Exercise balls get education rolling 0 comments

Classrooms that have replaced chairs with balls and ball chairs see better results. The devices sharpen students' attention and improve posture, teachers say.


Reporting from Chicago - Donna Yehl's fourth-grade students bob behind their desks, heads nodding up and down as if the children were on the deck of a ship.

But they aren't fidgeting.

The two dozen children in Yehl's Elgin, Ill., classroom read and write -- in fact, do all of their classwork -- perched on exercise balls.

The inflatable balls are commonly used in Pilates, yoga and exercise classes. Some teachers say they belong in school classrooms too because they sharpen students' attention and improve their posture.

This year, Yehl checked the Internet for ways to help her restless pupils sit still. She stumbled on a story about exercise balls improving concentration. So she replaced her classroom's chairs with bouncy 21-inch-high balls in colors students chose.

She sees a difference.

"They're more focused," Yehl says. "They're sitting upright."

Balls and ball chairs, which have wheels, feet and backs, are popping up in classrooms.

Lisa Witt, whose Wisconsin company WittFitt sells exercise ball chairs for classroom use, reports a sharp increase in customers, from one school in 2004 to more than 300 across the country and abroad.

"Some people initially think, 'Are you crazy?' " says Witt, a former elementary school teacher in Colorado. But aside from mental and physical benefits, she says, "it's just plain fun."

Kids often agree.

Emily Ziemba, 10, a student in Yehl's class, laughs and nods when asked whether she likes sitting on an exercise ball.

"I mean, sometimes I would like to lean back," she says. "But other times, it's better than a chair."

Teachers say children on ball chairs often quit flopping over on their desks. And they're getting enough exercise to improve concentration.

"You'd be surprised how many kids really need to move while learning," says Adrienne O'Brien, a fourth-grade teacher in Barrington, Ill., about 40 miles from Chicago, who calls her more energetic kids "squirrels." "That would be the majority of them, frankly."

Subconscious mental activity lies at the core of the science behind the balls' success, experts say.

The tiny movements kids make to stay balanced stimulate their brains and help them focus, says Dr. John Ratey, a Harvard University professor and author of "Driven to Distraction" and "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain."

Children with attention disorders, he says, have "a sleepy cortex," and exercise combats that mental disengagement.

"Just by using their core muscles more, they're flipping [their cortex] on" and increasing their mental activity, Ratey says. "The cerebellum part of their brain is really working to adjust, every millisecond."

John Kilbourne, a professor of movement science at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, experimented with college students last year. He found that they preferred ball chairs to regular chairs and that their concentration improved while balancing.

In elementary school, though, some students equate exercise balls with playtime. So teachers devise ways to keep them from goofing off.

Yehl begins the school day by playing music and letting the kids do what she calls "baby bounces": They move up and down but keep their feet on the floor. She follows the same routine after recess.

Kids sometimes sway back and forth or roll on the balls, she says, but they rarely leave their seats.

And during class, the room is strikingly quiet.

"Even teachers walking past the room said they'd never realize [students] were sitting on exercise balls," Yehl says.

Exchange Server 2010: Microsoft Explains It All 1 comments

Exchange Server 2010 is all about new levels of control. The Transport Protection Rules system enables administrators to designate the extent to which the recipient of a message can utilize its contents. The dreaded Access Control List has been replaced with something better, and the archiving process can be completed in the background.

The biggest change to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Exchange Server 2007 was supposed to have been the introduction of something called "Unified Communications" -- the introduction of a singular console for the handling of all forms of digital communication, wrapping voice mail, instant messaging, and email into a single delivery system. History may yet vindicate UC as the product's singular achievement.

However, in the near term, administrators credit Exchange more for what it gives them than the world at large. In that light, the inclusion of PowerShell as not only the underlying language of the system but as its engine as well, changed everything for the admin. It may very well be why the product has surged to a two-thirds market share, by some estimates, over once formidable competition such as Lotus Notes.
Short Functionality Gap

So learning a lesson from history, the message from Microsoft with regard to Exchange Server 2010, which went on sale last week, is about new levels of control. The idea that email, or any kind of communication, once sent unto the vast Internet is out of the sender's hands -- like a paper sailboat launched from a river pier -- is what the Exchange team has been working to combat. During a beta program which Microsoft says involved dozens of universities, signing up some 10 million participants worldwide, the company has completed development of a browser-based endpoint for ES 2010-delivered email that is not only more manageable than Outlook 2007, but that has beaten Outlook 2010 -- the product it's supposed to be derived from -- to market by perhaps eight months.

What that means is, hopefully for a short time only, there will be a functionality gap between what the new Outlook Web App -- hosted by ES 2010 -- can deliver compared to what Outlook 2007 provides. If Julia White, Microsoft's marketing Download Free eBook - The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales director for Exchange, has anything to say about it, that gap will be shorter rather than longer, but it's not unnoticed.

White spoke with Betanews from Berlin, where she had just completed a TechEd Europe demonstration along with Corporate Vice President Stephen Elop. "Obviously Outlook Web Apps comes with Exchange, so they can use that today; when Outlook 2010 comes out, they can use that," said White, "and we are absolutely planning support for Outlook 2007 in the roadmap here. So it's on the agenda, and we will actually be getting to it."

