LanguageCorps Asia blog

Thai Education An Escalating Problem

Thai Education An Escalating Problem.

You might think that three years in kindergarten, 12 years in school and four years in university would teach all the basics needed for daily life. If not, then your parents should have helped bridge any missing gaps in your knowledge. Apparently however, neither the education system nor many parents teach children about some important manners. It might sound like a trivial thing, but for a society in which department stores are everyone's second home, escalator etiquette is important.

According to my parents (blame them if I'm wrong, not me), Bangkok's first escalator was installed at the Thai Daimaru Department Store, back when my mother was still a primary school student. It was a big thing at the time and lots of people went there just to try the escalator. Almost 50 years later however, many still aren't even aware that there's such thing as escalator etiquette. You just stand on one step, wait until it goes to the end, and leave. Simple, right?

From my own experience, a lot of problems can occur during that 30 second ride. I can't remember where I learned this, but I've always known that on escalators, you stand on the right and walk on the left. I've also learned that many people don't know or simply don't care about basic escalator etiquette; that couples will stand side by side, blocking two of the escalator's invisible "lanes".

Groups of friends crowd the steps and refuse to break up their cluster, so everyone behind them has to wait.

Another thing, which is more common sense than etiquette, is when you reach the end of the escalator, you don't stop. In real life, however, a lot of people go blank and stand at the end of the escalator, causing a domino effect behind them. As crazy as this sounds, there are actually a lot of "reasons" for people to stand still when the ride on the escalator ends. One example, is when I was going down the escalator at a BTS station and the national anthem began to play. A man in front of me, showing his devoted love for his nation, stood still from the start to the end of the song. Yes, when that song plays, you should stand still, but at the end of a moving, jam-packed escalator?

Some children, left unattended by their parents, also use escalators at department stores as treadmills, running in the opposite direction to the one the escalator is going. This one goes up? Well, I want to go down and see if I can make it to the other side! And of course, along the way, these little sprinters bump into innocent people standing on the narrow, moving steep steps. One push is all it takes for someone to lose balance and fall all the way down.

There are also other basics that everyone should know, such as strollers are not allowed on escalators. My own son almost tumbled out of his once, and that's how I learned.

Don't wear miniskirts if you know you will be using an escalator, because the person behind might not want a sneak preview of your yellowing underwear. Please don't grope your boyfriend/girlfriend because everyone else on the escalator will be forced to either watch you or jump off.

It would be ridiculous for schools to have escalator etiquette courses, considering most don't have an escalator for demonstration. However, since so many children grow up in malls these days, it would be good if their parents would teach them how to use an escalator properly.

That's if the teachers and parents are even aware of escalator etiquette themselves.

Read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/280796/an-escalating-problem

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

Young Migrants Changing Face of Chinese Cities

Young migrants changing face of Chinese cities.

Li Biying's hands tell you she's left the farm behind. Her long, tapered fingernails pinch apart pieces of gauzy fabric at the underwear factory that is her ticket out of rural poverty. They wouldn't last long in the fields where her parents coax corn, potatoes and greens from terraced plots.

The 20-year-old Li has no plans to go home. Unlike older migrant workers who came to earn money for a few years before returning to their villages, the new generation intends to stay, envisioning a life in the neon-splashed cities.

For China, the shift presents a challenge: How to integrate the new arrivals into already overburdened cities. An agrarian society for thousands of years, China is on the cusp of having more urban than rural dwellers for the first time.

“People my age think, what would I do in the countryside? I don't know how to do anything!” Li says in the simple dorm room she shares with two other women in Dongguan, a southern coastal boomtown near Hong Kong. Frilly underwear is draped in a corner and hair clips hold back makeshift privacy curtains on the bunks.

“I remember once we were growing wheat at home, it had just sprouted and it looked just like grass. I couldn't tell the difference so I pulled it out,» she recalls. “My mom was so mad, she said, how could anyone not tell the difference between wheat and grass?” Li started working in factories at 14, dropping out of seventh grade to help support her parents, sister and brother.

