," Lockitch said. Link:
Expelled
More>>>
Newly found planets make case for 'crowded
universe'Story Highlights
BBC
News ~ June 18, 2008
* It's the first time three planets close to Earth's
size are found orbiting a single star
* Mass of the smallest of the planets is about four times
the size of Earth
* They are much too hot to support life
* Astronomer: "Planets are out there. They're all over
the place"
More>>>
Firefox aims for download record
 Technology
~ June 17, 2008
Version 3 of the popular Firefox web browser is going
on general release on 17 June. Wide take-up of the new version would further
boost the market share of the browser which is currently used by about
15% of net users. With the release, Firefox developer Mozilla is attempting
to set a record for the most downloads over 24 hours. Firefox first appeared
in early 2004 and since then has steadily eroded Microsoft's hold on the
web browsing world. Although firm statistics are hard to gather Firefox
is currently thought to be used by about 15-17% of web users. "Firefox
is making very steady encroachment in to the market," said Adam Vahed,
managing director of OneStat UK partner Apache Solutions. "It's a very
serious contender to the world domination of IE." He expected there to
be great interest in Firefox 3.0 because most users of the browser tend
to upgrade to the latest version as soon as it comes out. By contrast,
he said, many people were still using very old versions of IE. According
to browser stats gathered by Chuck Upsell about 35% of IE users are on
version 7 and 35% use version 6. Mr Vahed said Firefox was generally popular
with more "tech-savvy" web users and they turned to it because using it
meant more webpages appeared as their designers intended. "It's still very
much the case that Firefox is way ahead of IE when it comes to standard
compliance," he said. IE's lack of compliance with web standards can make
some webpages look very odd, he said. But, he added, IE7 was better at
respecting standards and IE8 is expected to go further. More>>>
Teachers: Give us better tech training,
support
New report reveals continued barriers to using technology for classroom
instruction
 eSchool
News ~ June 16, 2008
Educators say they do not feel fully prepared to use
technology in the classroom. After more than decade of investment in school
technology, educators say they still don't feel adequately prepared to
integrate instructional software into their classrooms and aren't getting
the technical support they need to fully impact student achievement, according
to a joint study by the nation's two largest teacher unions.
Released June 10 by the National Education Association
(NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the study--called
Access, Adequacy, and Equity in Education Technology--examines the state
of educational technology resources and support in public schools across
the country, as reported by classroom teachers and instructional assistants.
Although they often have access to computers and the internet in their
classrooms, many teachers don't feel adequately prepared to use technology
to enhance their lessons, the report suggests. What's more, many teachers
in urban schools say they have insufficient or outdated equipment and software.
"Teachers and students should have the same level of technology in schools
that is being used outside of schools. How can we expect our teachers to
provide kids with the education they need to join today's high-tech workforce
without the necessary equipment and training?" asked NEA President Reg
Weaver. The report shows that most educators use technology for administrative
tasks, but substantially fewer use it for instruction. Although most educators
believe that technology is essential to teaching and learning, they are
less likely to use technology when the technology is outdated and has not
been maintained. Educators also say they would like better support
and technical assistance for using both software and hardware, especially
in urban schools. More than half of the educators surveyed said they had
no more than two computers available for students' use in their classroom--and
fewer than half mentioned their classroom as the main location where students
work on computers for class assignments. Elementary-level teachers have
more computers inside their classroom for student use, but they are less
likely to be satisfied with the software for their students and are less
likely to have high-speed internet access in their classroom, according
to the study. Although three out of five educators said their districts
require them to take part in technology training, respondents indicated
their training has been more effective for non-instructional tasks, such
as how to use the internet for research and how to use administrative software.
The report urges policy makers to increase access to technology both in
the classroom and outside of school by providing more wireless and portable
technology. It also recommends establishing standards for student usage
to integrate technology deeper into the school curriculum; bolstering professional
development by providing more appropriate training; increasing access to
technical assistance; and engaging teachers' unions in planning for and
implementing technology in schools. More>>>
Link: Access,
Adequacy, and Equity in Education Technology
Experts unveil 'cloak of silence'
 Technology
~
June 16, 2008
Scientists have shown off the blueprint for an "acoustic
cloak", which could make objects impervious to sound waves. The technology,
outlined in the New Journal of Physics, could be used to build sound-proof
homes, advanced concert halls or stealth warships. Scientists have previously
demonstrated devices that cloak objects from microwaves, making them "invisible".
"The mathematics behind cloaking has been known for several years," said
Professor John Pendry of Imperial College London, UK, an expert in cloaking.
