Category — Books & Library

Over the past week, the media focus regarding the Republican ticket has been entirely on the naming of John McCain’s vice presidential candidate. However, on Monday the Republican National Committee finally released the finished copy of its 2008 platform.

Defending Our Nation (PDF) lays out an agenda that does not necessarily match the viewpoint of its candidate, John McCain.
However, from, “Supporting Our Heroes, Securing the Peace” to “Reforming Government to Serve the People” to “Health Care Reform: Putting Patients First,” the platform reinforces the thoughts of recent Republican agendas. And for those who thought that the party would distance itself from the past eight years, one need only turn to the opening section to see that nothing could be further from the truth.

The platform notes:

“With gratitude for eight years of honorable service from President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the Republican Party now stands united behind new leadership, an American patriot, John McCain.”

A Look at the Education Planks
Subtitled Education Means a More Competitive America, the education section continues the Republican push for accountability and school choice yet the planks conspicuously make no mention of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, while higher education continues to be addressed from a cost standpoint, there is little in the way for a call for educational improvements at either the undergraduate or graduate levels.

As with the Democratic platform, the Republican’s note a need for substantial improvement in public education:

“Maintaining America’s preeminence requires a world-class system of education, with high standards, in which all students can reach their potential. That requires considerable improvement over our current 70 percent high school graduation rate and six-year graduation rate of only 57 percent for colleges.”

One noteworthy aspect is the call for greater attention to civics education and for passing our culture to our young:

It is through education that we ensure the transmission of a culture, a set of values we hold in common. It has prepared generations for responsible citizenship in a free society, and it must continue to do so. Our party is committed to restoring the civic mission of schools envisioned by the founders of the American public school system. Civic education, both in the classroom and through service learning, should be a cornerstone of American public education and should be central to future school reform efforts.”

The proponents of NCLB will note that the accountability set forth by the Bush legislation continues to be a focus of the current platform:

“All children should have access to an excellent education that empowers them to secure their own freedom and contribute to the betterment of our society. We reaffirm the principles that have been the foundation of the nation’s educational progress toward that goal: accountability for student academic achievement; periodic testing on the fundamentals of learning, especially math and reading, history and geography; transparency, so parents and the general public know which schools best serve their students; and flexibility and freedom to innovate so schools and districts can best meet the needs of their students.”

But in stark contrast to the actual law the current platform later notes:

“We reject a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Contradictions Emerge
It is interesting to note that the platform offers the following statements:

“We advocate policies and methods that are proven and effective: building on the basics, especially phonics; ending social promotion; merit pay for good teachers; classroom discipline; parental involvement; and strong leadership by principals.”

Yet later, the platform asserts:

“”We renew our call for replacing “family planning” programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior. Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually.”

While those words echo the views of the religious right, data on abstinence only education classes reveals that such instruction has no impact on teen sexual activity.

Better Teachers
A call to give students the best teachers also matches a plank in the Democratic document. However, the Republican platform is clear that the process for increasing teacher talent is a local responsibility, not one for the federal government.

For students to meet world class standards, they must have access to world class teachers, whether in person or through virtual public schools that can bring high-quality instruction into the classroom. School districts must have the authority to recruit, reward, and retain the best and brightest teachers, and principals must have the authority to select and assign teachers without regard to collective bargaining agreements. Because qualified teachers are often not available through traditional routes, we support local efforts to create an adjunct teacher corps of experts from higher education, business, and the military to fill in when needed.”

Strong on Partnerships and Authentic Education
One real strength of the platform is the focus on reaching beyond the classroom for support and authentic learning experiences for kids:

“We encourage the private-public partnerships and mentoring that can make classroom time more meaningful to students by integrating it with learning beyond school walls. These efforts are crucial to lowering the drop-out rate and helping at-risk students realize their potential.

“Partnerships between schools and businesses can be especially important in STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math. The need to improve secondary education in those fields can be measured by the number of remedial courses now offered at the college level.

“We applaud those who are changing that situation by giving young people real-world experience in the private sector and by providing students with rigorous technical and academic courses that give students the skills and knowledge necessary to be productive members in a competitive American workforce.”

It is in this arena that the platform reaches its full push for “policies and methods that are proven and effective.”

Higher Education
Reading the higher education section creates the feeling that our colleges and universities are delivering a world class education, albeit one that is too expensive and all too often home to subversive elements.

“Our country’s system of higher education — public and private, secular and religious, large and small institutions — is unique for its excellence, its diversity, and its accessibility. Learning is a safeguard of liberty. Post-secondary education not only increases the earnings of individuals but advances economic development. Our colleges and universities drive much of the research that keeps America competitive. We must ensure that our higher education system meet the needs of the 21st century student and economy and remain innovative and accessible.”

