Sunday, November 30, 2008

What Information Technology Services Do College Students Want?

The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECARS) has an excellent research study out titled The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008. ECARS mission is to foster better decision making by conducting and disseminating research and analysis about the role and implications of information technology in higher education. ECAR systematically addresses many of the challenges brought more sharply into focus by information technologies (IT).

Here's the study abstract:

This 2008 ECAR research study is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 ECAR studies of students and information technology. The study is based on quantitative data from a spring 2008 survey of 27,317 freshmen and seniors at 90 four-year institutions and eight two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 75 students at four institutions; and analysis of qualitative data from 5,877 written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, the 2008 study also includes a special focus on student participation in social networking sites.

Key findings in the study focus on:
  • Mobility: Laptops and Internet-Capable Cell Phones
  • Computer and Internet Activities
  • IT Skills and Internet Literacy
  • IT in Courses
  • Instructor Use of IT in Courses
  • The Impact of IT in Courses
  • The Digital Divide
  • Social Networking Sites
The study does an excellent job describing how students are using information technology and more importantly what student information technology expectations are. Here's a few highlights I've summarized from the study:
  • Students expect IT services to be available when they need them.
  • Students actively use multiple modes of IT to communicate, socialize and stay connected with others.
  • Students perceive themselves as net savvy and choose mobile technologies and the use of visual media.
  • Students take advantage of web 2.0 technologies to express themselves in various ways on the Internet.
  • Students prefer learning environments where IT services are balanced with other learning activities including face-to-face interactivity with faculty and other students in the classroom.
I mark this one as a must read if you are involved in any way with higher ed instruction. ECARS has an excellent site dedicated to the study linked here.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll be taking a couple of days off but before signing-off I wanted to pass along a Littleton, Colorado story you may have been following over the past couple of days....

According to an examiner.com story, at this time last year, Monique White and her husband Doug were living in a tiny motel room and looking for work, pining for the Thanksgivings of her childhood when dozens gathered for the holiday feast. The Whites had lost their long haul trucking business, Doug was working a temporary construction job and Monique was looking for a job. Topping it all off - on Thanksgiving day last year the window in their hotel room blew out and the room filled with snow.

Things improved a bit for the Whites this past year - Monique and Doug admit they are scraping by but both now have regular jobs and they've purchased a small town home in Littleton. Remembering last year Monique decided to post a two sentence ad on Craigslist, inviting less fortunate people over to their home for Thanksgiving dinner. Monique figured she may get a few responses..... she ended up getting hundreds. Some simply said thank you and others took her up on her offer. Here's more from the examiner:

....dozens replied. People laid off work. People with no family. People ashamed to bring their children to a charity Thanksgiving dinner at a soup kitchen.

Monique ended up with 32 requests to come over for dinner and others pitched in. According to the examiner White's boss heard what she was doing and said he'd pay for the food. A local hotel is bringing over tables and chairs. A professional magician in the area replied and offered to come perform for the kids. National media outlets have shuffled through the Whites' modest town house writing about the unusual offer.

The Whites will be making and serving four turkeys and six pumpkin pies this year. They say this may become a Thanksgiving tradition in their home.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Online Learning Report - Keeping Pace

Last month John Watson, Butch Gemin and Jennifer Ryan from Evergreen Consulting Associates released an interesting report titled Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning 2008. The report takes a look at K-12 online programs in the United States. Here's some highlights:
  • State-led programs and initiatives continue to be an important online learning option for students in many states.
  • As of fall 2008, 34 states offer state-led programs or initiatives that are designed, in most cases, to work with existing school districts to supplement course offerings for students.
  • Full-time online schools are a second common online learning option:
    • As of fall 2008 there are 21 states that have these types of schools.
    • They are often charter schools, although there are also some non-charter, district-run programs that are available to students across the state.
Most state-led programs are:
  • High school level, with some middle school,
  • Supplemental—providing one or more courses to students enrolled elsewhere, and
  • Funded primarily by separate state appropriations rather than the per-pupil funding formula.
Examples of state-led programs (which provide full courses, teachers, and student support) include:
  • The Florida Virtual School
  • The Illinois Virtual High School
  • The Michigan Virtual School
  • The Idaho Digital Learning Academy
  • The Georgia Virtual School
  • The Kentucky Virtual Schools, and
  • The Missouri Virtual Instruction Program.
Examples of state-led initiatives, which provide online resources, or serve as a central clearinghouse for online courses, include:
  • The Washington Digital Learning Commons
  • The Wyoming Switchboard Network
  • The Texas Virtual School Network, and
  • The Oregon Virtual School District.
The report is long (165 pages!) but a very interesting read. You can download a PDF of the full report here.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Broadband Growth In U.S. - 1.3 Million New Q3 2008 Customers

Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) has just published a short report that looks at the twenty largest telco and cable companies in the United States. These twenty companies represent 66.7 million (94% of U.S. market) customers. Here's a breakdown of some of the information in the report:

  • Cable companies have 36.5 million broadband subscribers.
  • Telephone companies have 30.2 million broadband subscribers.
  • The top cable companies added over 870,000 subscribers, representing 67% of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus the top telephone companies.
  • Overall, broadband additions in 3Q 2008 amounted to 61% of those in 3Q 2007 – with cable having 82% as many additions as a year ago, and Telcos 40.
  • The top cable broadband providers have a 55% share of the overall market, with a 6.3 million subscriber advantage over the top telephone companies.
Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman is quoted in the report:

Over the past two quarters the top cable providers accounted for 71% of the net broadband additions, adding over 900,000 more broadband subscribers than the top telcos. Cable’s recent success compared to the telcos should not necessarily be interpreted as consumers suddenly choosing cable’s speed advantage over that of the telcos' DSL service. It is more a function of the telcos' shift in focus towards higher value subscribers while cable has been consistent in marketing broadband as part of its nearly ubiquitously available Triple Play bundles.

The report includes a very nice chart that breaks down subscriber numbers for all 20 of the companies. You can view the online version and download a PDF here.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Green IT: The Next Big Thing

Wikipedia defines Green Computing as the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. Modern IT systems rely upon a complicated mix of people, networks and hardware; as such, a green computing initiative must be systemic in nature, and address increasingly sophisticated problems. Elements of such as solution may comprise items such as end user satisfaction, management restructuring, regulatory compliance, disposal of electronic waste, telecommuting, virtualization of server resources, energy use, thin client solutions, and return on investment (ROI).


On Friday (November 14, 2008) I attended a Green IT (Information Technology) Summit in Plano, Texas. The Summit was held as part of the North Texas Regional Community College Technology Forum and was hosted by Collin College and the National Science Foundation funded Convergence Technology Center (CTC). The CTC is headquartered at Collin College in Frisco, Texas and has worked since 2004 to meet the growing regional need for skilled specialists in the area of convergence technology. The Center has done considerable work in the areas of curriculum development, professional development for high school and community college faculty, outreach to under-served populations, and mentoring colleges in the rapidly developing convergence technology field.

The CTC is currently expanding on this work to include “Green IT" and is developing online/hybrid curriculum, methods for under-represented polulation recruitment and retention, and the scaling of a Mentored College program to broaden the dissemination of convergence related degrees and certificates to an increased number of colleges around the country.

CTCpartners include El Centro College (El Centro), Dallas County Community College District; and the University of North Texas, Denton. In addition to its partners, the CTC is mentoring City College of San Francisco (CA), Orange Coast College (CA), Guilford Technical Community College (NC), Ohlone College (CA), Santa Ana College (CA) and Fox Valley Technical College (WI). Mentoring work has included:
  • Helping to build and refine advisory councils
  • Validating IT and IT related regional skills
  • Creating certificates and degrees using CTC defined curriculum as basis for new courses, and
  • Creating and implementing CT certificates
The Green IT Summit included a panel of IT industry executives discussing what Green IT is, what the workforce needs are and why it is so important. Technical sessions were focused on delivering distance education using new tools (Second Life, You Tube, Podcasting and other Web 2.0 based technologies) that our younger digital native students expect to find in modern classrooms.

