The Current Events in Education

What's a Minute

2008-11-02T13:22:00.002-08:00

Yesterday I was doing some writing on authentic education and differentiated instruction for a book I'm writing. Something very interesting hit me about the difference between children and adults.

Think about the difference between a ten year old and a forty year old. (You've heard of dog years?) Well, relative to a ten year old's life span one minute equals four minutes, in the span of a 40 year old's lifetime. I don't know about you, but if I was forced to wait for eight minutes every time I wanted to say something in a discussion, I'd grow a little frustrated. Maybe it makes sense that many students show impatience when teachers ask them to hold their questions for two minutes.

Years ago, I heard somebody say that when a minute of class time was wasted in class, it really wasn't just one minute. Instead, it was 21 minutes if there were twenty one people in the room. Maybe we should start thinking about the difference between a "kid minute" and an "adult minute"?

By the way, the topic of the book is educational technology. How can the tools of Web 2.0 help reduce the amount of time that students have to wait to make their points in a class discussion?

Web Definitions

2008-10-30T12:19:00.002-07:00

I've been working on developing a glossary of Internet terms for some work that I'm doing and I'd love feedback. Do people feel like I'm defining the terms well for a non-technical audience? Are there additional terms that I should add?

Q. What is the Internet?
A. Though originally conceived in a 1946 comic strip, the Internet did not become what we know it today, until the mid-1980s. Essentially, the Internet is a series of computers connected together by copper wires, fiber optic cables, wireless connections and other technologies. Think about the Internet as a series of roads upon which electronic data can travel. Every computer on the Internet, which includes your computer if you are currently on line, can be compared to a building on the road system. Just as a road system and buildings would exist in the absence of people moving along the roads and to and from the buildings, the Internet would exist without data. It would be as silly as a road system upon which nobody travelled, but it would exist.

Q. What is a server?
A. A server is a computer that is continuously connected to the Internet. In addition to serving an array of other purposes, servers typically host the documents that comprise a website. In other words, these documents are stored as electronic data on the storage devices of these servers. The benefit to hosting a website on this kind of a server, as opposed to on the storage device of a personal computer, is that the server never has to be turned off. People typically turn off their own personal computers, at least occasionally. Interestingly, though specialized servers are manufactured and sold, a simple computer can also be used as a server.

Have you ever tried to access a website, but not been able to do so? The problem is not necessarily on your own computer. Instead, it’s quite possible that the server on which the site is stored has crashed or is not working properly for another reason. Larger companies, such as Google, often avoid these kinds of crashes by setting up backup servers and even backup to the backups.

Q. What is the World Wide Web?
A. The World Wide Web, or Web, is an interconnected system of documents. These documents can include text, audio/video files, and graphics. Documents are connected to one another through a series of “links.” Every link on the Web points to a specific address.

Incidentally, the web is not the only content that is stored on the Internet. Correspondents use the Internet to send email back and forth, but email is obviously different than websites. FTP processes, or processes relying on File Transfer Protocols, are also different than websites. These processes enable individuals to move files across the Internet from one location to another at quicker speeds than email. FTP also enables people to transfer larger files than many email services can accommodate.

Q. What is a website?
A. A website is simply a combined set of files hosted at a single address. When we read the website we typically notice a homepage and sub-pages. For example, the New York Times home page is www.nytimes.com. The front page of the politics section is: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html. Note that the home page and the sub-page share the first part of the address. The sub-page simply has extra text added on to it.

Q. What is a web address?
A. A web address is the location of a specific file on the Internet. This address is a series of binary numbers, translated into readable notations.

Q. How do the Internet and the World Wide Web work together?
A. HTML a computer coding language first developed by a contractor working for the European Organization for Nuclear Research named Tim Barners Lee, enabled computer programmers to develop documents that could be accessed through the Internet. When somebody clicks on a link within a web document their computer sends a request out for the content located at the other site, called an anchor, to be sent to his/her own computer. The “message” moves along the Internet until it reaches the server containing the appropriate content. When this request message reaches the host server, the server sends the correct data back to the requesting computer. All of this data moves along the Internet connectors.

