Jon Lowder tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-83872 2008-08-20T14:49:02-04:00 My personal journal, pics and other stuff TypePad This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use. Reading, Writing, Rithmetic Without Books? tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54471330 2008-08-20T14:49:02-04:00 2008-08-20T14:49:12-04:00 Celeste went to our youngest son's open house yesterday at Meadowlark Middle School. She said that in at least two of his classes the students will not be receiving textbooks. Rather there is a classroom set that will be shared... Jon Lowder <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Celeste went to our youngest son's open house yesterday at <a href="http://winstonsalem.nc.schoolwebpages.com/education/school/school.php?sectionid=150&amp;sc_id=1180106164">Meadowlark Middle School</a>.&nbsp; She said that in at least two of his classes the students will not be receiving textbooks.&nbsp; Rather there is a classroom set that will be shared by all of each teachers' classes and they are looking into making the materials from the textbooks accessible online.&nbsp; Celeste's question to me: &quot;So where do all our tax dollars for education go?&quot;</p> <p>This question seems particularly relevant in the wake of <a href="http://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/worse-than-not.html">my post yesterday</a> and<a href="http://lifeinforsyth.blogspot.com/2008/08/and-were-done.html"> Esbee's post</a> about school supplies and the <a href="http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/aug/19/182130/new-year/opinion-letters/">&quot;Letter to the Editor&quot; in the Winston-Salem Journal</a> re. why our kids' supposedly free education still requires parents to come up with money for school supplies.&nbsp; When the school doesn't supply textbooks for students then we're talking about failing at the most fundamental level, not on the level of &quot;nice to have&quot; extras.</p> <p>You could argue that this is simply our schools moving into the 21st century, BUT if you're going to make that move then you darn well better make sure that everyone is able to move with you.&nbsp; Some questions that immediately pop to mind:</p> <ul><li>What about the kids who don't have internet access at home?&nbsp; If the answer is &quot;They can go to the library&quot; then I have to ask, &quot;What if the library is closed at 6?&quot; or &quot;How do they print off any materials they might need?&quot;, or &quot;How do they get to the library if their parents are working&quot; or &quot;What if the library is open but all the computers are occupied?&quot;</li> <li>What if your access goes down for the evening?&nbsp; Will you be given extra time to turn in your work?</li> <li>Finally, from the way the teachers were talking about it Celeste wasn't sure that the book materials would definitely be available online?&nbsp; If they're not how are we as parents, some of whom haven't looked at this subject matter in over 25 years, supposed to help our kids with their homework?</li></ul> <p>Like I said this might work if the school system had provided every student with a laptop and if <a href="http://www.winstonnet.org/">WinstonNet</a> had gotten their free wireless network up and running so that everyone had free internet access.&nbsp; But neither of those things happened and they probably won't happen anytime in the near future, so the &quot;digital divide&quot; still exists and if the schools are putting reference materials online then they are putting those kids on the wrong side of the divide at a further disadvantage.</p> <p>Anyone who knows me knows that I'm no <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite">Luddite</a>, and I wish the teachers at our kids schools would use the online tools available to them even more than they do, but I also would expect that if they want to communicate with parents then they wouldn't just post it on the website but also send a note home.&nbsp; Believe me, there are plenty of people still out there who don't check the website or don't check their email everyday.&nbsp; Shocking as it is to someone like me it's a reality.&nbsp; So until they can be absolutely sure that every child and their family has access to the online tools the school system's administrators need to stick to their knitting and provide the students with the basics they need to do their learning.</p> <p>I'm going to try and find out if this &quot;classroom set&quot; of textbooks is a system-wide policy with the <a href="http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/education/district/district.php?sectionid=1">Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools</a>.&nbsp; I'm going to contact the school district and see if someone will talk to me, so stay tuned.&nbsp; Maybe we're misunderstanding what the teachers said, but my gut tells me this is a cost saving measure with the schools, and if that's the case then they can consider me the leader of the pack in fighting against any future bond initiative until they get this mess fixed.