Milton Ramirez

We woke early today and started browsing the most recent tweets. We came across to an interesting report, licensed under Creative Commons: The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age by Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg with the assistance of Zoë Marie Jones. The discovering of this study was possible thanks to Jasom Flom.

Thanks to funding from the MacArthur Foundation, both report's authors, "investigate the internet’s transformation of shared and interactive learning. They suggest the following 10 principles as 'fundamental to the future of learning institutions' as Flom writes in his post.

These are the 10 Principles for the Future of Learning:

1. Self Learning.
2. Horizontal Structures.
3. From Presumed Authority to Collective Credibility.
4. A De-Centered Pedagogy.
5. Networked Learning.
6. Open Source Education.
7. Learning as Connectivity and Interactivity.
8. Lifelong Learning.
9. Learning Institutions as Mobilizing Networks.
10. Flexible Scalability and Simulation.

We think these principles would be the Decalogue of all teachers. Special attention has to be put on #s 3, 6 and 9. Is it a coincidence that we've selected all multiple of three?

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"Technology is core and essential to the strategies we are using to reform education." That was the message from both Jim Shelton, assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the United States Department of Education, and Aneesh Chopra, chief technology officer in the White House.

Sitting comfortably in overstuffed chairs on stage at a packed meeting of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), these two top Obama administration representatives spoke and responded to questions for 45 minutes about the importance of technology in education.

Chopra said that technology in education is less about hardware and software and more about what we teach, the method in which we teach it, and professional development and support for educators. He emphasized the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and the need for greater access to digital content. Whenever he gets a chance, Chopra has his iPod plugged in his ears tapping lectures from MIT, Stanford, and other sources. It is about having a constant "learning environment," he said.

Read the rest of the article by Geoffrey H. Fletcher

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NECC ‘09: Blogging Best Practices

Decisions about your blog: Is it transportable? Where are you going to host it? What’s the policy (your policy) on comments? What’s my school’s policy on sharing? What topics will I cover? Is it under Creative Commons? Should I have a group blog? what colors, designs and templates should I use?

Great iTouch Apps for Primary Students 

Yesterday here at NECC I learned about three fantastic applications for younger / primary age students from an Australian teacher who has 8 iPod Touches in her classroom currently

Taste of Tech - Your Daily Dose of Digital Delicacies

On the bloggers’ cafe and how amazed was John Schinker to keep running into EdTech celebrities

NECC09 (Day 3) - New NETS, New Resources | Technology Times

In this session, ISTE gave some folks an opportunity to showcase their products that had earned the ISTE Seal of Alignment.

Writing in the 21st Century @ NECC09

Kathleen Blake Yancey wrote this great piece about writing in the 21st century, so I was not going to miss this session! How is literacy different now?

Can public schools fundamentally reinvent themselves?

You can't have innovation in instruction without innovation of assessment (to which David Jakes pointed out that the curriculum then needed to change too)- Until we see a model that described an educated person in a variety of ways we are going to continue to have problems

Transferring Students Hinders Achievement

Student transfers are students who are transferred from one class and teacher to another class and teacher within a school year. Interrupting a students schedule and flow with one teacher causes the student to lose focus on the material.

Edubloggercon 2009 Notes and Reflections

I learned and shared and questioned and pondered. It was a wonderful day. I have a hard time believing that the actual NECC conference (for which I am paying big bucks) will live up.

The rest of my favorite links are here.

Durante el lanzamiento de la 2da edición del libro Mi país, la tierra y sus gentes del autor lojano Celso Atarihuana, el presidente de la Casa de la Cultura de Loja recuerda cómo se forjó el escritor lojano, hoy residente en la capital ecuatoriana:

Jaramillo Andrade lo recuerda como un entrañable amigo, fueron condiscípulos en la escuela Miguel Riofrío, y de los colegios Bernardo Baldivieso, y Leones de Loja, en los cuales transcurrieron sus años de infancia y juventud, compañeros más tarde en la Universidad Nacional de Loja, a pesar de seguir carreras distintas siempre fueron camaradas en el ideal de una sociedad justa y humana.

