Thing 12: Other Search Engines

Here are the results of checking out some "other search engines". . .I searched for information concerning the new satire on privatized war titled "War, Inc.". . ."War, Inc." is a film starring Joun Cusack, Hillary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Ben Kingsley, Dan Ackroyd et al, produced by Cusack and directed by Joshua Seftel (a documentarian making his feature film directorial debut), that satirizes a future conflict in the fictional Turaqistan, where all the fighting is done by private corporations. . .Enough of the plot summary--My first experiment was using the visual search engine "kart00". . .This engine utilizes Flash and features a genie that provides you with a lot of results for the search. . .Unfortunately, as nice as it looks, it was not something I would recommend to anyone else, as it has way too many flaws, and is definitely not friendly for the casual user. . .One would need a seminar to use "kart00". . .My next attempt, "Qunitura" led to a "Not Found--Error 404" page. . .When I tried to search "War, Inc." on "Music Plasma" (it does have a movie option), I received a lot of information about a 2001 movie called "Monsters, Inc."--a movie which has no connection of any type to my search. . .A total bust. . .Next, I tried "Dog Pile". . .Success!. . .A Meta Search engine, Dog Pile presented a comprehensive list of results--the first result was the official site for the movie, followed by International Movie Database (imdb.com) which is the #1 movie site on the web--Dog Pile is highly recommended. . .As for the other Meta Search engine--"Clusty"--the results were adequate, but not as successful as "Dog Pile". . .Too many results not pertaining to the movie, were "clustered" (lol) in with the movie results. . .In summary, avoid visual search engines, and check out "dogpile.com"--an outstanding Meta Search engine. . .drfaust

Thing 17: Fair Use

This past year I was enrolled in a class at Hamline University called "Education Law'. . .The instructor was Thomas Coughlin, a long-time administrator for the Lakeville Public School. . .For a group presentation and a written term paper, I investigated the law surrounding the "fair use" exception to the use of copyrighted materials as it relates to educators. . .Among other things, I discovered many public educational institutions that publish very helpful guides to "fair use" and education. For example, the University of Minnesota Libraries publishes on their website their "General Principles of Fair Use in Education" as a guiding policy for the University Libraries. Their simple, but effective, policy statement serves as a model for any school or school district seeking a written policy for this important area. . .Also, several institutions supplement their policy statement with a "fair use checklist" for staff and students to utilize when conducting an examination to determine if a particular use of copyrighted material is fair, and thus exempt from copyright law limitations. For example, the Copyright Management Center at Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis (more typically known by the acronym "IUPUI") has produced a simple and user-friendly checklist for staff and students. . .I believe every school should have a similar checklist available to all staff and students to prevent possible legal challenges to the use of copyrighted material. . .I have spoken with my building principal about making a staff development presentation concerning "fair use" next August priot to the beginning of classes. . .If anyone would like a copy of my PowerPoint presentation and/or paper concerning "fair use" feel free to contact me and I will be happy to forward the materail to you. . .drfaust

drfaust meets mili

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What's up with YouTube?

What's up with YouTube? It's been unavailable for the last two school days. drfaust

Google Alert Followup Pt. II

Google Alerts strike again. I'm taking some classwork at Hamline this spring. In my Education Law course, one of the assignments is a group presentation. I informed my colleagues, who were about to do research on our topic, to try out Google Alerts. They did, and thanked me (by extension MILP) for turning them on to Google Alerts, which is providing daily assistance for their research. Thanks to MILP, I became aware of the wonders of Google Alerts. drfaust

NCLB and the State Legislature

During spring break, two Republican state senators, Michel of Edina and Hann of Eden Prairie, held a press conference to announce their support for pulling Minnesota out of NCLB. They commented that support for this action is bipartisan at the state capitol. In Washington, reauthorization of NCLB has stalled in Congress as a similar bipartisan coalition of Republicans and Democrats are demanding significant reform, 100% funding, or abolition. After learned of the comments of Senators Michel and Hann, I contacted my state senator, Linda Higgins, DFL-Mineeapolis, and the state senator who represents my school, Ellen Anerson, DFL-St. Paul (as well as Senators Michel and Hann). No response as of today. If you're concerned with the issue of NCLB, drop me a line. drfaust

Minnesota State Constitution and Education

Referring to some comments I made at our last meeting concerning the relationship of our state constitution and public education, here is the relevant text of the constitution:
ARTICLE XIII. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. Section 1. Uniform system of public schools. The stability of a republican
form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to estab-
lish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or other-
wise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state.
As for library funding, it appears to me that a library is essential to ". . .a thorough and efficient system of public schools. . ."
Furthermore, a ". . .uniform system of public schools. . ." should demand that library funding be the same throughout the state, so as to ensure that every public school has library facilities and staff not significantly worse than library facilities
and staff in any other similar public school. If the funding system employed by the state leads to a situation where some schools are without a certified librarian, that system would violate the Minnesota State Constitution. drfaust.