Test scores & education quality falling. Lack of accountability the problem, not money, 20% of govt budget to education, more than ASEAN neighbors.
Free education policy needs overhaul, ombudsman report says
Lamphai Intathep
The 15-year free education scheme has failed due to resource mismanagement by the Education Ministry and may be unconstitutional, an ombudsman's report says.
Ombudsman Sriracha Charoenpanich said the ministry needs to reconsider the policy initiated by the Democrat-led government.
A study conducted by independent academic Kittiya Evans under the supervision of the Office of Ombudsman discovered that supposedly free scholarships under the scheme were not actually free, Mr Sriracha said.
Parents have the perception that a "free education" policy means "free of all charges" but, in fact, only five things are free under the policy - uniforms, text books, equipment, a learning activity charge, and tuition fees.
But there are hidden fees such as school electricity bills, air conditioning fees, and fees by tutors directly requested from parents, the study revealed.
Mr Sriracha also contended that despite having a 300-400 billion baht annual budget, the programme has not improved students' academic performances.
National standardised examination results indicate students' scores on core subjects have actually decreased since the policy was implemented.
Mr Sriracha said the programme is unconstitutional because it fails to provide free, equal and quality education as required by Section 46 of the 2007 constitution, which says every person is equally entitled to receive a respectable state-funded education free of charge for at least 12 years. He proposed the constitution stipulate nine years instead of 12 in order to improve education management and ensure more reasonable spending.
He suggested the state leave the education system to market demand instead of managing it with pre-allocated budget restraints that damage the education system as a whole.
Ammar Siamwalla, a distinguished economist at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said the issue of financial resources is not a cause of the failure of education in this country.
Over the past 10 years, many budgets have been allocated for education purposes and at present the education budget is about 4% of the country's gross domestic product and 20% of the government's overall budget.
"It is higher than other Asean countries," he said.
A key factor behind poor education quality in this country is a lack of accountability.
This applies to teachers, school directors, executives, all the way up to education ministers, he told a recent conference on education reform organised by the TDRI.
Mr Ammar said almost all schools have passed external quality assessment tests conducted by the Education Ministry and teachers have higher salaries and gained academic standing from presenting hundred plus-page reports.
"But the performance of students has become poorer in both national and international tests, especially in sciences and maths," he said. "A new approach is needed.
Somkiat Tangkitvanich of the TDRI agreed, saying standard test results must be taken into account when evaluating and assessing teachers and schools.
Varakorn Samakoses, rector of Dhurakit Pundit University, said politicians have played around with education too much.
As a result the nation's education policy is often changed even by ministers coming from the same political party.
This has led to discontinuity throughout the education system spanning from elementary and secondary to high school.
(Source: Bangkok Post, SCHOOLS, Free education policy needs overhaul, ombudsman report says, 17/02/2012, Lamphai Intathep, link)
Free Education Policy
policy - a plan of action to guide decisions and achiev eoutcomes นโยบาย (See Wikipedia)
free education policy
overhaul - repair completely and rebuild; to improve something so that every part of it works properly ปรับปรุงใหม่
ombudsman - a person whose job is to deal with complaints made by people about an organization or company (example: the ombudsman of the New York Times who deals with issues and complaints raised by stories in that newspaper)
Free education policy needs overhaul, ombudsman report says
scheme - a plan that is developed by a government or large organisation in order to provide a particular service for people แผนการ โครงการ
free education scheme
resources - things needed for proper functioning, to get a job done; things such as money, workers and equipment that can be used to help achieve some goals ทรัพยากร
mismanagement - not managing well, resulting in failure or poor performance การจัดการผิด
resource mismanagement
constitution (noun) - a set of basic laws (principles, rules) for a country that describe the rights and duties of the country's citizens and the way that the country is governed (See Wikipedia)
constitutional (adjective) - following the rules in the constitution
unconstitutional (adjective) - not following the rules in the constitution; violating the constitution
The 15-year free education scheme has failed due to resource mismanagement by the Education Ministry and may be unconstitutional
ministry - a government department dealing with an area of activity กระทรวง
reconsider - to think again about a decision in order to decide whether you should change it พิจารณาอีกครั้ง
initiated - created; started ริเริ่มโดย
Ombudsman Sriracha Charoenpanich said the ministry needs to reconsider the policy initiated by the Democrat-led government.
independent - separate, not connected, working by yourself with your own resources; not influenced or affected by others; free from outside influence; not taking help or money from other people เป็นอิสระ พึ่งตนเอง
academic - someone who teaches at a college, or who studies as part of their job นักวิชาการ
supervision - the process of making sure that something is being done properly การควบคุมดูแล การตรวจตรา
supposedly - believed to be; thought to be เป็นที่เชื่อว่า
scholarships - money given to a student to pay for the cost of education ทุนการศึกษา
A study conducted by independent academic Kittiya Evans under the supervision of the Office of Ombudsman discovered that supposedly free scholarships under the scheme were not actually free, Mr Sriracha said.
perception - the way that people think about or feel about an issue การรับรู้
charges - a payment that has to be made for something เงินที่เรียกเก็บ
free of all charges
tuition - 1. extra teaching outside of school hours; 2. teaching; the work of a teacher ค่าเล่าเรียน
Parents have the perception that a "free education" policy means "free of all charges" but, in fact, only five things are free under the policy - uniforms, text books, equipment, a learning activity charge, and tuition fees.
fees - money that you pay to be allowed to do something ค่าธรรมเนียม
hidden fees - money that you have to pay (but people don't see; hidden; not made public)
bills - money owed to others that must be paid quickly
electricity bills
revealed - made known or showed somthing that was surprising or that was previously secret เปิดเผย
tutors - private teachers (outside of classes in schools)
But there are hidden fees such as school electricity bills, air conditioning fees, and fees by tutors directly requested from parents, the study revealed.
X contended that Y - X says that Y is true or is the case; X asserts Y (not completely proven though; still debateable)
annual - happening once a year ประจำปี
budget - the amounts of money that an organisation has available to spend on different things during a period งบประมาณ (See Wikipedia)
annual budget
student academic performances - how well students do in school (whether they get good grades and test scores)
Mr Sriracha also contended that despite having a 300-400 billion baht annual budget, the programme has not improved students' academic performances.
results - 1. student grade or score in a test; 2. what is produced in the end by an activity or task
standardised examination - a test that everyone in a large group of students take (not tests made by individual teachers for small groups of students)
national standardized exam - a test that all students in the country take
National standardised examination results
indicate - show
score - a grade; a number that shows how well a student did in a test or other schoolwork
students' scores
core - the central part, most important or basic part of something, the heart แก่น แกนนำ สิ่งที่สำคัญที่สุด
core subjects - the most important subjects that a student takes in school
students' scores on core subjects
implement - when a plan is put into action, actually doing the things in a plan
implement policy - put a policy into action; make it work
National standardised examination results indicate students' scores on core subjects have actually decreased since the policy was implemented.
provide - to give someone something that they want or need
state - government รัฐ
funded - given money บริจาค money provided for operation of a business or organisation ให้ความช่วยเหลือทางการเงิน ให้เงินลงทุน
state-funded education
entitled - having the right to have or do something มีสิทธิโดยชอบ
entitled to receive a respectable state-funded education free of charge for at least 12 years
proposed - suggested, presented as a possible project (but not yet chosen or decided upon)
stipulate - to state exactly how something must be or must be done ระบุ, ระบุเงื่อนไข
improve - to make better ทำให้ดีขึ้น
ensure - to make certain that something happens or is done รับรอง ให้ความมั่นใจ ให้การยืนยัน
reasonable -
reasonable spending
Mr Sriracha said the programme is unconstitutional because it fails to provide free, equal and quality education as required by Section 46 of the 2007 constitution, which says every person is equally entitled to receive a respectable state-funded education free of charge for at least 12 years. He proposed the constitution stipulate nine years instead of 12 in order to improve education management and ensure more reasonable spending.
market demand - the need and desire to buy goods and services by households and businesses
allocated - given for a special purpose or use
pre-allocated - allocated before activity begins
restraints - limits on how much or what can be done
pre-allocated budget restraints - meaning determined or set from above long before activity starts (unlike the free market which is determined by demand as the activity proceeds)
He suggested the state leave the education system to market demand instead of managing it with pre-allocated budget restraints that damage the education says.
Ammar Siamwalla - a famous Thai economist and specialist in food and agricultural economics and has contributed considerably in the development of modern economic discipline in Thailand, having taught at universities ranging from Yale, Thammasat and Stanford, and served as director of the TDRI research institution, he is now retired but still active in economic debates อัมมาร สยามวาลา (See Wikipedia)
Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) - Thailand's foremost private research research organization and think tank (See Wikipedia)
distinguished - describes a respected and admired person, or their work มีชื่อเสียง
a distinguished economist
issue - matter; a subject that people discuss or argue about ประเด็น
financial resources - the amount of money given to a project, organization or business
the issue of financial resources
Ammar Siamwalla, a distinguished economist at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said the issue of financial resources is not a cause of the failure of education in this country.
gross - being the total before costs and taxes are taken away
domestic - within the country ภายในประเทศ
gross domestic product (GDP) - the total value of all the goods and services produced by a country in one year (See Wikipedia)
Over the past 10 years, many budgets have been allocated for education purposes and at present the education budget is about 4% of the country's gross domestic product and 20% of the government's overall budget. "It is higher than other Asean countries," he said.
key - important คนสำคัญ
factor - a fact or situation which influences the result of something ปัจจัย
key factor - some important thing that influences a situation or outcome of an event
accountability - a situation where people have the right to ask you about or criticise you for something that has happened ความน่าเชื่อถือ must answer and explain what you did and the results (good or bad); must explain what you have done and be rewarded if successful, punished if a failure; being required to explain why all your decisions or actions were made; being responsible for an activity and able to explain and justify it
lack - does not have ขาดแคลน
lack of accountability - have no accountability; not required to explain actions or suffer for failure
A key factor behind poor education quality in this country is a lack of accountability.
executives - a high level manager in a company (making plans and ensuring they executed successfully) ผู้บริหาร
conference -
reform - improvements in the way government or an organization operates; a change that is intended to correct a situation that is wrong or unfair การแก้ไข การปฏิรูป
education reform - the process of improving public education (making it more fair and more efficient) (See Wikipedia)
This applies to teachers, school directors, executives, all the way up to education ministers, he told a recent conference on education reform organised by the TDRI.
