Abraham Mclaughlin of CSMonitor writes "...are 'donor darlings' stifling democracy?... In Africa's decade-plus experiment with multiparty democracy, there appears to be significant backsliding, ironically, among some heads of state once heralded as the next generation of great leaders on the continent. And the slippage, observers say, is sometimes being abetted by the US and other rich-nation donors - in part because of the war on terror.The most current example is Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who was a member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa and is an important partner in America's terror war. After a disputed election in May, he's mounted a brass-knuckles crackdown on opponents in which at least 76 people have died. He's also edging toward restarting one of Africa's most deadly wars..."
Via Friends of Ethiopia
'Donor Darlings' stifle Democracy
The other half of the Sudan story
Between 19 and 21 May, the northern Sudanese Armed Forces annexed the southern border town of Abyei. Next in Omar al-Bashir's violent re-mapping of Sudan's savannah belt of the 1956 borders, is the Blue Nile and South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains.According to the boundaries drawn up in 1956, shortly before Sudan gained independence from the British, these three areas "belong" to the north. However, these borders have always been contested, and the most recent territorial resolution, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, states that Abyei, Blue Nile and South Kordofan can choose via referendum or popular consultation whether they want to be part of north or south Sudan.Effectively dishonouring the agreement, al-Bashir appears determined to repossess the unresolved territories in a bid to preserve the political power, economy and national pride of north Sudan. In resource terms the gains would mean more water, fertile land and oil - it's been dubbed "oil-rich Abyei" despite the facts - contrary to sloppy media claims, the town is not "oil-rich", but the outlying areas and South Kordofan are...[continue reading]
Africa's informal economy can boost innovation
For half a century, science and technology (S&T) have promised to bring prosperity to Sub-Saharan Africa, but little progress has been made. This is in part because the African way of making and trading is largely informal, and Western industrialisation has failed to respect informality.On traditional science parks:
Western science and economics can drive technological advances in the developing world but work better in a system where processes are formalised. What happens, for example, when governments or multilateral institutions introduce factories and corporate parks?More here
Not much. A factory might employ a dozen skilled workers, but the investment rarely trickles down to the 'indigenous' economy. And enterprises may only import raw materials and export the resulting goods, creating a closed loop with no links to domestic industry.
Educate the Girls!
David R. Francis writes in the CSMonitor:
If a developing nation wants to make fast progress, it must educate its girls and give them more equality in jobs and economic opportunities.Decades of international and domestic efforts to speed development in more than 100 poor countries shows that, as the title of a recent study puts it, "Girls Count."More than just counting, helping girls get ahead and out of the limitations that so many cultures have placed on them for hundreds of years is vital to overcoming poverty and growing prosperity...[continue reading]
Watch related video the 'Girl Effect'
via CIPE Blog
image courtesy of Acumen Fund
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A New Global Cultural Revolution
As poverty recedes, a new global middle class is emerging. Twenty years ago, the middle class – those who make between $10 and $100 a day – made up one-third of the world population. By 2006, it was closer to three-fifths, estimates economist Surjit Bhalla. That increase represents the crossing of a crucially important threshold: Disposable income has gone from the exception to the rule. For the first time ever, most people around the world can now make meaningful choices about their material surroundings.More here
Filling bellies, fulfilling egos
The rise of the global middle class will have a profound impact on the center of economic and political gravity, shifting it eastward and southward, from North America and Europe toward Africa, Latin America, and Asia. But just as important is the global cultural revolution that is now under way.
Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 06/29/2011
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Real Time Search - Social Mention
Social mention lets you track what people are saying about you, your school or more. It looks like it works a lot like Google alerts. Another great way for administrators to monitor "the buzz" about their school, particularly if it has a hashtag.
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A lesson plan search engine for teacher lesson plans.
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Website that sends you text messages to encourage literacy in their children. Great for parents or teaches. Interesting idea.
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ShowMe - The Interactive Learning Community
The showme app on the ipad has some fascinating potential. I am going to play with this over the summer. Would love to hear from anyone who is already using it.
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Mindshapes Launches Jellytoons Birthday Countdown for iPad and iPhone
Not sure how interactive ebooks will help students learn (dual encoding works) but here are some more interactive story books.
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Flat Classroom teacher "alumni"
Our project coordinator, Lisa Durff, makes lists of the Flat Classroom teacher "alumni" so we can keep in touch. This is a great group of incredible global collaborative teachers who are doing it.