&nbsp; Before they lay another brick I want to see textbooks in every student's hands.</p></div> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JonLowder/~4/370210721" height="1" width="1"/> http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Freading-writing.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/reading-writing.html links for 2008-08-20 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54470554 2008-08-20T14:30:51-04:00 2008-08-20T14:30:54-04:00 Dana Blankenhorn: Google Steps Wisely in The War Against Oil Interesting: Google is investing dollars in geothermal research. (tags: research science energy) BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » How to build a network Jeff Jarvis talks about how to build an... Jon Lowder
http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Flinks-for-200-9.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/links-for-200-9.html Worse Than Not Getting Your School Supply List In Time is... tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54417404 2008-08-19T16:25:04-04:00 2008-08-19T16:25:18-04:00 A little while back I wrote what seems to be becoming an annual feature: the "We didn't get our school supply list in time for the tax-free weekend" post. Well, I think I discovered something even worse than not getting... Jon Lowder <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>A little while back I wrote what seems to be becoming an annual feature: the <a href="http://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/tax-free-frustr.html">&quot;We didn't get our school supply list in time for the tax-free weekend&quot; post</a>.&nbsp; Well, I think I discovered something even worse than not getting the list: a store that pretends to have your school's list and uses it to shill stuff that might even be on the school's banned list.</p> <p><a href="http://kelbycarr.com/truth-about-wal-mart-back-to-school-lists/">According to blogger Kelby Carr</a> her local Wal-Mart provides shoppers with school supply lists that purport to be from the schools and/or teachers themselves.&nbsp; And in the comments to her post you'll find just a few people with their own, similar stories.</p> <p>As Kelby points out it's one thing to provide a &quot;suggested list&quot; and quite another to position your school supply list as being &quot;official&quot; when in fact it's not.&nbsp; She also makes a great point that many families that shop at Wal-Mart may not have a lot of disposable income, so if they end up buying some unnecessary items it could really hurt them.</p> <p><a href="http://lifeinforsyth.blogspot.com/2008/08/and-were-done.html">Esbee wrote today</a> that she finished up her school supply shopping with relatively little damage to her pocketbook, and she also points to a <a href="http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/aug/19/182130/new-year/opinion-letters/">Letter to the Editor in the Winston-Salem Journal</a> that asks why our public education system isn't able to provide supplies for children despite all the money we spend on it.&nbsp; &nbsp;Although I think the letter writer was a little too snarky and the letter was written in such a way that he sounds like he's blaming the poor for their problems (he wrote &quot;needy&quot; children), he has a valid point when he asks why we can spend so much money on education yet not find a way to make sure kids have paper, pencils, protractors, compasses, etc. </p> <p>I can still remember the kids who showed up on the first day in clothes they were embarrassed to wear because they were old, out of style, torn up, etc.&nbsp; The kids' families literally didn't have the money for new jeans so they wore their older brothers'.&nbsp; Those same kids were on assisted lunches and tried to hide the fact.&nbsp; So you can imagine the stress their parents were under when it came time to buy supplies, and I'm sure it made this time of year that much harder on them. I'm also sure that today there are many families feeling that same kind of stress.</p> <p>So let's ask our leaders why things are the way they are, but let's also make sure that our community's children get what they need for school.&nbsp; It's only right.&nbsp; <a href="http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/aug/17/wish-list-program-buys-kids-school-supplies/">Esbee also points to an article</a> about organizations and individuals who are helping kids get what they need.&nbsp; Let's all do what we can to help.</p> </div> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JonLowder/~4/369333258" height="1" width="1"/> http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fworse-than-not.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/worse-than-not.html The Glamor of Coaching tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54412708 2008-08-19T14:49:01-04:00 2008-08-19T14:51:42-04:00 That picture to the left is me trudging out to my daughter's team's second game last Saturday. I can't complain too much since my buddy Mac, the head coach, usually ends up doing the lugging since most of it comes... Jon Lowder <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><a href="http://practicalinc.