Crecieron en el barrio de San Sebastián donde compartieron juegos, travesuras e inquietudes, en la biblioteca de su padre, el supervisor escolar, Celso Atarihuana, se alimentaron de sus primeras lecturas. Los más destacados literatos e investigadores sociales ecuatorianos como: Humberto Salvador con sus novelas: “Noviembre y camarada”; Benjamín Carrión, con su célebre biografía de García Moreno, “El Santo del Patíbulo”; Manuel Agustín Aguirre, con sus tratados de economía política y muchos otros intelectuales dejaron profundas huellas en sus jóvenes mentes.

En los últimos años de colegio unieron entusiasmo junto a otros compañeros y dedicaron largas horas a desahogos culturales, crearon programas de radio, publicaron periódicos y organizaron uno que otro certamen estudiantil, en uno de esos arrebatos levantaron una campaña para formar la biblioteca de su “Club Atalaya”, obteniendo buenos resultados, sobre todo con el espaldarazo del entonces rector de la Universidad de Guayaquil Dr. Antonio Parra Velazco, quien donó una respetable dotación de libros, que, al termino de sus estudios secundarios pasó a incrementar la biblioteca del colegio Leones de Loja.

Quiere saber más sobre lo que está pasando con los escritores lojanos?

On Sunday, I did enjoyed listening Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote. Other interesting streaming I was watching was Copyright Confusion by Renee Hobbs. Unfortunately, today I wasn't able to follow interesting conversations particularly about the uses of iPhone/iPod in the classroom as to what was the percentage of this gadgets to present in a classroom to work effectively with students; or Scott Floyd's talk about Wordpress favorite plug-ins.

In exchange, I am going to refer some of the blogs that are posting and giving updates about the NECC09:

Copy Paste by Peter Pappas. In his post he explains about a new tool called StreamGraph that he is using to visualize the latest 1000 tweets which contain the search word 'NECC'

Digital Education by Katie Ash & Kathleen Kennedy Manzo. Today Katie reports on the state of policy and practice related to education technology addressed by Don Knezek, ISTE's CEO.

Andrew B. Watt's Blog The Connecticut history teacher has permanent updates. The most recent post reflects about a the kids’ virtual world Quest Atlantis, a conference call from Australia.

Reflexions by Susan van Gelder. She goes over Steve Dembo's session. Susan do accept that she is not using Bloglines anymore but summarize what she grab in this session about social web tools.

TechChicks by Helen (techchick) & Anna( digimom). These two young Texans are live blogging the NECC09. At session From Information Literacy to Information Leadership. they were lucky enough to talk to Will Richardson just before he took off back home.

Teachers R Learning by Peej. She fills in what we missed on Gladwell's keynote. Makes a wrap up, noting among other things: "Failure isn't failure. It's learning."

EdTechTalk. See and hear edtechtalk "celebrities". Also watch video and script of Lisa Parisi (Cruise) with EdTechTalkers at the NECC Bloggers Cafe.

Design for Learning by Dean Groom. Voice his frustrations as many other participants felt today, retorting: "How on earth does anyone expect to convince anyone that the internet in education is not a black hole. Lack of power outlets, seating and now internet for ‘third space’ informal learning simply wrote off my day."

Examiner by Elaine Plybon. She couldn't make it to the NECC this year. However, she is found the time to write about 5 new tech tools that keep her busy for awhile and without even going to Washington.

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As a preamble to what is coming, yesterday started the EdubloggerCon. This unique experience has been organized by Steve Hargadon. The EduBlogger Conference is the 3rd time has been organized for free, and Dr Leigh Zeitz thinks there were 200 attendees.

Today is the 2nd. day of NECC09 and there will be many formal and informal discussions at the National Educational Computing Conference in Washington about how to turn K-12 schools into more digitally friendly learning environments in tough budget times.

I was following the event through Twitter. It was a great day. However, I still have an unanswered question. Kathy Schrock was in a session discussing her Wikipedia bias and I still don't know why she thinks so.

Dr. Z. was at k12onlineconference.org and does a wrap up of what he saw yesterday. Por example, Jeff Uteckt leading discussion, Is blogging really dead?