Q. What is a browser?
A. When data from the Web reaches your computer after traveling across the Internet at incredibly fast speeds, it is not legible. The web browser transforms this data into a format that can easily be read. Ultimately, you probably don’t care what the data looks like as it is moving along the Internet connectors. You probably don’t care what happens when your request for data actually reaches a host computer. I don’t either. We can leave this kind of information to the techies. As long as we can access the data that we want to access we’re OK. But, for this reason the browser is really important. For, it is the browser that actually delivers the information to the end-user, me and you. We’ll take a much closer look at the role of web-browsers in the next chapter.

Q. What is a network?
A network is simply a series of computers and/or servers that are configured to work together. The Internet is a network, a very large network. Many schools have intranets which are much more constrained networks designed to meet the needs of the local school community. These networks are typically referred to as intranets. Most often intranets provide additional storage. However, they can do far more. We’ll consider intranets much more deeply in Chapter five.

Today, many schools also have extranets. An extranet simply implies that individuals from outside of the school community can log into an intranet. However, different levels of security exist. For example, parents might be able to see a particular classroom’s website, not available to the general public, but they might not be able to access the faculty’s discussion board. The class’s website would be part of the extranet; the discussion board would exist only on the intranet.

Q. What is a firewall?
A. Unfortunately, sometimes data travels along the Internet that can wreak havoc on your computer if the data is welcomed into your computer’s memory. Consequently, Internet security firms have developed security protections to prohibit unauthorized data from passing onto protected networks.

Giving Up Children

2008-10-02T10:14:00.002-07:00

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Parents Give Up Youths Under Law Meant for Babies." The article states, "In total last month, 15 older children in Nebraska were dropped off by a beleaguered parent or custodial aunt or grandmother who said the children were unmanageable." It continues, "Officials have called the abandonments a misuse of a new law that was mainly intended to prevent so-called Dumpster babies — the abandonment of newborns by young, terrified mothers — but instead has been used to hand off out-of-control teenagers or, in the case of the father of 10, to escape financial and personal despair."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Have you ever made your parents become frustrated? What did you do? What did your parents say to you?
Do you think that an adult can do whatever he/she wants to you? What kinds of things shouldn't an adult do to you? If an adult does do something bad to a child who should the child tell?
Have you ever seen a new-born baby? Did you play with him/her? What kinds of things does a new-born baby need other people to do for him/her?
Have you ever had a toy that you didn't want any more? What did you do with it? Have you ever given a toy that you didn't want to somebody else who didn't have a toy but wanted one? How did this make you feel?

Discussion-Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Abandonments; Surrendered; Spate; and, "Economic Distress".
What does it mean for a child to fall through the cracks? Do you have a responsibility to make sure that your friends don't fall through the cracks? Why/why not? What can you do to make sure that your friends don't fall through cracks?
Do you think that a parent would ever be right to give up a teenage child? Explain! Do you think that a moral parent could ever feel good about giving up a child? Explain!
What do you think is the hardest part about being a parent? Do you think that you should try and make your parent's job, of parenting, a little easier? Why/why not? How might you do this?

By the way, when was the last time you thanked your parents for everything that they do for you?

Failure!!

2008-09-29T11:47:00.002-07:00

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "House Rejects Bailout Package, 228-205; Stocks Plunge." The article states "House leaders pushing for the package kept the voting period open for some 40 minutes past the allotted time, trying to convert “no” votes to “yes” votes by pointing to damage being done to the markets, but to no avail." It continues, "Supporters of the bill had argued that it was necessary to avoid a collapse of the economic system, a calamity that would drag down not just Wall Street investment houses but possibly the savings and portfolios of millions of Americans. Opponents said the bill was cobbled together in too much haste and might amount to throwing good money from taxpayers after bad investments from Wall Street gamblers."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Have you ever tried to do something and not been able to do it? What did you try to do? Do you know why you weren't able to do it? Why?
Have you ever gotten really frustrated? What happened that made you so frustrated? What did you do to help yourself stop being frustrated?
Have you ever helped somebody do something that they could not do alone? What did you help them do? How did you feel about helping them? Why did you feel this way?
Can you remember a time when somebody said something very important to you? Who said it? What did they say? How did you know that it was very important?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Defiance; Slumping; Calamity; and, Resolute.
According to the article, the vote was a moment of historic import. What do you think it means for something to be of historic import? How often can something of historic import take place? Do you believe that this vote was of historic import? Why/why not?
Do you think that the United States' economy could ever become so bad that our nation stops functioning? Why/why not? What would it mean for our nation to stop functioning? Explain!
Imagine that you were an advisor to President Bush. What would you suggest that he does now since the legislation has failed in the House? What if you were an adviser to Speaker Pelosi? What about one of the presidential candidates?