Much of what Exchange 2010 will deliver absolutely depends on this upgrade to Outlook 2007, as you'll see. We asked White for her take on what she would consider the top three enhancements to administrator functionality in ES 2010.
#3: Transport Protection Rules

Number three on this list is the Transport Protection Rules system. It enables the administrator to designate the extent to which the recipient of a message can utilize its contents, based upon rules that enable Exchange to analyze the content itself. "In the demo this morning, I set a Transport Protection Rule based on a keyword. But actually another aspect of that is, those rules can be set based on the sender, the recipient, or even contents of an attachment," White told Betanews.

"Any of those things can be triggered; and having the ability to centrally decide what gets encrypted and what doesn't, is a really powerful tool. With end users, it's hard for them to keep up with corporate policy, pay attention to it, or know about it. So oftentimes it's unintended, versus intended, when information isn't protected. Having that essentially managed brings peace of mind, for the users as well as the IT pros."

The ability to analyze an attachment takes place on a granular level, White told us. If a PowerPoint presentation, for example, were to contain the words "Microsoft Confidential," that fact alone would trigger a rule that automatically encrypts the message outgoing, and that restricts the recipient from being able to pass it on.
#2: Role-Based Access Control

One of the least loved features of Exchange, or anything Microsoft has ever done, disappears in ES 2010: The Access Control List is a Registry-based system for designating which identified and authenticated user had permissions to control specific objects. It has often been a ridiculous concept that starts one off with the assumption that everyone has rights to everything, and that ACLs provide the exceptions.

Exchange Server 2010 replaces this entirely with a concept that is much more rooted in Active Directory. Now, the administrator starts off in a universe where nothing is allowed until groups of users are added into the pool of permissions. Those groups that are added in are called "management role groups," with the concept being that a predefined set of roles exist (a concept made popular by Windows Server 2008), and that groups of users or individual users are delegated those roles.

Julia White demonstrated how Role-Based Access Control enabled an otherwise unprivileged user to search for emails through multiple mailboxes on the company's behalf (in this case, Microsoft's usual fictitious firm, Contoso). Her system was delegated a role that let her perform the search, without having to delegate other responsibilities and privileges of a much higher administrative order. "A compliance officer might get that level of capability," White explained to us, "but a help desk might have the rights to increase mail box quota size. Maybe HR would be given the ability to update contact information on behalf of employees. Extending all the way down to end users, even that same roles-based administration capability -- end users can now create and manage their own distribution groups within Exchange. That no longer requires a call to the IT pro ... usually that's a lot of overhead."
#1: Integrated Archiving

During the late 1980s and into the '90s, Microsoft liked to centralize things, thinking that if everything were in one big pile -- as Arlo Guthrie put it -- that would beat two or more little ones. The System Registry is, and remains, one big pile. Another -- which can stink just as bad -- is the .PST file, the single personal folder file that is created on the client side by Outlook.

It is every Outlook user's nightmare, especially since Office buries this file typically in a black hole within a hidden directory inside each user's Documents folder. For individuals who receive hundreds of thousands of emails per year (I'm on that list, believe me), the archiving process has cost users many a weekend.

With Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft marketing director Julia White told Betanews, is the ability to perform this process completely in the background. However, in addition, the archived items remain indexed and available, still listed as part of "Personal Folder" but stored separately.

"Today, the vast majority of email actually sits on the local hard drive on those .PST files," White remarked. The end users love it because they can file as much as they want in there, and they have access to it when they're on their PC. But from an administrator's perspective, they don't like them because they're very expensive to discover, they get lost, they get corrupted, it's a liability and a lot of overhead for the IT organization.

"So with integrated archiving ... it doesn't have any change to the end user experience," she continued. "That Personal Folder appears, but the archive shows up and it looks just the same, it's another folder in your file directory, it looks like a secondary Inbox...The benefit is, it's all sitting on Exchange, so it's not going to get corrupted or lost. It's very easy to discover -- that time comes down dramatically. And as a user, you get access to it through Outlook Web App, [as opposed to] on the local hard drive."

Here, White took the bold step of proclaiming OWA as superior to Outlook, in that users still get full access to their mail (albeit with transport restrictions), but without having to keep those multi-gigabyte .PST files locally:

"What got us into this in the beginning was when we talked to our Exchange customers as we were planning [ES] 2010, and we found out that 20 percent of Exchange mailboxes have an archive on them today, but over 60 percent said it was important to them. It's scary, because there's not a mailbox out there that shouldn't be archived for one reason or another. What we heard from them was, 1) the cost and overhead of maintaining and managing another system -- new tools to learn -- was too expensive; and 2) the end-user experience. Oftentimes you have an archive today, you have to go to a different UI to retrieve the mail, or the performance is really poor on the archived mail. Because what they do is called 'stubbing,' which means they literally just leave a little bit of the email in the Inbox, and the rest of it sits out on a third-party system. So the performance has to go bounce between multiple systems, so it's very slow.