"What hasn't been available for sound is the sort of materials you need
to build a cloak out of." The Spanish team who conducted the new
work believe the key to a practical device are so-called "sonic crystals".
These artificial composites - also known as "meta-materials" - can be engineered
to produce specific acoustical effects. "Unlike ordinary materials, their
acoustic properties are determined by their internal structure," explained
Professor Pendry. These would be used to channel any sound around an object,
like water flowing around a rock in a stream. Other researchers hope to
build the holy grail of cloaking: an invisibility device that would channel
light at wavelengths normally visible to the eye. However, this technology
is in a more primitive state, according to Dr Sanchez-Dehesa. "We believe
the acoustic cloak is more feasible than a similar device for light," he
said. More>>>
Text of the Residential Schools Apology from
PM Harper
Ottawa ~ June 11, 2008
See our BU P.E.N.T
Site
VIEWPOINT:
The Lion Who Didn't Roar
Why haven't Nelson Mandela and the Vatican spoken out against Robert
Mugabe?
By Christopher Hitchens
Slate : June 9, 2008
and National Post : June 12, 2008
Technology brings 'new P.E.' to schools
School districts compete for grants that bring
more interactive, information-based curriculum to gym classes
 eSchool
News ~ June 10, 2008
P.E. teachers nationwide are using a news breed of video
games to get students off the bleachers and onto the gym floor. Physical
education teachers are trading in their traditional equipment for heart-rate
monitors and video games that encourage running, jumping, and stretching.
Taken together, these two trends are transforming P.E. classes across the
country and are spurring school officials to vie for millions in grants.
More than 10,000 schools across the country reportedly use heart-rate monitors—wristwatches
that calculate a student's heartbeat and heart rate target zone—that make
it easier for teachers to track student performance. And a growing number
of schools are embracing a new phenomenon known as "exergaming," encouraging
students to exercise using video games such as Nintendo's new Wii Fit and
Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), in which players mimic dance moves on the
screen, requiring constant movement. Advocates of this trend say integrating
gaming into gym classes—replacing the monotony of jumping rope or running
laps—could increase participation among all students, rather than the sliver
of "jocks" in every class. This could help stem the alarming increase in
childhood obesity. More>>>
Supercomputer sets petaflop pace
 BBC
Technology ~ June 9, 2008
A supercomputer built with components designed for the
Sony PlayStation 3 has set a new computing milestone. The IBM machine,
codenamed Roadrunner, has been shown to run at "petaflop speeds", the equivalent
of one thousand trillion calculations per second. The benchmark means the
computer is twice as nimble as the current world's fastest machine, also
built by IBM. It will be installed at a US government laboratory later
this year where it will monitor the US nuclear stockpile. It will also
be used for research into astronomy, genomics and climate change. "We are
getting closer to simulating the real world," Bijan Davari, vice president
of next generation computing systems at IBM, told BBC News. The current
fastest supercomputer is IBM's Blue Gene/L, also at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL). More>>>
Hints of 'time before Big Bang'
 Technology
~ June 8, 2008
A team of physicists has claimed that our view of the
early Universe may contain the signature of a time before the Big Bang.
The discovery comes from studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB),
light emitted when the Universe was just 400,000 years old. Their model
may help explain why we experience time moving in a straight line from
yesterday into tomorrow. Details of the work have been submitted to the
journal Physical Review Letters. The CMB is relic radiation that fills
the entire Universe and is regarded as the most conclusive evidence for
the Big Bang. Although this microwave background is mostly smooth, the
Cobe satellite in 1992 discovered small fluctuations that were believed
to be the seeds from which the galaxy clusters we see in today's Universe
grew. Dr Adrienne Erickcek, and colleagues from the California Institute
for Technology (Caltech), now believes these fluctuations contain hints
that our Universe "bubbled off" from a previous one. Their model suggests
that new universes could be created spontaneously from apparently empty
space. From inside the parent universe, the event would be surprisingly
unspectacular. Describing the team's work at a meeting of the American
Astronomical Society (AAS) in St Louis, Missouri, co-author Professor Sean
Carroll explained that "a universe could form inside this room and we’d
never know". The inspiration for their theory isn't just an explanation
for the Big Bang our Universe experienced 13.7 billion years ago, but lies
in an attempt to explain one of the largest mysteries in physics - why
time seems to move in one direction. The laws that govern physics on a
microscopic scale are completely reversible, and yet, as Professor Carroll
commented, "no one gets confused about which is yesterday and which is
tomorrow". More>>>
Cell phones expose human habits
 Technology
~ June 5, 2008
The whereabouts of more than 100,000 mobile phone users
have been tracked in an attempt to build a comprehensive picture of human
movements. The study concludes that humans are creatures of habit, mostly
visiting the same few spots time and time again. Most people also move
less than 10km on a regular basis, according to the study published in
the journal Nature. The results could be used to help prevent outbreaks
of disease or forecast traffic, the scientists said. "It would be wonderful
if every [mobile] carrier could give universities access to their data
because it's so rich," said Dr Marta Gonzalez of Northeastern University,
Boston, US, and one of the authors of the paper. Researchers have previously
attempted to map human activity using GPS or surveys, but it is expensive.
