Education « Nesmith's Notes

Five Technology Titans Support Education

Filed in Education | Responsibility | Technology

Melissa Jun Rowley describes how five industry giants are supporting education around the world.

To make digital more accessible, and to enable people to stay competitive in the global economy, a number of tech and media companies are working to level the online playing field all around the world. Here are five of them.

1. Microsoft Shapes the Future

2. Intel’s 10 Million Teachers

3. Comcast and the FCC Provide Internet Essentials

4. Time Warner Cable Connects a Million Minds

5. Hewlett Packard’s HP Catalyst Initiative

Article source: http://mashable.com/2011/11/04/tech-philanthropy-education/

CSR, responsibility

03Nov

Colorado Schools Forced to do With Less, Unless…

Filed in Economy | Education | Politics

Voters in Colorado overwhelmingly stayed away from the polls, I mean mail boxes, this election season and those who mailed a ballot certainly were not up for tax increases. The day after Colorado’s governor included additional cuts of $160 per K-12 student in his budget request to the state legislature’s joint budget committee, voters defeated almost all district increases, along with Proposition 103, the only state-wide tax issue on any ballot in the US.

Proposition 103 was neither perfect nor a long-term solution. It was criticized by groups on both sides of the tax issue. Some said it was anti-business, while others thought it over-taxed those least able to afford it. For some it was too big, and others did not like that it lasted only five years.

Perhaps the perfect got in the way of what Senator Rollie Heath proposed as a “band-aid” to help schools through the next few years, while Colorado legislators address the structural gap in Colorado’s tax code. I ask one simple, but difficult question, “Where does that leave Colorado schools now?”

Source: Education News Colorado

After peaking in 2009-2010, a year where Colorado ranked 40th in state funding for K-12, Colorado has cut funding by 2.6% in 2010-2011 and by an additional 4.6% in 2011-2012. Additional cuts are a certainty for the 2012-2013 school year.

Fees must continue to go up. More schools will be looking at going to shorter weeks. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that far and away the largest portion of a school district’s budget goes to compensation and benefits to teachers. With dollars per student going down, at some point compensation to teachers on a per student basis must also decline.

Unless…

Unless you and I do something about it. If you believe funding for schools in Colorado is too low and you can help, then I challenge you to do so. If you supported Proposition 103, then calculate the additional taxes you would be paying and give that to the school or schools of your choice. A friend told me they were voting against 103 because they wanted to directly fund our local schools. I hope they will and suggest you do the same. Another person told me they did not like the regressive nature of Prop 103. Well, they can make it as progressive as they like. Let’s join together, support our schools, and get Colorado moving forward.

17Oct

Singapore school promotes cloud education

Filed in Cloud computing | Education | Technology

[Summary of tips] Singapore Polytechnic (SP) has introduced the Singapore Polytechnic Electrical and Electronic Engineering Cloud Computing Center (SPE3C3) that will deliver modern cloud computing education and training in an operational data center environment. SP has worked with Cisco Systems Inc., Citrix Systems Inc. and NetApp Inc. to offer ……

1 • 2

Article source: http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800653350_499486_NT_ac439944.HTM?partnerref=nav_box

clouds, Technology

01Sep

Ole Miss

Filed in Education

29Aug

Eco-learning programme raises awareness among students

Filed in Education | Responsibility | Social | Sustainability

Posted on August 18, 2011, Thursday

GREEN IDEAS: (From left) Panasonic Malaysia’s managing director Jeff Lee, Maruo, deputy director-general of Ministry of Education, Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof and Matsui showcase the PGELP programme – a Panasonic’s corporate citizenship activity slated for helping to raise the environmental awareness of the younger generation, at the same time promoting Panasonic’s eco brand image through communicating its eco-activities at the ‘eco ideas’ factory.

KUCHING: Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd’s (Panasonic Malaysia) employees will take the role of teachers to students at school on environmental lessons, using specially-designed modules.

