News Report #5

"New, smaller iPod Shuffle gets the power of speech"
Ben Patterson, Yahoo
3/11/09
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/43468

In this article, they discuss the new iPod shuffle. The new shuffle features many add-ons and on the surface appears to be a top notch innovation. It is about a half the size of the old shuffle and is actually a little smaller than the size of AA batteries. It no longer has controls for the play/pause or volume on the face. Instead there is a new in-line remote on the earphone cord. Also the shuffle offers a VoiceOver application. Since the new shuffle doesn’t have an LCD screen to tell you what song is playing and who the artist is, if you just press and hold the center key of the shuffle's in-line remote to hear the VoiceOver speak. The VoiceOver will also tell you a list of play list and after hearing the one you want to listen to, just click play. There were a few negative draw backs noted. Third party earphones for the shuffle will not work properly, until someone creates additional earphones with in-line remotes. The other problem noted was the VoiceOver sounded robotic and you didn’t have the option of choosing a man or woman’s voice. The new shuffle comes with 4GB of storage for just $79.

I am in love with this new gadget. I am amazed at how small they have made this, “the size of a AA battery” blows my mind. My only concern would be that I would lose something that small. My current iPod is the original iPod that came out in 2005. It is the same size of my cell phone and has 4GB of storage. This new shuffle is ten times smaller and has the same amount of storage and even for a better price than I originally paid for mine. I see the authors point about the earphone situation, that can be a problem but I’m sure apple will have a solution for that. Overall, this sounds like a good item and shows our advancement in technology today.

Reading #5

This article expressed the needs to improve information literacy throughout the educational system, mostly the collegiate level. The article was spilt up into three sections: “A Long History,” “Cult Following,” and “Measuring Students.” The first section explained the history and revolution of information literacy. They brought up the how schools have progressed over the years. For example, Cal State Fullerton has required students to meet any one of three requirements before graduating: taking an online tutorial in research skills, getting at least a C- in a library course, or holding a library degree. The second section explains that sometimes librarians may put too much emphasis on trying to train and teach kids about scholarly information. It also discussed how important it is for librarians to get the word out about the information and how the technology works. The third section discusses how students are being measured based on the knowledge of information literacy. A librarian at one university has created a multiple-choice online examination that all students in the university's general-education program must take. Students who fail to score at least 80 percent are required to take a six-part tutorial. Many other universities have their own test and own way of determining whether a student is information competent, but progress all across the country is being made.

I found this article very boring and hard to keep up with even though it was short. Hearing about the history of information competency is what put me to sleep, though I did find it interesting when they brought up the fact that some universities have started requiring students to take some type of informational class on this subject before they graduate. I think that will be very helpful for those students down the road if they are required to take it their freshman year. The rest of the article I found boring and unimportant. I did agree with the last two paragraphs where it suggested that faculty members be tested on their knowledge of the subject as well as the students. If the faculty cant help the students, who can?