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/19/coachjondragginggearb4game2.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=800,height=535,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img width="100" height="66" border="0" alt="Coachjondragginggearb4game2" title="Coachjondragginggearb4game2" src="http://www.jonlowder.com/images/2008/08/19/coachjondragginggearb4game2.jpg" style="margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; float: left;" /></a> That picture to the left is me trudging out to my daughter's team's second game last Saturday.&nbsp; I can't complain too much since my buddy Mac, the head coach, usually ends up doing the lugging since most of it comes from his car.&nbsp; Still, can you believe we pay for this pleasure?</p> <p>BTW, our girls went 1-2 in the <a href="http://www.twincityclassic.com/">Twin City Classic</a> tournament.&nbsp; About half of our team is new and we only had four official practices before the tournament so we have a lot of learning to do.&nbsp; Next chance will be this coming weekend in the <a href="http://soccer.scoreomatic.com/v4/view/tournament.aspx?tournId=11526">Furniture City Classic</a> in High Point.</p></div> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JonLowder/~4/369266629" height="1" width="1"/> http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fthe-glamor-of-c.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/the-glamor-of-c.html The End of Summer, If I Make It tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54411488 2008-08-19T14:35:54-04:00 2008-08-19T14:36:18-04:00 Now that we're at the end of summer with only three working days until it comes to a crashing end, I can tell you one thing we as a family won't be doing: we won't be going on a last... Jon Lowder <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Now that we're at the end of summer with only three working days until it comes to a crashing end, I can tell you one thing we as a family won't be doing: we won't be going on a last hurrah bike ride in Virginia.&nbsp; Why not?&nbsp; Well, <a href="http://www.jonlowder.com/2007/08/bikes-bigots-an.html">we tried it last year</a> and although it was memorable I can't say I'd be able to get the family to do it again.</p> <p>Another reason is that this summer kinda-sorta ended last week.&nbsp; Our oldest is playing football at West Forsyth this year and practice started with a bang in early August, so he's out of any kind of grand, end of year excursion.&nbsp; Also, our daughter's soccer team, for which I'm an assistant coach, started official practices last week and we just had our first tournament this past weekend and will be playing in another this coming weekend.&nbsp; So this year we'll just be trying to survive this schedule for our last week of summer:</p> <ul><li>Tuesday<ul><li>Back to school shopping</li> <li>Doctor's appointment at noon</li> <li>Football practice 4-6:30</li> <li>Middle school open house: 6:00-8:00</li> <li>Soccer game at WFU</li></ul></li> <li>Wednesday<ul><li>Football Practice 8-10:30</li> <li>Soccer practice (goalies) 6:15-7:15</li> <li>Open house for West Forsyth 6:30-8:30</li> <li>Soccer practice for entire team 7:00-8:15</li></ul></li> <li>Thursday<ul><li>Soccer practice 7:00-8:45</li> <li>No football practice in prep for season opener on Friday</li></ul></li> <li>Friday<ul><li>West Forsyth football season opener 7:30-whenever</li></ul></li> <li>Saturday<ul><li>Soccer tournament in High Point, Game 1 - 11:20-1:20</li> <li>Soccer tournament in High Point, Game 2 - 6:00 - 8:00</li></ul></li> <li>Sunday<ul><li>Soccer tournament in High Point, Game 3 - 9:40-11:40</li> <li>Church confirmation class 12:00</li></ul></li> <li>Monday<ul><li>School starts.&nbsp; 6:00 am wake up to get ready for middle school bus.</li></ul></li></ul> <p>Yes, I realize that much of this is self inflicted.&nbsp; No one says our kids have to play sports or that I have to coach, but since this wild ride we call life only goes around once (unless you're <a href="http://www.shirleymaclaine.com/">Shirley Maclaine</a>) then I figure we might as well do it right.</p> <p>I've been told that the high school years will flash by and the next thing I'll know I'll be eating pureed food through a straw remembering those fine times when I had teeth and my kids actually needed me for something.&nbsp; Well, with weeks like this one the pureed food may come sooner than anyone expects seeing as my eyes have grown bags large enough to pack for a two week European trip and I can't seem to stop drooling.</p> <p>Ah well.</p> </div> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JonLowder/~4/369256861" height="1" width="1"/> http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fthe-end-of-summ.