assessment - a judgment or opinion; the process of making a judgment or forming an opinion, after considering something or someone carefully การประเมิณสถานการณ์ looking at something closely and then making a judgement about it (example: teacher assessment or grading of students in a class)
quality assessment test - a test given to measure quality
pass test - achieve a score that shows that you are ok (meet the requirements)
fail test - do not achieve a score that shows that you are ok (meet the requirements)
external quality assessment tests - meaning: someone outside the organization gives the test (to make sure there is no cheating or favouritism) (See Wikipedia on external examiners)
passed external quality assessment tests
Mr Ammar said almost all schools have passed external quality assessment tests conducted by the Education Ministry and teachers have higher salaries and gained academic standing from presenting hundred plus-page reports.
performance - how well or badly something works (or whether an investment provides a reasonable return)
performance of students in tests
national - within a country
international - including all or many countries
in both national and international tests
approach - a particular way of doing something or thinking about something; or of solving some problem วิธีการทำให้ถึงจุดหมาย การจัดการกับปัญหา
"But the performance of students has become poorer in both national and international tests, especially in sciences and maths," he said. "A new approach is needed.
standard test results - student scores in "standard tests"
take into account - use information when making some decision
evaluating - thinking carefully about something before making a judgment about its value, importance or quality
Somkiat Tangkitvanich of the TDRI agreed, saying standard test results must be taken into account when evaluating and assessing teachers and schools.
rector - the person in charge in some schools, colleges, and universities อธิการบดีของมหาวิทยาลัยหรือวิทยาลัย
play around with - doing things to something that are a waste of time (achieve no goals, do not actually improve the system)
Varakorn Samakoses, rector of Dhurakit Pundit University, said politicians have played around with education too much. As a result the nation's education policy is often changed even by ministers coming from the same political party.
continuity - something that happens for a long time without stopping (without a break)
discontinuity - not having continuity; a break in a process that is continuous
span - including many things (or a long period of time) (example: the life of the old man spanned the period from before cars to the age of jets)
This has led to discontinuity throughout the education system spanning from elementary and secondary to high school.
Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/280329/free-education-not-really-free
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Impressive Investment in Education
Impressive investment in education.
Azim Premji, who turned his father's vegetable oil company into one of the world's leading software service providers, is looking to raise more money to help the educational fund he has set up.
Mr Premji, who is estimated to be worth $7 billion, has donated more than $2 billion and is ready to commit more.
"If there is a requirement of more funds, we will donate more," says the man regarded as the biggest philanthropist in a country where the wealthy have been criticised for not giving back enough.
The Azim Premji Foundation, he says, chose education because it is what helps build the nation, and also because in countries such as India the educators are not as qualified as they seem.
"India has millions of teachers but a bulk of them have not even gone through formal schooling," he says.
As for infrastructure, thousands of village schools lack electricity, have no seating or even basics such as a blackboard for the teachers.
"We are working with the [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation on setting up something in India where each of the members would contribute about $100 million to $150 million as the seed funding," Mr Premji said.
As many as 50 rich Indians and other members are expected to join the foundation and to pledge large sums of funds over a period of years and not just as one-time payments by donors.
"In India itself, if the rich can buy private planes for $60 million, they surely can come up with the funds," he said when asked how many families were willing to make large pledges.
Mr Premji himself is a down-to-earth person who is famous for "upgrading" his car from a Ford Escort to a Toyota Corolla despite being able to afford any car in the world.
"I don't understand the need to have a private jet in India where the air connectivity is so good. It would only make sense where companies that have lots of plants and company executives want to visit as many sites as possible but for other than this it does not make sense to me," he says.
Mr Premji says he only travels economy class to distances of less than four or five hours.
But he acknowledges that it is not that easy to pass on this message of frugality to the younger generation. His two sons are frugal but not like their parents.
"There is a lot of peer pressure so they try to compromise between the two sides," he said, noting that when his elder son Rishad married he did not hold the typical lavish Indian wedding but a simple family function.
Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/280659/impressive-investment-in-education
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Azim Premji, who turned his father's vegetable oil company into one of the world's leading software service providers, is looking to raise more money to help the educational fund he has set up.
Mr Premji, who is estimated to be worth $7 billion, has donated more than $2 billion and is ready to commit more.
"If there is a requirement of more funds, we will donate more," says the man regarded as the biggest philanthropist in a country where the wealthy have been criticised for not giving back enough.
The Azim Premji Foundation, he says, chose education because it is what helps build the nation, and also because in countries such as India the educators are not as qualified as they seem.
"India has millions of teachers but a bulk of them have not even gone through formal schooling," he says.
As for infrastructure, thousands of village schools lack electricity, have no seating or even basics such as a blackboard for the teachers.
"We are working with the [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation on setting up something in India where each of the members would contribute about $100 million to $150 million as the seed funding," Mr Premji said.
As many as 50 rich Indians and other members are expected to join the foundation and to pledge large sums of funds over a period of years and not just as one-time payments by donors.
"In India itself, if the rich can buy private planes for $60 million, they surely can come up with the funds," he said when asked how many families were willing to make large pledges.
Mr Premji himself is a down-to-earth person who is famous for "upgrading" his car from a Ford Escort to a Toyota Corolla despite being able to afford any car in the world.
"I don't understand the need to have a private jet in India where the air connectivity is so good. It would only make sense where companies that have lots of plants and company executives want to visit as many sites as possible but for other than this it does not make sense to me," he says.
Mr Premji says he only travels economy class to distances of less than four or five hours.
But he acknowledges that it is not that easy to pass on this message of frugality to the younger generation. His two sons are frugal but not like their parents.
"There is a lot of peer pressure so they try to compromise between the two sides," he said, noting that when his elder son Rishad married he did not hold the typical lavish Indian wedding but a simple family function.
Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/280659/impressive-investment-in-education
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Friday, February 24, 2012
Study in America
Study in America.
With America being the top destination for students around the world, US-based International Student Network (ISN) will be holding the "American Education Scholarship Expo 2012" at the Four Seasons Bangkok on Feb 25 from 5:30-8pm.
Top 25 universities in the US will be represented at this event and up to $1 million (about 31 million baht) in scholarships will be available to Thai students.
The expo kicks off with a 30-minute talk on "How to get a US Student Visa" starting 5:30pm.
This is also an opportunity for students and parents to meet with admission officers of the represented universities and colleges.
Interested students should bring multiple copies of their report cards, transcripts and TOEFL scores. This will allow the representatives to determine their admission and scholarship eligibility.
Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/improvement/280667/study-in-america
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
With America being the top destination for students around the world, US-based International Student Network (ISN) will be holding the "American Education Scholarship Expo 2012" at the Four Seasons Bangkok on Feb 25 from 5:30-8pm.
Top 25 universities in the US will be represented at this event and up to $1 million (about 31 million baht) in scholarships will be available to Thai students.
The expo kicks off with a 30-minute talk on "How to get a US Student Visa" starting 5:30pm.
This is also an opportunity for students and parents to meet with admission officers of the represented universities and colleges.
Interested students should bring multiple copies of their report cards, transcripts and TOEFL scores. This will allow the representatives to determine their admission and scholarship eligibility.
Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/improvement/280667/study-in-america
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Thai Education An Escalating Problem
Thai Education An Escalating Problem.
You might think that three years in kindergarten, 12 years in school and four years in university would teach all the basics needed for daily life. If not, then your parents should have helped bridge any missing gaps in your knowledge. Apparently however, neither the education system nor many parents teach children about some important manners. It might sound like a trivial thing, but for a society in which department stores are everyone's second home, escalator etiquette is important.
According to my parents (blame them if I'm wrong, not me), Bangkok's first escalator was installed at the Thai Daimaru Department Store, back when my mother was still a primary school student. It was a big thing at the time and lots of people went there just to try the escalator. Almost 50 years later however, many still aren't even aware that there's such thing as escalator etiquette. You just stand on one step, wait until it goes to the end, and leave. Simple, right?
From my own experience, a lot of problems can occur during that 30 second ride. I can't remember where I learned this, but I've always known that on escalators, you stand on the right and walk on the left. I've also learned that many people don't know or simply don't care about basic escalator etiquette; that couples will stand side by side, blocking two of the escalator's invisible "lanes".
Groups of friends crowd the steps and refuse to break up their cluster, so everyone behind them has to wait.
Another thing, which is more common sense than etiquette, is when you reach the end of the escalator, you don't stop. In real life, however, a lot of people go blank and stand at the end of the escalator, causing a domino effect behind them. As crazy as this sounds, there are actually a lot of "reasons" for people to stand still when the ride on the escalator ends. One example, is when I was going down the escalator at a BTS station and the national anthem began to play. A man in front of me, showing his devoted love for his nation, stood still from the start to the end of the song. Yes, when that song plays, you should stand still, but at the end of a moving, jam-packed escalator?
Some children, left unattended by their parents, also use escalators at department stores as treadmills, running in the opposite direction to the one the escalator is going. This one goes up? Well, I want to go down and see if I can make it to the other side! And of course, along the way, these little sprinters bump into innocent people standing on the narrow, moving steep steps. One push is all it takes for someone to lose balance and fall all the way down.
There are also other basics that everyone should know, such as strollers are not allowed on escalators. My own son almost tumbled out of his once, and that's how I learned.
Don't wear miniskirts if you know you will be using an escalator, because the person behind might not want a sneak preview of your yellowing underwear. Please don't grope your boyfriend/girlfriend because everyone else on the escalator will be forced to either watch you or jump off.
It would be ridiculous for schools to have escalator etiquette courses, considering most don't have an escalator for demonstration. However, since so many children grow up in malls these days, it would be good if their parents would teach them how to use an escalator properly.
That's if the teachers and parents are even aware of escalator etiquette themselves.
Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/280796/an-escalating-problem
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
You might think that three years in kindergarten, 12 years in school and four years in university would teach all the basics needed for daily life. If not, then your parents should have helped bridge any missing gaps in your knowledge. Apparently however, neither the education system nor many parents teach children about some important manners. It might sound like a trivial thing, but for a society in which department stores are everyone's second home, escalator etiquette is important.
According to my parents (blame them if I'm wrong, not me), Bangkok's first escalator was installed at the Thai Daimaru Department Store, back when my mother was still a primary school student. It was a big thing at the time and lots of people went there just to try the escalator. Almost 50 years later however, many still aren't even aware that there's such thing as escalator etiquette. You just stand on one step, wait until it goes to the end, and leave. Simple, right?
From my own experience, a lot of problems can occur during that 30 second ride. I can't remember where I learned this, but I've always known that on escalators, you stand on the right and walk on the left. I've also learned that many people don't know or simply don't care about basic escalator etiquette; that couples will stand side by side, blocking two of the escalator's invisible "lanes".