Undertaking the task of teaching 10,000 students by 2012, the group will bring these students to ‘eco ideas’ factory, which manufactures liquid-crystal display televisions (LCD TVs) in Shah Alam, Selangor.

Towards making the trip not only educational, but fun and interactive for the participants as well, the students will take part in contests and exhibitions where they stand a chance to win study trips to Paris.

To kick-start this challenge, Panasonic Malaysia launched the ‘Panasonic Global Eco Education Programme’ (PGELP), organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

Concurrently, the group also introduced its first ‘eco ideas’ factory called Panasonic AVC Networks Malaysia.

“The world is now facing a great turning point in shifting toward a sustainable society. We have no choice but to be eco conscious if we want to leave future generations a world they can live in. Amid such trends, Panasonic has decided to accelerate its environmental sustainability management further,” remarked Panasonic Corporation Japan’s associate director Masaru Maruo.

“Panasonic has dedicated itself to being a green innovation company with a global perspective. We make the environment central to all of our business activities. Panasonic aims to be the ‘Number One Green Innovation Company’ in the electronics industry by the year 2018, when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our company’s founding,” he continued.

In a first for Malaysia eco-education activities, Panasonic Malaysia would be collaborating with the Ministry of Education and Panasonic AVC Networks in the PGELP programme as a corporate citizenship activity, slated for helping to raise the environmental awareness of the younger generation; at the same time, promoting Panasonic’s eco brand image through communicating Panasonic eco-activities at the ‘eco ideas’ factory.

“Globally, PGELP was started in August 2010 by Panasonic Headquarters in Japan. It is aimed at elementary and middle school students around the world with a target of two million students by 2018. Today, a total of 212,000 students have taken part. In the Asia Pacific region, the programme was launched in 2010 in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and now in Malaysia,” said Maruo.

“The target is to engage 200,000 students in Asia Pacific by March 2013 and today 19,000 students have taken part,” he added.

Panasonic Malaysia’s ‘eco ideas’ factory was a model factory driven by Panasonic’s ‘eco ideas’ commitment.

“Panasonic AVC Networks ‘eco ideas’ factory will manufacture environmentally friendly LCD TVs. We will increase production efficiency by streamlining the core processes, recycling and installation of the latest manufacturing facilities,” said Panasonic AVC Networks’ managing director Kuniyuki Matsui.

“The Panasonic AVC Networks factory will continue to make a steady improvement to our environmental performance and promote environmental activities among employees and communities. So far, we have developed ‘eco ideas’ factories in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and now in Malaysia.

“By March 20123, Panasonic aims to establish one ‘eco ideas’ in each country where we have our manufacturing facilities,” he said.

Panasonic ‘eco ideas’ factory is set to promote factory greening and environment education events for local communities and kids.

“By collaborating with local communities such as governmental institutions and NGOs (non-governmental organisations), Panasonic’s aim is to establish a factory that interacts openly with the general public and conducts business in harmony with local communities,” added Matsui.

Article source: http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/08/18/eco-learning-programme-raises-awareness-among-students/

sustainability

19May

U of M accepts new group of teens to third annual Junior Entrepreneurs of …

Filed in Education | Management | Responsibility

May 19, 2011 – The University of Minnesota is hosting its third annual summer program designed to introduce high school students to the basics of entrepreneurship and launching a business. From June 13 through July 14 on the University campus, over 30 Minneapolis high school students will engage in active learning sessions covering business fundamentals and personal development topics alongside University faculty, recent graduates, and experienced local entrepreneurs.

