From crispen@INTERNIC.NET Wed Nov 5 19:43:28 1997
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 15:16:21 -0500
From: crispen@INTERNIC.NET
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 6 NOVEMBER 1997 -- PUSH TECHNOLOGY/CHILDREN'S SOFTWARE REVIEW/CYBER CORNER
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\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S): PUSH TECHNOLOGY/CHILDREN'S SOFTWARE
REVIEW/CYBER CORNER
TODAY'S ADDRESSES:
http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews/nov97/
http://www.childrenssoftware.com/
http://www2.childrenssoftware.com/childrenssoftware/rating.html
http://www.kwtv.com/news/cyber/cyber.htm
http://www.kwtv.com/news/bombing/bombingpage.html
Last year I privately predicted that Tyco's "Tickle-Me-Elmo" would be _THE_
hot toy of the 1996 U.S. holiday season (for the uninitiated,
Tickle-Me-Elmo is a US$30 doll that twitches when you poke it). Well,
after the success of my last venture into the field of toy demand
prognostication (Hey! I've finally found something that I can do with my
pending Economics degree!), your fearless bus driver is going to go out on
a limb and make my next prediction publicly:
The hot toy of the 1997 U.S. holiday season will be Tyco's Sesame
Street "Sing and Snore Ernie."
What does this have to do with the Internet? Absolutely nothing ... but
isn't that what you love about TOURBUS? :P
On a more serious, Net-related note, if you are interested in finding out
more about push technology, check out my recent article in the latest
edition of Network Solutions' InterNIC news at
http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews/nov97/
The article, titled "PUSH!: Are Your Web Browsing Days Over?", explains
what push technology is, how it works, and how it one day may help us all
solve our current problem of information overload.
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CHILDREN'S SOFTWARE REVUE
-------------------------
A few weeks ago, the nice folks at Pierian Spring Software
(http://www.pierian.com/) pulled together a group of about 20 of the
greatest minds in the field of education technology and flew them all to
Portland for the first annual Pierian Spring Education Technology Leaders
Summit. The group included Bob Pearlman, Bonnie Bracey, Catie and Fred
D'Ignazio, Gail Lovely, Sylvia Charp, Merle Marsh, Ted Kahn, and -- for
some odd reason that I am sure the folks at Pierian Spring are _still_
regretting -- me. :)
I had an absolutely wonderful time at the Summit, and one of the highlights
was meeting Warren Buckleitner, the Editor of "Children's Software Revue."
Children's Software Revue (CSR) is a self-proclaimed "independent ...
newsletter designed to help parents and teachers find quality children's
software." Like Consumer Reports, CSR does not accept any outside
advertising. Unlike Consumer Reports (and, for that matter, unlike any
other newsletter that I know of), CSR is specifically written for parents
and teachers of children between the ages of 2 and 14-ish. In fact, all of
CSR's software reviews are written by experienced, professional educators
who also happen to be parents.
Children's Software Revue is currently available in two formats:
- As a bi-monthly newsletter. Each issue contains reviews of
over 120 of the newest children's software titles. This
newsletter is available by subscription for $24 in the US,
US$35 in Canada, and US$42 International.
- As a _free_ Web site.
You can find Children's Software Revue's Web site at
http://www.childrenssoftware.com/
The bulk of CSR's homepage is filled with a "Featured Review of the Week,"
an in-depth look at one of the featured reviews from a previous edition of
CSR's newsletter. Each of CSR's reviews shows the software's rating (from
1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)); the publisher's name, URL, and phone number;
the software's copyright date; its price; the platform(s) that the software
runs on; the age group and grade level that the software is written for;
and the skills that the software teaches. Right below this information
you'll find a short editorial on the software's strengths and weaknesses.
While CSR's "Featured Review of the Week" is cool all by itself, CSR's
homepage also has a searchable database of over 2,800 children's software
reviews. Called the "Children's Software Finder" (there is a link to it at
the top of CSR's homepage), this searchable database lets you search for
reviews of children's software by title, rating, publisher, copyright date,
platform, grade level, and/or the skills that it teaches. You also have
the option of browsing through the reviews of all 2,800+ titles (for those
of you have nothing better to do for the rest of the month).