Groups of friends crowd the steps and refuse to break up their cluster, so everyone behind them has to wait.
Another thing, which is more common sense than etiquette, is when you reach the end of the escalator, you don't stop. In real life, however, a lot of people go blank and stand at the end of the escalator, causing a domino effect behind them. As crazy as this sounds, there are actually a lot of "reasons" for people to stand still when the ride on the escalator ends. One example, is when I was going down the escalator at a BTS station and the national anthem began to play. A man in front of me, showing his devoted love for his nation, stood still from the start to the end of the song. Yes, when that song plays, you should stand still, but at the end of a moving, jam-packed escalator?
Some children, left unattended by their parents, also use escalators at department stores as treadmills, running in the opposite direction to the one the escalator is going. This one goes up? Well, I want to go down and see if I can make it to the other side! And of course, along the way, these little sprinters bump into innocent people standing on the narrow, moving steep steps. One push is all it takes for someone to lose balance and fall all the way down.
There are also other basics that everyone should know, such as strollers are not allowed on escalators. My own son almost tumbled out of his once, and that's how I learned.
Don't wear miniskirts if you know you will be using an escalator, because the person behind might not want a sneak preview of your yellowing underwear. Please don't grope your boyfriend/girlfriend because everyone else on the escalator will be forced to either watch you or jump off.
It would be ridiculous for schools to have escalator etiquette courses, considering most don't have an escalator for demonstration. However, since so many children grow up in malls these days, it would be good if their parents would teach them how to use an escalator properly.
That's if the teachers and parents are even aware of escalator etiquette themselves.
Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/280796/an-escalating-problem
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Young Migrants Changing Face of Chinese Cities
Young migrants changing face of Chinese cities.
Li Biying's hands tell you she's left the farm behind. Her long, tapered fingernails pinch apart pieces of gauzy fabric at the underwear factory that is her ticket out of rural poverty. They wouldn't last long in the fields where her parents coax corn, potatoes and greens from terraced plots.
The 20-year-old Li has no plans to go home. Unlike older migrant workers who came to earn money for a few years before returning to their villages, the new generation intends to stay, envisioning a life in the neon-splashed cities.
For China, the shift presents a challenge: How to integrate the new arrivals into already overburdened cities. An agrarian society for thousands of years, China is on the cusp of having more urban than rural dwellers for the first time.
“People my age think, what would I do in the countryside? I don't know how to do anything!” Li says in the simple dorm room she shares with two other women in Dongguan, a southern coastal boomtown near Hong Kong. Frilly underwear is draped in a corner and hair clips hold back makeshift privacy curtains on the bunks.
“I remember once we were growing wheat at home, it had just sprouted and it looked just like grass. I couldn't tell the difference so I pulled it out,» she recalls. “My mom was so mad, she said, how could anyone not tell the difference between wheat and grass?” Li started working in factories at 14, dropping out of seventh grade to help support her parents, sister and brother.
In a long concrete room above an Internet cafe, she and about 60 others toil under bare fluorescent tubes, occasionally calling out to each other in their singsong Sichuanese dialect above the din of clacking, thumping sewing machines.
She sews lining into unfinished bra cups, earning 20 cents for every 12 pieces. In a good month, she'll make about $225 — that's roughly 14,000 pieces sewn during shifts that begin at 8 a.m. and don't end until 10:30 p.m.
The workers, almost all women, get one day off a month, the day after payday so they can send money home. After that, they might browse at a nearby department store.
Of an estimated 150 million migrant workers in China, 90 million are under 30 and they are driving one of the most significant demographic shifts in the country's history.
The government forecasts that China will be majority urban by 2015. About 47 percent of Chinese, or 622 million people, were living in cities at the end of 2009, up from 36 percent in 2000. Some estimate the number could rise to 1 billion by 2030.
“Traditional migrants were like migratory birds, and felt like both a farmer and a worker,» says a report released last year by China's official trade union umbrella group.
“They identified themselves as visitors in the city.» A 2008 survey of migrants under 30 found that 56 percent planned to buy a house and settle in the city where they worked, according to the China Youth Research Center.
“They are more accustomed to urban life than rural life,”the trade union report says. “They've never been hungry, never felt the cold and never had to worry about food or clothing. They can't 'eat bitterness' like their parents.» In Dongguan, older migrants stick out with their sun-beaten faces and shabby work clothes, toting their possessions in fertilizer bags and plastic buckets hung on bamboo poles.
In contrast, it's hard to distinguish young migrants from their urban counterparts. Li sports short black shorts over black tights, working the pedal of her sewing machine with high-heeled boots trimmed with faux fur. She has two red studs in one ear, cuffs with thin chains on the other. A silky scarf peeks out from under the collar of her puffy red coat, which keeps her warm in the unheated factory.
“My parents say I've been working in the city for so long that I don't look like a country girl anymore,» Li says.
“I tell them, people learn and they change. You want to become a better person and keep moving forward.» China's cities still treat migrants as second-class citizens. Under the country's “hukou» registration system, for example, migrants are considered residents of their rural hometowns. So as “visitors» to a city, they often face higher medical and school fees and can be cut off from subsidized housing and other social services.
“Society should give equal opportunities to people of all levels,» says Wang Chunguang, who studies migrant issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Bill Clinton became the U.S. president; a Chinese migrant worker should also be able to become a top cadre, a president, a government minister. It shouldn't be that the children of migrant workers can only become migrant workers.» The alternative, he warns, is growing social pressure from a marginalized class of poorly-educated, poorly-paid workers unwilling or unable to return to the countryside.
“Americans talk about the American dream ... China needs the Chinese dream,” he says.
Already, last year saw a wave of large-scale strikes over pay and working conditions, a sign of an increasingly confident labor force. But wide-scale upheaval is unlikely as long as the migrants continue to make money and feel they have opportunities, predicts Leslie T. Chang, author of “Factory Girls,» which examines the lives of young workers.
“Some of these people will become middle class and some will become a new urban working class,” she says. “But they are very different from the traditional working class associated with state-owned enterprises. This is a new working class that’s very independent, very mobile and really on its own.» It's impossible to say exactly how many migrants have settled in cities, because of their transient nature and still shallow urban roots. But statistics show growing numbers in the cities, coupled with new migrants leaving the countryside every year.
The migrants themselves hesitate to say they'll never return to the farm; without job security, their small plots of land are their only insurance.
Still, it's clear China's villages are slowly dying.
When Li returned home to her misty mountain village for the recent Lunar New Year holiday, there were fewer children setting off firecrackers and fewer dots of light from houses on the adjacent hillside.
One by one, families in southwest China's Sanxing village are moving to the nearby town or even further away, leaving plots covered in weeds between tended patches of vegetables.
“Over there, there's four empty houses, there's a lot of them like that,» Li says, gesturing past the dirt road next to her family’s three-story brick home, which was built with her and her siblings' factory earnings. “The ones who came back for the holiday, they're living in town, they don'’t come back to the village anymore.” Li makes the trip to Sanxing once a year at most. After a two-day bus trip, it's a 40-minute ride on the back of a motorcycle along a deeply rutted dirt path. When it rains, the only way to get to the clutch of 26 families is on foot. Here, her family farms on less than 1/6th of an acre (1/15th of a hectare), not enough to feed even themselves.
“Of course I want the young folks to stay in the city, it's better there. It's hard living in the country,” says 56-year-old Li Weishu, her father, noting that only grandparents and small children remain. “We don't have much land, this is a mountain area and there isn't enough to live on.” A visitor might see rustic charm in the sturdy hand-knitted clogs worn by elderly women, green fields of winter vegetables, homemade salt pork hanging from kitchen rafters and cooking stoves fired by dried corn husks.
“No,” Li says, a bite in her voice. “This place is backward and poor.” She has lost her taste for the spicy food of her hometown and prefers the milder flavors of southern Chinese cooking.
Sometimes she slips into Mandarin instead of her native dialect, prompting her mother to question when she will forget her own parents.
At the factory, Li's day clicks ahead with every unit of 12 pieces. She beams as factory manager Miao Linglin hands her a thin stack of 100 yuan notes. Most of it will be sent home, and after living expenses, there's not much left for herself.
Anyway, there's no time for cruising Dongguan's noisy shopping arcades. After a 14-hour work day the women rush back to the dorm to get hot water that's only available for 20 minutes a day.
Li, parked on her stool in front of the sewing machine, dreams of a future in which she owns a home in the city and has a stable job working only eight hours a day.
“Even though I'm from the country, I want to improve my life and be like people in the city,” Li says.
“Everyone yearns for that kind of life. I yearn for that kind of life too.”
Read more at http://arabnews.com/world/article316234.ece
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Li Biying's hands tell you she's left the farm behind. Her long, tapered fingernails pinch apart pieces of gauzy fabric at the underwear factory that is her ticket out of rural poverty. They wouldn't last long in the fields where her parents coax corn, potatoes and greens from terraced plots.
The 20-year-old Li has no plans to go home. Unlike older migrant workers who came to earn money for a few years before returning to their villages, the new generation intends to stay, envisioning a life in the neon-splashed cities.
For China, the shift presents a challenge: How to integrate the new arrivals into already overburdened cities. An agrarian society for thousands of years, China is on the cusp of having more urban than rural dwellers for the first time.
“People my age think, what would I do in the countryside? I don't know how to do anything!” Li says in the simple dorm room she shares with two other women in Dongguan, a southern coastal boomtown near Hong Kong. Frilly underwear is draped in a corner and hair clips hold back makeshift privacy curtains on the bunks.
“I remember once we were growing wheat at home, it had just sprouted and it looked just like grass. I couldn't tell the difference so I pulled it out,» she recalls. “My mom was so mad, she said, how could anyone not tell the difference between wheat and grass?” Li started working in factories at 14, dropping out of seventh grade to help support her parents, sister and brother.
In a long concrete room above an Internet cafe, she and about 60 others toil under bare fluorescent tubes, occasionally calling out to each other in their singsong Sichuanese dialect above the din of clacking, thumping sewing machines.
She sews lining into unfinished bra cups, earning 20 cents for every 12 pieces. In a good month, she'll make about $225 — that's roughly 14,000 pieces sewn during shifts that begin at 8 a.m. and don't end until 10:30 p.m.
The workers, almost all women, get one day off a month, the day after payday so they can send money home. After that, they might browse at a nearby department store.
Of an estimated 150 million migrant workers in China, 90 million are under 30 and they are driving one of the most significant demographic shifts in the country's history.
