You're expecting maybe the four horsemen of the apocalypse? More
likely the four savvy marketers. It's six months and counting
until the big '00, but retailers nationwide are already cashing
in on the "better safe than sorry" rush to lay in supplies and
survival gear -- just in case civilization as we know it lurches
to a digitally induced halt
come Dec. 31, 1999.
Never mind that credible experts foresee no major disasters.
People are nevertheless buying freeze-dried food, water storage
barrels, gas-fueled stoves, blankets, oil-burning lanterns, and
generators. Just in case.
"There's so much hype out there about Y2K, it's really hard
for people to separate fact from fiction," said Mike Walker, director
of the Federal Emergency Management Administration. "There's a
group that's really trying to exploit fears of Y2K."
Walker suggested that everyone should have an emergency kit
-- not because of Y2K, but because it's sensible to be prepared
for storms or accidents. He keeps a 72-hour kit for himself that
includes food, water, money, flashlights and batteries, and blankets.
For those who want to stock
up, Montana-based Supplies4Y2K offers a year's supply of food
for four adults, plus grain mill, emergency kit, and solar/hand-crank
radio/flashlight, for $3,395. Basic three-day survival kits for
two are available elsewhere for just $39.95. Or, to grow your
own, try "survival
seeds" from Seeds of Change in Santa Fe, N.M., or the Millennium
Victory Garden seed kit from Territorial Seed Co. in Cottage Grove,
Ore.
But you'd better hurry: Retailers say they are selling unprecedented
amounts of survival-oriented goods, and mail-order houses are
reporting months-deep back orders. And if you're counting on a
gas-powered generator, don't go to Ace Hardware: The retail chain's
5,100 stores nationwide can't fill any more orders for the generators,
according to a spokeswoman.
It might be too late to cash in on millennium mania, too. The
end of the century will be sponsored, patented, copyrighted, and
trademarked by several marketing companies. Businessman Bob Guberman,
who spent a small fortune purchasing the worldwide trademark for
"Year 2000" is churning out "Year 2000" lapel pins, baseball caps,
playing cards, prepaid phone cards -- even casino chips. Trademarks
are also filed or pending for "01-01-00," "Y2K," "millennium bug,"
and related phrases.
If all this gets you down, you're not alone: Mental health experts
say Y2K worries are making things worse for those already struggling
with anxiety disorders. "People who have an ingrained habit of
worrying without coping or people who are obsessive-compulsive"
face greater pressure from Y2K-related fears, said Des Moines
psychologist Eva Christiansen, who expects to see a modest increase
in anxiety cases at the turn of the century.
Some are turning not to mental health providers but to religion
for solace. A group of Pennsylvania churches is offering monthly
Y2K prayer services that provide a mix of secular and spiritual
advice. "The emphasis is not to get people hyped up for Y2K but
help them prepare," said the Rev. Dan Collison, pastor of the
Doylestown, Pa., Community Fellowship.
"We're not saying the sky is falling, but the problem is clearly
not well in hand," Collison said. "We need to pray."
Study: Technology helps student achievement
A new study adds to the debate over whether school technology
makes a difference in student academic achievement. The study,
commissioned by the Milken
Exchange on Education Technology and released in March, suggests
that effective use of technology directly led to significant gains
in math, reading, and language arts skills in West Virginia.
According to the Charleston Daily Mail, the study examined 950
fifth-grade students in 18 schools. It found that students saw
an 11 percent improvement in scores on the Stanford Achievement
Test, Ninth Edition, between 1997 and 1998. The study attributes
the gains to the state's Basic Skills/Computer Education Program,
set in place in 1990.
The study, conducted by Dale Mann of the Teachers College of
Columbia University and Carol Shakeshaft of Hofstra University,
examined West Virginia because it has the longest-running state
program of technology in education. The state has spent $70 million
over 10 years to install computers in every school, a program
initiated by former Gov. Gaston Caperton. About 30 percent --
$21 million -- of those funds are earmarked for professional development
programs, according to the Daily Mail.
The findings include:
* Comprehensive teacher training is a key factor in the success
of the program.
* Computers in classrooms are more effective than centralized
computer labs in producing gains in basic skills and in promoting
technological competence in teachers.
* Integrating technology into the instructional program is more
effective than isolating computer skills from academic learning.
The West Virginia technology program has been successful in
providing girls with equal access to computers and equalizing
opportunity for low-income and rural students, according to the
Milken Exchange, which reports that the greatest improvement in
basic skills was achieved by children without computers at home.
Copies of "West Virginia Story: Achievement Gains From a Statewide
Comprehensive Instructional Technology Program," are available
online.
Copies may also be ordered from the Milken Family Foundation,
Communications and Government Affairs Department, Attention: Publication
Request, 1250 4th St., 4th Floor, Santa Monica, CA 90401.
Battling 'bandwidth barons'
Communication industry groups, including the world's largest
Internet provider, are squaring off against cable television companies,
and the outcome could affect your schools' access to the web.
