American Morning
School gives kids cell phones as a teaching tool
By CNN correspondent Deborah Feyerick with senior producer Dana Garrett
(CNN) – When seventh grader Cayleb Coyne wants to send a text in class, he slips his cell phone into his backpack and pretends to be looking for a piece of paper. Texting between classes has an added benefit. "It's harder to get caught in the hallways then it is in the class," says the soft spoken boy.
Coyne, who says he sends about 300 texts a day, has had his cell phone confiscated six times in six months. He's not the only one despite constant reminders from his principal at Haverstraw Middle School, Avis Collier Shelby. "Your cell phones are supposed to be where? Yes, in your locker. Not in class!" she announces over the schools public address system.
And yet class is exactly where they end up. According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, even in schools that ban cell phone use nearly 60% of all students admit texting-during-class – a growing problem facing schools across the country.
What to do? Michael Rich, a media expert and pediatrician who calls himself a "mediatrician" and counsels parents about teens and technology on his blog askthemediatriacian.com says, "I don't think we're going to stop the tsunami," he says. "Pandora's Box is open here. The technologies are here. What we need to do is to take control of them instead of letting them control us" – which is exactly what educators at the Haverstraw Middle School are attempting.
"You can't put the genie back in the bottle," says Principal Shelby, who is overseeing a pilot program that has distributed 75 cell phones to students in the fifth grade. Texting and calling has been disabled and Internet sites are filtered. The phones are used for things like note taking and research.
Amtrak: Dog's nose knows explosives
(CNN) – The transportation industry's security screening procedures have been under intense scrutiny recently by the federal government.
Amtrak, however, believes it is using something both effective and affordable. In our CNN security watch, Jeanne Meserve takes a look at Amtrak's army of specialists, highly trained to sniff out dangerous explosives.
Counting Down Cady: Boiling water at room temperature
Editor's Note: Cady Coleman, Ph.D. is a NASA astronaut – a veteran of two space missions, who has logged over 500 hours in space. She is assigned to the Expedition 26 crew and is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz 25 in late 2010. Below is a blog written by Cady exclusively for CNN via NASA's Astronaut Office.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/04/02/caldwell.tracy.gi.art.jpg caption="Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson waves while getting into her space on April 2, 2010 for launch to the International Space Station."]
By Cady Coleman, Special to CNN
Woo hoo! My friend Tracy Caldwell Dyson is in space! Tracy blasted off last night in a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan along with Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov and fellow flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko.
That is just the beginning of an exciting month at NASA. Two days from now they’ll dock with the International Space Station (ISS) and begin their six month expedition. Meanwhile, the Space Shuttle Discovery is poised on the pad for an early morning launch Monday and their crew of seven will dock with the ISS on Wednesday.
Those seven astronauts include three women that I’m proud to call friends: Stephanie Wilson, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger and Naoko Yamazaki. Let’s hear it for girlfriends in space!
The same preparations that got Tracy for her journey last night have kept me hopping as well. Since I last wrote in late January, I’ve traveled to Russia and Japan for training, spent weekends in Massachusetts to see my husband Josh and my son Jamey, qualified on the robotic arm to "catch" our supply ships, picked out pants, shirts and workout gear to wear on the space station, helped Sandra Day O’Connor celebrate her 80th birthday and got a decent start on organizing the many piles of stuff around my house and office for next December’s launch.
Is Apple's new gadget a game-changer?
(CNN) – There's just one day now until Apple's iPad is released, but the reviews are already in. The Wall Street Journal is calling it a "wicked fast" "lap-top killer."
The New York Times is not too happy with its touch-screen keyboard or lack of a camera, but still calls it "deeply satisfying" and "goof-proof."
We got a preview of Apples iPad on Friday's American Morning with Arik Hesseldahl, senior technology reporter for businessweek.com.
Read more: iPad meets its critics
Stargazer's amazing space pics grab attention
(CNN) – Amateur star-gazer Robert Harrison has grabbed the attention of the professionals at NASA with his high-altitude balloon project called Icarus.
With a few basic pieces and a few hundred dollars he took some breath-taking images 22 miles above the earth's surface. He joined us on Monday's American Morning to explain how he did it.
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