If you are 'lucky' enough to have the time and money to attend NECC, do you have any responsibility because of that privilege? Scott Meech wants to know, what is your responsibility? At his smeech.net he also list some of his responsibilities that may help improve NECC:

1. Bring back as much specific knowledge for how classroom teachers can embrace technology in their classroom with specific curricular examples as possible.
2. Expand my 'Personal Learning Network' by embracing as many professional relationships as possible.
3. Explore new strategies for approaching resistant educators and solidify my 'Elevator Speech' and 'Board of Education Messages'.
4. Form foundations of collaboration for our district staff and myself.
5. Take my own advice and seek out a minimum of 10 attendees that I can 'read' as complete newbies and start a conversation with them.
6. Seek out conversations with those that can help me hone my communication and persuasive skills so I can become a 'Prophet in my own Backyard'.
7. Balance attending presentations from those I already know and embrace conversations with those who are not embedded in the 'Walled Garden' of believers.

Sunday will be a even better day in Washington and if you aren't able to make it check NECC Live

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En Loja existen más de dos universidades pero las dos más importantes son la Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja UTPL) y la Universidad Nacional de Loja (UNL). 4 International Colleges & Universities (4icu) es un directorio que agrupa a las organizaciones de educación superior de alrededor del mundo, reconocidas y acreditadas oficialmente por cuerpos colegiados a nivel nacional o regional.

Esta organización ha clasificado los rankings de las dos universidades lojanas. Para ello, nos presentan un nivel aproximado de cuál es la popularidad de las universidades ecuatorianas basadas en tres parámetros: el Google Page Rank, los Yahoo Inbound Links y el Alexa Traffic Rank. 4icu no incluye a los Community Colleges, Vocational Colleges que para el caso no existen en Loja.

Entre las universidades del Ecuador la UTPL está apenas un puesto por debajo de la ESPOL que está en primer lugar. Mientras que la UNL está a once puestos de la primera, es decir ocupa la posición # 12.

Pero a nivel Latinoamericano la UNL no presenta relevancia. Solamente se incluye entre las 100 más importantes, a la UTPL aunque en la posición #98.

A nivel mundial, la UTPL rankea en la posición #1231 seguida muy de lejos por la UNL en la posición # 3947

Si bien esta información es útil para los aspirantes a ingresar a dichas universidades, ésto no significa que ésta clasificación tenga relación alguna con sus programas, la calidad de su educación o el nivel de sus servicios. Se trata únicamente de su presencia en el internet.

Para obtener información actualizada, le recordamos que la lista de 4icu.org es revisada cada seis meses.

Much has been written about headlines and how that way we present it has a deep impact on the attention visitors and readers pay to such an article. And this is one of those cases, deliberately I chose the headline, paraphrasing the popular The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, a business self-help book.

But what makes teachers highly effective?

We should start with two basic premises: Teachers are facilitators and not entertainers even though occasionally have to play that role. The second point to have in mind is that learners are not anymore the passive subject who only listens, new technologies put students in charge of the information they access, they are able to save, reformat and share it.

TESConnect has a list of 7 Secrets Behind Great Teaching. They explain how along Crelos, a business psychologists, they went to analyse the "personalities, motivations and behaviour of 15 award-winning teachers to uncover the seven habits that make them successful in the classroom."

Secrets effective teachers put into practice:

1. They build confidence

Many students suffer from low self-esteem, basing their aspirations on celebrities (Michael Jackson just to mention one)and feeling disappointed when their lives don’t match up, so teachers have to build confidence in abundance.

2. They’re not afraid to make difficult decisions

Although this is something required of senior management, it is a personality trait rather than a behaviour that can be learnt. It seems natural that 57 per cent of participants have a strong or extremely strong preference for authority, meaning that they are comfortable making difficult or unpopular decisions.

3. They develop others

In school, this behavior may be displayed when teachers give up their time to help other colleagues acquire new skills or oversee training days. It is one of the involving behaviors and as well as developing your kids, it’s about developing your own and others’ capabilities by providing opportunities for career development, giving coaching and constructive feedback or setting aside a specific budget for training.

4. They’re good communicators

Many of the teachers gave examples of using school displays, songs or analogies to communicate their message. One head that scored well had used the song Proud by Heather Small to convey a message of confidence through the school. Being able to communicate well is fundamental to teaching and all teachers provided evidence of this.

5. They’re non-conformists

While teachers may not always admit to it, Kirsten Darling agrees that teachers tend to get bored easily. 'Teachers generally don’t like doing the same thing day in, day out. And the pupils find that more interesting too,' she says. 'There are a lot of structures put in place for teachers that can be quite limiting, but if you have people in management who allow you to pursue your own creativity and be dynamic, that’s ideal.'