America Online asked Congress in April to force cable companies
to grant AOL and other Internet subscribers easier access to cable's
new high-speed data pipelines.
So-called broadband access over cable lines, with connection
speeds up to a hundred times faster than today's telephone modems,
will free computer users from frustratingly sluggish Internet
connections. High-speed connections will make possible new applications
that include television-quality video and better audio on the
web.
AOL Chairman Steve Case testified before Congress in April,
wearing a suit and tie instead of his usual khaki slacks and denim
shirt. "Instead of offering consumers choice, cable is requiring
consumers who want a high-speed cable connection to the Internet
to buy the Internet service affiliated with a local cable company,
even if they have another Internet service they like and want
to keep," Case said.
AOL, as part of a coalition of consumer groups and communication
industry groups, urged the Senate Commerce Committee to force
cable companies to give subscribers their choice of Internet providers.
But cable companies, such as Cox Communications Inc., want the
government to continue its policies allowing them to require subscribers
to their new high-speed cable lines also to pay for their bundled
Internet service. The cable industry contends it needs the money
it generates from those Internet services to help pay some of
the costs of building a new national, digital infrastructure.
Cox President James Robbins said the company already has spent
$4 billion to develop high-speed Internet cable connections over
its lines, and the industry expects to spend $10 billion on similar
upgrades this year.
Senate Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., promised after
the hearing to introduce legislation requiring the Commerce Department
to investigate and report its findings to the panel. Senators
indicated they are hesitant to interfere with the industry's burgeoning
success, but that they also are eager to avoid placing too much
power in the hands of a few "bandwidth barons."
"What we're discussing is what shape the architecture will be
for future communications for this country," said John Kerry,
D-Mass.
 HERE
KITTY, KITTY, KITTY
It probably won't catch mice, but "Robokoneko"
-- Japanese for robot child cat -- is expected to interact with
stimuli in its environment and develop the sort of intelligence
seen in animals.
That's the goal of an ambitious artificial intelligence project
being developed at Genobyte, Inc., in Boulder, Colo. The centerpiece
of the project is a Cellular Automata Machine (CAM) Brain, which
will contain nearly 40 million artificial neurons -- far more
than the few hundred most artificial-intelligence specialists
work with, but far fewer than the number estimated in the human
brain.
The brainchild of Australian-born computer scientist Hugo de
Garis, the CAM Brain uses a special type of computer chip called
a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Unlike conventional chips,
FPGAs can essentially reprogram themselves through a technique
modeled on biological evolution.
Some experts doubt that building bigger neural networks will
result in intelligent behavior, but de Garis is undeterred. He
plans to build future robot brains with a billion or more neurons
-- big enough to surpass human capabilities.
But for now, he and his team will be happy if Robokoneko successfully
emulates cat behavior.
Why a cat? "A brain in just a box in the corner doesn't mean
much to people," de Garis told the Washington Post. "So I chose
a kitten, because it's cute, it's media-friendly."
Litter box not included.
Teacher education gets low grade on technology
An "information age" might be dawning across America, but many
of its teaching colleges are still operating in the twilight.
That's the conclusion of a recent study
by the International Society for
Technology in Education, which surveyed 416 teacher-preparation
institutions representing about 90,000 graduates a year. The survey,
titled "Information Technology in Teacher Education," asked faculty
members about the level of technology exposure that future teachers
receive from their classes, field experience, and curriculum materials.
Most faculty members said they do not practice or model effective
technology use in their classrooms.
"There is inconsistency between what teacher-training faculties
know about technology and what they are training teachers to do
in their classrooms," said Cheryl Lemke, executive director of
the Milken Exchange on
Education Technology, a Santa Monica, Calif., group that commissioned
the study. "We can be confident that there is more technology
awareness and experience out there, but it is not being used in
teacher training to the extent nor the manner we think necessary."
More than 70 percent of the programs surveyed require students
to take three or more credit hours of instruction with information
technology, the report said. And it said that information technology
is also integrated to some extent with non-technology courses.
However, most faculty members did not feel their schools were
doing enough.
"The use of technology in everyday classroom and practicum experiences
seems to be more important than specific computer classes," said
Talbot Bielefeldt, a researcher for the survey. "Specific technology
training has a role, but only up to a point. The institutions
that reported the highest levels of student technology skills
and experience were not those with heavy computer course requirements,
but those that made use of technology on a routine basis throughout
the teacher-training program."
Despite the dearth of technology training on many campuses,
it's difficult to get through almost any college today -- including
colleges of education -- without some computer experience. That
fact was underscored on April 10, when test-takers took the last
paper version of the Graduate Record Examination. From now on,
the GRE will be given only by computer.
The computer version of the test has been available since 1993.
Instead of penciling in ovals on a sheet of paper, students use
a mouse to click on answers on a computer screen. It is the second
test administered by the Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing
Service to be transferred entirely to computer. In 1997, ETS made
a similar change with its Graduate Management Admissions Test,
which is required by most business schools.
