Corner Office - The New York Times

Corner Office - The New York Times: Corner Office
Conversations about leadership and management

Iowa Searches for the Anti-Establishment Pick - WNYC

Iowa Searches for the Anti-Establishment Pick - WNYC

“Maybe we are a bunch of hicks, but at least we've got values. We are what makes this country work because we understand that income can come from productivity. You can pass paper around all you want, but it doesn't produce anything.”

In Iowa, this has been complicated by local organizing that since 2008 has activated two distinct threads of the base: Social conservative voters who feel their values are under attack, and fiscal hawks looking to upend what they see as a culture of government spending.


check out whyronpaul.com and ronpaulmyths.com

At a town hall in Washington, Iowa, this week, Paul [Ron Paul] spent the first ten minutes of his thirty minutes laying out the rationale for his positions, unique in the Republican field, to end foreign aid, drastically reduce American overseas outposts, and bring troops home from Afghanistan. It drew enthusiastic applause.

Republicans are going to have to realize that we have a certain segment in our party that are tired of the wars and tired of the fighting and I think that's real and that may not fit with the intellectual elite out of Washington, DC, but it's a reality out there,” he said. “And it may be in part because in this state we've got a higher per capita population that serves in the National Guard and the Reserves than any other state in the nation, so in every neighborhood there's someone who's gone off to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Mother Teresa's Support for Haitian Dictator

The former psycho-dictator of Haiti has returned to the country and is facing charges for his crimes. What few are aware is how much support the mass murder had from the Vatican and Mother Teresa.

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier was briefly detained and charged in Haiti following his return from a 25-year exile. Â He has been charged with corruption, theft and misappropriation of funds and is believed to have stolen close to $ 1 billion and condemed Haitians to decades of crippling poverty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missionary_Position

http://www.truthseekersvideo.com/articles/catholics.php

Around the Web: Remembering Christopher Hitchens

VodpodYahoo BookmarksBeboMister-WongWordPressGoogle ReaderOrkutXINGEvernoteNetvibes ShareStrandsPosterousBusiness ExchangeArtoTipdSmakNewsPlurkAIMYahoo MessengerIdenti.caMozillacaBlogger PostTypePad PostBox.netNetlogTechnorati FavoritesCiteULikeJumptagsHemidemiFunPInstapaperPhoneFavsXerpiNetvouzWinkDiigoBibSonomyBlogMarksTailrankStartAidKledyKhabbrMeneameYoolinkBookmarks.frTechnotizieNewsVineMultiplyFriendFeedPlaxo PulsePingSquidooProtopage BookmarksBlinklistFavesYiGGWebnewsSegnaloPushaYouMobSlashdotFarkAllvoicesJamespotImera BrazilTwiddlaLinkaGoGounalogHuggDiglogNowPublicTumblrLiveJournalCurrentHelloTxtSpurlYampleOneviewLinkatopiaSimpyLinkedInBuddyMarksAsk.com MyStuffViadeoMapleWistsConnoteaBackflipMyLinkVaultSiteJotSphinnDZoneCare2 NewsHyvesSphereBitty BrowserGabbrSymbaloo FeedsTagzaFolkdNewsTrustAmazon Wish ListPrintFriendlyRead It LaterTuentiEmailRediff MyPage

Google GmailYahoo MailHotmailAOL MailAny email    

Christopher Hitchens: 'Atheist Intellectual,' 'Noble Contrarian'   

Google GmailYahoo MailHotmailAOL MailAny email    

 

Christopher Hitchens 

Christopher Hitchens -- a critic, author, journalist and habitual slayer of sacred cows -- died Thursday at the age of 62 from cancer. Hitchens' polarizing presence in public debate has spurred a cascade of tributes around the web.

author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right

Eloquent and intemperate, bawdy and urbane

Hitchens was an acknowledged contrarian and contradiction — half-Christian, half-Jewish and fully non-believing; a native of England who settled in America; a former Trotskyite who backed the Iraq war and supported George W. Bush. But his passions remained constant and targets of his youth, from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa, remained hated.

