Grieving Online
Columbine High School. Fifteen dead. Many more wounded.
Violence is becoming more and more apart of our lives. We see it on
TV (on the news as well as in TV shows), in the movie theaters, in video
games, and now, regrettably, in our schools.
As often happens, we become united in tragedy. When John F. Kennedy
was assassinated, the medium of television really came into its own.
All across the United States and even around the world, people mourned
together as they watched and listened to the coverage of the tragedy and
its aftermath on TV.
With the latest tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado,
the Internet came into its own as a medium through which people can grieve
together. Though unsubstantiated, we've heard rumors that AOL
devoted all of its servers in Denver to news, information, and chat rooms
about the tragedy, routing non-tragedy related data through other
cities.
And just as society has changed over the decades since Kennedy's death,
so has the way we grieve. Instead of passively watching TV and
mourning, chat rooms and email have given the masses a voice. In
addition to the verbal outpouring of grief and sympathy have been various
voices calling for stricter gun control, condemning trenchcoat mafia and
goths, demanding restrictions on the Internet, calling for schools to
restrict students human rights to preserve safety, and many more.
Though no one has agreed with every idea and message, everyone has a
chance to exercise their right to freedom of speech and the cyberwaves
have literally resounded with their voices. If you have ever watched
or listened to the news and disagreed or had other comments about what was
being reported, now there is a public forum where you can give voice to
thoughts. Is this an improvement, a step ahead in the evolution of
communications? It's too soon to answer that question. The
only thing we can say for sure is that, just as TV began to play a more
vital role in our lives as we grieved with the Kennedys' so long ago,
the Internet has begun to play a more important role as we grieve with
Columbine High School and the city of Littleton.
(For more information on the Columbine shootings, visit the Columbine High
School Information Center web site at http://204.98.1.2/columbine/info/.
For links to other web sites with Columbine related information, visit http://204.98.1.2/columbine/info/links.html.
Getting Rid of the Weeds
No, this article isn't about gardening or lawn care. Weeds are
those programs that come pre-installed on your computer that you either
don't want or don't need.
Sure it's great to have your computer arrive with the software
installed so all you have to do is plug it in (we won't get into the
mess involved with plugging it in here) and turn it on. But along
with that comes the weeds. Sometimes these programs load when you
start your computer up, are never used, and take up RAM or hard disk space
that could be used for other purposes. So what can you do with the
weeds?
Just as with real weeds, it's important to get them out by the roots
or they could cause even bigger problems later on. If removed
improperly, some weed programs can actually slow down your computer or
even render it inoperable.
But if you exercise caution while removing these weeds, there is little to
fear.
The easiest way to remove a well-designed program is to use the uninstall
program that came with it. Look in the folder where the
program is to see if there is a file called uninstall. If there is a
CD with the program, look for an uninstall program there.
Windows users can look in the Add/Remove control panel (Start
Settings Control Panel) for the program(s) they want to
remove. If the program to be removed appears on the list, click it
and then click o.k.
If you have a program that you want to keep but you don't want it to
start when you turn the computer on, take it out of the start up
folder. Mac Users should look in the System Folder for the folder
labeled Startup Items. The icons in this folder should just be
aliases or shortcuts so removing them from the startup folder won't
delete them from the computer. Windows users will probably find
their start up items on the C drive in Windows/Start Menu/ Programs /
StartUp directory. Again these are shortcuts, not the programs
themselves, so deleting them shouldn't hurt the actual program.
Deleting these weeds can improve the speed of your computer, especially if
you have less than 32 MB of RAM. Windows users may also find weeds
in their system tray (the area where the clock is on the task bar).
Often you can get rid of these weeds by right clicking them, choosing
exit, and choosing No when asked if you want this program to automatically
load into your system tray at startup.
This summer, as you pull the weeds out of your yard to keep it pleasant
looking, why not pull the weeds from your computer to make your computing
experience more pleasant? |
Columbine Related Websites
If it seems like just about everybody has something about Columbine on
their website, it's because it has affected us all so deeply. Here
are just a few that we found:
ABC NEWS
http://boards.go.com/cgi/abcnews/request.dll?LIST&room=columbine
A Tribute to Columbine, Message board, Slide shows.
American Bar Association
http://www.abanet.org/media/littleton.html
Resources, links relating Littleton shooting
Federal Gun Control Legislative Issues, Facts about the American Criminal
Justice System, etc.
Usenet newsgroup
news://rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
http://world.std.com/~clkl/columbine.html
A quilt is being made to comfort the mourners of the Columbine shooting
tragedy.
Columbine High Memorial
http://welcome.to/remember_columbine_hs
Info on victims. More links.
Grief at Columbine High School
http://www.dragonstouch.com/remembering/columbine/index.html
A list of the victims. Message board.(Link to one of the victims, Rachel
Scott's Memorial page)
Friend of Mine by Cohen brothers
http://columbine.net/friend.html
Lyrics of the song. How to order their CD.
Ribbon of Promise
http://www.ribbonofpromise.org/
A non-profit organization to raise awareness of School violence.
Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/earlywrn.html
research-based practices designed to assist school communities identify
warning signs early and develop prevention, intervention and crisis
response plans.
The Denver Post, Columbine Tragedy Coverage
http://www.denverpost.com/news/shotmain.htm
Local coverage of the story, More links.
Commentary: Reflections on Columbine
http://www.edweek.org/ew/current/35wagner.h18
A former teacher's reflections on high school social settings.
Microsoft Word Tips
Columns and Tables
When presenting your information, whether it is a family newsletter or an
important presentation for your boss, it is important to make it visually
pleasing and easy to understand. Using columns and tables can help
you communicate more effectively, and they're easy to use.
In Word you can find them on the Standard Toolbar (if you can't see this
toolbar, click the "View" menu, point at Toolbars, and click on
Standard). To create multiple columns in a new document, click the
columns button and drag your mouse from left to right until you get to the
number of columns you want and then release the mouse. If you're
working with a normal, letter-sized page and are typing text, you won't
want to have more than four columns. Two or three are usually the
most effective.
To convert existing text to columns, highlight the text you want to be in
columns and then click on the columns button and highlight the number of
columns before letting go of the mouse. You have to be careful using
columns with part of a document as Word often tries to change the whole
document to columns. Make sure you save the file before you start
adding columns and then, if you don't like the results, don't save it.
Tables are an even more effective way of presenting information. The
easiest way to make a table is by clicking on the table button and
highlighting the number of columns and rows you want. Word will
automatically space the columns evenly across the page and make each row
one line tall. You can format the table any way you want but
we find it most effective to add your information first and then to format
it.
Word provides a wide range of formats for you to choose from. To let
Word do most of the work for you, right click anywhere in your table and
choose Table Autoformat. Click the format you like and view it in
the Preview window before making your choice. If you choose a format
and then change your mind, you can always go back and change the
table. To avoid unpleasant surprises, be sure before you click OK
whether you want Word to resize your columns to fit your data. If
you've got the columns where you want them, make sure the Autofit
checkbox is not checked or each column will be shrunk to the width of the
longest item in that column. Everyone has their preferences and,
when making tables, we prefer the simplicity of Grid 1 or Grid 4.
You can make other changes to tables by merging and splitting cells.
To merge two or more cells, highlight them with the mouse, right click,
and choose merge cells, Similarly, to split a cell, highlight it,
right click it, and choose split cell.
If you've been using the tab key to make columns and tables, try using
these built in tools to make your life easier. |
This
Issue of Edunotes for Educators is dedicated to the memory of Dave
Sanders, a teacher who gave of himself for years as a teacher and
ultimately gave himself that his students might live.