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Andile Ndlovu | Ballet Dancer

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: arts, diaspora, entertainment, institutions

CNN reports:

Andile Ndlovu is one of South Africa's most prominent young ballet dancers, an international performer and award winner both at home and overseas.

But for Ndlovu to be accepted into the rarefied world of classical dance -- which in South Africa is traditionally seen as an elitist and a predominantly white preserve -- the boy from the rough Soweto townships says he had to overcome outdated stereotypes."I used to be picked upon for the way I walk and the way I act or carry myself," he says of his time at school, where he became disparagingly known as "the dude who did ballet."

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Africa’s Singapore or Uganda waiting to happen?

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: corruption, emerging markets, entrepreneurship, governance, leadership, trade

Opalo highlights an Economist article:

Yet Rwanda has one huge advantage: the rule of law. No African country has done more to curb corruption. Ministers have been jailed for it. Transparency International, a watchdog, reckons Rwanda is less graft-ridden than Greece or Italy (though companies owned by the ruling party play an outsized role in the economy). “I have never paid a bribe and I don’t know anyone who has had to pay a bribe,” says Josh Ruxin, one of the owners of Heaven, a restaurant in Kigali, the capital.

The country is blessedly free of red tape, too. It ranks 45th in the World Bank’s index of the ease of doing business, above any African nation bar South Africa and Mauritius. Registering a firm takes three days and is dirt cheap. Property rights are strengthening, as well—the government is giving peasants formal title to their land.

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Right to Dream Academy

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: communication, education, institutions, sports

In Ghana:

Starting on a small scale, training just a few boys on a dust pitch in Accra, the Right to Dream Academy has grown to the point at which it is today; a hugely successful fully residential international school, offering scholarships to talented children drawn from all over Ghana.
Image courtesy of Candace Feit

The focus and guiding principle of the Academy is that every talented child has the right to dream of a better, brighter future and can reach their full potential when nurtured through a carefully structured programme in a safe and healthy environment.

In March 2010, we officially opened the new RtD Academy, a US$1.5million purpose built facility, located 20km south of Akosombo in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The new Academy provides a home for our expanding programme, with specialist facilities and resources located onsite, to ensure our students can reach their true potential in life...[more]

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A couple months ago the publishers over at Henry Holt and Company sent me an advance copy of the book Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. It took me a while to finish it- but only because I was rotating in several other books as well. Actually, I thought it was a great book and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about our nation's history, the killing of Lincoln, or just wants to read a good tale.

It is important in our nation to learn about our greatest heroes- and also our greatest villains. By reading stories of people doing great things we are inspired to do great things ourselves; by reading stories of people doing bad things we are also inspired to act to stop these people form doing these bad things. And the story of the last several weeks of United States President Abraham Lincoln is a story of a man doing great things (Lincoln) and another man working to do a very bad thing (John Wilkes Booth).

The book begins with a riveting account of the final days of the Civil War, as Lincoln anxiously follows the news of the last several battles in the war. This exciting part of the book was perhaps my favorite because I enjoy military history so much and felt that the story of Grant vs Lee was a compelling one. But the book soon moves past this into a pattern where we get a glimpse into the work that President Lincoln was putting in to ending the war juxtaposed with glimpses of the plot to kill him.

Although the book is a nonfiction, it reads like a fiction novel, telling a compelling story that will draw you in and leave you wanting more. Even though you know the ending of the book (Lincoln is shot and killed), you keep hoping that there is some way that this great man will find a way out of the plot that is being put together to kill him- you keep hoping that if only he had more time he would have been able to leave the South and our nation in a much better position. And as Lincoln gets closer to doing the right things to end the war in the right manner, as he approaches a successful conclusion to the worst war ever fought in American history and the most damaging to our nation, you read with dismay the ever more sophisticated plot that John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators were putting together.

The book ends much like real life- unsatisfying. You want Booth to come to justice, you want some sort of vengeance done on him for his evil and misguided acts, and you want him to die knowing that what he did was wrong- but instead he slinks away, spending some time in stinking forests, moves slowly south, and if not for a couple chance encounters he way have gotten away. His death is unsatisfying, as I imagine it was for our nation, especially for those who knew Lincoln and weren't just going based on propaganda put out by his political opponents.

Bill O'Reilly brings a readable style to the book that makes you feel like you were there during this time, and Martin Dugard is obviously the history expert and provides the right amount of detail to also draw you in without drowning you in the too many details that sometimes overwhelms historical novels. I highly suggest you pick up this novel and put it into your reading rotation.

It can be found on amazon.com by clicking on the link below. Enjoy!

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Video: The Burden Big Government Puts on a Small Businessman

Diposting oleh Unknown |

Via Small Dead Animals I found this 2 minute video from Senator Jim DeMint (Republican, South Carolina) which explains how big government is making it harder for Americans to find jobs and more difficult for small businesses to succeed. As the video shows in an amusing way, when big government puts too many burdens on America's economy, it forces jobs and investment overseas instead of here at home. It also makes it harder for middle class small business owners to compete against large corporations (who receive exemptions and build loopholes into legislation through their lobbying), discouraging real competition and job growth.

Here is the video:

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Entrepreneurship key to escaping poverty

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: business, emerging markets, entrepreneurship, globalization, manufacturing, markets, policy, poverty reduction, wealth creation

Reuben Abraham writing in CNN:

image courtesy of Business Edge
Entrepreneurship and business are rarely accorded a serious place in discussions around drivers of economic development. A cursory look at the numbers makes this seem very surprising. China has pulled approximately 600 million people out of absolute poverty since Deng Xiaoping unleashed market reforms in the late 1970s. Never in human history have so many people been pulled out of grinding poverty is such a short span of time.