Freedom Rider: Christopher Hitchens, White Man   Hitchens made it clear that he was not at all put off by the genocide of Indians and enslavement of Africans. As he put it, "1492 was a very good year and deserves to be celebrated with great vim and gusto." According to him, the coming of the European and the barbarity which ensued is just the way things happen, and in fact all for the betterment of humankind.

 don't forget Hitchens' love of war

He was a militant humanist who believed in pluralism and racial justice and freedom of speech, big cities and fine art and the willingness to stand the consequences.

“But those who view the history of North America as a narrative of genocide and slavery are, it seems to me, hopelessly stuck on this reactionary position. They can think of the Western expansion of the United States only in terms of plague blankets, bootleg booze and dead buffalo, never in terms of the medicine chest, the wheel and the railway . . . But it does happen to be the way that history is made, and to complain about it is as empty as complaint about climatic, geological or tectonic shift.”

The Arizona Republic

Christopher Hitchens’ greatest Slate hits

Slate

Reasons to Love New York

We are a city that rains prosperity down on the whole country, exporting everything from war heroes to canny socialites to great filmmakers rediscovering their top form. We offer hot dates, hot waiters, hot bands, and hot neighbors. We are the base of more political mojo than any state in the nation and of an angry guy who is single-handedly holding up one of the biggest real-estate projects in the city’s history. Plus we hold fast to the faith that our drinking water tastes better than everyone else’s, even though that is almost certainly not true. But if all that is just a little too hard-core for you, wake up early tomorrow morning and walk the streets at dawn. At that hour, the city belongs neither to the corporate machers who run the town nor even to the hardworking millions who sustain it. It belongs simply to you.

YouTube launches schools-friendly video service

YouTube launches schools-friendly video service

Enter YouTube For Schools. YouTube just launched this video service, which encourages schools to curate YouTube educational videos for the classroom. Teachers and administrators can pick and choose from clips from college courses, big thinker lectures, and other videos geared towards getting kids to learn. A neat idea that YouTube incorporated: all the videos are posted without comments and without recommended videos.

Among the content are videos produced by the likes of MIT and the popular TED talks.

LearnZillion

LearnZillion

The video is on a website called LearnZillion. It has hundreds of free, five-minute math lessons, for grades three to nine. A voice -- that young-sounding teacher you just heard -- explains how to solve problems as illustrations appear on a whiteboard.

Regulating Fannie and Freddie: Empire Wealth

Regulating Fannie and Freddie

On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for their role in the subprime mortgage scandal. They're accused of intentionally understating how exposed Fannie and Freddie were to mortgages we now know were bound to go bad. Those losses led to the government takeover of Fannie and Freddie and a call for more regulation of the financial industry.

But commentator and business historian John Steele Gordon says there's still unanswered questions.

Fannie and Freddie were, in theory, independent corporations. They were listed on the New York Stock Exchange. But real corporations can go broke -- just ask the stockholders of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns -- but everyone knew that the government in the last resort would stand behind these government sponsored enterprises. And it did.

Yearup New York City

yearup

OUR MISSION
Year Up's mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.

We achieve this mission through a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships and college credits. Our holistic approach focuses on students' professional and personal development to place these young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency.

Year Up currently serves more than 1,000 students a year at sites in Atlanta, Baltimore*, Boston, Chicago, Providence, Puget Sound, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area and National Capital Region

Daniel Kahneman: Beware the ‘inside view’

In an excerpt from his new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, the Nobel laureate recalls how an inwardly focused forecasting approach once led him astray, and why an external perspective can help executives do better.

In the 1970s, I convinced some officials in the Israeli Ministry of Education of the need for a curriculum to teach judgment and decision making in high schools.

10 Questions for Daniel Kahneman

About the Author

Daniel Kahneman is professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his seminal work in prospect theory, which challenges the rational model of judgment and decision making. This article is an edited excerpt from his new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (US), Doubleday (Canada), and Allen Lane (UK). Copyright © 2011 by Daniel Kahneman. All rights reserved.

 

Principles of Biology, an Interactive Textbook by Nature Education

Principles of Biology, an Interactive Textbook by Nature Education

Born Digital

As the first major textbook designed specifically for the digital world, Principles of Biology takes full advantage of the many benefits of the digital medium.