The Debate

2008-09-27T10:42:00.002-07:00

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "The Next Day, a New Debate on Who Won." Referring to upcoming debates, Jim Rutenberg wrote, "Speaking with reporters on a conference call Saturday morning, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, called Ms. Palin, 'a gifted debater.' Noting Mr. McCain’s preference for town hall formats, and using the transparent, expectations-setting hyperbole common from both campaigns, Mr. Plouffe said he would be 'thrilled' if 'we can just escape relatively unscathed.'" Rutenberg further wrote, "The positioning was in keeping with what is now a quadrennial rite in which the campaigns go full bore to convince the news media, and ultimately the public, that their candidate won. This often involves highlighting some supposedly fatal mistake by their opponent — the sighs of Al Gore at a 2000 debate; the first President George Bush’s peek at his wristwatch while debating Bill Clinton in 1992."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Have you ever told somebody that you disagreed with him/her? What did you disagree about? How did you explain why you disagreed to the other person? Is it OK to disagree with somebody else? Why/why not?
Do you think it's better to argue with somebody, using words, or to fight with somebody, with fists? Explain your answer!! Why do you think that so many kids hit other kids instead of using their words?
Have you ever picked on somebody for something small? Maybe their name sounded strange or they said something silly. Have you ever seen somebody pick on somebody for this kind of a reason? Why would people pick on others for little, or no, reason? Is it ever OK to pick on somebody else? Why/why not?
Have you ever tried to convince somebody of something? Who did you try and convince? What did you try and convince them of? Do you think that there are some smart ways to try and convince people of things? Explain!

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: "Middle Class"; Amplify; "Frenzied Activity"; and, "Zone Offense."
Why do you think that Senator Obama is reminding the American public that Senator McCain did not mention the words "Middle Class" in Friday night's debate? Do you think that Senator McCain made a mistake by not mentioning this term? Why/why not?
What can we learn from the fact that a McCain advertisement ran on the Wall Street Journal's website advertising victory before the debate even took place? Do you think that a similar mistake might have happened with an Obama ad? Why/why not?
Do you think that Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe really thinks that Governor Palin is a "gifted debater"? Why would he have said that he would be thrilled if the Obama campaign emerged from the debates "relatively unscathed"? If Mr. Plouffe was the manager of a sports team how do you think he would behave towards the media? Explain!

Bush Calls Bailout Vital to Economy

2008-09-25T10:58:00.003-07:00

The Washington Post is running an article entitled, "Bush Calls Bailout Vital to Economy; Will Meet with McCain and Obama." The subtitle states, "Proposal Takes Shape in Congress, but Broad Support is Lacking." The article states, "Five days after unveiling the bailout plan, which seeks to purchase troubled assets from faltering financial institutions, administration officials were still struggling to line up support among lawmakers appalled by its cost, doubtful of its methods and outraged by the speed with which they were being pushed to act. While the usually fractious Senate seemed to be coming together behind a version of the proposal, the administration had big trouble in the House, particularly among mistrustful Republicans who said the White House had failed to make a case for the bailout in terms ordinary people could understand."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Have you ever worked on something with somebody else? What did you work on? In what ways was it more difficult to work with somebody else than it would have been to work alone?
Do you trust something that your mother or father says more than you would trust something that a friend says? Why/why not?
Have you ever disagreed with somebody? What did you disagree about? How did you resolve the disagreement? Do you think that this was a good way to resolve it? Why/why not?
Has anybody ever borrowed anything from you that they then lost? What did they borrow? How did you feel when they told you that they lost it? Would you lend this person something again? Why/why not?

