11.18.09
Posted in General at 11:57 pm by Travis
The CBC recently wrote a letter the chairman of the FCC concerning net neutrality as if they are not in favor of it. Other organizations such as The Alliance for Digital Equality have joined with these members and blue dog democrats, of all people, to oppose net neutrality. First, I have one question. Have we not learned anything from the health care debate when with dealing with “blue dogs”? I guess not. What also amazes me is how we have just ignored all of the classic conservative code language for corporate welfare and still submit ourselves to this agenda. “Competition and private investment?” “Consequences that government action may have on network investment?” “An objective review of the fact will reveal the critical role that competition and private investment have played?” “Spur adoption and expand the use of broadband networks?” Are you kidding me? This is conservative code class 101, but we seem to want to go down this road.
In the letter from the ADE, it states:
Most arguments for network neutrality fail to account for the very real economic constraints facing the disadvantaged, undeserved, and un-served communities that we and the CBC represent. Our constituents are more at risk of being blocked from participating in the digital future due to rising price pressures and lack of investment in broadband infrastructure precipitated by ill-conceived, empirically unsupported, and hastily formulated regulations than a slowly loading web page.
Both of these letters are sincere in the efforts, but there are two things wrong with them. One, these letters should have been written to the telcos which are partnered with some of these groups and have given to their political campaigns, and two, IT’S TEN YEARS TOO LATE! The FCC is not the problem. The Telcos playing games with the bandwidth is. This is nothing but “digital red-lining” only you can see the lines because they exist as “ones” and “zeros”. Do you honestly think that anything but marginal bandwidth will go to the under-served communities at all? Ask them why an ISP was caught throttling bandwidth after lying about? They blamed bit torrents, but bit torrents are one of the best ways to send large files over the internet without clogging the pipe. Bit torrents allow open source software to be shared on the net.
Open source software allows small companies, startups and nonprofits to have an even playing field when they need software, but don’t have the financial resources to buy the over-the-counter stuff. The issue is not just about connection, but content. No connection in the world is worth anything if you can’t access good content. The media companies are afraid of you, the consumer creating better content than they can provide and sell big ad time for. They are afraid that Joe Public may start a show out of his living room that runs circles around the stuff they produce today. They are afraid that grass roots movements may produce news and content that empowers new movements of thought and action that cause them to rise up and say, “Enough is enough!” They are afraid that these movements may cause the masses to think once again instead of relying of corporatized “eye candy” for information for which they charge massive amount of ad dollars. The music and movie industries are afraid that the masses may produce music and movies that once again speaks to the hear of the human experience which makes us think and act. It’s the Matrix, revisited.
Content is the oil of the internet. This is why Comcast is eager to buy NBC Universal. If the ISP owns the content then they can pretty much do what they want because it becomes an issue of intellectual property and copyright, and they can ration it out as they see fit. Depending on what tier you are on, you may see content that will empower and enlighten you, but I really doubt it. They are not concerned about the free flowing of ideas and information. It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.
The CBC remarks how ten years ago broadband was “only a nascent service reaching only about one percent of households’. What the CBC does not understand is that ten years ago, the telcos promised to have a 45 megabit pipe installed and ready to go. Only thing they got sidetracked with their mergers and layoffs slowly killing off any competition that they have convinced the CBC and others that they really want.
What they should ask the telcos is why after all of the government subsidies and tax breaks from the past ten years, we are still not in the top ten countries in the world for broadband adoption on technology that we created? Why do we pay on average of $45 for a 12Mbit connection while Japan pays $30 for a 102Mbit. Yeah, that’s right 102 megs! I invite the members of the CBC and their supporters to do a little research. Spend some time over here at the OECD and look at the history of broadband adoption in the country. Your “come to Jesus meeting” is with the wrong folks!
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10.28.09
Posted in General at 7:14 am by Travis
Education Week: STEM Defection Seen to Occur After High School.
The late Gerald Gracey told us in his most recent book reveals what has been going on. In his book, “Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality”, he mentions a quote from science writer Dan Greenberg who explained it this way from his 2007 article in The Chronicle of Higher Learning entitled, “No Mystery Why Americans shun Science Careers.”