The government forecasts that China will be majority urban by 2015. About 47 percent of Chinese, or 622 million people, were living in cities at the end of 2009, up from 36 percent in 2000. Some estimate the number could rise to 1 billion by 2030.
“Traditional migrants were like migratory birds, and felt like both a farmer and a worker,» says a report released last year by China's official trade union umbrella group.
“They identified themselves as visitors in the city.» A 2008 survey of migrants under 30 found that 56 percent planned to buy a house and settle in the city where they worked, according to the China Youth Research Center.
“They are more accustomed to urban life than rural life,”the trade union report says. “They've never been hungry, never felt the cold and never had to worry about food or clothing. They can't 'eat bitterness' like their parents.» In Dongguan, older migrants stick out with their sun-beaten faces and shabby work clothes, toting their possessions in fertilizer bags and plastic buckets hung on bamboo poles.
In contrast, it's hard to distinguish young migrants from their urban counterparts. Li sports short black shorts over black tights, working the pedal of her sewing machine with high-heeled boots trimmed with faux fur. She has two red studs in one ear, cuffs with thin chains on the other. A silky scarf peeks out from under the collar of her puffy red coat, which keeps her warm in the unheated factory.
“My parents say I've been working in the city for so long that I don't look like a country girl anymore,» Li says.
“I tell them, people learn and they change. You want to become a better person and keep moving forward.» China's cities still treat migrants as second-class citizens. Under the country's “hukou» registration system, for example, migrants are considered residents of their rural hometowns. So as “visitors» to a city, they often face higher medical and school fees and can be cut off from subsidized housing and other social services.
“Society should give equal opportunities to people of all levels,» says Wang Chunguang, who studies migrant issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Bill Clinton became the U.S. president; a Chinese migrant worker should also be able to become a top cadre, a president, a government minister. It shouldn't be that the children of migrant workers can only become migrant workers.» The alternative, he warns, is growing social pressure from a marginalized class of poorly-educated, poorly-paid workers unwilling or unable to return to the countryside.
“Americans talk about the American dream ... China needs the Chinese dream,” he says.
Already, last year saw a wave of large-scale strikes over pay and working conditions, a sign of an increasingly confident labor force. But wide-scale upheaval is unlikely as long as the migrants continue to make money and feel they have opportunities, predicts Leslie T. Chang, author of “Factory Girls,» which examines the lives of young workers.
“Some of these people will become middle class and some will become a new urban working class,” she says. “But they are very different from the traditional working class associated with state-owned enterprises. This is a new working class that’s very independent, very mobile and really on its own.» It's impossible to say exactly how many migrants have settled in cities, because of their transient nature and still shallow urban roots. But statistics show growing numbers in the cities, coupled with new migrants leaving the countryside every year.
The migrants themselves hesitate to say they'll never return to the farm; without job security, their small plots of land are their only insurance.
Still, it's clear China's villages are slowly dying.
When Li returned home to her misty mountain village for the recent Lunar New Year holiday, there were fewer children setting off firecrackers and fewer dots of light from houses on the adjacent hillside.
One by one, families in southwest China's Sanxing village are moving to the nearby town or even further away, leaving plots covered in weeds between tended patches of vegetables.
“Over there, there's four empty houses, there's a lot of them like that,» Li says, gesturing past the dirt road next to her family’s three-story brick home, which was built with her and her siblings' factory earnings. “The ones who came back for the holiday, they're living in town, they don'’t come back to the village anymore.” Li makes the trip to Sanxing once a year at most. After a two-day bus trip, it's a 40-minute ride on the back of a motorcycle along a deeply rutted dirt path. When it rains, the only way to get to the clutch of 26 families is on foot. Here, her family farms on less than 1/6th of an acre (1/15th of a hectare), not enough to feed even themselves.
“Of course I want the young folks to stay in the city, it's better there. It's hard living in the country,” says 56-year-old Li Weishu, her father, noting that only grandparents and small children remain. “We don't have much land, this is a mountain area and there isn't enough to live on.” A visitor might see rustic charm in the sturdy hand-knitted clogs worn by elderly women, green fields of winter vegetables, homemade salt pork hanging from kitchen rafters and cooking stoves fired by dried corn husks.
“No,” Li says, a bite in her voice. “This place is backward and poor.” She has lost her taste for the spicy food of her hometown and prefers the milder flavors of southern Chinese cooking.
Sometimes she slips into Mandarin instead of her native dialect, prompting her mother to question when she will forget her own parents.
At the factory, Li's day clicks ahead with every unit of 12 pieces. She beams as factory manager Miao Linglin hands her a thin stack of 100 yuan notes. Most of it will be sent home, and after living expenses, there's not much left for herself.
Anyway, there's no time for cruising Dongguan's noisy shopping arcades. After a 14-hour work day the women rush back to the dorm to get hot water that's only available for 20 minutes a day.
Li, parked on her stool in front of the sewing machine, dreams of a future in which she owns a home in the city and has a stable job working only eight hours a day.
“Even though I'm from the country, I want to improve my life and be like people in the city,” Li says.
“Everyone yearns for that kind of life. I yearn for that kind of life too.”
Read more at http://arabnews.com/world/article316234.ece
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
eSchool Reading, Writing and Technology
Reading, Writing and Technology?
1) First of all, I understand that you have just won an impressive award. Tell us about it.
eSchool News, a publication network of eSchool Media Inc., identifies annually recipients of the Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award, which is award to the top 10 superintendents from coast to coast who best exemplify outstanding leadership and vision in using technology to advance their district’s educational goals.
Dennis Pierce, editor of eSchool News, said “research shows that technology can facilitate better teaching and learning, but only when used effectively.” And that starts at the very top, with strong school district leadership. If you start with a clear vision for how to implement technology wisely, and you make sure your staff are well trained and supported, and you seek to transform instructional practices to leverage technology’s full potential, then technology really can empower education. And that’s what the winners of our annual Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards are doing,” he added.
2) What are YOUR priorities in terms of technology?
We determine what it is our students need to know and do when they graduate. We then select technologies that will help us achieve our end results. We always keep the end in mind.
Therefore, with this in mind, we have six basic priorities when it comes to technology:
(1) Implement technology that helps teachers be more efficient in the classroom.
(2) Implement technology that helps teachers become more effective teachers.
(3) Implement technology that will allow teachers to teach global skills and knowledge that otherwise could not be taught.
(4) Implement technology that contributes to a students technological literacy such that such that they become efficient and effective users.
(5) Use technology to increase the efficiency of the district’s operations.
(6) Use technology to allow teachers professional learning 24/7.
3) I have to admit I do not know what this cloud computing is all about. Do you use it and what is your evaluation of it?
Oxford does employ the use of both private and public cloud computing. On the private side of cloud computing, we want to own all our content and curriculum but make it available anywhere anytime. Security and safety of all our employees and students is always an issue and therefore we feel that different forms of clouds make sense in different situations.
4) Hardware vs. Software – what are the pros and cons?
You must first determine what the learning outcomes are and what instructional strategies need to be implemented to maximize the productivity of learning. We always design with the end in mind. We think about process first, then application/software, and then we select the appropriate hardware. We never start out with the hardware, we always end with it.
5) How does a Superintendent go about evaluating an ” app ” ? and how do you decide on what to purchase?
Does it make me more productive? Can I not live without it? Does it allow me to learn or teach more efficiently? The answers to these questions determine whether an app is downloaded or not.
6) Who assists in these decisions? Do you have a team?
Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives & Technology, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, and Assistant Superintendent of Business & Operations.
For the most part, these positions are driving the decision making process. However, building principals and teachers are also involved. In general, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum is deciding what applications are needed. The Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives & Technology is approving that the particular applications will work in our environment, and the Assistant Superintendent of Business is deciding the best vehicle through which to purchase the items.
7) It seems that every day I get an e-mail from some company promoting their product- How does one make sense of it all?
We never allow the latest technology to drive what we do. Instead, we determine what are the essential skills and knowledge all students need to compete in the global market. We then research the most productive ways to teach and have our students learning these skills and master the knowledge. However, it is important and imperative, that we also stays up with what is happening in the evolution of technology and software. This is true from a instructional, curriculum and operational perspective.
8) Ipod, Ipads, laptops, and hand held phones—do you have any priority list?
Many. It all depends upon what we are trying to accomplish. Everyone wants to talk about hardware but that is really the last question that is answered.
9) What have I neglected to ask?
Michael, I can probably come up with an additional question/s if I give this more thought. One of the most frequent questions I heard from my colleagues is, “how do you get all teachers to effectively use the technology and software you purchased?”
My answer is simple, the school district determines curriculum and the instructional strategies not teachers. You give teachers a reasonable timeline in which to implement the effective use of the classroom technology and software a district has chosen to implement. The district is responsible for providing the professional learning that allows teachers to decide when they want to learn how to effectively use technology to improve teaching and learning, where they will learn it, when they will learn it, and allow them to determine how they will learn it. It is up to the teacher to access the professional learning. The accountability comes through the teacher appraisal process in which they are held accountable for effective implementation and instructional use of the technology.
10) What is the most important thing to teach?
Technology and software are only tools. We evaluate the use and implementation of technology and software in how it will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of teachers, how it will increase the productivity of learning, how it will contribute to the acquisition of new global skills and knowledge that otherwise could not be taught, how it will increase the technological literacy of our students, how it will increase district operations, how it will support professional learning for all teachers, administrators and support staff. NOTE: We no longer provide professional development only professional learning.
Read more at http://educationviews.org/2012/02/13/an-interview-with-william-skilling-reading-writing-and-technology/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
1) First of all, I understand that you have just won an impressive award. Tell us about it.
eSchool News, a publication network of eSchool Media Inc., identifies annually recipients of the Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award, which is award to the top 10 superintendents from coast to coast who best exemplify outstanding leadership and vision in using technology to advance their district’s educational goals.
Dennis Pierce, editor of eSchool News, said “research shows that technology can facilitate better teaching and learning, but only when used effectively.” And that starts at the very top, with strong school district leadership. If you start with a clear vision for how to implement technology wisely, and you make sure your staff are well trained and supported, and you seek to transform instructional practices to leverage technology’s full potential, then technology really can empower education. And that’s what the winners of our annual Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards are doing,” he added.
2) What are YOUR priorities in terms of technology?
We determine what it is our students need to know and do when they graduate. We then select technologies that will help us achieve our end results. We always keep the end in mind.
Therefore, with this in mind, we have six basic priorities when it comes to technology:
(1) Implement technology that helps teachers be more efficient in the classroom.
(2) Implement technology that helps teachers become more effective teachers.
(3) Implement technology that will allow teachers to teach global skills and knowledge that otherwise could not be taught.