In a long concrete room above an Internet cafe, she and about 60 others toil under bare fluorescent tubes, occasionally calling out to each other in their singsong Sichuanese dialect above the din of clacking, thumping sewing machines.

She sews lining into unfinished bra cups, earning 20 cents for every 12 pieces. In a good month, she'll make about $225 — that's roughly 14,000 pieces sewn during shifts that begin at 8 a.m. and don't end until 10:30 p.m.

The workers, almost all women, get one day off a month, the day after payday so they can send money home. After that, they might browse at a nearby department store.

Of an estimated 150 million migrant workers in China, 90 million are under 30 and they are driving one of the most significant demographic shifts in the country's history.

The government forecasts that China will be majority urban by 2015. About 47 percent of Chinese, or 622 million people, were living in cities at the end of 2009, up from 36 percent in 2000. Some estimate the number could rise to 1 billion by 2030.

“Traditional migrants were like migratory birds, and felt like both a farmer and a worker,» says a report released last year by China's official trade union umbrella group.

“They identified themselves as visitors in the city.» A 2008 survey of migrants under 30 found that 56 percent planned to buy a house and settle in the city where they worked, according to the China Youth Research Center.

“They are more accustomed to urban life than rural life,”the trade union report says. “They've never been hungry, never felt the cold and never had to worry about food or clothing. They can't 'eat bitterness' like their parents.» In Dongguan, older migrants stick out with their sun-beaten faces and shabby work clothes, toting their possessions in fertilizer bags and plastic buckets hung on bamboo poles.

In contrast, it's hard to distinguish young migrants from their urban counterparts. Li sports short black shorts over black tights, working the pedal of her sewing machine with high-heeled boots trimmed with faux fur. She has two red studs in one ear, cuffs with thin chains on the other. A silky scarf peeks out from under the collar of her puffy red coat, which keeps her warm in the unheated factory.

“My parents say I've been working in the city for so long that I don't look like a country girl anymore,» Li says.

“I tell them, people learn and they change. You want to become a better person and keep moving forward.» China's cities still treat migrants as second-class citizens. Under the country's “hukou» registration system, for example, migrants are considered residents of their rural hometowns. So as “visitors» to a city, they often face higher medical and school fees and can be cut off from subsidized housing and other social services.

“Society should give equal opportunities to people of all levels,» says Wang Chunguang, who studies migrant issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Bill Clinton became the U.S. president; a Chinese migrant worker should also be able to become a top cadre, a president, a government minister. It shouldn't be that the children of migrant workers can only become migrant workers.» The alternative, he warns, is growing social pressure from a marginalized class of poorly-educated, poorly-paid workers unwilling or unable to return to the countryside.

“Americans talk about the American dream ... China needs the Chinese dream,” he says.

Already, last year saw a wave of large-scale strikes over pay and working conditions, a sign of an increasingly confident labor force. But wide-scale upheaval is unlikely as long as the migrants continue to make money and feel they have opportunities, predicts Leslie T. Chang, author of “Factory Girls,» which examines the lives of young workers.

“Some of these people will become middle class and some will become a new urban working class,” she says. “But they are very different from the traditional working class associated with state-owned enterprises. This is a new working class that’s very independent, very mobile and really on its own.» It's impossible to say exactly how many migrants have settled in cities, because of their transient nature and still shallow urban roots. But statistics show growing numbers in the cities, coupled with new migrants leaving the countryside every year.

The migrants themselves hesitate to say they'll never return to the farm; without job security, their small plots of land are their only insurance.

Still, it's clear China's villages are slowly dying.

When Li returned home to her misty mountain village for the recent Lunar New Year holiday, there were fewer children setting off firecrackers and fewer dots of light from houses on the adjacent hillside.

One by one, families in southwest China's Sanxing village are moving to the nearby town or even further away, leaving plots covered in weeds between tended patches of vegetables.