Why are so many science jobs and student slots in the U.S. filled with foreigners? For the same reason jobs in the lettuce fields and apple orchards are filled by foreigners. Many qualified Americans shun science because, far more then the drum beaters for research let on, science can be a risky, unrewarding career choice… No amount of improved high school science is going to fix this problem, which is essentially economic. A doubling of salaries and improved conditions for getting ahead is a scientific career would bring in many American recruits. But that’s not going to happen. Despite the glorification of science, the marketplace sets the value and the price. Which is why foreigners flock to our schools and labs while Americans seeks their fortunes in other fields.
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10.11.09
Posted in General at 9:02 pm by Travis
The Chancellor of the DC Public schools will be in Little Rock this week. If I get a chance to go, I will let you know, maybe even tweet from the event.
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09.23.09
Posted in Education at 7:58 pm by Travis
Taking Technology Out of the Classroom
via Techtonic Shifts : Taking Technology Out of the Classroom.
Okay, I am a little confused. Jose’ Bowen talks about taking technology out of the classroom, but he uses podcast to engage his learners. His justification for taking out the technology is as he stated, “Just because you have a PowerPoint presentation doesn’t mean you have a good lecture.”
Let me explain something. Educational technology is not about teaching; it’s about learning. It’s about engaging the students with the technology so that they collaborate, create and take ownership of their learning. If you spend more time trying to figure out if your PowerPoint should fly in or out, or you go to the conferences to find the latest, “cool” gadgets to wow your students then you are wasting your time. Your students have already seen the latest gadgets and have them and been using them for about six months. Technology was never meant to replace curriculum, classroom management, planning, differentiation and attention to diversity. If you think that this is what technology is about in the classroom, please leave now.
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08.21.09
Posted in Education at 7:24 pm by Travis
Out of all of the shouting, gun toting and reminiscing for the 1940’s, we have largely ignored one casualty in the heath care debate, education. Arne Duncan, President Obama, Rev. Sharpton, and Speaker Newt Gingrich have come together to tackle education reform. Secretary Duncan has the brand new “Race To The Top” Program which I like to call NCLB v.2.0 beta. Standards and assessments, everything a growing child needs to succeed in the market place. No attention to curriculum and instruction, but oh, I forgot. Those items are understood to automatically be there and work in favor of all children.
The issue I am raising is how poverty which is not truly figured into the administration’s formula for success. According the rhetoric, it’s the teacher’s fault that the little poor kids can’t pass the test. These sorry teachers are holding the educational system back. Fire ‘em! Fire ‘em all I say!
Now I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I think you have to actually be in school to be taught anything which brings be to my point. What are we going to do about the number of uninsured families and children?
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
Findings about Children
- The number of uninsured children under age 18 rose by 600,000, from 8.05 million in 2005 to 8.66 million in 2006. The percentage of children who lack health insurance also rose from 10.9 percent to 11.7 percent.
- As Table 2 indicates, the number and percentage of children who are uninsured declined from 1999 through 2004, but that trend stopped and began to reverse in 2005.[3]
- Rising enrollment in SCHIP and Medicaid was the main factor that drove down the number and percentage of uninsured children from 1998 to 2004. These enrollment increases more than offset the declines in employer-based coverage of children that began in 2000.
- From 2004 to 2006, the percentage of children covered by public insurance remained unchanged and thus could not offset the continued reduction in the percentage of children covered by employer-sponsored insurance. The result was an overall reduction in children’s coverage.
This Washington Post article explains it best here.
Children without health coverage are three times as likely as insured children to lack a regular doctor, according to a report released last month by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Research from the American College of Physicians in 2000 found that uninsured children were less likely to be up to date on immunizations and to receive treatment for sore throats, earaches and other common childhood illnesses. A University of Texas study found that kids with insurance tend to have fewer school absences.
Kids with insurance stay in school. It doesn’t matter if you are a “highly qualified” teachers who never needs on-going professional development, ever again. Who comes into the classroom with a near divine-like discernment for the diverse needs of the student and thus can reach all of the children every time they teach with Jedi-like abilities. Who do not need a curriculum that addresses the diverse needs of the learner or effectively use technology within the curriculum. It doesn’t matter that they can have every child hitting those numbers, and walk away with enough merit pay to make athletes jealous.
The kids have to be in school to learn. What does the assessment data say about that? Get on with it already!!