Similarly, South Korea has gone from a per-capita income of $291 in 1970 to $20,000 today. Even reform laggards like India have managed to pull a couple of hundred million people out of grinding poverty since economic reforms were initiated. Across the world, we find countries that created an entrepreneurship and business friendly environment were successful in reducing poverty drastically.

Despite the evidence, there are strong lobbies in emerging markets that make the claim that business friendly policies are anti-poor. Personally, I am in favor of redistribution, like these lobbies claim to be. However, what do you redistribute? One cannot, after all, redistribute poverty. One can only redistribute wealth, and to redistribute it, you have to create the wealth first...[continue reading]

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Issues of Informality

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: arts, Design, diaspora, emerging markets, informal economies, p2p, policy, research, urbanization

A Design Indaba preview of the recently concluded South African Informal City exhibition:

Informal city. Photo: Tanya Zack.
The South African Informal City is an initiative of the Architects’ Collective and forms parts of the technical site visits offered by the Local Government Programme for COP17...Looking at South Africa’s most relevant and innovative design and research projects in terms of urban migration issues, the 20 works featured in the exhibition aim to promote dialogue around informality and urban development.
Inner city informality, in-situ upgrading, catalytic projects, un-built projects and backyard interventions are the five categories in which the projects are presented.

Cooperation, information sharing and positive action between policy makers, practitioners, academics and civil society is what the exhibition aims to promotion, together with taking a critical look at informality and urban development. “The exhibition will provide opportunities for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, and for existing research and realised projects to become part of a greater public debate,” says Karen Eicker, Architects’ Collective director.

More here

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Commodity Resource - African Footballers

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: commodities, History, policy, sports, wealth creation

We have highlighted the commodity resource characteristics of football players within the continent.I would like to ask, why cant we build up an African football space comparable to South America's professional leagues with all its consequent non-material and financial benefits? John Wilson expands on the African state of affairs in the Guardian:

Image courtesy of orble
...there's something distasteful about an economic system that means the best players from Africa, if they're to be properly remunerated, have to move to a different part of the world to perform for western Europe's benefit. That's true of other parts of the globe, of course, but the economic imbalance isn't as stark and, elsewhere, doesn't have the same awkward echoes of colonial exploitation.

Talk of a new slave trade is unhelpfully emotive, but there is an unpleasant traffic in vulnerable and often naive young players, and it seems hard to deny that the demands of the European market have shaped the tactical development of African football. Tom Vernon, who runs an academy near Accra in Ghana and scouts for Manchester United, speaks of the "Pape Bouba Diop" template: having seen the success of big, muscular west African players, clubs go to west Africa looking for more big, muscular players and so that sort of player is prioritised, something that in part explains the dearth of west African creative players in the decade between Abedi Pelé, Jay-Jay Okocha and Kanu and the emerging generation of Kwadwo Asamoah, Dede Ayew and Gervinho.

It even suits the football administrations of individual countries within Africa to pretend that all is well, that things are developing. Not to do so, after all, would be to admit failure, and to do that would be to risk the sinecures that bring wealth, prestige and influence. The myth of Progress is sustained by a conspiracy of the complacent and the self-interested.

More here

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Celebrating Women Scientists

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: education, institutions, science, women

SciDev highlights the OWSD awards that support female scientists.In their own words:

..."[Winning the award] gave me a huge push forward to write research proposals, mentor new graduate students and spend more time in the lab," Lubna Tahtamouni, chair of the department of biology and biotechnology at the Hashemite University in Jordan, and a recipient of an OWSD award, tells Times Higher Education.
She says that, in Jordan, smart women are "labelled as unattractive, not feminine enough or even masculine," and told to prioritise their family and household, adding that "many times over the years I thought of leaving academia because of the frustrations".

"It is important to highlight that women, even from developing countries, are doing great things: making breakthroughs, contributing to advances in medicine, science, chemistry and engineering — becoming leaders and experts in their fields," says another researcher honoured in the 2011 awards, Denise Evans from South Africa.

More here

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Imagining A Brighter Future: Stocking a Romney Administration with Conservative Talent

Diposting oleh Unknown |

Let's think big picture here folks- in 2012, we have a chance to elect to the House and Senate people (and I honestly don't care what party they are from) who will push for a balanced budget, reform of our entitlement programs so that they will be more fiscally sound, protection of private property, lower and more fair tax rates (more fair means flatter with less loopholes for politically connected elites), less regulations on businesses, more liberty and freedom for consumers and investors, and increased efficiency in the delivery of government services. These sorts of 'tea party' Congressman will drive the agenda, generate ideas, and provide oversight to the other two branches.

In the meantime, we have a chance to rally behind an effective and able clerk of a President, Mitt Romney, who will capably exercise the executive powers of the United States and serve as a good diplomat, effective CEO, able commander-in-chief, and solid head of state. Sure, he probably isn't going to generate the ideas, drive the agenda, or be a mover-and-shaker in the White House- but he'll be good enough for the next 4 to 8 years, and that's okay too.

Furthermore, if the Republican Party rallies behind Romney and helps him to defeat Barack Obama, there is an opportunity to stock his administration with the kid of talent that will help set up the future of our nation over the next several years. Romney can name as his Vice President or put in his administration as top cabinet officers some young, exciting, conservatives- people who currently are not considered for the President because they lack executive experience and a track record of success at the national level- the very things that they can get while serving in a Romney administration. Remember people, this isn't a liberal blog, so I don't think people are just entitled to positions of authority and power and I actually think results and experience matter- so let's give our young, exciting, conservative Tea Party voices the experience and track record of success to pair with their ideas and views, and assure our nation a brighter future.

