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 Going the Distance! Newsletter Articles:
Alaska Teacher Union Wants State to Leave NCLB The biggest teacher’s union in Alaska would like the state’s Department of Education and Early Development to abandon the No Child Left Behind Act, according to an article entitled “Teachers turn against No Child Left Behind Act” on msnbc.com. According to a report by Daniel Bergen, the teacher’s union wants the department to leave the act even though it could mean the loss of federal funds. According to the report, the Alaskan division of the National Education Association agreed to a motion to leave the national act – which could result in a loss of as much as $180 million for the state. Alaska joins other states such as Virginia, Vermont, Utah and Hawaii who are all “considering dropping No Child Left Behind.” The report states that Commissioner Roger Sampson still supports NCLB, stating that he knows that “teachers are frustrated with the No Child Left Behind mandates, especially now as many school districts are struggling with reduced budgets.” Sampson also said that “there is still firm support for what the law is trying to accomplish.” For the full text of this story go to http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4157340/ Technology Education for Teachers - Quality Professional Development Before using technology in classrooms, teachers themselves must have an understanding of technology, according to an article by Dale Mann in eSchoolNews entitled, “Technology training for teachers: A better way.” Professional development for teachers is a crucial part of putting technology in classrooms, and funds are being allocated to help teachers with that process. According to the article, “The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) reserves 25 percent of all technology expenditures for “high-quality professional development” to integrate technology into instruction.” There may be a sharp discrepancy between uncovering professional development and actually applying it accurately in classrooms. An analysis conducted in 2000 found that: (1) 99 percent of all teachers can access ‘professional development’ opportunities; but (2) only a third felt that professional development is tied to classroom applications; and (3) more than a third of all teachers (35 percent) claimed they never received any peer-to-peer professional development. One solution to this problem is TeachNet. Developed for New York City teachers, TeachNet “was designed to add digital networking to face-to-face (f2f) networking. New York City is a legendarily tough place to teach.” Overall, the TeachNet method has proved effective. According to the report, “the empirical evidence indicates that TeachNet is doing what it is designed to do—recruit and retain teachers in a network of professionals committed to adding learning technology to the classroom curriculum.” For the full text of this article go to: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=4856 New Web Site Tracks States' Performance Recently, a new Web site launched to monitor states and their schools’ progress, according to an AP article in the USA Today. The article entitled, “Web site promises convenient access to school data,” describes SchoolResults.org, which was launched by federal, state and private education leaders to monitor state progress. According to the article, the Web site will “serve as a clearinghouse for new state report cards on education, including data broken down to the school district and school building.” The No Child Left Behind Act requires that states furnish details on topics such as qualifications for teaching and student achievement. The first phase of SchoolResults.org is costing $9 million which is being split between the Education Department and the Broad Foundation. Delaware, Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington are the first six states to participate. By summer, organizers of the site plan on posting information from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For the full text of this article go to: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-01-29-school-website_x.htm For the SchoolResults Web site go to: www.SchoolResults.org Monthly Tip: Virus Notifications, Virii and Staying Safe Once again, e-mail "mass mailer" virii are in the forefront of the news. The latest threat, popularly called Mydoom has hit the world with a vengeance. Most everyone has likely received an "E-mail Virus Notification" in the Inbox of his or her e-mail account. Equally likely, the virus noted in the e-mail reports "Virus: W32/Mydoom.a@MM", although there are hundreds of other virii being transmitted on a daily basis. The GCI e-mail filtering system quarantined 4588 virii for the day of February 3, 2004. 4501 of these quarantines were for Mydoom. While 75% of all e-mail sent are spam, only 2.6% contain a virus. So why all the worry about controlling the spread of a single virus? It is because one virus can cause untold damage. Being the focal point for so many issues brought to us by our customers, the SchoolAccess Help Desk also works with technology staffs, teachers, and others to deal with virus issues. In the past, we have seen a simple virus shut down a school's network. And in many cases, virus removal is no simple task. Sometimes the only way to deal with a virus is to reformat the computer, reinstall the OS, put all of the required and needed programs back into place, and, if lucky, restore the data. The SchoolAccess Help Desk has responded to hundreds of inquiries due to the thousands of daily quarantines of Mydoom since its release on January 26, 2004. Our response and advice remain the same. If your e-mail account receives an "E-mail Virus Notification", our filtering service has prevented that virus-laden e-mail from reaching your account. This is good! Relax. One of the troubling aspects programmed into Mydoom allows it to attempt to go around normal e-mail routing protocols, bypassing external filters, with an attempt to deliver directly to your mail server. This brings us to "What to do if…” Regardless of both local and remote virus protection, being vigilant provides the best protection available. We highly recommend that any Window's user depart from the OS defaults that hides file extensions by opening an Explorer window (double clicking on My Computer will do this), going to the Tools menu, down to Folder Options, selecting the View tab, and unchecking the checkbox in front of "Hide file extensions for known file types". Click OK to commit this action. In your file listings you will now see the file extensions which are usually a three letter designation after a ".", such as ".exe" or ".doc". Also, when it comes to e-mail attachments, be very wary of these extensions:
These are the more common extensions used by mass mailer virii, but don't be fooled: there are others. And a document with a name something like "goodforyou.doc.exe" may not be good for you at all, as it's an executable program, not a Word ".doc". This trick has been used many times to get an unsuspecting user to open the supposed document. Don't fall for it. As we have said, being vigilant provides the best protection available. If you are not expecting an e-mail with an attachment, don't open it. Even if you are, a good technique might be to reply to the user first and ask what the name of the attachment was sent. If the sender cannot answer this question, don't open it. Please also note that GCI does not have the ability to scan a Yahoo, Hotmail or other remote e-mail service, so be extra wary when using an outside service. If you have a question regarding the safety of an e-mail that you've received, by all means ask. Ask your IT department; ask us. We can be reached by e-mail at schoolaccess@gci.com or by phone at 888-254-2858. Use the incredible web resources available, such as Network Associates (http://vil.nai.com/vil/default.asp), Symantec (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/), Trend Micro (http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/enterprise.htm), or do a Google (http://www.google.com) and search for an answer. E-mail and the Internet are great tools. Just don't let someone else’s abuse ruin your day. 
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