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07.30.09
Posted in Personal Commentary at 1:06 pm by Travis
We have a credit union here that has a nice little feature that most banks have, overdraft protection. If a a transaction comes in for more than you have in your account, they transfer from your saving the balance and charge you $5.0o. This sounds great until you have an item come in, they transfer the money, but the transfer fee causes your account to become overdrawn anyway! This is just wrong. How about this one. If you have just enough money in savings to cover the balance of the item that will overdraw your account, but you don’t have enough to include the $5.00 fee, they don’t pay the item and charge you $25.0o.
They counter by saying we paid it for you. It was a debit card transaction. It would get paid regardless except they would still charge you $25.00. Now, you know that no “person” is manually handling these transactions. It’s all done by computer, so how is it costing the bank anything to justify charging customers fess that keep going up. Am I shirking responsibility? No. I should have been more careful, but don’t offer me a service that is designed to keep padding your pocket as you act like your doing me a favor. This is why I don’t bank with them regularly.
We need serious banking reform.
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07.16.09
Posted in black history, social justice at 9:58 pm by Travis
All this week we have seen the constant battering of the Supreme Court Nominee with racial overtones. Uncle Pat B. has come out with his usual tirade on affirmative action to say that she was not qualified to be at Princeton in the first place. Conservatives love it when President Obama or any black man or woman tell black folks they need to take responsibility for themselves, stand up and live the American dream. No one will give you a hand out and don’t expect one. Stand up and be counted! Some black folks hate talk like that and lose their ever lovin’ minds. Remember what happened to Bill Cosby?
I don’t think that conservatives know what they are really asking. Malcolm Gladwell spoke at a conference a couple weeks ago and talked about how effort trumps talent. When people go up against obstacle, they come out with skill sets that take them to whole new levels of success. You see black folks have be compensating for obstacles for years. We have a staying power that is often unmatched. Effort against obstacle has led us to fight in wars for and against people in this country who only saw us as servants. When we were denied education, we made sure our children were given opportunities even if we could never see it for ourselves. We were killed, maimed, beaten, bombed and hanged, we kept going. Now we sit at the head of the table, and some people not only can not believe, they can’t stand it.
So when President Obama tells people to stand up and take effort by the horns, it takes on a whole new meaning. It is more authentic now more than ever. I don’t think that the conservatives want a whole community of black folks coming into the revelation of what our ancestors knew. If our young people ever get the revelation of what effort really does for a person and that obstacles takes you to a whole new level, those who oppose our success will lose their minds. The notion of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is just rhetoric in conservative speech, but it truly holds power to those holding the straps. So when you start seeing people of color rising to new levels of success and people of color determining their own financial future, resisting the charms of narcissism and avarice, eluding the trappings of a one-side criminal justice system, be warned, you asked for it! Since we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, I will leave you with a quote from one of the founders of the organization W.E.B. Dubois.
W.E.B Dubois co-wrote “The Negro In The South” along with Booker T. Washington which was published in 1907 . In the chapter entitled, “Religion In The South” he states,
” If my own city of Atlanta had offered it to-day the choice between 500 Negro college graduates–forceful, busy, ambitious men of property and self-respect, and 500 black cringing vagrants and criminals, the popular vote in favor of the criminals would be simply overwhelming. Why? because they want Negro crime? No, not that they fear Negro crime less, but that they fear Negro ambition and success more. They can deal with crime by chain-gang and lynch law, or at least they think they can, but the South can conceive neither machinery nor place for the educated, self-reliant, self-assertive black man.”
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Posted in General, personal tech at 8:58 pm by Travis
Analysis: Palm Pre sync flap, hardware issues, hurt Palm.
I have had my Palm Pre for a month, and I can say that I love it. It does what “I” need it to do. Could I use more apps? Yes, but it’s version 1.04 which means it’s on the ground floor. The phone quality is good. The apps that I do have come in rather handy, and the camera is superb. It just needs a zoom function. I have not had the problems that others have spoken about. I went on a trip to D.C a couple of weeks ago, and the phone and network performed flawlessly. The Google Maps App came in very handy in finding by way around the area around the hotel.
The problem with Palm is that they tried to swallow a camel and gagged on a gnat. Don’t go after Apple until you have some apps. Nobody cares that Apple had only one app in their catalog when it opened. They see 50,000+, now. Don’t go adding syncing functions to iTunes when you know that Apple is going to squash it and brag like you really did something by creating it.