Discussion Starters for Older Students:

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Bailout; "Entire Economy"; "Easy Credit"; and, Appalled.
Do you think it's right that executives of failing companies make millions of dollars in compensation, even as the federal government considers bailing them out of financial crisis? Why/why not? Develop arguments for both sides of this question.
Imagine that you were an adviser to President Bush. Would you have encouraged him to speak to the public last night? Why/why not? Think of a metaphor to describe the role that the President filled when he made his television address, yesterday.
If you were a lawmaker how would you determine whether or not you should vote for a government bailout of the financial system?
Could you possibly support the bailout if you didn't think your constituents would support your decision? Why/why not? How would you compare the importance of winning re-election to the importance of helping the economy, if you thought the bill was a good bill? Explain!!

Question/Answer Sites

2008-09-24T09:53:00.002-07:00

TechCrunch is reporting that Yahoo is putting YahooAnswers up for sale. A commenter writes, "There are many much better Q&A alternatives out there (answerbags.com, muchobene.com, fluther.com…)" Have you ever used one of these sites? Which one do you prefer? Do you think teachers should encourage students to use these kinds of sites?

Test

2008-09-23T13:38:00.002-07:00

This is just a test.

Google's Android

2008-09-23T12:47:00.002-07:00

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Google and T-Mobile Introduce Phone with PC Features." The article begins, "In the latest of a string of challenges to Apple's popular iPhone, Google and T-Mobile on Tuesday introduced the first mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software, which they hope will bring PC-like features to millions of cellphone users." It states, "Google has invested tens of millions of dollars in developing the Android operating software and is giving it away for free to cellphone makers and carriers. The company hopes that many companies will build phones based on Android."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

How often do you go on the computer? What do you do when you go on the computer? Have you ever gone to Google? Why? Do you think that Google is helpful? Why/why not?
Have you ever given something to somebody for free? Why did you give it away? Is it OK to give away your things? Why/why not?
Have you ever worked really hard on your own to make something? What did you make? How did you feel after you made it? Do you think some people might feel like roller skating after working really hard to do something and achieving their goal? Why/why not?
Share a time that you worked well with somebody else. What did you do? Did you accomplish what you wanted to accomplish? Do you think it's easier to accomplish things with other people or alone? Explain!!

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: "3-Megapixel Camera"; Market; Dominance; and, Application.
According to this article, why did Google give away it's Android operating system, free of charge? If you wanted Microsoft to succeed in business, how would you feel about this decision? Explain!
Make some predictions about the future of technology, based on the information presented in this newspaper article. How do you think the Internet will be different in ten years? in fifty years?
If you could ask five questions about the Android to learn more about it, what would you ask? To whom do you think you could ask these questions? Go, try and find the answers!!

Lost Link to My Living Textbook

2008-09-22T16:04:00.002-07:00

I tried to do something and it backfired a little bit.

So if you want to visit my Living Textbook. Here it is.

Yankee Stadium's Last Game

2008-09-22T12:13:00.002-07:00

The Yankees played their last game in Yankees Stadium yesterday.

Watch this video!!

Questions for Younger Children

Where is your favorite place to play? Why do you like playing in this place so much? Is there anything specific that you enjoy playing in this space? Explain!!
What do you most like doing with your mom and/or dad? Why do you enjoy doing this with your mom and/or dad?
What is your favorite sport? What do you like about this sport? What does it mean to be good at this sport? Do you think that you have to be good at a sport to like it? Why/why not?
How old do you think that somebody has to be to be old? What do you think can be older, buildings or people? Why do you think this way?

Questions for Older Students

Why do you think that somebody would buy a shirt that says, "Final Game?" Do you think it would be exciting to go to the final game at a baseball stadium that is 80 years old? Why/why not?
If Yankee Stadium could talk about things that happened inside of it what story do you think it would tell first? What questions might you ask to answer this question more thoughtfully? Where might you look for these answers?
Respond to the following statement: "Yankee Stadium was where people played baseball. Baseball was and is only a sport."
If you could ask somebody shown on the video any one question, to whom would you ask a question? What question would you ask? Why would you ask this person this question?

