Usman Ali

Two Halifax, UK teenagers have been chosen to report on key global issues to their peers for the next six months, as part of a youth reporters project.

Calderdale Youth Parliament member Usman Ali, 16, and Denise Donnelly, who is a student at Calderdale College, have been selected alongside 25 other young people from all over the UK to bring a local perspective on key global issues for the next six months, thanks to funding from UKaid from the Department for International Development (DFID).

Youth Reporters: DFID

Usman said: “With the current global economic crisis, the spotlight can effortlessly be taken off international development. However, I believe as a young person I can raise awareness across the UK as to why international development is vital.”

Denise added: “It will give me an insight into a possible career in journalism and give me the chance to have my voice heard, as well as giving other young people a chance to air their views.”

These people are quite interesting:

MobileYouth researches and consults on youth marketing and mobile culture. Graham Brown and Josh Dhaliwal formed mobileYouth in 2001. They publish regular youth marketing and mobile culture research as well as share insights through online presentations,research videos, radio show and public speaking.

Feb Week 2

• Bahrain (1 space left)
• Dubai (fully booked)
• Delhi/Mumbai (1 space left)
• Kuala Lumpur (1 space left)

Feb Week 3

• Jakarta
• Singapore (1 space left)
• Hong Kong
• Taipei
• Shanghai

Feb Week 4

• Tokyo (fully booked)

Mar Week 1

• Seattle (1 space left)
• San Francisco
• New York
• Toronto

mobileYouth website click here

I read this online a few days ago. Does the world think that we want technology everywhere? Students will have to pay for devices to save schools money. I have my mobile, I have my laptop.

When are we changing the name of this blog to ETHICAL CONTRIBUTORS?

Cushing Academy is the very model of a New England boarding school. Clock tower? Check. Maples and meandering footpaths? Check. Flags representing the 193 home countries of its alumni? Check.

But in the past few years, the old library was in danger of becoming a relic. Its 20,000-book collection was barely used, administrators say. Spot checks last year found that, on some days, fewer than 30 books, or about .15%, circulated. And it was becoming rather lonely down there.

So the venerable boarding school west of Boston — the first in the USA to admit both boys and girls — last summer undertook another first: It began getting rid of most of the library’s books. In their place: a fully digital collection.

One student had to say:

Asher Chase, 16, a junior, says anyone who thinks digital books are the future should read a digital book. He remembers his English class last year being assigned Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol on their laptops.

Taking notes on the text? Forget it. “It was terrible: ‘Shade, file, edit, highlight.’ We were like, ‘Wow, reading books on computers is awful.’ “

Here is the full article in the US paper.

I hope we don’t have to use the Kindle.

The number of would-be students who failed to get a university place was up 30% on last year in the UK.

Statistics from the UK university admissions service, showed that 141,118 applicants did not find a place this year — up from 109,103 in 2008 — after a cap was placed on admissions. Why?

A further 175,000 students started university without loans or grants after technical problems at the Student Loans Company. (in the UK)

Parents have demanded that the Government intervene.

“Ministers must now step in to ensure that the management of the loan situation are held to account for a fiasco that has left hundreds of thousands affected by late payments, lost documentation and a miserable start to their first term at university.” (sounds just like the US)

Carolyn Basham’s daughter is thousands of pounds in debt just weeks after starting university in London because of the delays to her loan payments. She applied before the deadline but has been unable to make contact with the loans company because of constantly busy phone lines.

apple facebook technology class

Found this useful. It’s the Facebook forum for students who need help with their mac products. Not withstanding, seems an intuitive place for us to learn. Cheers. Aruna

http://www.facebook.com/applestudents

apple facebook students technology

Educational progress in India?

INDIA : Some eight million children in India between the ages of 6 and 14 are not enrolled in schools.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are nearly 165 million child labourers in India. They mostly work as rag pickers and earn about half a dollar a day. They come from large families who are too poor to send them to school.

Education is a distant dream that they share with nearly 40 per cent of India’s illiterate population. “Child labour issue is very serious in India. Even on the streets of Delhi or on the crossings of Delhi, you find children either selling books or magazines, or simply begging. The government’s response to this has been very poor.

While the government has now made education a right of all children till the age of 14, getting the kids to school is a tough task.

But there are some innovative ideas.

A scheme called “Adopt A Girl” is helping to boost the female literacy rate.

Under this plan girls living in slums are given free textbooks, stationery and a school bag. They also get mentors who personally ensure that the girls stay in school.

“If common people fund the education of a single child, it’s no more than US$6 a year. Since we started ‘Adopt A Girl,’ the education of 20,000 girls has been funded,” said Brijmohan Agarwal, Education Minister for Chhatisgarh state. Other organisations are hoping to attract children to attend school by changing the syllabus.

Many children in India have to walk miles to reach a school. Sometimes there are not enough teachers, and schools are just dilapidated shacks.

India spends less on education than countries such as China, Vietnam and Cuba.

maoam

Moam candie: It’s just my opinion. Why is this a big deal? In the news today. Oh boy.

Seems there is fear in the world. A German company has these cute little characters having fun and playful on their package. So, some dad in the UK made a big stink about his kids being exposed to these pictures.

Why is this so important to us? I suppose social interaction on blogs give super voice for small amount of people who don’t otherwise, respectfully. We still read newspapers in India. I don’t think anyone would care about this story.

The package is sassy.

The big story click here

maoam

It is very apparent how much hype there is to view news about social networking in the western press, both online and in print/tele. I don’t get it. The world revolves around how much tweeting is done in the US? I respectfully say, Please!? I adored the story of the 15 year old boy in the UK who said twitter is for old people. How wonderful that the UK press picked up a comment not press-released by some old man in a leather chair.

Here is from the article. Read it. So funny.

“Today he is the talk of Tokyo, Wall Street and the City. Fund managers, CEOs and analysts are poring over his report, How Teenagers Consume Media, which he wrote last week while on work experience at Morgan Stanley.

In it he laid out the world according to the teenager: a confusing place where the PC is a radio, the games console is a telephone, the mobile telephone is a stereo and text-message machine, the DVDs are pirate copies and no one uses Twitter.”

flip video camera

Video Camera contest!!! Good idea. If I win yes I will give mine to next winner. I have one!  The camera is very cool.

cnn michael jackson

I want to comment on the use of news and technology to report the death of Michael Jackson. I believe he was a hero of our modern music genre. I am disturbed by the constant reporting of his drug problems by CNN. I am not sure if you see the same reports in Europe or the United States. I believe the tributes to his music are ruined by the “on the street” reporting from in front of his home that is rented in California, US. Why do they need to use live reporting to discuss his drug addiction? I think this is an abuse of technology and does not add to the credibility of the reporting.

Michael Jackson had many issues and problems. His music however, did not have problems. As a music icon of our lifetime, I wish the news reports can lay to rest their obsession with his drug habits. After we heard of these drug habits when he died, wasn’t it enough? Who cares! I will buy his video and songs that he recorded in rehearsal just a few days before his death. Long live MJ.