The new work tracked 100,000 individuals selected randomly from a sample
of more than six million phone users in a European country. Each time a
participant made or received a call or text message, the location of the
mobile base station relaying the data was recorded. The results showed
that most people's movements follow a precise mathematical relationship
- known as a power law. The second surprise was that the patterns of people's
movements, over short and long distances, were very similar: people tend
to return to the same few places over and over again. More>>>
Fuel prices force schools to get creative
School districts scramble to offset the effects of rising transportation
costs
 eSchool
News ~ June 4, 2008
The rising cost of operating a school bus means less
money for other programs. With fuel prices soaring to record-breaking numbers,
school districts across the nation have been forced to rethink standard
practices and cut corners just to keep their budgets afloat. From virtualizing
field trips to switching to open software, districts are trying to adapt
to what could be only the beginning of an escalating crisis. AMinnesota
school district plans to cut back classes to four days a week this fall
to save on transportation costs. "We can't continue to offer all the services
we've always offered and function without losing money," said Terry Simpson,
superintendent of the Gutherie Public Schools in Mississippi. This fall,
the 3,300-student district will implement a new transportation policy that
does away with bus routes for students who live within 1.5 miles of the
school they attend--a policy that already has been implemented by other
local school districts. The Dougherty County School System in Albany, N.Y.,
is planning to increase meal prices in 2009 because of rising food costs
for the system. Because gas prices are driving up food prices and federal
funds for child nutrition are limited, the only variable the school system
has is in food prices charged to students, says Robert Lloyd, director
of business and finance. Baltimore City Schools are reviewing the 6,500
scheduled trips for athletic events and field trips that will cost around
$100,000. At Bend-La Pine Schools in Oregon, staff are sharing rides when
possible and making use of hybrid cars. According to Marc Liebman, superintendent
of California's Berryessa Union School District, technology budgets could
come under the knife, too. Districts are once again balancing the value
of teachers in the classroom with other priorities that might have less
instructional impact--including technology purchases. Yet, technology programs--which
typically are vulnerable to budget cuts--can be the one investment that
helps schools mitigate fuel costs. Some schools will shift the Microsoft
Office licenses they already own in the computer labs to these computers
and will replace them in the labs with OpenOffice licenses, which are free.
Without fuel for mobility, and with the possible cuts in personnel and
teacher bonuses, technology is a way to get more bang for your buck. The
current fuel crisis might be an opportunity to rethink, restructure, and
reorganize the traditional educational system. More>>>
University cheats 'not expelled'
 BBC
News ~ June 4, 2008
University students who are caught submitting plagiarised
work are very rarely expelled, shows a UK survey. A study found only 143
students caught cheating were expelled out of 9,200 cases - despite almost
all universities threatening expulsion as a sanction. Researchers warned
of "inconsistent" penalties, the most common sanction imposed being to
re-submit work. The study of 86 UK universities also found a much higher
rate of plagiarism among postgraduate students. The report, from the Higher
Education Academy and Joint Information Systems Committee, shows that despite
the repeated warnings to students not to cheat by using someone else's
work, those caught are unlikely to face particularly severe penalties.
Other consequences for those caught plagiarising were an "informal" warning,
a lowered mark or having to re-submit work without any capping on the mark.
Across the universities as a whole, the cheating rate was about seven cases
for every thousand students. More>>>
Most math teachers 'not experts'
 Education
~ June 4, 2008
Less than half of maths teachers in England's secondary
schools have a degree in the subject, despite a massive recruitment campaign.
The government-commissioned study also found fewer maths lessons were being
taught by specialists. A multi-million pound TV, newspaper and cinema advertising
campaign to boost the number of specialist maths teachers has been run
over the past few years. Ministers said the lack of maths graduates was
not unique to teaching. The survey of 327 secondary schools in England
found that generally teachers had a degree in the subjects they taught.