• Integrated Learning Each module integrates text, high quality figures, interactive exercises, simulations, video, and assessments into a single, rich flow of learning for the student.
• Customization Instructors can easily customize Principles of Biology by rearranging or deleting any of the 200 modules, adding their own material, and turning on and off particular sections within the modules.
• Anytime, Everywhere Access All content in Principles of Biology is fully accessible on desktop and laptop computers, mobile phones, and tablet computers, ensuring that you and your students can take advantage of the material wherever you are.
• Real-time Gradebook Each of the 200 modules in Principles of Biology concludes with a multiple-choice online test of key concepts covered. The results from this test feed automatically into a gradebook, allowing instructors to track how their class as a whole is grasping the material . . . down the level of individual questions and learning objectives.

Demos

A multi-issue national organization, Demos combines research, policy development and advocacy to influence public debate and catalyze change. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York City, Demos works with advocates and policymakers around the country in pursuit of three overarching goals:

• A more equitable economy with opportunity for all;
• A robust democracy in which all Americans are empowered to participate;
• A strong public sector that can provide for our common interests and shared needs.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers : NACE Salary Calculator for Colleges

NACE Salary Calculator and Compensation Data Center

Give your students and employers access to current, accurate salary data through the NACE Salary Calculator—at no cost to you or your students.

NACE Salary Calculator & Salary Data Resources

Tools You Can Use

• Wage trends graph Counsel students on salary trends by occupation.
• Links you can use on your web site for employers
• Additional links for your employers: Salary Calculators by Occupation

Create a New Rubric

Create a New Rubric

I Education Apps Review

I Education Apps Review

10 of the best apps for education

10 of the best apps for education

As iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches become included in curriculum, here are several education apps you might enjoy.

Name: Molecules Best for: Science Classes
Cost: Free
Features: Allows users to view and manipulate three-dimensional models of different molecules
How to Use: Visual learners can see how protein molecules are composed and can download new molecules from the RCSB


Android for Academics
edutecher
http://www.steppingstonestogether.com

 e Skills Learning e Skills Learning™ was founded to develop and publish instructional materials using the latest in mobile technology that will challenge and motivate students. With over 30 years of experience in traditional educational publishing, the staff at e Skills Learning™ have an experienced understanding of carefully developing materials that align with the new Common Core Standards, meet state testing standards, correlate with core curriculum and achieve successful learner outcomes.

By 21 years of age, Digital Natives have spent an estimated 20,000 hours watching TV; 10,000 hours playing video games; 10,000 talking on cell phones; watched more than 500,000 commercials; sent more that 250,000 emails and texts; and spent a mere 5,000 (often less) hours reading! (Prensky; 2001)

KONGOROO - The Best of the Web, For Kids

Kongoroo

Are you looking for a safe place on-line for your children or students to explore? Then you should try Kongoroo!
Kongoroo is your child's free ticket to all that's exciting on the web.

Kongoroo is made of parents working together. We scour the web for the best and most interesting sites, and together we make a gigantic, amazing place that kids can visit and safely explore.

Get the all new FREE eduTecher App Today!

Get the all new FREE eduTecher App Today!

DONTCLICK.IT

DONTCLICK.IT

A cool experiment in whether clicks are necessary or not, dontclick.it toys with the notion that clicking is outdated and unnecessary. The site design is innovative and fun, even if it doesn't accomplish much.

Distilling the Wisdom of C.E.O.’s

Interviews  conducted with more than 70 chief executives and other leaders for Corner Office in The New York Times point to five essentials for success — qualities that most of those C.E.O.’s share and look for in people they hire.        by Adam Bryant, author of the weekly “Corner Office” column in The New York Times. The book, published Tuesday by Times Books, analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders.

The Role of Mobile Apps

iPad Apps for Remembering: Part One of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

" ...we live in an age of "too much information" where facts are readily available on the mobile devices carried in our pockets. Knowledge is now accessible with just a swift swipe of a finger. The level of immediacy that mobile technology offers is changing the landscape of the classroom and the skill set of the future workforce. More than ever, we need a nation of critical thinkers, able to successfully navigate the growing complexities of our world, and not just be proficient at recalling memorized information or using rote skills."