Previously I have suggested that he name as his Vice President Sarah Palin, arguing that she would be a positive asset to his campaign and would provide his administration with a great voice (I've also suggested that Palin be named as Secretary of Energy, another effective use of her talents). Other great candidates who Romney could pick for Vice President or Cabinet positions are Michelle Bachmann, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Allen West, Jeb Bush, or even Rand Paul. All of these people would balance the ticket and be the sort of young, exciting, passionate conservatives who would bring a great voice to Washington and get experience and gain in leadership to set up future runs for the President. Imagine all of them in an administration headed up by Romney with a Republican Congress dominated by tea-party types, and your day is sure to brighten!

Even further outside the box though is Condoleezza Rice. People aren't talking about her, but she would make an amazing VP and addition to the ticket, and if not VP she could step in right away and be an immediate asset as a cabinet Secretary of State. The Washington Times recently reminded that she is still out there:

...America’s first black female secretary of state is quietly positioning herself to be the top choice of the eventual Republican presidential nominee, ready to deliver bona fide foreign-policy credentials lacking among the candidates. The 56-year-old has recently raised her profile, releasing her memoir in November and embarking on a monthlong book tour.

After 2 1/2 years as a professor at Stanford, Miss Rice is reportedly getting “antsy” to get back into the political game. “She’s ready to go,” said one top source.

Ready indeed. She still rises at 5:30 a.m. and runs through a vigorous P90X workout. (Her guns are now a match for those of first lady Michelle Obama.) Sure, she’s been playing a lot of golf, and no doubt banging on the piano (sometimes with cellist Yo-Yo Ma), but she’s clearly ready for more.

Her addition to the ticket, which wouldn’t come until late next summer, would dramatically change the dynamics of the 2012 election. As a black woman - her family has roots in the Deep South stretching back to before Civil War era, and worked as sharecroppers after emancipation - she would mute Democrats’ charges of racism among conservatives, especially tea party members. And her sex would likely prompt moderate women to take a serious look at the Republican ticket....

I know many of us want the Presidential candidate from the Republican Party to be the bold, bright conservative that boldly shoots tea party values, but the truth of the matter is that generic Republican does better in the general election than anyone matching that description, and so let's pick generic Republican Romney, win the election, and then staff his administration with the future. Get excited people!

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'South Africa's Victim Ideology'-Moeletsi Mbeki

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: business, economics, emerging markets, entrepreneurship, globalization, policy, poverty reduction, wealth creation

Moeletsi Mbeki on the ANC's policies:

We are paying the price for half measures and a victim ideology that drives consumption instead of production...A black upper class is now in place which, despite its size, is significant and established, he says. There has been a badly needed – though at best partial – redistribution of wealth in favour of blacks, not least through the tax system and government expenditure, but also through initiatives such as Black Economic Empowerment, a want-to-be equitable wealth plan closely associated with his older brother Thabo Mbeki, who led the country from 1999 until he was abruptly ousted from office by his own party, the ANC, in 2008.

Continuing...

Such piecemeal efforts do not amount to transformative justice, however, "which in South Africa should be about raising the earning power of the worker. We have a capitalist system and therefore by definition, the productive assets are owned by small groups, for whom large groups work. If their earning power was enhanced, it would have a knock-on effect on so much else, not least our education and health systems. That would have been real transformative justice."

But it didn't happen that way. Instead, the wrong measures were put in place, in his view. "The ANC adopted the Washington Consensus and other policies that began to shrink rather than grow the economy. Today it's stagnated, if not regressing. Look at the manufacturing system, once the main employer. Now it's shrinking and that's critical because it employs the semi-skilled and unskilled who are the bulk of the South African labour force.

More here

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MTN | Profiting from Nigeria’s informal economy

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: business, communication, entrepreneurship, globalization, informal economies, self-sustanance, System D

Robert Neuwirth writing in How We Made it in Africa:

Image courtesy of howwemadeitinafrica
Perhaps the most strikingly visible way in which formal businesses make use of System D is in the mobile phone industry. Along every road in many African and Asian countries – on median strips, on the side streets and main drags, in the middle of highways, at almost every intersection – you can find small plastic tables with umbrellas overhead.They’re called umbrella stands and they are the phone booths of the developing world. In the sparse shade offered by those umbrellas, the formal economy meets System D in an extremely direct way.

Nigeria provides a perfect case study. It’s the largest country in Africa, with a mobile phone market that seems to have nothing but upside, and a variety of telecom firms are battling for market share.
MTN, a massive multinational based in South Africa and active in twenty one countries through Africa and the Middle East, had spent years looking for a way to gain a share of the Nigerian market. With a population of close to a hundred and sixty million, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, and one in six Africans is a Nigerian

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And so, the Looting Goes On | Nigeria's Local Governments

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: accountability, activism, corruption, crisis, governance, leadership

Salisu Suleiman writes:

Nigeria’s Constitution recognizes local government areas as the third tier of government after the federal and state governments. Their functions are clearly defined. They are entitled allocation of funds from the federation account for use in carrying out their functions. All of Nigeria’s 776 local councils each receive billions of naira in allocations, but nobody knows where these monies end up. Where are the local roads, dispensaries, schools and markets? Where are the projects to speed up development? Where are the trillions? No wonder it is now vogue for chairmen to own houses in London, Dubai and South Africa. And because there are little checks, accountability is weak and audit systems compromised. The public is generally disinterested.

And so, the looting goes on.

That is why today, there are places in Nigeria that cannot be reached by any form of motorized vehicle; reaching those places entails abandoning vehicles and trudging on foot. That is why in some areas today, medical emergencies are transported to clinics on motorcycles or donkeys. That is why in many places pupils still study under trees in lieu of classrooms. That is why we must ask: Where are the boreholes that are supposed to provide potable water? Why do so many people die from preventable diseases like malaria, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and meningitis? Why do we have mountains of refuse and clogged drainages all over the country?

