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People wanting to sign up to receive this FREE educational technology update
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------------->

In this Issue:
1- Educational Websites
2- New Workshops and Available Training Dates!
3- Adobe Activeshare: Free software for sharing photos online
4- Cool idea for Parent Teacher conferences
5- Program Catches Copycat Students
6- World's first genetically altered babies born
7- Knowledge Knows No Boundaries
8- Lifetime e-mail comes with college diplomas
9- Apple Retools iBook for School
10- FilterGate, or Knowing What We're Walling In or Walling Out
11- Oops! Britney Web site modifies privacy policy
12- Get Ready for Your Nano Future

----> 1- Educational Websites

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/
Einstein Revealed: Review the key turning points in Einstein's life, find
out why he is considered a genius among geniuses, become a "time traveler,"
learn how the theory of general relativity gave birth to cosmology, and
explore the nature of light.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mexico/
Discovering Mexico: This cool National Geographic site takes an inside look
at this country and its culture. Follow a photographer and get daily
dispatches from his journey to Mexico, including sounds and photos!

http://www.search4dinosaurs.com/pictures.html
Dinosaur Illustrations - browse this complete A to Z list of dinosaur
pictures, or search for a specific type.

http://www.actden.com/pp/
PowerPoint in the Classroom: An excellent online tutorial

http://www.ibinder.uwf.edu/steps/la/welcome.cfm
Online lesson planning tool aligned to the Florida state education
standards. We needs something like this in Texas!

http://education.dot.gov/k5/heroes.htm
Super Heroes and Heroines in Transportation (from the US Dept of
Transportation)

http://www.ehow.com/
Learn how to do just about anything, like send an email attachment:
http://www.ehow.com/eHow/eHow/0,1053,4942,00.html

http://www.computerguyofgastonia.com/graphics.html
Working With Graphics: An Attempt to Simplify Some of the Confusing Issues

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/digital/dlc/plus/chapter5/index.shtml
Learn how to use digital imaging in the classroom with ideas from the Kodak
Digital Learning Center

http://personal.bellsouth.net/cha/a/r/arlieo/peer/peer.htm
Great info on setting up peer-to-peer Windows networking environments,
sharing files, printers and scanners, and troubleshooting ideas when some
computers don't show up in the Network Neighborhood when they should!

http://www.iomega.com/rinaldi/index.html
Rebate offer from Class action suit: If between January 1, 1995 and
March 19, 2001 you purchased at retail or through an authorized Iomega
original equipment manufacturer an Iomega Zip® drive, you may be eligible
for rebates. These are available as part of a class action lawsuit
settlement.

http://www.stalker.com/Utilities/
Utilities for Mac users, including software to share scanners across a
network for use by multiple folks

----> 2- New Workshops and Available Training Dates!

Due to changes in my summer schedule, I am now available for workshop
training May 30 - June 9, 2001. An updated listing of my current workshops
is available on:

http://www.wtvi.com/teks/workshops.html

Some other summer dates are also still available.

Contact me at [email][email protected] or
http://www.wtvi.com/wesley/contactwes.html to schedule training dates.

I have created two new workshops, which include online curriculum, in the
last few weeks. These workshops are:

EDUCATIONAL TELECOMPUTING PROJECTS
http://www.wtvi.com/teks/tcp
Learn about the multitude of ways the Internet can be used as a classroom
"telecomputing" resource and tool. We'll learn some internet search
strategies and explore excellent website starting points for educators.
We'll also explore a multitude of existing online educational projects using
resources compiled by Dr. Judi Harris. Participants will learn a variety of
skills helpful for those participating in telecomputing projects.

INTRODUCTION TO ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
http://www.wtvi.com/teks/ps/
Adobe Photoshop is the premier photo editing software tool available.
Whether you are working on a webpage, Powerpoint presentation, or a document
to be printed, Photoshop can be used to enhance your images. Participants
will learn about image file types, cropping images, compositing (putting
several images together), ghosting images (for use as webpage backgrounds),
using layers, creating masks, applying filters, and formatting text with
bevels and other effects.

All the curriculum for both these workshops is included on a single webpage,
for easy printing if you want your own handout copy. Several of my other
workshops (like Intermediate Internet and Multimedia Madness) are also setup
this way. Whether or not you have taken one of these workshops, you are
welcome to the techniques and ideas shared online!

I hope to see you in class this summer! :-)

------> 3- Adobe Activeshare: Free software for sharing photos online

http://www.adobe.com/products/activeshare/main.html

(Windows only at this point, no mention of a Mac version)

"ACTIVESHARE: The fun way to organize, enhance, and share your digital
photos Want a fast and easy way to get your digital photos onto your
computer and then share them with family and friends? Do it with Adobe
ActiveShare software. Import photos from digital cameras, scanners, or Kodak
Picture CD's and view them on your desktop. Enhance your photos with a few
simple clicks. Organize them into digital photo albums. Best of all, order
35mm quality prints online from Shutterfly, create personalized postcards
that are mailed for you from AmazingMail, or post your photos to a free,
private Web community all from the ActiveShare desktop software. All these
services and more are included with the FREE ActiveShare software.

Download your free copy today! It's fast, it's easy, and it's FREE!

And don't forget to visit Adobe's consumer digital imaging web site at

http://www.activeShare.com/

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Intel Pentium Processor (or 100% compatible processor)
Microsoft Windows 95 (OSR2), Windows 98, Windows 2000, or NT 4.0 (SP 3.0 or
higher)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
32 MB of RAM
40 MB of available hard disk space
Video card that supports 16-bit color at 800x600 monitor resolution

----> 4- Cool idea for Parent Teacher conferences

http://www.actden.com/pp/unit6/6_cfs.htm

"I just want to share my experience with other teachers who are getting
ready for parent-teacher meetings. Parents have been so impressed with this
little trick of mine. Ever since I first did it, I can barely find room for
all the apples that end up on my desk every day. If my writing this helps
just one person, then it's worth it!

