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bleachbleachbleach · 1 year

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Damnit you just triggered my writers brain. The way I see it is that part of why the Shino Academy takes so long isn't just training the potential shinigami, but also covering things such as literacy. (Aizen had taught a Calligraphy class there before being made Shinji's lieutenant)

Part of that I think would be speach training and language. Think about how in the British army their officers were/are trained to carry themselves like a gentleman, including the king's English. Put simply, they are speeking in a generally agreed upon subset of language so that everyone can understand eachother. There are other languages used in rukon, as well as dialects, and shinigami use their natural language in like company. (It being tokyo Japanese is probably solely for the convenience of the one consuming the media)

[This is in response to musing from this post!]

If we’ve said something that triggered your writerly instincts, when we have carried out our life’s mission! <333333333

As someone who’s spent way too long in school, part of me is like "6 years isn’t that long given that they’re starting from 0" even as I also know that most military training is not that long by any means. One day I’d LOVE to put together a bunch of potential course curricula for the Academy, because 1) I am obsessed with Aizen’s calligraphy class to an unhealthy degree, and 2) I do think they take The History of Soul Society and Hollow Biology 103, etc. though I suspect all of this is sorely lacking in the way that all curricula are—especially because every shinigami we’ve met knows a lot of things while simultaneously knowing absolutely zero things.

Below the cut, some of my thoughts on the Academy's auxiliary curriculum:

Entrance Exam

My co-blogger pointed out that the Academy has an entrance exam, and one that’s difficult enough to fail—though it makes me wonder what the nature of the exam is. Is it rote memorization of concepts? Is it testing your logical and spatial reasoning? What else are they screening for besides reiatsu? Regardless apparently it’s a written exam, which I imagine puts you at a pretty distinct disadvantage with you’re from most of Rukongai, because first you have to go find someone who will teach you how to read and write well enough to sit the exam, before you even get to go to shinigami school.

Calligraphy Class

My headcanon for Aizen’s calligraphy class (besides it being one of the many way he cruises for new recruits) is that it has both practical and artistic components. The artistic part is self-explanatory. The practical part is basically just penmanship training, which comes from the fact that all the handwritten reports we see seem to basically be in the same handwriting, even though we see in Colorful Bleach that if they’re not writing those reports with their inkbrushes, everyone’s handwriting is different. The two pieces of this class are DEEPLY divorced from one another, because one is deeply personal and the other the exact opposite of that. But when Aizen sent his course proposal to the Faculty Executive Committee, he probably said something about how practicing artful calligraphy imbues young potential shinigami with a mindset better suited to successful kidou and zanjutsu training and he's probably not wrong. Everything is utilitarian/practical in the end.

Report Writing 101

It would make sense that everyone take Report Writing 101, but part of me feels like that might be a more on-the-fly skill, or Continuing Education, because most of these guys aren’t writing reports anyway, and the number of reports written increases with rank, and since the Captain is going to have to sign off on everything anyway, they probably ether fix anything that’s amiss or give no fucks about whether anything is amiss before sending it on. So maybe that’s beyond the purview of the Academy. I mean, if most people don’t graduate with shikai, I guess they probably don’t graduate with Report Writing either. Maybe it's one of those "if you get fancy enough, there's one more thing you'll have to learn on your own!" deals.

Language Preserves Hierarchies Class

So that’s penmanship and written language, both things that Soul Society seems very invested in. What of the spoken language? The Gotei, for all their… whole thing, really, seem perhaps more permissive about a lot of things than a company might be IRL. Crazy hair, uniform customization, pretty informal language (though there is definitely still some preservation of language register based on rank). I could definitely see the Gotei wanting their trainees to have at least like, a 1-credit practicum in keigo, just because that helps preserve the power dynamics/hierarchies the Gotei runs on. I could also see them staring imperiously at potential new shinigami until this information was magically pressed into them, LOL.

Maybe my big interest here is "what does the Academy teach" vs. "what does the Academy just expect you to just know" (regardless of how much or how little sense these expectations might make). This is in regards to life skills as well as reiatsu skills. I'm convinced that there's a lot a lo a lot of room for improvement when it comes to this curriculum, 2000+ years in the making or not!

We basically said the same thing re: language variance in Rukongai, though oh MAN now I’m curious about like, to what degree standardization within Soul Society makes it out into Rukongai. Because on some level maybe it shouldn’t at all, because the Seireitei doesn’t seem to really care what’s going on in Rukongai except sometimes when whole swatches of souls go missing, but who’s doing all this teaching? To what end, besides Academy entrance exams? Is this a linear process where the resident Literate Soul needs to train the next one, or are there souls coming in from the Living World with different versions of this knowledge all the time? GAH I LOVE IT.

Unpaid Internship Class

I also wanna know, like, how much of Academy training is in situ vs. ex situ. Like, the Advanced Class leapt up to "field trip" really fast. Are the last year or two basically just Gotei Lite, except you don’t get paid (or get paid a lot less), even though you might die? Do you get TA credits if you’re like Hisagi et al, leading first-year field trips? Honestly I feel like a lot of Academy training is probably JUST learning how to interpret, control, and manipulate your reiatsu, and JUST trying to communicate with your sword and make it a true zanpakutou. Jinzen class is probably the hardest class series. If those two things happen to come easily to you, I imagine that’s mostly what fast-tracks you through the Academy curriculum.

But I’m coming at all this from a very contemporary, more-school-than-military, pretty Westernized perspective. Part of me wants to learn about how "school" has worked across the last 2000 years and part of me just wants to make it up in accordance with my own desires and interests because IT’S MAGIC GHOST MILITARY SCHOOL.

Truly, I just want fandom’s 370 different versions of how this school works. There are so many great options. I want them all.

Anyone wanna do a "36 Views of Shinoureijutsuin" with me where we all make different potential curriculum plans lol. WHO WANTS TO DO FAKE ADMIN PAPERWORK WITH ME.

#shinoureijutsuin #shinoureijutsuin curriculum development!#bleach headcanons #shinigamiology #asks #no brain just bleach

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webmedialiteracy · 1 year

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Media literacy in Post-Pandemic World

All it took was an international pandemic to help finally get media literacy into the educational system. If only we had gotten a better head start years ago.

Those of us in the world of media literacy education and research have been talking and writing for some time now about the importance of media and information literacy for everyone in society. Indeed, some of the foundational works on the topic date back to the mid-20th century.

Many media literacy researchers have focused on addressing this need by integrating media literacy curricula into the educational system at the K-12 level. Others, like myself, have also advocated for the inclusion of media training in post-secondary higher education as well.

To a very limited extent, this has started to happen. Unquestionably, media have become a bigger part of the learning experience at all levels of the educational system, as a function of the growth of technology in all aspects of life. If one walked into an elementary, high school, or college classroom of the late 2010s, it would certainly have included dramatically more media integration than could have been imagined just a few years prior.

But, for all the media technologies that have come to be used as tools in education, there has continued to be surprisingly little time devoted to actually teaching about media. Such educational experiences—related to both media production and analysis—are particularly important in higher education. Young adults during their college years are especially in need of training to help them develop the set of competencies that will allow them to navigate the adult world with an appropriate understanding of media institutions, impacts, benefits, and risks.

There are multiple ways to accomplish this. Most directly, specific media literacy courses can be offered. In practice, though, such media courses are populated mostly by communication or media majors and are unlikely to be taken by the majority of the student body. This is a consequence of the fact that most fields of study have become increasingly packed with highly regimented course progressions that offer little opportunity for deviation and little time for electives. Alternatively, media literacy competencies could also be addressed by integrating media-related lessons into existing classes. Yet, again, doing so has proven challenging, given widespread faculty concern that they lack the time or training to address topics beyond their specific disciplinary expertise.

And then the COVID-19 global pandemic happened.

In an instant, almost everything in the educational world shifted online. Instructors who rarely used technology suddenly had to learn about video capture, online lecturing, creating digital resources, and adapting print materials for an online setting. The list of new media applications being integrated into the virtual classroom space went on endlessly.

Almost overnight, it also became that clear that many of those students who have been described as “digital natives” did not, in fact, have many practical digital media skills at all. Could they create an Instagram post, or share a trending video on TikTok? Sure. But could they figure out how to perform even basic media functions needed for online learning? Sadly, the answer has often been no. In short, the pandemic exposed just how limited everyone’s media competencies really were.

