Keep Doors to Learning Open

As a growing number of schools temporarily close their doors in an effort to prevent the spread of swine flu, administrators are taking a closer look at the role of technology in delivering education during school closures.

Nearly 300 schools around the country had closed as of April 30 as a result of the flu, according to the Associated Press. States with closings include California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, South Carolina, and Texas. In addition, all high school sports in Texas and Alabama were suspended, according to Associated Press reports.

“Schools at all levels should be using this time to prepare for a possible swine flu pandemic, with online instruction being an important option to consider,” Thomas E. Chandler, the manager of technology and educational applications for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said in an e-mail. “And if swine flu does not materialize as a major pandemic, having an online distance-learning plan in place will always be useful, in the event of the next [crisis]. This issue is not going away."

Source: Education Week Online May 1 2009

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo or the Fifth of May is a national holiday in Mexico commemorating the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, in which Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III. Although the battle itself represented only a temporary setback for the French, the Mexicans’ victory against overwhelming odds gave them the confidence they needed to persevere until finally triumphing on April 2, 1867. Celebrate!

Three Beta Releases Worth a Look

+ CaptionTube
With CaptionTube you can create captions for your YouTube videos.

+ twitfunr
twitfunr is a twitter-based service which is integrated with event planner and lets you do following while you are planning your event.
+ Post event information on Twitter.
+ Post event messages on Twitter from personalized event page.
+ Broadcast event proceedings live on Twitter as well as personalized event page from mobile phone.

+ BlindSpeak
Send Synthesized Messages Online

Source: MoMB

Shakespeare"s Birthday?

"Another myth must be dispelled at the outset. There is no evidence, alas, to support the popular belief that William Shakespeare was born — as fifty-two years later he was to die — on 23 April, the date celebrated in England since 1222 as the feast day of dragon-slaying St George. As the poet's posthumous fame grew, securing a unique niche for his country in the cultural history of the world, it was a natural enough temptation for posterity to unite the birthday of England's national poet with that of its patron saint. But the tradition is based on a false assumption, that Elizabethan baptisms invariably took place three days after the birth." Still, happy birthday anyway, Mr. Shakespeare.

Source: from William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius
by Anthony Holden

New GI Bill

There is a new education benefit available to service members - the Post-9/11 GI Bill (also known as chapter 33 benefits). The Post-9/11 GI Bill is the most comprehensive education benefit package since the original GI Bill was signed into law in 1944. Individuals who are eligible for the new benefit may begin using the benefits August 1, 2009, for training that begins on or after that date.

Eligible servicemembers are entitled to a tuition benefit. The tuition benefit covers the cost of tuition and fees and will be issued directly to the school. The student will be responsible for any overpayment that results from a change in enrollment. If a servicemember receives military tuition assistance, the tuition benefit will pay the amount not covered by the military tuition assistance.

For more information about the Post-9/11 GI Bill, visit www.gibill.va.gov.

Source: Headquarters Marine Corps Keith M. Wilson


VA Education Service

Ready for a Vacation?

"Commentary, news, and life in America's parks" includes a feature article, the Park Photo of the Week, and news about the parks.

Some other sites that might make it easier to plan a national park vacation include the National Park Service and L. L. Bean's Park Search. Ken Burns is preparing a series for PBS in September callec "The National Parks: Americ's Best Idea."

Source: Mary Laine

Week of the Young Child April 19-25

This is the Week of the Young Child. The Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest early childhood education association, with nearly 100,000 members and a network of over 300 local, state, and regional Affiliates.

The purpose of the Week of the Young Child is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs.

NAEYC first established the Week of the Young Child in 1971, recognizing that the early childhood years (birth through age 8) lay the foundation for children's success in school and later life. The Week of the Young Child is a time to plan how we--as citizens of a community, of a state, and of a nation--will better meet the needs of all young children and their families.

The theme for WOYC 2009 is:
Bring Communities Together for Children
– Children Bring Communities Together

CQ Researcher: Wrongful Convictions

"Until March 2009, few Americans had heard of Ronald Cotton, who was convicted in North Carolina of raping a college student and served 11 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA testing. Now Cotton is a household name because of a book about his case and appearances on “60 Minutes” and NBC's “Today” show. As recently as 10 years ago, the proposition that innocent men and women regularly end up in prison failed to find traction. Today, thanks to the power of DNA evidence, media coverage and the establishment of innocence projects, there is general acceptance that wrongful convictions indeed occur. Dozens of states have passed laws to prevent wrongful convictions and compensate those wrongly imprisoned. Defense attorneys and many academics say wrongful convictions are a recurrent problem requiring substantial changes in the criminal justice system, but prosecutors, police and other academics say mistaken convictions are such a small percentage of all cases that the system should mostly be left alone."