It is Benjamin Bloom's belief that the entry point to learning is the acquisition of knowledge.

Educators sensitive to these changing needs are embracing the cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy as revised by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl. Its clear hierarchy and delineation of learning processes provide invaluable steps necessary for guiding curriculum towards developing higher order thinking.

Remembering

Apps that fit into the "remembering" stage improve the user's ability to define terms, identify facts, and recall and locate information. Verbs commonly used to describe this phase include naming; finding, labeling, listing, selecting, retaining, naming, retrieving, recognizing, registering or realizing. Many educational apps fall into the "remembering" phase of learning. They ask users to select an answer out of a line-up, find matches, and sequence content or input answers.

Criteria

When locating these "remembering" apps, consider the following questions.

Does the app help the user:

• Define information?
• Name facts?
• Recite information?
• List facts or details?
• Recall facts or ideas?
• Locate facts or ideas?
• Retrieve information?
• Describe information?
• Recognize facts or ideas in context?

Cognitive Processes

Google Apps and Tools meet Bloom's Revised Taxonomy: Bloomin' Google

Google Apps and Tools meet Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Yet, we live in an age of "too much information" where facts are readily available on the mobile devices carried in our pockets. Knowledge is now accessible with just a swift swipe of a finger. The level of immediacy that mobile technology offers is changing the landscape of the classroom and the skill set of the future workforce. More than ever, we need a nation of critical thinkers, able to successfully navigate the growing complexities of our world, and not just be proficient at recalling memorized information or using rote skills.

 Bloom's Taxonomy as revised by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwoh

Kathy Shrock's "Google Tools to Support Bloom's Revised Taxomy"

Lives At War - Play Online

Lives At War - Play Online


At this event we unveil our new online game made for young people. The game animates the dramatic history of Brighton during World War II, bringing the past vividly to life, and putting you in the centre of the story! We are proud to be launching Lives at War at Brighton Digital Festival (September 2011).

Lives at War

Lives at War from Corporation Pop on Vimeo.

QuiBids : How To Buy New Must-Have Products For Next To Nothing | How Life Works

How To Buy New Must-Have Products For Next To Nothing How Life Works

The company is called QuiBids and they auction the hottest, most in-demand electronics like Apple iPads and iPods, MAC and PC notebooks, HDTV’s as well as other items like gift cards from the top retailers. Like other online retailers, everything they sell is brand new with manufacturer’s warrantees. But, unlike other sites, the prices people pay are nowhere near retail.

Kids' Book Club Takes 'Tollbooth' To Lands Beyond: Young Listners:Backseat Book Club

Kids' Book Club Takes 'Tollbooth' To Lands Beyond

More Questions For Norton Juster

Backseat Book Club

5 Ways to Never Run Out of Blog Post Ideas

5 Ways to Never Run Out of Blog Post Ideas: 5 Ways to Never Run Out of Blog Post Ideas

The Dissenter | The New Republic

What happened when the education world's most prominent intellectual switched sides.The Dissenter | The New Republic


Now, pundits, scholars, philanthropists, and education leaders are all asking the same question: What happened to Diane Ravitch?

The gray-haired woman walked to the microphone as the crowd chanted, “Diane! Diane!” “This is a historic day. I’m a historian,” she told them. She spoke for only eight minutes, in short, punchy sentences. “Carrots and sticks are for donkeys.” “Education is a right, not a race.” “Our problem is poverty, not our schools.” When she finished, the crowd began chanting again: “Thank you! Thank you!” 

It was, historically speaking, a strange place for Diane Ravitch to be. There was no indication that, until recently, she had championed many of the policies that were denounced at the rally as tools of racism and oppression. That she had spent years in the inner circle of conservative education policy, advocating for school vouchers, firing incompetent teachers, and shutting down failing schools. Ravitch once assured the public, “Vouchers and charters will not destroy public education. This is an incredible and fantastical fear.” Now she says things like, “Vouchers are a con, intended to destroy public education.”

