The Last Straw

Posted on August 13, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

Today we ventured out on a trip to Indianapolis.  Knowing the rest of the family would not want to get side tracked by my never-ending search for historical markers I did some extra planning ahead of time.  Everyone agreed that we would not go more than two miles from the Interstate taking us to our ultimate destination.  It wasn’t a problem, but I had to settle for markers that were well defined on the OHS site.  I found four with actual street addresses.

Piqua – Lock Nine
Troy – Junior Girls Canteen, 1943-1946
Troy – Overfield Tavern
Tipp City – Miami and Erie Canal Lock 15

All four were close to the Interstate.  We stopped at the first in Piqua.  We snapped a couple of pictures and were back on the highway.  The next stop was Troy.  I had two addresses there.

121 E Water St was suppose to be Overfield Tavern.  It was a museum with no marker.  It is also closed on Monday so we could not ask for help.  We went around the block a couple of times looking for the marker, but found none.

We headed over to 100 E. West Street.  This took us through the historic downtown.  There were (non-OHS) signs everywhere designating historic locations.  We enjoyed the ride.  A few blocks later we were on West Street.  We saw 26 on the first block and then 102 and 104 on the second block.  There is no 100 on East West Street.  We did the “around the block” thing again.  Nothing.  Judging from the picture on the OHS website, this marker is in or near a park.  There was no park on E. West Street in Troy.

We headed to Tipp City.

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The Lock 15 marker was suppose to be at 325 E. Main Street.  We found the lock, but there was no marker.  By this time we had blown almost an hour on this wild goose chase that was suppose to be an exercise in cherry picking.  Everyone in the car wass starting to get a little hot.  I did the only thing I could do… stopped at Dairy Queen.

Fortunately, the lady making the ice cream cones had lived in Tipp City since 1987.  She knew where the lock was.  She told us the marker was in the park beside the football field.  We gave that park a thorough search and found no marker.

We were one-for-four going after the low hanging fruit.  I think it’s time to write a letter to the OHS.

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Star Gazing

Posted on August 12, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

Last Christmas one of the kids got a telescope.  Since then we have been watching the sky and learning about astronomy. 

With the Perseid meteor shower peaking this weekend, we decided to go out tonight for a look.  We live in a housing development and it is not completely dark.  There are street lights and a few houses with outside lights.  Everyone was still able to see a few spectacular traces of light before we came in for the night.

At this point we are debating getting up at 4am to see the shower at its peak.  That might be a little too early for me.

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Research Says: Copyright should be 14 years

Posted on August 11, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

I have been doing some research on copyright and how things should be.  I came across this paper by Rufus Pollock.  He is a graduate student studying economics and intellectual property rights. 

According to Pollock, as the cost of producing a creative work goes down, the length of copyright should follow the same trend.  Copyright for a creative work created today should last only fourteen years.

In actuality, copyright law has done the opposite and increased from 14 years in 1790 to about 100 years (life of the author plus 70 years) today.  Giving the author control of the copyright for a long duration ensures that any income produced by the work goes to the author.  Pollock’s calculations show this isn’t true and that we are stifling innovation with longer and longer copyright restrictions.

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Mazza Art Camp 2007

Posted on August 10, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

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Today was “signature” day at the 2007 Mazza Art Camp. During the week young artists from five to ten years old create a picture book. They put the whole thing together: 3D-color-cover, swirling inside cover, pictures and text.  The artists write the story and illustrate the book.  Above you can see some of the self portraits of the artists.

Below is the book of my daughter – The Missing Color’s.  The book is opened to the pages that show the entrance of the evil octopus, Medalia.  As she enters the right page notice how she steals all the color from the ocean leaving only black and white.  Not bad for a second grader.

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On Friday afternoon the artists gathered in the Gardner Fine Arts Pavilion for a book signing session.  A good time was had by all.

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21st Century Skills

Posted on August 9, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

The Moving Forward wiki caught my attention today.  As I looked through the list of 21st century skills, I noticed several absent items as compared to lists from just one or two years ago.

There is no mention of productivity tools.  There is usually an emphasis on learning to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint in most sets of 21st century skills.  There is a bullet for computerized presentation skills, but I think the lists is referring more to the skill of presenting effectively and not the skill of using PowerPoint.  This is a great step forward.  It shows we are moving from an emphasis on learning to use specific programs to an environment where programs are viewed as tools to accomplish grander things.

The new ISTE NETS for Students has a similar ring.

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

This is an exciting list if you are a teacher.  Look at that first item!  Our students must be creative and innovation.  This sounds like the post I had a couple of days ago.  The ISTE set looks a lot like the original 21st century skills I linked to.

The Ohio Academic Content Standards for Technology will have to be updated to reflect these new ISTE standards, but that may take years.  As educators we need to focus on how we can begin to implement these standards now.  Each year our young students lose is much more than a year in the life of a life-long-learning adult.

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