Nathan Trone's List: School-speech(2)

• When Manor New Tech High School opened, 50 percent of its teachers had taught for less than a year. Yet within its first year, 2008, Manor students out-performed the state average by 16 percent in science. In its 3rd year, the gains continue, with a dropout rate of virtually zero and a 97 percent attendance rate. The class of 2010 will be the first graduating class, and all students are going on to postsecondary education. Manor's leaders credit their success to project-based learning and to full and integrated use of technology.

  • The numbers are amazing, if schools around the world were to use this method of teaching the U.S.'s National GPA would hit the roof.
    Teachers would be able to complete more with their students, and the kids would probably be happier this way.
• Most young people can't remember a time without the Internet. But right now, many students' learning experiences in school don't match the reality outside of school. We need to bridge this gap. We need to make school more relevant and engaging. We must make the on-demand, personalized tech applications that are part of students' daily lives, a more strategic part of their academic lives.

  • This is true, my generation can't say this, but i know that the class of 2013+ can. They grew up around it all the time. I remember when my school first got computers for every room, it was amazing, we used them for almost everything. Real life is not any different, almost every job out there uses technology in some way. Teaching students these old methods are not going to benefit them as much, but it might still be a good thing to know.
• In the 21st century, students must be fully engaged. This requires the use of technology tools and resources, involvement with interesting and relevant projects, and learning environments--including online environments--that are supportive and safe.

  • kids are growing up with the internet, they need to be taught how to use it to their advantage, and how to be responsible online.
    They already know the basics, the teachers only need to get them started and guide them a little. For example, a few friends and I have taught ourselves how to do many things, like how to program, and an early age, before we even had a class for it.
    We just need to be taught how to use it better.
• If we fail to do this for all our students, we'll fail to prepare them for the future that awaits them, and the skills the world will require of them.

  • Its up to the teachers to prepare the students for real life experiences. For example, how often do you think you will be calculating Quadradic equations with out a calculator... Its self explanatory, replicate real life experiences.
• digital content is not just user-generated. Much is professionally produced, and can be used to meet the needs of learners of all ages.

  • It is the internet. A funny rule of the internet, if you can think it, its on the web already.
• This goal is about improving learning outcomes while managing costs. We have to invest if we expect to transform education, but tight budgets and fiscal responsibility require us to get the most out of every dollar. Technology can help us increase efficiency during the learning process and it can give decision-makers an accurate view of our education system's financial performance.

  • The technology will cost money, that's a given, but if we want to excel we need to do it. The cost is most definitely worth it.
    If the internet were free, it would just help that even more, schools would not have to pay a monthly fee, it will end up a one time fee for the computers to access it, and that's it.

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• BERKELEY, California--On March 17, 2003, Sun Zhigang, a 27-year-old college graduate working as a graphic designer in Guangzhou, was stopped by police. He was detained for not having proper identity papers and died in custody three days later. After authorities refused to investigate the circumstances of his death, Sun's parents posted information on his case and a petition letter on the Internet.
  
       His case was picked up by a reporter for the Southern Metropolis News, one of China's most progressive papers, and then the story hit the Net. Within two hours after being posted on China's largest news portal, sina.com, this news item generated 4,000 comments from readers. Almost immediately, the case was being discussed throughout Chinese cyberspace, from official sites to personal Web logs and e-mail groups.
  
       Police brutality is not new in China. For many years, international human rights organizations and those advocating legal reforms in China have called for abolishment of the "custody and repatriation" system, an inherently arbitrary form of administrative detention under which Sun was held. But the explosive reaction from Internet users was unprecedented. The official media, including CCTV, soon picked up on the public outrage and reported heated debates over treatment of migrants living in the cities and police corruption.
  
       On May 29, 2003, in an unprecedented appeal to the National People's Congress, four professors, including two from Beijing University Law School, called on the state prosecutor to investigate Sun's death. Three months later, the government abolished the entire system, and the officials responsible for Sun Zhigang's death were convicted in court.

  • Its amazing that the people over the internet have that much influence of what happens in everyday life. The internet is like a group that informs everyone of the things we need to know or are important to us in some way.

• What's more, new technological marvels are on their way, limited mostly by how much people are willing to spend for gee-whiz gadgets.

  • Its true, its basic supply and demand, if the demand is high prices will be high too...
• In the past, if you wanted a new TV, you might glance at newspaper ads and visit perhaps three stores before making a decision. Now, you can sit at home and check out hundreds of competitors' prices just by clicking your mouse. If you get confused, you can go to free Web sites that announce who is offering the best deal in any given product at any given moment.

  • Almost anything can be bought online now. This allows those with limited access to stores to buy things they normally wouldn't be able to.
• Computer chips are becoming smaller, more powerful--and cheaper. "Costs are going to get down so low that chips can be in any appliance in your house that's electrical," said George Teixeira, head of DataCore, a cutting-edge software startup.

  • The internet providers are able to supply the connection at a very small cost to them, but we are stuck paying any rate they want us to...
• Ken McGee, a research fellow at the Gartner Group, suggests that whoever controls the pipeline could profit in many ways through a "scenario that becomes provocative."
  
       He suggests that the company that controls the pipeline might be able to charge retailers a fee for access.