Bailout

2008-09-20T11:58:00.002-07:00

The Washington Post is running an article entitled, "Bush Administration Seeks $700B for Economic Bailout." According to the article, the Bush Administration sent a legislative package to Congress today that represents "...the most sweeping government intervention in the markets since the Great Depression. (The package) was $200 billion higher than lawmakers had been told yesterday to expect. It also does not include the $200 billion that officials said earlier this month the government will spend on the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." The article further states, "The timing of the administration's plan reflected in part mounting concern about money-market mutual funds, which were widely regarded as safe havens until the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers caused a major fund to post a loss this week. Officials feared a massive run as investors withdrew about $200 billion during the week, including $50 billion on Thursday, according to Crane Data, which tracks the industry."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Questions for Younger Children

If your mom or dad gives you a little bit of money to buy something and you lose the money do you think that your mom or dad should give you more money to buy the same thing? Why/why not?
Do you think that store owners like it when you buy things at their store? Why/why not? How do you think a store owner would feel if he knew that you had wanted to buy something at the store but lost the money? Why would he/she feel this way?
Where do you think is the safest place to keep money that somebody gives you? Why is this the safest place?
Has anybody ever lent you money? What did they lend you the money for? Who lent it? Did you return the money? Why did you return the money

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: "Mortgage Securities"; Intervention; "Market Guy"; and, "Corporate Finance."
The article states, "The plan would allow the government rather than the cold judgment of the marketplace decide the winners and losers from the crisis..." How will this plan allow the government to determine the winners and losers from the crisis? Do you think that the government should support banking institutions financially so that they don't go bankrupt? Why/why not?
Respond to the following statement: "Perceptions towards the market economy is as important as anything else when it comes to the successful development of a market economy." Explain! What does it mean for a market economy to develop? What prompts this development? Why might perceptions be so importants?
What can we learn about President Bush from this article? Explain! Do you think that the President means well? Explain! Does it matter if the President means well? Why/why not?

Markets Slide

2008-09-18T10:23:00.002-07:00

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Markets Slide After Central Banks' Move." The article states, "The Dow Jones industrials breached negative territory around noon, (on Thursday) erasing an earlier 100-point gain after the Federal Reserve said it would offer up to $180 billion in loans to other world banks to improve liquidity in money markets, which froze this week as fearful investors refused to lend." "On Wall Street, a sense of disbelief lingered among investors on Thursday, as they began to contemplate the full implication of the once-unthinkable moves that rocked the world of finance in the last week. The government’s $85 billion rescue of the insurance giant, American International Group, was met with a 449-point drop in the Dow. That move came just days after the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch.

Read the Article!!

Questions for Younger Students

What kinds of things can money be used for? How much money is a lot of money?
Can you think of anything that your mom and dad have to spend money for? What?
If somebody gives you $5 do you think it's a good idea to run to the store and buy something that is $5.00? Why/why not?
What would happen if you wanted to buy something but didn't have enough money to pay for it? What if nobody else would give you the money to pay for it? Do you think that adults ever don't have enough money to buy what they want to buy? Explain!!

Questions for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Coursing; "Treasury Bills"; Liquidity; and, Stabilize.
Who controls the economy of the United States of America? If nobody controls the U.S. economy, how is it run?
Many people say that rather than talking about national economies in the Twenty First Century we should talk about a global economy. Based on this article does this idea make sense to you? Why/why not?
What does it really mean when people say that a company has lost value? Is value tangible? Explain!!

Sticky Note Madness

2008-09-17T20:10:00.002-07:00

You might want to ask why somebody created this? But instead ask how you could use such a nonsensical video to promote critical thinking in a classroom.

What are the individuals in the video thinking?
If a sticky note could talk what would the last one say?
If you were going to create similar video to this one, that ended with the word "madness" what object would you use? Why?