jEM is a five-week camp intended to develop the students’ understanding of business fundamentals and entrepreneurship, with particular emphasis on problem-solving, teamwork, leadership, and communication skills. Other topics covered include ethics, social responsibility, and self-assessment. In addition to their hands-on learning experience, participants will also complete an ongoing service project: developing and maintaining a community garden at St. Olaf Community Campus, a senior living facility in North Minneapolis. This includes planning the layout of the garden, building compost bins and irrigation equipment, and planting and caring for all of the greenery.
The jEM program is jointly developed by the Office for Business Community Economic Development and the Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management, in conjunction with the City of Minneapolis’ STEP-UP program. Support also comes from Synico Staffing, Ajasa Technologies, Select Source International, the Minnesota Twins, Dairy Queen, Bachman’s Floral, Gardens of Eagan, Quality Bicycle Products, and Rani Engineering.
If you are a local entrepreneur interested in sharing the story of your business, sponsoring this program in any way, or donating needed items for the program, 1255989103 please contact the Office for Business Community Economic Development B-Tech Center at 612-624-3404, or email the jEM program at jem@umn.edu. You can also find more about jEM online at bced.umn.edu/JEM

Article source: http://www.prlog.org/11500252-of-accepts-new-group-of-teens-to-third-annual-junior-entrepreneurs-of-minnesota-program.html

CSR, responsibility

16Apr

Kids build green energy cars

Filed in Economy | Education | Kids | Sustainability

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – About 200 middle school students from across New Mexico competed in an annual green car building competition, using only hydrogen fuel cells and electric motors.

The Albuquerque Public School district hosted the 5th annual Schools Teaching About Resource Sustainability, or STARS, program at Wilson Middle School to teach the importance of finding sustainable sources of energy and reducing society’s dependence on oil.

More than 30 student teams built model cars using materials, such as styrofoam, wood, CDs and legos.

The technology is fairly simple, according to APS energy conservation coordinator Ron Rioux. A chemical reaction separates hydrogen from oxygen in water. The hydrogen then produces electricity to fuel the car.

“If we use the hydrogen, instead of pollution coming from our mufflers, it’s going to be water vapor which is just going to continue the water cycle,” said Mario Martinez, sixth grader at James H. Rodriguez Elementary School in Espanola.

With the increasing cost of gas, experts think hydrogen-fueled cars are the way to go.

“It’s reality right now,” said Rioux.

Major car companies are currently developing their hydrogen powered models, but these green-energy cars don’t come cheap. Toyota expects to release its model by 2015, priced around $50,000.

“You’re running on distilled water and solar panels that are producing the electricity, so how much is it over the life of the car is what you have to look at,” said Rioux. “It’s a matter of cost and making that cost come down.”

The entire program lasted a few weeks and cost about $1,500. PNM, Sandia Labs and Los Alamos Labs foot the bill for the projects.

Article source: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/education/kids-build-green-energy-cars

sustainability

13Jan

Hey Congress, Wake Up and Pass the DREAM Act

Filed in Economy | Education | Politics | Responsibility

Yes, comprehensive immigration reform would be a better way to go. Reform, which would provide a way for illegal immigrants living in the US today to move toward a consistent and legal status is very important. And, ideally, this would be written in a way that would put those who have acted legally at the front of the line, ahead of those who have acted illegally. Yet, this is not going to happen anytime soon.

Therefore, it is up to the Congress of the United States to take action where common ground across both parties can be found. Providing a way for the youth of America, who ended up here illegally, through no action of their own, to work toward and gain legal US permanent residency must be close to the top of this list. The DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill written nine years ago, does this by offering those who go to a four-year college college for two years or serve for two years in our military the opportunity to gain conditional US permanent residency. This applies to about 65,000 kids each year. We have invested in educating these youth and they have invested in our country and our culture. The act has the support of the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the US Chamber of Commerce. It is good for business, good for our military, good for our country, and a good incentive for those willing to work and earn their way toward him permanent legal status in the United States. Continue Reading

30Sep

Help Pass Ballot Measure 3A

Filed in Colorado | Education

Ok, so you are on board with the need to increase funding for the Boulder Valley School District and want to know what you can do. Here are several ways for you to help get 3A passed:
I.   Endorse the measure
     send an email to Isupport3a@votechildrenfirst.org stating your support
     participate in an endorsement ad running in the Daily Camera on Oct. 10th

II. Display or Distribute Posters / Yard Signs
Put a poster in the window of your business or the business of a friend or associate. Put a sign in your yard and another one in your neighbor’s yard. You can get these from a number of locations around Boulder, including the Community Foundation offices on the corner of Spruce and Broadway.