Set up a PowerPoint presentation called "Teacher to Parent" - and dedicate
one page of the presentation to each student. Then do the following for each
student:

First, take a photo of the student with a digital camera, or use a regular,
old-fashioned camera and scan the print.

Second, make a sound recording of the student's voice. You can get them to
read poems or stories they've written, or ask them to explain what they
think about school or what they want to be when they grow up. Attach this
sound file to the image, and play it for the parents when they come in to
see you.

Parents will be impressed that you have given so much special individual
attention to their child. It will also teach them something new about their
kids - it may even encourage them to learn more about computers. This way,
you'll be helping parents to learn as well.

-Recording Roy"

----> 5- Program Catches Copycat Students

http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,43561,00.html

By Katie Dean

3:35 p.m. May 4, 2001 PDT
A professor at the University of Virginia has nabbed 122 students for
plagiarism using a computer program he wrote himself.

Louis Bloomfield, who teaches an introductory-level physics course called
"How Things Work," wrote the program after he "heard rumors that papers were
coming in more than once."

Those accused have been notified and referred to the university's
student-run Honor Committee who will investigate the charges.

"Technology can make it easy to cheat and now it can make it easy to catch,
and that's what I did," Bloomfield said.

The school has a single sanction policy, where if a student is caught lying,
cheating or stealing and found guilty by a jury of her peers, she will be
permanently expelled.

"Whether this is an intentional violation or there's some reasonable
explanation for why this happened is up to the committee to determine,"
Bloomfield said.

The number of students referred to the committee is "definitely higher than
a typical year," said university spokesperson Louise Dudley, who added that
the Honor Committee has been in place for at least 150 years.

Since 1999, Bloomfield's students -- up to 500 students take the class each
semester -- have submitted all of their work electronically, including final
term papers.

He wrote the program to scan the 1800 papers he has collected over the
course of five semesters.

"It compares every possible pair of papers and it looks for every possible
string of six words or more," he said.

Students who had copied 500 words or more within their paper were referred
to the Honor Committee.

"(It's) really offensive and it's such an affront to the other students
trying to make a go of it honestly in this community," Bloomfield said.

He estimated that half of those referred to the committee had their papers
show up twice in the database. The student may or may not know that their
paper was copied.

Some students told Bloomfield that they saved their work on a computer in
the school lab, which could have been discovered and plagiarized later.

Cheating continues to be a problem in colleges and universities, and
technology has made it easier to cheat, said Jeanne Wilson, the past
president of the Center for Academic Integrity and director of Student
Judicial Affairs at the University of California, Davis.

Wilson said that the speed and ease with which students use technology --
cutting and pasting, for example -- has made it easier to cheat.

"We've got a long way to go in terms of closing off the opportunities for
cheating presented by technology."

But she wondered if a single sanction policy was the best method of
punishing cheaters.

"When sanctions are that severe -- even for a first-time violation -- it's
hard for the student judicial panel to find a violation and remove a peer
from school," Wilson said.

"Periodically there are student referendums on (removing) the single
sanction (policy)," UVA's Dudley said. "It's always been voted down."

In the meantime, Bloomfield is busy talking with parents and students about
the situation.

"There are a lot of painful interactions ahead of me," he said. "It's hard
for me to justify expelling students," but a "UVA degree should (mean) that
(students) earned their degree honorably."

After spending the semester learning physics in the context of objects --
like how a microwave oven cooks, and how airplanes fly, the students write a
paper on an object that was not covered in class.

"When done right, they're great papers," Bloomfield said.

-----> 6- World's first genetically altered babies born

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/05/05/US.genes/index.html

May 5, 2001 Web posted at: 11:16 a.m. EDT (1516 GMT)
By staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON -- The world's first genetically modified humans have been born.

Scientists say that over recent years as many as 30 babies have been born,
15 of them after having revolutionary fertility treatment at a U.S. medical
institute.

But some scientists have criticized the treatment, labeling it unethical
because it uses the genes of a second mother.

The technique -- which is called ooplasmic transfer -- involves taking the
contents of a donor egg from a fertile female and injecting it into the
infertile woman's egg along with the fertilizing sperm from her mate.

New Jersey's Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St. Barnabas
has used the technique to produce the 15 babies. The oldest turns four years
old in a month, said scientific director, Dr. Jacques Cohen.

The institute was the first to use the technique but another 15 babies have
been born following the use of the technique at other facilities, he said.

The researchers believe the technique helps women conceive who have been
unable to do so because of defects in their eggs.

I don't think this is wrong at all," Cohen said.

"And I think we have to look at the positive part here. I think this did
work. These babies wouldn't have been born if we wouldn't have done this."

One child, two mothers

But scientists have slammed the process because the method can add genes --
mitochondrial DNA -- from the female donor's egg into the mix of genetic
material from the mother and father.

Tests have confirmed that two of the 15 babies produced by the technique at
the institute were carrying genes from the birth mother, the father and the
donor female.

Cohen wrote in the British journal Human Reproduction that this was the
"first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal
health children."

"Germline" refers to the genes a person will pass on to his or her children.

Altering inherited genes is especially troubling given so little is known
about its impact, scientists have said.

"This news should gladden all who welcome new children into the world. And
it should trouble those committed to transparent public conversation about
the prospect of using 'reprogenetic' technologies to shape future children,"
said Erik Parens from New York's The Hastings Center in Garrison, and Eric
Juengst from Cleveland's Center for Biomedical Ethics at Case Western
Reserve University in the journal Science.