As for costs:

“Students and their parents face formidable challenges in planning for college as costs continue to outpace inflation. Higher education seems immune from market controls and the law of supply and demand. We commend those institutions which are directing a greater proportion of their endowment revenues toward tuition relief.”

Instead of governmental assistance or a service component as advocated by the Democrats, the Republicans focus on 529s for funding options:

“The Republican vision for expanding access to higher education has led to two major advances, Education Savings Accounts and Section 529 accounts, by which millions of families now save for college.”

And as for the subversive aspects:

“We affirm the right of students and faculty to express their views in the face of the leftist dogmatism that dominates many institutions. To preserve the integrity and independence of the nation’s colleges, we will continue to ensure alternatives to ideological accrediting systems.”

Another strong component of the platform is a call for greater higher education portability and the corresponding need for enhanced distance learning options:

“As mobility increases in all aspects of American life, student mobility, from school to school and from campus to campus, will require new approaches to admissions, evaluations, and credentialing. Distance learning propelled by an expanding telecommunications sector and especially broadband, is certain to grow in importance — whether through public or private institutions — and federal law should not discriminate against the latter.”

Other Noteworthy Elements
There are many other educational planks within the document that reiterate long-standing Republican views. For people seeking greater insight into the planks related to higher education, InsideHigherEducation.com has a thorough review of those items.

For OpenEducation.net, the platform was a pleasant surprise and a stark contrast to a McCain campaign that has been devoid of extensive educational discussion and a Republican agenda that seldom strays beyond the concept of school choice. However, we still have major concerns with their improved and fleshed out agenda – we are particularly concerned with its lack of additional support for early childhood education despite its proven success in other countries and for its failure to realize that a federal investment component is necessary if we are to improve teacher quality in our country.

We also must reiterate our concern with the inconsistency of first touting accountability followed by seeking additional support for a specific program (abstinence education) that has been deemed ineffective. Such language appears to be nothing more than an attempt to pander to a single voting group.

Photos and logos from John McCain.com and ImageEditor.

We have been watching with great interest the continuing situation in California that has pitted the University against religious organizations. Once again, a federal judge has ruled in favor of the University of California in what has become an ongoing legal debate.

U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles has ruled that UC may deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools using textbooks that “declare the Bible infallible.” In his summary, the judge rejected claims of religious discrimination and the stifling of free expression.

Rejecting Credit Based on Legitimate Issues
Though a group of Christian schools continues to suggest otherwise, the federal judge has consistently found in favor of the university. Critical to his summary was the ability of UC to show that the school did not reject specific courses simply because they contained religious viewpoints.

According to Otero, UC’s review committees were able to cite legitimate reasons for rejecting course credit for those classes relying solely on specific texts. The judge had noted previously that UC has approved many courses that contained religious viewpoints, including courses using texts such as “Chemistry for Christian Schools” and “Biology: God’s Living Creation.”

UC has approved courses that featured creationism as long as the course also examined evolution. In contrast, the UC rejected a course using the text, “Biology for Christian Schools.” Otero supported the school’s rejection citing the textbook’s own language as a rational. According to Otero, page one of the text stated, “if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong.”

The judge also upheld the university’s rejection of a specific history course called “Christianity’s Influence on America.” Here again, UC rejected credit based on the primary resource used in the course.

Published by Bob Jones University, the textbook “instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events.” In addition to the extreme viewpoint, the text evaluated historical figures based on their religious motivations.

Ongoing Battle
The initial suit, filed in 2005, challenged UC’s process for reviewing of high school courses. The Christian schools, in essence, accused the school of rejecting courses that included any references to a religious viewpoint.

After the recent hearing, attorney Jennifer Monk had strong words for the college’s course evaluation process.

“It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools,” she stated. “Science courses from a religious perspective are not approved. If it comes from certain publishers or from a religious perspective, UC simply denies them.”

However, Charles Robinson, the university’s vice president for legal affairs, offered a completely different assessment. Robinson noted that the ruling “confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations.”

Robinson went on to add that the plaintiffs were essentially seeking a “religious exemption from regular admissions standards.”

However, thought the suit has been dismissed, a group of Christian schools has subsequently appealed Otero’s rulings to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

On Thursday, Democratic platform committee members were provided a draft of the Democratic National Committee’s 2008 platform. Titled “Renewing America’s Promise” and broken out into four distinct sections, “Renewing the American Dream,” “Renewing American Leadership,” “Renewing the American Community,” and “Renewing American Democracy,” the platform is a strong counter to the current Bush administration policies and is drafted in the ‘hopeful of a better future’ format that has marked Senator Barack Obama’s stump speeches.