6. They thrive in the company of others

While a vast proportion of the population spend their working life in front of a screen, teachers spend most of their professional life in front of children. So it’s good to know that teachers enjoy the company of other people and there is a strong leaning towards fellowship among this group.

7. They see the bigger picture

'The teachers are all quite good at looking at what other schools are doing, looking outside of their immediate surroundings and even outside of education,” says Ms Henshilwood. 'These are all award-winning teachers, and as you are seen to be better at your job and become more senior, you are given bigger management responsibilities. If you’re a head of year or department you start having to take on the bigger picture,' concludes.

For those of you already in the classroom, or those thinking of entering the field of teaching and education, this is a reminder of what it takes to be a success. Not only for your personal benefit but our students, for the benefit of our country.

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There are two paragraphs that really grabbed our attention on this post. As Barnett Berry puts it, lets get real about teacher experience and its effects on student achievement:

For your delight, this the most significant defense of experienced teachers I ever read (stressed section is ours):

Policy pundits and journalists have few qualms about calling for any seasoned teaching veteran to be put out to pasture. They aren't really interested in whether the teacher is effective, ineffective or "we don't know." These pontificators, single-minded as donkeys, tend to rely on research showing that teacher experience beyond three years does not matter much for standardized test scores. However, their interpretation of the teacher-experience data sets is rather limited, perhaps reflecting more about their ideology than any substantive understanding about teaching and learning in complex school environments.

We should pay attention to 'separated' experience. It's also important we consider the "teacher gropus:"

As we consider and design research, we need to pay attention not only to an individual teacher’s aggregate years of experience but how groups of teachers have used their combined knowledge over time to change the working culture of their team (or department or grade level), share teaching expertise among themselves and with others, and connect more closely with their students and their families.

I've learned that in America, experience is one of the most valuable assets a person can own, but it seems that when we talk about teaching that same over valued experience does not weight in!

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Tania Sheko brought up this question on Twitter. What's the best way to follow NECC online? (@taniasheko) and we want to go over it. Not all of us can afford to go, but would still like to participate.

So without further introduction let me tell you that Jennifer Ragan-Fore has created http://www.neccning.org/ where participants are gathering to get info about the coming conference.

There is also a Virtual NECCers group created by Scott Merrick where he updates you that "Joe Corbett of the ISTE Connects team has just posted a call for ideas about what that team should share during NECC09 via streaming video! This seems the perfect group to respond. Get on over to his post and add to the discussion there!"

Although there are over a hundred of conference bloggers registered, with the use streaming video (up to the discretion of the session leaders) those who can make it still can participate. We hope in next years the organizer consider this situation.

On Wednesday we posted a Tweet over the 5 Tips to a successful NECC and it seemed to me that many liked. On this article the author suggest two terms we should use as #hashtags on Twitter: NECC and NECC09 and even explains how we should refine our search to be in the right place at the right time.

Elaine Roberts (@elainej) of Freestyle Pen is eager to be on board and also has promised to share some events using coveritlive

Do you know of other people who may be streaming the event during these days. Please help others interested in following virtually the conference

*Update*

Thanks to http://www.necc2008.org and we've find other way around to follow NECC09:

- The NECC 'UNPLUGGED' will stream all its sessions (on-site and virtual) live through Elluminate.

- Use serach option at the main site and look for sessions that are web cast.

- Apple too, will be posting podcasts of the keynotes.

- Fond of Second Life? Here are some rooms.

- ITSE Vision rocks!

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Realmente no encontré la relación entre el nombre del blog Asistir a la Universidad Nacional de Loja y los contenidos escritos por Michelle. Es un blog referido a porpiedades en la ciudad de Loja pero encontramos tres post interesantes, primordialmente para los turistas que nos visitan (expats).

Uno de ellos es cómo llamar a un número telefónico en Ecuador y particularmente localizado en Loja. Y el otro también de utilidad para los extranjeros que nos visitan y que varias veces necesitan ‘lana’ para movilizarse, Cómo abrir una cuenta bancaria en Ecuador.

Seguramente Michelle desconocía de Voces Lojanas y aunque coincidimos con ella en que uno de los mejores sitios en Loja es el por ella sugerido, también es cierto que no son los únicos, pues existen una variedad a escoger.