III. Write a Letter to the Editor
Get your name in print by writing a letter to one or more of the editors of these local papers.

Daily Camera

Timely topics of local interest are given first preference.

Website: www.dailycamera.com

Guidelines:

· 300-word limit

· Name, full address and daytime phone required (not published); no anonymous letters

· Each writer is limited to one letter a month

· Send letters to openforum@dailycamera.com

If your letter is not printed in the newspaper, the Daily Camera will publish all of the appropriate letters online. Only one letter per sender, per day, will be posted online. Respond to comments to letters published online to keep discussion about 3A positive.

Colorado Hometown Weekly

Serving Lafayette/Louisville/Superior/Erie papers

Website: www.coloradohometownweekly.com

Guidelines:

300-word limit
Name, address and phone number required (not published)
Send letters to opinions@coloradohometown.com

The Mountain Ear

Serving Nederland and the mountain communities

Website: www.themountainear.com

Boulder County Business Report

Website: http://www.bcbr.com/

Colorado Daily

Independent paper with core readership of 18-to-35-year-olds

Website: www.coloradodaily.com

Guidelines:

If you have a letter or guest opinion piece, contact Matt Sebastian, at 303-473-1111
Provide name, address, and phone number (not published)
Submit letters to letters@coloradodaily.com

Boulder Weekly

Submit letters to editorial@boulderweekly.com

27Sep

Vote YES for 3A. Vote YES for Our Children.

Filed in Colorado | Education | Kids

Support K-12 Education in Boulder Valley

Boulder Valley School District needs your help in passing Ballot Measure 3A. The Colorado Legislature cut over $260 million from education in their latest budget. The impact for BVSD during the 2011-2012 school year is estimated to be a reduction of $11.7 million when compared to the 2009-2010 school year. The 2010-2011 budgets will come out somewhere in between these two, thanks to one time funding from Federal emergency funds and reductions in the administrative costs to run the district.

Colorado continues to fund education at levels approaching the lowest in the nation. Before the latest recession, in 2007, Colorado spent $1,500 per student below the national average and ranked 40th in the nation in public funding for K-12. Today, spending is even less, with Colorado falling to 42nd in public funding for K-12. With economists predicting Colorado’s budget shortfalls to continue, we are looking to go even lower. 42nd and falling! According to the Denver Post, in 2007 Colorado ranked 49th and was stingier than all but Florida, spending only $34.35 of every $1,000 in personal income to educate our children. This compares to a national average of $43.02. We should do better.

Last spring, each school in the BVSD gathered administrators, educators and parents together to deal with the budget shortfall. Likely, many of you attended one or more of these meetings. If you did, you may have seen what we saw in our budget meetings. There were a few things that could be cut and would save a few dollars. Some of these may have been budgeted but unspent in the latest budget or even over the past few years. Others were nice to have programs and activities that would not really be missed. But after 2, 3, 4% in cuts, reductions impacted the classroom and the learning experience. We’ve already made the easy, painless cuts and any additional cuts will be to our kids’ educations. We should do better.

What has BVSD done to address this budget issue? The central district administrative expenses were cut by 13.5% while school budgets were cut by 3.75%. Some of this 3.75% was reinstated using the federal emergency funds mentioned earlier. Some people will argue more can be done to cut the district’s overhead and if they are correct, it should be done. However, hoping for or even getting additional cuts in overhead are not going to be enough to fix the problem.

