DLAM PLANS TO SPREAD MESSAGE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY - The folk group "Peter, Paul and Mary" is working to help transform schools, camps and other youth organizations into a more compassionate, safe and respectful environment for young people. The Don't Laugh at Me Project (DLAM) is a project that disseminates educational resources that are designed to establish a climate that reduces the emotional and physical cruelty some children inflict upon each other by behaviors such as ridicule, bullying and-in extreme cases-violence. Most recently the group is working with the Masie Center to learn how the use of technology might add to the expression and dissemination of its message.

DLAM has developed three curricula, one for grades 2-5, another for grades 6-8 and a third for summer camps and after-school programs. All utilize inspiring music and video as well as materials based on the well-tested, highly regarded conflict resolution curricula developed by the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR). DLAM is a gateway program designed to provide teachers, school counselors, social workers, administrators and other professionals with an entry point for year-round social and emotional learning (SEL) and character education programs, as well as to interface with and energize other efforts of this kind. For full information and to become involved go to: http://www.dontlaugh.org/netscape/index1.htm

LIPPMAN ADVOCATES TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS - It is through the education of students that technology can be used to reinvent society, Andrew Lippman maintains - so educators are in effect shaping the future. According to Lippman, keynote speaker at the July Syllabus2001 conference in Santa Clara, CA, new technologies of bits and atoms are a driving force in the changes global networks are making in our media, communities and businesses. Systems can now be designed to respond to social and personal structures as well as impel them to change. Lippman, founding Associate Director of the MIT Media Lab, is also Director of the lab's Digital Life program, a multi-sponsor research consortium of faculty, graduate students and companies exploring the interconnection between bits, people and things in an online world. Under Lippman's direction, the program invents and explores new forms of communities through research in structured media, learning, human expression, interfaces and agents. The members of the program work to jointly define the research issues and participate in the work. Represented industries include telecommunications, media, transactions, advertising, publishing, consumer electronics and computing. (Syllabus e-News, Resources and Trends, 10 July 01)

COURSEPACKS LAUNCHED - a joint education initiative between XanEdu and The Economist, will make digital CoursePacks available by fall of 2001. Editorial content from The Economist will guide the CoursePacks and allow professors to integrate its content with XanEdu's vast archives of materials, literature works and academic collections. In addition, students will receive a print subscription to the Economist newsweekly. For more information, visit: http://www.xanedu.com

EDUCATORS PUSH REFORMS TO BROADEN DISTANCE LEARNING - The Internet Equity and Education Act of 2001, now under review by the U.S. House of Representatives, could strengthen eLearning by building a bridge between academic institutions and the IT industry. Among other changes, the bill would soften rules on compensating third-party IT firms that assist in recruiting and admissions. Allowing such compensation would encourage standard business practices, explained Stanley Ikenberry, president of the American Council on Education. "Distance education and on-campus instruction are converging, with online delivery systems being employed for distant commuting and residential students," he said. To date, 35 states have created statewide eLearning programs or virtual universities, reported Ikenberry. (Washington Technology, 2 July 01 - Edupage 2 July 01)

LOC COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL REFERENCE SERVICE - Developed by the Library of Congress (LOC), the Collaborative Digital Reference Service at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/digiref helps provide answers round-the-clock to reference questions. About 100 libraries take part in the program at present and organizers hope to add as many as 200 other libraries to the service by the end of the year. Questions are currently submitted by library reference personnel and then routed,using software developed by the Library of Congress, to other libraries that are most suited to answer the question, based on information provided by the other libraries about their hours of service and areas of expertise. At present, libraries are not required to answer more than 10 questions per week and usually respond within 2 days. Backers plan to expand the service and offer it directly to the public in early 2002 and also have an archive of previously answered questions to keep libraries from having to answer the same questions repeatedly. (Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 June, 01)

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO "BE THERE?" - A recent conference, "Presence 2001" focused on virtual reality and electronic media to discuss how technology is changing what it means to "be there." Held at Temple University, this cross-discipline, international conference drew some 70 educators, researchers and psychologists. Keynote speaker, Carrie J. Heeter, a professor at Michigan State, who teaches her classes "virtually" from the basement of her California home, described a pilot program that gave senior citizen participants with large-screen video phone, a true sense of being in someone's presence. Temple University is working on the study of presence through the development of a media interface and network design lab that will link up with universities around the world that are conducting similar research. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 31 May 01)