“Over there, there's four empty houses, there's a lot of them like that,» Li says, gesturing past the dirt road next to her family’s three-story brick home, which was built with her and her siblings' factory earnings. “The ones who came back for the holiday, they're living in town, they don'’t come back to the village anymore.” Li makes the trip to Sanxing once a year at most. After a two-day bus trip, it's a 40-minute ride on the back of a motorcycle along a deeply rutted dirt path. When it rains, the only way to get to the clutch of 26 families is on foot. Here, her family farms on less than 1/6th of an acre (1/15th of a hectare), not enough to feed even themselves.

“Of course I want the young folks to stay in the city, it's better there. It's hard living in the country,” says 56-year-old Li Weishu, her father, noting that only grandparents and small children remain. “We don't have much land, this is a mountain area and there isn't enough to live on.” A visitor might see rustic charm in the sturdy hand-knitted clogs worn by elderly women, green fields of winter vegetables, homemade salt pork hanging from kitchen rafters and cooking stoves fired by dried corn husks.

“No,” Li says, a bite in her voice. “This place is backward and poor.” She has lost her taste for the spicy food of her hometown and prefers the milder flavors of southern Chinese cooking.

Sometimes she slips into Mandarin instead of her native dialect, prompting her mother to question when she will forget her own parents.

At the factory, Li's day clicks ahead with every unit of 12 pieces. She beams as factory manager Miao Linglin hands her a thin stack of 100 yuan notes. Most of it will be sent home, and after living expenses, there's not much left for herself.

Anyway, there's no time for cruising Dongguan's noisy shopping arcades. After a 14-hour work day the women rush back to the dorm to get hot water that's only available for 20 minutes a day.

Li, parked on her stool in front of the sewing machine, dreams of a future in which she owns a home in the city and has a stable job working only eight hours a day.

“Even though I'm from the country, I want to improve my life and be like people in the city,” Li says. “Everyone yearns for that kind of life. I yearn for that kind of life too.”

Read more at http://arabnews.com/world/article316234.ece

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

eSchool Reading, Writing and Technology

Reading, Writing and Technology?

1) First of all, I understand that you have just won an impressive award. Tell us about it.

eSchool News, a publication network of eSchool Media Inc., identifies annually recipients of the Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award, which is award to the top 10 superintendents from coast to coast who best exemplify outstanding leadership and vision in using technology to advance their district’s educational goals.

Dennis Pierce, editor of eSchool News, said “research shows that technology can facilitate better teaching and learning, but only when used effectively.” And that starts at the very top, with strong school district leadership. If you start with a clear vision for how to implement technology wisely, and you make sure your staff are well trained and supported, and you seek to transform instructional practices to leverage technology’s full potential, then technology really can empower education. And that’s what the winners of our annual Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards are doing,” he added.

2) What are YOUR priorities in terms of technology?

We determine what it is our students need to know and do when they graduate. We then select technologies that will help us achieve our end results. We always keep the end in mind.

Therefore, with this in mind, we have six basic priorities when it comes to technology:

(1) Implement technology that helps teachers be more efficient in the classroom.

(2) Implement technology that helps teachers become more effective teachers.

(3) Implement technology that will allow teachers to teach global skills and knowledge that otherwise could not be taught.

(4) Implement technology that contributes to a students technological literacy such that such that they become efficient and effective users.

(5) Use technology to increase the efficiency of the district’s operations.

(6) Use technology to allow teachers professional learning 24/7.

3) I have to admit I do not know what this cloud computing is all about. Do you use it and what is your evaluation of it?

Oxford does employ the use of both private and public cloud computing. On the private side of cloud computing, we want to own all our content and curriculum but make it available anywhere anytime. Security and safety of all our employees and students is always an issue and therefore we feel that different forms of clouds make sense in different situations.

4) Hardware vs. Software – what are the pros and cons?

You must first determine what the learning outcomes are and what instructional strategies need to be implemented to maximize the productivity of learning. We always design with the end in mind. We think about process first, then application/software, and then we select the appropriate hardware. We never start out with the hardware, we always end with it.

5) How does a Superintendent go about evaluating an ” app ” ? and how do you decide on what to purchase?

Does it make me more productive? Can I not live without it? Does it allow me to learn or teach more efficiently? The answers to these questions determine whether an app is downloaded or not.

