Starting a New Year

This semester, I am teaching three courses (with two sections of the science writing course), so I have been quite busy setting courses up and introducing students to the Moodle course pages and the social media tools I use in education. Although I have a small business in educational support (mentioned in other posts), I am employed by Thompson Rivers University to teach these particular courses this semester. It is important for me to state clearly that the opinions and claims made in this blog are my own and should not be taken to reflect TRU policies at any organizational level.

In the courses I am teaching, I have assigned each student to establish and contribute to a blog.Students in the science writing course have been encouraged to create a blog on some aspect of science they are interested in.  Students in the professional and business writing courses have been encouraged to create the sort of blog that could support some serious academic, professional, or business endeavor. Some of the students are quite eager to begin blogging, while others are unsure of a topic to settle on. Once every student is on board with this project, I should have about 150 new blogs to add to my reading list. I hope I can keep up with them!

Along with writing in their own blogs, I am encouraging students to read each other's blogs. I intend to use this format as a forum where students can practice the skills of dialogue (reading, commenting, quoting, linking, and so forth) in the blogosphere. Although it is not a requirement for the courses, I hope that my students will get readers from the 'outside'. Even a few scholars or professionals who would interact with the students would significantly raise the self-image of these new writers. Future entries on this blog will likely link to many of these new student blogs.

The Importance of Clean Water in Education

The title of this blog may take readers back a bit, but today is "Blog Action Day" in the blogosphere. The chosen topic for this day is the importance of clean drinking water.
In brief, the crisis this concentration of writing is supposed to address is as follows (taken from the Blog Action Day entry for 14 October 2010):

The problem of scarce clean water:
Nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean water, which causes a litany of struggles, diseases and even death.

• 40 Billion Hours: African women walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 18 kilograms to gather water, which is usually still not safe to drink.
• 38,000 Children a Week: Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions.
• Wars Over Water: Many scholars attribute the conflict in Darfur at least in part to lack of access to water. A report commissioned by the UN found that in the 21st century, water scarcity will become one of the leading causes of conflict in Africa.
• A Human Right: In July, to address the water crisis, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation a human right.... But we are far from implementing solutions to secure basic access to safe drinking water.

In lands of abundance (though there are many "third-world-regions" within even the most affluent countries), we know the importance of education in the development of civilized society (This blog has addressed this matter elsewhere--in fact almost 'every-elsewhere'!), but we don't often stress the need to keep people alive long enough to educate them. I think the figure, 38,000 children a week, is particularly important: This is the number of those who are deprived of an education, simply because they lack conditions that would allow them to live long enough to attend school. This situation must be addressed.
If these were our own children, we would address the situation. In fact, if these were our own children we would address the situation, even to the point of whatever violence it took to get the matter noticed. I am not at all advocating violence, but I can understand the plight of those (whose children are dying) who turn to such violence. The path to a proper global enlightenment (maybe we aren't as educated and civilized as we thought) seems clear, we must take ownership of the problem of unsafe drinking water--at least enough to allocate serious funds to solve the problem. I would imagine that if we put even a tenth of the money spent on fighting terrorists into the provision of safe wells and filtration systems for villages that currently have no source of water or only unsafe sources we could provide the world with a chance for its young people to grow up healthy. There are many organizations that have addressed the water issue in their most recent blogs (linked from the main page at Blog Action Day above), but we also need the actions of readers everywhere. The first step is to sign the Petition 
Further steps include blogging about the topic, writing/calling legislators in your country, watching for information about water in the media, and talking with your family and friends to help others understand the situation.
I want people to live long enough to receive the education I believe everyone is entitled to. I believe that addressing the problem of unsafe drinking water is a crucial step in the process.

Waving at Education

I know, I know... It's been a very long time since I have written in this blog (but it's probably been almost as long since anyone has checked for new posts, so I may not have upset too many people (smile).

Today, I have something to write about that has been perking on the back burner for some time. When the news came out a couple weeks ago that Google Wave was publicly available, I wanted to write immediately about the event. I think this is great news, and I would like to let everyone know how much fun it is and how fruitful communication seems on Google Wave.

I just finished (re)watching a very good introduction to Google Wave by Gina Trapani. She carefully balances her enthusiasm for the application with acknowledgment of some of its difficulties. She also balances a strong desire to motivate people to use Google Wave with a clear articulation of the very best situations to use the application in. I won't try to summarize her work here. I would encourage readers to pursue viewing her video as they have time (but soon, please!). For readers (whoever you are) who don't have time for a 15 minute presentation like Gina's and you have an account with Diigo, you may well prefer to browse my links on Google Wave.

I am presently helping 6 students make their way through a course on business writing. Teams of two of them each are exploring the use of Web 2.0 tools in business. So, two are exploring Diigo, two, Google Docs, and two, Skype. That leaves Google Wave for me to explore and share with the class. Sessions (both face-to-face in the lab and online (using the Web 2.0 apps) have been exciting for me (and I think, for the class as well). Certainly when students consistently exceed my expectations in their work, both in terms of quality and quantity, I am a happy teacher. I'm sure this course will be over all too quickly, and I will have to seek out new ways to engage students in their education.

Pre-Consulting

As part of the service offered by Paradox, there is a free, first-time consultation session. In this session, I meet with the prospective client to see what interests, ambitions, and resources clients have with regard to pursuing an online education in Williams Lake. I ask several standard questions to get a rough idea of these things, such as:

1. What is your current education level?
2. What is the area of study (discipline) you would like to pursue?
   
3. What are your ultimate reasons for continuing your education?
4. What educational goals do you have?
5. Do you know others who are interested in pursuing the same or similar goals?

As the answers to these questions are discussed, there are several other factors that may come into the discussion. These are often seen to be constraints that prevent clients from achieving their educational goals. Among these are:

• schedule (work, family, etc.),
• finances (income, debt, etc.),
• academic skills (past performance, computer literacy, etc.),
• logistics (personal study space, equipment, etc.), and
  
• personal constraints (fear of technology, lack of motivation, etc.).

In the consideration of these potential blocks, clients often become discouraged, seeing their goals receding before their very eyes, as it were! Nevertheless, these are the exact obstacles to education that Paradox was created to address. For that reason, we offer flexibility to work around logistic, schedule and financial constraints, plus individually designed education plans to address constraints posed by such things academic history, computer skills, and other factors.

While it is very helpful for clients to consider such issues prior to their free consultation with Paradox, it is crucial that they not let these deliberations discourage them from pursuing their educational goals. In the Williams Lake area, students who need to achieve academic success in online education will find an ally in Paradox Educational Services.

• Reflect on these things;
• Plan for your future;
• Contact us now--the new semester begins soon!