But Cohen countered: "There are different levels of ethics. There are people
who are saying, 'Why would you do something like this without maybe hard
proof that it would work?' That's one level of ethics.

"The other one is, 'Well, you're tampering with nature,' which is the same
question you get when you deal with any form of assisted reproduction."

'The Little thing that we did'

Cohen has said the technique did not manipulate the genes, but just added
innocuous extra genetic material.

"We haven't changed any genes," he said. "That's a huge step compared to the
little thing that we did. But you could say there would have normally been
mitochondria from only one source (the mother).

"Now there's mitochondria from two sources, and therefore there's two
different types of mitochondria DNA there."

Mitochondria are minute structures that float inside the cell but away from
the cell's nucleus, which is home to most genes.

The institute has used the technique on 30 infertile women. Seventeen failed
to become pregnant and one become pregnant but suffered a miscarriage.

The remaining 12 women gave birth, with three of the women having twins.

Of the 15 babies produced by the technique used at the institute since 1997,
13 lived in the United States, one lived in Britain and another in France,
Cohen said.

"So far, from what we understand, they are doing OK," Cohen said of the
babies. "And those two that had the mixed mitochondria, they're doing OK,
too."

No government money was used in the research, Cohen added.

----> 7- Knowledge Knows No Boundaries

http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,42660,00.html

by Katie Dean
2:00 a.m. Apr. 19, 2001 PDT
Developing interesting math and science lessons for local school districts
can be a daunting and time-consuming task, but what about a curriculum for
three countries?

Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia are attempting to do just that in a new
transnational software program.

The International Virtual Education Network (IVEN) combines the brainpower
of educators in South America in the development of math and science
software over the Net.

"This is really a watershed," said Pedro Paulo Poppovic, the secretary of
distance education for Brazil. "As far as I know this has never been done
before."

Teams of educators will develop software that emphasizes learn-by-doing and
simulation that covers the entire math and science curriculum at the
secondary level, including math, biology,
chemistry and physics.

Because costs for implementing technology into Third World classrooms can be
prohibitively high, the partnership enables the three countries to reap
greater benefits at a lower price.

Each country will have teams made up of a master teacher, a graphic artist,
a content specialist, an instructional designer and a software developer. As
a team works on a particular curricular
unit, called a module, they post the design online for the other teams to
comment on and critique.

The lessons will be distributed on a browser-based network but they will not
be Internet-dependent. For those schools with no connection to the Net, a
version of a browser will be copied onto a
proxy server, and the lessons will be downloaded from CD-ROMs.

"Teachers in all three countries will be able to communicate and exchange
ideas," said Wadi Haddad, the president of Knowledge Enterprise, who is
chief coordinating advisor for IVEN in the
United States. "These pilot schools will be well supported technically and
educationally."

Teachers may, for example, use animations, simulations or video clips to
illustrate lessons in reflection, refraction or dispersion of light for an
optics unit.

"The whole idea of science is to learn about the world around us and to be
able to apply this knowledge in real-life situations," said Haddad, who
served as the secretary of education for
Lebanon and as a director at the World Bank. "For learning to be effective,
it has to be authentic and engaging."

"(Technology) is very useful as a motivational tool," wrote Cesar Nunes, a
Brazilian physics professor who is serving as a technical advisor for IVEN,
in an e-mail. "I believe this is a better way to
teach. Students really learn when they are motivated. They get involved."
Once the teams develop and test the multimedia materials, they will
distribute them in up to 50 pilot schools in each country. The final
software will be available in both Spanish and Portuguese.

Finding teachers who are committed to the project will be crucial, Brazil's
Poppovic said.

"We don't want to define schools from the top down. We want this project to
happen from the bottom up," he said. "That will make it much more democratic
and it will have a bigger chance of
success."

The pilot program -- still in its development stages -- will take three
years, during which time student progress will be monitored and evaluated.
Students will be evaluated with their usual
secondary school exams, in addition to IVEN project tests.

One U.S. educator said the program sounds like a great model, both for the
sharing of information and the integration of technology.

"There's a greater opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas because
you're really going beyond your own realm of experience," said Gil Valdez,
the deputy director of North Central Regional
Educational Laboratory and director of the organization's math and science
consortium. "It reminds me of some cross-state stuff we have done."

"Technology's greatest power is to make a real abstract subject more real
and more concrete," Valdez said. "Simulation is one of the best ways of
doing that. Students can see how mathematics
relates to everyday life."

Of course, the project is not without its challenges. Coordinating deadlines
and creating quality lessons between three countries will be tricky,
Brazil's Poppovic said.

Politics has also played a part in how fast the project is moving.

"Both in Colombia and Venezuela, there have been government changes and
personnel changes," he said. "We had to start over several times."

Haddad estimated that the pilot project will cost US$5 million, which will
be partially funded by loans from the Inter-American Development Bank. The
IADB was established in 1959 to facilitate
social and economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Argentina and Peru have both expressed interest in participating in the
project, Haddad said. The organization is also interested in developing a
similar project in Africa in the next few years.

----> 8- Lifetime e-mail comes with college diplomas

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/05/04/collegiate.e.mail.ap/index.html

May 4, 2001 Web posted at: 1:51 PM EDT (1751 GMT)

SWARTHMORE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Graduate from college these days and
chances are you'll get more than a diploma. Hundreds of schools now offer
lifetime e-mail addresses for alums.

Get an "alum.swarthmore.edu" address if you've graduated from Swarthmore
College. The University of Pennsylvania offers "alumni.upenn.edu," while
California's Harvey Mudd College gives out "alumni.hmc.edu" addresses to
graduates.