The full report includes introduction, overview, background, current situation, outlook, Pro/Con, Chronology, short features, maps/graphs, bibliography, next steps, contacts, and footnotes.

Source: Quoted from "Wrongful Convictions: Is Overhaul of the Criminal Justice System Needed?" by Steve Weinberg in this week's CQ Researcher. The complete report is available online to the Goodwin Community. Contact the library for the user name and password.

Across America, Waters in Crisis

For decades, the Clean Water Act has broadly protected America’s lakes, rivers, streams, and drinking water sources from unregulated pollution and destruction, rescuing them from the dire straits they were in during the late 1960s and early 1970s. But because of a concerted effort by polluters and developers, and muddied rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, up to 60 percent (at least 15,000 important waters) have lost these vital protections and countless other waters (including more than 50 percent of our streams and 20 million acres of wetlands) are at risk of losing protections.

Today, Natural Resources Defense Council, Clean Water Action, Earthjustice, Environment America, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and Southern Environmental Law Center are releasing a new report entitled “Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court Has Broken the Clean Water Act and Why Congress Must Fix It,” which details the threats to America’s waters and highlights the urgent need for Congress to act immediately and restore full Clean Water Act protections to our waters.

Source: Natural Resources Defense Council, Clean Water Action, Earthjustice, Environment America, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and Southern Environmental Law Center

Intellectually Challenging Classroom

Be part of a school wide solution. Participants in NCTE's Pathways for Teaching and Learning with English Language Learners program engage in study and discussion around topics such as:
Facilitating students' language development while engaging learners in rigorous content.
Creating effective learning environments that facilitate student achievement.
Providing opportunities for students to use language, learn language, and learn about language.
Helping ELL students actively engage in learning.
Learn more about this unique professional development program during a free Virtual Open House on Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 1:00 EDT.

Source: National Council of Teacher's of English

National Library Workers Day

National Library Workers Day, celebrated today during National Library Week, is a day to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers. Congratulations, Goodwin College Library Staff. Our library works because you do.

Playaways in the Library

The library now has PLAYAWAYS for you to try. PLAYAWAY was the first pre-loaded digial audio book. It is the easiest way to listen to a book on the go. Simply plug in the earphones and enjoy. No Cassettes or CDs. No Downloads. Just Play. At the moment we have the following available:
Finn by Jon Clinch
Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp
Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith
Day of Tears by Julius Lester
Marker by Robin Cook
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Academic Librarian on Student Research

Students at Goodwin are researching and writing for class assignments now as the end of the semester is fast approaching. In today's Inside Higher Ed Daily Update, Princeton University Librarian Mary W.George comments on her experiences with undergraduate library projects. You may be surprised by what she says. Here is a quote from that article:

"When professors assign a library project to undergraduates, just what do they expect students to learn from the research part of the experience? What do professors think students are doing to come up with the sources in their papers? If there is a discrepancy between pedagogical intent and actual student research behavior, how do faculty members address it? Does the end of a well-written, well-supported argument justify whatever means a student uses to acquire sources?

These are issues I often fret about, both in private and aloud when I compare notes with other academic librarians. My concern arises not from a general suspicion that students are engaging in what I call WIGWAM research (Wikipedia – Internet – Google – Without Anything More), but from what students themselves have been telling me for decades. It is clear from e-mail, reference encounters, research consultations in my office, and questions that arise in library instruction sessions, that most students simply do not retain the concepts and logic involved in discovering information sources — never mind the principles for evaluating the sources they do turn up. Even students whom I’ve counseled extensively in the past, and whose projects turned out well, seem clueless the very next semester when they face a research assignment in a different course."

Mary W. George is senior reference librarian at Princeton University Library.

Reading on the Rise

For the first time in more than 25 years, Amerian adults are reading more literature, according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts. The overall rate at which adults read literature (novels and short stories, plays, or poems) rose by 7 percent. Reading rates have increased among African Americans by 15 percent and among Whites by 8 percent.

Source: National Endowments for the Arts study January 12 2009

National Library Week

National Library Week is observed this week with the theme, "Worlds connect @ your library®."

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries - school, public, academic and special - participate.

National Library Workers Day, celebrated the Tuesday of National Library Week (April 14, 2009), is a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.