  • Like I said above, they choose and we can't really do anything about it. So they will raise the rates how ever much they want.
• The Net can't be wonderful for the world if many people are denied access.
• A U.S. Department of Commerce report states that households with incomes over $75,000 are more than 20 times likely to be hooked up to the Net than are those at the bottom of the income scale.

  • Because they cannot afford it, its hard enough to get a computer.
• Eugene F. Provenzo Jr., an education professor at the University of Miami: "If you consider knowledge is power and the Internet brings knowledge, this could have a tremendous effect."
• Poor kids not having the ability to do Web research that richer kids can do, poor consumers not being able to take advantage of the Net's better prices--every benefit that the Internet offers to connected families can become a disadvantage to those who aren't hooked up.

  • This would be simpler if it were free, most people have computers, or can get one really cheap from someone else, the monthly fee's are what put people in the hole. If these kids had access to the internet, they would be able to do a lot more, and possibly start learning about their desired professions at earlier times.
• This could only cause the acceleration of the widening income gap. From 1979 to 1995, federal statistics show, real incomes of the poorest fifth of working families dropped by 21 percent while real incomes of the richest fifth leaped by 30 percent.
  
       "This digital divide is a critical issue," said Julia Johnson, chair of the governor's Internet Task Force. "It can't be ignored."

  • This is one of the downsides of not having it readily available, people can't get out of the holes they are in, so it just gets worse.

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• internet as a way to enable the developing nations too to leap into the information age, thereby overcoming poverty and opening up economic progress for all.

  • It allows them to have international trade, and information access. The things any developing nation needs is higher education and trade access. Its a way to get their word out and inform others of what they have, tourist attraction areas, and products only made there, and other unique stuff...
• With only 10 percent of the world's population, the G7 nations still have 85.3 percent of all internet hosts. With more than 40 percent of the world's population, the largest nations of the third world, China, India, Brazil, and Nigeria, jointly own only 0.75 percent of all hosts. In most developing countries comprehensive access to the Internet and its accessory services is available only in the capitals.

  • Cool little statistics. Sad that only 1% of the third world countries have any internet hosts. If they had more, it would bring more people to their internet "zones" and possibly give them a financial foothold.
•  In March 2000, 275.5 million people used the internet. This equals approximately 4.78 percent of the world population. 40 percent of all North Americans, 15 percent of all Germans--but only 0.7 percent of Chinese. By and large, internet users are affluent, young, urban, and male. Worldwide, only 17 percent of women are internet users. This profile of typical internet users is further confirmed by a May 1999 poll of Latin American web users. According to this poll, 67 percent of users are between 18 and 34; 78 percent are male; 78 percent have a university degree, and 61 percent own a credit card.

  • more nice to know stats. and it think this is different now, the number of women has increased greatly since then.
• Many developing nations have moved towards the joint (instead of individual) use of internet connections. For example, many countries have created cyber cafes, telecenters or cabinas publicas. Many view these as a chance to give poorer people access to the internet.

  • One great step toward linking their people with the rest of the world.
    This allows the shops to buy the computers and make money, but also make's it easier because the user's will not have to buy expensive computers.

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• WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS

  • This is just a bunch of stats on internet usage around the world.

• Caps are arriving as customers turn to the Internet for more of their entertainment, streaming movies over services such as Netflix or Amazon, TV shows from Hulu or videos from YouTube. Increasingly, they watch them on TVs hooked to the Internet. Internet video watching rose 45 percent in the year ending in January, according to figures cited by Consumers Union.

  • This just makes it worse for users. Its bad enough we are paying for the computer, and then to get the content from the media providers, and then on top of all that, the connection alone.
    It would make it so much easier and cheaper, eliminate the middle man.
• Usage caps are separate from the "net neutrality" issue. The Federal Communications Commission generally won't allow Internet providers to discriminate between the types of data that travel through their pipes. For instance, they couldn't block a competitor, or speed their own video while slowing a rival's.

  • I'm skeptical if this is true, how could you tell if this was true or not, they could be doing it and nobody would ever know.
    But for now I'm feeling safe about it, but its still a lingering possibility.
• But competition from streaming video is the "elephant in the room," he said. Cable, satellite and phone companies earn lots of money from cable TV subscriptions and advertising. After many years of growth, pay-TV subscriptions now seem to be leveling off.

  • Internet video streaming like Netflix is going to drive companies under, like what happened to blockbuster.
• Kelsey complains that charges to customers are going up while the cost of providing Internet connections is going down.

  • I agree with this smart individual.

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• The bottom line. Internet upgrades have real costs, of course. When cable users increase their data usage, the ISP eventually needs to spend some cash to split the local node or upgrade the CMTS (cable modem termination system) to DOCSIS 3.0.

    

  But the costs aren't ruinously high. The largest ISPs peer most of their traffic; apart from running the peering point, such exchanges of traffic between major ISPs are free. The infrastructure used for both cable and DSL was already in place and paid for; even in the case of Verizon, which is running an expensive new fiber network, the company still doesn't need to impose data caps or proffer insultingly low monthly data plans to recoup its investment.

    

  Companies can say what they like, but when it comes time to reporting the numbers, it's clear that being in broadband is a good place to be.

  • I knew that there was something wrong with the numbers, it did seem like we pay an awful lot for the cheap little bits of stuff that they need to pay for to get the internet to us.
    
    So the key point here is that the ISP is charging you *50 when the actual company only needs to spend *5-10 to make the connections.