Since the education market is just starting to turn more to e-books, more people will be exposed to them as children in elementary, middle, and high schools. This is going to mean that more people will be exposed to e-books earlier in life and get into the habit of using them because the note taking and sharing options are getting more powerful with e-books.
As you have more people who grew up with e-books reach adulthood, I think that sales with climb significantly.
Quite honestly, when I was 7 years old my school had everyone learn BASIC programming on a TRS-80. It has helped me always feel confident in dealing with computers in a way that very few in the current generation seem to feel comfortable.
I'd love to build a PC with a younger child and explain what pieces do. Then make sure that the child has a way to make the system their own. Let them play, let them learn to program.
I am a private school teacher and we explored the use of iPads in high school and middle school. We basically concluded that the cost exceeds the utility of the device. We want to teach students to be content creators, not simply consumers. And the iPad isn't nearly as suitable to this function as an equivalently priced laptop.
Instead, we're moving to model of standardization of software for ease of exchange of files and setting standards for student computers that will connect to the network. We're trying to look at software that is licensed to allow all students to run it on personal laptops since, being a private school, many of the laptops on campus are not school-owned. This is moving in the direction where we would expect all students to have their laptop with them every day. Of course, one real sticking point is that very few rooms have the power outlets to let an entire class of students run plugged in and most laptops don't have battery for a full day of classes (which is one of the few things that was really attractive about the iPad).
But, in general, "at will" employment means they do not need to give a reason for termination. Once they start down a path with specified reasons, then they have other rules which come into play.
That said, to the OP: get a lawyer. The lawyer can spell out what specifically applies in local law.
Chemistry at this level, like most high school courses, should also be about learning to be an integrative thinker and relate ideas in one area to another. This include computer skills that might be learned in one class and applying them to another; connecting ideas from biology, chemistry, and physics; realizing that the problem solving skills of math translate; learning to apply the writing skills from English and history classes in other contexts.
Believe it or not, this is not something that every student does for themselves. It is something that most need to learn. And the teachers that I work with usually spend quite a lot of time trying to help with this issue.
As a high-school teacher, I have used LaTeX in physics class. It might seem like it has a steep learning curve at first, but the students catch on very quickly. It can be used both in reports and in presenting material to each other online. MediaWiki, phpBB, and many other tools for interaction have the ability to use TeX...which makes presenting equations far easier than hacking things together with HTML codes.
Also, depending on the order of the chemistry and biology courses in your school, you may want to, as someone recommends below, look at PyMol or another 3D molecular viewer. There are also a number of decent Java packages that don't a local installation to run (which depending on how good your tech support is about installing new packages might be easier if the available computers already have Java installed).
I tend to agree, but it makes some sense about the difference in even a scrimmage for an athletic competition against another team (again, even if it is not an official game) and within the squad. The concept is certainly related.
I happen to like Linux, but GUI's are convenient -- particularly for images, as you said. Personally, I'd like it if a few more of the Windows configs were easily editable plain text. But you are also right, to *need* to use a text edit or a command line is different than choosing to do so.
Part of my fundamental problem with the models is that they make smoothing assumptions and they also use problematic temperature data. The data from early in the century is far more spotty than later data, but problems with more recent data have also been documented.
It also thoroughly ignores the geological record. Still, models will get stronger over time. But so much of the important central research is founded on smoothed models correlating with smoothed data that it is difficult to accept much more than that we definitely are in a period of a geological cycle where the earth is warming and that humans have a local effect on the environment.
If realclimate.org weren't a left-wing blog, that would mean something. The evidence actually is pretty clear that solar cycles have far more to do with global warming than CO2 cycles. But I'm just one of those pesky science types that doesn't buy significant anthropogenic causality because I can read the literature.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you want Bolo's? This is how you get Bolos.
Cost of giant desalination plant: $1 bil. So you could get 30 plants for the cost of the pipeline. http://www.mercurynews.com/sci...