This mill levy would be used in three primary areas. The first is to restore the classroom funding reduction from the state. $12 million would be allocated to replace funds lost from the state. Superintendent King has vowed none of this money would be used to replace central administrative spending cuts. $5.5 million would be used for teacher and staff compensation to hire and retain the best teachers in the region. $5 million will be invested in early childhood education programs.

You can read more about the ballot measure, why we need it, what it does and find ways to help support its passage at Vote Children First.

Read the text of ballot measure 3A and see it as it appears on the Boulder County ballot – go to page 3.

Endorsements:

Investing in the economy through education By Helayne Jones and David Harwood

Impact on Education

The Community Foundation of Boulder County

Boulder Chamber of Commerce

Dennis Berry’s Letter to the Camera’s Editor

Jane McConnell’s Letter to the Camera’s Editor

Education

23Aug

Building a Better Teacher – NYTimes.com

Filed in Economy | Education

Even if competition could coax better performance, would it be enough? Consider a bar graph presented at a recent talk on teaching, displaying the number of Americans in different professions. The shortest bar, all the way on the right, represented architects: 180,000. Farther over, slightly higher, came psychologists 185,000 and then lawyers 952,000, followed by engineers 1.3 million and waiters 1.8 million. On the left side of the graph, the top three: janitors, maids and household cleaners 3.3 million; secretaries 3.6 million; and, finally, teachers 3.7 million.

Yes, the numbers are staggering and money alone can’t do it. Can we afford not to do what we can to drive better performance?

via Building a Better Teacher – NYTimes.com.

05Mar

CU Ranks at top of Sustainable Campus list

Filed in Education | Efficiency | Environment

The Daily Camera reports the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus has received another green designation. The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors gave CU the highest grade awarded on its 2010 report card. And for the second year in a row, CU was named an Overall College Sustainability Leader.

CU this fall was ranked by Sierra magazine as the No. 1 green university in the nation.

The rating was based on an independent review by the Sustainable Endowments Institute and responses by CU-Boulder officials to 120 questions assessing sustainability in the categories of administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, transportation, student involvement, endowment transparency and shareholder engagement and investment priorities.

Colorado, Efficiency, Environment

25Sep

Ole Miss and SmartSynch Report Electricity Usage with…Twitter

Filed in Education | Efficiency | Energy | Environment | smartgrid

The University of Mississippi is using data from SmartSynch’s smart meters and passing it to dashboards for campus operations personnel to monitor, analyze and act via RSS and social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. As a part of the university’s Red, Blue and Green initiative, students and faculty can register with the school’s Green Initiative website and get real time view and comparisons of energy usage around the campus.

Education, Efficiency, electricity, Energy, Environment, smartgrid, South

23Oct

Generation-WE

This video is worth a few minutes of your time.

The Generation WE movement is the largest generation in history, they are independant – politically, socially, and philosophically – and are spearheading a period of sweeping change in America and around the world. Check it out.

Energy, Environment

03May

Thank you, Robyn.

Filed in Colorado | Education | Environment

Every now and again, you meet someone and immediately know they are making a real difference for a lot of people. Robyn Johnson is such a person. For much of the last ten years, she has provided many Colorado teens with guidance, education and experiences they would likely have never seen without her hard work and determination.

She is now leaving her position as co-executive director of the Colorado Youth Program to pursue her career in counseling. But we all know that the organization is stronger and better able to continue the goal of connecting kids with their community and the environment because of her leadership.

Thank you for all that you have done, Robyn!

Here are a few excerpts from a letter I received from Robyn yesterday.

My final day at Colorado Youth Program has arrived!

I joined the Colorado Youth Program staff in 1999 as a part-time program coordinator. I had found my ideal job at an organization that combined working with underserved youth and teaching about the environment and volunteerism, all while playing in the outdoors.