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/the-end-of-summ.html links for 2008-08-19 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54411860 2008-08-19T14:30:46-04:00 2008-08-19T14:30:49-04:00 The battle for local: The players - Lost Remote TV Blog A nice breakdown of who the players are in the battle for online advertising. (tags: advertising localnews media newspapers local) Online news use continues to grow - Lost Remote... Jon Lowder <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><ul class="delicious"><li> <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.lostremote.com/2008/08/17/the-battle-for-local-the-players/">The battle for local: The players - Lost Remote TV Blog</a></div> <div class="delicious-extended">A nice breakdown of who the players are in the battle for online advertising.</div> <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/advertising">advertising</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/localnews">localnews</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/media">media</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/newspapers">newspapers</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/local">local</a>)</div> </li><li> <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.lostremote.com/2008/08/18/online-news-use-continues-to-grow/">Online news use continues to grow - Lost Remote TV Blog</a></div> <div class="delicious-extended">Some not-surprising yet still sobering trends in news consumption. Numbers from The Pew Research Center. Newspaper readers 1993: 58% 2008: 34%. Local TV News: 1993: 77% 2008: 52%. Nightly network news: 1993: 60% 2008: 29%</div> <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/advertising">advertising</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/newspaper">newspaper</a> <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/web">web</a>)</div> </li><li> <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://www.lostremote.com/2008/08/18/topix-ceo-lack-of-local-news-helps-us/">Topix CEO: Lack of local news helps us - Lost Remote TV Blog</a></div> <div class="delicious-extended">Story re. local content. Following is quote from post: <p>&quot;First, Tolles does some rough math: </p> <p>&#039;There are about 1,400 daily newspapers and 7,000 television and radio stations in the U.S., and back-of-the-envelope math shows that they each produce about three to six stories per day, or about 22,000 local stories for the entire U.S.&#039;</p> <p>If you ask me, he’s severely underestimating the number of local stories. Nevertheless, he says there’s a “vacuum” of local news. Which, if you look at it at a neighborhood level, you could argue he’s right.&quot;</div><br /> <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/localnews">localnews</a>)</div><br /> </li><li><br /> <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://reveries.com/?p=1790">reveries.com :: marketing insights + ideas » Blog Archive » Foggy Bottom</a></div><br /> <div class="delicious-extended">Synopsis of a review of a book about the building of Washington, DC. Interesting even for a DC bred boy like me.</div><br /> <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/history">history</a>)</div><br /> </li><li><br /> <div class="delicious-link"><a href="http://reveries.com/?p=1791">reveries.com :: marketing insights + ideas » Blog Archive » River Town</a></div><br /> <div class="delicious-extended">Bellows Falls, Vermont sounds like my kind of town based on this story. Instead of allowing the town to fade into the sunset the residents are exhibiting a boot strap entrepreneurial streak.</div><br /> <div class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a href="http://delicious.com/jonlowder/entrepreneurship">entrepreneurship</a>)</div><br /> </li></ul></p></div> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JonLowder/~4/369253082" height="1" width="1"/> http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Flinks-for-200-8.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/links-for-200-8.html links for 2008-08-18 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54358812 2008-08-18T14:30:23-04:00 2008-08-18T14:30:26-04:00 The Piedmont Triad could become an aerotropolis - UrbanPlanet.org Interesting discussion on UrbanPlanet about the direction of the Triad economy. Some think that going after the "aerotropolis" idea via the Heart of the Triad project, the FedEx hub, etc. is... Jon Lowder
  • The Piedmont Triad could become an aerotropolis - UrbanPlanet.org
    Interesting discussion on UrbanPlanet about the direction of the Triad economy. Some think that going after the "aerotropolis" idea via the Heart of the Triad project, the FedEx hub, etc. is most promising. Others discuss the Piedmont Triad Research Park and think Winston-Salem's future in particular is closely tied to that, and others think the best bet is kind of "all of the above." Some concerns about the burgeoning interstate network as well. Good, even-handed, online discussion with no snark. I like it.