6) Who assists in these decisions? Do you have a team?

Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives & Technology, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, and Assistant Superintendent of Business & Operations.

For the most part, these positions are driving the decision making process. However, building principals and teachers are also involved. In general, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum is deciding what applications are needed. The Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives & Technology is approving that the particular applications will work in our environment, and the Assistant Superintendent of Business is deciding the best vehicle through which to purchase the items.

7) It seems that every day I get an e-mail from some company promoting their product- How does one make sense of it all?

We never allow the latest technology to drive what we do. Instead, we determine what are the essential skills and knowledge all students need to compete in the global market. We then research the most productive ways to teach and have our students learning these skills and master the knowledge. However, it is important and imperative, that we also stays up with what is happening in the evolution of technology and software. This is true from a instructional, curriculum and operational perspective.

8) Ipod, Ipads, laptops, and hand held phones—do you have any priority list?

Many. It all depends upon what we are trying to accomplish. Everyone wants to talk about hardware but that is really the last question that is answered.

9) What have I neglected to ask?

Michael, I can probably come up with an additional question/s if I give this more thought. One of the most frequent questions I heard from my colleagues is, “how do you get all teachers to effectively use the technology and software you purchased?”

My answer is simple, the school district determines curriculum and the instructional strategies not teachers. You give teachers a reasonable timeline in which to implement the effective use of the classroom technology and software a district has chosen to implement. The district is responsible for providing the professional learning that allows teachers to decide when they want to learn how to effectively use technology to improve teaching and learning, where they will learn it, when they will learn it, and allow them to determine how they will learn it. It is up to the teacher to access the professional learning. The accountability comes through the teacher appraisal process in which they are held accountable for effective implementation and instructional use of the technology.

10) What is the most important thing to teach?

Technology and software are only tools. We evaluate the use and implementation of technology and software in how it will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of teachers, how it will increase the productivity of learning, how it will contribute to the acquisition of new global skills and knowledge that otherwise could not be taught, how it will increase the technological literacy of our students, how it will increase district operations, how it will support professional learning for all teachers, administrators and support staff. NOTE: We no longer provide professional development only professional learning.

Read more at http://educationviews.org/2012/02/13/an-interview-with-william-skilling-reading-writing-and-technology/

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

Elementary School Students Go Global With Technology

Elementary School Students Go Global With Technology

With the help of modern technology, students at the Charlotte Jewish Day School are talking to and learning from kids all over the world.

Elementary students in Charlotte are going “global” with a technology initiative that links them to students from around the world.

Once a week, students at the Charlotte Jewish Day School meet with teacher Rachel Moore and connect with students in classrooms worldwide in a program from kindergarten to fifth grade aimed to connect with the wider world.

Through video and an online ePal program, they’re able to discuss pressing issues, brainstorm solutions and delve into the lives of their counterparts, writes Caroline McMillan at the Charlotte Observer.

From studying weather with French peers to natural disasters with students in New Zealand, the classes are taught in more than half a million classrooms in more than 200 countries and territories across the world.

Bonds outside of subject areas also grow out of the scheme. One fifth-grade boy spoke about his friendship with another student he’s never met:

“He likes to play soccer, just like me,” he said.

“And he’s talkative, too.”

A 21st century classroom is an important goal for Principal Mariashi Groner. And the results of the global classroom has been greater than she expected.

“You’ll read about global classrooms in middle schools and high schools, but at an elementary level it takes a different kind of tone.

“It really is special, and I believe it’s going to get more impressive and detailed as (Moore) explores with the students.”

The key for the program relies on an enthusiastic teacher, it seems. Moore has been at the school for almost a decade and Groner says that it’s her leadership and willingness to format each class based on the students’ interests that got her the role.

“Children today, they don’t have a lot of power over what they’re going to do,” said Groner.

“They’re over-programmed, they’re told what to study, what to do. … In this classroom, (the students) really are in charge of their learning.”

Read more at http://www.educationnews.org/technology/elementary-school-students-go-global-with-technology/

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

Taiwan Proposes New Education Cooperation with RI

Taiwan proposes new education cooperation with RI.