This tended to be more likely in the sciences, with 90% of these teachers
having what was categorised as a relevant post A-level qualification. One
in four maths teachers did not hold any relevant post A-level qualifications,
which include BEds, PGCEs and Certificates of Education. The survey also
showed that schools with higher numbers of pupils eligible for free school
meals tended to have fewer teachers with post A-level qualifications relevant
to the subjects they teach. More>>>
Can We Trust Students to Learn in Web
2.0?
Campus
Technology ~ June 4, 2008
A core debate about learning design arises from the fear
that, if we allow learners too much freedom, they will not learn the right
things. Web 2.0 exacerbates that fear because it is beyond the control
of educators.The fear of loss of control has always led educators toward
"one-step" teaching: "If we want students to learn properly, we have to
tell them what is right" -- rather than the more optimistic "two-step"
learning: "If we want students to learn, we have to let them discover for
themselves within a learning structure we've created for them." The first
approach allows us to define what we "cover" in teaching, the second relies
on a belief that learners can be trusted to do the right thing, given a
well-thought-out learning design. More>>>
Adobe launches Acrobat community
Technology
~ June 3, 2008
Adobe has made a move into online document sharing with
the launch of the Acrobat.com community
site. It allows people to create, store and share documents online, and
hold web conferences to discuss changes. It was unveiled at the same time
as the new version of Adobe's Acrobat software in which Flash video can
now be embedded. Currently the Acrobat.com service exists only in trial,
or beta, form; but anyone can sign up. Those using the service get access
to the Buzzword word processor that lets them create basic text documents.
Document creators can store their files on the site and invite others to
collaborate, read or comment. It also allows the creation of web conferences
so co-authors can collaborate on and discuss a document in real time. In
October 2007 Microsoft set up a trial version of Office Live Workspace
that lets people get at and share Word, Excel and Powerpoint files via
the web. Google runs a similar system via its online Documents service.
More>>>
Monkeys control robots with their minds
 CNN
~ June 3, 2008
(CNN) -- Scientists have trained a group of monkeys to
feed themselves marshmallows using a robot arm controlled by sensors implanted
in their brains, a feat that could one day help paralyzed people operate
prosthetic limbs on their own, according to a study out Thursday. Lead
researcher Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh said he believes
it won't be long before the technology is tested in humans, although he
predicts it will be longer before the devices are used in actual patients
with disabilities. The results were appeared in the journal Nature's online
edition on Thursday. The arm is controlled by a network of tiny electrodes
called a brain-machine interface, implanted into the motor cortex of the
monkeys' brains -- the region that controls movement. It picks up the signals
of brain cells as they generate commands to move and converts those into
directional signals for the robotic arm, which the monkeys eventually used
as a surrogate for their own. The ability of the monkeys to interact with
the robotic arm and objects in the work space embodies a "multi-degree-of-freedom"
that "paves the way towards the development of dexterous prosthetic devices
that could ultimately achieve arm and hand function at a near natural level,"
according to the Nature article. "Understanding the brain at a more fundamental
level, I think, will result in all sorts of chances to treat a wide range
of brain diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's", according to the
professor. More>>>
PROFS WITH ALTERNATE
VIEWS SERIES:
Made miserable by too much choice
Even as Western nations get healthier and
wealthier, happiness levels are stagnating
 National
Post ~ June 2, 2008
When more than 9,000 academics gather this week in Vancouver
for the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, everything
from gender roles, to the politics of terrorism, to the sociological significance
of first names will be on the agenda. In a week-long series, the National
Post showcases some of the most interesting research. Today: Freedom,
one of the tenets of liberal democracies, may be undermining happiness,
according to new research that combines the latest findings of positive
psychologists with political analysis. In liberal democracies with the
highest levels of personal and political freedom, levels of happiness have
stalled in recent decades, or even begun to decline, according to a paper
to be presented this week at the largest annual gathering of academics
in Canada. William Gorton makes the claim in a paper entitled, "Too
Much of a Good Thing: Freedom, Individualism, Autonomy and the Decline
of Happiness in Liberal Democracies." Even more troubling, "the causes
of this stagnation or decline may be attributable, directly or indirectly,
to core values of liberalism--namely freedom of choice, autonomy and individualism,"
he said. "An abundance of choice may actually make people unhappy," said
Prof. Gorton, who examines the fallout of this proliferation of freedom
to choose -- in politics, in personal lives, and even in consumer decision-making.
