Dial-up rising?

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about how the economic recession has caused some families to keep their dial-up or even switch back to dial-up in an effort to save money.

EarthLink and NetZero are the two biggest dial-up service providers.  Their costs are $7.95 and $9.95, respectively.  For EarthLink, that means only paying $0.25 for each day of the month.

"Broadband service tends to be at least triple the price of dial-up. A July study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that the average U.S. broadband bill is $34.50 a month."

Both companies are used to focusing their advertising towards lower-income areas.  However, in the current situation, both companies are focusing on suburban areas with their recent advertisements.  EarthLink is working with the AARP to focus on elderly people, while NetZero is hoping for a more nationwide audience.

"I am absolutely not telling anyone that broadband isn't a terrific medium," Mr. Goldston says. "All I'm saying is, times are tough. And if you're looking to save money, we're an option where you don't have to cut out -- you can cut back."

The article talked about how, technologically, dial-up should have been extinct by now, but the economic conditions are prolonging dial-up.  This makes me wonder about all of the technological, medicinal, and scientific answers that aren't being discovered because of the economy....

University of North Carolina newspaper faces bomb threat, still makes deadline

Meeting a newspaper deadline is one of the hardest things that all newspapers deal with.

Working for The Campus Voice I have had to deal with layout deadlines where  the newspaper staff had to stay in the office until 3 or 4 in the morning.  It is rough but it proves to be worth it.

For The Daily Tar Heel, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's daily newspaper, they faced a deadline with extra stress added into the mix.

UNC faced a bomb threat, later proven to be false, and was forced to evacuate several buildings, including the building that housed the school newspaper.  However, The Daily Tar Heel wouldn't let that stop them.  Their volunteer student staff of about 50 evacuated their office and wandered outside with laptops while using Twitter as a way to send out breaking news coverage of the bomb threat.

Also while outside, the staff continued to work on both the print and web editions of their next issue.

After the students were allowed back into the office, they immediately went to work of sending in, compiling, and printing all of the stories.

"We got back in at 3:30 a.m. and got it to the printer by 5 a.m," said the Daily Tar Heel's editor-in-chief, Allison Nichols.

One journalism blogger commented that the newspaper deserves an award, after getting a well-deserved nap.

I am encouraged to see student journalists proving their snuff by working vigorously and professionally on their newspapers.

Schools use technology to expand education

The Florida Times-Union recently reported  on the technological integration in post-secondary education in Jacksonville.

The article foresees a future where iPod lectures, downloadable texts, and other resources will make textbooks obsolete.  This would be positive for students who deal with textbook cost issues.  The Campus Voice and Fox News both reported on FCCJ signing a deal with Amazon to start putting books on the Kindle, an electronic book reader that saves money on textbook costs.

The Times-Union also reported on FCCJ's expansion with iTunes U.  iTunes U is a program on iTunes that allows iTunes users to download free class lectures from a number of colleges.  FCCJ was one of the first colleges to sign up for iTunes U, which now houses lectures from MIT, Stanford, and a number of other colleges, and FCCJ is still the only college in Northeast Florida to use iTunes U.

Through iTunes U and other programs that put lectures onto podcasts, the article talks about the "portability" of academic programs like FCCJ's dental hygiene program, which is featured on iTunes U.

"Why shouldn't a student be able to learn about the anatomy of a central incisor by listening to a lesson while waiting in line for their espresso at Starbucks?" said Jeffrey Smith, instructional program manager of dental programs at Florida Community College at Jacksonville. "Isn't it better to utilize the long hours spent in a car commuting to and from school to listen to a lecture on the nervous system of the head rather than a popular music station?"

Currently, anyone can also download free FCCJ course videos about dental hygiene, culinary arts, math and English at iTunesU, a service for colleges.

In the future, FCCJ is also hoping to use Virtual Learning Environments, such as SecondLife for a safe, economical, and creative way to explore the world.

Jeff Kissinger, Director of Distance Learning and Emergent Technologies at FCCJ, posted a blog about using SecondLife for museum tours.  Amongst other possibilities, students can examine the Sistine Chapel by Leonardo Da Vinci or even go inside of the painting "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh.  These offer possibilities that would either be impossible because of economical reasons or physical limitations.

Debate teams host competition on Second Life

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that St. John's University and the University of Vermont will host a debate competition on Second Life.

Second Life was developed in 2003 by the San Francisco-based Linden Lab, the game is a 3-D virtual world inhabited by nearly 15 million “residents”.  In this world, residents live lives, own virtual "property, file lawsuits, and some residents even earn income.