Where Have All the Teachers Gone?

"Over 50 percent of the nation’s teachers and principals are Baby Boomers. During the next four years we could lose a third of our most accomplished educators to retirement. The wave of departures will peak during the 2010-11 school year, when over one hundred thousand veteran teachers could leave. In less than a decade more than half of today’s teachers – 1.7 million – could be gone.

We can’t recruit our way out of this problem. Wholesale replacement of accomplished veterans with inexperienced beginners is a bad bet. Beginning teacher attrition rates have been rising steadily for more than a decade. By some estimates, over a third of the nation’s new teachers leave the profession within three years. In some school districts half of the new hires are replaced every five years. The schools in these districts struggle to close the student achievement gap, because precious resources and time are consumed by constant efforts to rebuild their staff."
Source: Report "Learning Teams: Creating What's Next" from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future April 7 2009

CQ Researcher: Extreme Sports

The wild world of so-called extreme sports ranges from motorcyclists executing double back flips to kayakers navigating deadly Class 5 rapids to mixed martial arts (MMA) — also known as “ultimate fighting” — where combatants use kicks, punches and stress holds. But many “extreme” athletes reject the label, arguing that the term marginalizes their sports as the sole province of adrenaline and violence junkies, when they actually require high degrees of skill. Now legislatures in New York and other states are considering bans on MMA. Proponents say the matches, legal at the pro level in 37 states, are safer than boxing and emphasize fighters' broad-based martial-arts training. But opponents argue that allowing such a wide variety of aggressive moves in a single fight is barbaric. However, skateboarders and other extreme athletes cite statistics showing that traditional sports such as boxing and football cause injuries and deaths at a higher rate than any of the extreme sports. The new CQ Researcher report comes out every Friday and is available online for the Goodwin community (password protected).

Source: CQ Researcher April 3 2009
Image: Georges St. Pierre pummels BJ Penn during their mixed martial arts title match last Jan. 31 in Las Vegas. St. Pierre won when the fight was stopped after four rounds. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

Public Health in General Education

Ask 10 people what an educated citizen should study and you’re bound to get 10 different answers (albeit with some overlap). The Educated Citizen and Public Health Initiative continues to make its case that public health should make any such list, and recently released a set of recommendations for integrating public health into general and liberal education. “This is not about professional education. This is about citizenship,” said Susan Albertine, co-author of "Recommendations for Undergraduate Public Health Education." Read more here.
Source: Inside Higher Education April 2 2009

Before Your Time: Universal Newsreels

Friday's history lesson introduces you to the newsreel. Most of your are too young to know what a newsreel is. In the pre-TV era, people saw the news every week in their neighborhood movie theaters. Newsreels were shown before every feature film and in dedicated newsreel theaters located in large cities. Universal Newsreel, produced from 1929 to 1967, was released twice a week. Each issue contained six or seven short stories, usually one to two minutes in length, covering world events, politics, sports, fashion, and whatever else might entertain the movie audience. These newsreels offer a fascinating and unique view of an era when motion pictures defined our culture and were a primary source of visual news reporting.

Universal City Studios gifted Universal Newsreel to the American people, put the newsreels into the public domain, and gave film materials to the National Archives in 1976. Surviving materials from the entire collection are available at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.
Browse the collection.
source: Universal Newsreels. The image is from Flickr.

Robot Scientists Make Original Discoveries

In recent decades, robots have replaced millions of manual laborers; now they're moving in on scientists, too. Computer scientist Ross King of Aberystwyth University along with systems biologists at the University of Cambridge, U.K., developed a robot named Adam to identify genes involved in yeast metabolism. Adam doesn't look so much like an android as a huge box of Rube Goldberg–type equipment. But it does far more than just analyze cells.

Using algorithms programmed by scientists, Adam formulates hypotheses about the origins of "orphan enzymes": enzymes for which scientists have been unable to identify the encoding genes. The robot then plans and executes experiments to test its hypotheses--selecting yeast mutants from a collection, incubating cells, and measuring their growth rates. As King's team reports this week in Science, Adam came up with 20 hypotheses about genes encoding 13 enzymes, 12 of which it confirmed.

Computer scientist David Waltz says "There's an interesting message from this and perhaps a daunting one for some scientists." In the future, he says, scientists, in order to carry out their work, "might have to learn how to program computers and express knowledge about the world the way people in artificial intelligence have done."
Source: Constance Holden in ScienceNOW Daily News 2 April 2009