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Thanks Microsoft!

I rented a new Ford Focus. The car is stylish for a no-frills sedan. It even comes equipped with Sync by Microsoft.

I've seen the TV commercials for Sync, but what it actually does remains hazy. But heck, the combination of Microsoft and Ford can mean nothing less than engineering magic. Who can resist strapping themselves into the love-child of the companies who brought America Windows Vista and the Pinto. (Don't forget Bob)

During the trip from NY to DC I decided to put Sync through its paces. I thought that clicking on the button with a phone icon would allow me to sync with my iPhone. Then I could do something space-age like talk on the telephone while driving.

The problem is that no sequence or combination of button pressing would sync the phone and Knight Rider. Disappointed, I decided to surrender and listen to the radio - kicking it old school while cruisin' down I-95.

Alas, listening to the radio was impossible. Sync was hung in an unbreakable loop.

So, for the first time in my life I had to stop at the next rest area and reboot my car!

Gee, thanks Microsoft!

PS: I still have no idea what Sync does.

Why has There Been So Little Discussion of This in the Primaries?

A McCain Court Could Overturn Roe In "Maybe A Year"

My new blogs at The Pulse: Education's Place for Debate

The Pulse: Education's Place for Debate is going through a transitional phase, so you may have missed some of my recent blogs there.

Digital Native Theory Further Disproved
Willfully Ignoring the Lessons of the Past
Alfie Kohn's Latest Masterpiece
Public Schools?

You may subscribe to the RSS Feed for The Pulse: Education's Place for Debate with http://blogs.districtadministration.com/thepulse/rss.xml

Vote for me!

Although I've been incredibly critical of Ed in '08, they are giving out awards for education bloggers next week in Washington D.C. Wouldn't it be ironic if someone so critical of Bill Gates and Eli Broad turning schools into Dickensian sweatshops won an award from that organization?

C'mon friends, Romans and twitterers! Can we do it? Yes, We Can!

Go to http://edin08.com/bloggersummit/bloggerpoll.aspx

and vote for any or all of the following blogs:

http://districtadministration.com/pulse/resultpage.aspx?bloggerid=5
http://blogs.districtadministration.com/thepulse
http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=48233
http://www.stager.org/blog

I thank you!

I Hit the Big Time!

Big news!

I could not be more thrilled to have been invited to be a contributor to The Huffington Post. I have read The Huffington Post since the day it launched and am extremely honored to be associated with this ground-breaking publication.

My first article just went live on the Politics page of The Huffington Post. The article is called, "The Surge Against First Graders."

If the article is pushed off the main (politics) page, it may be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stager/the-surge-against-first-g_b_100456.html

My page for future articles is: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stager/ This is in addition to my own blog at http://www.stager.org/blog and http://www.districtadministration.com

While checking out my article, feel free to share the love and leave a comment or Buzz-Me-Up! Education needs more critical analysis and reportage. I am humbled that the Huffington Post has given me this opportunity to reach such a large audience.

Gary

Check out Constructing Modern Knowledge
July 28-31, 2008 - Manchester, NH
www.constructingmodernknowledge.com

Isn't it Ironic?

Many of the most popular, hired and prolific members of the EduBlogosphere (particularly the edtech bloggers) spend a great deal of time, word count and airplane mileage talking about the importance of literacy - old literacy, new literacy, media literacy, superdooper 21st Century Web 2.0 literacy and "literacies" yet to be invented.

Literacy dominates my esteemed colleague's thoughts about education. Therefore, I find it shocking that there is so little [read: none] discussion of the news that the federal Department of Education has concluded that Reading First, the $6 billion shock and awe approach to literacy education at the core of No Child Left Behind, has FAILED to improve the reading comprehension of American students.

Why the silence among EduBloggers? Is this issue unimportant? Should we ignore the calamity created by Reading First just because it doesn't mention Twitter, Apture, Ning or other made-up words?

Or, are you waiting to be told what to think by Tom Friedman or Daniel Pink?

Too bad the self-proclaimed prophets of the information and media literacy "revolution" have nothing to offer the educators who will need to cleanup this mess created by the Bush Administration and perpetuated by those who remained silent when they knew better.

For the record, I've been writing about this issue for four years. An anthology of this work may be found here. I hope to have a more substantive piece published for a larger audience sometime this week. Stay tuned.