Declaring, “it is time for a change,” the party is committing itself to comprehensive immigration reforms as well as a strong and unequivocal support for Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion. In addition, the party insists it will not continue the intrusive Bush policing actions based on a post-9/11 world.

“We will restore our constitutional traditions, and recover our nation’s founding commitment to liberty under the law,” the draft platform states.

While the platform has a little something for everyone, it is the strong, broad approach to education, one that mixes support with accountability, that has us continuing to back Barack Obama’s candidacy for president of the United States.

Education Component
The section devoted to education can be found within the subsection, “Investing in American Competitiveness.” Focusing on a slogan of “A World Class Education for Every Child,” the platform planks include a focus on Pre-school, K-12 Public Schools, Higher Education and an overlap of education with Science, Technology and Innovation.

As a preamble, the Democrats focus on feedback received during platform hearings. Stating that “Americans know we can and should do better,” the platform states:

“In the 21st century, where the most valuable skill is knowledge, countries that out educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. In the platform hearings, Americans made it clear that it is morally and economically unacceptable that our high-schoolers continue to score lower on math and science tests than most other students in the world and continue to drop-out at higher rates than their peers in other industrialized nations. We cannot accept the persistent achievement gap between minority and white students or the harmful disparities that exist between different schools within a state or even a district.”

Focusing on an inclusive philosophy, the platform goes on to state:

“The Democratic Party clearly believes that graduation from a quality public school and the opportunity to succeed in college must be the birthright of every child – not the privilege of the few. We must prepare all our students with the 21st century skills they need to succeed by progressing to a new era of mutual responsibility in education. We must set high standards for our children, but we must also hold ourselves accountable our schools, our teachers, our parents, business leaders, our community and our elected leaders. And we must come together, form partnerships, and commit to providing the resources and reforms necessary to help every child reach their full potential.”

Educational Promises
The Democrats note they need to “make quality, affordable early childhood care and education available to every American child from the day he or she is born.” Among the steps to ensure that pledge, the Democrats indicate the need for increases in funding both Head Start and Early Head Start as well as greater investment in high-quality Pre-K programming for children.

For the current K-12 program structure, the focus is on ensuring “that every student has a high-quality teacher and an effective principal.” Here the pledge involves the recruiting a new generation of teachers and principals and with a return commitment to that generation of educators that “if you commit your life to teaching, America will commit to paying for your college education.” The platform also contains broad statements regarding improving teacher quality through help and support against a backdrop of greater accountability. If a teacher is still underperforming after supports have been put in place, then “we should find a quick and fair way—consistent with due process—to put another teacher in that classroom.”

Another critical component for teacher improvement involves teacher pay and the concept of merit-based increases. “We will make an unprecedented national investment to teachers with better pay and better support to improve their skills, and their students’ learning. We’ll reward effective teachers who teach in underserved areas, take on added responsibilities like mentoring new teachers, or consistently excel in the classroom.”

In addition, the platform devotes time to the need to “fix the failures and broken promises of No Child Left Behind. We will end the practice of labeling a school and its students as failures and then throwing our hands up and walking away from them without having provided the resources and supports these students need.”

The platform also notes that improving education is not a function of public school personnel alone.

“We know that there is no program and no policy that can substitute for parents who are involved in their children’s education from day one – who make sure their children are in school on time, helps them with their homework, and attends those parent-teacher conferences; who are willing to turn off the TV once in awhile, put away the video games, and read to their children. Responsibility for our children’s education has to start at home. We have to set high standards for them, and spend time with them, and love them. We have to hold ourselves accountable.”

In the push at the highest levels of education, the post-secondary level, the Democrats add:

“We believe that our universities, community colleges, and other institutions of higher learning must foster among their graduates the skills needed to enhance economic competitiveness. We will work with institutions of higher learning to produce highly skilled graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines who will become innovative workers prepared for the 21st century economy.”

Party planks here include the community college network and training programs that will help “the unemployed and under-employed to speed their transition into careers in high-demand occupations and emerging industries” and a continued commitment to grow workforce skills possible for non-traditional students. To facilitate a level playing field, there is a push to make college more affordable for the average American “by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free. In exchange for the credit, students will be expected to perform community service.”

Noting the brain power and capital at our institutions of higher education, the platform notes that higher education is a critical component of the “economic engines of today and tomorrow” and specifies the need to partner with these schools “to translate new ideas into innovative products, processes and services.”

A Shot Across the Bow
In addition, adding to the science and technology component, the Democrats cast a specific dispersion towards the most recent administration. Noting that “America has long led the world in innovation” the party clearly differentiates its push from that of the Bush years.