In this debate competition, a two-person team from St. Johns will go head-to-head with two students from the University of Vermont.  The teams will use a voice chat feature on Second Life while also using the "cartoon-like virtual characters, or avatars, to gesture to emphasize their points."

Stephen Llano, the director of debate at St. John’s University, said that the technology could be particularly helpful in letting students compete against teams in other countries. 

One commenter on this article noted that students who are more experienced with Second Life will have a far greater advantage over a debater who has never used Second Life.

However, not only is Second Life being used for just college debate teams. Many colleges are looking to see the educational quality of Second Life.

FCCJ, and other schools, are hoping to provide educational services in this digital world. FCCJ has purchased 66535 square meters of virtual land for their educational projects on Second Life, a very popular MMORPG.

The FCCJ Learner Support Center staffs the virtual island during FCCJ’s regular operating hours.

Other schools, such as Harvard University and Indiana University, are already offering classes on Second Life.  Perhaps FCCJ will soon hold regular classes on Second Life too.

Virginia Tech Newspaper Releases Documents Concerning Shooting

The Virginia Tech newspaper, The Collegiate Times, released the April 16th documents.  These documents, which include around 750 pages of e-mails, memos, and other documentation from before and after the Virginia Tech shooting shooting that occured on April 16, 2007, were released on the school newspaper's website.

The interesting part about The Collegiate Times releasing this information is that the information was only available to families of the victims through an encrypted database.

College Media Matters, a blog about "influential, controversial, innovative, and newsworthy matters impacting contemporary college media worldwide," which was featured on Poynter Institute's website, stated that the most impressive thing The Collegiate Times did was publishing the papers during a time that the newspaper doesn't normally publish.  The newspaper believed the issue to be so time-sensitive that they worked outside of the normal publication schedule.  I have to agree that if a newspaper believes a story to be the most important story out there, then they must work as hard as possible to ensure its publication, even if it means publishing outside of the normal publication schedule.

The newspaper published the April 16th documents the day after the victims' families received them.

The same newspaper, The Collegiate Times, was the first media outlet to break news on the Virginia Tech massacre, starting online coverage at 9:47 a.m. the day of the shootings.

It is also impressive to note that The Collegiate Times did an excellent job in formatting the information into an accessible and readable database.

However, the obvious elephant that I have thusfar ignored is the ethics behind The Collegiate Times reporting.  I believe that it was important and necessary for The Collegiate Times to release the information found in the April 16th documents.  Part of the role of the press is to be a watchdog of the authorities and the other part is to give the public the ability to analyze the truth for themselves.  The Collegiate Times, without placing any opinion, published verbatim the April 16th documents; this publication allows students at Virginia Tech to analyze the truth and see what their administration is up to.  It was a bold and a difficult decision but I applaud The Collegiate Times for being faithful in their duties.

College Newspaper Censorship

An article at CMAonline, a journal for college media advisers, reported that several colleges have been actively censoring the student newspapers on campus.

Western Oregon University fired a newspaper's adviser after a story ran about the school website releasing sensitive information about a student.

The Student Government Association at Armstrong State University is being sued by the student newspaper after cutting funding and restricting the freedom of the press for the newspaper.

At Brigham Young University, the student newspaper was being chucked into recycling bins after the newspaper ran a story about a rape victim who turned to bulimia.

These stories, along with many others, are common on many campuses.  Many lawsuits, funding cuts, and other censorship attempts occur at colleges every year.  Many presidents and student presidents do not understand that as long as the college newspaper is reporting the truth, then the newspaper has every right to publish anything it wants.

Although the article did not mention it, it is important to bring up Florida Atlantic University's student newspaper, The University Press.  The University Press has had many battles with the SGA.  First, they exposed that the SGA increased their wages without informing students.  The SGA responded by trying to fire the advisor with a lawsuit and a $5000 fine claiming that he didn't properly choose the editor for the newspaper.  Ever since, the newspaper and SGA have been at odds with each other.  Recently, the newspaper exposed that the SGA president had been using his blackberry, paid for by the students, to call his girlfriend 99 times in one month.  However, the SGA president refused to acknowledge he had used his phone for personal calls and he attempted to censor the newspaper.

The first amendment to the United States Constitution ensures the rights for the press and Congress is given the charge to respect that right.  State schools cannot inhibit that right:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

It is of vital importance that colleges allow the college newspaper to have complete like any other newspaper.  Some newspapers, like The Independent Alligator, don't recieve any funding from schools so that they don't have to worry about school restrictions.  At FCCJ, if President Wallace, or another faculty member, stopped The Campus Voice from publishing a true but disparaging article about corruption amongst the administration, then the school would be breaking the first amendment rights.

That is my rant.  What do you guys think?

Testing Link

I'm curious about Robert Blade's blog.