(4) Implement technology that contributes to a students technological literacy such that such that they become efficient and effective users.
(5) Use technology to increase the efficiency of the district’s operations.
(6) Use technology to allow teachers professional learning 24/7.
3) I have to admit I do not know what this cloud computing is all about. Do you use it and what is your evaluation of it?
Oxford does employ the use of both private and public cloud computing. On the private side of cloud computing, we want to own all our content and curriculum but make it available anywhere anytime. Security and safety of all our employees and students is always an issue and therefore we feel that different forms of clouds make sense in different situations.
4) Hardware vs. Software – what are the pros and cons?
You must first determine what the learning outcomes are and what instructional strategies need to be implemented to maximize the productivity of learning. We always design with the end in mind. We think about process first, then application/software, and then we select the appropriate hardware. We never start out with the hardware, we always end with it.
5) How does a Superintendent go about evaluating an ” app ” ? and how do you decide on what to purchase?
Does it make me more productive? Can I not live without it? Does it allow me to learn or teach more efficiently? The answers to these questions determine whether an app is downloaded or not.
6) Who assists in these decisions? Do you have a team?
Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives & Technology, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, and Assistant Superintendent of Business & Operations.
For the most part, these positions are driving the decision making process. However, building principals and teachers are also involved. In general, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum is deciding what applications are needed. The Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives & Technology is approving that the particular applications will work in our environment, and the Assistant Superintendent of Business is deciding the best vehicle through which to purchase the items.
7) It seems that every day I get an e-mail from some company promoting their product- How does one make sense of it all?
We never allow the latest technology to drive what we do. Instead, we determine what are the essential skills and knowledge all students need to compete in the global market. We then research the most productive ways to teach and have our students learning these skills and master the knowledge. However, it is important and imperative, that we also stays up with what is happening in the evolution of technology and software. This is true from a instructional, curriculum and operational perspective.
8) Ipod, Ipads, laptops, and hand held phones—do you have any priority list?
Many. It all depends upon what we are trying to accomplish. Everyone wants to talk about hardware but that is really the last question that is answered.
9) What have I neglected to ask?
Michael, I can probably come up with an additional question/s if I give this more thought. One of the most frequent questions I heard from my colleagues is, “how do you get all teachers to effectively use the technology and software you purchased?”
My answer is simple, the school district determines curriculum and the instructional strategies not teachers. You give teachers a reasonable timeline in which to implement the effective use of the classroom technology and software a district has chosen to implement. The district is responsible for providing the professional learning that allows teachers to decide when they want to learn how to effectively use technology to improve teaching and learning, where they will learn it, when they will learn it, and allow them to determine how they will learn it. It is up to the teacher to access the professional learning. The accountability comes through the teacher appraisal process in which they are held accountable for effective implementation and instructional use of the technology.
10) What is the most important thing to teach?
Technology and software are only tools. We evaluate the use and implementation of technology and software in how it will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of teachers, how it will increase the productivity of learning, how it will contribute to the acquisition of new global skills and knowledge that otherwise could not be taught, how it will increase the technological literacy of our students, how it will increase district operations, how it will support professional learning for all teachers, administrators and support staff. NOTE: We no longer provide professional development only professional learning.
Read more at http://educationviews.org/2012/02/13/an-interview-with-william-skilling-reading-writing-and-technology/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Elementary School Students Go Global With Technology
Elementary School Students Go Global With Technology
With the help of modern technology, students at the Charlotte Jewish Day School are talking to and learning from kids all over the world.
Elementary students in Charlotte are going “global” with a technology initiative that links them to students from around the world.
Once a week, students at the Charlotte Jewish Day School meet with teacher Rachel Moore and connect with students in classrooms worldwide in a program from kindergarten to fifth grade aimed to connect with the wider world.
Through video and an online ePal program, they’re able to discuss pressing issues, brainstorm solutions and delve into the lives of their counterparts, writes Caroline McMillan at the Charlotte Observer.
From studying weather with French peers to natural disasters with students in New Zealand, the classes are taught in more than half a million classrooms in more than 200 countries and territories across the world.
Bonds outside of subject areas also grow out of the scheme. One fifth-grade boy spoke about his friendship with another student he’s never met:
“He likes to play soccer, just like me,” he said.
“And he’s talkative, too.”
A 21st century classroom is an important goal for Principal Mariashi Groner. And the results of the global classroom has been greater than she expected.
“You’ll read about global classrooms in middle schools and high schools, but at an elementary level it takes a different kind of tone.
“It really is special, and I believe it’s going to get more impressive and detailed as (Moore) explores with the students.”
The key for the program relies on an enthusiastic teacher, it seems. Moore has been at the school for almost a decade and Groner says that it’s her leadership and willingness to format each class based on the students’ interests that got her the role.
“Children today, they don’t have a lot of power over what they’re going to do,” said Groner.
“They’re over-programmed, they’re told what to study, what to do. … In this classroom, (the students) really are in charge of their learning.”
Read more at http://www.educationnews.org/technology/elementary-school-students-go-global-with-technology/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
With the help of modern technology, students at the Charlotte Jewish Day School are talking to and learning from kids all over the world.
Elementary students in Charlotte are going “global” with a technology initiative that links them to students from around the world.
Once a week, students at the Charlotte Jewish Day School meet with teacher Rachel Moore and connect with students in classrooms worldwide in a program from kindergarten to fifth grade aimed to connect with the wider world.
Through video and an online ePal program, they’re able to discuss pressing issues, brainstorm solutions and delve into the lives of their counterparts, writes Caroline McMillan at the Charlotte Observer.
From studying weather with French peers to natural disasters with students in New Zealand, the classes are taught in more than half a million classrooms in more than 200 countries and territories across the world.
Bonds outside of subject areas also grow out of the scheme. One fifth-grade boy spoke about his friendship with another student he’s never met:
“He likes to play soccer, just like me,” he said.
“And he’s talkative, too.”
A 21st century classroom is an important goal for Principal Mariashi Groner. And the results of the global classroom has been greater than she expected.
“You’ll read about global classrooms in middle schools and high schools, but at an elementary level it takes a different kind of tone.
“It really is special, and I believe it’s going to get more impressive and detailed as (Moore) explores with the students.”
The key for the program relies on an enthusiastic teacher, it seems. Moore has been at the school for almost a decade and Groner says that it’s her leadership and willingness to format each class based on the students’ interests that got her the role.
“Children today, they don’t have a lot of power over what they’re going to do,” said Groner.
“They’re over-programmed, they’re told what to study, what to do. … In this classroom, (the students) really are in charge of their learning.”
Read more at http://www.educationnews.org/technology/elementary-school-students-go-global-with-technology/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Taiwan Proposes New Education Cooperation with RI
Taiwan proposes new education cooperation with RI.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Taiwan proposes a new cooperation on the educational sector with the Indonesian government under a general Memorandum of Understanding. The educational theme is covered by the MoU along with other target sectors such as labor and the economy.
“The proposal is now in the hands of the Foreign Affairs Ministry for further study. We hope the proposal can be approved and signed soon,” Taiwan`s Minister of Education, Ching-Ji Wu, said here on Tuesday during his visit to ANTARA News Agency.
In educational sector, minister Wu said, Taiwan proposes a student and lecturers exchange with Indonesia scholarships for Indonesian students. He added that Taiwan was also proposing a double degree program for Indonesian students.
“We propose this cooperation to boost business to business and people to people contact between the two countries. I hope in the future the cooperation will improve,” he added. Indonesians are now the third largest group of foreigners studying in Taiwan after Vietnamese and Malaysians, a Taiwanese official said.
“Most of the Indonesian students are majoring in engineering, technology and business management at some of Taiwan`s finest universities,” the director of Elite Study In Taiwan (ESIT) program, Tsang-yao Chen, said here Tuesday.
Indonesian students studying in Taiwan in 2009 reached 2,275 consisting of 1,392 degree-seeking students, six exchange students and 877 Chinese language students, while some 55 university-level education cooperation agreements had been signed from 2000 to 2009 between Taiwan and Indonesia, which indicated the extent of the two countries` collaboration in the educational field.
The goal of Taiwan`s international education scholarship program was to increase exchanges of people for better cultural understanding between countries to build a solid ground in relationship, especially with Indonesia. Taiwan`s higher education and training ranked fifth and fourth in the world by WEF (World Economy Forum) in 2006 and 2007, in the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 by WEF, wile Taiwan is 13th among the 134 countries ranked.
In 2009, the number of research publications in Taiwan ranked 17th in SCI (Science Citations), 15th in SSCI (Social Science Citation Index) and 10th in EI (Elsevier Engineering Index).
Read more at http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1279605147/taiwan-proposes-new-education-cooperation-with-ri
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Taiwan proposes a new cooperation on the educational sector with the Indonesian government under a general Memorandum of Understanding. The educational theme is covered by the MoU along with other target sectors such as labor and the economy.
“The proposal is now in the hands of the Foreign Affairs Ministry for further study. We hope the proposal can be approved and signed soon,” Taiwan`s Minister of Education, Ching-Ji Wu, said here on Tuesday during his visit to ANTARA News Agency.
In educational sector, minister Wu said, Taiwan proposes a student and lecturers exchange with Indonesia scholarships for Indonesian students. He added that Taiwan was also proposing a double degree program for Indonesian students.
“We propose this cooperation to boost business to business and people to people contact between the two countries. I hope in the future the cooperation will improve,” he added. Indonesians are now the third largest group of foreigners studying in Taiwan after Vietnamese and Malaysians, a Taiwanese official said.
“Most of the Indonesian students are majoring in engineering, technology and business management at some of Taiwan`s finest universities,” the director of Elite Study In Taiwan (ESIT) program, Tsang-yao Chen, said here Tuesday.
Indonesian students studying in Taiwan in 2009 reached 2,275 consisting of 1,392 degree-seeking students, six exchange students and 877 Chinese language students, while some 55 university-level education cooperation agreements had been signed from 2000 to 2009 between Taiwan and Indonesia, which indicated the extent of the two countries` collaboration in the educational field.
The goal of Taiwan`s international education scholarship program was to increase exchanges of people for better cultural understanding between countries to build a solid ground in relationship, especially with Indonesia. Taiwan`s higher education and training ranked fifth and fourth in the world by WEF (World Economy Forum) in 2006 and 2007, in the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 by WEF, wile Taiwan is 13th among the 134 countries ranked.
In 2009, the number of research publications in Taiwan ranked 17th in SCI (Science Citations), 15th in SSCI (Social Science Citation Index) and 10th in EI (Elsevier Engineering Index).