Jakarta  (ANTARA News) - Taiwan proposes a new cooperation on the educational sector with the Indonesian government under a general Memorandum of Understanding. The educational theme is covered by the MoU along with other target sectors such as labor and the economy.

“The proposal is now in the hands of the Foreign Affairs Ministry for further study. We hope the proposal can be approved and signed soon,” Taiwan`s Minister of Education, Ching-Ji Wu, said here on Tuesday during his visit to ANTARA News Agency.

In educational sector, minister Wu said, Taiwan proposes a student and lecturers exchange with Indonesia scholarships for Indonesian students. He added that Taiwan was also proposing a double degree program for Indonesian students.

“We propose this cooperation to boost business to business and people to people contact between the two countries. I hope in the future the cooperation will improve,” he added. Indonesians are now the third largest group of foreigners studying in Taiwan after Vietnamese and Malaysians, a Taiwanese official said.

“Most of the Indonesian students are majoring in engineering, technology and business management at some of Taiwan`s finest universities,” the director of Elite Study In Taiwan (ESIT) program, Tsang-yao Chen, said here Tuesday.

Indonesian students studying in Taiwan in 2009 reached 2,275 consisting of 1,392 degree-seeking students, six exchange students and 877 Chinese language students, while some 55 university-level education cooperation agreements had been signed from 2000 to 2009 between Taiwan and Indonesia, which indicated the extent of the two countries` collaboration in the educational field.

The goal of Taiwan`s international education scholarship program was to increase exchanges of people for better cultural understanding between countries to build a solid ground in relationship, especially with Indonesia. Taiwan`s higher education and training ranked fifth and fourth in the world by WEF (World Economy Forum) in 2006 and 2007, in the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 by WEF, wile Taiwan is 13th among the 134 countries ranked.

In 2009, the number of research publications in Taiwan ranked 17th in SCI (Science Citations), 15th in SSCI (Social Science Citation Index) and 10th in EI (Elsevier Engineering Index).

Read more at http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1279605147/taiwan-proposes-new-education-cooperation-with-ri

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

China Universities Institutes Colleges List

China Universities, Institutes and Colleges.

List of Universities Directly Administrated by China Ministry of Education

Peking University (Beijing University)

Renmin University of China

Tsinghua University (Qinghua University)

University of Science and Technology Beijing

Beijing University of Chemistry Technology

Beijing Normal University

Beijing Language and Culture University

Beijing Foreign Studies University

Beijing Jiaotong University (Northern Jiaotong University)

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

China University of Petroleum (Beijing)

China University of Petroleum (East China)

China Agricultural University

Communication University of China

Beijing Forestry University

China University of Political Science and Law

Central University of Finance and Economics

Central Conservatory of Music

The Central Academy of Drama

China Central Academy of Fine Arts

Beijing University of Chinese Medicine

University of International Business and Economics

Nankai University

Tianjin University (Peiyang University)

North China Electric Power University

Northeastern University

Dalian University of Technology

Jilin University

Northeast Normal University

Northeast Forestry University

Fudan University

Tongji University

Shanghai Jiaotong University

East China University of Science and Technology

Donghua University

East China Normal University

Shanghai Foreign Language University

Nanjing University

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Southeast University

China University of Mining and Technology

China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing Campus)

Hohai University

Jiangnan University

Nanjing Agricultural University

Hefei University of Technology

China Pharmaceutical University

Zhejiang University

Xiamen University

Shandong University

Ocean University of China

Wuhan University

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)

China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

Wuhan University of Technology

Huazhong Normal University

Huazhong Agricultural University

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law

Hunan University

Central South University

Sun Yat-Sen University

South China University of Technology

Sichuan University

South Western University of Finance and Economics

Southwest Jiaotong University

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Chongqing University

Southwest University

Xi’an Jiaotong University

Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University

Shaanxi Normal University

Xidian University

Chang’an University

Lanzhou University

Beijing University of Technology

University of Science and Technology Beijing

Beijing Institute of Technology

Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)

List of China Universities, Institutes and Colleges (by province)

