The Michigan Doily - Monday, September 29, 1986 -PaaF
Learning Tool
offers help for
messy notes
Play dirty
Reid Zeising, of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, returns a kickoff against Phi Delta Theta in
played during the men's half-time.
Daly Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY
Saturday morning's mudbowi game. The women
By LOUIS STANCATO
All semester you frantically
scribble notes in class only to find
two days before an exam that your
notes look like some foreign
language that you can't
understand. You may find help
in a computer.
Learning Tool is a computer
program usable on Macintosh
Computers designed by Associate
Professor of Education Robert
Kozma, and John Van Roekal,
the former director of the
University's computer aided
engineering network.
ACCORDING TO Kozma, who
is the project director of the
National Center for Research to
Improve Post Secondary
Teaching and Learning,
Learning Tool is not to teach
students, but to help them learn.
"It is designed to help learners
enter information, structure, and
reorganize it. . .A lot of student
input went into development,"
Kozma said.
Learning Tool is an
"electronic notebook" which can
be used in classes from chemistry
to philosophy.
STUDENT ARE not using
Learning Tool yet, because it just
hit the market, selling for $50.
Students in Wilbert McKeachie's
Psychology 100 class, however,
were given a Learning Tool disk
to use. McKeachie said he doesn't
know if the software will help
students learn, but agrees with the
principles of the program.
Learning Tool helps students
organize their thoughts. A student
studying Astronomy, for
example, could type in "sun", then
organize principles about the sun,
such as size, temperature, and
distance. Each bit of information
is stored on a "notecard" and can
be recalled for further study or
stored.
Users can work at their own
pace. "You don't have to organize
things as you put them in," Van
Roekal says.
VAN ROEKAL serves as
president of Arborworks Inc., the
company > he developed with
Kozma to produce Learning Tool.
Arborworks is an almost fully
self-subsidized company, with
both founders pouring much of
their own money into the
fledgling company.
A partial grant was obtained
from the University, which led to
the six months of negotiations
involving royalties concerning
the program. Currently the
University receives some
royalties from the sale of
Learning Tool, but Arborworks
retains all rights on the product.
The partners hope to sell the
software to students and to
universities. Some universities
have expressed interest in the
program, including Dr, xe,
University in Philadelphia, znd
Carnegie-Mellon University in
Pittsburgh.
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0M9ORII
Michigan
WASHINGTON (AP) - They
agonized. They deliberated. They
weighed pros and cons. In the
end, they reached different
conclusions.
Michigan congressmen say
the House vote last week to aprove
a historic tax-overhaul package
was among the toughest ballots
they've ever cast.
WITH MANY of them still
wavering in the final days and
hours before the vote, the
delegation ultimately split 13-5 in
favor of the bill, all five
dissenters being Democrats.
"I've been in politics 22 years
and I think this is probably the
most difficult decision yet," said
Rep. Dale Kildes (D-Flint), who
legislators
ended up voting in favor of the
legislation. "But there's no
'maybe' button down there."
Freshman Rep. Bill Schuette,
(R-Sanford), said it was just
hours before the vote Thursday
afternoon that made up his mind
to support the legislation.
"IT WAS not black or white at
all," he said.
Rep. John Dingell, the
powerful Trenton Democrat who's
often out front on major issues,
sat quietly in the House chamber,
and listened to the final hours of
debate before resolving to vote
against the tax measure.
"I'll tell you, it's a hard, hard
decision," said a Dingell aide
who didn't want to be identified.
split over
"When you come from Michigan,
where a lot of people perceive the
substance of the bill as having a
somewhat questionable impact, it
makes it a very difficult
decision."
THE LEGISLATIONwould cut
individual and corporate tax
rates and eliminate or reduce
several deductions and
exclusions. On average,
individual taxes would be cut
about 6.1 percent and more than 6
million working poor would be
dropped from the tax rolls.
Nonetheless, several million
couples and individuals would
face tax increases. The reduction
in individual taxes is being
financed by increasing the
tax bill
overall burden on busines by $120
billion over the next five years.
Michigan supporters of the
legislation pointed to the reduced
individual tax rates, removal of
working poor from the tax rolls
and transfer of taxation to
profitable corporations to justify
their votes.
THE DISSENTERSraised
concerns about how many people
would see their taxes go up,
complained about new breaks for
special interest groups, argued it
would hinder ecomonic growth
and said it would make it harder
to control the burgeoning federal
deficit.
