In this monthly briefing memo, which you have requested, my colleagues at the International Center and I share information on trends and technologies that will have an impact on education.

Lately, everywhere I speak, recipients tell me how much they value and enjoy Views You Can Use. Thank you for all of your generous feedback on this complimentary service. Please feel free to tell a friend about us. 

                                                                                           Sincerely,    Bill Daggett

Information Technology  

Some Chips with That?  

Months ago, Views You Can Use reported that scientists were investigating ways to use implanted microcircuits to store medical records inside patients. In October, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of VeriChips - implantable computer chips that contain an individual’s medical records data. Each chip is the size of a grain of rice and is inserted under the skin of the arm or hand with a syringe. Applied Digital Solutions, the manufacturer, believes that the innovation can save lives and help prevent mistakes in medical treatment.  

Similar under-the-skin ID devices could also eventually be used for security and access-control - at schools, airports, hospitals, and other “controlled” areas.  

Source: Barnaby J. Feder and Tom Zeller Jr., “Identity Chip Planted Under Skin Approved for Use in Health Care,” New York Times, October 14, 2004.  

Boo  

A list of hauntingly clever technology ideas for Halloween is posted on something called the Halloween Technology Roadmap website. We can’t be responsible for the safety or quality of the contents, but the sheer number of high tech tips is truly scary.  

See: http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/HalloweenTech/

MainHalloweenTech.html  

Hang in There for “ Chad -less” Voting Technologies  

Thomas Edison invented an electric voting machine as long ago as 1869 and today about one in three of Americans votes electronically. Direct Recording Electronic voting machines (DREs) may be the future of voting. These devices resemble ATMs and use touch screen buttons. Some DREs now offer voters the option of a printed “receipt” of the vote cast.   

However, the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project, established after the 2000 presidential election, doesn’t recommend DREs. Voters, they claim, are not comfortable with the technology yet, as shown by a high rate of voter error toward the bottom of a long “slate.” Instead, the researchers recommend optical scan devices, which are still paper-based, but can also be programmed to alert voters to errors or un-captured votes.  

The human acceptance factor in technology innovations can never be ignored – in voting, in learning, or in everyday life. We need to be open-minded and yet reflective about what new technologies to embrace wholesale.   

Sources: 

FACSNET.org  

Ted Selker, “Touch-screen Voting Should Be a Help,” Newsday, Inc. at Newsday.com, October 10, 2004.

Column found at www.vote.caltech.edu/index.html  

Fielding Buck, “Looking past voting machines to ‘voter interface’,” FACSNET

www.facsnet.org/tools/law_gov/elections.php3#machine  

Dr. Jeffrey McClurken’s website at Mary Washington College at http://nairobi.mwc.edu/~rdean8it/HIST200R/types.html

Biotechnology 

A Good Sense of Smell  

Nobel Prize recipients for 2004 Richard Axel and Linda Buck were honored for important discoveries about the sense of smell. Smell is critically important to all mammals in interpreting their environments, but it has never been well understood. We now know that about 1000 human genes make up the genetic code of specialized odor receptor cells in the upper nasal cavity. These cells send signals to the olfactory bulb region of the brain, which analyzes and identifies them. Humans can detect and remember about 10,000 unique odors, each composed of specific types of molecules. Each type of odorant molecule is recognized by specific types of receptor cells.  

The olfactory system is the first of our five senses to be investigated primarily using the methods and knowledge of molecular biotechnology. Axel and Buck’s identification of micro-structures called glomeruli may improve our understanding of taste, as well.  

Biotechnology is providing a whiff of new data that will enhance our understanding of body systems and structures.  

Sources:

“Press Release: The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,” Nobelprize.org, October 4, 2004.
http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/2004/press.html  

Kate Wong, “Medicine Nobel Awarded for Elucidating Sense of Smell,” ScientificAmerican.com, October 5, 2004.

www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=

000CEC6D-8265-1161-826583414B7F0000  

Trying on Genes  

In the mid-1990s, geneticists believed that humans had about 100,000 genes, the uniquely sequenced DNA “codes” that produce protein. As recently as 2001, that estimate was reduced to between 25,000 and 35,000. Today, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium that is “mapping” the human genome predicts that the number may be only slightly more than 20,000.  

A more complete map of human genetics will lead to advances that will save lives and preserve health. The frontiers of biotechnology will be pushed forward in the future by trained scientists and technologists who are today’s students.     

