A new education program hopes to share a century's worth of classic American songs with kids whose musical knowledge is often limited to pop princess Britney Spears.
The Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century" program has chosen 365 American songs like "America the Beautiful," "Take the A Train," "On Top of Old Smokey" and "We Shall Overcome" for the curriculum.
The program is designed to develop music appreciation in kids. Teachers are encouraged to pair songs with historical lessons.
Songs are classified by decade and divided into categories like The Jazz Age, The War Years and The Sixties.
"The project will foster appreciation for the music-development process, songwriting, musicianship, recording, performing, producing, distribution and cultural values," the website says.
The free program is accessible both online and by CD-ROM. The RIAA distributed 10,000 kits -- including a CD and curriculum guide -- to teachers around the country.
More recent songs on the list include Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places," Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" and Will Smith's "Men in Black."
The program launches on Tuesday at Oyster Bilingual Elementary School in Washington D.C. Boyz II Men will help kick it off.
The project is co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The teaching guide was developed by Scholastic. AOL Time Warner is hosting the streaming audio and distributing it through its AOL@School service.
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New Media's meaning for kids: A new study will probe the effects of interactive media on children.
With a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers at Northwestern, Georgetown, UCLA and the University of Texas will set up children's media centers at each institution.
At some, researchers will observe children as they play online role-playing games. At others, researchers will study the effects of video games, Internet chat, e-mail and multi-player fantasy games.
Researchers hope to identify how interactive media experiences affect kids' social skills, academic performance and identity.
"There is virtually no hard information available on the impact of new media on children," said Barbara O'Keefe, Dean of Northwestern's School of Speech, in a statement. "As a result, parents are adrift as to whether their children's activities are beneficial or harmful."
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Handspring springs into schools: Handspring recently announced a number of new sales to K-12 schools and universities.
Palm, Handspring's major competitor, has been more aggressive in making deals with schools.
But now the University of Illinois, West Point military academy, George Fox University, and school districts in Dallas, Los Angeles and Minnesota have all chosen to equip students or staff with Handspring Visors.
Teachers and administrators will use the handhelds to track student attendance, schedules and grading. Students will use them for tasks like managing assignments and collecting data.