"If end users don't adopt it, it doesn't work," White remarked. "So this clears the hurdle of both the end user experience as the IT pro cost and management perspective."
That 70 Percent Cost Savings Claim

During the presentation at TechEd in Berlin, Microsoft CVP Stephen Elop made the staggering claim that within a group of 100 companies testing Exchange Server 2010 over the last year, some were able to cut their administrative costs over earlier versions of Exchange by as much as 70 percent.

As is Betanews' custom (and as is the custom of Betanews readers who see anything in double-digits beside a percentile mark), we asked how that figure was obtained. For instance, we've seen companies in the past that said the expenditure to do something this year was X percent lower than the expense to do something in the past, and that typically refers to the fact that memory or storage or processor power is just that much cheaper. That's not really savings; that's a factor of the economy.

So what is this 70 percent savings a factor of? "A big cost driver is storage," responded White. "We know the storage aspect of email, it's a lot of information and it can get expensive. Traditionally, Exchange was deployed always on a storage-area network, which was fine back in the day when you had a 200 MB mailbox. Obviously, that's not sufficing anymore, and 10 GB is becoming more of a standard. Supporting that kind of mailbox storage size on a SAN becomes cost-prohibitive.

"So what we've done in Exchange 2010 is two things: First, we dramatically improved performance, tenfold over Exchange 2003. When I say that, I mean the time it takes to read and write information to the disk. What that enables is world-class support of low-cost storage options -- direct-attached storage, SATA, even in a JBoss configuration. So big, slow disks, you can run Exchange without any performance or reliability impact." NEC (Nasdaq: NIPNY) Philips (NYSE: PHG), for example, was able to increase its storage capacity by a factor of eight, while simultaneously reducing costs by a factor of four, White said; and Germany-based hosted service provider Elabs was able to reduce its storage costs by 70 percent.

Isn't that saying that the expenditure this year is 70 percent or so less than the expenditure for a similar service in 2003? Yes, according to White, but that's in terms of operating cost run-rate, which is figured according to time and not total investment, especially since companies don't always purchase storage capacity all up-front.

Betanews also learned that Microsoft's SMB Windows Server bundles, Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008, will not be updated immediately with Exchange Server 2010. Those bundles may continue to be sold with Exchange Server 2007 for at least several more months down the road.

ASSISTANT DEPUTY SECRETARY OF EDUCATION JIM SHELTON OBSERVED H1N1 FLU LEARNING CONTINUITY DRILL AT VOISE ACADEMY 0 comments

October 7, 2009 - Chicago, IL - On October 7, 2009 at 12:30 pm, US Dept. of Education’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement James H. Shelton III visited the VOISE (Virtual Opportunities In a School Environment) Academy, a Chicago Public School in the Austin neighborhood (231 N. Pine Chicago, IL, 60644), to observe a H1N1 flu learning continuity drill. The drill demonstrated how VOISE Academy’s unique use of learning technologies and digital curriculum materials promote exceptional student learning during normal school days as well as enable learning continuity in the event of a school shutdown due to a flu outbreak or other emergency.



VOISE Academy principal Todd R. Yarch led the event, accompanied by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) leadership. Sandi Atols (CPS, retired), a founder of the school, and Dr. Kemi Jona (Director of the Office of STEM Education Partnerships at Northwestern University), a member of the VOISE Academy design team, also attended. Dr. Jona is a nationally recognized expert in educational technology and online learning. ”VOISE Academy is a real working model of the promise of online and blended learning in improving the learning of all students,” said Jona. “In 5 years, this is what most schools across the country will look like. Not only are the digital curriculum and tools used at VOISE engaging students in individualized learning every day, they also make it a snap to implement continuity of learning in the case of a flu outbreak or other emergency.”



The impetus for this event is the Dept of Education’s focus on the important role that educational technologies and online curriculum materials like those used at VOISE Academy can play in improving learning for all students. "Technology is core and essential to the strategies we are using to reform education," Shelton said. These same technologies can help meet the challenge of continuity of learning for possible upcoming H1N1-related school closures. There is concern in the education community that the H1N1 flu pandemic will pose significant challenges for educators this school year.



Principal Yarch said: “I think the benefits of online learning and digital curriculum in the case of crisis such as an H1N1 shut down is obvious. Schools like ours can continue to deliver high levels of instruction even when students can't get to school, although what you see in a hybrid school like VOISE is the ability of our outstanding teachers to integrate face-to-face instruction with the rigorous online curriculum on a daily basis. The hybrid model makes the online environment less daunting because students and teachers know each other on a personal level--this creates a nurturing environment, which is something our students desperately need.”



“Interest in online learning solutions for continuity of learning is in high demand by school districts,” said Susan Patrick, President and CEO of The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL). “The recent outbreaks of swine flu in schools has prompted the need for continuity of learning using online learning. Online learning offers solutions for helping prepare schools for pandemic planning as well as for natural disasters caused by weather, hurricanes, fires and other closures. States and district education leaders are reviewing policies for learning continuity and virtual education to help establish new school models using blended models of online learning every day to help engage students in 21st century classrooms – and prepare schools for readiness to use online learning in the event of a school closure,” Patrick added.



VOISE Academy has been collaborating with iNACOL and has contributed to and benefited from their newly released continuity of learning website at www.inacol.org/col.