We Didn't Start the Fire

2008-09-17T05:26:00.003-07:00

I'm very intrigued with the We Didn't Start the Fire video on Teacher Tube. For this video clearly demonstrates creative thinking. Consider the amount of research that the developers of the video had to do to find the precise pictures that they wanted to use. One question that I'm thinking about is does the video demonstrate the highest levels of critical thought? I don't think so. But, what would the developers have had to included to demonstrate this kind of thought?

Could teachers use this video to promote the highest levels of critical thinking? How?

What kinds of assignments does this video inspire you to create for your students?

Check out My Living Textbook

2008-09-16T14:59:00.002-07:00

I am in the process of try to rejuvenate my Living-Textbook. Take a look at it and let me know what you think. The address is http://www.pass-ed.com/Living-Textbook.html.

Thanks

"Web 2.0 Gets Down to Business"

2008-09-08T15:17:00.002-07:00

Here's a very interesting article from Fortune Magazine. It states, "Remember where electronic mail was 15 years ago? If you didn't already have an e-mail address, you probably knew someone who did. And if you were sending and receiving e-mail, you'd probably discovered that it could be a game-changing business tool...That's roughly where the services known collectively as Web 2.0 are today. These are sometimes defined as web activities that get more valuable the more people use them."

Detroit's Mayor to Jail

2008-08-07T12:18:00.003-07:00

The New York Times is running a story entitled, "Judge Orders Detroit Mayor Jailed." The article states, "Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick was sent to the county jail Thursday and will spend at least one night there as punishment for violating his bond." It continues, "The mayor’s jailing comes nearly seven months after text messages between Mr. Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, contradicting testimony that they gave during a whistleblower lawsuit against the city were published by The Detroit Free Press."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Do you think that adults can misbehave? Why/why not? Do you think that adults can get in trouble if they misbehave? How would they get in trouble?
Do you think that adults should behave better than children most of the time? Why/why not?
Have you ever gone somewhere you should not have gone? Why did you go there? What happened when you were there? Why did you go there if you were not supposed to go there?
Should the punishment for an adult be different than the punishment of a child if both the child and the adult do the same thing wrong? Why/Why not?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Bond; Perjury; Scrutiny; and, Whistleblower.
Imagine that you served as an advisor to Michigan Governor, Jennifer Grandholm, would you advise her to remove Mayor Kilpatrick from office? Why/why not? What questions would you want to answer before you advised anything? Why would you want these specific questions answered?
Based upon the information presented in this article, develop a character sketch for Kwame Kilpatrick? If you could ask the Mayor three questions what questions would you ask him? How do you think he would answer?
Do you think that this article is fair to Mayor Kilpatric? Why/why not? How would you go about verifying the information presented in this article if you wanted to do so?

Identity Theft

2008-08-06T09:36:00.002-07:00

The USA Today is running an article entitled, "11 Charged in TJX Identity Theft." The article states, "The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday said it charged 11 people in the theft of millions of credit and debit card numbers of customers for nine major U.S. retailers, including TJX, the parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other stores." It continues, "The massive computer data breach at TJX may have affected 94 million Visa and MasterCard accounts — nearly double the previous estimate by the retailer — according to court filings last year."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Name five things about yourself that you are most proud of? Why are you proud of these things?
Do you think it's nice when other people act as "copy-cats"? Why/why not? Why do you think that other people would want to act as "copy-cats"?
Do you think it's important to store your things safely? Why/why not? What is your favorite thing that you own? How do you take care of this thing?
What kinds of things should you do to make sure that you are safe on the Internet? Why do these things keep you safe?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Identity; "Court Filings"; Bedeviled; and, Retail/Wholesale.
When people intentionally hurt other people, do you think that they believe they are doing something wrong? Why/why not? Why would somebody do something if he/she believes that it is wrong.
What three questions would you ask if you wanted to learn more about protecting information on the Internet? How would the answers to these questions help you protect this information?
Imagine that you wanted to find out how much money existed in the world. How would you do this? What is the definition of money? Does money have to be something that can be held? Why/why not?

