Blazing The Trail For Female Programmers

Sarah Allen has been the only woman on a team of computer programmers a few times in the more than two decades she has worked in the field. Most notably, she led the team — as the lone female programmer — that created Flash video, the dominant technology for streaming video on the Web.

Allen got interested in computers when she was 12. Her mom was one of the first women to sell the Apple II, and she brought one home. Allen read the manual and taught herself to write simple programs. She says it seemed like magic to her: "I could wave my hands, and I could create this pattern in the machine, and then this thing exists that didn't exist before."

"If you're interviewing people for your job, and you haven't interviewed a woman, don't hire until you've at least interviewed one woman. And if your recruiter can't get you resumes that are diverse, find another recruiter," she says.

When asked if she has ever experienced sexism, Allen doesn't want to talk about it in those terms.

"I don't think you can be a woman in our society and not experience sexism, so, sure, but that's not the point," she says.

Sarah Allen’s reflections on internet software and other topics

Blazing The Trail For Female Programmers
A little over four years ago, Allen founded Blazing Cloud, which does design and development of software for mobile devices. The company's mix of 10 programmers and designers work with entrepreneurs and help them take an idea and turn it into software that works.

Recently they met with Estee Solomon Gray, the founder of a company called Mmindd. Solomon Gray is trying to create a sort of next-generation calendar that better reflects people's priorities. Allen and her team help Solomon Gray visualize what her software might look like. Allen will then help Solomon Gray design and build a product.

“Owning Your Power As a Female Leader” In this program you will experience the excitement in knowing you can create and sustain great teams, where people want to contribute and make a difference. Gain tremendous insights and skills to breakthrough to a new level of leadership. Own your power and authenticity as a female leader revitalizing your team to produce exceptional results.

Stillheart Institute Newsletter

Highland Team

Women's Breakthrough Leadership

In this program you will experience the excitement in knowing you can create and sustain great teams, where people want to contribute and make a difference. Gain tremendous insights and skills to breakthrough to a new level of leadership. Own your power and authenticity as a female leader revitalizing your team to produce exceptional results.

Since they began in 2009, the workshops — they call them RailsBridge — have drawn thousands of women, among them Lillie Chilen. Chilen was an art history and opera major in college. A lot of programming workshops felt uncomfortable.



Now, Allen is also working with minority groups such as Black Founders to teach more people Ruby on Rails.

"If we persist in this notion that the people who should be making software in our world are these people with low social skills who are hard to understand, we're going to miss the boat," Allen says. "We're not going to be able to solve the problems we need to solve if we don't have just lots of people who know about the rest of the world."
 On the wall of Allen's office is a large photo of the ENIAC computer from 1946

Felix Hernandez "Rhythm Revue

Felix Hernandez's Rhythm Revue radio show, now in its 26th year on New York radio, is heard every Saturday 10am-2pm on WBGO-FM.

Felix lives in New York with his wife and children. He's a graduate of  Temple University in Philadelphia.

His parents met at a dance.


In 1983, Felix Hernandez began a two-year project travelling the U.S. collecting hundreds of hours of interviews with R&B artists. Some of the interview material was used for a 13-part radio show called Harlem Hit Parade, which was syndicated to 70 NPR stations in the mid-80's.

Felix Hernandez

@nycsoulman
NYC · classicSoul.com

Rhythm Revue Saturdays:

Classic soul, R&B, and funk, from the 60s to today.
8AM - 10AM, 107.5 WBLS-FM.


10AM - 2PM, 88.3 WBGO-FM





In 1986, Felix introduced Rhythm Revue, New York's first radio show devoted exclusively to "classic" soul and R&B. It premiered on WBGO. It also aired on New York stations WTJM (Jammin'105) and KISS-FM. In 1989, Felix was awarded a major production grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the NEA for BluesStage, a weekly radio series hosted by Tony-winner Ruth Brown and writer/director Melvin Van Peebles. BluesStage ran six years on 200+ NPR stations, with blues and R&B performances recorded and produced by Hernandez on location at clubs and festivals nationwide. 

The original BluesStage recordings will be donated to an educational institution dedicated to the study of African-American music.

In 1991, Felix did his first Rhythm Revue Dance Party at Tramps in New York City. The party outgrew Tramps and moved to the Roseland Ballroom, where it's been held since 1992. Felix's mix of classic soul, disco and funk consistently draws a crowd of 2,500 to 3,500 dancers.

WBGO Live Stream

felix hernandez soul music

Where do ideas come from?

How does the metaphorical lightbulb go off? Is it a flash of genius? The power of crowds? These heady talks explore the nature of ideas...

People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web. About Steven Johnson

What is Biomimicry? Janine Benyus

What if we copy or mimic nature, can we gain valuable information on collecting and storing water?

Can we learn from Nature?