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/30/2011

Diposting oleh Unknown |

PediaPress – Catalog

This is the catalog of books from Pedia press. While some editors are wikipedians, it is interesting to me how one of the top books is American Warplanes of WWII that has one editor. It looks like you can take it and pull from wikipedia and then edit. This is very interesting. While it is not new news about pediapress, when it first came out we didn't have such examples to review.

tags: education news
Application for Flat Classroom® Project 2011-2012

Current application dates for Flat Classroom projects.
I'll be running NetGenEd and co-planning Eracism with Julie as well as work with the book club starting in February.

Flat Classroom Project - application deadline January 23, 2012 for FCP12-1
Digiteen - application deadline February 1, 2012 for Digiteen 12-1
'A Week in the Life...' - application deadline February 15, 2012 for AWL12-1
Eracism - application deadline February 30, 2012 for Eracism 2012
NetGenEd - application deadline February 1, 2012 for NetGenEd 2012

APPLY NOW! to become a Flat Classroom® Certified Teacher. Courses will run starting in September and November 2011, as well as March 2012.
Global Education Conference 2011

tags: flatclass education globaled edu_news
Skitch for iPad! - Evernote User Forum

Skitch for the Ipad is here. This whiteboard drawing, mind mapping ipad tool saves to evernote. If you love evernote, this is a must download tool.

tags: eduapp education evernote skitch app edu_news
Dabbleboard - Online whiteboard for drawing & team collaboration - Interactive whiteboard software

An online collaboration whiteboard. You can use it for free. Try using this for mindmapping and brainstorming between teams.

tags: eduapp education collaboration edu_news
10 predictions for 2012 | Daniel Pink

Dan Pink's predictions for 2012, bound to have some people talking.

tags: education news 2012 prediction edu_news
Lytro

Dan Pink predicted that next year's hot technology item is going to be the Lytro camera. It captures everything and lets you focus afterwards. It looks very cool but it is one of those things I need to see to understand. Anyone using one yet?

tags: education technology edtech news photography
Recipients of 2011 Global Forum Educator Awards Announced: Evening event hosted by Microsoft Partners in Learning recognizes 18 educators around the world for their innovative uses of technology in the classroom.

Great announcement about the winners of Microsoft's Global Educator Awards program. As a judge for the US competition, the coding guide is an amazing piece of research-based evaluation of teaching methods that should be shared. Unfortunately, this awards announcement has NO hyperlinks. It always makes me upset when teachers are recognized without Twitter handles, links to their efolios. If we want to disseminate best practice, it should be done using the web. Static press releases, especially for something like this, are a waste of space. now, I have to search for all of these things.

tags: education news teachers
American Teacher | Microsoft Partners in Learning

A new movie "the American teacher" is coming out and Microsoft is coordinating the community screening of this film based upon the New York Times Best Seller "Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers" produced by Vanessa Roth and narrated by Matt Damon. This website lets you order the DVD or volunteer to host a screening. I cannot find a release date on the site.

I hope it is balanced. Teachers aren't perfect but it is not ok how teachers are being treated. Unfortunately, very few people are talking about just teachers -- it seems to be focused on union vs. anti union at this point in politics with teachers caught in between.

tags: education news teachers microsoft videos edu_news
So.cl

This is the Microsoft Research so.cl website (pronounced social) that is being tested in a few universities. I find it incredibly interesting that students sign in using Facebook instead of Windows Live ID, the preferred sign in for other services.

tags: education news socialmedia microsoft edu_news
Will the Google-FTC Buzz Settlement Butt Into Larry Page's Social Mission? - Forbes

For those comparing the FTC's stand against Facebook with Google Buzz, here is the Forbes article on the April 2011 Google Buzz settlement. We will have our Digiteen students looking at this material as they discuss privacy.

tags: education news privacy digital_responsibilities digital_literacy
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: 'We've Made A Bunch Of Mistakes' - Forbes

Facebook faces 20 years of privacy audits by the Federal Trade Commission. Similar to an agreement with Google Buzz,this shows the FTC's commitment to project consumer privacy. (Any wonder Google Buzz is going bye- bye.)

tags: education facebook news privacy digital_safety digital_responsibilities
Google's Opt-In Facial Recognition Avoids Facebook's Missteps - Security - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

New Google+ service Find My Face lets you opt in to photo tagging. For information on this service and how Google is trying not to repeat some of the "mistakes" of Facebook. However, some would argue that mistakes of Facebook have also been what made it wildly popular.

tags: education. socialmedia google news digital_communications
Gaffe prompts official to resign - World News - MSN News UK

It seems harmless but sometimes just commenting on Facebook in the normal course of business causes problems. Now that every person on Facebook literally has a fan page (people can follow you without you having a fanpage) you are going to see this happen more often. If you really want to share with your friends, this certainly gives rise to websites like Path that only let you friend up to 150 people and keep things very private. Public officials may be left with no other option. Show me a person who doesn't say something politically incorrect and I'll show you someone in the graveyard. We all mess up.

tags: education news socialmedia digital_responsibilities digital_communications
Google Apps Education Training Center

Free Google Apps training center. This will take you through the tools that are part of Google apps for education. Share this with your teachers and students.

tags: education google eduapp traning edu_news
Age requirements on Google Accounts - Google+ Help

"The following age requirements apply for owners of a Google Account (with the exception of accounts in Apps for Education domains):

Spain: 14 or older
South Korea: 14 or older
Netherlands: 16 or older
All other countries (including the US): 13 or older

Keep in mind that specific products may have additional age requirements. For instance, Google+ requires users to be 18 or older."

tags: education news google
Frequently Asked Questions about Google Account and Age Requirements - Accounts Help

I'm seeing more information about children activating G+ accounts and putting in an age that is "too young" to have an account (under 18.) Here are the instructions for reactivating an account (which involve a credit card charge that is then removed.) As more kids move to G+ this will be a problem. I told my students to stay away from G+. Of course, having them on Google apps for domains helps you on this as the terms of service are between the school and Google and with parent permission, you are accepting the terms of behalf of the students.