Anhui Province
Univ. of Science and Technology of China

Beijing
Beijing Agriculture University
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing Medical University
Beijing Normal University
Beijing (Peking) University
Beijing Polytechnic University
Beijing Univ. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Beijing Univ. of Chemical Technology
Beijing Univ. of Posts and Telecommunications
Central University for Nationalities
Northern Jiaotong University
Qinghua (Tsinghua) University
Renmin (People’s) University
Chinese Academy of Medical Science

Chongqing
Southwest Jiaotong University

Fujian Province
Xiamen University

Gansu Province
Lanzhou Railway Institute
Lanzhou University

Guangdong Province
South China Univ. of Technology
Zhongshan Unviersity

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Guizhou Province

Hainan Province

Hebei Province
Hebei University of Technology

Heilongjiang Province
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin Univ.of Science & Technology

Henan Province
Zhengzhou University

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)
University of Hong Kong
City University of Hong Kong

Hubei Province
Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology
Wuhan Unviersity
Wuhan Technical Univ. of Surveying & Mapping
Whuan Univ. of Hydraulic Electric Engineering

Hunan Province
Central South University of Technology

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Inner Mongolia University

Jilin Province Jilin University Jilin University of Technology

Jiangsu Province
Hohai University
Nanjing University
Nanjing Univ. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Southeast University
Suzhou Medical College
Suzhou University (Soo Chow University)

Jiangxi Province

Liaoning Province
Dalian University of Technology
Northeastern University

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Qinghai Province

Shaanxi Province
Northwest Polytechnic University
Northwest University
Xi’an Highway University
Xi’an Jiaotong University

Shandong Province
Ocean University of Qingdao
Shandong University
Shandong University of Technology

Shanghai
East China Normal University
East China University of Science & Technology
Fudan University
Shanghai Medical University
Shanghai Jiaotong University
Shanghai University
Tongji University

Shanxi Province

Sichuan Province
Sichuan University
Southwest Jiaotong University

Taiwan Province

Tianjin
Nankai University
Tianjin Medical University
Tianjin (Pei Yang) University

Tibet Autonomous Region

Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region

Yunnan Province
Yunnan Normal University
Yunnan University
Yunnan University for Nationalities

Zhejiang Province
Hangzhou University
Zhejiang Medical University
Zhejiang University

Others
National University of Defense Technology

Read more http://www.chinatoday.com/edu/a00.htm

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

China School Teaches Once Banned Feng Shui

China school teaches once banned “Feng Shui”.

The Chinese art of feng shui, a form of geomancy once banned by the Chinese Communist Party as a superstition, has now found its way on to the school curriculum in China, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

A high school in Xiamen, in the rich southeastern province of Fujian, had started a course in feng shui, long practised by Chinese communities outside China, “for the first time”, the Beijing News said.

The basic premise of feng shui (wind water) is that one’s environment influences life, giving profound importance to the position of furniture in a room, for instance, or the direction a building faces.

Highly paid feng shui masters are routinely called in by architects in Hong Kong before a building is planned.

The practice was banned as a superstition after China’s Communists took power in 1949, but it has since seen a revival.

“Traditional feng shui culture has its good features as well as its bad ones,” Xiong Yongliang, a teacher in the school who wrote a textbook for the course, was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate.

The newspaper also said students taking this course found feng shui “interesting and practical”.

In May, newspapers reported that some Chinese Communist officials turned to feng shui masters for advice to ward off “evil spirits” from competitors and get a better chance of promotion amid a nationwide job reshuffle.

One senior official in eastern Zhejiang province moved his ancestors’ tombs thousands of miles to the foot of the famed Tian Shan mountain in the northwestern region of Xinjiang in an attempt to improve his career prospects.

Read more http://in.reuters.com/article/2008/01/08/idINIndia-31288820080108

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

Vietnamese Kids Choose Education to End Poverty

Vietnamese kids choose education to end poverty.

Vietnamese children aged between 10 and 12 see education as an ideal solution for disrupting the cycle of poverty, according to the annual Small Voices, Big Dreams report recently released by US-based child sponsorship group ChildFund Alliance.