En el blog citado y en idioma inglés se escribe:

First at foremost: http://is.gd/1dNj7
This website has a lot of info on Loja, but prices are higher now: http://is.gd/1dN5Y
Also http://is.gd/1dN9k
Here’s a webpage that I wrote on Loja: http://is.gd/1dNbd

Algún lojano quiere agregar su sitio? Notifíquenoslo en comentarios.

A common feature of some of the most successful Web 2.0 applications is their simplicity, and nothing has demonstrated this more than blogging. Blogger.com, a free blogging platform from Pyra Labs, was launched on August 23, 1999.1 Suddenly, anyone with access to a computer and the Internet, and the slightest typing skills, could publish to the world — for free. Type the title of your article into a textbox, type your article, click [Publish], and your words are available to a global readership. The simplicity is its power and its impact has been profound.

Many people at NECC will be blogging. 129 people have already registered with the NECC web site as conference bloggers. Many more will be blogging more casually, simply as a way of recording their experience and notes about what they are learning, for their own record or to share with colleagues at home.

Read complete article at David Warlick's Blog and do not forget to check out the 5 Tips to a successful NECC.

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You might notice that lately I am not writing much on Education & Tech. For those concerned allow me to tell you that our time is quite short by now, this is one of the reason you are to read only quotes or reproduction of good content. Hopefully, I will be back with original content once I sort it out all personal stuff I am into.

I barely have time to read our subscriptions. However, following Google reader suggestions I've landed on Adventures in Educational Blogging . Susan Sedro, a tech coordinator for an international school in Singapore points out something we think educators should give it a second thought:

Currently, in the primary and intermediate schools, teachers were required to have a web page. In years gone by, this took a ridiculous amount of their time considering its minimal impact on student learning. A few teachers really excelled and it because a hub for the classroom. For most, it was a true burden; something that weighed them down.

Sedro says it's just about time to go from web pages to web 2.0! It surely is when still some professionals struggle to learn how to design a web page using Microsoft Front Page. No that the application i bad but we do have other platforms to set up a blog quickly. It may be a reason why some teachers still think weblogs are used by people who has no other thing to do. Wrong. Blogs are web sites that have a great impact on student learning. Of course, they need to learn first how to use it productively and how to create and share knowledge.

Wisely, my principal is not mandating that teachers have any web presence. Teachers are very busy and for some, none of those tools fit their teaching style and needs. I suspect others will end up using many different web tools with a blog for communication, a wiki for student projects, and other tools, such as Voicethreads pulled in where appropriate.

This conclusion, is in the best interest for teachers. Abandon old tools and get prepared to the jump onto the web 2.0. No matter if you use a blog or a wiki or any other social tool for this matter, what it counts is that you know the nuts and bolts of these tools and are not afraid to use it either at school or in your professional or personal life

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This post comes handy now that we all are using the new iPhone and updated the current version of our iPod Touch.

Implementing the iPod Touch in a PC Only environment without an Apple iPod Touch cart using only free apps requires us to problem solve some challenges.

The teacher synchs all iPods through a single iTunes Account.

A good teacher provisions for everything that happens in the classroom, so determining, modeling, and coordinating a synching procedure for 29 students is very important. For example, how often will the teacher synch the iPods? When will this occur? Which students go first? How will the students get their iPods back? What will the students be doing when the teacher is entangled in those wires trying to synch?

For the other possible challenges a classroom teacher is confronted with the iPod Touch in a classroom visit Patrick Ledesma's original article.

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Recién en Marzo atendíamos al I BarCamp en el Ecuador, ésta vez celebrado en la capital ecuatoriana. Y en algo así como tres meses, la gente de Guayaquil ha organizado otro, el Barcamp Guayaquil.

Esta vez con una mejor organización por supuesto, los errores se corrigen en el camino. Al momento el evento organizado por Fundapi y la Escuela Politéctica del Litoral (ESPOL) cuenta con unas 270 personas registradas; y, dada la promoción que los medios ciudadanos y varios voluntarios han hecho, el número se espera siga creciendo para el fin de semana.