About VOISE

A model of the future of schooling, VOISE Academy: Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment is one of the only urban public (non-charter) non-selective schools in the country to use online materials all the time. VOISE is open to all neighborhood students who choose to apply. It uses a hybrid model, integrating face-to-face teacher instruction with rigorous online curriculum. VOISE’s mission is to provide all students with choice, flexibility, scholarship, and individual attention by combining the use of technology, best distance learning practices, and quality online curriculum with exemplary secondary classroom teachers and student-centered philosophy.



About the Office of STEM Education Partnerships (OSEP) at Northwestern University

OSEP is a service organization that supports K-12 teachers, schools and other educational institutions by connecting them with the world-class science, technology, engineering, and mathematics resources of Northwestern University for the benefit of K-12 students. OSEP also supports Northwestern researchers in developing proposals and implementing research projects that incorporate K-12 educational components, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

About iNACOL

iNACOL is the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a non-profit 501(c)(3) membership association based in the Washington, DC area with more than 2,500 members. iNACOL is unique in that its members represent a diverse cross-section of K-12 education from school districts, charter schools, state education agencies, non-profit organizations, colleges, universities and research institutions, corporate entities and other content and technology providers (www.inacol.org). iNACOL hosts the annual Virtual School Symposium (VSS). VSS 2009 will be held Nov. 15 – 17, 2009 in Austin, TX

Time for education reform with Governor 0 comments

The Governor has called for a special session on education reform to enact changes needed to make California eligible and competitive for billions of dollars in federal funding.

I am honored to serve as the vice-chair of the Assembly Education Committee, and I look forward to working with the Governor and my colleagues in the Legislature to enact meaningful reforms that will improve the delivery of education for our children.

While there will be many issues that emerge in the special session, I am focused on making changes in the following areas:


1. Remove barriers in state law that prohibit using student achievement on state testing in the formal evaluation of teachers.

This is necessary because it is a requirement in the proposed federal "Race to the Top" grants. While I am in support of this concept, I also believe that student test data should be only one factor in evaluating teacher performance.

There are several conditions that impact students' standardized test scores, including parental involvement, public safety (e.g. gangs in the community and on school campuses) and language barriers.

Ultimately, a "value-added" analysis, such as evaluating a teacher's success at making progress with a pupil, is the most logical way to incorporate pupil performance into formal teacher evaluations.


2. Enhancing accountability

I favor crafting reforms that promote innovative approaches that properly distribute accountability, while granting the necessary decision-making authority to those who are held accountable.

For example, there is evidence of success in educational models that allow a principal to be in complete control of his or her school, and then hold that principal accountable for results.

To promote such models it would be necessary to enact changes in law that will allow the principal to hire and fire whomever they think will do the best job.

Also, incentives could be enacted to encourage school districts to allow the principal to spend monies wherever they deem necessary.

Furthermore, the state should do away with or minimize "categorical funding," which dictates to school districts how funds must be spent rather than allowing local decisions to be made based upon the unique circumstances of each local school.


3. Charter schools

The proposed "Race to the Top" regulations favor fewer restrictions on charter schools.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has suggested that California should lift the current cap on the number of charter schools allowed. I favor educational choice and welcome this change in state law.

I propose, in addition, that we focus on which charter schools work best and why, and then initiate incentives to duplicate that success in the lowest performing schools across the state.


4. School vouchers for special education

Funding for special education is overwhelming school budgets, yet special needs children are not always getting adequate attention.

Rather than forcing parents to fight with school districts over appropriate levels of care, why not give them the option of purchasing those services from a private vendor or a school that has excelled in that area of service?

The bottom line for my approach in achieving educational reform is to experiment and promote innovation. The best way to approach reform is to encourage innovation at the local level, while maintaining high standards and enforcing accountability by empowering parents through greater choice and flexibility.

We should exchange the "command and control" model that favors mandates from Sacramento and Washington, D.C., for a model that promotes local innovation and grants local authority.

Assemblyman Brian Nestande (R-Palm Desert) represents the 64th Assembly District in the California Legislature.

Excel password recovery software works really fast 2 comments

One of the best and simplest ways to protect your data from fraud is having it encrypted with a password. Passwords are used on all the websites where people have any personal page. Passwords are also used to protect documents and important data. However, what can you do when you forgot a password to your excel document? These things happen a lot nowadays because we have to remember so many passwords.

There are cases when you forget your password or you family members that need to use your excel document forget the password. In these cases the solution can be the Excel Password Recovery. This software will help you open any password protected excel document. So if you need to open an excel document as fast as possible you are going to need a software like Excel Password Recovery.

Easy and comprehendible interface will help you recover excel documents in a few moments. All you need is to download, launch the application and open the excel document with it. Excel password recovery software will show you all the passwords that this document contains even the ones that are set to different books within the document.
However, the best way is not to forget your password and if you do not want to get your files hacked bring them with you on your flash drive.

Shake Weight to take off weight in no time 0 comments

If your workout routine takes a lot of your free time but your desire for staying in good shape is extremely strong, the Shake Weight seems to fits the bill. This training gadget offers a smart technique to keep your shape effortlessly and in no time. With just 6 minutes a day, you will be able to build strong upper body muscles while saving your time. Shaped like a real dumbbell, this gizmo is easy to use. So all you need to do just hold it while the Shake Weight will operate for you intelligently.