Now, educators at all levels—including those at post-secondary institutions—are realizing that they will likely have no choice but to devote time from their busy semesters that are chocked full of discipline-specific material to teach about using technology in an educational setting. Suddenly, instructors across all disciplines are realizing that they might need to integrate media lessons into their classes. And, further, educators from all disciplinary backgrounds are realizing that they might need to learn about media themselves as well.

Despite the strain this has put on professors and students, this realization is good. As a media educator who has been researching and writing about media literacy since I started working on my PhD, this is something I have been advocating for a long time. Maybe this was the last little push we all needed to finally move in the direction of integrated, comprehensive media literacy training across the educational system.

Yet, I fear it may have come too late. An entire generation of individuals has grown up in the internet age and completed their formal educational journey without any—or with very little—media literacy training. This was a missed opportunity, and the results are nothing short of depressing. We have a proliferation of fake and pseudo news sites, the sharing of misinformation and disinformation, and the manipulation of media platforms by those in positions of cultural, political, and commercial power. All of this is happening in plain sight.

To someone who has been trained to think about the constructed nature of media, it would be easy to recognize the way in which powerful elites are manipulating society through its media. But, instead of seeing it for what it is, widespread media illiteracy has contributed to the spread of falsehoods that are destroying our culture, our democracy, and—in light of the pandemic—our health and our lives.

Perhaps the pandemic has taught us just how important media education is. No, we cannot fix the problems created in the recent past; we cannot double back and ensure that the generations who came of age without comprehensive media literacy education develop these skills now. But, we can take steps moving forward. Let’s learn from this situation, and use the momentum we’ve gathered during a year of online and remote learning to permanently integrate media literacy lessons into our curricula across the educational system.

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chanbacong2419 · 1 year

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Media literacy in Post-Pandemic World

All it took was an international pandemic to help finally get media literacy into the educational system. If only we had gotten a better head start years ago.

And then the COVID-19 global pandemic happened.

Perhaps the pandemic has taught us just how important media education is. No, we cannot fix the problems created in the recent past; we cannot double back and ensure that the generations who came of age without comprehensive media literacy education develop these skills now. But, we can take steps moving forward. Let’s learn from this situation, and use the momentum we��ve gathered during a year of online and remote learning to permanently integrate media literacy lessons into our curricula across the educational system. Source: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-design-and-preparation/media-literacy-in-a-post-pandemic-world/?fbclid=IwAR1SgESlnLlLyRSrIFRKkUCC6pgBqtV45AzNe6O9qbucbAktu7IViADBA2o

#Media Literacy 2023

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lilliebabie · 2 years

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tw: self condescension, loneliness, general mental illness and negative subjects (possibly psychotic thoughts)

This is not something to read if you are regressed

i dont feel good. i feel ill right now. its really embarrassing because i know its childish and unimportant and no one else would care like this but basically ive been a huge fan of the magnus archives since summer 2020 and its been a big part of my life, i was genuinely hyper fixated on it for a while like it was what i was thinking about seventy percent of the time. its still the only piece of media I consistently read fics for. I prepared myself well for its end and coped with it remarkably well for someone as pitiful as myself. i accepted it and felt okay. i really really felt ok, and satisfied and satiating and an appropriate amount of sad. i thought it was a good ending. a well written one. anyone with any good media literacy skills can probably know that an melancholy yet ambiguous ending was best for a show like tma. one of my biggest pet peeves is when pieces of media that closed their stories extremely intentionally and cleanly open it up again for more money and because there out of ideas. And tma isn’t even doing an extra thing like I thought they were suggesting with an arg they released. It’s a full on sequel. I feel so sick writing this. i know it’s pathetic. i know it’s embarrassing. but it feels like the corpse of something I loved was buried nicely within me and I’ve been through the stages of grief and I’ve accepted it, but now my acceptance has been broken because the corpse has been dug up and desecrates for money and a lack of ideas. seeing the worst parts of capitalism and of media and art within it taint my favorite art is really really hard right now. And it’s so rough because I think I recall Jonny sims emphasizing that this was the end point blank period. And it should have been. But nothing I love can stay nice. I don’t know. i can’t handle it all again. All the stress. This is also so so so embarrassing, no one looks at my posts so at this point I’m putting it out in tot he void which is fine by me, I just need to get it off my chest, but i am so so so painfully lonely and understimulated and uninterested in life too that ive been trying to imagine that Martin from tma is my friend. I try to hear him taking to me and being next to me because I feel like I’m losing my humanity and my connection to human being and my very being will literally cosmically unravel if I can’t put myself in delusion that I have a friend who loves me on a deeper level than is possible. I don’t know. I don’t know. They’re messing up my equilibrium. Everything was laid to rest. It’s a terrible decision writing wise too. The finale has lost all meaning. Rusty quill has been laying off workers and taking breaks on other works for this dumb arg bc I guess nothing was making them money so just bring back the FINISHED series you promised you wouldn’t bring back I guess. Nothing means anything anymore. When I found out about all this, like when it came out that this new content would be tma2 and that they were firing people if felt like k was losing it and I had to start calling out for people who don’t exist to keep me existing. I hate them. I can’t do this. It’s hard to watch such a well written thing become shut writing for money. HE SAID HE WOULDNT BRING IT BACK. i need to sleep now and I guess I’ll pretend there is another person here and I’ll make it real.

#rant #tw #vent #babbles #text #mine #tw mental illness

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plan-d-to-i · 2 years

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You talk about reading comprehension a lot. Here's an excerpt from a report on reading levels in the US. It's a lot of dry material but hard facts :) "Reading levels among the adult population are also disturbingly low. The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (Kutner, Greenberg, Jin, Boyle, Hsu, & Dunleavy, 2007) reported that 14 percent of adults read prose texts at “below basic” level, meaning they could exhibit “no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills”; a similarly small number (13 percent) could read prose texts at the “proficient level,” meaning they could perform “more complex and challenging literacy activities” (page 4). The percent of “proficient” readers had actually declined in a statistically significant way from 1992 (15 percent). This low and declining achievement rate may be connected to a general lack of reading. As reported by the National Endowment for the Arts (2004), the percent of U.S. adults reading literature dropped from 54.0 in 1992 to 46.7 in 2002, while the percent of adults reading any book also declined by 7 percent during the same time period. Although the decline occurred in all demographic groups, the steepest decline by far was among 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 year olds (28 percent and 23 percent, respectively). In other words, the problem of lack of reading is not only getting worse but also doing so at an accelerating rate. Although numerous factors likely contribute to the decline in reading, it is reasonable to conclude from the evidence presented above that the deterioration in overall reading ability, abetted by a decline in Kindergarten through grade 12 text complexity and a lack of focus on independent reading of complex texts, is a contributing factor."

The problem with poor reading comprehension and critical thinking isn't only that it's annoying af in fandom, it's that I can only imagine what it's doing out in the real world, and the kind of choices and decisions it empowers. As more and more bad actors realize the influence of social media and the ease with which it can spread disinformation (esp considering current events rn), it's more important than ever for people to be able to analyze the information that comes at them. The sources that bring it to them. Media Literacy is immensely important and devastatingly absent, and fandom, silly as it is, arguably works as a great little microcosm to illustrate it.

