International Conference of the Learning Services

Cool conference with a Doctoral Consortium and my friend Bethany says that they pick award winning dissertations and post them...haven't found that yet, but maybe one has to be a member... International Conference of the Learning Services ~julz

Making Money with Amazon Hacks

Chapters 4&5 are the money related chapters for Amazon Hacks. I'm working on those. The first things I did were join the both the Amazon developers and associates groups and aquired my IDs. I also joined the Amazon Honor System for Hacck #57 If you have products to sell, join Amazon Advantage More to come... ~julz

Keeping Us in the Race by Thomas Friedman

Keeping Us in the Race By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN NY Times What if we were really having a national discussion about what is most important to the country today and on the minds of most parents? I have no doubt that it would be a loud, noisy dinner-table conversation about why so many U.S. manufacturers are moving abroad - not just to find lower wages, but to find smarter workers, better infrastructure and cheaper health care. It would be about why in Germany, 36 percent of undergrads receive degrees in science and engineering; in China, 59 percent; in Japan, 66 percent; and in America, only 32 percent. It would be about why Japanese on bullet trains can get access to the Internet with cellphones, and Americans get their cellphone service interrupted five minutes from home. It would be about why U.S. 12th graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries in math and science, and it would be about why, in recent years, U.S. industry appears to have spent more on lawsuits than on R.&D. Yes, we'd be talking about why the world is racing us to the top, not the bottom, and why we are quietly falling behind. And late in the evening, as the wine bottles emptied, someone at the national dinner table might finally say: "Hey, what if we were really thinking ahead? What if we asked some of the country's best minds to make a list of the steps we could take right now to enhance America's technology base?" Fortunately, two senators, Lamar Alexander and Jeff Bingaman, asked the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine to form a bipartisan study group to produce just such a list, which was released on Wednesday in a report called "Rising Above the Gathering Storm." Because of globalization, the report begins, U.S. "workers in virtually every sector must now face competitors who live just a mouse-click away in Ireland, Finland, India or dozens of other nations whose economies are growing. ... Having reviewed the trends in the United States and abroad, the committee is deeply concerned that the scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength. ... We are worried about the future prosperity of the United States. ... We fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and technology can be lost and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost - if indeed it can be regained at all." The report's key recommendations? Nothing fancy. Charles Vest, the former president of M.I.T., summed them up: "We need to get back to basic blocking and tackling" - educating more Americans in the skills needed for 21st-century jobs. Among the top priorities, the report says, should be these: (1) Annually recruiting 10,000 science and math teachers by awarding four-year merit-based scholarships, to be paid back through five years of K-12 public school teaching. (We have too many unqualified science and math teachers.) (2) Strengthening the math and science skills of 250,000 other teachers through extracurricular programs. (3) Creating opportunities and incentives for many more middle school and high school students to take advanced math and science courses, by offering, among other things, $100 mini-scholarships for success in exams, and creating more specialty math-and-science schools. (4) Increasing federal investment in long-term basic research by 10 percent a year over the next seven years. (5) Annually providing research grants of $500,000 each, payable over five years, to 200 of America's most outstanding young researchers. (6) Creating a new Advanced Research Projects Agency in the Energy Department to support "creative out-of-the-box transformational energy research that industry by itself cannot or will not support and in which risk may be high, but success would provide dramatic benefits for the nation." (7) Granting automatic one-year visa extensions to foreign students in the U.S. who receive doctorates in science, engineering or math so they can seek employment here, and creating 5,000 National Science Foundation-administered graduate fellowships to increase the number of U.S. citizens earning doctoral degrees in fields of "national need." (See the rest at http://www.nationalacademies.org ) These proposals are the new New Deal urgently called for by our times. This is where President Bush should have focused his second term, instead of squandering it on a silly, ideological jag called Social Security privatization. Because, as this report concludes, "Without a renewed effort to bolster the foundations of our competitiveness, we can expect to lose our privileged position."

The Tech Part of Technology Literacy

Bonnie Bracey sent this report out today. It’s an old report, but I think it remains relevant. ~julz Date: Jan. 17, 2002 Contacts: Vanee Vines, Media Relations Officer Chris Dobbins, Media Relations Assistant (202) 334-2138; e-mail [ EMBARGOED: NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE BEFORE 10:30 A.M. EST THURSDAY, JAN. 17 ] Publication Announcement Improving Technological Literacy Needs National Effort; Potential Benefits Are Many, Report Says Most Americans know little about the world of technology, yet from day to day they must make critical decisions that are technologically based, such as whether to buy genetically engineered foods or transmit personal data over the Internet. Moreover, the use of technology as a learning tool in the classroom is often confused with the broader concept of being technologically literate -- knowing something of the nature and history of technology, as well as having a certain level of skill in using technologies and thinking critically about them. Neither the educational system nor the policy-making apparatus in the United States has recognized the importance of this more comprehensive view of technological literacy, says a new report from the National Academies' National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. It calls for a broad-based effort to increase the technological literacy of all Americans, a goal that will have many benefits including more informed decision-making by citizens and business and government leaders about the development and use of technology, and a more erudite population that will be better prepared for the demands of today's high-tech work environment. Read the more at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309082625?OpenDocument