Stenocara beetle

We humans are at a turning point in our evolution. Though we began as a small population in a very large world, we have expanded in number and territory until we are now bursting at the seams. There are too many of us, and our habits are unsustainable. Having reached the limits of nature’s tolerance, we are finally shopping for answers to the question: “How can we live on this home planet without destroying it?”

Just as we are beginning to recognize all there is to learn from the natural world, our models are starting to blink out—not just a few scattered organisms, but entire ecosystems. A new survey by the National Biological Service found that one-half of all native ecosystems in the United States are degraded to the point of endangerment. That makes biomimicry more than just a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It’s also a race to the rescue.

Janine Benyus has a message for inventors: When solving a design problem, look to nature first. There you'll find inspired designs for making things waterproof, aerodynamic, solar-powered and more. Here she reveals dozens of new products that take their cue from nature with spectacular results.

A self-proclaimed nature nerd, Janine Benyus' concept of biomimicry has galvanized scientists, architects, designers and engineers into exploring new ways in which nature's successes can inspire humanity. Full bio »


"If I could reveal anything that is hidden from us, at least in modern cultures, it would be to reveal something that we've forgotten, that we used to know as well as we knew our own names. And that is that we live in a competent universe, that we are part of a brilliant planet, and that we are surrounded by genius."   Benyus


"Biomimicry is a new discipline that tries to learn from those geniuses, and take advice from them, design advice. That's where I live, and it's my university as well. I'm surrounded by genius. I cannot help but remember the organisms and the ecosystems that know how to live here gracefully on this planet. This is what I would tell you to remember if you ever forget this again. Remember this. This is what happens every year. This is what keeps its promise. While we're doing bailouts, this is what happened. Spring."

A self-proclaimed nature nerd, Janine Benyus' concept of biomimicry has galvanized scientists, architects, designers and engineers into exploring new ways in which nature's successes can inspire humanity.

Marshmallows and Spaghetti: How Kindergartners Think Like Lean Startups

As Wujec adds, every business challenge has its own "marshmallow," so consider bringing some kindergarten-minded people onto your startup team.

From running shoes to car seats, from buildings to smart phones, from blockbuster movies to MRI machines, we live in a world that somebody imagined, designed, and created.

The activity, known as the marshmallow challenge, was borrowed by Wujec from Peter Skillman, VP of Design at Palm. Small teams are given 18 minutes to build a free-standing structure made of dry spaghetti, one yard of string, one yard of tape and a marshmallow, which must be placed on top. The team wins by creating the tallest structure of all the groups participating. What Wujec discovered is that this simple game revealed some fascinating insights into how groups collaborate.

Wujec conducted a team building experiment with all types of people, from business execs to kindergartners, and the results he presented were surprising, to say the least.

Wujec has conducted this experiment with over 70 groups of "students and designers and architects, even the CTOs of the Fortune 50," he says. Most teams quickly break into roles and plan their structure, and then spend the remaining time building it before quickly and gingerly placing the marshmallow on top as time expires. More often than not, the structure pitifully fails as the marshmallow is added, leaving the team with a pile of spaghetti and no time to try again.

"Design truly is a contact sport. It demands that we bring all of our senses to the task, and that we apply the very best of our thinking, our feeling and our doing to the challenge that we have at hand." - Tom Wujec

Wujec says that business school grads are taught to seek out and execute the one correct solution their challenge, while kindergartners practice the iterative prototype and refine process, much like the methods of lean startups.  The kids would build, test and repeat until they found a structure that worked, and most times, he says, they built the tallest and most interesting structures.

What startups can take away from the marshmallow challenge is that bigger teams and higher incentives are no substitute for having the right skills and the right process in place. Wujec found that larger teams performed increasing worse than smaller teams, and incentivizing them with a reward did not make up for the fact that they were not using the right process.

Historic Map Guide: Europe:Europe Antiquarian Maps & Historic Map Guide: Africa & Antarctica

Isothermal chart

Click on the date links to see some of the oldest Europe maps in our collection:

Europe Antiquarian Maps

Racial and Linguistic Map of Africa.

Africa and Antarctica Antiquarian Maps
Click on the date links to see some of the oldest Africa and Antarctica maps in our collection:













NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.

For Educators

Google celebrates Ella Fitzgerald with doodle on 96th birthday



David Batty


Ella Fitzgerald, who would have been 96 on 25 April, had a career that spanned six decades and was known as 'the queen of jazz'. Photograph: Google

Ella Fitzgerald, whose great vocal range and perfect pitch won her the monikers 'the first lady of song' and 'the queen of jazz', has been commemorated in a Google doodle.
The Official Web Site of Ella Fitzgerald
Most every performer has a story about how he or she made it big, but few can match the tale of the late Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996). Recognized as the best female jazz vocalist of the century as well as a pioneer in the area of jazz, Fitzgerald was respected worldwide by musicians and audiences alike.
Ironically, her earliest passion was not singing but dancing. Though she had participated in her school's musical and glee club, Ella once wrote, "I never considered myself a singer. My real ambition was to dance."