#personal opinions

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firsthopemedia · 3 years

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Lessons in literacy: How to raise a reader FIRST HOPE MEDIA https://firsthope.media You want to raise a reader. That much you know. But how? That's the $20,000 question. You could probably spend that $20,000 on how-to books for you, readers for your child, flash cards and other accessories, and specialized reading programs promoting every possible avenue to full literacy. You could, but you don't have to do all that. The facts are simple. Between 80-85 percent of children learn to read by the middle of first grade and most of those children will learn without the benefit of fancy reading programs and books. Many of those children will learn to read as the result of simple preliteracy activities they encountered at home and/or school. In fact, studies show that starting early is not necessary and could do more harm than good. Formal reading instruction, especially if introduced too early and if focused on "skill and drill," can actually interfere with emergent literacy. However there are things you can do before you get to that point--and these activities are fun and can lay a strong early literacy foundation to make it easier for your child to learn to read later on. As a basic foundation for learning to read and write, kids need strong speaking and listening skills. When you and other adults around your kids encourage them to talk, ask questions, and use dramatic play, it increases their vocabulary, allows them to hear and practice building sentences, and gives them more knowledge to understand spoken and written language. Simply reading, talking, and listening to a young child in a warm and positive environment at every opportunity are among the most important things you can do. There are three skill areas that form the foundation for reading. Kids who develop strong skills in these areas have greater success learning to read: Print Knowledge, Literacy Awareness, and Language Understanding. Print knowledge is simply the understanding that print (letters, words, symbols, and printed media such as books and signs) carries a message. This encompasses learning that people read text rather than pictures and the correct way to read a book or page (right side up, left to right, top to bottom). Literacy awareness encompasses a child's first efforts to use print in a meaningful way. This includes recognizing letters and groupings of letters (the child recognizes his or her name or the name of a store) and attempts to write letters and words such as his or her name. Language understanding is just that-understanding how language works. This includes being able to sound out individual letters in a word and counting the words in a spoken sentence. Children develop these skills by having many early experiences with language, books, and print. They can have these experiences as part of everyday life, through play, conversation, and a wide range of activities. Young children use play and talk as a way to expand, explore, and make sense of their world. When kids talk about daily tasks and special events, tell stories, sing songs, and scribble, they are laying the groundwork for reading and writing. The primary reason many children struggle with learning to read is because they simply do not have enough experiences with language, books, and print. They need more time at home and in their early childhood programs devoted to helping them develop the skills that lead to reading. A lack of developmentally appropriate skill-building at an early age can significantly limit the reading and writing level a child attains. Becoming literate Becoming a literate person is something that every human begins almost from birth. In essence, we are actually programmed to become literate. However, that does not mean the path to literacy is smooth and easy. While the progression to literacy is a natural evolution we are all programmed to follow, literacy does not occur in a vacuum. Literacy emerges in individuals only when they are immersed in a community of literacy. Interactions such as sharing a picture book, telling a story, and talking about experiences are central to emergent literacy. Most parents are aware of the importance of reading to their child, but it is so important that it cannot be emphasized enough. According to the Partnership for Reading, a project administered by the National Institute for Literacy, "Reading aloud to children has been called the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for success in reading." Typically, parents play an important role in developing this skill by reading to children and showing how important reading is to their daily life. Find time to read aloud with your child every day. Lap time with picture books and stories can strongly motivate your child to enjoy reading. Studies focusing on parents of successful readers found that they do more than simply read to their children. They also engage in specific strategies, which maximize the reading experience. These strategies are actually fairly simple: talk about the book with your child before reading it; read aloud using an enthusiastic voice; and let your child ask questions about the book. Parents can also encourage their child to "read" the story back to them (especially if it is a favorite that has been read many times to the child) and/or share fun variations of the story. However, while this is significant, this is not the only way your child learns. Knowledge is constructed as a result of dynamic interactions between the individual and the physical and social environments. In a sense the child discovers knowledge through active experimentation. Try to make books available for your child to explore and enjoy on their own as well as with you. It is important to remember that literacy is much broader than simply reading. Allowing a child to draw or color and playing word games and singing songs are also a part of literacy. Sometimes literacy development does not actually involve print. There are many ways of learning to read and write. Some of these ways may look suspiciously like play which makes them all the more effective. Children learn through play. Play provides opportunities for exploration, experimentation, and manipulation that are essential for constructing knowledge and contributes to the development of representational thought. During play, children examine and refine their learning in light of the feedback they receive from the environment and other people. It is through play that children develop their imaginations and creativity. During the primary grades, children's play becomes more rule-oriented and promotes the development of autonomy and cooperation which contributes to social, emotional, and intellectual development. Make-believe among peers also plays an important role in emergent literacy. Pretending is, in fact, an ideal area in which children can develop literacy-related language skills. In pretend play, children use language to create imaginary worlds; and the manner in which language is used when pretending has much in common with reading. It is important to provide children time and settings in which they can use language with each other in a variety of social dramatic play activities. Block play, too, can serve as a foundation for literacy. While reading and writing and playing with blocks seem miles apart at first glance, block play offers the literacy-related benefits of helping children understand symbolization, refine visual discrimination, develop fine-motor coordination, and practice oral language. So remember, your goal is not to teach your child to read so much as it is to help them become literate. Immerse your child in literacy by talking, reading, singing, pretending, and playing and you will have done a great deal to prepare your child to become a reader. ing

#preschool #earlychildhood #kid #read #alphabet #literacy #book #kindergarten #parent #reading #writing #rhyme

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alethia000 · 4 years

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UNICEF and Tops launch “Every Child Can Read” campaign to promote reading skills, with family participation

Join the campaign with #ABookAWeek or visit campaign website: www.unicef.or.th/abookaweek

Photo credit: UNICEF Thailand/2019/Preechapanich

From left to right: Mr. Nichkhun Horvejkul, Friend of UNICEF; Miss. Dawn Gosling, Chief Private Sector Fundraising and Partnerships, UNICEF Thailand; Mr. Thomas Davin, UNICE Representative for Thailand; H.E. Mr. Anand Panyarachun, UNICE Goodwill Ambassador for Thailand; Mr. Stephane Coum, Chief Executive Office for Central Food Retail Group and President of Central Food Retail Co., Ltd.; Mr. Alistair Taylor, President of Central Family Mart Co., Ltd.; Ms. Phattaraporn Phenpraphat, Executive Vice President - Marketing & Public Relations of Central Food Retail Co., Ltd.; Mrs. Charoensri Osathanukuor, Vice President Operations of Central Food Retail Co., Ltd.

BANGKOK, 9 September 2019 – UNICEF and Central Food Hall and Tops launched Every Child Can Read, a campaign to promote the importance of reading and to support the development of children’s literacy skills. The campaign is nationwide in scope but also has a specific focus on disadvantaged children and schools, responding to national surveys which found that a large number of young children in Thailand, especially in poor households and remote areas, do not have adequate children’s books at home and lack proper reading and literacy skills.

As part of the campaign, a series of initiatives under the title #ABookAWeek have been introduced in schools and communities, as well as in the homes, to promote reading and strengthen family and public participation in reading activities for children. In partnership with the Office of The Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education, #ABookAWeek is being implemented in schools, through which each school develops interesting and fun reading activities to engage young readers and instill in children a love for reading. For example, many schools have organized ‘reading buddies’ where older students help younger students learn to read and engage in reading competitions.

A public social media campaign has also been launched to engage the wider public in promoting reading in their homes and communities. Members of the public can visit the website www.unicef.or.th/abookaweek to find useful tips and recommended children’s books. Members of the public are encouraged to participate in the social media reading challenge and share their love for reading through posting fun photos with their favourite books, using the hashtag #ABookAWeek.

In addition, reading corners will be set up in Early Childhood Development Centres in Bangkok and teachers will be trained to help develop early literacy skills for young children aged 3-5, creating a foundation for all future learning.

In partnership with local education authorities, mobile library vans filled with children’s books and trained animators are also visiting and supporting some 147 kindergartens and small primary schools in remote areas in Mae Hong Son, Tak and Leoi provinces, reaching an estimated 15,000 children, many of whom are from ethnic minorities.

Stephane Coum, Chief Executive Officer for Central Food Retail Group and President of Central Food Retail Co., Ltd, said: “The company is committed to improving the education for children in Thailand. The partnership between Central Food Retail and UNICEF Thailand has started almost 20 years ago, through which we have raised funds to help provide educational support for children in remote areas and promote access to education for all children. During the past 20 years, a 37-million-baht donation raised from Tops customers helped us provide five vans to support UNICEF’s mobile library initiative, bringing positive change to the lives of children in Thailand. This year, Central Food Hall and Tops joined together with UNICEF Thailand to launch the “Every Child Can Read” campaign which encourages everyone to be part of bringing equal reading opportunity for children in Thailand. Customers and members of the public can participate by making a donation via CenPay service at the checkout counter and donation box placed at Central Food Hall, Tops Market, Tops Superstore and Tops Daily.”

Thomas Davin, UNICEF Representative for Thailand, said reading has a tremendous impact on a child’s cognitive development and is the foundation for future learning. It ignites children’s imagination, leads them to greater creativity, improves their vocabulary and communication skills, helps develop analytical and critical thinking, and enhances their ability to focus. To become readers for life, children must love the very first stories they read. The more books a child reads, the more his or her reading improves.

“To put it simply: Reading makes children smarter and helps them develop to their full potential,” Davin said. “Working closely with education authorities, the Every Child Can Read Campaign aims to engage children and schools with reading activities which will develop a love for and confidence in reading. We aim to get age-appropriate and interesting books and reading materials to ECD Centres, schools and families, where they are currently in short supply and most in need. The campaign will also develop the skills of caregivers, teachers and parents to engage children in reading activities and improve literacy skills of the disadvantaged children. We want to place reading at the heart of education in Thailand.”