“This Administration’s hostility to science has taken a toll. At a time when technology helps shape our future, we devote a smaller and smaller share of our national resources to research and development. It is time again to lead.

“We will end the Bush Administration’s war on science, restore scientific integrity, and return to evidence-based decision-making. In sum, we will strengthen our system, treat science and technology as crucial investments, and use these forces to ensure a future of economic leadership, health well- being and national security.”

Something for Everyone
The platform offers some hope for everyone who feels that our country has been on an extremely negative path the past eight years. For us, it is the broad-based educational planks that have us supporting Obama.

The strong mix of accountability (the only successful aspect of the Bush administration’s education policy) matched with equal amounts of support (early childhood, investment in teacher quality, and a K-16 discussion) have us believing that the latest Democratic platform could actually serve to improve public education in our country.

Using the Internet to “improperly” download copyrighted material continues to be a major issue for a number of industries. Of late, downloading has moved beyond the pleasure phase of securing one’s favorite song and into the world of college textbooks.

The issue for both industries is fundamentally the same. Distributing music or books over the Internet without permission is a violation of copyright law. At the same time, such action deprives each respective industry of significant revenues.

As one would expect, the behavior is drawing the same criticism from book publishers as it has from the recording industry. However, at this point there has been no legal push to go after individuals who have pirated copyright materials.

Textbook Prices Add to the Issue
Hiawatha Bray, reporting for the Boston Globe, recently spent some time discussing the textbook issue with Ed McCoyd, the director of digital policy at the Association of American Publishers. McCoyd indicated that textbook piracy has become particularly ‘seductive’ because of the fact that students often have extreme difficulty finding the cash to pay for academic books that often cost more than $100 per individual text.

Bray went on to quote a student who concurred that textbook pricing was one of the key factors that contributed to his willingness to download pirated materials. In addition, the same student noted that many of the listed textbooks were seldom used in class, a situation that made the purchase of expensive texts particularly troubling for students.

Illegal But Tough to Stop
Adding to the challenge for publishers is the inability to impose consequences on sites posting copyrighted materials. Federal law protects websites from potential copyright lawsuits as long as they respond to a removal request from someone holding a copyright.

Bray reported that a site called Scribd “gets at least one take-down request a day, including frequent ones from Harvard University Press and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.” The site seeks to offer legal file sharing options for students but users frequently post copyrighted works.

Bray notes that with thousands of works posted daily, keeping up with the improper sharing is an ongoing challenge of epic proportions. In addition, sites like Scribd will not act on suspicion of pirated material. Action will be taken only when a publisher makes a complaint.

Bray went to the Scribd site to see what he might find. He noted numerous copyrighted works including the Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, a $214 item. According to Bray, site data revealed more than 300 visitors had viewed the book (we could not locate the text on the site).

One Web Site Discontinued
It is likely the Bray article may have been the catalyst for Scribd taking the Gale book down. In addition, the recent publicity has seemingly led to the closure of a second site that blatantly sought to offer copyrighted materials to students.

Highlighted negatively in a Chronicle of Higher Education article a couple of months ago, the site Textbook Torrents has apparently been taken down by its web host. Right out of the gate, Textbook Torrents was promising more than 5,000 textbooks for download in PDF format.

The process was to include a free user-account with access to a free software program utilizing a peer-to-peer system called BitTorrent. Once the user had downloaded the software, access to texts was to be a snap.

As for its honoring copyright law, the site’s opening lines included:

“There are very few scanned textbooks in circulation, and that’s what we’re here to change. Chances are you have some textbooks sitting around, so pick up a scanner and start scanning it!”

According to the web site UsedBooksBlog.com , the disappearance is in direct response to publishers taking issue with the site’s intent. The site’s owner A.J. Kohn noted that he had e-mailed Dreamhost in regards to the matter. DreamHost responded to the e-mail with an acknowledgment that the site’s activity was not in keeping with the intent of copyright law.

“We received very long DMCA takedown notices from publishers of the content in question,” stated Dreamhost. “The site was further closed down due to violations of our Terms of Service due to it’s illegal facilitation of the distribution of copyrighted content without the copyright owners consent.”

A visit to the Textbook Torrents site currently yields only an error message though archived links can be found when a search engine like Google is utilized.

Ongoing Battle Looms
Adding to the challenge for textbook companies is the anonymity and the world-wide basis of the Internet. Many sites are based in foreign countries that have little support for American copyright laws.

While it is doubtful any US web host would knowingly accept a site like Textbook Torrents, such a site could reemerge in yet another format in another country. That said, what is more likely to occur is individual sharing among students, something that will be much harder for the textbook industry to track.