EDS Fellow Charles E. Bess gave an excellent presentation at the conference titled The Greening of IT. Charles discussed where he and other EDS Fellows see Green IT going. To give you a taste - here's a piece from a seven part Green IT series on the EDS Next Big Thing Blog:

Economics are starting to play a major role, with the soaring costs of energy, penalties for e-waste, carbon credit trading and fiscal reporting moving these items on to the board agendas. Societal and environmental concerns are getting more media attention, and consumers are "voting with their wallets" to pay premiums for green products and
services. Political and legal issues are driving politicians and regulators to enact legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions and set standards for IT equipment. Technology is also driving the demand for more and more information accessible through an exploding number of end user devices which creates increased demand for direct and indirect (e.g. battery chargers) energy consumption.


This past year I've had the opportunity to visit a number of colleges and have been encouraged by the numbers of science and math focused students that are interested specifically in Environmental Technology and Engineering. When I ask these students why they are so interested the answer (it's obvious if you have had the chance to talk with a high school student recently) is commonly centered around their desire to "fix" things like global warming, energy consumption and pollution. Green IT has not hit most of their radar screens yet but it will.

If you are at an academic institution looking to re-invigorate your IT and IT related programs, Green IT is something you should consider. The Convergence Technology Center is currently accepting applications from institutions that wish to become a mentored college. Ann Beheler, Helen Sullivan and Ann Blackman are doing excellent work and this is a great way to get started. You can get more information on the mentor program by clicking here.

*******
You can see pictures I took at the Green IT Summit last Friday on my flickr page.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Marshall Goldsmith on Change

Marshall Goldsmith has a new book out titled What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. He also had a short piece in the August 25, 2008 edition of Business Week Magazine titled We’re All Entrepreneurs – Advice for the young that transcends age.

Marshall discusses the current time of uncertainty and, if we are going to be successful, how we all need to think and work like entrepreneurs. In the Business Week piece he gives the following advice to young people who are just entering the workplace:

  • It is tough out there and only going to get tougher.
  • Forget about (job) security.
  • Like it or not, even if you start out with a large corporation, you are going to be an entrepreneur.
  • Make peace with this reality and your life is going to be a lot better.
He also discusses how the West originally believed globalization would create a world where we would market our products to a worldwide audience and, in turn, buy products from other parts of the world for less money. Well, those things have happened. Now we are realizing that globalization also means people from all over the world are competing for our jobs. Here's more from Marshall's Business Week piece:

In many of the top engineering and science programs, almost no one has English as their first language - and yet they speak it fluently: That’s global competition.

Marshall goes on:

In an era of uncertainty, nothing can be taken for granted. Young people are going to have to develop skills and talents that make them globally competitive. And they are going to have to keep upgrading and changing their skills and talents to fit the needs of an ever-changing marketplace.

Goldsmith’s book is a recommended read and also available in electronic form as an audio book. There is also a Kindle version. You can check him out on the web at http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A Conversation with Pierre Thiry and James Jones from MPICT

The Mid-Pacific Information and Communications Technologies (MPICT) Center is a recently funded National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Regional Center hosted by City College of San Francisco (CCSF). MPICT's mission is to coordinate, promote and improve the quality and availability of ICT education in a region consisting of Northern California, Northern Nevada, Southern Oregon, Hawaii and the Pacific Territories. Current Regional Partners include: Ohlone College , Santa Rosa Junior College , Cabrillo College and Foothill College.

We've had a great relationship with Pierre, James and CCSF and were fortunate to get them on camera to talk about MPICT at the 2008 SAME-TEC Conference.


MPICT is off to a great start under the leadership and direction of Pierre and James. Contact them for more information at www.mpict.org

**********

We have several interviews from SAME-TEC posted and you can get them different ways:

YouTube: Watch our YouTube Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/NatCtrTelecomTech

Streaming
and Downloading: View streaming videos and download content using your web browser at: http://nctt.org/podcast


iTunes
: If you have iTunes installed you can watch and listen to this one, watch and listen to others, and subscribe to our video and audio podcasts by following this link.