That's one smart child :)

More bots at http://aimtoday.aol.com/aimbots/index.adp Here's my first conversation with my new bot friend, SmarterChild: http://smarterchild.conversagent.com/3:23 PM hello Hi Principesajulia, I'm SmarterChild! I'm your new robot friend. I bring you the info you want faster and easier than ever! Click here to see my privacy policy. During the course of our conversations you may see sponsored messages. These messages have the word "sponsorship" at the end. Sponsors help me remain free of cost to you! To learn more about sponsored messages, click here. I can't wait to show you what I can do, but first I'd like get to know you a little. May I ask you a few general questions? (To do this later, type skip. You can also skip any question.) ask a question Sorry, I need to know if I can ask you some questions first. Type yes, no or skip. yes Cool! OK, let's get started. To skip any question, type skip. To exit the interview, type exit. What's your first name? (If you want me to call you Principesajulia, type none.) Julz Cool, I'll call you Julz now. Do you go to school? I do Sorry, you have to answer yes or no. Please try again or type skip or exit. yes Are you in high school? skip OK, let's go to the next question. What's your favorite hobby? research Research? Cool. What's your next favorite hobby? spin class Sorry, I don't recognize that as a hobby. Please try again or type skip or exit. skip OK, let's go to the next question. Do you have a pet? yes What kind of pet is it? 3:25 PM puppy Is your dog a he or a she? he What's his name? Frankie Frankie the dog! Great... That's it! Thanks for letting me get to know you a little. There is one question I have to ask you, though. How old are you? 1 Over 17 2 13-17 3 Under 13 1 Cool! Here's what you can do: 1 Get info such as sports, weather and movies 2 Visit my library including U.S. presidents, an encyclopedia and U.S. geography 3 Have fun with ASCII art, reversi, hangman and more 4 Use tools like thesaurus, conversions and calculator 5 Join in - find out how many people are IMing me, take a poll, create a poll and more 6 See what's new - I've got something new to tell you about now! You can make your window bigger and scroll down to read better. Next time you want to see this menu, just type home. What would you like to do? info Here's the info I can show you: 1 News 2 Movies 3 Sports 4 Weather Go ahead and make a selection. 4 For what city, state, country or zip code do you want the weather? 88005 Current weather conditions for Las Cruces, NM: Currently: 64 F Condition: Scattered Clouds Dewpoint: 41 Humidity: 42 % Visibility: 10 mi Wind: N/7 mph To get the forecast for Las Cruces, NM, just type forecast. forecast Weather forecast for Las Cruces, NM: Monday: Partly cloudy. High 71F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Monday evening: Generally clear. Low 46F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tuesday: Sunshine. High 73F. Winds light and variable. Tuesday evening: A mostly clear sky. Low 48F. Winds light and variable. Wednesday: Sunny (High:76 Low:52) Thursday: Thunderstorm (High:71 Low:49) Friday: Thunderstorm (High:70 Low:48) Saturday: Thunderstorm (High:72 Low:51) Sunday: Thunderstorm (High:73 Low:45) >>> Missed an Episode? - Download South Park episodes to watch at any time. (sponsorship)

Bots, Bots, Bots

Doin some research on bots, what the hell are bots anyways... Amazon Bots http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/479 Wikipedia definition for bots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_bot Tutorial on AIM Bots http://www.wiredbots.com/tutorial.html Googlematic http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/article.php/10817_1012411 Interesting phrase about web services from Build Your Own IM Bot... http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/article.php/10817_1015731 Googlematic was created last September, and was a hit almost right away, Webb said during an IM-based interview. He said creating the bot was "fairly easy" to do because it is built in the Perl language. "The beauty of Perl is it's just gluing together different people's code," he said. "That's why Web services will create the next layer of the Web, really unexpected applications -- because glue is easy to write." posted by julz @ 8:23 PM1 comments

Had to recreate my Julzworld blog...