At the same time, Kohn offers a list of sites offering textbooks online. Kohn’s list includes Scribd and the explanation that the site is the only one in the list that allows users to upload materials, an aspect that could lead to copyrighted materials being improperly uploaded.

Reduced Costs Would Lead to Reduced Pirating
Given the prior explanations, it would seem that enforcement needs to give way to methodologies that allow such textbooks to be purchased at more reasonable levels. Creating e-editions that forgo the entire book publishing process could seemingly be one method for bringing down such costs.

Producing materials at a more reasonable cost to students would go a long way towards reducing the “seduction” aspect noted by McCoyd, helping the industry keep a better lid on the improper downloading of copyrighted textbooks.

Back in March, we did a three-part segment on violent video games. At the time, we did a Q & A with one of the authors of the ground-breaking study, Grand Theft Childhood. Harvard Professor Cheryl Olson contradicted many of the general tenets regarding violent video games, especially the idea that such games are the bane of civilized society.

Two months later, at the time that Grand Theft Auto IV is setting new records for sales, we offer a follow-up with the co-author of Grand Theft Childhood, fellow Harvard professor Lawrence Kutner. Dr. Kutner has written extensively on parenting topics and is the author of five previous books about child psychology and parent-child communication.

We asked Dr. Kutner about the reception Grand Theft Childhood has received both with the general public and within the academic community. We also asked him about some of the criticisms of the study as well as those areas of research that deserve greater study in the future. Finally, we threw some questions his way about GTA IV, in particular his thoughts about MADD’s response to one aspect of the game and the many pundits railing against the game.

As with our first post with Dr. Olson, we are sure you will be intrigued by what the professor has to say.

Can you give us an overview of the general reaction you have received to the release of your study? My understanding is that you have been doing a number of radio talk shows and discussing your work with a whole host of media outlets. Could you review with our readers some of the folks with whom you have been discussing your work and what has been the general response of those media outlets?

There has been a tremendous amount of interest and support from both sides of the political spectrum, ranging from Barry Lynn, a liberal radio talk show host (Culture Shocks), to Adam Thierer of the conservative think tank The Progress and Freedom Foundation. For the most part, people appreciate the nature and approach of our research and our attempts to put our and others’ findings into perspective.

We’ve spent a lot of time on both commercial and public talk radio, including stations in Canada and Ireland as well as throughout the US. National Public Radio’s “On the Media” did a long piece on our findings. So did the CBC. Gil Gross of KGO Radio in San Francisco, the #1 news-talk station in the US, did an hour on the book. We will have that on our website soon. Even the nationally syndicated morning shock jock Mancow did an interview segment.

In print, we’ve been on page 1 of USA Today and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and on page 1 of a section of the Washington Post. Reuters just did a feature story on us along with a highly laudatory review. Publications outside the US such as The Globe and Mail and The Age and specialty publications like PC World have also given us coverage in print and/or electronic versions.
The most widely distributed television appearance was on the program “X-Play” on theG4 network, which focuses on video games. It was picked up by literally thousands of blogs for and by gamers. Cheryl was interviewed on CNN by Glenn Beck, who cut her off several times, apparently because her data contradicted his opinions.

“There have been other times when our findings and analyses have been cherry-picked by people wanting to force-fit our data to support their own biases. For example, the evening GTA-IV was released, Cheryl was interviewed by two Boston-area television stations. One set up her sound bites by saying that “some researchers say that there’s nothing to worry about.” The other said, “Some researchers are very worried.” Neither statement is an accurate reflection of our research.

One thing we did not think to ask you earlier was about the reaction of the Harvard community or that of others in academia? What has been the reaction of those folks to your study and the subsequent release of the book?

People in academia—even those whose research we criticize—have generally been supportive. They may disagree, but they see the value in what we’ve done. Only rarely have they engaged in ad hominem attacks.

Would you categorize your book as an academic text or as some other classification? And how has it been doing thus far as compared to initial expectations?

This is clearly a popular book, not an academic text—although some professors have told us that they want to assign it in their classes. It’s aimed at the intelligent reader who wants to understand more about kids and video games.

It’s been striking how many people who are neither gamers nor parents have expressed interest in our work.

We see where at least one person has taken strong exception to your findings, referring to the work as “industrial strength whitewash.” Could you comment a bit on that critique? Have there been any other such negative reviews of your study?

Any good book draws critics. That quote was from a review written for Library Journal by a 73-year-old private practice psychiatrist whose expertise is on the influence of Otto Rank on psychoanalysis. While he’s entitled to his opinion, of course, it’s unclear why he was selected to critique the book. By the way, a few days after this review was published, Larry was approached by the American Library Association about giving a keynote address at its upcoming national conference on the use of games in libraries. That gives you an idea of how influential that review was with librarians.