Bush to China

2008-08-04T13:00:00.003-07:00

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Pressure from all Sides as Bush Visits China." The article states, "The idea of giving a Reaganesque “tear down this wall” speech on human rights in China — as members of Congress and others are calling on Mr. Bush to do — has been abandoned as potentially insulting to the president’s hosts, one senior administration official said. It would be unlikely that most Chinese would see or hear it anyway, because of state control of the media." It continues, "Mr. Bush will be the first sitting president to attend an Olympic Games overseas, and Mr. Bush and his aides have said that the trip is a gesture of respect to China. While his love of sports is evident, he showed no such enthusiasm for the Olympic spirit when the games were held in Greece in 2004. And once he decided to attend in 2008, he rebuffed calls for him to at least boycott the opening ceremonies."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

If one of your friends was really misbehaving in their own home and nobody else saw would you tell them to stop misbehaving? Why/why not?
Do you think it would be fair for a country to make a law saying that people cannot say whatever they want? Why/why not? Do you think it's important to be able to say whatever you want? Explain!
If you could play in Olympic sport what sport would you participate in? What do you like about this sport?
If you could say one thing so that everybody in the world could hear you, what would you say? Why would you say this?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Activist; Reaganesque; Thwarted; and, Dissidents.
Do you think that President Bush should be making this trip to China? Why/why not? Consider developing arguments for both sides of this question.
Imagine that you were an adviser to President Bush and he asked your advice as to what he should say to the Chinese President about human rights. What would you advise? Why? What if President Bush asked what he should say about human rights on Chinese television?
Do you think that the leadership of China believes they are wrong in denying citizens basic rights? How do you think that they might justify this behavior?

Mark Cuban and the Cubs

2008-08-03T12:59:00.002-07:00

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Cuban Wants Cubs, but Will Baseball Want Him?" Cuban has developed a highly controversial reputation as owner of the Dallas Mavericks. The article states, "Cuban is loud, passionate and opinionated. He’s a media creature comfortable on multiple platforms, and he turned the once-comatose Mavericks into a perennial winner (though they have not won it all, just like the Cubbies). He has amassed nearly $1.7 million in fines, mostly for criticizing N.B.A. referees. As penance for insulting the chief of referees as incapable of managing a Dairy Queen, he spent a day at the chain serving up a promotional bonanza."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

What does it mean to be nice? Can a nice person point out mistakes that other people have made? Why/why not?
Do you think that you can communicate with more people if they say something or write something? Challenge them to explain their thoughts?
What do you think it means to be obnoxious? Do you think it's ever OK to be obnoxious? Why/why not? Is it ever OK to scream? If so, when? Why/why not?
Do you think that it would be fun to be on a professional sports team? What team would you like to be on? What might be some of the benefits of being on such a team? What would be the drawbacks?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Conceded; Loquacious; Acquisition; and, Stodgier.
Do you think that the person who offers the most money to purchase a product, like a professional sports team, should be able to buy it? Why/why not? Should the other baseball team owners be able to deny Mark Cuban the right to purchase the Chicago Cubs? Explain!!
According to the article, Cuban write, "The best references I have will come from other N.B.A. owners who know what my contributions as a partner are...multiple N.B.A. owners have asked if they could participate in our attempts to purchase the Cubs.” Why might the other owners want to work with Mr. Cuban if he has a reputation for being loquacious? Would you want to work with somebody like Mark Cuban? Explain!
In his first year as the Dallas Mavericks' owner, Cuban was fined $1 million. Is this a lot of money? What dollar amount is a lot of money to you? What do you think that Mark Cuban thinks is a lot of money? Explain!!!

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2008-06-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this from my phone. Does it work?

AP

To Give or to Get?

2008-05-15T06:07:00.005-07:00

I teach a fourth grade religious school class every Wednesday afternoon and Sunday morning. Yesterday afternoon I was in the middle of teaching and I remembered that I had not done something I promised to do. Bob Schwartz, our business development guy, had asked me to schedule a meeting with somebody he met who was interested in our company. Beth Kahn, our office administrator, schedules all of my meetings and I had forgotten to speak with Beth. So, in the middle of class I called Beth and asked her to schedule the meeting.

Why is this such a big deal?