Since the education market is just starting to turn more to e-books, more people will be exposed to them as children in elementary, middle, and high schools. This is going to mean that more people will be exposed to e-books earlier in life and get into the habit of using them because the note taking and sharing options are getting more powerful with e-books. As you have more people who grew up with e-books reach adulthood, I think that sales with climb significantly.
Quite honestly, when I was 7 years old my school had everyone learn BASIC programming on a TRS-80. It has helped me always feel confident in dealing with computers in a way that very few in the current generation seem to feel comfortable. I'd love to build a PC with a younger child and explain what pieces do. Then make sure that the child has a way to make the system their own. Let them play, let them learn to program.
I am a private school teacher and we explored the use of iPads in high school and middle school. We basically concluded that the cost exceeds the utility of the device. We want to teach students to be content creators, not simply consumers. And the iPad isn't nearly as suitable to this function as an equivalently priced laptop. Instead, we're moving to model of standardization of software for ease of exchange of files and setting standards for student computers that will connect to the network. We're trying to look at software that is licensed to allow all students to run it on personal laptops since, being a private school, many of the laptops on campus are not school-owned. This is moving in the direction where we would expect all students to have their laptop with them every day. Of course, one real sticking point is that very few rooms have the power outlets to let an entire class of students run plugged in and most laptops don't have battery for a full day of classes (which is one of the few things that was really attractive about the iPad).
That said, to the OP: get a lawyer. The lawyer can spell out what specifically applies in local law.
Chemistry at this level, like most high school courses, should also be about learning to be an integrative thinker and relate ideas in one area to another. This include computer skills that might be learned in one class and applying them to another; connecting ideas from biology, chemistry, and physics; realizing that the problem solving skills of math translate; learning to apply the writing skills from English and history classes in other contexts.
Believe it or not, this is not something that every student does for themselves. It is something that most need to learn. And the teachers that I work with usually spend quite a lot of time trying to help with this issue.
While not chemistry class, students can and do make use of tools like this in high school. For instance, the SMART program.
As a high-school teacher, I have used LaTeX in physics class. It might seem like it has a steep learning curve at first, but the students catch on very quickly. It can be used both in reports and in presenting material to each other online. MediaWiki, phpBB, and many other tools for interaction have the ability to use TeX...which makes presenting equations far easier than hacking things together with HTML codes. Also, depending on the order of the chemistry and biology courses in your school, you may want to, as someone recommends below, look at PyMol or another 3D molecular viewer. There are also a number of decent Java packages that don't a local installation to run (which depending on how good your tech support is about installing new packages might be easier if the available computers already have Java installed).
I tend to agree, but it makes some sense about the difference in even a scrimmage for an athletic competition against another team (again, even if it is not an official game) and within the squad. The concept is certainly related.
I happen to like Linux, but GUI's are convenient -- particularly for images, as you said. Personally, I'd like it if a few more of the Windows configs were easily editable plain text. But you are also right, to *need* to use a text edit or a command line is different than choosing to do so.
What about Unpaper in a VM so that it has a GUI?
Ladies and Gentleman, President Barack Obama.
Part of my fundamental problem with the models is that they make smoothing assumptions and they also use problematic temperature data. The data from early in the century is far more spotty than later data, but problems with more recent data have also been documented. It also thoroughly ignores the geological record. Still, models will get stronger over time. But so much of the important central research is founded on smoothed models correlating with smoothed data that it is difficult to accept much more than that we definitely are in a period of a geological cycle where the earth is warming and that humans have a local effect on the environment.
If realclimate.org weren't a left-wing blog, that would mean something. The evidence actually is pretty clear that solar cycles have far more to do with global warming than CO2 cycles. But I'm just one of those pesky science types that doesn't buy significant anthropogenic causality because I can read the literature.
Of course, the Obama administration suppressed EPA reports that CO2 is not causal to global warming.
That will be another 9 or 10 million.
That's cool for Michigan. Congrats to the team. Personally, I sort of prefer when the small-budget amateur teams win.