A reading survey conducted by National Statistical Office (NSO) in 2018 found Thai children younger than six years old spent an average of 42 minutes a day reading, a slight increase from 34 minutes in 2013. Yet, a national survey conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in 2015-2016, with UNICEF support, found that 6 in 10 children under five years old have less than three children’s books at home, while only 14 per cent of children have ten or more children’s books at home. Children from more disadvantaged backgrounds had even fewer books compared with the national average.

At the launch event organized at Central World on Friday, Nichkhun Horvejkul, a popular singer and a Friend of UNICEF, joined children from remote provinces in a panel session to encourage parental involvement in fostering reading habits in young children.

“It is very important that parents read with their children since they are very young,” Nichkhun said. “Parents these days are very busy, but please spend at least 15 minutes a day reading with your children. This can create a lifelong learning foundation for children and great bonding within the family.

Every Child Can Read campaign aims to raise 17 million baht from the Thai public to help increase access to children’s books and promote literacy development during the next three years. Members of the public can make a donation to the campaign at the checkout counter via CenPay service and donation box placed at Central Food Hall, Tops Market, Tops Superstore and Tops Daily from September 1st, 2019 to August 31st, 2022.

Source: https://www.unicef.org/thailand/press-releases/unicef-and-tops-launch-every-child-can-read-campaign-promote-reading-skills-family

#2pm #nichkhun #friend of UNICEF #UNICEF Thailand’s “Every Child Can Read” Project #UNICEF #UNICEF Thailand

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soriamonicagulla-blog · 5 years

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What is Purposive Communication?

Based on what I have learned, purposive pertains to something that is intended or objective and the course of group of people who have the same vision in their program is called Purposive Communication.

As for me, this course does not only centers on determining the definitions, principles, components and other concepts of communication. But it mainly focuses on how to develop or enhance your skills on becoming an effective communicator throughout the discussions and also how technology use applies in communication. It is about having the important characteristics of being truthful when disseminating information and being polite and respectful to your audience, most especially to those people from different foreign countries and ethnic groups. The course made me understand that communication do not simply means of exchanging thoughts and ideas among people but it makes me realize what is actually the deeper purpose or goal of communicating with the people around me?

4 Macro Skills:

Speaking

Listening

Reading

Writing

"Two-Way Process of Communication" is another process similar to the first illustrations above but the difference is that the response keeps recycling back between the sender and receiver which makes them Sender 2 and Receiver 2.

8 Components of Communication

Source/Sender/Encoder - one who transmits the message

Channel - passageway or how the message will be transmitted

Receiver - one who accepts the message

Mesaage - contains the idea and opinions

Feedback - the response or answer of the receiver

Context - common knowledge or shared understanding in the conversation

Environment - points out to the atmosphere or mood

Barrier - disturbances, preferences, or interventions in the conversation

9 C's or 9 Principles of Effective Communication (Michael Osborn, 2009)

Principle of Concreteness - something that could be imagined or touchd; no abstract ideas

Principle of Correctness - proper usage of words and grammars; not the confusing or misinterpreted ones

Principle of Conciseness - short and brief statement but has the complete idea; being direct to the point

Principle of Consideration - concerned with the background and level of understanding of the audience

Principle of Courtesy - possessing the characteristics of being polite and kind

Principle of Clarity - clearness of the information; not the obscure ones

Principle of Cultural Sensitivity - consideration of the culture e. g. ethnicity and foreign people

Principle of Captivating - catches the attention of the audience or readers

Principle of Creativity - thinking of new ideas or making new things

Ethical Considerations of Communication

Respect your audience.

Use information correctly.

Value the truth.

Do not falsify information.

Consider the result of consideration.

Globalization

In Gordon Brown's TED show (July 2009), he mentioned a lot of global issues occuring in different parts of the world such as terrorism, human rights, climate change, equality, social securities in poor countries, poverty in Africa, ex-president Joseph Estrada's corrupted election from the Philippines and many other more.

He stated that we are already in a unique age of society in which past events should remain in the remarkable history and that we must put our minds into something much bigger than ourselves - the pain and sufferings of the others. He also said that a country cannot solve their problems in their own and poor countries needed more support from rich countries. In this case, Gordon emphasized that we have the capacity to change, persuade, encourage and inform people through communicating across the world, specifically using internet. Might as a result, global institutions could take an action in planning global solutions for global problems. This could tighten our invisible bonds to other countries and replace our behaviors into proper ones.

But the deal is:

Globalization was defined as "the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale across borders such as spread of products, technology, benchmarking, etc." baser on a dictionary.

But for me, I understood effective communication as a divine soul of globalization.

Strategies on Becoming an Effective Global Communicator

Review communication principles.

Analyze the message receiver.

Be open to an accepting other cultures.

Learn about their culture and apply what is learned.

Consider the language needs.

Intercultural Communication

It refers to the communication between people from diverse cultures. This is a symbolic, interpretive, transnational, contextual process by which people from different cultures create shared meanings in order to fill in the intercultural spaces.

4 Types of Intercultural Communication:

Interracial Communication

International Communication

Interethnic Communication

Intercultural Communication

Communication Styles Among Cultures

High-Context Communication

Low-Context Communication

Improving Intercultural Communication Competence

Recognize the validity and differences of communication styles among people.

Leadn to eliminate personal biases and prejudices.

Strive to require communication skills necessary in a multicultural world.

Barriers in Intercultural Communication

Cultural Relativism

Discrimination

Lack of Knowledge

Language Differences

Variety/Varieties - also called as "lect", it is specific form of language or language cluster depending on the variation of formality

Nature of Language Variations

Language varies when communicating with people within or outside the community.

Language varies in speaking and writing.

Language varies in everyday and specialized discourses.

8 Domain of Language Variations:

Local Everyday Oral

Local Everyday Written

Local Specialized Oral

Local Specialized Written

Global Everyday Oral

Global Everyday Written

Global Specialized Oral

Global Specialized Written

Register - also known as "stylistic variations", it is the level of formality in language determined by a certain context

4 Types of Registers:

Frozen

Formal

Consultative

Casual/Intimate

Evaluating Messages and Images

Evaluating the effectiveness of our message is very important through developing and doing strategic questions to identify strdnghts and weakness.

4 Main Qualities For an Effective Message

Simplicity

Specificity

Structure

Stickiness

Evaluating images should be evaluated like any other source e. g. journal articles or books to determine their quality, reliability, and appropriateness. Visual Analysis is an important step in evaluating images.

3 Steps in Evaluating Images

Identifying source.

Interpret contextual information.

Understand implications.

What is Media?

It is a vehicle or means of message delivery system to carry an ad message to a targeted audience e. g. TV, radio, newspaper, internet, etc.

5 Key Concepts of Media Literacy:

All media are constructions.

The media contain beliefs and value messages.

Each person interprets messages differently.

The media have special interests (commercials, ideological, political).

Each medium has its own language, techniques, styles, forms, conventions and aesthetics.

4 Types of Media Literacy:

Print Media (oldest and basic form of media)

Broadcast Media (needs electromagnetic spectrum)

Outdoor Media (out-of-home e. g. billboards)

Internet

Communication Aids and Strategies Using Tools and Technology

Multimedia presentation is visually displayed on a monitor or projected on a screen.

Different Modalities:

Texts

Graphics

Audio

Animation

Video

Photographs

Special Features of Computer-Based Presentations

Custom navigation.

Can be made into harcopy printouts od transparencies.

An be uploaded to the web

Steps on Making an Effective Multimedia Presentation

Know the purpose of your presentation.

Know the audience.

Gather information.

Use variety of resources such as textbooks, digital resources, etc.

Do not forget to cite the resources.

Organize the information.

Check technical issues.

Be creative.

What is Blogging?

It is shortened form of weblog, blogs are perosnal journal websites on which a user can type an entry and add video, images and links to other websites.

Remember to:

Be short and direct.

Ask thoughts provoking questions.

Ask a multiple choice question.

Share shocking fact or statistic.

Share something personal.

Withhold a compelling peice of information.

Refute conventional wisdom.

Lead with a success story.

Start with a reader's question.

Share a qoute.