Source: Geoff Spencer, “International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium Describes Finished Human Genome Sequence,” National Human Genome Research Institute, October 20, 2004. www.genome.gov/12513430    

Pardon Me, But Your Hamburger is Glowing  

When biotechnology borrows the methods of nanotechnology, exciting and beneficial new science is the result. University of Florida researchers have found a way to add ultra-micro-sized synthetic particles to food to detect the presence of even a single E. coli bacterium, for example, in a portion of ground beef. Fluorescent dye molecules injected into the meat produce a “glow” signal when they detect harmful bacteria. Applications of bionanotechnology such as this could provide early warnings against bioterrorist threats and lead to the early detection of malignant cells and other diseases.  

Source: “Researchers Create Particles that Blend Biology, Nanotechnology,” U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs, October 12, 2004.

http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2004/Oct/12-405722.html  

Commonsense and “Antisense”  

Science can now manipulate RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) in a lab to create an “opposite” copy of normal (or sense) messenger RNA (mRNA). The engineered antisense mRNA can then be paired up with the sense mRNA to prevent the latter from synthesizing proteins.  

Antisense techniques can deactivate unwanted genes so that they cannot produce harmful proteins. Antisense has been used to “unplug” genes that cause tomatoes to soften and may have applications in fighting cancers and viruses, as well.  

Sources: encyclopedia.com at www.encyclopedia.com/ and about.com at http://biotech.about.com/  

Changing Workplace  

DARS a Change in Radio Happening  

In 1992, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set aside part of the "S" band (2.3 GHz) for nationwide broadcasting of Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS) or, as it is more commonly called, satellite or digital radio. Three space-based radio broadcasters are now licensed for digital satellite transmission from 22,000 miles away. Signals are CD-quality, crystal clear, without static and commercial-free; and they can be picked up anywhere in the country.   

The same content controls that govern AM and FM radio do not apply to DARS, so broadcasters can program whatever will attract listeners, including “shock-jock” Howard Stern’s show, starting in 2006. The FCC fined Stern earlier this year for what was deemed inappropriate on-air content.  

Like the Internet, DARS holds great promise, but greater freedom of choice and wider access to information and entertainment require the use of intelligent information-sorting and thoughtful choice by educated and discerning consumers.   

Source: www.howstuffworks.com/satellite-radio.htm  

Education Trends  

Letting Voters Decide  

For the November 2004 election, the total number of education-related measures on ballots across all 50 states was fewer than those dealing with marriage and gambling. Individual states, however, have placed a broad range of educational issues before voters. For example, in Alabama , legislation would eliminate legacy language about “separate” Black and White schools. A Louisiana measure would expand property taxes, while another in Maine would cap them. In Washington , the charter schools law would be repealed, and in Oklahoma and North Carolina new sources of funds for public education would be tapped.  

Some experts have observed that the number of tax- and funding-related issues indicate a decline in interest about funding among voters, compared to the number of measures placed on ballots during the 1990s.  

Sources: Education Week, October 20, 2004, and the Initiative and Referendum Institute (IRI) at the University of Southern California .  

America ’s Most Successful High Schools – What Makes Them Work?  

Our Gates Foundation-Council of Chief State School Officers-sponsored study of some of the most successful practices employed in American high schools continues to provide useful ideas for other schools. McFatter Technical High School uses longitudinal data to track student achievement over time – as well as dropout and completion-rate statistics – to compare itself with other schools across Broward County , in Florida , and across the U.S. The data drives decision making in instruction and curriculum, a key feature of successful schools.  

Visit www.daleicle.org/icleservicelevel1.htm

Special Education Institute  

An interview with Larry Gloeckler, Executive Director of the Special Education Institute, has been added to our website. Entitled Working High Schools: Working Trends, it also appears in Autumn 2004 issue of The Special EDge newsletter, published by the California Services for Technical Assistance and Training.  Visit:  http://www.leadered.com/IssuesInSpecEd.html

By the Numbers:  

• At least 12 of 32 states with November ballot measures included issues involving school funding.
• Washington ’s one percent sales tax initiative is the largest. It would generate $1B annually for education, allowing the state to add 10,000 children to pre-school programs and make room for 25,000 more college students.
• Oklahoma measures would add $200M, or 10%, to the state’s current education budget.
• The total number of ballot measures across all states fell from 202 in the 2002 general election to 162 this year.  

Sources: See previous, as well as the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California at http://www.iandrinstitute.org/ballotwatch.htm

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