|
May 15, 2002
The Back Page
By Amy Poftak and Kristen Kennedy
Watch Words
 |
Cyberathletes n. An elite group of teenage and 20-something males who play video and computer games professionally for money.
Hackademy n. The Paris-based Hackademy teaches students how to hack into computer systems in the name of improving network security. For more on this see Trend Watch.
Phone home v. When laptops equipped with tracking devices log on to the Internet, they phone home to indicate their physical location to a security service provider.
Sheepdip n. Normally conducted on a non-networked computer, a sheepdip is the process for checking a floppy disk or CD-ROM for viruses using at least two different antivirus programs.
Thumb tribe n. Young people in Japan call themselves the thumb tribe because they often favor their thumbs over their index fingers for performing tasks. The reason, researchers believe, is that under-25-year-olds' thumbs have been strengthened from a lifetime of using handheld technologies.
Sources: LA Times; USA Today online; David Pogue, The New York Times on the Web; The Observer; Webopedia. |
Gleanings
The Home-School Disconnection
Lengthy download times could impact the adoption of e-learning at home, where media-rich content is already clogging sluggish modem connections. A recent study by Keynote Systems concluded that download times have increased by more than 30 percent since 1999. In that year, the average time required to download a popular Web site like Yahoo using a 56.6-Kbps modem was 14.3 seconds; in January of 2002, it was 21.2 seconds. New data compression techniques and broadband both promise to speed up connections, but so far, most home Internet users still opt to log on using their phone lines.
Teachers Want More Time, but Not Online
When asked for the best way to increase instructional time in school, 33 percent of educators who participated in a recent Eisenhower National Clearinghouse online poll suggested adopting a year-round schedule. Twenty-three percent supported block scheduling, while offering online courses for after-hours instruction came in third, with 20 percent voting to extend the school day online.
Internet Child Abuse on the Rise
The FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative has released alarming statistics about the explosive growth of child pornography and abuse conducted over the Internet. In 2001, there were 1,541 cases against people suspected of using e-mail, chat rooms, and instant messaging to commit crimes against children. That's up from 113 cases in 1996.
Thoughts on Student Cell Phone Use
In our March Trend Watch, we asked: Should students be banned from having cell phones at school? Sixty-three percent of readers who responded at our Web site said "yes," while 37 percent felt that kids should be able to carry mobile phones, but turn them off during class time. One respondent opined: "It would be far more productive in the long run...to set up guidelines for appropriate use. Maybe then we could raise a generation that understands why it's rude to take a call in the middle of a symphony concert."
Read other articles from the May Issue
Send a letter to the Editor in response to this article.
|