We're planning and looking forward to next years conference. Watch here, our center websites and SAME-TEC.ORG for 2009 Conference information and updates.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Microblogging Study Released

You're reading this so you may have noticed my Twitter feed over in the left column. Wikipedia defines Twitter as a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

One of my favorite "tweeters" is Laura Filton, Principal and Founder of Pistachio Consulting. According to her website, Laura Fitton is one of the first prominent “microbloggers,” with roughly 8,400 readers on Twitter. She specializes in connecting people to new ideas and innovations using all the tools of (what Laura calls) microsharing. Here's more from her site:

Brands and businesses are flocking to Twitter. Internal “enterprise 2.0″ microsharing can make your company run better. But most companies have little or no clear idea of how these tools really work, what they could accomplish or how to do so. At best, many efforts are shots in the dark. At worst, they’re squandering time, resources, opportunity and brand equity.

Laura recently released a report titled Enterprise Microsharing Tools Comparison - Nineteen Applications to Revolutionize Employee Effectiveness. In the report, she takes a look at 19 different microblogging applications and how they are being used for things like HR, Marketing and Sales, R&D, Innovation, Customer relations, etc. You can get online and PDF versions and more information on the report here: http://pistachioconsulting.com/services/research/.

You can find and follow Laura (@pistachio) on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/pistachio.

I don't tweet anywhere near as much as Laura but you can also find and follow me (@gsnyder) on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/gsnyder

Monday, November 10, 2008

OECD Statistics: U.S. Broadband Penetration Rate Still Low

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released their June 2008 international broadband statistics. Here are some of the highlights:

The upgrade to fibre-based connections continues in the OECD. Fibre subscriptions comprise 9% of all broadband connections in the OECD (up from 8% in December 2007).

Fibre overtakes DSL/Cable in Korea and Japan and now accounts for 45% of all Japanese broadband subscriptions and 39% in Korea. Korea’s fibre penetration alone (12.2 per 100 inhabitants) is higher than total broadband penetration in 5 OECD countries.

The number of broadband subscribers in the OECD reached 251 million by June 2008, an increase of 14% from June 2007. This growth increased broadband penetration rates to 21.3 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, up from 20% in December 2007.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, Korea and Finland lead the OECD with broadband penetration well above the OECD average, each surpassing the 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants threshold.

The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in Luxembourg and Germany. Each country added more than 5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year. On average, the OECD area increased 2.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants over the year.

The United States is the largest broadband market in the OECD with 75 million subscribers. US broadband subscribers consistently represent 30% of all broadband connections in the OECD.

Even though the United States has the largest broadband market, our penetration rate continues to be low with a ranking of 15th in the world.

Find all international statistics on the OECD Broadband Portal linked here http://www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband

Sunday, November 9, 2008

WPA - Give It A Crack [Podcast Recorded Today]

German graduate students Erik Tews and Martin Beck have discovered an exploitable hole in WPA, a popular wireless encryption protocol. This week, Tews will present a paper on the topic at the PacSec conference in Tokyo. In this 32 minute and 50 second podcast Mike Qaissaunee and I discuss wireless network security and the newly discovered WPA hole.

Here's a list of questions asked during the podcast:

Where is the information for this podcast coming from?

Why is this important?

So, we've now got a security issue with WPA encryption! Before we get to WPA - can you give us a little background on wireless encryption?

So, the first attempt was WEP. Most devices still support it - why should we not use it?

So, that's not good. What did the IEEE do?

What else did the 802.11i group do - what was the second solution?

So, let me make sure I understand. Older wireless devices can be updated to support WPA which includes TKIP. Now, I've heard of WPA2 - what is that?

So, the new products support both but old products only support WPA. I think I've got it! What did Tews and Beck actually crack?

So the problem is with old devices that only support WPA and TKIP and not WPA and AES?

What is the problem with TKIP?

Now, didn't WEP use checksums this way?

The ars technica piece mentioned short packets are ideal - especially ARP broadcasts. Why?

Let me see if I understand, an attacker sniffs a packet, makes minor
modifications to affect the checksum, and checks the results by sending
the packet back to the access point.

So it is not something we should be worried about?

What can we do to protect our networks?

Can you describe rekeying?