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ISTE'11 ~ Diigo it - WebSlides
Suzie Nestico's webslides (made automatically from a Diigo list) for the diigo session at ISTE.
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krillworkshops - Other Diigo Features
Lovely wiki about diigos. Lots of things from Michell Krill who pitched in to help in our diigo workshop.
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Debby Atwater's Public Library | Diigo
Debby Atwater has some great links in her public library. Another example to review.
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Vicki Davis's Public Library | Diigo
here is my public library of diigo bookmarks.
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Neil Wetherbee's Public Library | Diigo
Neil is pulling over his bookmarks for his fourth and fifth grade classes. Here are some sample libraries from diigo users.
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Lady Gaga accused of scamming charity - Live, Local, Late Breaking news, weather, and sports
Not everyone does what they say with money for charity. Lady GaGa is under scrutiny and criticism for not donating money to japanese quake survivors from the sale of her wristbands.
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Worried about jobs, college women go 'geek' - CSMonitor.com
Some major computer science programs at top universities are seeing a slight uptick in the number of women going into the programs. Citing statistics from Harvard (up from 13% to 25%) and MIT (a 28% jump in 3 years), and Carnegie Mellon (from 1/5 in 2007 to 1/4 last year.)
Most think it is the economy although some attribute programs to get more women interested in the programs. -
MyRegistry.com - All Stores, One Registry® Gift Registry, Gift List, Wishlist
Interesting website for those who are graduating or getting married. This lets you create one master registry out of everything on the web. Interesting.
For nonprofits, you can create a list of the things that you need and people can put money towards those items. So, this could be used for schools too. Teachers could make a wishlist. Cool idea. -
Dragontape - YOUR TASTE ON MIXTAPES
Start mixing music. Got this information from an iste tweet (without the link.)
citation: RT kwinsper - Dragontape looks promising for creating mashups #ISTE11 -
Will Richardson's #iste11 presentation http://t.co/C9LkCCn
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Wish I was at ISTE conference.
Wish I was at ISTE conference. RT“@dwarlick: Notes from Heidi Hayes Jacob's presentation: http://t.co/1WoqvW0 -- 3 thumbs up! #iste11”
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The Nerdy Teacher: 10 Things I Hate About You (#ISTE11)
love this post!! “@thenerdyteacher: 10 Things I Hate About You (#ISTE11) - http://t.co/N2QSzVE - A new post for Tuesday.”
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Emerging Tech Schools K-12 Horizon Report toolkit download #cosn #iste11 http://bit.ly/csUELC
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Learning Tools Family Feud See the "Answers" to o
Learning Tools Family Feud #ISTEFeud See the "Answers" to our Crowdsourced Survey HERE! http://t.co/ZdFsKeQ #ISTE11 add Yours!
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Pretty cool chat convo from my #iste11 session yesterday morning. http://bit.ly/jrsAoK Sincere thanks to all who joined in.
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Top 50 Teacher Blogs by Innovative Educators
@coolcatteacher Woo hoo! Congrats! http://t.co/PCSoDOQ
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DoInk Animation & Drawing for iPad on the iTunes App Store
RT @gazzabrown @Kdmiller4 LOVE DoInk. http://t.co/1vnIMM4 Will spread the word. @lisanash9 #iste11 #edapp #ipad
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Teaching the Civil War with Technology. Ideas for teaching the Civil War
RT @pammoran: Just learned this term tradigital history http://j.mp/klt8Rr #iste11@MR_EHN @MrHadleyHistory @nksocialstudies @LPralleKeehn
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ISTE 2011 - Day Two - Dr. G's Teaching With Technology Portfolio
Random thoughts from Day Two at #ISTE11 - http://t.co/hnlaQvz
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ASCD Inservice: Eight Shifts for Teaching and Learning
Are we empowering & enabling students to create their own learning? 8 shifts for education http://bit.ly/jjuIpR #iste11 @willrich45
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GREAT site of free eBooks geared for elementary & middle school: K12 Open Ed eBooks http://ow.ly/5rrTj via @kfasimpaur #iste11
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Kathy Shrock's slidedeck is here - http://linkyy.com/infographics #iste11 (how cool is it that her son developed Linkyy?!)
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315 Useful Webtools You Don’t Know Exist – 3fSimpleK12
5 Useful Webtools You Don’t Know Exist http://goo.gl/YgudI #ISTE11