tags: education news google edu_news
Why researchers want to overhaul the Gregorian calendar | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Give up accuracy and go for convenience? Wish your birthday or Christmas was on the same way every year? Researchers at Johns Hopkins think we need a new calendar. What do you think?

tags: education calendar news
iPads and the Embarrassment Factor - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Fascinating read from a professor about the response of his graduate students when they all received ipads. Some felt that by carrying them they came across as elitist. Perhaps it is because so many people want them and they are still very expensive. Very interesting read.

tags: education news ipad
Times Higher Education - BIS research to study private providers

British government is studying how effectively private and alternative suppliers provide higher education services. As educators prime for the upheaval to learning that is already upon us, institutions of higher education are being eyed as places for potential cost savings and to determine if education can be delivered more effectively in other ways. They also looked at some US studies as they prepare this study.

tags: education edreform edu_news
Microsoft Working On Social Network For Students

Microsoft not going for social networking but for educational networking. Before you roll your eyes, the fact is that overlaying educational networks on top of social networks is rife with problems. This is being tested at University of Washington, Syracuse University and New York University. There are many benefits to keeping work and personal separate and educational networks may be a great asset if done right, to the education space.

tags: flatclass globaled elearning education edu_news
Email blackout: Victory for workers or last gasp for trade unions? | ExtremeTech

Volkskwagen agrees to turn of blackberries after hours as part of a union agreement. While I don't know a lot of teachers connected via blackberries,I do personally know the complexities of global collaboration in schools. We must learn to balance work and home and know when to disconnect but then again, a work environment can become so fast paced that everyone seems to expect the others that they should work 24/7. Yet another reason to advocate checking email 2-3 times a day - let everyone know when you will be available and stick to the schedule.

tags: balance productivity news edu_news
Connect anything to the cloud with Twine | ExtremeTech

New project started by 2 MIT students.Twine seeks to help you easily access your home remotely. The small bar-of-soap looking object monitors the temperature and movement of the device usinga simple app called spool. Increasingly computing is about intertwining with our lives.

I'm going to draw another conclusion here that may bother some of you. As we increasingly use our smart phones to control our homes, let people in the door, monitor things,are we causing danger and/or damage by denying students the right to access their phone, say, for example, if the house says it is on fire and mom and dad are out of town.

I think we're going to have to coexist with cellular and smart phone technologies. It is inevitable but it is also about behavior. A child wouldn't have 1,000 emergencies in a day ( a text message isn't an emergency) but may have one that becomes a big deal and a big liability.

tags: education news technology
Gladwell vs. Shirky: A Year Later, Scoring the Debate Over Social-Media Revolutions | Threat Level | Wired.com

If you like controversies between leading thinkers, you'll want to read wired.com's overview of the verbal jousting between Clay Shirky and Malcom Gladwell over the importance of social media in social uprisings. I think this author has a very neutral perspective that is valuable for evaluating this discussion between two very influential people.

The thing I find odd is that Gladwell in his book Outliers talks about the importance of "mavens" and their influence. Surely, mavens online can have more influence than ever before. I'm not sure how he can forget his own work in Outliers as he puts down the importance of social media in politics.

tags: education socialmedia news
Transistors made from cotton yarn, t-shirt computers incoming | ExtremeTech

T-shirt transistors. Wearable computing is very close. I doubt it will look like it does on the fantastic model in this post, but there are uses we cannot imagine as of yet. It would be fun to have students read this and invent the future of wearable computing. Or you could do this as a writing assignment and have them write about it.

tags: education news technology
Why Hasn't Google Responded to Death Threats on Google+?

Big controversy running through Google plus. Because controversial photographer Brandon Campeaux had over a quarter of a million followers, they are connected to just about everyone. He left Google+ in a huff and deleted his account when he says Google refused to respond to death threats against him. Word is,some of the people he asked to help him "are on vacation."

On another note, once a Google+ post is reshared, you can no longer delete it. This is perhaps a very interesting case study for whether Google+ is ready to grow. By the way, Myspace still has more active users than Google+.

tags: education news socialmedia digitalcitizenship

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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'The Protester'

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: activism, crisis, culture, History, human rights, leadership

Time magazine celebrates the 'The Protester':

Mannoubia Bouazizi holds photo of Mohamed Bouazizi photo by Peter Hapak

It began in Tunisia, where the dictator's power grabbing and high living crossed a line of shamelessness, and a commonplace bit of government callousness against an ordinary citizen — a 26-year-old street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi — became the final straw. Bouazizi lived in the charmless Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, 125 miles south of Tunis. On a Friday morning almost exactly a year ago, he set out for work, selling produce from a cart. Police had hassled Bouazizi routinely for years, his family says, fining him, making him jump through bureaucratic hoops. On Dec. 17, 2010, a cop started giving him grief yet again. She confiscated his scale and allegedly slapped him. He walked straight to the provincial-capital building to complain and got no response. At the gate, he drenched himself in paint thinner and lit a match.

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African Abortion Wars

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: culture, enlightenment, human rights, women

Alexis Okeowo writing in the NYTimes:

Every sub-Saharan African state already allows pregnant women to abort when their lives are in danger, and in recent years Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Swaziland and Togo have been working at expanding their laws to allow abortions in more circumstances.

Still, in all of sub-Saharan Africa, abortion is legal only in Cape Verde and South Africa. And the number of unsafe abortions on the continent is staggeringly high: every year, there are over six million unsafe abortions conducted in Africa, and about 30,000 women die from the procedure. Unsafe abortions are among the leading causes of death for women admitted to hospitals around much of the continent.