Now, I've heard of this - you need to be careful. You don't want to enable rapid rekeying unless ALL of your clients support IEEE 802.1x and an authentication method (e.g. EAP-TLS) that supports key distribution.

So, let's get to the point here - WPA really is not broken?

Here's how you can get the answers:

To read show notes and listen to Mike Q and my 32 minute and 50 second podcast (Sept 2006) titled WPA - Give It A Crack , click here.

Listen to it directly in your web browser by clicking here.

If you have iTunes installed you can subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

*****

Podcast Reference from ars technica: Battered, but not broken: understanding the WPA crack

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Learning From Some Really Impressive People

This week I gave a presentation in Bloomington, Minnesota at the Investigative Science and Law Enforcement Technology Initiative (ISLET) Criminal Justice Summit. ISLET, led by Principal Investigator Dr Carol Mathews from Century College, is a project funded by the National Science Foundation. Here’s some detail from the ISLET project website:

The ISLET Project has been initiated to equip peace officers with a better awareness and understanding of the scientific foundation underlying the various investigative sciences and technologies.

Through changes to the degree programs, the initiative provides today's law enforcement officer:
  • More focused investigative awareness
  • A mapping of learning objectives for investigation and chain of custody for evidence across the community
  • A comprehensive perspective of current law enforcement technological trends and expectations
  • Meeting the role/identity challenges as first line of defense, first responder, one who protects and serves the community.
Many of the attendees were practicing law enforcement people and many were wearing their badges and their guns. Lacking any criminal justice experience I did not know what to expect. Session topics included forensics, gang identification, terrorism, cyber-crime and homeland security. I was so impressed with what I heard and saw - the different ways IT and communications technologies are being used are extremely complex and technical. If you think law enforcement is a low tech field, you need to take a closer look.

I also had the opportunity to make some new friends and listen to some real “cop” stories. Thursday evening I spent a few hours with a number of law enforcement people including three sworn police officers – Rick, a police chief from a town in Minnesota; Lee, an officer from one of the larger cities in Minnesota; and Vanessa a community college criminal justice faculty member who recently came off duty as a patrol officer in a large Massachusetts city. Between the three of them I’m guessing there is between 60 and 70 years of combined duty. Listening to their stories and seeing their dedication, awareness and conviction to their work was something I won't forget. We also had more than a few laughs.

Some fascinating presentations, technology applications, stories and conversation with extremely dedicated and responsible people that put their lives on the line every day for all of us.

To learn more about the ISLET project:
  • Summary- an abstract of the project's purpose
  • Goals - the overall project goals
  • STEM Core - Science and Technology improvements are at the core of the initiative's purpose

Friday, November 7, 2008

Physics and My Blog in the Tampa Tribune

Blogjam cartoonist Greg Williams, who works for The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com, has taken a blog I wrote titled A Helicopter Parent at 30,000 Feet and produced it as a comic. Greg does some fun stuff with content based on contributions from readers, bloggers, and established writers and performers.

Here's the comic - you can click the image to see a high resolution version:
The online version is linked here and there's also a direct link. The comic will appear in print today in the entertainment section of Tampa Tribune.

THANKS GREG!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Vermont + Fairpoint = WiMax

Mike Q sent along a link from Information Week titled WiMax Coming To Remote Regions Of Vermont. The article describes how FairPoint, Nortel, and Airspan Networks are investing in building out the 3.65 GHZ spectrum to help spur the use of fixed WiMax in many regions of Vermont.

I've written here in the past about Verizon's sale earlier this year of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont networks to Fairpoint Communications. I've also written about a successful WiMAX implementation in Alaska and questioned the use of WiMax in rural areas to close the broadband divide.

Here's a couple of quotes from the Information Week article:

Nortel and Airspan Networks reported this week that they will supply 802.16d WiMax equipment for the Vermont deployment, which, because it will operate in the 3.65 GHz band, is unlicensed and relatively inexpensive. Scott Wickware, general manager of Nortel, said he believes the Vermont rollout is the largest 3.65 GHz WiMax scheduled for installation to date.