Researchers cite government bias in reports
WASHINGTON (AP)- The
federal budget office has
unwisely interfered with the
government research proposals
and thwarted the study of serious
health questions, including one
involving workers in Michigan,
a panel of scientists reported
yesterday.
Rep. John Dingell, (D-Mich.),
issued a report which concluded
that the federal Office of
Management and Budget has
shown "demonstrable bias" in its
review of research proposals
under a 1980 law designed to
reduce government paperwork.
THE REPORT, which
examined OMB review of
research proposals at the Centers
for Disease Control, was done by
scientists at the Harvard Schooi' of
Public Health and the Mount
Sinai School fo Medicine at the
City University of New York.
"The health policy
implicaations are serious," the
scientists reported. "OMB is
clearly interfering with the
substance of CDC research. OMB
has delayed, impeded, and
thwarted governmental research
efforts designed to answer public
demands for information on
serious public health questions."
It found the agency was seven
times more likely to reject
studies with an enviornmental or-
occupational health focus than to
reject those on issues like
infectious deseases or other
conventional diseases.
THE SCIENTISTS studied six
major research proposals from
the Centers for Disease Control
and found each was "either
significantly delayed, seriously
altered inscientific design, or
disapproved entirely" by the
budget office.
All six previously had been
approved by panels of experts, yet
"a redirection of research by an
agency without public health
competence has occured in each of
these six cases," the scientists
said.
Dingell accused the budget
office of interfering with the
substance of government
research "under the guise of
paperwork control."
In the Michigan cases studied,
"OMB's paperwork review
resulted in a six-month delay in
undertaking important cancer
screening in a large population at
risk and may have weakened the
proposed study design," the
scientists found.
IN 1979, Michigan health
officials closed the Anderson
Development Co. in Adrian and
attempted a community cleanup
due to contamination by the
carcinogenic chemical MBOCA.
State health officials requested
CDC's asssistance in evaluating
cancer incidence among
manufacuring workers formerly
employed at the plant.
The proposed study of 533
workers was scrutinized and
approved by peer reviewers, and
submitted in February 1985 to
OMB, which rejected the plan.
Ist Anniversary Celebration!
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BEEF 895 . BEGINNING 5 MIT
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RESTAU RANT & BAR
32 South Main Street * Ann Arbor.Michigan 48174 * Oe ss5s
FWIL)our Sunday I hurd ay10:00 pm (jolei
t ft
nth
Er
Campus Cinema
Plenty (Fred Schepisi, 1984),
MTF, 7:45 p.m., Mich.
A British woman finds life
increasingly dull after her good
old days as a government courier
during WW II are behind her.
With Meryl Streep and "genius
man" Sting.
Speakers
G. Gutierrez - "Reflections on
Liberation Theology," Studies in
Religion, 8-10 p.m., MLB 3.
M. Jackson - "Journey through
Education," CEW Women's
Student Network, noon-1:30 p.m.,
CEW, 350 S. Thayer.
J. Johnson & S. Legget -
Readings of their works, Guild
House Writers Series, 8 p.m., 802
Monroe.
Elizabeth Groeller -
ravnni'na V wr I? W ral .Tnh
Bldg., N. Campus.
S. Isied - Inorganic Chemistry
Seminar, 4 p.m., 1200 Chem Bldg.
Meetings
Tae Kwon Do Club - practice,
beginners welcome, 7 p.m., CCRB
Martial Arts room.
Women's Okinawan Karate &
Self-DefensedClub -class, 7:15
p.m., IM Bldg., Martial Arts
room.
Soph Show Mass Meeting -'The
Fantasticks," 7:30 p.m., Kuenzel
Room, Union.
Furthermore
School of Education Conference--
"Tension and Dynamism: The
Education of a Teacher, 8 p.m.,
Rackham Amphitheater
(Reception to follow, League).
7T AT A c. .._....._ -
IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR EXCELLENCE,
WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU.
Lever Brothers Company continues to expand its research
and development efforts in household and personal products.
To support our expansion, our representatives will be on your
campus on Friday, October 10th, interviewing the following
candidates 'for opportunities at our state-of-We-art R & D
Center, located in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Ph.D
. Polymer Scientists
. Chemists
Lever Brothers offers a generous compensation package and
excellent professional growth potential. !ure-ted candidates
shnoid contact unu r Placement i');a r - ar e ure m
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