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Quick Hits

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: activism, aid, culture, globalization, History, media

The persistence of colonial institutions via Chris Blattman
South-South ties reshape aid paradigm
Mimi Ito on 'Otaku culture' and cultural soft power
Yenesew Gebre of Ethiopia "Give me Liberty or Give me Death!"

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10 Ways to be Wonderful: Happy Birthday Kip!

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: inspiration, marraige, teaching

The greatest learning experiences of my life have never been on mountaintops. They have almost always been in closets, in holes, and in the mud. Today, my incredible husband, Kip turns another year older. (Note: I began this draft on his birthday in November. Just finished today.) I want to write a post of inspiration and encouragement dedicated to him because he is a safe haven for me. He gets me to sit still when I won't. He helps me understand why I do what I do. He is my perfect match not perfect because he's perfect but perfect because we love each other even though we are imperfect.

As we enter the holiday season, I'm using examples from his life to show what I think helps us all live "a wonderful life."

1 - Put love last and you put it first
Kip makes sure the last thing he says to each of us when departing or going to bed is "I love you." I like to do this too because if something should ever happen, I want each person I love to know that I love them with all my heart. Love transcends crabby moments and petty disagreements.We don't have to be alike to love each other.

When do you say I love you to those you love? Is it often enough?

2 - Know that hard times give you the chance to be a hero
One of the things that totally won my heart was when I was expecting each of our three children. I was not a blushing expectant Mom. I was literally, physically sick 6-7 times a day so that the mere mention of the word "chicken" or certain colors would send me running for the ladies room.

My husband took care of me. Cooked dinner. Brought dinner and never complained once for 9 months x 3 children. He was there. Because of his service, loyalty and total selflessness in those months as well as many other times when I was just having a hard time I totally adore him. He was there for me when I wasn't attractive and not even pleasant to be around. He loved me unconditionally. Such love is rare. So many people want to have the enduring love but don't want to endure when times get tough. Kip is a modern hero in my book because he saved me during some very dark days for me with his kindness and love.

When you have rough times, think of how that person will feel when you make it through that time and stayed loyal no matter what.

Are you willing to go through hard times with those you love? Everyone has them.

3- Have your priorities straight.

Do you know your priorities? Are they good priorities?

My husband does: Creator, Companion, Children, Calling, Church. In that order. He tells us that and he lives it. Many men talk such things. To live with a man who lives it every day is a dream come true.

Wow.

4 - Set your morning routine for greatness
Kip has a morning routine. He doesn't like mornings so it isn't my get up at 5 am routine but it is still a routine that fits with his priorities. Shower. He wakes up every kid in the house and keeps them on time. When he is out of town we miss him because he keeps us all in order. He sits on the edge of the bed after getting dressed, reads his daily devotional, checks the kids grades for email, checks Facebook for some inspirational pages he follows, and heads to breakfast where he reads his daily news on his ipad2. He heads out after knocking on everyone's door to say goodbye and "I love you." His morning routine is a stabilizing force in our household because he is so incredibly consistent.

What is your morning routine?

We saw this snail/slug in the mountains and
Kip stopped to explain how they move. Their body chemistry.
And wouldn't let the kids touch him as he crawled across
our path one day on our annual trip to the mountains.

5 - Be trustworthy
When my husband says he will be somewhere, he is. He is there. I can count on his word. He keeps his promises no matter what. I need to be more like him as my concept of time is not as good as his and I lollygag sometimes. I've seen him keep his promises even when he realized he made a mistake.

Do you keep your promises?

6 - Never ever quit
I told part of our story of never quitting back in 2007 in Happy Anniversary CoolCat Husband. I was washing the dishes two weeks a go listening to Brian Tracy's book The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires where Tracy says that his research shows that the average millionaire loses everything 3.2 times. I called up Kip and we laughed together, "Well we only have .2 to go, don't we." We've had layoffs, pecan groves go under water, and me become a stay at home Mom all of which had dire consequences to our checkbook and had us searching the house for quarters to buy milk. Now, we have me staying home to help with tutoring one of our children and not speaking as much this year. These are the struggles of life. It is OK, it is part of life and we will not quit. He has never quit.

Do you persist?

7 - Always move onwards and upwards
When Kip was laid off the Monday before Thanksgiving 8 years a go he could have thought the world was over. He applied and applied and went for the jobs he felt called to go for. He kept us in this small town even though it was hard to find an engineering job here. He took an entry level job as an engineer at a local plant even though in some ways it was a step backwards. He is now Engineering manager for the entire plant with over 1/3 of the people in the plant reporting to him.

A few years back, he was faced with having to lay off some people around the holidays. He did everything he could to keep as many of them employed and worked hard for transitioning others. Happily, he's been able to hire most of them back. He had been there and used that experience to help others who had to travel that hard path.

He could have had a pity party but he chose to move on and see it as an opportunity. Because he didn't get stuck in a pity party, he can now have a victory party. Yes, it took time and a whole heck of a lot of very very hard work and still does.

Do you let yourself get stuck in a rut or are you willing to move onwards and upwards?

8 - Channel your energy in positive ways
When he was having a hard time after we lost the pecan grove, I came home and our entire back porch was completely knocked out and Kip was wacking away rebuilding it. After the layoff, he built the most beautiful corner cabinet I've ever seen with his bare hands. In fact, we don't have room for it now and I can't bear to let it go because it represents so much of who he is to me.

Working with wood has always been therapeutic for Kip because he says he can see the impact immediately. It also is a benefit because our children saw their father still working even though he was in the midst of a transition.

But after 3 tornadoes that hit Camilla in 2000, I saw this in action. Kip literally took over the volunteer recovery efforts. We're not really sure how it happened but he was president of the Rotary club and I was president of the chamber of commerce and he showed up at 5 am after it happened in the command trailer and poof. He received many awards for that work and many people here in Camilla know my husband for who he is. When he's upset he doesn't sit around, he does positive things.