"Turnaround: Third World Lessons for First World Growth"

Peter Blair Henry argues that the U.S. should look to China, Brazil, Mexico, and other developing countries to develop its own plan for prosperity.  Hosted by Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC.    


Peter Blair Henry
Peter Blair Henry is dean of the Stern School of Business at New York University.  He was previously a professor of international economics at Stanford University.


'Turnaround' is Peter Blair Henry's absorbing take on perhaps the most basic and important economic question there is: why are some countries rich and others poor? In providing his answer, he makes a counter-intuitive yet compelling point: the policies and 'discipline' adopted by successful industrializing (or 'third world') countries over the last 50 years are ones that the industrialized US and Western Europe need to learn from and replicate as part of their efforts to resuscitate long-run economic growth on this side of the world.

The story that frames the book is a contrast between Jamaica, Henry's home country, and the neighboring Barbados. Both countries were endowed with comparable economic institutions when the British left in the 1960's, but chose very different economic policy over the next few decades, Barbados' being more fiscally disciplined. Consider the results. In 1960, the per-capita income in Barbados was about 50% higher than that of Jamaica. By 2010, it was almost 200% higher, over $14,000 versus Jamaica's $5000.


Personal website
Follow on Twitter



What is economic discipline? IMF, advanced countries can learn fr developing nations (big and small) at all corners. http://thebea.st/17IK85W 

In decades past, First World countries have lectured the rest of the world about how to stabilize and grow their economies. Today, in a startling turnaround, the developed world buckles under high debt and slow growth, while countries such as South Korea, India, Chile, Mexico, and even tiny Barbados provide vital lessons for recovery.

Young Adults With Autism Can Thrive In High-Tech Jobs

The job hunt is complicated enough for most high school and college graduates — and even tougher for the growing number of young people on the autism spectrum. Despite the obstacles that people with autism face trying to find work, there's a natural landing place: the tech industry.
Amelia Schabel graduated from high school five years ago. She had good grades and enrolled in community college. But it was too stressful. After less than a month she was back at home, doing nothing.


"I did go to a community college for a semester, but that definitely was not for me," she says.

Schabel has Asperger's syndrome, a disorder on the "high functioning" end of the autism spectrum.


Although symptoms and their severity vary widely, the majority of young adults with autism spectrum disorder won't make it to college and won't get a job after they graduate. This year alone, 50,000 adolescents with autism will turn 18.

"I can look someone in the eye and talk to them," she says, "but if someone treats me in a way I don't think I deserve to be treated, I'm not going to react well. I may lash out, I may not speak to them, I may just glare."


 nonPareil Institute


"Although [Andrew] can't tie his shoes or buckle his belt to do a lot of things independently, he can do technology," Moore says. "He's a digital native."
 "They may really flourish at engineering-type tasks or computer design, where their interaction with people is somewhat limited," . Dr. Patricia Evans, a neurologist at Children's Medical Center says.

 "We've got this one guy, for example; his productivity is three times as productive as the person doing his job who did not have cognitive disabilities before him. And his error rate is 2 percent. He is 98 percent accurate. He's a phenomenal worker," Pierce says.


One Fortune 500 company that has begun hiring people with intellectual disabilities in North Texas is Alliance Data. Jim Pierce, vice president of Corporate Administration, says "this is an untapped labor market." He has hired a dozen people with intellectual disabilities.

How are you celebrating Earth Day 2013?

Indonesian Environmental Rides and fishermen group perform long march and theatrical action

Earth Day is 43 years' old today and designed to "[activate] individuals and organizations to strengthen the collective fight against man's exploitive relationship with the planet." Denis Hayes, the national coordinator of its first day, said a few years back that he thought the day had achieved many of its aims.


Verité carried out research on the presence of indicators of forced labor in the production of ten goods in seven countries from 2008 through 2011. Research was carried out on the production of shrimp in Bangladesh; Brazil-nuts, cattle, corn, and peanuts in Bolivia; sugar in the Dominican Republic; coffee in Guatemala; fish in Indonesia; rubber in Liberia; and tuna in the Philippines. The following report is based on research on the presence of indicators of forced labor in certain types of fishing in Indonesia. This research was not intended to determine the existence or scale of forced labor in the countries and sectors under study, but rather to identify the presence of indicators of forced labor and factors that increased workers‘ vulnerability to labor exploitation.

Fishing plays a large role in the Indonesian economy; over 6.2 million people are involved in fishing activities in Indonesia and fishing exports earned the country over USD 2.66 billion in 2010.1 Several aspects of Indonesian fishing activity have earned significant international attention, including jermal (platform) fishing, as well as illegal fishing. With the exception of international attention paid to forced child labor on jermals, little previous research had been conducted specifically on the indicators of forced labor in these sectors.