Fifty-three percent of those polled said they would upgrade the nation’s schools to improve children’s lives if they were Vietnam’s president, whereas 49.3 percent of all respondents in other developing countries had the same idea.

A comparable percentage (52 percent) said they would opt for a career as a doctor or a teacher, while a lower rate (42.7 percent) of the surveyed children in those countries selected the two jobs.

26 percent of the Vietnamese respondents prefer doing homework over other activities in their free time.

Only 1 percent said they would dedicate it to computer or video games. In other areas of the world, the percentage rockets to 33.9 percent.

Commenting on the survey results, which found that children are largely optimistic about their future, Jim Emerson, secretary general of the ChildFund Alliance said, “Children who grow up in poverty recognize more than anyone the power that education has to break the cycle of poverty.”

“[They] are placing their hopes and dreams on their ability to learn, and their aspirations to become teachers and doctors speak volumes about their desire to give back to their own communities.”

Almost 4,600 children between the ages of 10 and 12 from 44 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas – as well as some selected developed nations – participated in the poll which was undertaken from July through September to provide insights into their thoughts and minds.

The respondents were asked six open-ended questions about many topics, including health, education, and child safety and security.

ChildFund Alliance is a network of 12 child development organizations whose work encompasses more than 15 million children, and their families, in 58 countries.

It spends more than US$503 million a year helping deprived, excluded and vulnerable children, with a focus on child-centered development programs that are undertaken in partnership with more than 1,400 local communities.

Read more at http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/education/education-news/vietnamese-kids-choose-education-to-end-poverty-1.54409

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

Thailand Getting Creative in Education

Thailand getting creative in education.

Vicky Skipp, Adobe Systems’ regional director for Southeast Asia, is spearheading the transformation of teaching and learning through digital experiences.

Digital media and digital marketing are the two major forces shaping the future. Trends in digital media include the rapid proliferation of devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers.

This has been highlighted by the explosive growth of apps, with mobile phone downloads topping five billion in 2011, up 189 per cent from the previous year.

According to Skipp, video content has also been increasing rapidly, with video comprising 50 per cent of all Internet traffic in 2010. By 2015, it’s forecast to be 81 per cent. Now, an average of 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.

All these indicators underline the fast-growing importance of digital media in education, marketing and other fields.

In education, the 3Rs - reading writing and arithmetic - are still important, but they are not enough in this new era. Besides the 3Rs, other skills and contents have become equally important in the 21st century workplace. These include skills in critical thinking, information technology, health and wellness, collaboration, innovation, and personal financial responsibility.

In other words, it’s now the era of the 3Cs - creativity, communication and collaboration.

In terms of knowledge retention, teaching methods are crucial. Recent research shows that students retain just 5 per cent of knowledge via the “see/hear/lecture” method, compared to 10 per cent for reading; 20 per cent for audio/visual/video; 30 per cent for demonstration; and 50 per cent for discussion groups; while practicing by doing allows students to retain 75 per cent of knowledge imparted.

As for creativity, this applies to every domain of knowledge, so Abode is promoting this skill around the world via its annual Abode Design Achievement Award.

Thai student Napatsawan Chirayukool won this top award in 2010.

To make its software tools more affordable to Thai students, the US firm recently announced hefty discounts of up to 90 per cent for its student and teacher editions. This campaign includes Creative Suite 5.5 and Acrobat X Pro, among others.

Skipp says the proliferation of mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers is leading to extensive changes in lifestyles.

Education systems and curriculae are also changing around the world. In Thailand, the government’s “one tablet computer per child” programme will soon have profound effects on the country’s education system.

This policy will likely bring massive changes as Thailand responds to the need to develop a more competitive workforce in the technology-driven global economy.

In the initial stage, the government will provide a free tablet computer to every Grade One student, with some of the textbook content available online.

Skipp says: “Our experience is that when students have access to digital media software at affordable prices, there is a rapid increase in their digital skills and confidence. “Students can display their talents, express creativity and learn to collaborate more effectively.