Highest E-Rate award goes to Georgia
A consortium of 14 Georgia school systems has been awarded a
$28.8-million E-Rate grant. The award to Atlanta's Metropolitan
Regional Educational Service Agency (MRESA) eclipses the grants
given to schools and libraries in 34 different states.
The centerpiece of President Clinton's second-term goal of wiring
all the nation's schools to the Internet by 2000, the E-Rate program
is designed to provide cheap Internet hookups for schools and
libraries. It is funded by fees the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) imposes on telecommunications companies, which pass them
on to customers in the form of higher phone bills. Some lawmakers,
including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., have labeled
the fees a tax and have fought to block them. Opposition from
Congress and consumer groups prompted the FCC last year to scale
back the program. Instead of providing $2.25 billion in grants
during the first year, as originally planned, the commission limited
the awards to less than $1.3 billion.
E-Rate grants provide schools and libraries with subsidies of
20 percent to 90 percent on telecommunications equipment and services,
such as Internet hookups. The biggest discounts go to the poorest
schools, and the FCC took steps last year to ensure that those
schools got priority for the first round of the money.
That was part of the reason for MRESA's success. The agency
based its initial grant application on its 315 poorest schools,
those eligible for subsidies amounting to 70 percent to 90 percent
of the total project costs.
The school systems will match the $28.8 million with $4.7 million
in local funds, said Ed Kramer, a technology specialist who spearheaded
MRESA's application. Another 192 schools, those eligible for subsidies
of 50 percent to 70 percent, will be the focus of the agency's
next E-Rate grant application, Kramer said, and the remaining
150 schools in the consortium -- those eligible for the least
subsidies -- will be the basis for the third-year grant applications.
It was supposed to be a summer project, but it has turned into
much more for seven former and current students of a Virginia
science and technology magnet high school.
The team created a 3-D computer game called Fire
& Darkness, which won the $10,000 top prize at a computer
game industry conference in April, beating out competition from
a number of professional game developers. Fire & Darkness
has attracted the attention of several major publishers who may
be willing to pay as much as $1 million to market it.
Three years ago, David Scherer and David Rosenthal, then sophomores
at Thomas Jefferson High School
for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Va., were looking
for a computer game that combined slick graphics, fast action,
and high-level strategy. Disappointed with the games on the market,
they decided to design their own, recruiting other students to
help. The team worked on the game almost every day for three years,
squeezing in time between schoolwork, jobs, and extracurricular
activities.
"What they did was phenomenal," said Alex Dunne, chairman of
the Independent Games
Festival, in San Jose, Calif., where the students won the
grand prize. "They managed to pull off what a lot of well-funded,
fully supported professional developers routinely fail to pull
off."
Scherer now attends Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
as do fellow game developers Mark Feghali and Ari Heitner. Rosenthal
attends the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Austin
Huang is a freshman at the University of California at Berkeley.
Ian Dale and Adam Stubblefield are graduating from Thomas Jefferson
this summer.
If they reach a lucrative deal with a game publisher, the young
men probably will have to decide whether to stay in school or
take time off to get the game ready to market. "Ian and I are
signing up for college. But, hey, if someone wants to throw suitcases
of money at us to take some time off, I could handle that," said
Stubblefield with a laugh.
BAN ON OBSCENE E-MAIL UPHELD In a unanimous decision, the
U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a computer technology company's
argument that one part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996
threatens free-speech rights. Annoy.com, a web site that allows
people to send anonymous comments to public figures, challenged
the provision of the law that makes it a crime to transmit a "communication
which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent with intent
to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person." The provision
applies to all e-mail, even messages sent from one friend or acquaintance
to another. A three-judge federal court upheld the law after interpreting
it to ban only obscene material that gets no constitutional protection,
and the Supreme Court affirmed that ruling.
POLICIES, NOT FILTERS Schools and libraries receiving
federal funding for Internet access should implement usage policies
that protect children from inappropriate content on the web, according
to Larry Irving, chief of the U.S. Commerce Department's National
Telecommunications and Information Administration. Irving said
the policies should assure parents that their children's educational
experiences on the Internet are being safeguarded. The Clinton
administration prefers a policy-oriented approach rather than
the use of filtering or blocking software, said Irving.
FACTOID FILE
- More e-mail than snail mail was sent in 1997.
- U.S. consumers bought more computers than automobiles in
1997.
- More than half of U.S. homes now have personal computers.
- Business-to-business commerce online is expected to jump
to $1.5 trillion by 2003, up from $48 billion in 1998.
- 23 percent of African Americans and 36 percent of Hispanics
are now online, with both of those percentages expected to hit
40 percent or more by next year.
- 50 percent of women are expected to be using the Internet
by next year, equaling the percentage of men online.
E-Wire is prepared with Associated Press (AP) reports.
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