We’re sure that others will find fault with our book, and hope that their criticisms sharpen our thinking and add to the quality of future studies.

Based on the release and the questions you are receiving, are there some aspects of your study that perhaps you wished you had spent more time on or specific questions you wished you had researched but did not? Will any of this lead to follow up studies in the future?

There are several areas that we wish we had explored but could not due to financial and time constraints. We did not anticipate when we started that M-rated games would be as popular with girls as they actually were. This deserves more research. We would like to study a sample of teenagers who have gotten into trouble with the law because of violent behavior, to see how their patterns of video game play may differ. Also, it would be useful to do some different types of studies that involve watching how kids actually play the games (and perhaps to measure their physiological responses) in a typical (non-lab) environment.
Whether we, or someone else, do these studies will depend upon funding.


The recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV has been met with some scathing rebukes. One has come from MADD regarding a section of the game where a car is driven by an intoxicated driver. Would you be willing to provide your thoughts on this based on your prior research? Is this much ado about nothing or have the makers of GTA gone one step too far?

We haven’t played GTA IV yet, so our awareness of this scene comes solely from articles like that. It would be interesting to see if teenage players interpret the scene the same way that MADD apparently does. Our understanding is that the experience of being unable to control the virtual car in the game is aversive, and may actually deter drunk driving. It’s worth investigating.

We will probably end up buying an Xbox 360 or PS3 so we can play GTA IV ourselves and make more informed comments.

Susan Estrich, a syndicated columnist also rails strongly against GTA IV in a recent column. Having done your research, what thoughts go through your mind when you read such an editorial? Is this still the most common reaction people have to these games?

This is strikingly similar to the concerns over and editorials against comic books, radio, gangster films and—back in the late 19th century—the evil influence of paperback novels on teenage girls. None of those bore out. Each time, the pundits and politicians said that earlier concerns may have been silly, but that this time it’s different. So far it hasn’t been.

She says, “It’s not my son I’m really worried about…. It’s his generation, the generation that he is going to grow up in and live with, full of kids who take this stuff for granted and spend more time with it than with real life, that worries me.” We heard that—my kid’s fine, it’s the other kids who are at risk—time and again from parents in focus groups. Many of them had “heard stories” about kids who got into trouble or even died because of video games, but none of them actually knew anyone who did so. It seems to be another set of urban legends.

She also engages in hyperbole in her attacks, stating that kids “spend more time with [video games] than with real life.” Think about that for a second. It’s a dramatic statement, but is it true? Our study found that only 13 percent of boys and 2 percent of girls spent 15 or more hours per week playing video games. Assuming 8 hours/night for sleep, a child would have to spend more than 56 hours per week playing video games to meet her criterion. We’ve only seen that among an extremely small group of gamers not in our study whose serious emotional problems were manifest in other ways—it’s certainly not the norm!

Similarly, we’ve heard statements describing the GTA series as including opportunities for gamers to rape women as part of the game. We’ve been unable to find any instances of this, although there are opportunities for characters to have sex with prostitutes. Yet such hyperbolic statements are rarely challenged in and by the media, perhaps because they’re so effective at grabbing attention.

Most of the parents we spoke with who had actually seen a GTA game recognized that it was satire. Their concerns were not this type of knee-jerk reaction, but were more nuanced, such as whether their children would understand the essence of that satire and the cultural allusions.

Editor: Many thanks to both Dr. Kutner and Dr. Olson for their time – for those wishing to hear more about this groundbreaking study, the many links after the first question will provide readers a wealth of additional information.

While the critics expound on what the new Kindle concept lacks, it is important to take a peak at where the concept could be headed. When one begins to let their imagination run, the potential of this new device to revolutionize teaching and learning, as well as the literary world, is readily in front of us.

Kindle is a Mobile Learning Device
Though currently designed to simply purchase a book and then make it readable on a digital screen, the new Kindle is precisely the mobile type of device that creates an unorganized tether to other information. In essence, it is a permanently connected Internet device as well as a gadget that displays books.

So with just the twitch of a finger, a wealth of information is available to the potential user. Some would argue that most of the information is inherently a distraction but there is of course info that can totally enhance the reading experience.

Think back to the days when you were first introduced to one of the more classic novels, something like “A Tale of Two Cities”. Remember the teacher expounding on key background information, historical and otherwise, all with a goal of making the work more understandable to you the reader. It seemed to me that my teacher went on and on and by the time we got started reading I was already bored.