Schools will be stuffing campus mailboxes in the coming weeks informing
graduating seniors of this increasingly popular perk. The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology has a full-page ad in its "Technology Review"
magazine this month.

Michael Fordice, a biotech consultant who received his Ph.D. in chemistry
from MIT in 1966, considers his alumni address "a subtle resume."

"If you have an 'alum.mit.edu' address, people know right away you're an MIT
grad," said Maggy Bruzelius, the school's director of alumni network
services. "That should be a pretty powerful tool."

With a few exceptions, schools don't directly provide mail services. Alums
must get their mail accounts elsewhere. Messages sent to the alumni address
are simply forwarded.

Using such a service, no longer does someone changing jobs or switching
service providers have to try to contact everyone who might have their old
e-mail address -- inevitably missing a few. All they need do is visit a Web
site to have messages redirected to a new account.

"You can now print your e-mail address on a card," said Gary Toyn, associate
director of alumni relations at Weber State University in Utah.

Handy for students

It's useful these days, when people can lose their e-mail overnight if they
are laid off or their Internet provider goes out of business. It's also
handy for households that get high-speed service, dropping dial-up
providers.

Pamela Oberg, a 1993 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, changed
e-mail services four times but only had to inform classmates, friends and
family once.

Schools can also be sure they'll get the latest e-mail addresses of their
alums to send newsletters, invitations to events, perhaps even pitches for
financial gifts.

"Alums who stay connected and stay involved ultimately are inclined to
support Bucknell financially," said Kristin Woods, associate director of
Bucknell University's Office of Alumni, Parents and Volunteers.

Binghamton, Ohio State and Harvard are among other schools offering alumni
addresses ending in ".edu," the Internet suffix for educational
institutions. The UCLA Alumni Association gives out addresses with
"UCLAlumni.net," while Stanford University uses "stanfordalumni.org." In
Stanford's case, alums get full e-mail services, not just forwarding.

Unlike other promotional services, such as credit cards, schools get no
income from e-mail forwarding, which can cost thousands of dollars to run.
But linked with bulletin boards, job postings and other offerings, schools
consider e-mail services a good way to encourage alums to stay in touch --
and even volunteer to interview applicants or help seniors with career
counseling.

MIT forwarded more than 2 million messages in March. More than 35,000 out of
90,000 alums, or about 40 percent, have signed up since MIT began offering
the service in 1997.

Elsewhere, sign-up rates are usually much lower -- often less than 10
percent.

Few risks involved

Some schools do not offer e-mail forwarding to alums at all, finding they
would rather devote limited resources to current students and faculty. But
that attitude is changing, and many schools have added such services in the
past year or two, sometimes at the request of alums.

While some schools handle forwarding services through their own computers,
others contract them to companies like Harris Publishing Co., which has long
printed alumni directories for colleges and universities.

Similar forwarding services are available to the general public for free
from Bigfoot Communications or for a fee through Pobox.com. Some individuals
have also created domain names with their last names.

A permanent e-mail address does carry risks, however. The longer an account
is active, the greater the chance of receiving unsolicited junk e-mail.

Weber's Toyn limits his "alumni.weber.edu" address to friends and family.

"I give a dot-com address to everyone else," he said. "I can rely on the
fact that when I open it (the alumni account) up and have three or four
messages, they will be messages I want to read."

---> 9- Apple Retools iBook for School

http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,43466,00.html

By Farhad Manjoo
1:00 p.m. May. 1, 2001 PDT

CUPERTINO, California -- Apple on Tuesday announced a new version of the
iBook notebook computer, which the company said is smaller and lighter than
any other portable aimed at the consumer market.

"There's never been a consumer notebook under five pounds," Apple CEO Steve
Jobs said, describing the new machine, which weighs 4.9 pounds and is just
1.3 inches thick.

The notebook, which has a base price of $1299, features a 12-inch display,
which Jobs not surprisingly said offers a better viewing experience than
competing notebooks. The new iBooks will ship in mid-May.

Apple, (AAPL) as is its custom, emphasized design changes in its new
notebook. The company has abandoned the curved shape of the original iBook,
giving the new model the squared sides of its more powerful cousin, the G4
Titanium notebook.

Instead of titanium, the computer is made from high-impact plastic, which
Jobs claims makes it twice as durable as the old iBook. The portable
includes a G3 500-MHz processor, 5-hour battery life and built-in AirPort
wireless networking.

It is the wireless feature that makes this laptop stand out in its class,
Jobs said.

Jobs outlined a new vision for computing in schools that, coincidentally,
calls for expanded use of Apple products. He said a school that offers its
students iBooks to use at their desks instead of computers in a central
computer lab get more from the technology.

Jobs' theory was seconded by Mark Edwards, the superintendent of schools in
Henrico County Virginia, which just purchased 23,000 iBooks for its
students.

Jobs said the district order was the largest portable order in education
history, and he suggested that the iBook's attractiveness would prompt more
schools to follow suit.

"This is going to change technology and learning as we know it," Edwards
said. He added that the iBooks would help bridge the digital divide in his
diverse community.

But Edwards said the best comment on the iBook came from his daughter, who
is in the 9th grade. "She said she's totally pumped about (it)."

-----> 10- FilterGate, or Knowing What We're Walling In or Walling Out

http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/may01/wolinsky.htm

by Art Wolinsky, Southern Regional High School
Manahawkin, New Jersey
MultiMedia Schools
May/June 2001 

Recently, I decided to take a closer look at the technologies and the
blocking strategies used by filtering companies, a task I warmed to for
reasons you'll see very soon below. As I did so, it appeared to me that the
public has a picture of filtering that is much like the picture of the
elephant in the parable of the Elephant and the Blind Men, in which six
blind men were asked to describe an elephant. The first one felt its side
and said an elephant was like a wall. One felt the leg and said it was like
a tree. Another touched the tusk and said it was like a spear, and so on.
They were all partly right, but no one had the full picture.
 