“Our software allows students and teachers to produce Web pages, videos and mobile content, applications and e-publishing content, and help them understand how to merge the creative process into their daily assignments and work tasks.”

In her opinion, Thailand has a firm commitment to develop digital literacy in the next generation workforce, as exemplified by government and private-sector initiatives such as the annual Thailand Games Show, the Bangkok International Games Festival and the Thailand Animation Contest.

Read more at http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Getting-creative-in-education-30175132.html

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com

Educating Young Women Rebuilding Cambodia

Educating young women, rebuilding Cambodia.

Alan Lightman discusses his social entrepreneurial work in building the first college dormitories for women in Cambodia.

Sharing a muddy crawl space with four roommates isn’t part of the traditional path to a law degree. But that’s exactly how Veasna Chea, a Cambodian woman, lived during law school in the mid-1990s — still managing to graduate first in her class.

Speaking on Thursday night, Alan Lightman, adjunct professor of the humanities at MIT, described his serendipitous meeting with Chea during a 2003 visit to Cambodia as his inspiration to establish a foundation that helped build the first college dormitories for young women there. Unsettled by the fact that Chea was only the fourth woman in Cambodia to attain a law degree, Lightman vowed to help Cambodia’s women exercise greater power in the country.

The barriers to women’s education in Cambodia have their roots in the nation’s tragic and bloody history. More than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge decimated the educated class as part of its campaign of genocide, this country of 14 million — one of the poorest in the world — still faces challenges in rebuilding its educational system. Most of the rural population lives in one-room shacks with no running water or electricity. Millions of young women have no way of attending college, mainly due to financial constraints (the annual cost of tuition, room and board is roughly three times the average Cambodian family’s income) and the lack of housing for women in Phnom Penh.

A physicist and best-selling author, Lightman has added social entrepreneurship to his life’s work, volunteering 50 percent of his time to lead the Harpswell Foundation, an organization he founded in 2003 to address these issues.

“Our goal is that our graduates will become leaders of Cambodia,” Lightman told a packed hall in the Stata Center. “In 20 years we’d like our … graduates to be heads of hospitals, government ministers, and directors of NGOs. We’d like to see 200 Hillary Clintons, Sandra Day O’Connors and Oprah Winfreys.”

Lightman is personally involved in the selection process for Harpswell’s two dormitories, helping to choose each year’s new class of 20 residents out of a pool of 160 students. (The top four female students are interviewed at each of Cambodia’s top 40 high schools.) The strategy, he explained, is to select not only the brightest students for admittance to the dormitories, but also those with leadership potential.

Those chosen live — free of charge — in one of Harpswell’s two dormitories and leadership centers in Phnom Penh. With 90 percent of young Cambodian women hailing from rural areas, housing is essential for them to attend one of the 15 universities in the capital. While Cambodia’s male college students are typically housed in Buddhist temples, women are prohibited in the pagodas and often have no alternative but to skip college altogether — leading many to early marriage, work in the rice fields or prostitution.

The first Harpswell dormitory, built in 2006, is a three-story building that houses 35 women. The second, completed in 2010, houses 45 women. Both also function as leadership centers where the residents receive food and medical care, along with free classes in English, computer skills, leadership seminars and discussion of national events to develop critical thinking skills. The foundation gives each student a $30 monthly stipend for food and expenses.

When an audience member asked how the public can help, Lightman shared that in addition to donations, he is always looking for women from outside of Cambodia to act as leadership residents in the dorms. Last November, 50 Harpswell students and staff had the opportunity to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting organized by Carol Rodley, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia.

Of the 30 female students in Harpswell’s first two graduating classes, seven now work in Cambodia’s top law firm, and approximately 10 have come to the United States for postgraduate study. While Harpswell may construct additional dormitories in the future, Lightman said he’s determined to maintain his personal relationships with the students.

“I have individual meetings with each of the 80 students — this personal contact is a very important part of the culture of our dorm,” he said. “They feel like somebody really cares about them.”

Read more at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/lightman-lecture-1107.html

http://www.languagecorpsasia.com