Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Short on Books, Texas School Uses Laptops (AP). AP - Every fifth- and sixth-grader at Johnson Elementary will receive a $1,350 IBM ThinkPad computer loaded with digital versions of state-approved textbooks and 2,000 works of literature. If the experiment works, the program will be expanded to other grades. [Yahoo! News - Technology] So, a laptop loaded with case books would be the law school version.  Do any law schools that require/recommend specific laptops include any software that is geared toward learning?  Apps like browsers, A/V, firewalls, network clients, etc. get pre-installed, but what about CALI Lessons, MSFT OneNote, an outliner, an aggregator, tools for searching, even a collection of links to Westlaw, Lexis, etc.?  It would be good if it did happen. 11:32:20 AM    comment []  trackback []

Internet Revives Public Libraries Internet Revives Public Libraries Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday April 27, @08:07AM from the something-to-think-about dept. securitas writes "The New York Times' Steve Lohr reports on the effects of the Internet on public libraries, namely that the installation of Internet-connected computers have been largely responsible for a rebirth in public libraries and increasing attendance, particularly by 'teenagers, people age 50 and older and members of ethnic minorities' as well as low-income patrons without computers at home. According to a University of Washington study, 'A year after computers are put in libraries that do not have them, visits rise 30 percent on the average and attendance typically remains higher'. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - which funds PC-based Internet library projects - features prominently in the article, including the criticism that it is 'a Microsoft marketing exercise masquerading as philanthropy.'"  [Slashdot] Includes a number of good comments from librarians about what their libraries are doing. 9:36:44 AM    comment []  trackback []

Netsky variants plow thorugh alphabet 27 Apr W32/Netsky-AA [Latest virus alerts from Sophos] Intersting because they've passed Z and are now doubling up on the alphabet.  I'm still seeing a lot of Netsky and Bagle traffic on the CALI mail server. 8:54:58 AM    comment []  trackback []

Portals and RSS in Higher Ed One Start. Via Weblogs in Higher Education: "Indiana University is building a portal for many campus services, called One Start. Students, faculty, and staff will contact many electronic resources through a single login, many of them fed by RSS. This will mean that units on campus will have a good reason to learn more about creating and using RSS feeds here. Faculty will be able to provide feeds for students in their classes, for example, or the library could, if librarians wished, provide a new book feed, or units could provide an events feed. It's a brave new world" [Library Stuff] Of note.  It is important that universities are beginning to see the value of using RSS as a communication channel.  Standardization around a supported aggregator cannot be far behind. 8:40:55 AM    comment []  trackback []