How the burning of fossil fuels was linked to a warming world in 1938

The Ghostface Killah Rises Again

Rap Genius 

Ghostface Killah is a compulsive storyteller. His fiction is painterly, and he delivers it in a headlong rush.

Ghostface onstage

 On "Impossible," from the 1997 album Wu-Tang Forever, he rhymed, "He pointed to the charm on his neck / With his last bit of energy left, told me rock it with respect / I opened it, seen the God holdin' his kids / Photogenic, tears just burst out my wig." He's a romantic, in his own way, and never stoic.

He prefers to work with members and affiliates of the groundbreaking and influential Wu-Tang Clan, which he co-founded. "Not everybody can tell a really good story," he says. "They veterans." As is he. For 20 years he's been playing unreliable narrators and characters who second-guess themselves. Yelling, going for broke whenever he's in front of a microphone. Ol' Dirty Bastard may have had no father to his style, but its Ghostface who's still the same guy we met back in 1993.

Born Dennis Coles on Staten Island, New York City, he can now, at the age of 42, look back on a career that's seen him play an integral part in one of the most respected groups in hip-hop history and release equally successful solo work. He's toured the world several times over, but he's not done yet.

What he's doing now is a concept album about an Italian gangster betrayed, murdered and resurrected as a black superhero bent on revenge.

The Wu-Tang Clan's 20-Year Plan
This year marks the 20th anniversary of a remarkable year in music. Over the 12 months of 1993, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, Salt-N-Pepa, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest and more than a dozen other rappers released albums that helped to change the sound of America. One of those albums wasn't just a collection of songs — it was a business concept, too. The Wu-Tang Clan's 1993 debut was the opening shot of an audacious plan to open the music industry to hip-hop made way outside the mainstream.
Protect Ya Neck Wu-Tang Clan - Da Mystery Of Chessboxin'

First Listen: Ghostface Killah And Adrian Younge, 'Twelve Reasons To Die'
Twelve Reasons to Die is a rap album that begins with an overture and ends with an instrumental coda. The songs were composed by Adrian Younge, a producer and musician who's fairly new to the scene, recorded live and authored by a rapper with 20 years in the business, the Ghostface Killah, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. The result is unusual — a vivid and intricate melodrama that's both backward-looking and forward-thinking.

UB students save money with electronic textbooks

Digital textbooks allow libraries to take a more active role in the textbook market

University at Buffalo Libraries program that makes electronic textbooks, also known as e-textbooks or digital textbooks, available to hundreds of students at no cost. The effort, which has the potential to save students money and boost their grades, reflects changing dynamics that make it easier for university libraries provide textbooks to students.

He signed up for the e-textbook program this semester and liked what he saw. UB Libraries buys access to the textbooks and makes them available online via computer, tablet, smartphone or e-reader to students.

Darwinson Valdez

He signed up for the e-textbook program this semester and liked what he saw. UB Libraries buys access to the textbooks and makes them available online via computer, tablet, smartphone or e-reader to students.

“A lot of the books that I needed were available,” Valdez said. “I think I probably saved $200 this semester.”
UB Libraries launched the program last fall by offering e-textbooks in five courses. Roughly 800 students participated. It switched gears this semester, opening the program to roughly 300 students in the university’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), which supports students who have educational, economic or personal hardships.

According to a 2008 report from the New York State Comptroller’s office, freshmen in New York’s public colleges and universities pay $400 to $800 each semester for textbooks. Other studies suggest that 70 percent of college students have, at some point, decided against purchasing a textbook due to its cost, and that 15 percent do not buy textbooks at all.

The e-textbook program is part of an in-house grant initiative at UB started by President Satish K. Tripathi called the “3 E Fund” – the “3 E’s” stand for excellence, engagement and efficiency. The grant program, which funds everything from bioinformatics research to creating a center for excellence in writing, aims to make UB one of the nation’s premier public research universities.

Smithsonian Secretary, Georgetown University President, NOAA Climate Scientist, World Bank Official and Jesuit Refugee Expert To Keynote 2013 Internet2 Annual Meeting

Conference focuses on advanced technologies that transform research and educate students around the globe


About Internet2
Internet2® is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions.  visit www.internet2.edu


The keynote speeches and other sessions will be streamed live. For details, go to http://events.internet2.edu/2013/annual-meeting/program.cfm?go=netcast.

For a complete Annual Meeting schedule, go to http://bit.ly/2013Internet2AnnualMeeting.

Dr. MacDonald holds the patent for Science on a Sphere®, a luminous, animated globe installed in museums around the world to educate the public about Earth and other planets. The globe will be on display for demonstrations and media interviews.