Noting that it is less expensive to use wireless in many regions, Nortel said the FCC's decision last year to approve the use of the 3.65 GHZ spectrum is helping spur the use of fixed WiMax in many regions that previously weren't able to obtain broadband technology.

The article quotes range of a few miles with up to 10 miles where signals have little or no interference and have no obstructions. Transmission bandwidths are quoted ranging from 1 Mbps to as much as 5 Mbps in some cases.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Minnesota Criminal Investigation Fall Summit Presentation

I gave a presentation on Podcasting today to a group of college faculty, administrators and law enforcement office at the Criminal Investigation Fall Summit ISLET (Investigative Sciences for Law Enforcement Technologies) in Bloomington, Minnesota.

The ISLET Initiative is an NSF funded project undertaken by Century College and its collaborators to deepen the science and technology skills of licensed Law Enforcement personnel. Here's an overview from the ISLET website:

With ever more sophisticated terrorism a threat to our nation's security, Century College has undertaken an effort to directly counter the increasing risk by arming law enforcement students and currently licensed professionals with updated scientific, technical, and investigative education and skills. The project is educating law enforcement personnel more deeply in investigative sciences and technologies, and to establish a regional source for curriculum planning, course development and delivery, faculty training, and information dissemination. Curriculum supporting a new two-year degree, new certifications, new continuing education modules, as well as articulation agreements with four-year institutions will be developed. Close collaboration with stakeholders, including the Peace Officers Standards & Training (POST) board will ensure new materials remainrelevant and in compliance with new and existing licensing
requirements.

Here's the presentation posted on SlideShare:

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: criminal foundation)

Sunday, November 2, 2008

China and TOM-Skype Podcast Recorded Today

Today, Mike Qaissaunee and I recorded a podcast on TOM-Skype. Last month I blogged about a report titled BREACHING TRUST: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform. The report was published on Oct 1, 2008 Nart Villeneuve and the Information Warfare Monitor. Villeneuve is CTO of psiphon inc and the psiphon research fellow at the Citizen Lab, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. In this 25 minute and 21 second podcast we discuss the report, confidentiality and security issues with TOM-Skype, the Chinese version of Skype.

Here's a list of questions asked during the podcast:

Can you tell us a little more about this report?


How about some background on Skype in China?


How about some details from the report?


You said these are publically accessible servers - can others besides the Chinese access these servers?


Can you review the major findings from the report?


What kinds of questions has the report raised?


How does the report say the sensorship actually works?

How about some detail on those servers?

The report claims it may be possbile to map users social networks using the logged information. Can you explain?

How has Skype responded?

Here's how you can get the answers:

To read show notes and listen to Mike Q and my 25 minute and 21 second podcast (Sept 2006) titled China and TOM-Skype, click here.

Listen to it directly in your web browser by clicking here.

If you have iTunes installed you can subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Polka Jamming at Center Court - Basketball Hall of Fame

Occasionally I diverge from technology and education here.....

Last Saturday night (Oct 25, 2008) my in-laws, Happy Louie and Julcia, were honored at the Krakus Festival held at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. This year the event celebrated the 400th anniversary of the first known North American Polish settlement in Jamestown, Va. Polish people were first invited to this country for their skill at producing soap, glass and potash.

Proceeds from the festival will be used to fund improvements to The Polish Center of Discovery and Learning at Elms College. The center, according to their website, is a LIVING MONUMENT, which celebrates the many contributions, past and present, of the Polish people and their descendants to the economy, the arts, and sciences of our nation. The mission of the Center at Elms College is to provide guidance and support materials to schools and other institutions wishing to introduce Polish topics to their students, to offer a variety of workshops, exhibits, concerts, conferences, seminars, films, plays, lectures and other events which focus on the history and cultural traditions of the Polish people in Europe and the United States, and preserve objects representative of the folkarts and material culture of the Polish people in America.

Entertainment at the festival included music by the Eddie Forman and Echo orchestras along with Lenny Gomulka and Chicago Push. Gabby and Eva, my two classically trained violinist daughters, got a chance to play with Lenny and his band.



Beautiful music Gabby and Eva..... congratulations Louie and Julcia..... it was a very special evening.