The Shake Weight operates based on dynamic inertia principle that seems to intensively develop your arms’ muscles. This groundbreaking device is designed specifically for those women who want to take their attractiveness to the next level. So you were shy to go sleeveless, it stands to reason give it a try. Additionally, your shoulders and chest will be improved so why not be just appealing.

Let your upper body to look trendy and glamorously with this high efficiency device that clearly stands out in a crowd. The miraculous Shake Weight is available for just 19, 95 USD. It has never been possible to work out your whole upper body in so little time while the Shake Weight offers a simplified muscle work increasing your upper body muscles activity by over 300 percent in comparison with conventional weight lifting.

UC Davis study of kids' blood mercury levels finds no autism link 0 comments

By Anna Tong
In one of the largest studies yet, UC Davis researchers said Monday that they found no real difference in blood mercury levels of children with, and without, autism.

The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, measured blood mercury levels of 452 children, 249 of whom had autism. Those with autism had lower levels, but it was because they eat less fish. Once researchers took fish consumption into account, the difference disappeared.

The levels were similar to those found in national samplings of children covering a similar age range.

"It's a pervasive belief that children with autism have tons of metal in them," said co-author Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an environmental epidemiologist at UC Davis. "We could not measure levels in brain or other tissues, but mercury concentrations circulating in the blood of children with autism were similar to levels in other children."

Hertz-Picciotto cautioned that the study measured only current mercury levels in children, not exposure that may have happened earlier in life.

"This isn't a study asking whether mercury causes autism," she said.

High levels of mercury have been known to cause severe neurological damage, and there have been hypotheses pointing to mercury as one of the possible causes of autism.

The number of autism diagnoses, characterized by abnormal social interactions and communication, has increased dramatically of late.

Another study published this month in the journal Pediatrics estimated autism's prevalence to be 1 in 91 children, an increase from the rate of 1 in 150 children reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2008.

While the increase is in part due to increased awareness of autism, experts are agreed that it is also directly related to environmental factors.

Another study published last year by Hertz-Picciotto documented a 600 percent increase in autism diagnoses in California between 1990 and 2006, and estimated 400 percent of that was due to environmental factors.

In recent weeks the new H1N1 vaccine has reignited the issue of autism and mercury. Public health officials are pushing hard to vaccinate all young children against H1N1. But a significant proportion of parents are reluctant to give children the vaccine, in part because thimerosal – a mercury-containing preservative – is present in multidose vials of the vaccine. Thimerosal is not present in single-dose vials and the nasal spray vaccine. Rumors of a link persist, even though the CDC has declared the link between vaccines and autism unsubstantiated.

The study announced Monday did not look at the vaccine. Nor did it address how earlier exposure to thimerosal may have affected children.

The new report is part of a large Sacramento-based study seeking to cast a wide net over environmental and genetic factors in relation to autism. Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment Study (CHARGE) has enrolled over 1,000 children since its inception in 2003.

There is a great need for credible research in the arena of autism and the environment, experts said.

"It's a problem that the issue of environmental factors has not been researched to the degree it needs to be," said Lee Grossman, head of the Maryland-based Autism Society.

The comprehensive nature of the Sacramento study will help guide clinicians, said Antonio Hardan, director of Stanford Medical School's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic.

"There have been similar studies but not as good as this one," Hardan said. "This will really add to the literature."

U.S Maths Test Find Scant Gains Across New York 0 comments

New York State’s fourth and eighth graders made no notable progress on federal math exams this year, according to test scores released on Wednesday, sharply contradicting the results of state-administered tests that showed record gains.

In state exams, 80 percent of eighth graders met learning standards in math this year, a jump from 59 percent two years ago. But judged by federal standards, only 34 percent were considered proficient, up from 30 percent in 2007. Fourth-grade students actually performed worse than in 2007.

Across the country, many states posted disappointing results, with fourth-grade students stagnant nationally for the first time in nearly two decades.

The results of the federal exam renewed criticism that the state exams have become too easy. The gulf between the state and federal exams also put Joel I. Klein, the New York City schools chancellor, in a difficult position, because he has staked much on the state exams, tying them to consequences like student, teacher and principal bonuses and the city’s A through F grading system for schools. And the results come at a politically potent time for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is trying to ride his record on education, and test scores in particular, to a third term.

While the results of New York City’s performance on the federal exams will not be available for several weeks, in previous years they have tracked closely to New York State’s federal results.

There has long been a chasm between what the state tests and the federal tests, called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, deem proficient. But perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of the latest federal results for New York education officials was that they showed little or no improvement during two years in which the state was claiming huge jumps in student achievement.

The state’s Education Department renewed its promise to raise standards and ensure that the state tests include less predictable questions next year.

“It is clear to us that this gap cannot stay,” said Merryl H. Tisch, the chairwoman of the state’s Board of Regents, who added that she considered the national exam the “gold standard” that did a better job of measuring overall student achievement. “We are going to start to address that this year and we are going to make the state tests more transparent and more truthful.”