So, this are all the things I have learned during the whole first half of semester and it wasn't everything but there are stuffs my brain decided to retain. It has been really long, tough journey along the lessons and I might not bring this whole lot of knowledge throughout my lifetime, atleast there is only one thing that marked my mind - there is no such thing as superior language which makes oneself dominant from others but it is the actually mind that labeled that thought in ourselves when in fact, we are all just the same. It's just a matter of discipline and pinch of respect.

~soria😇

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edusearch · 4 years

Text

Meaning & Types of Education:

Education is a gradual process which brings positive changes in human life and behavior. We can also define education as “a process of acquiring knowledge through study or imparting the knowledge by way of instructions or some other practical procedure”.

What is education?

Education brings a natural and lasting change in an individual’s reasoning and ability to achieve the targeted goal. It facilitates us to investigate our own considerations and thoughts and makes it ready to express it in various shapes.

Education is the main thing that encourages us to distinguish between right and wrong because in the absence of education, we can’t do what we need or we can’t achieve our goal.

Straightforwardly, we can say, “education is the passage to progress”. It is additionally the way to our fate as achievements can only be accomplished when individuals have information, aptitudes, and frame of mind. In this way, education resembles a medium through which we can associate with various individuals and offer our thoughts.

To tackle issues and do inventiveness we first need to gain proficiency with some essential abilities. We require learning and abilities to wind up increasingly imaginative. So education is fundamentally learning of abilities and ideas that can make us increasingly innovative and issue solver. Education is to pick up the capacity to develop and take care of issues in order to achieve their lawful motives.

Education also means helping people to learn how to do things and encouraging them to think about what they learn.

It is also important for educators to teach ways to find and use information. Through education, the knowledge of society, country, and of the world is passed on from generation to generation.

In democracies, through education, children and adults are supposed to learn how to be active and effective citizens.

More specific, education helps and guide individuals to transform from one class to another. Empowered individuals, societies, countries by education are taking an edge over individuals stand on the bottom pyramid of growth.

Types of Education

Education goes beyond what takes places within the four walls of the classroom. A child gets the education from his experiences outside the school as well as from those within on the basis of these factors. There are three main types of education, namely, Formal, Informal and Non-formal. Each of these types is discussed below.

Formal Education

Formal education or formal learning usually takes place in the premises of the school, where a person may learn basic, academic, or trade skills. Small children often attend a nursery or kindergarten but often formal education begins in elementary school and continues with secondary school.

Post-secondary education (or higher education) is usually at a college or university which may grant an academic degree. It is associated with a specific or stage and is provided under a certain set of rules and regulations.

The formal education is given by specially qualified teachers they are supposed to be efficient in the art of instruction. It also observes strict discipline. The student and the teacher both are aware of the facts and engage themselves in the process of education.

Examples of Formal Education

Learning in a classroom

School grading/certification, college, and university degrees

Planned education of different subjects having a proper syllabus acquired by attending the institution.

Characteristics of formal education

Formal education is structured hierarchically.

It is planned and deliberate.

Scheduled fees are paid regularly.

It has a chronological grading system.

It has a syllabus and subject-oriented. The syllabus has to be covered within a specific time period.

The child is taught by the teachers

Advantages of Formal education:

An organized educational model and up to date course contents.

Students acquire knowledge from trained and professional teachers.

Structured and systematic learning process.

Intermediate and final assessments are ensured to advance students to the next learning phase.

Institutions are managerially and physically organized.

Leads to a formally recognized certificate.

Easy access to jobs.

Disadvantages of Formal education:

Sometimes, brilliant students are bored due to the long wait for the expiry of the academic session to promote to the next stage

Chance of bad habits’ adoption may be alarming due to the presence of both good and bad students in the classroom

Wastage of time as some lazy students may fail to learn properly in spite of motivation by the professional trainers.

Some unprofessional and non-standard education system may cause the wastage of time and money of the students which leads to the disappointment from formal education and argue them to go for non-formal education.

Costly and rigid education as compare to other forms of learning

Informal Education

Informal education may be a parent teaching a child how to prepare a meal or ride a bicycle.

People can also get an informal education by reading many books from a library or educational websites.

Informal education is when you are not studying in a school and do not use any particular learning method. In this type of education, conscious efforts are not involved. It is neither pre-planned nor deliberate. It may be learned at some marketplace, hotel or at home.

Unlike formal education, informal education is not imparted by an institution such as school or college. Informal education is not given according to any fixed timetable. There is no set curriculum required. Informal education consists of experiences and actually living in the family or community.

Examples of Informal Education

Teaching the child some basics such as numeric characters.

Someone learning his/her mother tongue

A spontaneous type of learning, “if a person standing in a bank learns about opening and maintaining the account at the bank from someone.”

Characteristics of Informal Education

It is independent of boundary walls.

It has no definite syllabus.

It is not pre-planned and has no timetable.

No fees are required as we get informal education through daily experience and by learning new things.

It is a lifelong process in a natural way.

The certificates/degrees are not involved and one has no stress for learning the new things.

You can get from any source such as media, life experiences, friends, family etc.

Advantages of Informal Education

More naturally learning process as you can learn at anywhere and at any time from your daily experience.

It involves activities like individual and personal research on a topic of interest for themselves by utilizing books, libraries, social media, internet or getting assistance from informal trainers.

Utilizes a variety of techniques.

No specific time span.

Less costly and time-efficient learning process.

No need to hire experts as most of the professionals may be willing to share their precious knowledge with students/public through social media and the internet.

Learners can be picked up the requisite information from books, TV, radio or conversations with their friends/family members.

Disadvantages of Informal Education

Information acquired from the internet, social media, TV, radio or conversations with friends/family members may lead to the disinformation.

Utilized techniques may not be appropriate.

No proper schedule/time span.

Unpredictable results which simply the wastage of time.

Lack of confidence in the learner.

Absence of discipline, attitude and good habits.

Non-formal Education

Non-formal education includes adult basic education, adult literacy education or school equivalency preparation.

In nonformal education, someone (who is not in school) can learn literacy, other basic skills or job skills.

Home education, individualized instruction (such as programmed learning), distance learning and computer-assisted instruction are other possibilities.

Non-formal education is imparted consciously and deliberately and systematically implemented. It should be organized for a homogeneous group. Non-formal, education should be programmed to serve the needs of the identified group. This will necessitate flexibility in the design of the curriculum and the scheme of evaluation.

Examples of Non-formal Education

Boy Scouts and Girls Guides develop some sports program such as swimming comes under nonformal education.

Fitness programs.

Community-based adult education courses.

Free courses for adult education developed by some organization.

Characteristics of Non-formal Education

The nonformal education is planned and takes place apart from the school system.

The timetable and syllabus can be adjustable.

Unlike theoretical formal education, it is practical and vocational education.

Nonformal education has no age limit.

Fees or certificates may or may not be necessary.

It may be full time or part-time learning and one can earn and learn together.

It involves learning of professional skills.

Advantages of Non-formal Education

Practiced and vocational training.

Naturally growing minds that do not wait for the system to amend.

Literacy with skillfulness growth in which self-learning is appreciated.

Flexibility in age, curriculum and time.

Open-ended educational system in which both the public and private sector are involved in the process.

No need to conduct regular exams.

Diploma, certificates, and award are not essential to be awarded.

Disadvantages of Non-formal Education

Attendance of participants is unsteady.

Sometimes, it’s just wastage of time as there is no need to conduct the exam on regular basis and no degree/diploma is awarded at the end of the training session.

Basic reading and writing skills are crucial to learn.

No professional and trained teachers.

Students may not enjoy full confidence as the regular students enjoy.

Some institutes provide fake certification through online courses just for the sake of earning.

#education

0 notes

kuwaiti-kid · 4 years

Text

This Is How Bad Consumer and Student Loan Debt Are

How bad is the debt problem in the United State? The simple answer – it's pretty bad. It's a national problem, to say the least. From our national debt, student loan debt, and consumer debt. Debt in the United States is a problem on all levels. Why is that?

I'm a firm believer that it starts with the lack of education on the topic. Only 17 states require high school students to take a course in personal finance. But even those states that teach financial literacy, debt is still a problem.

Maybe it the YOLO or living my best life mentality that leads to our obsession with overspending. Overspending leads to lifestyle inflation. Perhaps it's the instant gratification we seek and hit the “like” button on social media every day. Or that fact that we let 17 and 18-year-olds make their biggest financial decision (college) with little guidance or the impact of taking on student loan debt could have on them for years to come.