Elephants, Blind Men, and Internet Filtering
Our view of filtering is much like the blind men's view of the elephant.
This is, of course, not because we are blind. (We can sometimes seem to be a
bit myopic on this issue, however. See "Putting Things in Perspective:
Taking a Trip to the Zoo" on page 24.) Rather, it's because parts of the
issue are being hidden from us. We each have a personal view of filtering
that is incomplete. It's is partly right and partly wrong. The problem with
filtering is that it's what we don't know that can hurt us.

The ACLU and the ALA are challenging the Children's Online Protection Act
(CIPA) and its filtering mandate (see "The Children's Online Protection Act,
Filtering, and Legal Challenges" on page 26), but from what I've learned in
my look at filtering technologies, it's clear to me that even if the ACLU
and the ALA suits succeed, these groups will have only treated the symptom
rather than the cause of the problem. The way filters function results in
erroneously blocked sites. Defeating the law on constitutional grounds would
not change filtering practices. Filtering companies might not get the
windfall created by CIPA, but neither would the companies be required to
change their technologies, and it would be business as usual.

However, a possible private sector class-action lawsuit being considered
against one or more filtering companies is not aimed at the legislation. If
implemented, it would send ripples throughout the filtering industry and
have significant impact on filtering decisions already made or yet to be
made. I have been conducting investigations relating to this issue and
lawsuit, so let me tell you a little more about it.
 
I Thought It Would Be Easy
In early November last year, the day after I agreed to write an article on
filtering for MultiMedia Schools, I received an e-mail that asked me what
OII, the non-profit Web site I am involved in, was doing
toget itself blocked by a certain filtering company. I didn't have the
slightest idea why we would be blocked. I created the Web site and knew all
of the content. There was nothing objectionable. This was obviously fodder
for my article ... and incentive for my investigations.

Now I'm no novice when it comes to filtering. I've been working with
national and international organizations on online safety and privacy issues
for 2 years and thought I knew all the arguments about filtering. I thought
it would be simple to resolve. All I would have to do is call the company in
question, let them know we were being blocked in error, and that would
remedy the situation. I was wrong.

I was told they would look into it and get back to me about the situation.
To my amazement, I was told that there was no way of getting our site
unblocked.
 
FilterGate: Donning the Trench Coat
I put on my Columbo trench coat, checked my Woodward and Bernstein decoder
ring, and got down to work. I had agreed to write the article on filtering
and I was involved in the filtering debate at the national level. I
participated in discussions that would be reported back to Congress. This
gave me a little more leverage when I began calling people about my
organization's situation.

After numerous phone calls to the company and some muscle flexing to get
through the multiple layers of customer assistance, I was able to get a more
detailed explanation. I was told that our Web site was hosted on a computer
that housed a significant number of adult sites, and that the ISP used
technology called Round Robin DNS that made it impossible for the filtering
company to block individual sites on the computer. As a result, the company
had to make a decision either not to block the adult sites or to block all
the sites hosted on this ISP's server. That made a sense in an Orwellian
way, but if I punished an entire school because of a few misbehaving
students I would probably be out of a job.

After talking with system engineers and other experts, I found out that
Round Robin DNS has been around since before the Internet was popular. They
told me that this technology shouldn't pose a major problem to filtering
companies. It appeared that the representatives of the company that was
blocking the OII site werenot up on their technology, or that they were
still trying to treat me like a mushroom by keeping me in the dark and
covering me with fertilizer.

If the technology wasn't new and the filter shouldn't have a problem with
it, what was the real problem? More digging revealed that it stems from
something called IP-Independent Virtual Hosting.
 
How Filtering Technology Works or Doesn't Work
Most filters can be configured to block all kinds of things like e-mail,
chats, newsgroups, IRC, and more. However, I will focus on Web filtering,
because it is the primary and most problematic consideration for schools and
libraries in regard to CIPA.

When it comes to blocking Web sites, everyone wants to know what sites are
on a company's blocked list. Since almost all lists are encrypted, this can
be difficult to determine. However, with access to firewall logs, some
technical background, an understanding of ISP technologies, and a little
creative thinking, it isn't difficult to get a clearer picture of what is
happening.

We know every filter misses adult sites simply because of the sheer volume
of existing sites and the number of new sites popping up daily. Filtering
critics point this out, and filtering companies readily admit this.

We are also familiar with the argument that some companies have blocked
sites inappropriately based on political or religious agendas.
Unfortunately, there are very few companies that will confirm this kind of
information, and, as mentioned, encrypted lists make it difficult to see how
pervasive the practice is.

So What's the New News?
But as it turns out, the number of such blockages is insignificant, when
compared to the number of other sites that are blocked by a lesser-known
practice.

I suspect that many filtering companies want to keep your eyes on the sites
blocked for political or religious reasons. This is because the filtering
technology of some companies has not kept pace with the evolution of
Internet technologies, and so the number of sites being inappropriately
blocked has increased tremendously in the past 2 to 3 years. It is difficult
to determine how dramatic this increase is, but I wouldn't be surprised to
see a nearly exponential growth curve.

If we take a step back from this filtering elephant and focus on how a
blocked-sites list is compiled rather than what is on the list, we get a
much different picture.

A Web site can be blocked by URL, by IP number, or different combinations of
the two methods. The URL is the name you type into a browser. The IP number
is the numerical representation of what you typed. People type URLs that are
translated into IP numbers that computers use. The method chosen by a
filtering company makes a big difference.
 