Transforming the Literary Experience
Transform to the Kindle and the option for Internet access. Instead of a lengthy purview to the novel, the reader immediately gets started and stops only when the need to investigate a historical aspect is upon them. Instead of learning something ‘just-in-case” we have that new idea of “just-in-time” and “just-as-needed.”

There is also no making a list of vocab words to research and find in some dictionary, when such a word appears, skip onto the Internet and look it up at a site like dictionary.com. As the concept develops, the E-reader would allow for direct linking to the Net, in other words the reader could link directly to a web page for a word that is not easily understood, a passage that is complex, or even a historical summary of a key event mentioned in the text.

It is easy to see how a device like the Kindle could indeed enhance the reading experience as well as transform learning as we know it.

Annotated Books
As but another example, I think of Karl Rove and his recent speech this weekend where he insists that it was Congress that rushed the nation into the Iraq War, not the Bush administration. Rove made his statement and announced he was planning to put that in his memoir when he writes it.

Keith Olbermann on Countdown took Rove to task and provided numerous pieces of evidence that refuted the claims of the man known as Bush’s brain. That leads to an interesting potential scenario if books reach full e-form.

After Rove authors his text, it would be possible for another writer, an Olbermann perhaps, to author an annotated version of the same book which could then be made available for purchase. In Olbermann’s work he could highlight and link to the very evidence that refutes an improbable claim, etc.

Books Become a Work in Progress
In other words, a book would no longer be a truly finished product as there really is no final version for print purposes. The text could always be written again, in theory to be improved upon, and done so again and again. In many instances, writing could become more a collaborative task, the complete antithesis of its current status at least within the so-called literary world.

Bezos is indeed onto something with his new device and like the concept of the Internet itself, where this little gadget will take learning as well as the literary world is truly without limit.

The popularity of the new Kindle from Amazon may best be told by the fact that the unit sold out in about 5.5 hours. But over the last week we have uncovered numerous assessments of the new e-book reader. Not all have been enamored with the Bezos creation.

Robert Scoble spent a week giving the new Amazon Kindle ebook reader a test and declared the Bezos unit a failure.

David Pogue of the New York Times felt very differently about the Kindle calling it by far “the most successful stab yet at taking reading material into the digital age.”

Meanwhile, David Carnoy of CNET gave the Kindle s 7.5 out of 10, stating that it “holds a distinct advantage over Sony’s Reader and is a promising evolution of the electronic book.” On the negative side, there was the issue of the $399 price tag and the need for content to draw a wider audience.

All in all we believe this is a more than credible start to a new era in the literary world. To quote the famous line, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and this baby will be upgraded many times in the months ahead. But Bezos is definitely on to something, the options that the unit provide could indeed revolutionize both the learning and the publication process.

Let’s face it – for many of us, nothing beats a good book. So when someone comes up with the idea that they think they can improve on that concept the thought at first seems preposterous. In fact, to understand why most view the concept as impossible we turn to the Newsweek assessment of the classic gadget (dare we call it that?) that has 500 plus years of refinement:

It is a more reliable storage device than a hard disk drive, and it sports a killer user interface. (No instruction manual or “For Dummies” guide needed.) And, it is instant-on and requires no batteries.

Another Bezos Creation
However, Jeff Bezos, the man behind the phenomenon known as Amazon.com, has set out to try to improve on a classic. With the recently released Amazon Kindle, Bezos appears to be well on his way to doing just that.

While music and video went digital long ago, the concept of long-form reading had not yet made the technology leap until the Kindle release. And in making that technological leap, Bezos decided he needed to keep some of the classic aura related to the book experience

So Bezos created a gadget that has the dimensions of a paperback novel and a bulge to resemble a book binding. It is much lighter than a laptop and generates virtually no heat while in use. It also uses the new breakthrough technology called E Ink.The result is the appearance of an imminently readable book on a six-inch screen. A battery life of 30 hours with but two hours to recharge yields a similar opportunity to curl up on a rainy afternoon for the entire afternoon.

E-Book Device
There are many aspects as to why an E-book device such as the Kindle can make for an improved reading experience. The simplest is an ability to change the font size and get a large print copy of a text at the touch of a button. Yet another aspect is a search feature to help the reader find a specific passage through the use of a phrase or a specific word.

As for the potential space issues that come with book purchases and a need for shelving, the Kindle allows for the storage of 200 books on the device. A reader can then store hundreds more on their own memory card

The idea is not completely new but the Kindle is the first to offer additional tweaks such as wireless connectivity using EV-DO technology that Bezos calls Whispernet. The concept matches that of cell phone broadband service, allowing the gadget to work anywhere not just near a Wi-Fi service location.