Or maybe it's the lead by example trap that has gotten debt in the United States out of control. We are just merely following the herd. Heck, our government is 22 trillion in the red.

Whatever the reason is for it, we need to take back control of the debt in the United States. The sooner we can start, the better. Let's dig in on some of the debt categories and why we've fallen off the debt wagon.

National Debt In The United States

Pop quiz. Do you know the last year the United States didn't have any Government Debt?

Way back in January 1835, America owed no interest-bearing debt for the only time in its history. By the end of that year, the national debt in the United States had fallen to only $33,700, or less than $1 million in 2019 dollars. The U.S. Treasury's published records go back to 1790, but U.S. debt began before that date with the Revolutionary War.

Since 1835, the debt in the United States has fluctuated, but overall, it has increased. Hitting the billion-dollar mark for the first time in 1863, and the trillion-dollar mark in 1982.

The U.S. government's public debt now stands at more than $22 trillion. In less than 30-years, we have more than twenty-two times more debt. It looks as if there's no slowing down either. National Debt in the United States is expected to grow an average of $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. The growth occurs when Congress spends more than it takes in through tax revenues, and I wonder why the American people have a problem with debt.

National Debt Stats

By 2029 National debt is estimated to reach $28.7 trillion

National debt equals $69,140 for every person living in the U.S.

The National debt is now bigger than our gross domestic product

The National debt equals $178,691 for every household in the U.S

Consumer Debt In The United States

Well, American people are almost as bad as our leadership. Consumer debt, which is classified as credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, payday loans, and student loans, totals $13.5 trillion. Ouch! Let's leave out student loans for now. It deserves its own discussion.

Often when discussing consumer debt, the concept of good debt verse bad debt comes up. Typically a good debt is something that has a future value. Bad debt would be something that is not needed immediately or could cost you more over time. A mortgage, for example, is often considered good debt.

A home is not something most individuals could afford to pay in full upfront. A mortgage is required to make the purchase, and typically real estate with appreciate over time. The home also provides a place to live while paying it off. It finally can be sold to pay off the mortgage. The goal of real estate investing should be to build equity.

Credit Card Debt

On the flip side, credit card purchases that are not paid in full each month are considered bad debt. For example, if you use a credit card to buy a new television, but fail to pay for it in full with a month, interest is accrued. The TV now is costing more then it's original purchase price, because of the interest charged by the credit company each month.

At the end of 2018, total credit-card debt in the United States reached $829-billion. Now consider a 10% interest rate on that total, and we are paying $82.9-billion in interest a month. Someone is getting rich off our inability to live within our means.

Reviewing my home state of New York, here are the debt totals:

Credit card debt average: $6,800 ($700 less than the national average)

Mortgage debt: $34,000 (the average among all residents with a credit history)

Bankruptcy: Highest numbers of filings – 107,480 in 2015

Credit Scores: New York state consumers rank better than the national average of 675

Payday Loans: Illegal in N.Y., because of the high-interest rates and short repayment period.

No one state is immune to the debt crisis. Some are just better at it than others. Debt in the United States doesn't discriminate based on age. Debt is found in those 35 years and younger, all the way to those 75 and older. The 45-54 age group carries the most average debt at $134,600.

It's crystal clear with love living beyond our means.

Student Loan Debt In The United States

In the last twenty years, outstanding student loan debt has more than doubled, from $49-billion in 1998 to over $1.4-trillion in 2018.

The federal government assumed control of the student-loan program in 2010, replacing the previous administrator Sallie Mae. This move helped cut costs and made the availability of education assistance easier. The fact that interest rates were lowered to encourage higher education has led to increased borrowing.

On average, about two in three (65 percent) college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit colleges in 2018 had student loan debt. These borrowers owed an average of $29,200, a two percent increase from the 2017 average.

Snapshot of Connecticut's student debt totals:

Has the highest Student debt average – $38,650

59% of College students have debt

CT students carry a total of $17 billion in student loan debt

Who Is Responsible?

Why in the world are we allowing 17-18-year-olds to make this type of significant financial decision? I'm sure it boils down to the fact that someone is making money off it. Many would agree that higher education is good debt, but if you make a decision to attend a college based on the prettiness of the campus, or without researching the potential job market when you graduate, you are making an uneducated decision.

Students, parents, guidance counselors, and college admission offices all play a part in the explosion of student loan debt in the United States. We need to do a better job of preparing our youth for the traps of debt.

We need to make sure they understand that the goal is to graduate with as little debt as possible. Sure we want our kids to enjoy their college experience, but we don't want them to live it up for four years and struggle for the next 20 years trying to pay back their loans.

We need to do better for our young adults.

How To Fix Our Debt Problem

It's a simple solution. We need to stop spending more than we make. That solution is easier said than done. There are many factors to managing our money. Behavior and habits play the biggest factors. The math of balancing your finances is fifth-grade math. But those unexpected life events could care less about that math.

The psychological effects of debt can be crippling, stress, worry, and fear. Not to mention the relationships and partnership, it can destroy and fights it can cause.

Would it be great to reduce these emotions about money in people's lives?

The idea that the American dream is dead is false. Achieving that dream has just shifted. The world is a lot different than they were 100-years ago. 100-years ago, credit cards didn't exist, and it was a lot harder to spend and borrow more then you make. The United States is still a land of opportunity, and it's available to anyone. There are just a few more pitfalls to navigate today.

It boils down to teaching the basics of money management to everyone as early as possible and prioritizing how we use our money. We use money our entire lives. It's an essential life skill that parents and teachers need to pass along to our youth.

Educate

Improved money education doesn't simply fix everything. Just because you're educated on a topic doesn't mean your excel at it. But having the background knowledge doesn't hurt, and it gives you the foundation you need. Your motivation to take advantage of it is still up to you.

I doubt we'll fix the trillion-dollar National and consumer debt in the United States overnight, just by providing an increase in education. But imagine a world where students begin to learn about money in elementary school and continue that education through high school. When faced with their first big money decisions, like the cost of college, I'm sure we'll see improvement.

You can very quickly get into debt with one big purchase, but climbing out may take years, shouldn't we do our best to avoid this cycle?

The post This Is How Bad Consumer and Student Loan Debt Are appeared first on Your Money Geek.

from Your Money Geek https://ift.tt/3f3tAzs via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Your Money Geek

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iinasdigitalliteracy-blog · 4 years

Text

Analysis of digital competence

1.1 Browsing, searching and filtering data, information and digital content

> Level 5

1.2 Evaluating data, information and digital content

> Level 4

1.3 Managing data, information and digital content

> Level 4

2.1 Interacting through digital technologies

> Level 6

2.2 Sharing through digital technologies

> Level 5

2.3 Engaging in citizenship through digital technologies

> Level 5

2.4 Collaborating through digital technologies

> Level 6

2.5 Netiquette

> Level 6

2.6 Managing digital identity

> Level 6

3.1 Developing digital content

> Level 5

3.2 Integrating re-elaborating digital content

> Level 4

3.3 Copyright and licenses

> Level 3

3.4 Programming

> Level 1

4.1 Protecting devices

> Level 4

4.2 Protecting personal data and privacy

> Level 4

4.3 Protecting health and well-being

> Level 3

4.4 Protecting the environment

> Level 3

5.1 Solving technical problems

> Level 2

5.2 Identifying needs and technological response

> Level 3

5.3 Creatively using digital technologies

> Level 3

5.4 Identifying digital competence gaps

> Level 3

Information and data literacy = 13/24

Communication and collaboration = 34/48

Digital content creation = 13/32

Safety = 14/32

Problem solving = 11/32

Overall “score” 85/168

I am slightly disappointed in my score but luckily all the things I am lacking in are something that I can just learn to do. The part that was most striking was my lack of skills in safety and problem solving. I can help my parents with the most basic problems but even that has its limits. Safety is something I should focus more on since hacking someone’s accounts is quite easy and I definitely don’t have all the available safety measures in use.

Although I have grown up in the era of digital things, it’s not something I’ve been taught to use nor have I been taught how to behave in the internet. I also know that learning that in schools can take years to happen because most of the teacher’s aren’t equipped to do anything (at least that was the case in my school). This is a topic that should be out more in mainstream media.