Read more at http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1279605147/taiwan-proposes-new-education-cooperation-with-ri
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
China Universities Institutes Colleges List
China Universities, Institutes and Colleges.
List of Universities Directly Administrated by China Ministry of Education
Peking University (Beijing University)
Renmin University of China
Tsinghua University (Qinghua University)
University of Science and Technology Beijing
Beijing University of Chemistry Technology
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Language and Culture University
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Beijing Jiaotong University (Northern Jiaotong University)
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
China University of Petroleum (East China)
China Agricultural University
Communication University of China
Beijing Forestry University
China University of Political Science and Law
Central University of Finance and Economics
Central Conservatory of Music
The Central Academy of Drama
China Central Academy of Fine Arts
Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
University of International Business and Economics
Nankai University
Tianjin University (Peiyang University)
North China Electric Power University
Northeastern University
Dalian University of Technology
Jilin University
Northeast Normal University
Northeast Forestry University
Fudan University
Tongji University
Shanghai Jiaotong University
East China University of Science and Technology
Donghua University
East China Normal University
Shanghai Foreign Language University
Nanjing University
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Southeast University
China University of Mining and Technology
China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing Campus)
Hohai University
Jiangnan University
Nanjing Agricultural University
Hefei University of Technology
China Pharmaceutical University
Zhejiang University
Xiamen University
Shandong University
Ocean University of China
Wuhan University
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
Wuhan University of Technology
Huazhong Normal University
Huazhong Agricultural University
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
Hunan University
Central South University
Sun Yat-Sen University
South China University of Technology
Sichuan University
South Western University of Finance and Economics
Southwest Jiaotong University
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chongqing University
Southwest University
Xi’an Jiaotong University
Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University
Shaanxi Normal University
Xidian University
Chang’an University
Lanzhou University
Beijing University of Technology
University of Science and Technology Beijing
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
List of China Universities, Institutes and Colleges (by province)
Anhui Province
Univ. of Science and Technology of China
Beijing
Beijing Agriculture University
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing Medical University
Beijing Normal University
Beijing (Peking) University
Beijing Polytechnic University
Beijing Univ. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Beijing Univ. of Chemical Technology
Beijing Univ. of Posts and Telecommunications
Central University for Nationalities
Northern Jiaotong University
Qinghua (Tsinghua) University
Renmin (People’s) University
Chinese Academy of Medical Science
Chongqing
Southwest Jiaotong University
Fujian Province
Xiamen University
Gansu Province
Lanzhou Railway Institute
Lanzhou University
Guangdong Province
South China Univ. of Technology
Zhongshan Unviersity
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Guizhou Province
Hainan Province
Hebei Province
Hebei University of Technology
Heilongjiang Province
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin Univ.of Science & Technology
Henan Province
Zhengzhou University
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)
University of Hong Kong
City University of Hong Kong
Hubei Province
Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology
Wuhan Unviersity
Wuhan Technical Univ. of Surveying & Mapping
Whuan Univ. of Hydraulic Electric Engineering
Hunan Province
Central South University of Technology
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Inner Mongolia University
Jilin Province Jilin University Jilin University of Technology
Jiangsu Province
Hohai University
Nanjing University
Nanjing Univ. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Southeast University
Suzhou Medical College
Suzhou University (Soo Chow University)
Jiangxi Province
Liaoning Province
Dalian University of Technology
Northeastern University
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
Qinghai Province
Shaanxi Province
Northwest Polytechnic University
Northwest University
Xi’an Highway University
Xi’an Jiaotong University
Shandong Province
Ocean University of Qingdao
Shandong University
Shandong University of Technology
Shanghai
East China Normal University
East China University of Science & Technology
Fudan University
Shanghai Medical University
Shanghai Jiaotong University
Shanghai University
Tongji University
Shanxi Province
Sichuan Province
Sichuan University
Southwest Jiaotong University
Taiwan Province
Tianjin
Nankai University
Tianjin Medical University
Tianjin (Pei Yang) University
Tibet Autonomous Region
Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region
Yunnan Province
Yunnan Normal University
Yunnan University
Yunnan University for Nationalities
Zhejiang Province
Hangzhou University
Zhejiang Medical University
Zhejiang University
Others
National University of Defense Technology
Read more http://www.chinatoday.com/edu/a00.htm
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
List of Universities Directly Administrated by China Ministry of Education
Peking University (Beijing University)
Renmin University of China
Tsinghua University (Qinghua University)
University of Science and Technology Beijing
Beijing University of Chemistry Technology
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Language and Culture University
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Beijing Jiaotong University (Northern Jiaotong University)
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
China University of Petroleum (East China)
China Agricultural University
Communication University of China
Beijing Forestry University
China University of Political Science and Law
Central University of Finance and Economics
Central Conservatory of Music
The Central Academy of Drama
China Central Academy of Fine Arts
Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
University of International Business and Economics
Nankai University
Tianjin University (Peiyang University)
North China Electric Power University
Northeastern University
Dalian University of Technology
Jilin University
Northeast Normal University
Northeast Forestry University
Fudan University
Tongji University
Shanghai Jiaotong University
East China University of Science and Technology
Donghua University
East China Normal University
Shanghai Foreign Language University
Nanjing University
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Southeast University
China University of Mining and Technology
China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing Campus)
Hohai University
Jiangnan University
Nanjing Agricultural University
Hefei University of Technology
China Pharmaceutical University
Zhejiang University
Xiamen University
Shandong University
Ocean University of China
Wuhan University
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
Wuhan University of Technology
Huazhong Normal University
Huazhong Agricultural University
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
Hunan University
Central South University
Sun Yat-Sen University
South China University of Technology
Sichuan University
South Western University of Finance and Economics
Southwest Jiaotong University
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chongqing University
Southwest University
Xi’an Jiaotong University
Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University
Shaanxi Normal University
Xidian University
Chang’an University
Lanzhou University
Beijing University of Technology
University of Science and Technology Beijing
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
List of China Universities, Institutes and Colleges (by province)
Anhui Province
Univ. of Science and Technology of China
Beijing
Beijing Agriculture University
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing Medical University
Beijing Normal University
Beijing (Peking) University
Beijing Polytechnic University
Beijing Univ. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Beijing Univ. of Chemical Technology
Beijing Univ. of Posts and Telecommunications
Central University for Nationalities
Northern Jiaotong University
Qinghua (Tsinghua) University
Renmin (People’s) University
Chinese Academy of Medical Science
Chongqing
Southwest Jiaotong University
Fujian Province
Xiamen University
Gansu Province
Lanzhou Railway Institute
Lanzhou University
Guangdong Province
South China Univ. of Technology
Zhongshan Unviersity
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Guizhou Province
Hainan Province
Hebei Province
Hebei University of Technology
Heilongjiang Province
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin Univ.of Science & Technology
Henan Province
Zhengzhou University
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)
University of Hong Kong
City University of Hong Kong
Hubei Province
Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology
Wuhan Unviersity
Wuhan Technical Univ. of Surveying & Mapping
Whuan Univ. of Hydraulic Electric Engineering
Hunan Province
Central South University of Technology
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Inner Mongolia University
Jilin Province Jilin University Jilin University of Technology
Jiangsu Province
Hohai University
Nanjing University
Nanjing Univ. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Southeast University
Suzhou Medical College
Suzhou University (Soo Chow University)
Jiangxi Province
Liaoning Province
Dalian University of Technology
Northeastern University
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
Qinghai Province
Shaanxi Province
Northwest Polytechnic University
Northwest University
Xi’an Highway University
Xi’an Jiaotong University
Shandong Province
Ocean University of Qingdao
Shandong University
Shandong University of Technology
Shanghai
East China Normal University
East China University of Science & Technology
Fudan University
Shanghai Medical University
Shanghai Jiaotong University
Shanghai University
Tongji University
Shanxi Province
Sichuan Province
Sichuan University
Southwest Jiaotong University
Taiwan Province
Tianjin
Nankai University
Tianjin Medical University
Tianjin (Pei Yang) University
Tibet Autonomous Region
Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region
Yunnan Province
Yunnan Normal University
Yunnan University
Yunnan University for Nationalities
Zhejiang Province
Hangzhou University
Zhejiang Medical University
Zhejiang University
Others
National University of Defense Technology
Read more http://www.chinatoday.com/edu/a00.htm
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
China School Teaches Once Banned Feng Shui
China school teaches once banned “Feng Shui”.
The Chinese art of feng shui, a form of geomancy once banned by the Chinese Communist Party as a superstition, has now found its way on to the school curriculum in China, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
A high school in Xiamen, in the rich southeastern province of Fujian, had started a course in feng shui, long practised by Chinese communities outside China, “for the first time”, the Beijing News said.
The basic premise of feng shui (wind water) is that one’s environment influences life, giving profound importance to the position of furniture in a room, for instance, or the direction a building faces.
Highly paid feng shui masters are routinely called in by architects in Hong Kong before a building is planned.
The practice was banned as a superstition after China’s Communists took power in 1949, but it has since seen a revival.
“Traditional feng shui culture has its good features as well as its bad ones,” Xiong Yongliang, a teacher in the school who wrote a textbook for the course, was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate.
The newspaper also said students taking this course found feng shui “interesting and practical”.
In May, newspapers reported that some Chinese Communist officials turned to feng shui masters for advice to ward off “evil spirits” from competitors and get a better chance of promotion amid a nationwide job reshuffle.
One senior official in eastern Zhejiang province moved his ancestors’ tombs thousands of miles to the foot of the famed Tian Shan mountain in the northwestern region of Xinjiang in an attempt to improve his career prospects.
Read more http://in.reuters.com/article/2008/01/08/idINIndia-31288820080108
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The Chinese art of feng shui, a form of geomancy once banned by the Chinese Communist Party as a superstition, has now found its way on to the school curriculum in China, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
A high school in Xiamen, in the rich southeastern province of Fujian, had started a course in feng shui, long practised by Chinese communities outside China, “for the first time”, the Beijing News said.
The basic premise of feng shui (wind water) is that one’s environment influences life, giving profound importance to the position of furniture in a room, for instance, or the direction a building faces.
Highly paid feng shui masters are routinely called in by architects in Hong Kong before a building is planned.
The practice was banned as a superstition after China’s Communists took power in 1949, but it has since seen a revival.
“Traditional feng shui culture has its good features as well as its bad ones,” Xiong Yongliang, a teacher in the school who wrote a textbook for the course, was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate.
The newspaper also said students taking this course found feng shui “interesting and practical”.