David Steiner, the state education commissioner, said he was “particularly concerned by the tragically stubborn gaps” between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian counterparts. According to the federal exam, 50 percent of white fourth graders are proficient in math, compared with 25 percent of Hispanics and 19 percent of blacks, contradicting results from state tests showing a significantly smaller gap.

“What this amounts to is a fraud,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian who has been one of the most vocal critics of both the state exams and Mr. Klein. “This is a documentation of persistent dumbing down by the State Education Department and lying to the public.”

Christopher Cerf, a former deputy chancellor at the Department of Education, who is now advising the mayor’s campaign and spoke on its behalf, said that when the New York City numbers become public, they could show that city students outperformed their peers in the rest of the state.

“It would be impossible to draw any conclusions about New York City’s progress at this point,” Mr. Cerf said.

The federal exam, which is given every two years, uses what it calls a representative sampling of students. In New York, roughly 4,050 of the state’s fourth graders were tested, while nearly 198,000 students took the state test, which is given every year. In the eighth grade, about 3,800 students were tested on the national test, compared with 209,000 on the state exam. The state also tests grades three, five, six and seven every year.

The federal results for English tests are not expected to be released until the spring.

Critics of the state tests have said that they measure a narrow slice of the curriculum. And under state law, tests from previous years are publicly available, allowing teachers to give students many practice tests and predict what kinds of questions will be asked. The federal exam, on the other hand, does not encourage such preparation, in part because there are no consequences for teachers or schools if students do not perform well.

Mr. Klein said that the city has no choice other than to use the state exam to reward and penalize schools, because it is the only test that measures all city students. And he said that eighth-grade scores on the tests are reliable predictors of whether a student will graduate from high school. “This doesn’t in any way undermine what we’ve accomplished here,” he said.

In 2007, only 34 percent of New York City’s fourth graders and 22 percent of eighth graders were considered proficient on the federal math exam. On the state exam that year, those numbers were 74 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

The city made huge gains on the state math exams in 2009, with 85 percent of fourth graders and 71 percent of eighth graders passing.

“I have said many, many times that we should raise the bar,” Mr. Klein said. “The state’s definition of proficiency needs to be tethered to a more demanding standard.”

But in a show of the politics involving test scores, a spokeswoman for William C. Thompson Jr., the Democratic candidate for mayor, called the Bloomberg administration the “Madoff of the American education system” and a “national disgrace.”

“Bloomberg’s D.O.E. has systemically lied about test scores, graduation rates and dropout rates,” the spokeswoman, Anne Fenton, said in a statement. “Our children deserve a quality education; instead, they have become pawns in Mike Bloomberg’s 200-plus million-dollar public relations campaign to rewrite history.”

Defending the mayor and the city’s school system, Mr. Cerf, the Bloomberg campaign adviser, said that there were important differences in scope and content between the state and federal tests. And he and Mr. Klein noted that the even the federal No Child Left Behind law uses state tests to measure schools’ performance.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, the city teachers’ union, said the federal results showed that the state tests were not reliable yardsticks.

“We’ve designed a school system that is just test-taking prep, and we have teachers saying, ‘I know I am not teaching children what they need to learn,’ ” he said.

Michael Barbaro and Robert Gebeloff contributed reporting.

Sharp releases AQUOS LX series, prepares for the tenth anniversary 0 comments

Sharp is approaching to the tenth anniversary of its AQUOS LCD flat panels. To give it a proper pump, they have prepared a new line-up for AQUOS series. The LX series is coming November 10 in Japan and only then it will spread to other markets. Sharp engineers have done a good job improving AQUOS over the years, and with the latest LX series they haven't changed their habits. As usually, there is a choice between four models with different screen sizes and other features. Follow the link to see the detailes.

Four different screen sizes for AQUOS LX are 60", 52", 46", and 40". First three of them sport cool duo bass sub-woofer ARSS 6 speakers,. The 40 inch would not be sold with them. Anyway, most of other features are common for all four of LXs. The newly developed LED backlight system provides 2,000,000 : 1 contrast ratio, but they haven't stopped with that. Sharp’s exclusive UV2A photo-alignment technology manages to improve white and black shades while keeping energy consumption in two-thirds scope of the previous GX series result. Practically almost every piece of technology was updated for LX, it hard to bring them altogether, but, from what hasn't been mentioned, I emphasize new High-Picture-Quality Master Engine and Preferred Image
Sensor. AQUOS Familink II has also been updated. All in all AQUOS remained AQUOS, only ten years better. Happy anniversary!

September price drop part 2: Nintendo Wii for 199.99 USD 0 comments

Unlike Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii suffers smaller impact from Sony PlayStation 3 Slim arrival. But as it appeared, they also decided to drop the price for their bundle a bit. Why? Well, our idea is that Wii has been around for quite a while now and the new one is coming. In fact come to think of it, Wii is the oldest of the three. But still the same fun as it was two years back, I'm I right? This is the thing about gaming consoles - they depreciate slower that desktop PCs or smartphones. Back to Amazon now.

Nintendo Wii has finally dropped under two hundreds dollars. 199.99 USD tag is, of course, very catchy, but with the console itself you get the excess to an boundless world of Wii games, peripherals, and even backward compatibility with Nintendo GameCube if you got nostalgic about it. Bundle inculeds Wii sports game - a perfect variant to get acuainted with Wii is capable of.