While I am now leaving CYP to pursue a career in counseling, I will stay connected to the Colorado Youth Program as a volunteer and donor. The Colorado Youth Program occupies a unique space in our community, making summer camp an affordable option for all families and providing free after-school and weekend programs that teach children to understand, respect and enjoy nature.My time at the Colorado Youth Program has been beautiful. I have worked with delightful children and teens, loving parents and families, visionary community members and leaders, dedicated volunteers and staff…I have enjoyed working with each and every one of you!

Environment

13Mar

What am I doing here?

Filed in Colorado | Education

For the second year in a row, Forbes names Boulder ‘smartest city’ in U.S. While a more accurate name would be the most educated city in the U.S., I can easily support the argument that the place is full of people with impressive intellectual power. Come visit us and see.

Colorado, Education

22Feb

Playtime improves health and education for 10 million people

Filed in Education | Environment | Technology

PlayPumps International has a goal to help 10 million people in 4,000 African villages by 2010 by installing merry-go-rounds in the villages. What’s the catch?

Each turn pumps clean drinking water into a tank increasing the health of everyone in the village. The time and effort for water carrying, mostly done by young girls, is greatly reduced, allowing for more time in school. Talk about your good ideas…

21Nov

How to Travel the World–and Get a Personal Assistant–for Free

Filed in Economy | Education

Tim Ferris asks you to consider these questions as he recommends helping to make the world a better place through access to books in LitLiberation: How to Travel the World–and Get a Personal Assistant–for Free
Envision the 5 books that have most impacted your life. How would your life be different if you’d never read them?

Where might you be today if you’d never met the most influential teachers in your life, past and present?

How would your options be affected if you could never again read a book, menu, or sign?

Check out LitLiberation: Scalable Education Revolution

Technorati Profile

07Mar

Why is change so hard?

Filed in Education | Environment | History | Technology

Why is it so hard to change, even when the evidence for doing so is overwhelming? This article from Scientific American, answers the question Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day?

It is interesting, if not surprising, that these measurements were passed down from other uses and definitions that date to the earliest points in civilization. Pardon the pun… Time and time again we’ve had the opportunity to change the system to one which would be much more comfortable, that is to use a decimal system.

And of course we could ask the same about the US sticking to our short history of the English measurement system when our British brethren were able to kick that habit quite easily.

change, Education, Management

22Feb

Building the 21st century education system

Filed in Creativity | Education | Science | Technology

Are our schools prepared for the challenges our kids will face this century?Â This decade?Â Alvin Toffler suggest our schools were built to prepare the rural American child for the industrial revolution.Â Get to work on time, enjoy repetitive tasks and essentially fall in line.Â Agree?Â Perhaps we have advanced somewhat since the late 1800′s and this seems all too familar to much of the work I recall from oh so many years ago.

Today, when I see our dedicated, hardworking teachers struggle to escape from the bonds of top down driven curriculm, I think there must be a better way.Â Â Here is one alternative.
Future School
You’re talking about customizing the educational experience.

“Exactly. Any form of diversity that we can introduce into the schools is a plus. Today, we have a big controversy about all the charter schools that are springing up. The school system people hate them because they’re taking money from them. I say we should radically multiply charter schools, because they begin to provide a degree of diversity in the system that has not been present. Diversify the system.

In our book Revolutionary Wealth, we play a game. We say, imagine that you’re a policeman, and you’ve got a radar gun, and you’re measuring the speed of cars going by. Each car represents an American institution. The first one car is going by at 100 miles an hour. It’s called business. Businesses have to change at 100 miles an hour because if they don’t, they die. Competition just puts them out of the game. So they’re traveling very, very fast. Then comes another car. And it’s going at 10 miles an hour. That’s the public education system. Schools are supposed to be preparing kids for the business world of tomorrow, to take jobs, to make our economy functional. The schools are changing, if anything, at 10 miles an hour. So, how do you match an economy that requires 100 miles an hour with an institution like public education? A system that changes, if at all, at 10 miles an hour?”

Creativity, Education, Politics