Michigan's economy is one of the worst economies, if not the worst economy, in the nation. Many, many people are unemployed, particularly those who used to work at one of the car companies, which supported Michigan's economy for a very long time. Obviously when an industry that supports a local economy suffers, as the automobile industry has suffered, other local industries suffer as well. The individual with whom Bob wanted me to speak used to work at one of the automobile industries. (I'm not certain what he did there, but my guess is he worked on an assembly line.) After working for twenty years he decided that he wanted to pursue a lifelong dream and become a writer and speaker. First, he earned both an associates degree and a B.A. I was most intrigued after Bob showed me a book that this individual wrote. Wow!! The title of the book is "Grade Grabbers: Improve Your GPA."

I suspect that this individual is interested in a job. But, even though my schedule has gotten pretty busy, I'm eager to sit down with somebody who decided after twenty years on a job to go back and get a college degree and then wrote a book. Without even having met this individual yet, he sounds rather interesting.

So, why did I call my office in the middle of teaching? I suspected that this individual might be waiting for a phone call from my office. I know that if I was in his situation I would be anxious. My thought was why make him wait. Alleviate his anxiety. After I got off the phone, I explained to my students why I had made the phone call. I told them the old adage that if you give somebody a fish you feed them for a day but if you teach somebody to fish you give them the skills of feeding themselves for a lifetime. If this guy is as much of a go getter as he sounds, then I would have no problem in giving him a job.

In Judaism, the greatest act of charity is giving somebody a job. Yet, thinking about this fact from my chair, I'm wondering why this is the case. I don't give people jobs to be generous. (I'm simply not in that kind of a position.) Rather, I give people jobs so that they can help my company grow and be successful. Perhaps this is selfish, not charitable? Can selfishness and charity compliment one another? I'm not sure but it sounds like an interesting question, at least to me.

A Freelancing Organization

2008-05-10T08:23:00.002-07:00

This past Wednesday Pass-Ed held it's weekly strategy meeting. During the meeting I made the following point: One way to think about Pass-Ed is as a freelance organization. In other words, as an organization we do what freelancers do but on a significantly larger scale. I then challenged my staff to consider what differentiates us from individual freelancers.

Two important points came up:
First, we have resources available that individuals simply could not have. Rather than asking a single individual to do everything we divide up the work according to expertise. So, if we have a project that calls for both writing and animation, we'll divide the work appropriately. Furthermore, we always seek advice as to how to improve our content development from practicing our teacher associates, practicing classroom teachers whom we've contracted with to specifically fulfill this advisory function.

Second, the same resources that make us a valuable partner to publishing houses and other organizations needing K-12 educational content, makes us a great place to work for developers. We ask them to work to their expertise and they're supported in other areas, collaboratively. Furthermore, unlike so many freelancers who must spend a large portion of their time looking for new business, our developers don't have to do this. Instead our sales and marketing team gets the business for them. This means that they get more time to do what they want to be doing.

I'm in the process of developing a tri-fold brochure about our organization. (We have rented an exhibit booth at the Association for Educational Publishers' annual summit, in early June, in Washington, D.C. and we'd like to be able to distribute this tri-fold.) Well, after writing this blog post, I think I've just written the first draft for one of the tri-folds. It seems like a useful explanation of what we do.

International Reading Association Conference

2008-05-07T08:30:00.002-07:00

One of the things that I really enjoy (at least some of the time) about being the head of a company is the travel. I get to meet many interesting people as I travel across the country. Earlier this week I was at the International Reading Association annual convention in Atlanta.

I was amazed at how few companies were promoting products related to technology. While I spoke to many people who advocated the importance of developing more web-based products, few companies were selling these kinds of products. However, more companies had such products this year than last year. My guess: Within six years the exhibition hall will be filled with technology products. One only has to look at the report, "America's Digital Schools, 2008" to recognize that the use of computer technology in U.S. schools has dramatically increased over the last couple of years.

I had one dominant thought as I perused the booths in the exhibit hall. Pass-Ed is in a wonderul position to help publishing companies reposition themselves to take advantage of opportunities in the digital world. As I write this blog post, one of our staff members is sitting across the hall working on a flash development project, another is developing a transcript for a training video, and still a third is working on educational content for a website partner.

The next few years do promise to be very exciting in the educational publishing industry.