In May, newspapers reported that some Chinese Communist officials turned to feng shui masters for advice to ward off “evil spirits” from competitors and get a better chance of promotion amid a nationwide job reshuffle.
One senior official in eastern Zhejiang province moved his ancestors’ tombs thousands of miles to the foot of the famed Tian Shan mountain in the northwestern region of Xinjiang in an attempt to improve his career prospects.
Read more http://in.reuters.com/article/2008/01/08/idINIndia-31288820080108
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Monday, February 6, 2012
Vietnamese Kids Choose Education to End Poverty
Vietnamese kids choose education to end poverty.
Vietnamese children aged between 10 and 12 see education as an ideal solution for disrupting the cycle of poverty, according to the annual Small Voices, Big Dreams report recently released by US-based child sponsorship group ChildFund Alliance.
Fifty-three percent of those polled said they would upgrade the nation’s schools to improve children’s lives if they were Vietnam’s president, whereas 49.3 percent of all respondents in other developing countries had the same idea.
A comparable percentage (52 percent) said they would opt for a career as a doctor or a teacher, while a lower rate (42.7 percent) of the surveyed children in those countries selected the two jobs.
26 percent of the Vietnamese respondents prefer doing homework over other activities in their free time.
Only 1 percent said they would dedicate it to computer or video games. In other areas of the world, the percentage rockets to 33.9 percent.
Commenting on the survey results, which found that children are largely optimistic about their future, Jim Emerson, secretary general of the ChildFund Alliance said, “Children who grow up in poverty recognize more than anyone the power that education has to break the cycle of poverty.”
“[They] are placing their hopes and dreams on their ability to learn, and their aspirations to become teachers and doctors speak volumes about their desire to give back to their own communities.”
Almost 4,600 children between the ages of 10 and 12 from 44 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas – as well as some selected developed nations – participated in the poll which was undertaken from July through September to provide insights into their thoughts and minds.
The respondents were asked six open-ended questions about many topics, including health, education, and child safety and security.
ChildFund Alliance is a network of 12 child development organizations whose work encompasses more than 15 million children, and their families, in 58 countries.
It spends more than US$503 million a year helping deprived, excluded and vulnerable children, with a focus on child-centered development programs that are undertaken in partnership with more than 1,400 local communities.
Read more at http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/education/education-news/vietnamese-kids-choose-education-to-end-poverty-1.54409
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Vietnamese children aged between 10 and 12 see education as an ideal solution for disrupting the cycle of poverty, according to the annual Small Voices, Big Dreams report recently released by US-based child sponsorship group ChildFund Alliance.
Fifty-three percent of those polled said they would upgrade the nation’s schools to improve children’s lives if they were Vietnam’s president, whereas 49.3 percent of all respondents in other developing countries had the same idea.
A comparable percentage (52 percent) said they would opt for a career as a doctor or a teacher, while a lower rate (42.7 percent) of the surveyed children in those countries selected the two jobs.
26 percent of the Vietnamese respondents prefer doing homework over other activities in their free time.
Only 1 percent said they would dedicate it to computer or video games. In other areas of the world, the percentage rockets to 33.9 percent.
Commenting on the survey results, which found that children are largely optimistic about their future, Jim Emerson, secretary general of the ChildFund Alliance said, “Children who grow up in poverty recognize more than anyone the power that education has to break the cycle of poverty.”
“[They] are placing their hopes and dreams on their ability to learn, and their aspirations to become teachers and doctors speak volumes about their desire to give back to their own communities.”
Almost 4,600 children between the ages of 10 and 12 from 44 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas – as well as some selected developed nations – participated in the poll which was undertaken from July through September to provide insights into their thoughts and minds.
The respondents were asked six open-ended questions about many topics, including health, education, and child safety and security.
ChildFund Alliance is a network of 12 child development organizations whose work encompasses more than 15 million children, and their families, in 58 countries.
It spends more than US$503 million a year helping deprived, excluded and vulnerable children, with a focus on child-centered development programs that are undertaken in partnership with more than 1,400 local communities.
Read more at http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/education/education-news/vietnamese-kids-choose-education-to-end-poverty-1.54409
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Thailand Getting Creative in Education
Thailand getting creative in education.
Vicky Skipp, Adobe Systems’ regional director for Southeast Asia, is spearheading the transformation of teaching and learning through digital experiences.
Digital media and digital marketing are the two major forces shaping the future. Trends in digital media include the rapid proliferation of devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers.
This has been highlighted by the explosive growth of apps, with mobile phone downloads topping five billion in 2011, up 189 per cent from the previous year.
According to Skipp, video content has also been increasing rapidly, with video comprising 50 per cent of all Internet traffic in 2010. By 2015, it’s forecast to be 81 per cent. Now, an average of 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.
All these indicators underline the fast-growing importance of digital media in education, marketing and other fields.
In education, the 3Rs - reading writing and arithmetic - are still important, but they are not enough in this new era. Besides the 3Rs, other skills and contents have become equally important in the 21st century workplace. These include skills in critical thinking, information technology, health and wellness, collaboration, innovation, and personal financial responsibility.
In other words, it’s now the era of the 3Cs - creativity, communication and collaboration.
In terms of knowledge retention, teaching methods are crucial. Recent research shows that students retain just 5 per cent of knowledge via the “see/hear/lecture” method, compared to 10 per cent for reading; 20 per cent for audio/visual/video; 30 per cent for demonstration; and 50 per cent for discussion groups; while practicing by doing allows students to retain 75 per cent of knowledge imparted.
As for creativity, this applies to every domain of knowledge, so Abode is promoting this skill around the world via its annual Abode Design Achievement Award.
Thai student Napatsawan Chirayukool won this top award in 2010.
To make its software tools more affordable to Thai students, the US firm recently announced hefty discounts of up to 90 per cent for its student and teacher editions. This campaign includes Creative Suite 5.5 and Acrobat X Pro, among others.
Skipp says the proliferation of mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers is leading to extensive changes in lifestyles.
Education systems and curriculae are also changing around the world. In Thailand, the government’s “one tablet computer per child” programme will soon have profound effects on the country’s education system.
This policy will likely bring massive changes as Thailand responds to the need to develop a more competitive workforce in the technology-driven global economy.
In the initial stage, the government will provide a free tablet computer to every Grade One student, with some of the textbook content available online.
Skipp says: “Our experience is that when students have access to digital media software at affordable prices, there is a rapid increase in their digital skills and confidence. “Students can display their talents, express creativity and learn to collaborate more effectively.
“Our software allows students and teachers to produce Web pages, videos and mobile content, applications and e-publishing content, and help them understand how to merge the creative process into their daily assignments and work tasks.”
In her opinion, Thailand has a firm commitment to develop digital literacy in the next generation workforce, as exemplified by government and private-sector initiatives such as the annual Thailand Games Show, the Bangkok International Games Festival and the Thailand Animation Contest.
Read more at http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Getting-creative-in-education-30175132.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Vicky Skipp, Adobe Systems’ regional director for Southeast Asia, is spearheading the transformation of teaching and learning through digital experiences.
Digital media and digital marketing are the two major forces shaping the future. Trends in digital media include the rapid proliferation of devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers.
This has been highlighted by the explosive growth of apps, with mobile phone downloads topping five billion in 2011, up 189 per cent from the previous year.
According to Skipp, video content has also been increasing rapidly, with video comprising 50 per cent of all Internet traffic in 2010. By 2015, it’s forecast to be 81 per cent. Now, an average of 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.
All these indicators underline the fast-growing importance of digital media in education, marketing and other fields.
In education, the 3Rs - reading writing and arithmetic - are still important, but they are not enough in this new era. Besides the 3Rs, other skills and contents have become equally important in the 21st century workplace. These include skills in critical thinking, information technology, health and wellness, collaboration, innovation, and personal financial responsibility.
In other words, it’s now the era of the 3Cs - creativity, communication and collaboration.
In terms of knowledge retention, teaching methods are crucial. Recent research shows that students retain just 5 per cent of knowledge via the “see/hear/lecture” method, compared to 10 per cent for reading; 20 per cent for audio/visual/video; 30 per cent for demonstration; and 50 per cent for discussion groups; while practicing by doing allows students to retain 75 per cent of knowledge imparted.
As for creativity, this applies to every domain of knowledge, so Abode is promoting this skill around the world via its annual Abode Design Achievement Award.
Thai student Napatsawan Chirayukool won this top award in 2010.
To make its software tools more affordable to Thai students, the US firm recently announced hefty discounts of up to 90 per cent for its student and teacher editions. This campaign includes Creative Suite 5.5 and Acrobat X Pro, among others.
Skipp says the proliferation of mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers is leading to extensive changes in lifestyles.
Education systems and curriculae are also changing around the world. In Thailand, the government’s “one tablet computer per child” programme will soon have profound effects on the country’s education system.
This policy will likely bring massive changes as Thailand responds to the need to develop a more competitive workforce in the technology-driven global economy.
In the initial stage, the government will provide a free tablet computer to every Grade One student, with some of the textbook content available online.
Skipp says: “Our experience is that when students have access to digital media software at affordable prices, there is a rapid increase in their digital skills and confidence. “Students can display their talents, express creativity and learn to collaborate more effectively.
“Our software allows students and teachers to produce Web pages, videos and mobile content, applications and e-publishing content, and help them understand how to merge the creative process into their daily assignments and work tasks.”
In her opinion, Thailand has a firm commitment to develop digital literacy in the next generation workforce, as exemplified by government and private-sector initiatives such as the annual Thailand Games Show, the Bangkok International Games Festival and the Thailand Animation Contest.
Read more at http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Getting-creative-in-education-30175132.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Friday, February 3, 2012
Educating Young Women Rebuilding Cambodia
Educating young women, rebuilding Cambodia.
Alan Lightman discusses his social entrepreneurial work in building the first college dormitories for women in Cambodia.
Sharing a muddy crawl space with four roommates isn’t part of the traditional path to a law degree. But that’s exactly how Veasna Chea, a Cambodian woman, lived during law school in the mid-1990s — still managing to graduate first in her class.
Speaking on Thursday night, Alan Lightman, adjunct professor of the humanities at MIT, described his serendipitous meeting with Chea during a 2003 visit to Cambodia as his inspiration to establish a foundation that helped build the first college dormitories for young women there. Unsettled by the fact that Chea was only the fourth woman in Cambodia to attain a law degree, Lightman vowed to help Cambodia’s women exercise greater power in the country.