WELCOME TO THE MIXED HERITAGE CENTER

Supporting mixed heritage and transracially adopted students 

The Mixed Heritage Center (MHC), a collaborative project between MAVIN and AMEA (Association of Multiethnic Americans), is a clearinghouse of information and resources relevant to the lives of people who are multiracial, multiethnic, transracially adopted, or otherwise impacted by the intersections of race and culture.  It  is an organic resource that will grow and change with the contributions of users like you.

MAVIN, a national non-profit organization that builds healthier communities by providing educational resources about Mixed Heritage experiences.

What boxes do you mark on the U.S. Census form to describe your heritage?

Prior to the year 2000, multiracial people could only check one box in the Race category of the U.S. Census. Now, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, multiracial Americans are the fastest growing demographic group.

The racial categories included in the census questionnaire generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. In addition, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include racial and national origin or sociocultural groups. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian” and “White.” People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race.

Shirley Clarke's 'Connection': Will It Click At Last?

SC: I identified with black people because I couldn't deal with the woman question and I transposed it. I could understand very easily the black problems, and I somehow equated them to how I felt. When I did The Connection, which was about junkies, I knew nothing about junk and cared less. It was a symbol--people who are on the outside. I always felt alone, and on the outside of the culture that I was in. I grew up in a time when women weren't running things.
They still aren't.



Shirley Clarke, the director of The Connection, had strong ties to New York's independent film scene. She lent John Cassavetes equipment for his first film.

She brought the lives of Harlem teenagers to the screen in The Cool World and captured the voice of an out gay man, in Portrait of Jason, when that was rare.  Project Shirley.

Transcript

Shirley Clarke
SHIRLEY CLARKE: I think that I've gotten to the point that I believe so much that the filmmaker, the audience and the film must all be part of something together, and I don't want them separated behind the screen anymore. But I'm well aware of who my audience is. Most of the time it's the people who already agree with me, which is rather unfortunate. But you know and I would, I think, really like to broaden that.

CLARKE: I was really so determined to do it that I didn't care what anyone thought of me. If they thought I was crazy, it was OK by me. If they thought I was insane, that was fine. If they thought I had a lot of self-will, it was all right. And so as far as I was concerned, as long as I would get done what I wanted, I was willing to go to almost any lengths to do it.

Shirley Clarke is one of the great undertold stories of American independent cinema.”


One Man, Saved From Invisibility
Shirley Clarke’s ‘Portrait of Jason,’ Back in Circulation
ROME IS BURNING (Portrait of Shirley Clarke)


Interview with Shirley Clarkeby DeeDee Halleck

The statistics of the graduates of UCLA in the industry is almost nil. Male and female. That's true of NYU and USC. There are a few real hustlers that you knew from the day they walked in, they didn't need any university. They needed to have access to equipment. 


DDH: You received a grant to work at the Television Lab at WNET, the largest public TV station in the country.

SC: But that was where I experienced the most explicit form of discrimination. The engineer was the worst. He was so obstructive. He just hated the fact that I was a woman: hated it! That was probably the most overt discrimination I ever had.


DDH: The technicians aren't as subtle in their oppression as the big boys at the top. A number of women I know had trouble there. That place was notorious. Nancy Holt had her sound track erased. Those things didn't happen to the men artists who were granted access to work there. The irony is that the engineers were making salaries 500 times what the artists would get for working day and night on a program.

Halleck interviewed Shirley Clark at her home in the Chelsea Hotel in 1985. Ms. Halleck is currently engaged in a book project, the working title of which is: Hand Held Visions: The Uses of Community Media. It will be published by Fordham University Press.

U.S. Census: Rationalizing Race and Prison Map

http://joshbegley.com/

Josh Begley, creator of Racebox.org
@joshbegley
Web artist. @Dronestream, NYU.
Brooklyn · joshbegley.com


Full PDFs: 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

The United States is the prison capital of the world. This is not news to most people. Prison Map is not a map -- it's a snapshot of the earth's surface, taken at various points throughout the United States. It was made by Josh Begley.

U.S. Census: Rationalizing Race

Join our discussion about the history of racial and ethnic categories and all there is to learn from the U.S. Census. Featuring Nicholas A. Jones, chief of the U.S. Census Bureau's Racial Statistics Branch, and sociologist Ann Morning, author of The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference; and including web artists Josh Begley, creator of Racebox.org, and Jonathan Soma, creator of A Handsome Atlas; moderated by Eric Hamako, doctoral candidate in Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

This event is presented in collaboration with MAVIN: The Mixed Heritage Experience.

 #CBBGcensus

Accelerating Achievement With Blended Learning

 edX, a $60 million Harvard-MIT partnership in online education, university leaders spoke of reaching millions of new students in India, China and around the globe. They talked of the "revolutionary" potential of online learning, hailing it as the "single biggest change in education since the printing press."