    (tags: piedmonttriad economics)
  • How Good Is The Mainstream Media At Linking Out?
    This page has a nice graph showing mainstream media sites' linking habits. Seems there's a correlation between outbound links and inbound links. In other words if you show the link love it's returned.
    (tags: searchengine media)
  • The Evolution of Pre-Launch Gmail In Screenshots
    Lest we think that Google just rolls out of bed and launches a product without much thought, we see through these series of screenshots the evolution of the Gmail design before it was launched. It really is true that designing something that's simple for the user is very hard.
    (tags: google design)
 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Flinks-for-200-7.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/links-for-200-7.html links for 2008-08-17 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54314070 2008-08-17T14:30:17-04:00 2008-08-17T14:30:21-04:00 Dr. Doom - Profile - Nouriel Roubini - Predicting Crisis in the United States Economy - NYTimes.com Profile of the guy who called the economic downturn. (tags: economics) Phelps' Miracle Finish - Phelps Frame-By-Frame - Photos - SI.com Sports Illustrated... Jon Lowder
http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Flinks-for-200-6.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/links-for-200-6.html Netflix Customer Service Message tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54248856 2008-08-15T15:39:40-04:00 2008-08-15T15:39:51-04:00 I logged into Netflix today and this is the message I found at the top of our personal home page: Our Shipping Centers Are Mailing DVDs Delayed DVD Shipments Are Being Sent Today (Friday) Click here to learn more We’re... Jon Lowder <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>I logged into <a href="http://www.netflix.com">Netflix</a> today and this is the message I found at the top of our personal home page:</p><blockquote><h1>Our Shipping Centers Are Mailing DVDs</h1> <h1>Delayed DVD Shipments Are Being Sent Today (Friday)</h1> &nbsp; &nbsp; <p><a href="javascript:void(0)" id="showlink" style="display: none;">Click here to learn more</a> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p>We’re happy to report that all of our shipping centers are resuming normal operations (after 3 days of issues). If you should have been shipped a disc Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, it will ship today (Friday).</p> <p>We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. To all of you whose shipments have been delayed, we’ll be automatically applying a 15% credit to your next billing statement. Or, if you are new to Netflix and your first shipments have been delayed, we recognize that this is not a good way to begin your Netflix membership and we’ll automatically extend your free trial by a week.</p> <p>Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. </p> <p><strong>The Netflix Team</strong></p></blockquote><p>Netflix had some well publicized issues with their distribution system this week, but since we haven't had a chance to watch any DVDs since our vacation it didn't really affect us.&nbsp; Still, I like how they handled this.<strong></strong><br /><strong></strong></p></div> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JonLowder/~4/365922829" height="1" width="1"/> http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=JonLowder&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonlowder.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fnetflix-custome.htmlhttp://www.jonlowder.com/2008/08/netflix-custome.html links for 2008-08-15 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54244082 2008-08-15T14:30:28-04:00 2008-08-15T14:30:31-04:00 TVB: Broadcast Ad Revenue Down 4% in Q2 - 8/14/2008 4:25:00 PM - Broadcasting & Cable 2Q08 local TV advertising is down 4% from a year ago. Local broadcast TV was down 6.1%, network TV was down 4.8% and syndicated... Jon Lowder
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