Libraries Are Gonna Make It After All

How the Google Generation Thinks Differently

In a Times Online article Catherine O'Brien is lamenting about her son's style of studying for exams. The article has some interesting observations and at the end she summarizes the difference between those who grew up in the digital age, and those who didn't. I'm not sure this a result of when we came to the digital world or simple age. As a young person (1960's and 70's) I was very much like the "natives" just with different types of inputs.

NATIVES v IMMIGRANTS

Digital natives
Like receiving information quickly from multiple media sources.
Like parallel processing and multi-tasking.
Like processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Like random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Like to network with others.
Like to learn “just in time”.

Digital immigrants
Like slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.
Like singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Like processing text before pictures, sounds and video.
Like to receive information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Like to work independently.
Like to learn “just in case”.

Plagiarism: Don't Do It

Go Green and Kill the Screen Savers

I just read on Yahoo Green! that screen savers are no longer necessary if you have a flat screen LCD monitor. One large telephone company took all the screen savers off their computers and that alone saved tons of carbon dioxide.

Tasha Tudor Dies

Tasha Tudor died June 18 at the age of 92. Her illustrations were the first ones I fell in love with when I discovered children's literature. Her illustrations were also the first ones I was able to recognize upon first seeing. In reading about her evidently she was "green" before it was chic to do. The New York Times obituary said, "She wore kerchiefs, hand-knitted sweaters, fitted bodices and flowing skirts, and often went barefoot. She reared her four children in a home without electricity or running water until her youngest turned 5. She raised her own farm animals; turned flax she had grown into clothing; and lived by homespun wisdom: sow root crops on a waning moon, above-ground plants on a waxing one."

Another trait she was known for was being optimistic. Somehow I saw that in her works.

Gangs in Allen County

I attended a workshop yesterday on gangs in Fort Wayne. I was reminded of many things I had forgotten. We all know the different signs of gangs -- graffiti, specialized handshakes, tattoos, clothing. What I did learn was that gangs are most easily found and joined on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. They said that the gangs watch who view their pages, and then give them an application to join. An interesting fact--if our gang unit in the police department find an Allen County student holding guns on their MySpace page they are expelled from school.

Other related tidbits:
The most surprising thing I saw was a picture of Williams sisters while doing the milk mustache ad flashed the Crypts sign. (The "c" around the waist.)

Some people are confusing cliques with gangs. The obvious difference is a clique is non-violent, whereas gangs are. (I wonder who was confusing them.)

The numbers you see in gang names usually refer to a letter of the alphabet. For example 13 is the letter M and stands for Mexico. When you see 13 in a gang name that means they are Mexicans.

We know one major reason that kids join gangs is for protections and/or a feeling of family, but did you know that it is common for gangs member to turn on their own gang and kill them? Sort of negates the reason for joining doesn't it?

Two websites were given to learn more. Know Gangs is a website for the entire United States, and you can search by city or county. Unfortunately Allen County has no info, but it's still a good place to begin if one knows little about gangs. They give examples of the handshakes, clothing, etc. The National Gang Crime Research Center gives really good background and research data on gangs in the US.

Home Schooling in Germany Cause For Lost of Custody

A new federal law in Germany gives family courts the authority to take custody of children "as soon as there is a suspicion of child abuse," which is how that nation's courts have defined homeschooling. Not only are the parents fined, & possibly get jail time they also could lose custody of the children. The World Net Daily said this is just another step in "carving away family rights." They even go so far as to compare this to the time of Hitler. Maybe that comparison is a little drastic, but it does seem to be the wrong direction to go.