All of CSR's past reviews can be found in this database, although the
current reviews (the ones in the current issue of the Children's Software
Revue newsletter) are only available to CSR's subscribers.
Oh, and if you are an educator or librarian who is responsible for
conducting your own software evaluations, you really should check out CSR's
"Software Evaluation Form." The form is a 50 item check-list that helps
you grade a particular software title's educational value; its ease of use;
the quality of its content, graphics, sounds; how fun it is to use; and its
overall value. CSR's Software Evaluation Form can be found on the Web at
http://www2.childrenssoftware.com/childrenssoftware/rating.html
Cool, huh? If you are looking for an independent resource that will give
you unbiased reviews about thousands of children's software titles, you
really should check out Warren Buckleitner's "Children's Software Revue."
Oh, and while you are there, check out the featured article titled "I Wanna
Tamagotchi!" (there is a link to this article on CSR's main Web page). I
promise you that Buckleitner's article will teach you two simple, but very
important, lessons about kids and technology.
CYBER CORNER
------------
Last week, I wrote
"The WIRE" Web site also doesn't seem to include Oscar Wells
Gabriel's "CyberCorner" column, an absolutely wonderful Internet-
related AP feature that too few news organizations reprint [By
the way, if you know of an AP member organization that reprints
CyberCorner online, let me know].
Well, thanks to the help of alert TOURBUS rider Michael Tillapaugh who "did
a little search on 'Gabriel' and 'CyberCorner' using 'Dogpile'" (now why
didn't _I_ think of doing that?!), I am proud to announce that you can find
Oscar Wells Gabriel's "Cyber Corner" column on the Web at
http://www.kwtv.com/news/cyber/cyber.htm
Cyber Corner is the Associated Press' daily technology column. It is kind
of a combination of the Morning section of Good Morning Silicon Valley
(http://www.sjmercury.com/gmsv/), Yahoo's Net Events page
(http://events.yahoo.com/picks.html), and Entertainment Weekly's
"Cybertalk" section (whose URL is so unbelievably long that its just better
if we pretend that you can't find it online).
Cyber Corner is updated each weekday morning, and is a quick summary of the
latest in cyberspace news, Web page announcements, online happenings, and
software releases. While not as in-depth as Good Morning Silicon Valley
(which is now in a tie with Dogpile as my favorite Web page), Cyber
Corner's coverage of the online world is still pretty impressive.
That's about it for this week! There is one last thing that I want to
mention, and then I'll bring today's tour to a close: our TOURBUS riders
in central Oklahoma will probably recognize that Cyber Corner's web host
(http://www.kwtv.com/) is KWTV Channel 9, the CBS television network
affiliate in Oklahoma City. The reason why I mention this is that if you
are looking for a pretty good Web site where you can find the latest news
and information about the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing and its
related trials, you really should check out KWTV's bombing page at
http://www.kwtv.com/news/bombing/bombingpage.html
This page includes copies of the indictments, a history and time line of
the bombing, and the complete trial transcripts from both U.S. vs. McVeigh
and U.S. vs. Terry Nichols (new transcripts from the Nichols trial, which
is currently underway, are posted at 4:00 PM and 9:00 PM CST).
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S): PUSH TECHNOLOGY/CHILDREN'S SOFTWARE
REVIEW/CYBER CORNER
TODAY'S ADDRESS:
http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews/nov97/
http://www.childrenssoftware.com/
http://www2.childrenssoftware.com/childrenssoftware/rating.html
http://www.kwtv.com/news/cyber/cyber.htm
http://www.kwtv.com/news/bombing/bombingpage.html
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
MILL (noun). Food consumed during a certain time period.
Usage: "Bubba, turn off Hee-Haw and eat yur mill!"
(Special thanks to Sara Mack for today's wurd)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE _NEW_ SOUTHERN
WORD HOMEPAGE AT http://www.brigadoon.com/~crispen/word.html
=--------------------------------------------------------------------=
For info on my book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway"
Visit http://www.brigadoon.com/~crispen/atlas.html
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.~~~. ))
(\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen
/o o \/ .~ Network Solutions Inc. / The InterNIC
{o_, \ { Business E-mail: crispen@internic.net
/ , , ) \ Personal E-mail: crispen@brigadoon.com
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