Bottom line. The Pre is an excellent alternative to the iPhone if you want the advanced features of the WebOs, a solid wireless network, a platform that has enormous potential and you don’t want to deal with AT&T’s wireless 2.8G network. Maybe more bars in more places means that this is where people often try to use their phones the most; I don’t know. If they don’t screw up the third party apps program, things can be great. Time will tell.
Here are some pics I took with the phone.
Great Hall of the Library of Congress
Reading Room in the Library of Congress
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07.15.09
Posted in Education, social justice at 8:36 am by Travis
Regional Shift Seen in Education Gap – NYTimes.com.
According to the article,
Historically, the achievement gap between America’s black and white students was widest in Southern states, where the legacies of slavery and segregation were reflected in extremely low math and reading scores among poor African-American children.
Oh happy day! Test scores for black students have come up in the south! Bless my soul! Is it the Obama effect? Have black kids gotten the message? Were the conservatives right, personally responsibility is the key? Are the southern chapters of the NAACP more effective than the northern chapters? Who cares, right? Its all about the data, numbers and stats. Anytime you start talking about data, I am going to have to refer to Dr. Deming. Deming told us that we have to know what we are doing when we look to numbers for answers. He said that the purpose is not for us to use data to make determinations, but to ask questions. Ironically, no one has an answer although we are led to believe that the “dirty south” may have just come to its senses.
Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a nonprofit group in Washington that works to close achievement gaps, said principals in Wisconsin were “stunned” when shown the results.
Before we schedule the block party, let’s consider this. I remember hearing this Sunday night on the local news. During the same time as this event, another article from CNN for the Black in America 2 program states that black have been migrating back to the South from the North.
According to the NY Times article,
The study plotted the evolution of average scores of black and white students on the series of federal tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress that were administered every two to four years in both math and reading from 1992 to 2007. Nationwide, the average math score in 1992 for white fourth graders was 227 on a 500-point scale, compared with an average score of 192 for black fourth graders that year, resulting in a black-white gap of 35 points.
By 2007, the most recent year included in the new study, the average math scores for white fourth graders had risen to 248, but the average scores for black students had risen to 222, thus narrowing the black-white gap to 26 points, about the equivalent of two and a half years of schooling.
According to the CNN article,
Around 1970, many African-Americans began moving back to the South, historians and demographers say. The trend accelerated during the 1990s and this decade, according to William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank.
From 1965 through 1970, the South experienced a net migration loss — the number of people who moved into the region compared to the number of people who moved out — of more than 287,000 African-Americans.
Thirty years later, the numbers were nearly the opposite. From 1995 through 2000, the South saw a gain of nearly 350,000 African-Americans.
You don’t have to be a statistician to realize that although this may not be the cause, it definitely has an effect. What may have made the difference was the quality of life for the northern families who left the South in the first place. Poverty is and will always be a major factor in student achievement. It looks like we have a shift in those families who’s incomes were an advantage to those students which is reflecting in the scores down South. Just consider it.
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07.08.09
Posted in Politics at 9:32 am by Travis
Democrats stuck in stimulus jam – Victoria McGrane – POLITICO.com.
This interesting article from Politico.com outlines what I said back in February. The Dems were on their own on the stimulus package, so instead of standing up on their principles (they really do have some), they tried to be bi-partisan which is short for “I will if you will”.
Now, they are out here blowin’ in the wind, and the Republicans are poised, ready to throw salt at even the slightest hint of another stimulus package. I can’t say that I blame them. They brilliantly made the Democrats sabotage their own bill, and then did not even vote for it. Their hands are clean, for once, while Dems have the potential of looking like Billy Brick Head on this one.
Out of all of the talk of the forefathers, you would think that they would at least remember Alexander Hamilton when he said, “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” With Sen. Al Franken making up the 60 vote filabuster proof majority, they now seem scared to pull the trigger.
The question that needs to be asked is do we have democrats or anti-republicans?
Here is my post from 2.13.09
House passes stimulus bill with no GOP support – CNN.com.
Let me get this straight. You created a stimulus bill, and in an effort of bi-partisanship, you gut your own bill to “reach across the aisle”, and the people that you made the cuts for didn’t vote for it anyway?
Sounds like you got played, the real genius of it all is that you played yourself.
My prediction is this. The money will not be enough, and the Dems will have to try to get more money. The only problem is that now the Republicans have a stronger position to oppose more money and argue that President Obama can not lead because they did not vote for it in the first time. I see a strange concept that the Repubs are using that may be foreign to other political parties, unity.
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