In 2000, Ravitch, seemingly anticipating just such a consensus, argued: “If we found that there is no difference in performance between charter schools, voucher schools, and regular public schools, it would not be a victory for the status quo. Instead, we would have to say that the choice of school belongs to the parent.” Now that the overall research consensus matches this scenario, Ravitch focuses repeatedly on the Stanford study, asserting that it proves charters have failed.

Her genius was in the construction of a public identity of partial affiliation—a university-based historian who never wrote an academic dissertation, a former government official whose career in public service lasted less than two years, an overseer of the national testing program with no particular expertise in testing, and a champion of public school teachers who has never taught in a public school. She enjoys the credibility of the sober analyst while employing all the tools of the polemicist.

Eduwonk

Eduwonk

About Eduwonk
About Bellwether Education Partners
About Andrew Rotherham
'School of Thought' column at

Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Rotherham leads Bellwether’s thought leadership, idea generation, and policy analysis work. He also writes the weekly “School of Thought” column for TIME.com as well as the blog Eduwonk.com and is the co-publisher of “Education Insider” a federal policy research tool produced by Whiteboard Advisors. Rotherham previously served at The White House as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Clinton administration and is a former member of the Virginia Board of Education. In addition to Bellwether, Rotherham has founded or co-founded two other influential education reform organizations including Education Sector and served on the boards of several other successful education start-ups.

NCTAF Home National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. NCTAF Home

About NCTAF 
Teaching for America’s Future: 
A Challenge to the Nation

Setting the Agenda on Teaching Quality
For more than a decade, NCTAF has been a leading voice on what matters most for student learning: quality teaching in schools organized for success. To close the student achievement gap, we must close the teaching quality gap in high-priority schools and disciplines. NCTAF calls on policymakers and education leaders to provide every child in America with 21st century teaching.

Home | Teach.gov

Home | Teach.gov

ED’s new partner in teacher recruitment: Microsoft Software giant wins competition to take over the federal TEACH campaign and website

“In many ways, [this project] encapsulates the power of partnerships, the promise of technology, and the benefits of international collaboration to strengthen the teaching profession,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan at a keynote speech during Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Global Forum.
In the coming months, Microsoft will be moving the site from http://www.teach.gov to http://www.teach.org and will work to form a coalition of other private-sector companies that care about education, the company said.

 

Survey reveals teens’ experiences on social networking sites

Survey reveals teens’ experiences on social networking sites

Many students have witnessed cyber bullying and seek advice from their friends, parents

As social media use has become pervasive in the lives of American teens, a new study finds that 69 percent of the teenagers who use social networking sites say their peers are mostly kind to one another on such sites. Still, 88 percent say they have witnessed people being mean or cruel to another person on the sites, and 15 percent say they have been the target of mean or cruel behavior themselves.

The findings are detailed in a new report called “Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites: How American teens navigate the new world of ‘digital citizenship,’” from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

By WARREN E. BUFFETT

Dear Wall Street, this is why the people are angry

The Lauders: A Family’s Billions, Artfully Sheltered

 Ronald S. Lauder: heir to the Estée Lauder fortune whose net worth is estimated at more than $3.1 billion. Forbes magazine says makes him the world’s 362nd wealthiest person

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Neue Galerie, Mr. Lauder’s museum of Austrian and German art, he exhibited many of the treasures of a personal collection valued at more than $1 billion, including works by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Matisse, and a Klimt portrait he bought five years ago for $135 million.
Yet for Mr. Lauder, an heir to the Estée Lauder fortune whose net worth is estimated at more than $3.1 billion, the evening went beyond social and cultural significance. As is often the case with his activities, just beneath the surface was a shrewd use of the United States tax code. By donating his art to his private foundation, Mr. Lauder has qualified for deductions worth tens of millions of dollars in federal income taxes over the years, savings that help defray the hundreds of millions he has spent creating one of New York City’s cultural gems.

The debate over whether to reduce tax shelters and preferences for the rich is one of the most volatile in Washington and will move to the presidential campaign, now that repeated attempts in Congress to strike a grand bargain over spending cuts and an overhaul of the tax code have failed.

