Technology information for students, parents, educators, and technologists.   View online with " live links" & use Your Newsletter GENeratorTM & FreeSource-LocatorTM Guides for your next project at: FreeSource-LocatorTM Research Center: <http://www.micro-tutor.com/techtutor/>

Mapping the Information Highway:: Finding out which sites are appropriate for education could be a very challenging task if it were not for the concerted work of many dedicated researchers and organizations who have mapped many of the outstanding sites along the Information Highway. Kathy Schrock, an educator herself, exemplifies this dedication. Her award-winning site is not only regarded as a great homework helper site but one which is essential to teachers and parents as well. Check out her selections at: "Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators <http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/> "This month's newsletter aims to help the educational community (including parents) find useful technologies by safely searching the better part of the Net." Project Editor: Bob Bowman Contributing authors are Charlie Ross, Beth Bowman, and David Bowman     TechQuote:     by Bob Bowman: "Technology is not just a course, it is a vital teaching tool for all courses."

Tip of the Month Unzipping Files Many files are compressed (zipped) to save disk space and to save time when transmitted over the Internet. In the U. S., we are most familiar with the .zip extension, but globally there are many compression schemes with extensions like .arj, .gz, .lzh, etc. - each requiring a matching unzip-type program (which are discussed in detail at: Multimedia File Formats on the Internet - Compression section (by Allison Zhang) <http://www.lib.rochester.edu/ multimed/contents.htm> Two programs which are free are: PKunzip, zip for Win95 (PKWare) <http://www.winsite.com/info/pc/win95/ miscutil/pk2602ad.exe/> and wunz.exe WizUnZip - Decompresses, tests, and displays zip files via WIN3.1 <ftp://ftp.univ-st-etienne.fr/pub/utilitaire/ compress/win16/wunz.exe> Parent's Corner Searching the Net Safely Many search engines have begun to provide their own filters for students and family members: Two such examples are: AltaVista <http://www.altavista.com> Lycos <http://www.lycos.com> Top Freeware Review: KWIKDRAW: This software package is an object-oriented drawing program which allows objects to be drawn and resized without being distorted by the jagged lines associated with bit-mapped software. Drawings can then be cut and pasted to other programs designed to work within Windows®.

Actually, the user becomes a computer artist with the tools in this program and can create logos for newsletters and any number of subjects for any presentation. Objects are limited to 30 in the freeware version (unlimited in the commercial version). See both free and commercial versions at: Paul's Homepage <http://acm.ewu.edu/csdept/pschimpf/> Britannica is now free! The renown encyclopedia with its trustworthy references is available from: Britannica.com Inc. now with free access, but watch for delays <http://www.britannica.com/> Net News PositivePress brings good news! With so much of the headlines focusing on bad news, it's not only refreshing but important that we have access to the other side of the spectrum. One publisher that provides good news all the time is right on the Internet. See current positive stories as well as extensive archived choices at: PositivePress.com <http://www.positivepress.com/> © 1999 - This newsletter is copyrighted by Bob Bowman; all rights reserved; reprint rights are available through membership - see details at: <http://www.micro-tutor.com/techtutor/>; the timely FreeSource-Locator Newsletter, FreeSource- Locator Guides, and Your Newsletter-Generator are trademarks of Bob Bowman. Other names are trademarks of their respective owners.