URL and IP Blocking
Blocking by Web site URL might seem the most effective technique if done
properly. For example, a filter might block http://www.adultsite.com or
http://www.computername.com/ sexsite. However, it is time consuming and
expensive for a company to maintain such a list. It also creates a huge list
that can be a problem to update.

To avoid huge lists, a single IP number can be used to block hundreds of
sites. For example, a server that houses hundreds of adult sites can be
blocked by a single IP number (or four, if Round Robin DNS is used).

This is fine if only adult sites are on the server. However, if other
legitimate sites are on the server, these are also blocked. This is one of
the major reasons sites have been blocked erroneously and is one of the
major criticisms of filters. The practice is not new or unknown. What is new
and mostly unknown to the lay public is that with the rise in popularity of
IP-Independent Virtual Hosting a technology that enables ISPs to have
hundreds or thousands of Web sites represented to the outside world through
a single IP number the problem of inappropriately blocked sites has been
growing like a cancer, and the magnitude of the problem has apparently been
undetected by watch dog groups.

Neither Method Works Alone
Blocking by URL alone doesn't work, nor does blocking by IP alone. URL-only
blocking results in huge lists that could be made shorter by using IP
numbers of adult servers. Also, anyone with a little knowledge can get
around IP blocking instantly. IP-only blocking often blocks sites in error.

I don't know that any filtering company uses one method to the exclusion of
the other, but the extent to which companies rely on one over the other and
whether or not the companies take virtual hosting into
consideration strongly influences the number of sites blocked in error.

I have examined firewall logs that record blocked sites, and I have used
other creative techniques to peek at what is happening inside the filter
that is blocking the OII site. I presented my thoughts to a representative
of the filtering company in question, and to my surprise the reply I got
was, "I can't find anything wrong with your logic."

I estimate that on our ISP's server there are at least 10 sites blocked
inappropriately for every site blocked appropriately. I wouldn't be the
least bit surprised to find that the ratio was actually much higher.

I believe all filtering companies use IP blocking of some type. But if
IP-Independent Virtual Hosting is taken into account, the number of sites
blocked in error is significantly lower than for companies that don't take
it into account or make a serious attempt to avoid blocking innocent
companies.
 

Why Haven't We Seen the Whole Elephant?
This question has been bothering me for 3 months, but I realized that our
focus on the law and the perpetuation of myths has taken our attention off
the new technologies that were compounding the problem. Companies that
weren't taking virtual hosting into consideration would certainly be content
to have people think sites were being blocked because of a stray word or a
political agenda. These were old arguments that diverted attention from the
real reason sites are being blocked in error.

To make matters worse, some filtering companies confounded things very
nicely by providing misleading information on their Web sites. A statement
like "Professional researchers compile these lists and organize the sites
into categories" may ease the mind of Web site visitors, but this one
presented a little problem when I asked which one of the company's
professional researchers determined there were sex acts and nudity at the
OII site.

Checking via the Web with a filtering company to see whether a site is
blocked can also confound the issue. In our case, if you type in
http://oii.org or the URL of any of thousands of other sites on the cluster
of servers accessed through the four IP numbers of our ISP, the company's
search tool will tell you that they are not on the blocked list. Though
technically correct, this is deceptive, because if you type in any of the
four IP numbers, it will tell you that those IP numbers are on the list.
People don't use IP numbers, computer do. When was the last time you typed
http://207.25.71.25/ to visit CNN?

Will Things Change?
CIPA increased public awareness and should have some impact. The challenges
to the legislation will make it clear that filters have to do a better job.
There are also newer technologies and startup companies that hold promise
for more effective solutions, including ones that put the filter override
into the hands of students. The Internet Content Rating Association
hopes to provide an alternative to filtering. However,
it is too early for any of these technologies to make a difference today.

Many filtering companies have been around for a long time, and some of their
methods have not evolved with the Internet. I pointed this out to a top
executive in the company blocking OII. I also pointed out that I was talking
to a high-tech law firm about possible legal action.

Legal challenges to filtering issues are not unusual, but during the course
of one of my conversations with the law firm, there was a plot twist that
rivaled anything that Hollywood could concoct. The attorneys asked me to
take a look at their newly designed Web site and critique it. After I hung
up, I tried to visit the site ... and called them back to explain that I
couldn't critique the site because it was being blocked. That comment got
the rapt attention of the law firm and the filtering company.

Some time later, I received a message from the filtering company indicating
that they recognize that they must change some of the things they were doing
to keep pace with the industry. Their product support division was working
on a solution they hoped to report to me before this article was submitted.

On the day before deadline, I received a call from the vice president of the
company. She acknowledged that there was a problem with the 4.0 client
version of the software and some versions of firewall software (OEM
versions) that companies licensed from them. She stressed that other
solutions sold under their name do not have this problem. To address the
problem the company is issuing 5.0 software that takes IP-independent
hosting into account and contacting its OEM licensees concerning the issue.
It will be up to each licensee to determine whether or not to switch
technologies.

If nothing else, this reaffirmed my long-standing opinion that the Internet
is a powerful tool for social, political, and economic change. One person
can make a difference, not by acting in a solitary manner, but by using the
power of the network to gather resources, raise awareness, and tap into the
vast amount of talent and support available for important issues.

More Questions Than Answers
So, having read this story, now you ask me which filter you should select?
The answer to that question would take another whole issue of MMS. Do you
filter at the machine level? Do you place the filter on a server at the
school? Do you filter through your ISP or at the district level? If you must
filter, can you configure the filter to block only what is required by law?
What about being able to filter differently for different groups of
students? The answers depend on you, your hardware, your philosophy, and all
of the other factors that make your district or school unique. What is clear
is that there will be significant changes in the filtering industry in the
not-too-distant future. Rushing to filter is not the solution to anything.