The cable television network he built in Central Europe, CME Enterprises, maintains an official headquarters in the tax haven of Bermuda, where it does not operate any stations.

 

 

In China, concerns grow over environmental costs of Apple products

Green activists in China target alleged Apple suppliers

Neither Kaedar nor Apple would talk about the factory. Behind the scenes, though, Apple met with environmentalists like Ma Jun, one of the authors of the pollution report and one of China's best-known activists. Apple's supply chain managers told Ma the company audited nearly a dozen of its suppliers. They showed him a power point presentation of their findings: improper wastewater treatment, bad hazardous storage practices, things like that. But...

An alleyway in Tongxin village is lined with refuse. Around 150 people live in Tongxin village.
- Rob Schmitz/Marketplace

Finding and Using Online Images | SFU Library

Finding and Using Online Images | SFU Library

Dr. John D. Bransford

Dr. John D. Bransford

In 1984 Bransford was asked by the Dean of Peabody College at Vanderbilt to help begin a Learning Technology Center that would focus on education. The Center grew from 7 people in 1984 to approximately 100 by 1999. During that time, Bransford and his colleagues developed and tested a number of innovative computer, videodisc, CD-Rom, and Internet programs for mathematics, science, and literacy. Examples include the Jasper Woodbury Problem Solving Series in Mathematics, the Scientists in Action Series, and the Little Planet Literacy Series. Many of these programs are being used in schools throughout the world. Bransford's dissertation won honorable mention in the national "Creative Talent Awards" contest; several of his published articles (co-authored with colleagues) have won "article of the year" in the areas of science education, technology, design, and theories of transfer. The Little Planet Literacy Series, has won major awards including the 1996 Technology and Learning Award and the 1997 Cody award for Best Elementary Curriculum from the Software Publishers Association. Bransford received the Sutherland Prize for Research at Vanderbilt, was elected to the National Academy of Education, and was awarded the Thorndike award in 2001.

Learning: Engage and Empower

 Goal: All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and out of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society.

 

Figure 1. A Model of Learning, Powered by Technology

What Learning Should Look Like

Figure 1 depicts a model of learning powered by technology. In contrast to traditional classroom instruction, which often consists of a single educator transmitting the same information to all learners in the same way, the model puts students at the center and empowers them to take control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions. A core set of standards-based concepts and competencies form the basis of what all students should learn, but beyond that students and educators have options for engaging in learning: large groups, small groups, and activities tailored to individual goals, needs, and interests.

Harvard EdCast: Are You a Global Citizen?

Harvard EdCast: Are You a Global Citizen?

The Harvard EdCast is a weekly series of podcasts, available on the Harvard University iTunes U page, features a 15-20 minute conversation with thought leaders in the field of education from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Matt Weber, the Harvard EdCast will serve as a space for educational discourse and openness, focusing on the myriad issues and current events related to the field.

Discourse Tools | Tool Systems to Support Progress toward Expert-Like Teaching by Early Career Science Educators 2008-2013 Discovery K-12 Grant

Discourse Tools | Diigo

Tools for ambitious science teaching

Core Practices for Ambitious Science TeachingTool Systems to Support Progress toward Expert-Like
Teaching by Early Career Science Educators 2008-2013 Discovery K-12 Grant

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds - Kaiser Family Foundation

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds - Kaiser Family Foundation

A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

The report is based on a survey conducted between October 2008 and May 2009 among a nationally representative sample of 2,002 3rd-12th grade students ages 8-18, including a self-selected subsample of 702 respondents who completed seven-day media use diaries, which were used to calculate multitasking proportions.

The challenge for our education system is to leverage technology to create relevant learning experiences that mirror students' daily lives and the reality of their futures. We live in a highly mobile, globally connected society in which young Americans will have more jobs and more careers in their lifetimes than their parents. Learning can no longer be confined to the years we spend in school or the hours we spend in the classroom: It must be lifelong, lifewide, and available on demand (Bransford et al. 2006).