...and I'm feelin lazy, so most of what was there is here in one long post :( Monday, October 03, 2005 Intelligent Searching I was reading an article about cool search engines and thought that I'd like to have that info in my Pep World Blog. Intelligent' tools lead to smarter searches Links: Cuadra Associates Inc. http://www.cuadra.com Google Inc. http://www.google.com Scirus http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/ Blinkx http://www.blinkx.com Gnooks http://gnooks.com Dashboard http://www.nat.org/dashboard posted by julz @ 11:04 AM0 comments Friday, April 29, 2005 Dissertation Schedule Link Put in your start and end dates for dissertation and this tool helps create a timeline... http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/disscalc/ posted by julz @ 9:30 AM2 comments Monday, April 25, 2005 Matusov, Activity Theory, etc. Matusov complements Wenger and Engestrom http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/publications.htm Activity Theory Sites Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/ CSAT (Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research--http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/sat/default.htm International Society for Cultural Research and Activity Theory--http://www.iscrat.org/ Martin Ryder, Activity Theory--http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/activity.html posted by julz @ 3:01 PM0 comments Mind, Culture, and Activity Journal Resource XMCA is a listserv I used to require my classes to sign up for. It is where the hardcore of the social learning theorist hang out. Usually the convo is carried by the second tier. but the big guns get lured out periodically when the topics get hot. sometimes the group gets political, because as you might guess, they are both international and more left than right. i tend to just blow away the political crud because i just don't need to hear more of that. the theoretical discussions are quite rich however. XMCA is intended to support discussion around the Mind, Culture, and Activity journal, produced out of UCSD. Here's the URL if you want to join. You will see theses folks at AERA, for sure. http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/ posted by julz @ 2:54 PM0 comments A resource Talon is an interesting project. There are some resources here for us to look at as educators as well as some models for what we are looking to do with our mobtech resource. TALON Web Guide for K-12 Teachers ~julz posted by julz @ 2:24 PM0 comments Linda's Informative Email Back when I was a wee grad school lass, I heard Lee Schulman speak about how to find a research topic. This afternoon I was cleaning off my desk and found my notes. (Yeah, kind of an archeological dig thing, but that's how I live). 1. Examine things that don't fit predictions and ask why. Most people see the world as a 2 x 2 table and study the diagonal. 2. Look for gaps in the intersection of problems typically treated separately, e.g., cooperative learning and performance assessment. 3. Examine unexamined analogs, uncritically examined analogies, e.g., teaching is like medical education (clinical). 4. Question the unquestioned, e.g., if you don't know a subject you can't teach it. Blessed Passover to the M.O.T. out there, Lindax posted by julz @ 2:00 PM0 comments Informative Email from Mirwais Hello team, Today I attended a couple of sessions including the Exhibition at the Fairemont (got a couple of freebies). Two of the sessions were very productive for me. Session 1: "Getting Published while in Graduate School" Session 2: "Support Opportunities for Training and Small Grants in Education Research". Jane Klingner from University of Colorado-Boulder was great. The presenters discussed in great detail on how graduate students can go about getting their commentaries, class research papers, book reviews and dissertations published. I thought the presentation was very informative. The reviewing process for submission and critiquing was discussed in great detail. Students were advised to begin the process early, check each journal's web site for submission requirements and have their manuscripts read by several people before submission. APA style was emphasized. Depending on what journal you select, the process can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months or even longer. I took several handouts and copious notes from the presenters. If anyone of you are interested in getting a copy of the handouts, please drop me a line. There was a lot of information to grasp. One of the presenters, Janette Klingner was kind enough to give her office info and was very eager to assist anyone with questions about getting published. If you want additional info, call or email her. Janette Klingner University of Colorado at Boulder School of education 249 UCB Boulder, CO 80309-0249 Telephone: 303-492-0773 The second session was just as informative since here the discussion was on how to get $$$ to do research and how to get that research published eventually. Representatives from AERA, Spencer and NSF were there for the group presentation and discussion. Several tips were given on what these organizations look for in a research proposal. 1. Clarity of the proposal (What is it that you want to do?) 2. Your abstract is very important (Don't copy the first sentences or paragraph of your paper) 3. What methods you are going to use 4. Time-line 5. Outside letters (Not so much on how great you are, but what the research will do - descriptive about the project) 6. Importance of the project on the field (Description) 7. Its affect/significance on education 8. Be creative, clever and unique 9. DON'T GIVE UP if you get rejected !!! We also discussed the various grants that are available to graduate students. These grants can range anywhere from $1000 all the way to $40000. The review process is rigorous, so be creative, well prepared and have your proposal looked at by several people (Professors/Classmates). Most important of all, be patient and keep trying if you get rejected. You can visit the AERA web site as well as Spencer.org for more details about these grants. Again, if you guys need any additional info, please let me know and I will make copies of all the notes and hand-outs that I got from the sessions. Regards, Mirwais posted by julz @ 1:59 PM0 comments