Article: URUGUAY: Schoolgirls Access Computers but Can’t Shake Gender Stereotypes

An interesting article showing the limits of the introduction of programs such as  one-laptop- per-child, without considering the pedagogical rather than merely technological challenges in the classroom.

From IPS by Cristina Canoura, July 3o, 2009:

[....]Villa García’s was the first school in the Montevideo metropolitan area to receive the computers distributed under the central government’s one-laptop-per-child programme, known as CEIBAL (a Spanish acronym that stands for Basic Computer Connectivity in Education for Online Learning, but also coincides with the name of Uruguay’s national tree, the Ceibo), which seeks to promote digital equality and to democratise knowledge.

Its pupils are among the large proportion of boys and girls who live under the poverty line in Uruguay: almost half of the child population of this small South American country of just 3.4 million inhabitants.

The aim of this innovative initiative championed by socialist President Tabaré Vázquez is to give every schoolchild and teacher in Uruguay their own personal computer, thus bringing disadvantaged communities into the digital age.

But the programme failed to include gender considerations in its contents, and as soon as kids are allowed to play freely with their computers, boys go straight to online games typically associated with their sex and girls look for doll, dress-up and fashion makeover games, Adriana Font and Karen Souza, two young teachers who work at the school, told IPS.

Gender differences are also reinforced by families. When there’s an after-school activity or field trip, girls usually participate in fewer numbers because their parents want them to stay home and care for their younger siblings and do the housework. [ read full here]

[...]Sixty percent of the children in Font’s and Souza’s classes are older than the ages stipulated for the grades they are in. This means that most of them are teenagers aged 13 to 15.

When they speak of their plans for the future, they tend to repeat traditional roles. Most of the boys say they’ll go into a technical line of work – like car mechanic – and girls mainly want to be hairdressers. [read full here]

 

Video: Global Education in U.S. Schools Developing Global Leaders (The Goldman Sachs Foundation 2006 Prizes for Excellence in International Education)

From FORA.tv:

Global Education in U.S. Schools Developing Global Leaders: Bringing Our Schools Out of the 20th Century with Joel Klein, Robert Hormats, Orville Schell and Gaston Caperton. This panel precedes The Goldman Sachs Foundation 2006 Prizes for Excellence in International Education sponsored by The Goldman Sachs Foundation and the Asia Society. The Prizes were established to identify effective and replicable models of international education that address concerns about the economic, social, and diplomatic costs of educational isolationism.

Watch here

 

Resource: History in Focus_The guide to historical resources (University of London)

This is a great resource for scholars and students for the historical study of global issues. For instances, the latest issue of the IHR guide, The city,  offers an impressive array of articles and resources on  history of the city, including a list of PHD thesis, key works and  numerous links to an array of  websites and articles.

History in Focus provides original articles, book reviews, and links to historical resources. The site is provided by the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London.

Link: http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/index.html

 

Resource: The Nationalism Project

The Nationalism Project is a great website with an impressive collection of nationalism studies resources

Link:http://www.nationalismproject.org/

“In an anthropological spirit, then, I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community – - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign….” (Benedict Anderson)

From The Nationalism Project:

The Nationalism Project is one of the most widely used nationalism studies resources on the Internet and provides users with a clearinghouse of scholarly nationalism information including: leading definitions of nationalism, book reviews, web links, subject bibliographies, a bibliography of more than 2,000 journal articles, and much more. The site was createdin 1999 by Eric G.E. Zuelow, currently Assistant Professor of Modern European History at West Liberty State College. The Nationalism Project is loosely affiliated with the Association for Research on Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Americas (ARENA), an informal association of international scholars dedicated to the study of nationalism in both Northand South America.

 

Resource: EuroAtlas

Euratlas – Nüssli is a Swiss business specialist in historical digital cartography. The Website contains a number of free available maps of Europe from 4th century BC to the present. A useful place that can be used to exemplify the ‘artificial’ spatial construct of nations and the ever changing borderlines of states through time.

