1 to 1 Learning

One student. One computer. One great way to learn.

Office 2007 users can download an add-on from Microsoft that allows them to save documents in the PDF format, eliminating the middle step of using Adobe Acrobat or one of the many programs available online.

The file, called SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe, also can be found at www.microsoft.com/downloads.

So here’s the crux of the debate:

As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

Sharing Data Over a Network




In addition to saving placemarks or folders to your local computer, you can also save place data to a web server or network server. Other Google Earth users who have access to the server can then use the data. As with other documents, you can create links or references to KMZ files for easy access. Storing a placemark file on the network or on a web server offers the following advantages:





• Accessibility - If your place data is stored on a network or the Web, you can access it from any computer anywhere, provided the location is either publicly available or you have log in access.
  
• Ease in Distribution - You can develop an extensive presentation folder for Google Earth software and make that presentation available to everyone who has access to your network storage location or web server. This is more convenient than sending the data via email when you want to make it persistently available to a large number of people.
  
• Automatic Updates/Network Link Access - Any new information or changes you make to network-based KMZ information is automatically available to all users who access the KML data via a network link.
  
• Backup - If for some reason the data on your local computer is corrupt or lost, you can open any of the KMZ files that you have saved to a network location, and if so desired, save it as a local file again.
  


Note: Before you can create a network link to an item in Google Earth, you must first store that place data on a server.



This section covers the following topics:





• Saving Data to a Server
  
• Opening Data from a Network Server
  
• About Network Links
  
  
• Creating a Network Link

Eric Langhorst led the pilot project at South Valley Junior High in Liberty, Mo.

Teacher tracking

The UNC system is working on a new database that officials hope will help them get a better grasp on the state's teaching shortage.

The data are culled from Department of Public Instruction files and uses characteristics such as race, sex, salary, SAT scores and other factors to determine whether a public school teacher is more or less likely to leave the profession.

There are 15 teaching education programs across the state university system, and officials say this data model program, once complete, might be a valuable tool for both the university and K-12 system as it looks for ways to train and retain teachers, particularly in rural and urban school districts.

(Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report. )