At this time thought, I am happy that I know ways that I can do school work and I know how to use the different tools because even at university level, it can be a problem to some people. It’s easy to ease into thinking that I don’t need to learn to use anything else or that I should change the way use the internet and it’s tools but I’m not safe in this sense. Technology is evolving constantly and there are many people much younger than me who have far better skills than I do. I should try to stay ahead of the game and I should protect myself more because it’s just a matter of time before someone comes and attacks my accounts and steals everything I have. But this is not something only ordinary people should do, even universities can have this sort of problem which dangers all the students and their information, I don’t know what sort of safety measures TLÜ use but it is scary to know that someone can, I imagine quite easily, send a message that looks like an university message and it’s even scarier how easy we trust a layout, I didn’t get the message but I image I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about changing the password if the message had looked like a regular TLÜ email.

#Digital Literacy #digital competence #analysis

0 notes

meraenthusiast · 5 years

Text

Debt In The United States – Just How Bad Has It Gotten?

Debt In The United States

[Editor’s Note: Today’s article in a guest post from Brian who blogs over at Debt Discipline. He started his site after becoming debt-free. His passion now is in helping others also break free of debt.]

Let’s face it, debt in the United States is a problem. From our national debt, student loan debt, and consumer debt, it’s a problem on all levels. Why is that?

I’m a firm believer that it starts with the lack of education on the topic. Only 17 states require high school students to take a course in personal finance. But even in those states that teach financial literacy, debt is still a problem.

Maybe it’s the “you only live once” (YOLO) or “living my best life” mentality that leads to our obsession with overspending. Perhaps it’s the instant gratification we seek and hit the “like” button on social media every day. Or the fact that we let 17 and 18-year-olds make their biggest financial decision (college) with little guidance or the impact of taking on student loan debt could have on them for years to come.

Or maybe it’s the lead by example trap that has gotten debt in the United States out of control. We are just merely following the herd. Heck, our government is 22 trillion in the red.

Whatever the reason is for it, we need to take back control of the debt in the United States. The sooner we can start, the better.

Let’s dig in on some of the debt categories and why we’ve fallen off the debt wagon.

National Debt In The United States

Pop quiz. Do you know the last year the United States didn’t have any Government Debt?

Way back in January 1835, America owed no interest-bearing debt for the only time in its history. By the end of that year, the national debt in the U.S. had fallen to only $33,700, or less than $1 million in 2019 dollars. The U.S. Treasury’s published records go back to 1790, but U.S. debt began before that date with the Revolutionary War.

Since 1835, the debt in the United States has fluctuated, but overall, it has increased. Hitting the billion-dollar mark for the first time in 1863, and the trillion-dollar mark in 1982.

The U.S. government’s public debt now stands at more than $22 trillion. In less than 30 years, we have more than twenty-two times more debt. It looks as if there’s no slowing down either.

National Debt in the U.S. is expected to grow an average of $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. The growth occurs when Congress spends more than it takes in through tax revenues, and I wonder why the American people have a problem with debt.

National Debt Stats

By 2029 National debt is estimated to reach $28.7 trillion

The National debt equals $69,140 for every person living in the U.S.

The National debt is now bigger than our gross domestic product

The National debt equals $178,691 for every household in the U.S

Consumer Debt In The U.S.

American people are almost as bad as our leadership. Consumer debt, which is classified as credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, payday loans, and student loans, totals $13.5 trillion. Ouch! Let’s leave out student loans for now. It deserves its own discussion.

Often when discussing consumer debt, the concept of good debt vs bad debt comes up. Typically a good debt is something that has a future value. Bad debt would be something that is not needed immediately or could cost you more over time. A mortgage, for example, is often considered good debt.

A home is not something most individuals could afford to pay in full upfront. A mortgage is required to make the purchase, and typically real estate will appreciate over time. The home also provides a place to live while paying it off. It finally can be sold to pay off the mortgage. The goal of real estate investing should be to build equity.

On the flip side, credit card purchases that are not paid in full each month are considered bad debt. For example, if you use a credit card to buy a new television, but fail to pay for it in full with a month, interest is accrued. The TV now is costing more then it’s original purchase price, because of the interest charged by the credit company each month.

Reviewing my home state of New York, here are the debt totals:

Credit card debt average: $6,800 ($700 less than the national average)

Mortgage debt: $34,000 (the average among all residents with a credit history)

Bankruptcy: Highest numbers of filings – 107,480 in 2015

Credit Scores: New York state consumers rank better than the national average of 675

Payday Loans: Illegal in N.Y., because of the high-interest rates and short repayment period.

No one state is immune to the debt crisis. Some are just better at it than others. Debt in the U.S. doesn’t discriminate based on age. Debt is found in those 35 years and younger, all the way to those 75 and older. The 45-54 age group carries the most average debt at $134,600.

Student Loan Debt In The U.S.

In the last twenty years, outstanding student loan debt has more than doubled, from $49-billion in 1998 to over $1.4-trillion in 2018.

On average, about two out of three (65 percent) college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit colleges in 2018 had student loan debt. These borrowers owed an average of $29,200, a 2% increase from the 2017 average.

Snapshot of Connecticut’s student debt totals:

Has the highest Student debt average – $38,650

59% of College students have debt

CT students carry a total of $17 billion in student loan debt

Why in the world are we allowing 17-18-year-olds to make this type of significant financial decision? I’m sure it boils down to the fact that someone is making money off it. Many would agree that higher education is good debt, but if you make a decision to attend a college based on the esthetics of the campus, or without researching the potential job market when you graduate, you are making an uneducated decision.

Students, parents, guidance counselors, and college admission offices all play a part in the explosion of student loan debt in the U.S. We need to do a better job of preparing our youth for the traps of debt.

We need to make sure they understand that the goal is to graduate with as little debt as possible. Sure we want our kids to enjoy their college experience, but we don’t want them to live it up for four years and struggle for the next 20 years trying to pay back their loans.

We need to do better for our young adults.

How To Fix Our Debt Problem

It’s a simple solution. We need to stop spending more than we make. That’s easier said than done. There are many factors to managing our money. Behavior and habits play the biggest factors. The math of balancing your finances is fifth-grade math. But those unexpected life events could care less about that math.

The psychological effects of debt can be crippling causing stress, worry, and fear. Not to mention the relationships and partnership, it can destroy and fights it can cause.

Would it be great to reduce these emotions about money in people’s lives?

The idea that the American dream is dead is false. Achieving that dream has just shifted. The world is a lot different than 100 years ago. Back then, credit cards didn’t exist, and it was a lot harder to spend and borrow more then you made.

The U.S. is still a land of opportunity, and it’s available to anyone. There are just a few more pitfalls to navigate today.

It boils down to teaching the basics of money management to everyone as early as possible and prioritizing how we use our money.

Money usage is an essential life skill that parents and teachers need to pass along to our youth.

Improved money education doesn’t simply fix everything. Just because you’re educated on a topic doesn’t mean you excel at it. But having the background knowledge doesn’t hurt, and it gives you the foundation you need. Your motivation to take advantage of it is still up to you.

I doubt we’ll fix the trillion-dollar national and consumer debt in the United States overnight, just by providing an increase in education. But imagine a world where students begin to learn about money in elementary school and continue that education through high school.

When faced with their first big money decisions, like the cost of college, I’m sure we’ll see improvement.

You can very quickly get into debt with one big purchase, but climbing out may take years. Shouldn’t we do our best to avoid this cycle?

This article originally appeared on The Money Mix and has been republished here with permission.

The post Debt In The United States – Just How Bad Has It Gotten? appeared first on Debt Free Dr..

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alisonfloresus · 7 years

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Integrating Artistic Creativity Into Homeschooling With Children’s Art Programs

Developing an appreciation for artistic creativity in young people has wide-reaching, lifelong impacts. It can help them build eye-hand coordination, expand their motor skills, and even bolster their ability to learn and retain concepts. With prolonged exposure, that appreciation can help teenagers develop a level of emotional maturity often found lacking in their peers.

For parents who choose to homeschool their kids, finding time to teach them the value of artistic expression can be challenging. After all, they have an assumed responsibility to devote time to a variety of subjects; developing artistic literacy may seem impossible given the time constraints. Plus, parents often feel ill equipped to do so. Today, we’ll explore how parents can integrate children’s art programs into their homeschooling regimen. We’ll also probe the benefits that a children’s art school can offer.

Understanding Its Place

Too often, parents who assume the role of teacher dismiss paintings, sculptures, and other forms of artistic expression as nonessential. Worse, some even consider them an expendable extravagance. But, creative works such as these can provide a historical backdrop for a child. Because painters, sculptors, and other artists typically express the times in which they lived through their works, their creations help young people appreciate the dynamic of a given period in history. For example, studying a painting that was created during the European Renaissance provides a glimpse into the people and culture of the time.