Intel Developer Forum brief 0 comments

More OLED notebook stuff, this time from IDF. Only that this time a full OLED panel is not the case. Intel has given everyone a glimpse at freshly developed concept notebook that has three downsized screens located right over the keyboard. Lets join this with the fact that Intel developed Moblin operating system has reached its 2.1 version, an epic Light Peak 10Gbps interconnector for mobile devices and it sort of comes all together as I see it.

You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows, so I just look forward to an end product developed fully by Intel. I do think they have the technology and ability to come up with a neat netbook probably even with OLED and Moblin onboard, who knows? Not a long time ago we have reviewed internet orientated operating systems and concluded that they make sense especially for computing on the go. In the same key light and slim OLED display is perfect for a notebook. Intel, we are intrigued.

MSI Wind U110 ECO goes on sale 0 comments

MSI has rolled its new Wind U110 ECO netbook today and split everyone into two groups with it. First say that Wind U110 ECO hasn't earned their attention largely because its Intel GMA500 GPU. Fair enough, especially if we look back at overly enthusiastic articles that indicate that MSI U110 is going to have ATI graphics. Others reply that the toughest graphic gig it will do on everyday basis is Windows Aero Theme, so they are happy with saving money on graphics. Anyway, MSI Wind ECO netbook has more upsides to consider.

Long battery life in a netbook is sure an upside. MSI U110 sports a 9 cell battery that will last 15 hours from plug to plug. Enough for a whole day out, but it comes to price: its up to you whether 3.2 lbs is easy to carry around or not, so choose wisely here. Price (399 USD) and the rest of specs hasn't been changed and left the same as we knew it since Wind U110 ECO was announced:

* 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z53 precessor, Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset

* 1 GB DDR2 533MHz RAM

* 2.5 inch 160GB SATA hard drive

* 10 inch LED, 1024 x 600 resolution

* 1.3 MP webcam

* USB 2.0 x 3

* gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi

* Genuine Windows XP Home/Vista Home Basic

* 1 year warranty

Next-gen Nintendo Wii HD is planed for 2011 0 comments

This September was, the first half of it mosly, particularly rich with mobile phone news. We have seen many releases and many phones were announced and are still to come. It's time to switch to something else, isn't it? Over the last couple of months there were quite a few really vibrant news from the world of gaming consoles. I remember Xbox 360 Arcade has been added double the system memory, black Nintendo Wii has been locked to Japanese market, and, of course, PlaySation 3 Slim went on sale. Finally we have some news from Nintendo regarding their next-gen Wii plans.

Next-gen Nintendo Wii HD comes out somewhere in year 2011, has different sort of features it lacked comparing with the other two console giants. It may also have a new controller and I'm sure a lot of deferent new stuff that kept it so exiting and fun unless some of Wii's features are more humble than Xbox's or PS'.

For the nearer future though we have a closing Tokyo Game Show were console fans expect to see new motion controllers. Yoichi Wada, the Square Enix head said that it wouldn't have a considerable influence on market share distribution, but all the input is done via controller so those who just want to play games might prefer it to everything else.

Apple tablet rumored for Februry 2010, do you like MacBook Touch name? 0 comments

Sep 15, 2009
Half a year back, and this is a nice thing to bring up for me, we were thinking and talking about how is Apple going to update its gadgets, with what features and what functionality. Because most of it was imaginary, very exiting therefore, or maybe because Apply has though it is really very good idea to launch an internet tablet, we are now going to do the same thing as before.

Yes, a tablet. A touchscreen internet gadget with fast bandwidth speeds and a big battery for endless fun. Unlike CrunchPad and if we are informed well, Apply is not going to limit the upcoming tablet with just internet functionality. What we know about it at the moment is that it is going o have a P. A. Semi processor, a DynaPack battery that will let do your internet research and then get carried away playing games or social networking more likely. 9.6 inch display is not confirmed to be not OLED so we keep our fingers crossed for that. HSDPA, of course, Wi-Fi also probably. Prices vary from 799 to 999 USD which overall makes it land somewhere between a proper smartphone and a good laptop. I just wonder, how much functionality of both Apple tablet will be able to take when it comes out next February?

NovoThink Solar Surge charger for iPhones and iPods 0 comments

We got used to see solar chargers appearing all around especially before summer. We’ve seen and reviewed a good slag of them. Mostly, solar chargers require a bit of compromise in day-to-day usage – freedom they offer can be bogged down by taking care of them like leaving the thing in the sun and carrying extra weight. Anyway, here is a one more solar power gadget, the one for iPhone and iPod this time.

NovoThink, the company which designed and is selling Solar Surge solar charger for iPhone/iPod has done an amazing thing. First, NovoThink has approved their solar cell case at Apple, which means it will actually work. Second, it’s specs are really impressive. Solar panel distributes 5.5V at 100 mAh if there is no clouds whatsoever, then, after two hours you will have 30 minutes talk time on 3G and double that on 2G. Solar Surge inbuilt battery is 20% bigger than the iPhone’s and can be charged via USB 2.0 while synchronizing data. Approximate dimensions are: 4.9" x 2.7" x 0.9", weight is 7 oz. In addition you can choose from a vast variety of colors. The only problem about the Surge I can imagine is that high temperatures may cause problems for lithium ion batteries which is kind of worrying if it’s meant to stay in the sun.