Our school’s board chose to adopt this strategy in 2012 to take advantage of the online learning revolution, which  Harvard and MIT call “the single biggest change in education since the printing press.”

Students Learn Better With Blended Learning
Blended learning students learn better than those in traditional, face-to-face instruction-only or online-only instruction, according to a comprehensive online learning study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education.

The leading group studying the impact of blended learning in education, the Innosight Institute, defines blended learning as:

“a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home.”

 Learning Is No Longer Restricted By

• The school day or school year
• The walls of the classroom
• Instruction from the teacher (the computer does what it does best by customizing learning)
• The pace of an entire classroom of students (Digital Learning Now)

Blended-Learning Model Definitions

PBS CONVERSATION: , 'The Other Wes Moore'

SUMMARY

Judy Woodruff talks to Baltimore native Wes Moore about his new book, 'The Other Wes Moore' which explores the stories of two inner-city young men who share the same name, but lead very different lives.

WES MOORE:
I think expectations play a -- play a huge role.
And, as Wes even said to me, where he said, you know, if people expect you to do well in school, you will do well in school. And if people expect you to graduate, then you will graduate. And if people expect you to be on the corner selling drugs, then that's what you will do as well.

You know, one thing my mother always says -- and I think it's accurate -- is, kids need to think that you care before they care what you think. And I think, for so many kids, particularly ones who are growing up in very precarious environments, many kids don't feel like many people care about them and care about their future.

TEACHERS
Find Video For Your Classroom

Dr. Joseph Bowman, Jr.

“We must prepare students, parents, and teachers to achieve the 21st Century skills needed to broker the interface between technology, life, employment, and develop a positive attitude toward life long learning. This community must have access to non-threatening, project-based learning environments that challenges, stimulates, and encourages them to succeed in the high technology fields of “Tech Valley”.”
--Dr. Joseph Bowman, Jr.

Dr. Bowman is a Service Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice and the Director of Center for Urban Youth and Technology (CUYT) at the University at Albany, State University of New York. CUYT develops programs in research, instructional and curriculum design relating to technology and its impact on rural and urban communities. Among the courses he teaches are educational television production, multi-media design, and topical seminars on instructional technology. He has also taught computing, information management, and television production at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Dr. Bowman was elected to a three-year term in September of 2001 as a Regent to The University of the State of New York, representing educational policy issues for New York State. In 2004, Dr. Bowman was elected to a new five-year term in this position and serves on the Elementary, Middle, Secondary, and Continuing Education, Audit, Cultural Education, and Quality committees. He has also worked with the State Education Department to establish the Technology Policy and Practice Council. The Council is responsible to identify technology policy issues and identify technology resources related to education across New York State.

MoveOn Civic Action

There's an upcoming opportunity in Brooklyn on Monday at 8:30 a.m. to take action on an important progressive issue. Here's what's happening:

Join us at the Fort Hamilton Post office as we greet our neighbors mailing in their tax returns. We'll be handing out leaflets, reminding them that our taxes should be supporting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, keeping hospitals open, and improving public education. Come help us raise awareness in our community of the need to put human needs before military spending waste.

This invitation is from Vicki M., a local MoveOn member who is organizing an important progressive action in Brooklyn on Monday, April 15 at 8:30 a.m.. For additional details, click here or check out the email below.

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 7 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

WHAT IS 10X10?

girl rising

10x10 is a campaign to reach global audiences and inspire individuals to take action for girls. Stories about the power of educating girls are told every day through photos, videos, blogs, books, and sometimes in 140 characters or less.


.Girl Rising (Official Trailer)

10x10 Act is a global campaign set up to change the world by educating girls. 10x10 is shifting paradigms by producing a film that brings advocacy and production together. They are partnering with “forward-thinking nonprofits, celebrities, policy leaders, corporations and concerned citizens like you to build a global movement to demand equal opportunity for girls.”

Educate Girls Globally
Educate Girls Globally exists to provide opportunities for women and girls to achieve their full potential, recognizing that educated women are the world’s most powerful agents of social change.

As a result of their education, the world becomes a safer, healthier, and more just place.

Intel believes that education is a fundamental right for everyone and has worked for decades to improve education around the world. We recognize from our extensive global education work that girls’ situations are different the world over. For example, in developing nations, issues as serious as lack of civil and human rights must first be addressed, where, in the U.S., our focus on girls is on increasing their affinity for science and math education. This was the message for the more than 200 attendees of the “Girl Rising” premier in Rio Rancho.   Natasha Martell Jacksonm, Media/Communications Manager,Education Manager for Corporate Affairs, Southwest Region of Intel Corporation.

FOUNDING PARTNERS:

Vulcan Inc.