Integration Into Daily Education

The most effective strategy for integrating artistic literacy into a child’s daily education is by enrolling him or her into a children’s art school. The curriculum is carefully designed to engage a child’s natural curiosity and imagination. If enrollment into a specialized educational facility isn’t possible, parents who homeschool their kids can still incorporate the development of that literacy at home.

While giving young people the tools to express themselves artistically and allowing them to do so without direction can be a valuable exercise, true appreciation begins with studying masterpieces. They should be taught to identify how light and shadow are used in paintings in order to create mood. They should spend time analyzing a piece’s composition with regards to space and perspective. Doing so can yield a surprising level of insight in young people. Kids should also have the opportunity to work with a wide array of media, including watercolors, clay, pencil, and charcoal.

By allowing kids to study past masterpieces and work with a variety of media, parents can help them understand history in a new light while developing their natural creativity.

Benefits Of A Children’s Art School

Helping young people develop an appreciation for all forms of artistic expression while letting them explore their own creativity presents a challenge for which many parents are unprepared. A children’s art school can fill the gap by providing fundamental skills with an approach that develops other traits from which young people benefit.

For example, rather than merely teaching a child how to draw, a specialized educational facility will help kids understand the basics of composition, balance, and proportion. They’ll learn how color is used to evoke mood and perspective. As a result, kids learn the value of detail and precision. Plus, the greater their exposure, the further their imagination expands. As they learn an assortment of techniques and the reasons behind their use, their creativity grows.

A children’s art school offers kids far more than the ability to draw or sculpt. It teaches them to complete projects while maintaining their focus. It helps them to develop a level of persistence and patience that other kids lack. Eventually, their confidence in themselves and their skills grow stronger. Parents who homeschool their kids can give them an enormous life advantage by enrolling them into a children’s art school.

from JournalsLINE http://journalsline.com/2017/06/28/integrating-artistic-creativity-into-homeschooling-with-childrens-art-programs/ from Journals LINE https://journalsline.tumblr.com/post/162354972900

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mikevrivera · 7 years

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C’mon girls, let’s program a better tech industry

Twitter is the latest tech company to reveal figures showing women are still underrepresented in the information and communication technology (ICT) workforce.

Men make up 70% of the overall staff and women just 30%, according to a blog post by Janet Van Huysse, the company’s vice president for diversity and inclusion.

But within technical jobs at the social media giant only one in ten of employees are women, she also revealed.

Lately everyone seems to be talking about attracting women to ICT. Last year, Stanford University released the She++ documentary about recruiting women to study computing that was screened in 11 countries.

Google made a big splash last month with its new venture, Made with Code, aimed at inspiring girls to try coding.

Other ventures include TechGirls, Digital Divas and RoboGals.

youtube

Why the focus on girls and women?

Twitter isn’t the only ICT company in which women are vastly underrepresented.

Pinterest has also revealed that only 40% of its overall staff are women and that figure drops to just 21% of the technical workforce.

Google said in May that 30% of its overall workforce is female, although only 17% of its technical workforce. LinkedIn and Facebook have similar numbers.

Australia’s gender numbers look much the same. A 2013 survey by the Australian Computer Society found that women made up 28% of all ICT workers across a range of industries, and about 18% of the technical and professional workforce within the ICT industry itself.

Why does this matter?

The ICT sector is doing well, regardless of this gender imbalance. Technology is one of the primary drivers of the modern economy and a sector where productivity is rapidly increasing.

Salaries are good and rising. Job growth has remained consistent, despite the current economic crisis. But Europe projects a deficit of at least 700,000 skilled ICT workers by 2015, and the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency projects shortfalls in most ICT occupations by 2025.

An ICT workforce without women is bad for women. Women will be left behind economically. Women will be shut out of some of the most influential positions in industry and government due to lack of relevant skills and experience. Women’s interests will not be adequately represented in the products and services produced by the ICT industry.

An ICT workforce without women is bad for the ICT industry and more broadly for the economy. If women do not enter the industry, it will be difficult to meet projected demand for ICT skills.

Perhaps more importantly, diversity is good for business. According to the US National Center for Women in Technology:

Groups with greater diversity solve complex problems better and faster than do homogenous groups, and the presence of women in a group is more likely to increase the collective intelligence of the group.

Why is this happening?

University enrolments in ICT tell a clear story: women are not choosing to study courses that lead (directly) to ICT careers. Completions of ICT degrees are down across the board, approximately 30% since 2003.

The relative proportion of women has decreased as well. Only 19% of ICT enrolments in Australia in 2013 were of women, down from 25% in 2001.

This then begs the question of why women aren’t studying ICT. The Victorian ICT Development Plan cites research that confirmed negative and stereotypical attitudes to ICT careers among high school students.

A Victorian study suggests that lack of early exposure to software tools impacts female students’ interest in ICT.

Is there a solution?

There are general programs aimed at stimulating interest in ICT among young people, such as the Digital Careers program and the National Computer Science School.

But such programs typically attract students who are already interested in technology, rather than providing a venue to discover a new interest. As a case in point, when I offered a term-long Computer Science Unplugged enrichment class at my daughter’s primary school, the students who signed up were all boys who were avid gamers (plus my daughter).

Career expos can go some way to highlighting career paths and identifying the tremendous opportunities available in technology, possibly also correcting misconceptions about the impact of off-shoring on ICT jobs.

An early start is a great way to get girls interested in ICT. Flickr/Ed Ivanushkin, CC BY

Capturing girls’ interest

So, if we can agree that we want more women in tech, how do we draw them in? Here are my suggestions, based on my personal experience as a woman and a computer scientist.

DO start early

We must engage girls in ICT long before tertiary education, preferably starting in primary school. While our young students gain basic computer literacy, the focus is too much on using computers, and not enough on innovating through them.

DO provide opportunities for girls to experience the creative side of ICT

With visual programming tools such as MIT’s Scratch and Carnegie Mellon’s Alice (used in New Zealand’s Programming Challenge 4 girls), it’s easier than ever to jump right in to building things with code. Similarly fun, hands-on projects are available for other areas of ICT.

DO highlight role models and diverse career paths

It’s not easy to aspire to be part of an industry where you can’t see yourself in the people already there. One of the more inspiring experiences of my career was attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, simply because it was a convention centre full of females excited about technology. Who knew there were so many of us? We’ll be trying to do that here in Victoria next month, with the Go Girl, Go for IT event aimed at female high school students.

DON’T overly stereotype girls

In an attempt to target ICT activities specifically at girls, it is important not to go overboard in making those activities too “girly”. US high school student Abby Wheat wrote eloquently:

Do people really think that the only way you will ever get a girl to write coding for innovative software is to stick a butterfly somewhere in there?

Google’s Made with Code has been criticised for starting with a project that creates jewellery with code.

Jewellery, pink and sparkles don’t appeal to all girls. More importantly, it reinforces the message that girls in ICT are outsiders and need their own special (separate) space to do ICT. Women should be drawn into the common space, not a pink-walled zone.

Now, about those stereotypes …

When young people think of ICT, they apparently imagine a nerdy hacker working in solitude in a dark room (or so my teenager tells me). This simply does not reflect the reality of the many collaborative and creative ICT workplaces.

Misconception #1: ICT requires mathematical skills

There are many aspects of ICT that don’t use mathematics at all. Web programming and software engineering are much more about algorithms – a sequence of instructions that a computer must follow to solve a problem or to respond appropriately to a request.

Misconception #2: Programming is logical and sterile

Programming does require translating an idea into a logical breakdown of that idea that a computer can understand. In my experience the process of working out that logic often requires tremendous creativity. Solutions to problems are not always obvious, and there may be many different ways to solve the same problem.

Misconception #3: People who work in ICT aren’t social

As technology becomes more complex, diverse project teams must work together to design and build solutions. Teams might involve a user experience expert, a graphic designer, a database expert, a domain expert and programmers with various areas of focus.

Many of these suggestions apply equally to boys and girls. But girls do seem to be disproportionately disinterested in ICT.

Targeted action is needed to help girls find rewarding career paths in ICT, and to support them to stay on those paths. The effort will pay off in innovation benefiting us all.

C’mon girls, ICT is fun!

Karin Verspoor is an Associate Professor at the Department of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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