The barriers to women’s education in Cambodia have their roots in the nation’s tragic and bloody history. More than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge decimated the educated class as part of its campaign of genocide, this country of 14 million — one of the poorest in the world — still faces challenges in rebuilding its educational system. Most of the rural population lives in one-room shacks with no running water or electricity. Millions of young women have no way of attending college, mainly due to financial constraints (the annual cost of tuition, room and board is roughly three times the average Cambodian family’s income) and the lack of housing for women in Phnom Penh.
A physicist and best-selling author, Lightman has added social entrepreneurship to his life’s work, volunteering 50 percent of his time to lead the Harpswell Foundation, an organization he founded in 2003 to address these issues.
“Our goal is that our graduates will become leaders of Cambodia,” Lightman told a packed hall in the Stata Center. “In 20 years we’d like our … graduates to be heads of hospitals, government ministers, and directors of NGOs. We’d like to see 200 Hillary Clintons, Sandra Day O’Connors and Oprah Winfreys.”
Lightman is personally involved in the selection process for Harpswell’s two dormitories, helping to choose each year’s new class of 20 residents out of a pool of 160 students. (The top four female students are interviewed at each of Cambodia’s top 40 high schools.) The strategy, he explained, is to select not only the brightest students for admittance to the dormitories, but also those with leadership potential.
Those chosen live — free of charge — in one of Harpswell’s two dormitories and leadership centers in Phnom Penh. With 90 percent of young Cambodian women hailing from rural areas, housing is essential for them to attend one of the 15 universities in the capital. While Cambodia’s male college students are typically housed in Buddhist temples, women are prohibited in the pagodas and often have no alternative but to skip college altogether — leading many to early marriage, work in the rice fields or prostitution.
The first Harpswell dormitory, built in 2006, is a three-story building that houses 35 women. The second, completed in 2010, houses 45 women. Both also function as leadership centers where the residents receive food and medical care, along with free classes in English, computer skills, leadership seminars and discussion of national events to develop critical thinking skills. The foundation gives each student a $30 monthly stipend for food and expenses.
When an audience member asked how the public can help, Lightman shared that in addition to donations, he is always looking for women from outside of Cambodia to act as leadership residents in the dorms. Last November, 50 Harpswell students and staff had the opportunity to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting organized by Carol Rodley, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia.
Of the 30 female students in Harpswell’s first two graduating classes, seven now work in Cambodia’s top law firm, and approximately 10 have come to the United States for postgraduate study. While Harpswell may construct additional dormitories in the future, Lightman said he’s determined to maintain his personal relationships with the students.
“I have individual meetings with each of the 80 students — this personal contact is a very important part of the culture of our dorm,” he said. “They feel like somebody really cares about them.”
Read more at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/lightman-lecture-1107.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Alan Lightman discusses his social entrepreneurial work in building the first college dormitories for women in Cambodia.
Sharing a muddy crawl space with four roommates isn’t part of the traditional path to a law degree. But that’s exactly how Veasna Chea, a Cambodian woman, lived during law school in the mid-1990s — still managing to graduate first in her class.
Speaking on Thursday night, Alan Lightman, adjunct professor of the humanities at MIT, described his serendipitous meeting with Chea during a 2003 visit to Cambodia as his inspiration to establish a foundation that helped build the first college dormitories for young women there. Unsettled by the fact that Chea was only the fourth woman in Cambodia to attain a law degree, Lightman vowed to help Cambodia’s women exercise greater power in the country.
The barriers to women’s education in Cambodia have their roots in the nation’s tragic and bloody history. More than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge decimated the educated class as part of its campaign of genocide, this country of 14 million — one of the poorest in the world — still faces challenges in rebuilding its educational system. Most of the rural population lives in one-room shacks with no running water or electricity. Millions of young women have no way of attending college, mainly due to financial constraints (the annual cost of tuition, room and board is roughly three times the average Cambodian family’s income) and the lack of housing for women in Phnom Penh.
A physicist and best-selling author, Lightman has added social entrepreneurship to his life’s work, volunteering 50 percent of his time to lead the Harpswell Foundation, an organization he founded in 2003 to address these issues.
“Our goal is that our graduates will become leaders of Cambodia,” Lightman told a packed hall in the Stata Center. “In 20 years we’d like our … graduates to be heads of hospitals, government ministers, and directors of NGOs. We’d like to see 200 Hillary Clintons, Sandra Day O’Connors and Oprah Winfreys.”
Lightman is personally involved in the selection process for Harpswell’s two dormitories, helping to choose each year’s new class of 20 residents out of a pool of 160 students. (The top four female students are interviewed at each of Cambodia’s top 40 high schools.) The strategy, he explained, is to select not only the brightest students for admittance to the dormitories, but also those with leadership potential.
Those chosen live — free of charge — in one of Harpswell’s two dormitories and leadership centers in Phnom Penh. With 90 percent of young Cambodian women hailing from rural areas, housing is essential for them to attend one of the 15 universities in the capital. While Cambodia’s male college students are typically housed in Buddhist temples, women are prohibited in the pagodas and often have no alternative but to skip college altogether — leading many to early marriage, work in the rice fields or prostitution.
The first Harpswell dormitory, built in 2006, is a three-story building that houses 35 women. The second, completed in 2010, houses 45 women. Both also function as leadership centers where the residents receive food and medical care, along with free classes in English, computer skills, leadership seminars and discussion of national events to develop critical thinking skills. The foundation gives each student a $30 monthly stipend for food and expenses.
When an audience member asked how the public can help, Lightman shared that in addition to donations, he is always looking for women from outside of Cambodia to act as leadership residents in the dorms. Last November, 50 Harpswell students and staff had the opportunity to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting organized by Carol Rodley, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia.
Of the 30 female students in Harpswell’s first two graduating classes, seven now work in Cambodia’s top law firm, and approximately 10 have come to the United States for postgraduate study. While Harpswell may construct additional dormitories in the future, Lightman said he’s determined to maintain his personal relationships with the students.
“I have individual meetings with each of the 80 students — this personal contact is a very important part of the culture of our dorm,” he said. “They feel like somebody really cares about them.”
Read more at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/lightman-lecture-1107.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Me Miss! Why Blurting Out the Answers Can Be Good for Pupils
Me, Miss! Why blurting out the answers can be good for pupils.
Louder children can outperform quieter classmates and lift overall performance by encouraging others to become engaged.
While it may be frustrating for a teacher attempting to control a class, researchers say blurting out the answers can be good for pupils.
Children who shout out the answer can be nearly nine months ahead in reading and maths when compared with quieter classmates, according to a study by academics at Durham University.
Research which looked at more than 12,000 children aged between four and five finds that, on the whole, pupils who act impulsively in school do less well than those who can control their behaviour.
But when the academics compared children with similar levels of inattentiveness, they found the louder ones did better.
Boys are much more likely to blurt out the answers than girls. But the researchers find that speaking out of turn can be equally beneficial for both sexes.
Prof Peter Tymms, head of the School of Education at Durham University and lead author of the report, said: "It's quite useful for a classroom teacher to know that blurting out helps the individual.
"It might be a bit of a nuisance to the class, but what's a disadvantage to some might be an advantage to others.
"These are little children who haven't got the control others have, and can't help it sometimes. If they talk something through out loud, they can understand it better."
These children may also benefit from the extra attention and feedback they get from their teacher.
The study looked at children in more than 500 schools in England who were tested in English and maths at the end of their first year using a computer program.
Teachers were asked to rate pupils' behaviour and impulsiveness based on three different factors: blurting out the answer before hearing the end of a question; having difficulty waiting their turn; and actions which interrupted other children, such as pushing in on games.
The researchers found there was a nine-month advantage in reading and maths for those who continuously blurted out answers compared with those pupils who never did so but had similar levels of inattention.
The research paper suggests there might have been an "evolutionary advantage" to having a small proportion of individuals who blurted out answers.
"The excitement of one individual may encourage others to become engaged. Or perhaps the one who cannot help himself saying something can force the group to face a reality which none dared declare openly.
"In evolutionary terms it may have been advantageous to have a small proportion of individuals who blurted out."
The researchers suggest that harnessing the virtues of blurting could help teachers educate children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms.
Tymms said: "Managing and responding to pupils' different needs and abilities within a class is a challenge for teachers.
"We're not suggesting that classrooms become free-for-all shouting matches but if this can be harnessed, it could help teachers and learners."
The findings are published in the journal Learning and Individual Differences.
By Jeevan Vasagar
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/02/blurting-out-answers-good-for-pupils
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Louder children can outperform quieter classmates and lift overall performance by encouraging others to become engaged.
While it may be frustrating for a teacher attempting to control a class, researchers say blurting out the answers can be good for pupils.
Children who shout out the answer can be nearly nine months ahead in reading and maths when compared with quieter classmates, according to a study by academics at Durham University.
Research which looked at more than 12,000 children aged between four and five finds that, on the whole, pupils who act impulsively in school do less well than those who can control their behaviour.
But when the academics compared children with similar levels of inattentiveness, they found the louder ones did better.
Boys are much more likely to blurt out the answers than girls. But the researchers find that speaking out of turn can be equally beneficial for both sexes.
Prof Peter Tymms, head of the School of Education at Durham University and lead author of the report, said: "It's quite useful for a classroom teacher to know that blurting out helps the individual.
"It might be a bit of a nuisance to the class, but what's a disadvantage to some might be an advantage to others.
"These are little children who haven't got the control others have, and can't help it sometimes. If they talk something through out loud, they can understand it better."
These children may also benefit from the extra attention and feedback they get from their teacher.
The study looked at children in more than 500 schools in England who were tested in English and maths at the end of their first year using a computer program.
Teachers were asked to rate pupils' behaviour and impulsiveness based on three different factors: blurting out the answer before hearing the end of a question; having difficulty waiting their turn; and actions which interrupted other children, such as pushing in on games.
The researchers found there was a nine-month advantage in reading and maths for those who continuously blurted out answers compared with those pupils who never did so but had similar levels of inattention.
The research paper suggests there might have been an "evolutionary advantage" to having a small proportion of individuals who blurted out answers.
"The excitement of one individual may encourage others to become engaged. Or perhaps the one who cannot help himself saying something can force the group to face a reality which none dared declare openly.
"In evolutionary terms it may have been advantageous to have a small proportion of individuals who blurted out."
The researchers suggest that harnessing the virtues of blurting could help teachers educate children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms.
Tymms said: "Managing and responding to pupils' different needs and abilities within a class is a challenge for teachers.
"We're not suggesting that classrooms become free-for-all shouting matches but if this can be harnessed, it could help teachers and learners."
The findings are published in the journal Learning and Individual Differences.
By Jeevan Vasagar
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/02/blurting-out-answers-good-for-pupils
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
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