Perhaps the best aspect is the device’s ability to assist in the purchase a book. It is literally a one touch, download process to install the selection into your current library. The key, of course, is the book must exist in digital format. Amazon is reportedly working hard to get publishers to step up efforts to convert texts to digital.

Full Service Literary Options
With the Kindle, you can also subscribe to newspapers (the Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post) and magazines (Time, The Atlantic), meaning it brings all of the favorite types of reading experience to the readers on the same device. When a new issue goes to press the publication is automatically beamed to your Kindle.

The Kindle is initially very pricey at $399 (give it time). According to sources, the first batch was sold out in the matter of 5.5 hours.

For more details see engadget.

The Dan Brown editorial last weekend prompted a couple of postings – in particular I was struck by the story of Eddie, youngster who happened to be in his fourth year of four grade.

Brown is not just a teacher, he happens to also be the author of the well-received “The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle.”

For those interested in learning more about Brown or thinking about reading his book, over at the blog siteOhDave a review of the book is available as well as an exceptionally interesting interview with the young teacher.

Consider the following excerpt from Oh Dave’s review of the Brown tale:

Two pages into my Crow Boy read-aloud Fausto stood up and ambled leisurely toward the door, drawing the attention of the whole class. “Fausto. Fausto. Fausto!” I shouted. Fausto turned back toward the class. “THAT STORY’S WACK, YO!”

“DAAAAAA! Mr. Brown’s talkin’ gangsta, yo!”

As Dave notes and the stories reveal, “there is no magic solution, no easy answers” for the state of our education system.

It’s not every day that someone sets out to write a book on a common-sense approach to the end of his life. But when Eugene O’Kelly, the chief executive of the accounting firm of KPMG learns he has an inoperable form of brain cancer, he sets about writing just that book.

Amazingly he decides he has actually been given a gift. After all, though he has the terrible misfortune of only having a few months to live, the fact that he knows that his last days are severely numbered gives him a chance to set his affairs in order and to say a heart-felt good-bye to those who are most important to him.

Unusual Approach to Final Days

In his book “Chasing Daylight,” the type “A” personality approach used by O’Kelly during his final days may seem strange to readers. It certainly had to seem unusual to O’Kelly’s colleagues, friends, and family. But you don’t become CEO unless you have a sense for the big picture. One can tell from his writing that O’Kelly understands his approach seems more than a bit unusual to others.

He begins by asking two key questions. “Must the end of life be the worst part?” And, “Can it be made a constructive experience – even the best part of life?” He then acknowledges why he feels he has been blessed.

“Some people don’t think about how to make the most of their last stage because, by the time their end is has clearly come upon them, they are no longer in a position, mental of physical, to make their final days what they might have.”

He also makes a conscious decision to forgo chemotherapy. The extra few days he might have by virtue of the treatment are meaningless to him if he is going to spend many of his final days ill from the poisons of the chemotherapy. Though many of friends seem to think that he is giving up, his decision is made with the same nonsensical approach a CEO would use when a business venture goes bad.

Very Little Sentimentality

His one perhaps truly touching moment occurs early in the book when he relates his story about his then 14-year-old daughter. He recalls his thoughts the first time that she as an infant grabbed his finger. His thought was surprising, that he would one day have to say good-bye to her. It is a thought I now carry with me each time I see my first grandchild.

But true to his form, he then immediately follows the moment with a Steven Wright line. “I intend to live forever,” notes Wright. “So far, so good.”

You will not cry while reading “Chasing Daylight.” It is a book that is almost devoid of sentimentality as O’Kelly is a self-acknowledged “cut to the chase” kind of guy. As he describes his goodbyes with others, a process he calls unwinding, that “cut to the chase” mentality creates some awkward moments.

O’Kelly takes many of the people he wants to say good-bye to on a walk. The sometimes stilted goodbye that comes with the realization that it is more than just the last one he would take one with that particular person. In fact, most of theses walks were actually the first ones he had ever taken with that individual.

Once All Business

He also acknowledges one major error of his ways, that his great love for consistency was in fact a detriment to spontaneity. And now that he knows his days are numbered his desire for greater spontaneity comes through, yet he cannot seem to understand why others are not more spontaneous in their actions. When he realizes you can indeed stop and smell the roses he seems to forget that most people can’t do that every day.

The final chapter is written by his wife as his health deteriorates. As with Donald Murray’s book, “My Twice Lived Life,” it is the fact that O’Kelly and his wife never manipulate the reader that makes this book so powerful.

This book is not written by someone who seeks to honor a person who is dying (a la “Tuesdays With Morrie”). Instead, it is a book written by a man of courage who reveals that he is less than perfect. O’Kelly lets you see him firsthand for what he is yet still provides a lesson on how to approach one’s final days.