Link: http://www.euratlas.com/index.html

EuroAtlas:

Europe is presented as a cultural area delimited north by the polar circle, but limited here to degree 60, east by the Ural – Caspian – Zagros line, south by the Sahara and west by the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, on the Euratlas website you will find:

• A physical atlas of Europe which makes it possible to easily locate the geographical position of the main mountains, rivers, cities and borders. These online maps are interactive finders: you simply need to click a name and its location will appear on the general map.
• A historical atlas of Europe: history of the European area in 21 maps. These maps are designed as a tool of reference and offer a general historical vision of the last two millennia in Europe, North Africa and Near East.
• An online collection of antique maps of the 18th and 19th centuries, selected for the practical information provided like place names, roads, etc.
• The Photos section offers more than 1000 pictures of European and Mediterranean towns, landmarks and landscapes. These images are freely distributable provided that the euratlas logo remains in place.
• A clickable world atlas allowing the display of the 194 independent countries in the world with their main characteristics: long and short name in English and local language, area, population, capital etc. A separate page shows the special status territories, like Gaza, Transnistria, Karabagh, Puntland etc.

 

Resource: TSF Rising Powers [Stanley Foundation]

TSF Rising Powers is a beautifully designed resource to think about the new sources of global power.

Thanks to Fazal Rizvi and Nick Burbules for the link.

From Rising Powers: The New Global Reality Website [Stanley Foundation]:

The global order is changing. The 21st century will be marked by many competing sources of global power. Across politics, economics, culture, military strength, and more, a new group of countries has growing influence over the future of the world.

Rising Powers: The New Global Reality is a Stanley Foundation project designed to raise awareness, motivate new thinking, and ultimately improve US foreign policy regarding this global transformation. Our aim is to discuss several of the countries challenging the global order, major issues which cut across national boundaries, and how all of this will impact American lives.

 

Resource: Global Dimension Website

This site offers free access to a number of educational resources on global issues. 

The Global Dimension Website is managed by DEA, a UK education charity that promotes global learning. As well as the site editor, there are a number of editorial and curriculum advisors, bringing a wide range of experience in teaching and supporting the global dimension in schools(…..)

This website is a guide to books, films, posters and web resources which support global, intercultural and environmental understanding for all age groups and subjects.

From climate change to poverty, water to fair trade, you can find a huge range of teaching resources and background material(…..)

You can browse through the teaching resources database from any page of the site by choosing the curriculum subject, type of background material or topic .

(From Global Dimension )

Link: Global Dimension Website

 

Resource: Harvey Project – nteractive, dynamic human physiology course materials on the Web

Harvey Project is an international collaboration of educators, researchers, physicians, students, programmers, instructional designers and graphic artists working together to build interactive, dynamic human physiology course materials on the Web.

Founded in 1998, the Harvey Project has over a hundred participants in nearly twenty countries. It has received funding from the US National Science Foundation . The Harvey Project has developed over forty learning objects, mostly Java simulations and Flash(tm) animations . Check out some of our learning materials (RLAs) and please join us if you’re interested in helping out.

Link:Harvey Project

 

Resource: The UNESCO Portal on Higher Education Institutions

From UNESCO:

This portal offers access to on-line information on higher education institutions recognized or otherwise sanctioned by competent authorities in participating countries.

It provides students, employers and other interested parties with access to authoritative and up-to-date information on the status of higher education institutions and quality assurance in these countries.

Currently, information can be accessed on the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. In the next stage of the project, the number of countries covered will be expanded.

The country information on this portal is managed and updated by relevant authorities in participating countries. More information on the national processes for recognizing or otherwise sanctioning institutions is available on the country pages.

Users are encouraged to consult several sources of information before making important decisions regarding matters such as the choice of an institution, course of study or the status of qualifications. Individuals wishing to have their qualifications recognized for work or further study are advised to consult the competent authorities of the country in which they are seeking to have their qualifications recognised. It is also important to note that some institutions not on the national lists may offer quality programmes. Users are encouraged to contact the national contact point(s) for each country, if necessary, for further information.

Link here

 

Resourcer:Worldmapper

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 600 maps. Maps 1-366 are also available as PDF posters. Use the menu above to find a map of interest.

An example is the following map on Tertiary Education Spending Growth (1990-2001).

The territory size shows the proportion in spending in tertiary education between 1990 -2001.

The site informs that:

There have been spending increases in tertiary education in 135 of the 200 territories in the world, between 1990 and 2001. North America and Southern Asia are the only regions where there has been a spending increase in every territory. In Eastern Asia there has been a spending increase in every territory except for Mongolia. In Central Africa there has been a spending increase in every territory except for Burundi.

The size of spending increases varies hugely between places. Increases in spending per person in North America and Western Europe are over 4 times those in the next highest regions of Eastern Europe and Japan.