CNN Press Room

DocGroup

Girl Rising 

Gathr

International Education and Resource Network - iearn-usa

International Education and Resource Network  - iearn-usa
US member of the pioneering global K-12 project-based collaboration network.

iEARN enables students and teachers to design and participate in global projects as part of their regular classroom and after-school programs.  All projects align to education standards and use a safe and structured online Collaboration Centre.

Join us in July for the 20th Annual iEARN International Conference and 17th Annual Youth Summit. The conference will be held in Doha – Qatar from July 1st to July 6th, 2013.


The theme of the conference will focus on the use of technologies in education to reach out, learn and build a better world together.

Lesson For All

The Lesson for All is a set of two units focused on the right of education and the barriers that youth around the world experience when trying to access that right. Written by teacher Donna Roman, each unit (K-3 and 4-6) has four lessons with multimedia, discussion and modes of assessment. Each lesson is mapped to the Common Core State Standards and the Global Competence Matrix.  by The Global Campaign for Education - U.S. Chapter 


Want more information about GLOBAL ACTION WEEK around the world?

This year, the international theme is Every Child Needs a Teacher, which recognizes the importance of teachers in ensuring that all children have access to a quality education. CLICK HERE!

Educate Girls, Change the World ( see my next blog post)

Did you know that each additional year of schooling can add up to 15 percent to one’s future earnings? By taking action for education you are making not only an impact for education, you are making cross impacts in health, economic prosperity and global security.

Now that is action with results!  Global Campaign for Education-US.




iEARN
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 450
NYC, NY 10115


iEARN-USA
@iEARNUSA
Join at #iEARN, #globaled & #exchange20 & learn with the world, not just about.

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Written by a Student: Standardized testing creates standard students

Written by Ernest Owens  originally from Chicago, Illinois, is a Communication & Public Service major at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves as a columnist for the Daily Pennsylvanian, broadcasts his hit radio show “Ernestly Speaking!” on WQHS.org, and is an elected student government representative at UPenn.

Standardized testing, for all of its proposed grandeur, has failed to succeed in its primary purpose and it will fail in the educational enrichment of American public schools.

You can also tweet at the author at @MrErnestOwens and at One World Youth Project at @owyp.

Connecting with the world through the click of a button

Written by Onika Stellingburg is a university student leader of One World Youth Project in Guyana, and a third-year student at the University of Guyana pursuing a Bachelors of Science Degree in Environmental Studies.

Growing up in Guyana, a once isolated country in South America, I never would have envisioned that I could have a conversation with someone else my age 10,000 miles away with the click of a button.   ....I have been interacting with the larger global community through multimedia

Stories from a Connected World

One World Youth Project: THE CHALLENGE

One World Youth Project (OWYP)

OUR VISION…is a just world built through the actions of empowered, discerning and empathetic generations of global citizens. Contact us to help make this vision a reality!

One World Youth Project links schools around the world to build a generation of discerning, empathetic and empowered global citizens.

If youth are not introduced to global life skills in formal education, as adults they will not be prepared for success in the 21st century society and economy. Youth who do not receive a 21st century education may:

• Have limited access to living wage employment opportunities and be less qualified for executive positions
• Be less likely to pursue higher education
• Contribute to xenophobia and experience less social inclusion
• Continue to passively perpetuate global injustices rather than work to create a better, shared future

THE CHALLENGE:

We are not adequately preparing our youth with the global life skills needed to succeed in our increasingly interconnected 21st century society and economy

OUR SOLUTION:

We approach this challenge from two sides:

One World Youth Project

We partner with universities and colleges to:

• establish an innovative service-learning program that empowers university students as cross-cultural facilitators in local, public middle school classrooms.
• link campuses across the world to a network of engaged universities, allowing for student facilitators to work together across borders as advocates for their classrooms.

Students must: Develop expert thinking as well as complex communication and collaboration skills to succeed in a globalized 21st century, where they will be called upon to

• Investigate the world beyond their immediate environment
• Recognize and articulate varied perspectives thoughtfully and respectfully
• Communicate ideas effectively with diverse audiences
• Act as discerning participants in a global marketplace and society, viewing themselves as actors in the world

Educators want the following for their students:

• Facilitated peer-to-peer global conversations
• Customized global-learning curriculum that also meets local educational standards
• Well-managed service-learning
• Mentors

We provide middle school classrooms with:

• a global education curriculum program that builds critical thinking, problem-solving, and awareness of shared global and local challenges
• a team of trained university student facilitators to lead global learning and cultural competency curriculum once a week.
• a cross-cultural exchange opportunity with partner classrooms abroad.

Middle School Youth Experience…

• A window into another classroom and culture abroad
• Guided conversations with peers in a partner classroom
• Practice in critical thinking and problem solving
• Exposure to higher education through a university mentor
• An exploration into local and global leadership
• An opportunity to explore shared global challenges
• An opportunity to design and implement a service-learning project for their local community

Read More....

MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT
Click to Download the Secondary School Program Overview
 "Every Child Needs a Teacher" POSTER
One World Youth Project TV  by owypstaff's channel



 One World Youth Project if you have any questions.
1367 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 400, Washington DC, 20036
Phone: 202-747-0357
Fax: 202-821-4735
Email: info@oneworldyouthproject.org

@OWYP

Exploring the United States Constitution and The Meaning and Making of Emancipation

For PC or Mac, or iPhone, iPad, Android phone, or Android tablet using the Scribd app:

Exploring the United States Constitution by Prologue Magazine

Our Documents
DocsTeach
Document Analysis with Students

Key to Use of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Help your students think through primary source documents for contextual understanding and to glean information to make informed judgments. The first few times you ask students to work with primary sources, and whenever you have not worked with primary sources recently, be sure to model careful document analysis

Learn more about introducing your students to primary source documents.

The Meaning and Making of Emancipation by Prologue Magazine

Engaging pupils with technology

ICT is taught a lot in schools, but there is not enough ICT used to teach ---- Steve Beswick, director, education, Microsoft  

Microsoft is inspiring teachers, through the use of a forum, to find out new and interesting ways in which technology can be used within lessons.

“We are delivering against a vision – any time, anywhere learning for all," said Beswick. "This will be achieved through the use of technology. It is about enabling all children to have access to technology, not just the ones that can afford it. Children may not know they have a talent, until they have the chance to work with technology. This in turn will lead to more computer scientists in the future.”

“Through using the Xbox, children have linked technology into their literacy lessons. The Xbox is a gaming experience, where they use the Xbox controller to write a story which is programmed,” he added.

To connect school leaders around the world, we have created a global community on the Partners in Learning Network where school leaders with common interests can share their experiences and connect with one another. We encourage members of the global community to organize local school communities, visits to other Partners in Learning Schools, hold local workshops, and share best practices.

Information technology trends 2013: figuring out how to manage the personal media tablets, notebook computers and smartphones that people are sneaking into the workplace/school, brace yourself. The trend will accelerate in 2013.

The most commonly supported devices are smartphones, followed by tablets, the data shows. But we definitely are starting to see more widespread adoption of BYOD," said Dave Casey, CEO of Westron Communications Inc., a network integrator in Frisco, Texas. "It's been slower than expected, but it's coming."

The BYOD trend is having a related effect at the infrastructure level, often in the form of corporate wireless network investments. "Companies are struggling to keep up with the fact that so many devices are competing for a connection," Casey said.

Creativity: The Importance of Listening and Collaborating by keithsawyer

Creativity cannot explode if you do not have the ability to step back, take in what everybody else says and then fuse it with your own ideas. Theater is one of the most collaborative art forms, and you have to be able to absorb everything that people tell you….When I go into meetings with successful business people, I’m always amazed at how much they’re able to just sit there and absorb things and then make a really good decision.

Having original ideas is what makes you successful, if you know how to implement them. It’s a rare thing because some people have the ideas and other people have the mechanics, but they can’t do both.   You have to learn how to fail.----Keith Sawyer

First, Make Sure Your Idea Works on a Small Stage New York Times* with Francesca Zambello, artistic director of the Washington National Opera.

If my parents were working, I was backstage watching. Of course, I started to mimic them, but I was most interested in the stage manager. From about age 5, I loved to sit with that person as they would say, “Move this here, move that there.” When I was still a child I started a theater company in my basement with kids from around the neighborhood. So the directing gene, which is a leadership gene, started early on.

When you’re in your 20s and have that leadership gene, the bad thing is that you don’t know when to shut up. You think you know all the answers, but you don’t. What you learn later is when to just listen to everybody else. I’m finding that all those adages about being humble and listening are truer and truer as I get older. Creativity cannot explode if you do not have the ability to step back, take in what everybody else says and then fuse it with your own ideas.

It’s  all about that detail in the beginning — detail and honest, creative work. I have a lot of respect for many business people, because the reason they’re successful is they were creative. They had a vision, which is why I don’t think that’s any different than what I do. A lot of people know how to crank it out. A lot of people know how to copy others. Not a lot of people have an original idea. Having original ideas is what makes you successful, if you know how to implement them. It’s a rare thing because some people have the ideas and other people have the mechanics, but they can’t do both.

You have to learn how to fail. You have to understand that in any position where you’re at the top, you will fail, and if you don’t fail, you’re probably not that good. So you have to learn how to cope with that. The more you get knocked down, the more you learn how to pick yourself up. It’s like a boxer.

Don’t do something to make money.  When you’re starting something, I really believe you have to have that passion. There has to be a burn, like a shark going after blood.

More ‘Corner Office’ Columns 
"The Corner Office"