There are two key points you should address regardless of your situation.
Before you make a filtering decision, or even if you have a filter in place,
ask the filtering company how it handles IP-Independent Virtual Hosting and
how it deals with Round Robin DNS. Understanding that a single IP can
represent thousands of sites should make it relatively easy to determine
whether you are getting a straight answer or the mushroom treatment.

But perhaps the first and most important question we have to ask is why must
we filter? The ones making the decision must understand the problem and the
solution. Instead of looking at the problem through the eyes of alarmists or
those who stand to profit from filtering legislation, decision-makers need
to open their eyes. They need to step back from the elephant and look at the
problem and the solution in terms of those who are faced with it and have to
deal with it on a day-to-day basis. Media specialists, students, and
teachers are the ones who face the problem and are the ones who hold the
solution.
 
Putting Things in Perspective: 
Taking a Trip to the Zoo
The situation of bringing your students online is not unlike that of a
teacher who brings children on a field trip to the zoo. Consider this: When
you choose to take small children to the zoo, you first make sure that it is
an appropriate place for them. You have probably been there or know people
who have been there. While you are there, you keep close watch on them and
make sure they don't wander off. You have given them lessons about talking
to strangers, and you have taught them what to do if one approaches them.

Yes, it is possible for them to see animals engaged in sex acts. Is there
any strategy that will prevent that scene from unfolding in front of their
eyes? Should we blindfold them and allow them to look only when the teacher
says it's OK? I don't think so, but there certainly is a strategy for
dealing with the situation. It is called education!

Using the Internet with small children is no different. You plan their
travels. You don't let them wander off aimlessly, and you educate them to
the fact that there are things they should be careful about.

The fear that children will accidentally access pornography is something
that has been perpetuated by the media and exploited by those who stand to
profit from that paranoia. It can happen. But that possibility must be put
in proper perspective in order to make intelligent decisions.

Start with the assumption that you should never allow small children to use
search engines unless you are teaching them search skills. In that case you
should be using child-friendly search engines. You should be choosing the
Web sites your students are going to visit, and you should provide them with
the links. Given this sort of direction, what do you think the chances are
that they will end up at an inappropriate site? Think of your own experience
on the Internet. When you were researching school-related topics, how many
inappropriate Web sites did you accidentally stumble upon as you were
exploring a quality Web site? Not many, if my own considerable experience is
any guide. And you are probably spending much more time online than your
students will while with you.

Take them to safe places, give them engaging activities while there, teach
them what to do if they get lost, and watch them to try to keep them from
getting lost. Cyberspace should not be any more scary than a trip to the
zoo, and filtering should be no more necessary than requiring children to
wear blindfolds when visiting the zoo and looking only when they are told to
do so.
AW

The Children's Internet Protection Act, Filtering, and Legal Challenges
In order for schools and libraries to receive E-Rate funding, the Children's
Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires them to establish Internet safety
policies and to provide filtering to prevent children from accessing
pornography. But don't go out and spend good money on filters just yet.

As of this writing, the FCC was still seeking comment about how to implement
rules. Right now, any school seeking E-Rate funding for 2001-2002 would have
to certify, when filing a Form 486, that it is in compliance with CIPA.
Under the law, schools can get a waiver the first funding year of the new
requirement if they are in the process of fulfilling the requirements. Under
the law, the FCC is supposed to have issued its final regulations by April
20, when the law is to go into effect. After you read this article, get
online for the latest updates. For more details on the CIPA and what you
should be doing (or not doing), check the ALA CIPA Web site
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/05/04/britney.reut/index.html

May 4, 2001 Web posted at: 3:52 PM EDT (1952 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Pop star Britney Spears' official Web site has been
modified to comply with a federal law protecting children's online privacy,
an advertising watchdog group said Friday.

Children under 13 who visit http://britneyspears.com will need parental
permission before divulging personal information or using interactive
features like the message boards, said Elizabeth Lascoutx, director of the
Better Business Bureau's children's advertising review unit.

Signatures Network Inc., which maintains the site, also agreed to install a
tracking device on the site to prevent visitors from changing their ages to
bypass the screening mechanism.

The BBB's advertising unit found in February that the site did not restrict
access or ask for parental permission for visitors under 13. It contacted
Signatures Network on its own and the federal government was not involved,
Lascoutx said.

"This is our voluntary system," Lascoutx said. Approximately 96 percent of
all businesses comply with the unit's suggestions when contacted, she said.

As of Friday afternoon, the message boards and e-mail service were marked
"temporarily closed for maintenance." A feature allowing fans to post
concert reviews collected names and e-mail addresses and did not screen for
age, a practice that does not violate the privacy provisions because the
information is not retained permanently by the site, Lascoutx said.

Officials at Signatures Network did not immediately return a reporter's
calls.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which went into effect in
April 2000, requires Web sites that cater to children under 13 to obtain
parental consent before collecting personal information or allowing it to be
posted on the site.

----> 12- Get Ready for Your Nano Future

http://www.techreview.com/web/leo/leo050401.asp

By Alan Leo May 4, 2001

We know that nanotech will change the world. it's time to think about how.

Ever since Athena, goddess of industry and the arts, sprang full-grown from
Zeus's skull, technology has often taken its creators by surprise. The
internal combustion engine gave us new freedom and increased global warming.
The mechanical cotton picker spurred a migration to northern cities and the
civil rights movement. Nuclear power produced cheap electricity and a
nightmare called Chernobyl.

As scientists learn to tinker with matter at the atomic scale, they are
realizing that the social implications of nanotechnology will prove just as
dramatic and at least as surprising.