More>>>
Residential Schools:
Another View
'Most of these students at least learned modern
skills that would help them
participate more fully in both aboriginal
and Canadian society'
National
Post ~ June 1, 2008
Rodney A. Clifton - Professor of Education at
the University of Manitoba
[While working in residential schools] I kept extensive
notes about the children and my experience. Overall, I interpret the experiences
as follows: Both positive and negative things happened in residential schools.
Of course, we know that some people working in residential schools brutalized
the children under their care. Such individuals should be punished for
their crimes. So should administrators from both the churches and the Department
of Indian and Northern Affairs who covered them up. Nevertheless, the aboriginal
residential-school history must be put into appropriate context.
At the time, aboriginal residential schools were not much
different from many other schools. Many non-aboriginal children, for example,
were strapped in schools; some were also sexually abused. Not surprisingly,
some pedophiles have been imprisoned, but little attempt has been made
-- so far, at least -- to charge teachers and administrators for using
corporal punishment, in part because such brutal practices were widely
accepted at the time.
Most children who went to residential school learned to
read, write and calculate. Many children also learned other modern skills
-- the principles of democracy and common law, for example -- which would
help them participate more fully in both aboriginal and Canadian society.
Some aboriginal children had terrible illnesses -- tuberculosis,
serious dental problems and ruptured appendixes, for example -- that were
diagnosed and treated only because they were in residential schools. At
Stringer Hall, in fact, a number of children arrived with seriously infected
insect bites that required having their hair washed, cut and topical antibiotics
applied. Some children arrived with serious ear infections, and residential
supervisors provided the appropriate medical treatment. Thankfully, a young
nurse was on staff at Stringer Hall. Doctors and dentists were on call
to treat children in a way that would have been impossible had they been
out on the land hunting and fishing with their parents.
A few of the administrators, teachers and supervisors
were aboriginal . . . who contrary to the common myth, spoke to the children
in their mother-tongue. A number of the other employees also used aboriginal
expressions and gestures with the children. Similarly, not all the children
who attended residential schools were aboriginal. At Stringer Hall, about
12% of the 280 students were non-aboriginal -- the children of merchants,
missionaries and trappers from tiny settlements where no schools existed.
Finally, some aboriginal children had been physically
and sexually abused in their home communities and residential schools actually
saved some of them from continued abuse.
My experience is that most of the people who worked in
residential schools wanted to help the children receive a good education
that would allow them to survive in the modern world. Most of these people
also wanted to fulfill the evangelistic calling of committed Christians:
to help the poor, tend to the weak and treat the sick. Yet today, the reward
for former residential school employees is denigration in the national
press by people such as Mr. Ignatieff-- and, more surprisingly, by the
churches they served. I pray that the commission will hear a variety of
perspectives. Unfortunately, I do not think this will happen because of
the hostile climate that now exists. Few former school employees -- both
non-aboriginal and aboriginal -- will acknowledge that they worked in residential
schools, and even fewer will appear before the commission. They already
know that the "truth" has been pre-determined, and that "reconciliation"
means financial compensation, which is already being distributed in any
event. Few people will praise the residential schools -- their administrators,
their teachers or their supervisors. Fewer still will dare publicly admit
that their residential-school experiences were positive. In this
reinterpretation of history, neither the Canadian people nor the Truth
and Reconciliation Commissioners will likely hear the full story.
Rodney
A. Clifton is a professor of education at the University of Manitoba
and a senior fellow at St. John's College, an Anglican college that has
a long history of educating aboriginal people. A longer version of this
article appeared this month in C2C: Canada's Journal of Ideas, www.c2cjournal.ca.
How to harvest solar power? Beam it
down from space!
 CNN
Technology ~ June 1, 2008
* Concept to beam solar power from satellites gains new
global momentum
* Massive satellites would beam solar energy back to
ground-based receivers
* Pentagon study says could be used for military operations,
developing nations
Satellites would electromagnetically beam gigawatts of
solar energy back to ground-based receivers, where it would then be converted
to electricity and transferred to power grids. And because in high Earth
orbit, satellites are unaffected by the earth's shadow virtually 365 days
a year, the floating power plants could provide round-the-clock clean,
renewable electricity. "This will be kind of a leap frog action instead
of just crawling," said Mehta, who is the director of India operations
for Space Island Group, a California-based company working to develop solar
satellites. "It is a win-win situation." American scientist Peter Glaser
introduced the idea of space solar power in 1968. Skyrocketing oil prices,
a heightened awareness of climate change and worries about natural resource
depletion have recently prompted a renewed interest in beaming extraterrestrial
energy back to Earth. The country that takes the lead on space solar power
could be the energy-exporting country for the entire planet for the next
few hundred years. More>>>
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