When you are upset or anxious, do you have a positive channel for your energy?

Taken in the Smoky Mountains. Yes, we laughed.

9 - Laugh and Laugh
There are so many times when life gets completely preposterous around here that Kip and I just start laughing at the dumbest things. "What can you do?" Is a statement we often say when things get so tough we just can't imagine it could get any crazier.

The best laughs don't come from a movie (although we do love pulling out old Pink Panther, Stooges, or the Great Race movies) they usually come from circumstances. Circumstances that would make one of us angry if we let it.

Like the time in my pregnancy lack of coordination I literally almost knocked myself out with the freezer door. I ended up on the ground when I thought I grabbed the handle for the bottom fridge and hit myself in the head with the top freezer door. It hurt and left a mark. But "what could I do?" We laughed and still do to this day. We still laugh about the worst dish I ever cooked (when my oldest son was 3 - he still remembers it! I do have to admit I wish he'd forget that one!)

Do you relax enough to laugh at yourself and see the funny things in life?

South Africa at Microsoft Innovative Educators with Stacey Rainey

10 - Encourage others around you
This blog is here because Kip believed in me. The book in January is here because Kip believed in me. My husband believes in me and encourages me.

I'll never forget last year when I was debating if I should take extra personal days and have my pay docked to go to the Microsoft Innovative Educators Technology Conference in South Africa. I was talking myself into not going.

He said,

"Vicki, I know you. I know who you are. I will take care of things at home. You know this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It fits with your mission of encouraging educators and loving teaching. I believe the people at Microsoft are a top notch company and they'll keep you safe. I think you'll regret it the rest of your life if you don't go. I'm your husband and I'm telling you to take the time, take the pay cut and go. If you don't, you'll have problems living with yourself. I can't let you do that."

So, I went, and my life was changed. I found many stories I have shared here, many new friends, and I got to see one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

It was 6 years a go just about right now (my blog-birthday is next week) when I came to my husband after my morning routine and said,

"Kip, I think God has called me to blog. It is crazy. I don't really know what it is, but I have something to do with this and it is an important part of our future."

He said,

"Vicki, I don't know what it is, but if you feel called to do it, know that you have my total support. Do it. Follow it. If you're going to do it, be the very best at it that you can be."

I'm so grateful. By telling me to be my best and do my best - it wasn't a ticket to blindly follow some dream. It was a ticket to excel. To study it. To learn it. Some people think they are helping others follow their dreams with just blind faith. My husband always expects to see actions behind my dreams. He wants to see me live it -not just say it. (That is why I'm very careful to filter things before I take him my dreams!)

I hope that I do the same for him.

Do you support the dreams of others who are closest to you in positive ways that spur them to action?

Perfection is a lie
No, my husband isn't perfect but goodness knows I'm not either.

I'm not writing this to make you sick or jealous. I'm writing this because Kip and I have had times when we had to run through the house finding enough quarters to buy milk. We've had a time when we all bundled up in our winter clothes so we could keep our infernal heater's temperature down 5 degrees so we could save enough money for Christmas. We still have many struggles and dreams as of right now.

We've given up a lot so I could write "my books" as my family calls them. The Flat Classroom book comes out in January. The Common Core in the Cloud Collaborative Writing book (still looking for your collaborative writing stories) comes out in December of next year. Kip has sacrificed as much as I am.

Well, now it is 6:42 am and I hear Kip in the hall waking up the kids. I think I'm in the mood to go give him a hug and tell him how I'm the luckiest woman on the planet to have him in my life.

I hope you'll use this to realize that love is a great thing. It isn't always beautiful, sexy, nice, fun, glamorous where two people sit in a little cafe making moon eyes at each other. The greatest loves are often forged a midst dirty diapers, job loss, insecurities, and reaching for dreams that may or may not ever happen. These are the loves that define you and make you feel like you lived a good life on this planet. I'm grateful every day that the good Lord blessed me with Kip. I've been asking for my husband since I was a child of 10.

Happy (belated) birthday Kip, I love you.

Thank you blog readers, for letting me take a day to make a tribute to my husband and best friend. Have a great day!

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We – the ‘Sudanese’ – have not been Liberated Yet

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: activism, enlightenment, History, human rights, informal economies, institutions, leadership

Abdullahi Gallab writing in African Arguments:

The Sudanese, who are experienced in leading successful uprisings and civil disobedience movements against dictatorial rule (which they did in 1964 and again in 1985), are certainly able to do it for a third time to finally liberate themselves from the tyranny and totalitarianism of the inherited state and its current and similar regimes. Then, perhaps, there would be a new opportunity for building a new Sudan out of the Sudanese collective order and its emerging good society. By that time, surely, the Sudanese “habits of the heart” that ameliorated and molded the Sudanese character and its deeper sense of civility (not the state or its regimes) would help them examine themselves, create new political communities, produce a new social contract and thus ultimately support and maintain conditions of democracy, freedom, equality and human dignity. Then, the gentler side of the Sudanese life, and the people’s propensity for it, would, should and maybe will, as Alexis de Tocqueville describes, “spontaneously [help create] the bonds of friendship, trust and cooperation that lie at the heart of civil society.” The dominant impulse by that time, I would say, will be that a change for the State of South Sudan will also be a change for the new Sudanese Sudan.

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Ripped Game Pants and the School Improvement Dance

Diposting oleh Unknown | Label: education, innovation, pedagogy, teaching

Shocked and agast, my son's pants were agape. Last night was the final game on the season and, the 26th straight win for the Westwood Wildcats and my son blocked a 270 pound behemoth with his pants flapping in the breeze.

My Westwood Wildcats Football Team
2010, 2011 State Champs
winner 26 straight football games

We were picked to lose by 13 or 20 points depending upon who you asked. They had 10 boys over 200 pounds and one over 300 and we had barely 2, maybe.