Parents 'oppose' school test rankings 0 comments

Most parents oppose naming and shaming of bad schools, a poll says

The survey said the Rudd Government's top five priorities should be recruiting more teachers, reducing class sizes, upgrading public school facilities, introducing a national curriculum and giving a computer to all Years 9-12 students.

The Australian Education Union, a vocal critic of school league tables, commissioned the survey, which was carried out by UMR Research.

Surveyors told parents there were concerns that organisations, such as newspapers, could take school test results and publish tables that ranked schools by performance. Respondents were also told some parents and teachers believed the data should not be reproduced without the Government's permission.

BioLogic FreeCharge to offer a green solution for your USB gizmos 0 comments

There are no doubts that pedal power could create some green energy. A famous folding bikes producer Dahon, knew about this and now offers a new green opportunity that will be appreciated by all the enthusiastic bikers. Called the BioLogic FreeCharge, this wonder working charger is able to harness the pedal power on the go producing enough green charge for your portable devices.

This sustainable solution makes most use of riding a bike by simple attaching to the generator hub of your bike. Once it is well fixed to it, it seems to be no power shortage on the go. This miraculous generator hub appears to be battery powered device that is designed to extract some useful power as you drive your bike. The power accumulated will be very useful when your handy gadgets turn out to be out of juice.

The BioLogic FreeCharge is expected to hit the market in next March with a price tag of 100 USD. So you are going to be able to charge your electronic gear after just 3 hours of riding while still keeping a perfect shape. So it does not matter what USB device you prefer to power, just keep on driving your bike to make sure your gadgets to stay charged.

IFA news: Samsung OLED laptop in Q3 '10 0 comments

About a year ago, we had a fortune to become witness of the first OLED panel going into mass production. Back then it was a hi-tech exhibition, and, well, the story has repeated, almost. Today at the first day of IFA Berlin Samsung’s Head of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, who is Kyu Uhm of course, has given us a deem view of what will be a show stopper in a year – a (first) OLED notebook.

I am not going to speak all about his speech at IFA. Instead, let’s just have a walk through what an OLED display on a notebook can offer and take. One glance back though: Kyu Uhm has mentioned an expected growth of netbook market. In short, what he effectively said was: "We are making an OLED netbook". How good is that? If we think of power consumption, then it makes even more sense than putting an OLED display in a standard-sized laptop. What are main juice lovers in a PC? – screen, hard drive and processor. Same thing with size and weight. Organic diodes are really thin and light. Besides being overly magnificent to behold. So the future of personal computing, which is coming from Samsung in late Q3 of 2010, is a netbook with an OLED panel, SSD and low voltage processor. I like that. If only they give it out for netbook money, which I’m afraid they won’t.

You might have though the picture above is familiar to you. Yes, it is not new and not true. It’s a last year concept.

Solar-powered Bluetooth car kit to feel safer on the road 0 comments

If you consider yourself to be a prudent driver you might know about potential risk of cell phone driving. But high technology keeps on moving and moving and we do have some intelligent ways making our driving safer. Called the Bluetooth car kit seems to be a smart way to drive both carefully and ecologically friendly.

Being powered by solar energy, this sustainable solution might come handy whenever there is an incoming call. So even if you are in a hurry and are used to run your business on the go, this might be a nice option for you as this hands-free gadget makes it possible for a driver to maintain safety while speaking on the phone.

This comfortable device is easily attached to the sun visor above the windshield of your car to harness the solar power on the move. The power accumulated is then stored in a fitted battery. The solar powered Bluetooth car kit comes packed with LCD caller ID screen designed to let you know about incoming calls without any distractions and a speakerphone to be conveniently used while still keeping the driver concentrated on the road.

The solar powered Bluetooth car kit can harness the solar power but what to do if it is an overcast day or it is about to rain? Still no problems for this clever car kit as you can power it using USB or a cigarette lighter. This green gadget can be had for 47, 5 USD and a driver might be sure of his or her safe driving.

Sunny Flower to harness sun power as it blossoms 0 comments

Charging electronic devices is what we do on a daily basis. But do you charge your portable gadgets ecologically friendly? Industrial designer has offered a new green solution for keeping your gizmos charged. Called the Sunny Flower, this environmentally friendly charger is able to spread its petals whenever it is sunny. So you now have a chance to keep your electronic devices working all the time.

This solar powered charger seems to be ultra portable and if you live in a well sunlit area, you may cleverly use the sun energy. Principle of operation does not seem to be complicated as the Sunny Flower gets solar energy to power its embedded battery that offers you a green charge whenever your devices are gone flat.

Another well thought feature is its indicator light that glows every time your electronic gadget is well charged. Once enough sun power is harvested, the charger takes shape of ultra portable stick as indicated in the picture to finally charge a gadget of your preference.

This sustainable charger is a good idea to power your electronic devices on the go while using the Sunny Flower will let you reduce your personal carbon emissions.