What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world ...
Don Knezek, ISTE CEO,

After three years of development, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) released the newly refreshed National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) in the summer of 2007. With a new take on what students need in our digital world, the new NETS-S give guidance to educators on preparing learners to be productive and successful in the 21st century.

IThe July/August issue of Atlantic Monthly features a cover story by Nicholas Carr: "Is Google Making Us Stupid: What The Internet is doing to Our Brains". In this article Carr questions the future of in depth reading and compemplative study in a world that skims the surface via hyperlinks and twitter feeds. 'The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. " states Carr.

What is a podcast? According to Wikipedia, podcasting is “a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers.” Ok, but what does that mean? Basically, a podcast is an audio or video file, like a radio or TV show, that is sent to you after you’ve subscribed to it. The concept is not unlike a magazine subscription. When you subscribe to a magazine, you no longer need to go out and get the latest issue from the store. When a new issue is ready, it’s sent straight to your mailbox.

The problem with computers is that something inevitably goes wrong. Hard drive failure is probably top of the list of things that will wipe out your documents, but you should not dismiss the fact that fire and flood are also possibilities. Many people don’t think of flooding as a potential hazard because of their location, but flooding can occur from right within your building. A broken sprinkler system can cause more damage than you can imagine (this happened to our department, so we know!). Whatever the cause, your documents can be subject to being destroyed and a taking a few minutes to back up your computer could save you a lot of time and heartache.