Friday Church News Notes | None | Way of Life Literature

Friday Church News Notes None Way of Life Literature

Flag Counter » Visitor Information

Flag Counter » Visitor Information

Unnatural Turkeys: A New Marketplace Podcast

Podcast
Specifically, the question is this: of all the commercially raised turkeys in the U.S., what percentage are the product of artificial insemination?

The answer, oddly enough, is 100 percent. Why? Well, it’s a supply-and-demand story. Because Americans particularly love to eat turkey breast meat (a great delivery platform for gravy!), turkeys have been selectively bred over the years to have bigger and bigger breasts. So big, in fact, that when it comes time for a male turkey to naturally reproduce with a female, his massive breast prevents him from getting close enough to complete the act. 

Your Thanksgiving turkey is probably a product of artificial insemination
The modern turkey has quite large turkey breasts, and it actually physically gets in the way when the male and the female try to create offspring.

Visible Learning: John Hattie and Student-Directed Projects

Visible Learning: John Hattie and Student-Directed Projects

The cover of John Hattie's Visible Learning boasts the blurb "Reveals teaching's Holy Grail." Everybody in education needs to get it. If Hattie's subtitle, A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, gives you pause, I can assure you it isn't as scary as it sounds.

 Auckland University Professor John Hattie has recently authored a study, based on research into 83 million students, studying effective teachers around the world and has come up with some reassuring results for creative teachers. It's all about trusting relationships and 'oodles of feedback'. Note - it is not about national testing, our government's highly unoriginal plan.   Read Kelvin's full article

The Center for Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is essential if we are to get to the root of our problems and develop reasonable solutions. After all, the quality of everything we do is determined by the quality of our thinking.

The Question of Critical Thinking

"Tools of the Mind"

To successfully function in school and beyond, children need to learn more than a set of facts and skills. They need to master a set of mental tools—tools of the mind.

The concept of "Tools of the Mind" comes from the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, He believed that just as physical tools extend our physical abilities, mental tools extend our mental abilities to enable us to solve problems and create solutions in the modern world

According to Vygotsky, until children learn to use mental tools, their learning is largely controlled by the environment: they attend only to the things that are the brightest or loudest and they can remember something only if has been repeated many times. AFTER children master mental tools, they can become in charge of their own learning by attending and remembering in an intentional and purposeful way. Similar to how using mental tools transforms children’s cognitive behaviors, they can also transform their physical, social and emotional behaviors. From being "slaves to the environment," children become "masters of their own behavior." As children are taught and practice an increasing number of various mental tools, they transform not only their external behaviors, but also their minds, leading to the emergence of higher mental functions.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.

Roscoe Brown: A Tuskegee Airman Speaks

Roscoe Brown: A Tuskegee Airman Speaks

And there were black pilots to look up to, he recalls, including Bessie Coleman, who learned to fly in France and became a great stunt pilot. Before that, there was Julian Boyd, who flew for the Canadian air force in World War I. There was also Albert E. Forsythe, who flew across the country in 1933.

But during World War II, the NAACP, the Pullman Car Porters Union and other civil rights groups forced the U.S. military to create an experimental group called the 99th Fighter Squadron, which was trained at an airfield in Tuskegee, Ala., Brown said. Eventually the military built a $1 million airfield to train blacks under segregated circumstances. An estimated 1,000 pilots were trained, and about 12,000 workers received technical training, Brown said.

Double Victory:
Double Victory: Two Warriors in the Fight for Civil Rights During WWII is 13 years in the making. Many people along the way were of great assistance, from the nameless secretary who gave the first lead, to people who donated their time and resources.

Films

Microsoft Roslyn: New Type of Compilers

Microsoft Roslyn

Voice

Poland swears in first transsexual and gay MPs

Poland swears in first transsexual and gay MPs

Poland's first transsexual MP to be sworn in

D+C Development and Cooperation

D+C Development and Cooperation

D+C Development and Cooperation is a monthly publication. The journal is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Entwicklung (GIZ) GmbH. However, the journal does not serve as a governmental mouthpiece. Our mission is to provide a credible forum of debate, involving governments, civil society, the private sector and academia at an international level. D+C is the identical twin of E+Z Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit, the leading German language publication on development issues. D+C and E+Z share the same content. 