My son's pants ripped during the last football game. When I say rip, I mean a big old tear from crotch to way up the back. My son's gray sliding pants were his only salvation from indecent exposure.

Last week I had snatched up the pants and was preparing to mend them when my son interrupted emphatically:

"We're wearing the orange pants for state, Mom, don't touch 'em. They'll get fixed in the off season when they send them in to the shop."

OK, so the word "shop" should have let me realize that I was being taken to the cleaners. Imagine my shock when I look at those boys coming out of the locker room and there I see my son's grey sliding shorts and those pants and the big old rip traveling quietly up towards the waist band in the back like spilled syrup on my kitchen counter.

Isn't it funny how we're not shocked at our children as much as we say,

"What is everyone going to say about his Mama, not fixing his pants like that?"

But after the game. After we won a second state championship in a 33-21 nail biter (it was tied 21-21 with 2 minutes to go in the fourth quarter), he sheepishly said,

"Mom, it would have been bad luck for any of us to fix our pants. We all agreed to leave the tears in our pants. When you're winning, you keep doing what you're doing until it doesn't work any more."

At that point, I didn't care what anyone said about his Momma, I was just glad they won (and very glad he was OK.) But his words echoed in my ears.

Fixing What Works Breaks What Works
Sure, it was to the point of superstition and but all I could think of was some teachers I know caught in very nonsensical situations.

For example, in the state of Georgia, there were some schools that were climbing in Math scores but the state required them to move from Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, etc. to Math I, Math II, and Math III and many of the best math teachers were lost in some districts.

They tried to fix what wasn't broken for some schools to fix what was broken for others.

In the south the saying goes,

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

But we don't listen to that in education. Here are just a few examples I can think of:

An amazing teacher does a great job at a certain grade level. She hits her stride and is really doing a great job after a year or two. But "they" decide it is time for a change and give her a new grade level even though she's already taught that grade level at another school and knows it isn't a great fit for her.
A reading program works incredibly well but there is a new curriculum director and she wants to change it because she's "heard" another one is better.
A history teacher has a phenomenal history program and has a book he loves. He's aligned the book with videos and has written quite a bit of content to go along with the book for his students. It is "time' to update the book and "they" go with another program and he looks at the new curriculum to decide if he really feels like starting over. The new book isn't just a new book but a whole new way of teaching it.
A school decides that everyone is going to now be "on the same page" so the teacher who loved to quickly teach more "boring" topics (which were mastered, by the way) to accelerate into some great things that are more advanced is held back because the other teachers in the group don't want to do it that way.
A good teacher is now given a script so administrators can know exactly what is being taught in every classroom over the complaints of those teachers who feel scripts stifle the good teaching they've been doing for more than 20 years. These teachers are told they will be replaced if they can't go with the new turn teaching has taken.
I teach keyboarding with a class average of over 70 words per minute (or gwam as we say.) I use the same textbook my Mom did and teach it the "old fashioned way" because it works. We don't go into software until after I've taught them all the keys. My friends in other schools who were forced to move to a software-based approach run about 30 words a minute and the kids look at their fingers. Many don't care about the right way to teach typing, only that software makes it easier. I'm happy with my circa 1994 textbook and don't want a new one! I'll do it the old fashioned way because it works but in many schools, I wouldn't be allowed to be so "backwards." My students are still blogging, making videos, using QR Codes and doing incredible things but I just need a book to teach typing. (See my 8th Grade keyboarding portfolio using QR codes)

If you wonder why the US education system is spiriling downwards, I think we've spent the last 10 years breaking what worked and not fixing what was broken. As an advocate of teacherpreneurs (see my Washington Post oped The Freedom to Teach,) I personally think that you hire the very best teachers, give them the freedom to teach, and hold them accountable.

I'll be accountable for what I do in my room. If it goes well or awry, I'll take credit. Good teachers feel the same way.

Sure, there are some teachers who aren't behaving like professionals. But in many ways, people who are real professionals go running the other direction when they are treated like some sort of robot who has a job to tighten a bolt.

The classroom isn't about making copies, it is about making originals.

It is time to start acting like it.

Sure, my son's air-conditioned game pants are quite an extreme example of wanting to keep the status quo, but his words are wise.

"When you're winning, you keep doing what you're doing until it doesn't work any more."

We need to focus on fixing what is wrong about our individual schools and leave what is right. Just help improve what is right. Treat those who are doing a good job with the professionalism to be part of their improvement process. Kaizen is important, we must all be improving all the time.

A great teacher will fight an administrator who wants him or her to do the wrong thing in the classroom. A great teacher believes in the nobility of the "cause of teaching." Yes, teaching is a calling and a cause. If you don't teach, you wouldn't understand. If you're in love with those crazy, fun, exhausting, hormonal kids that pile into your classroom every day, you know exactly what I mean.

You want to do what is best for your students. Yesterday, my Dad wrote on my son's "game poster" for our player poster wall (where every player had an encouraging poster.)

"Get better and better every day in every way."

It is time to stop listening to the argument that to go forward we must first go backwards. That is completely preposterous. Unless you have leukemia it isn't true and neither is it true in life. There are a few schools horribly broken that need a complete overhaul. But many schools become disabled as they overhaul the wrong thing and try to fix what isn't broken.

Yes, that is what we need to do, Dad. In the game, in our classrooms, and in our lives. We need to get better and better every day in every way.

If it is working, we make it better. If it is broken, we fix it.

Photo:
Westwood Wildcats State Champs, Vicki Davis

Broken Bulb from BigStock
AllIn from Bigstock

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/30/2011

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African Abortion Wars

Quick Hits

10 Ways to be Wonderful: Happy Birthday Kip!

We – the ‘Sudanese’ – have not been Liberated Yet

Ripped Game Pants and the School Improvement Dance