"In ten to fifteen years, nanotechnology will enter our lives in a big way,"
declares Mihail Roco, the National Science Foundation's senior advisor for
nanotechnology. Early payoffs, he predicts, will come in computing and
pharmaceuticals, where powerful new tools and methods will benefit
industries that already work at, or near, the molecular level.

Eventually, researchers foresee benefits across a wide range of industries,
from manufacturing and agriculture to transportation and space exploration.
Desalinization plants may one day use nanotech to provide fresh water to Los
Angeles and Tel Aviv. Nano-engineered green technologies could soon reduce
toxic emissions and someday help clean up Superfund sites.

And so-called "direct assembly" the mechanical rearrangement of atoms to
form anything from beef to buildings may one day surround us with unlimited
abundance. Hands-on manipulation of our genes could cure disease and perhaps
even aging.

The federal government is throwing serious money toward making these
promises come true. Last year, President Clinton announced the National
Nanotechnology Initiative, a $500 million, inter-agency effort to fund basic
research and education in nanotech. Since then, more than thirty
universities have announced plans for nanotech research centers. The most
ambitious a joint effort of the University of California and industry plans
to spend no less than $150 million on labs at UC Los Angeles and UC Santa
Barbara.

Along with basic research and education, the federal initiative aims to
foster "focused research on social, economic, ethical, legal and workforce
implications of nanotechnology."

Into the Unknown

The first word to come out of this research? The most significant
implications may be unforeseen, and unforeseeable.

That's the recently published conclusion of a group of nanotech researchers
and social scientists who met last fall to discuss the social implications
of nanotech. The report, edited by Roco and NSF science advisor William
Bainbridge, summarizes presentations given last September at a National
Science and Technology Council workshop. (An Adobe Acrobat version of the
280-page report is available online.)

No doomsayer, Roco is certain that nano research will yield huge benefits.
"But," he warns, "there are also second-order consequences that could be
negative." For example, he says, scientists could nano engineer more deadly
biological weapons. Less directly, a nano elite could command unlimited
wealth and power.

"When you introduce a new technology, it's almost impossible to foresee what
the consequences will be," says Lester Lave, a professor of engineering at
Carnegie Mellon and director of the school's Green Design initiative who
spoke at the conference.

One everyday example of unintended consequences, Lave says, may be sitting
in your driveway. "The notion of driving vehicles designed to be
off-terrain, and having 90 percent of those vehicles never leave the road,
shows us people are using these things for a purpose they were never
engineered for. That leads to the question: how are people going to use
nanotechnologies?"

Lessons Learned (or Not)

"There are some disturbing similarities between biotechnology and
nanotechnology," says Paul Thompson, a professor of ethics at Purdue
University and another speaker at the conference. Most disturbing, he says,
is the possibility that scientists will let a genie out of its bottle. "This
is a technology that, once it's out there, can't be called back."

Thompson gives the biotechnology industry a "C+" for its efforts to
anticipate social and environmental implications. One success, he says, was
the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) project, an
interdisciplinary effort within the Human Genome Project to understand the
social impact of genetic research. On the other hand, he says, the biotech
industry failed to involve the public in the development of genetically
modified food and was blindsided by the negative response.

Nanotech researchers should build on the example of the ELSI project,
Thompson suggests: "Take a hard look at potential ethical and cultural
issues, but follow through much more carefully and get out ahead of the
public."

Such self-examination can pay off big, Thompson says, pointing to the
information technology industry. Early on, gadflies and other concerned
industry professionals spurred internal debates on societal implications for
example, the loss of privacy. Partly as a result, personal computers and the
Internet enjoy widespread public acceptance and adoption. By contrast, he
says, the nuclear industry devoted little discussion to societal questions
and has paid a steep price in public acceptance.

Planning Beats Hindsight

The key lesson, Roco says, is to involve the public early in the
process& before nanotech's effects are felt.

"We look to the people who are raising [concerns] to address the issues
sooner," Roco says. "History shows that all breakthroughs in science and
technology have brought societal changes and, sometimes, societal fears. But
nobody should think about stopping research and development in this field
[just] because there could be some risks."

Some have suggested just that. Bill Joy, chief scientist at Sun
Microsystems, stirred up controversy last year with a Wired magazine essay
in which he condemned self-replicating nanobots as more dangerous than
nuclear weapons and urged scientists to abandon nanotech for the good of
mankind.

Halting research carries its own risks, Roco says, giving the example of
diseases that are beginning to resist conventional antibiotics. "We don't
want to find after twenty years that our drugs don't work and we don't know
what to do."

And, he adds, just because the U.S. stops nanotech research does not mean
our competitors and enemies will follow suit. "There is a risk," he says,
"that someone else will develop these technologies and we won't know how to
counter them."

Rumors of Nano

Nanotech already enjoys plenty of public discussion, informed or otherwise.
For a rich sample, check out the alt.nanotech newsgroup, a bottomless well
of blue-sky applications. Posters discuss implications from designer bodies
(want to look like Cary Grant or Winnie the Poo?), to nano wars, to utopian
anarchy, to human extinction.

When one writer suggests that nanotech-based birth control would launch a
second sexual revolution, someone responds that concerned parents could use
nanotech to delay the onset of puberty in their children. "So," writes a
third, "expect a black market in medical nano devices to reverse the effect
of the suppressants."

Sometimes speculation itself can be the problem, Bainbridge says. "Some
people, enthusiasts or visionaries, have been giving the press and public a
facile image of what's going to be coming in the near future" an image, he
says, that inflates both hopes and anxieties out of proportion.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=->
Wesley A. Fryer email: [email][email protected]
"Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the
Classroom" (A TechEdge column)

Column website: http://www.wtvi.com/teks

³It¹s philosophy, not technology, that is going to make a difference in your
classroom.²
Dr Allen Glenn, Dean of COE, Univ of Washington