Smokin' Joe Frazier Dead at 67

In this file photo taken Nov. 22, 1970, heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and his family pose for a family portrait after he returns from a successful defense of his boxing title in Philadelphia.
(AP Photo, File)                                                   

In this March 8, 1971, file photo, Joe Frazier is directed to a corner by referee Arthur Marcante after Frazier knocked down Muhammad Ali during the 15th round of the title bout in Madison Square Garden in New York.
(AP Photo/File)                                                   

In this March 8, 1971, file photo, Muhammad Ali. right, takes a left from Joe Frazier during the 15th round of their heavyweight title boxing bout in New York.
(AP Photo/File)                                                   



 



In this Oct. 1, 1975 file photo, a swollen right eye is apparent on Joe Frazier’s face as he is almost covered over by a towel in Manila, Philippines after losing by TKO in the 14th round to heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali at the Coliseum.
(AP Photo/MC/KM, File)                                                   

In this file photo taken Jan. 22, 1972, defending WBA champion Joe Frazier, left, and challenger George Foreman have a close look at each other as they meet during the weigh-in moments before their world heavyweight boxing title bout.
(AP Photo/File)        

Best of enemies: Frazier and Muhammad Ali at the ESPY Awards in Hollywood in 2002 

In this April 2, 2009, file photo, Joe Frazier poses for a portrait in NewYork     

Smokin' Joe was a ferocious fighter who smothered his opponents with punches, including a devastating left hook he used to end many of his fights early. It was the left hook that dropped Ali in the 15th round at Madison Square Garden in 1971 to seal a win in the so-called "Fight of the Century."
Though he beat Ali in that fight, Frazier lost the final two and for many years was bitter about the role Ali forced him to play as his foil.

 Frazier, who won gold for the US at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, had an epic rivalry with Muhammad Ali, and took him on in three momentous fights in the '70s. In the so-called Fight of the Century in 1971 he became the first man to beat Ali, but he lost the next two showdowns, including 1975's classic "Thrilla in Manila," which Ali described as "the closest I've come to death."      

 But Ali won the rematch two years later, and then proved his superiority in Manila, in what many still consider to have been the best — and most brutal — boxing match of all time. ‘That was the closest I’ve come to dying,’ Ali said afterwards. 

The great charmer also emerged victorious in the PR war by summoning Frazier’s son, Marvis, to his dressing room after the fight and telling him he hadn’t meant a word of what he had said about his father.

But Ali never apologised directly to Frazier, and it took him a further quarter of a century to say in public he was sorry.

‘I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn’t have said and called him names I shouldn’t have called him,’ he told the New York Times in 2001. ‘It was all meant to promote the fight.’

 Both were from the South, where racism was most virulent (Ali was raised in Kentucky, Frazier in South Carolina) and both were brilliant athletes who took up boxing because it offered an opportunity to break free of their social and financial shackles.
 Daily Mail

Frazier lobbied the boxing authorities to permit Ali to box again — even at the risk of losing his crown to a man many still regarded as ‘The Greatest’.

Frazier later recalled how he also showed kindness to Ali, then struggling to eke out a living by lecturing college students about the iniquities of white imperialism, by giving him a lift in his Cadillac, from Philadelphia to New York.

His reward came when he dropped Ali at his destination on Broadway. ‘That Joe Frazier’s no world champion! He ain’t nothing but a bum!’ he began shouting in the street. ‘I’m gonna whup him, you’ll see.’

Frazier, not for the last time, was astonished by his behaviour, and quietly vowed to take vengeance in the only place where he could match Ali: the ring

Frazier was ‘dumb’, ‘ugly’, ‘stupid’, a supine patsy to the white boxing authorities, Ali crowed (conveniently forgetting that Frazier’s training and corner team were black while his were largely white).

His clear implication was that, when he viewed Smokin’ Joe — who never rocked the boat — he saw all that was worst in a black man, and he wanted to destroy that with words as well as fists.

As historian Randy Roberts says: ‘One of the many paradoxes about Ali is that he embraced an ideology that disparaged white people, yet he was never cruel to white people — only blacks.’ And Frazier, he adds, was treated most cruelly of all.