El BarCamp Guayaquil se llevará a cabo el sábado 27 de junio del 2009, desde las 9h00 hasta las 17h00, Edificio FIEC (ESPOL), Campus Prosperina. Se prentende con la participación de geeks y nerds ecuatorianos y extranjeros, educar y difundir las nuevas tecnologías, a decir: redes sociales, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Wikipedia, Cloud Computing, Telefonía Móvil, Posicionamiento en buscadores, y Web 2.0 Los participantes vendrán desde diferentes puntos de la patria, un poco más diversificado que el BarCamp Quito09. Por el registro habrán delegacionesde Guayaquil, Santa Elena, Montalvo, Machala, Loja, Quito, Riobamba, Santo Domingo, Durán, Esmeraldas, Manta, Pelileo, Ibarra, Azogues, Tulcán, Piñas. Desde el exterior se registran Montevideo y Bogotá!

Es un tema recomendado para todos pero fundamentalmente para los que usan technología y para aquellos que aplican sus ideas y se sirven de los nuevos medios. Faltan solo cuatro dias y aún estás a tiempo de registrarte y hacerte acreedor cualesquiera de las tres licencias NOD32 Antivirus, que se sortearán entre los participantes.

Algo que echamos de menos en Quito fue el streaming, transmisión en vivo de video y sonido. ésta vez han prometido cumplirlo.

Aquellos interesados en ponerse la día con la temática de las conferencias en el BarCamp Guayaquil pueden hacerlo en las ya existentes redes: Facebook, Twitter, [#barcampguayaquil09]

Apoyas el evento incluyendo un botón en tu blog. Esperamos su soporte y su apoyo y si no sabe cómo llegar a la sede en el Puerto Principal, o dónde hospedarse, solo visite http://barcampguayaquil.org

Posted in Ecuador, Technology

Siempre he tenido admiración y respeto por los que se dedican a la pluma. Ellos escriben porque aman y porque el ejercicio de su mano alimenta las neuronas en su cerebro. Ecuador tienen miles de esas mentes aquí y allá.

Gusto de la buena escritura y siempre leeo libros buenos aunque esta vez le de más atención a las publicaciones en inglés pero no por ello he dejado de leer temas incluso infantiles que llenan nuestra alma.

Vamos a mencionar solamente dos nombres de escritores en el área tri-estatal. Hicimos una investigación en Google y no pudimos encontrar mucho para no decir nada sobre ellos. Por eso hacemos honor a su trabajo y quisimos plasmar un nota online de tal manera que cuando alguien aterrize en Google, por lo menos tenga una pista del qué y el quién.

Amigos sin fronteras organizado entre otros por Fernando E. Torres P., un escritor ecuatoriano en Elizabeth, New Jersey, me llevó a conocer a la joven Lourdes Crespo Cordero. Esta escritora ecuatoriana tiene dos obras a su haber (que yo haya conocido), El sentir del alma y La verdad de mis ojos. Esta última recién será presentada este Virenes 26 de Junio en ‘Colombia Restaurante’ y cuenta con el auspicio del grupo cultural Amigos sin fronteras y la editora de Lourdes Urpi Editores.

No se cómo conseguir los libros de Lourdes Crespo Cordero, pues nos gustaría hacer una revisión pero eso eso otro punto. Lo triste es que dicho talento ha estado escondido, por cualesquier razón. Hoy se la presentamos y animamos a aquellos que les gusta escribir a publicar sus libros o a autopublicarlos que es algo parecido.

No encontramos sino una referencia en Ecuamerica.com y la otra de un boletín de prensa de Ikarus, un grupo cultural centroamericano en el cual se muestra la participacion de Lourdes Crespo como representante del Ecuador a la Feria del libro organizada por la Casa de la Cultura Latinoamericana y La Guarida del Poeta, durante el mes de Septiembre del 2008.

Para saber lo que hacen los autores ecuatorianos en su pais, lea el blog del Grupo Buseta de Papel.

Posted in Ecuador, Society, USA

We are so close to the NECC 2009, Washington DC, June 28 -July 1, 2009. There is a topic for the Oxford debate at NECC 2009 under the theme Bricks and Mortar Schools are Detrimental to the Future of Education.

They are receipting questions for this debate. You can also summit yours, after proper registration. Click here to join in. The following are the top 7 questions so far:

1. How would losing the physical meeting place affect those coming from unstable home environments?

2. What will the end brick and mortar schools mean for the socialization of students?

3. How might a shift to online education affect the current and future workforce of teachers?

4. Is pounding down the ‘brick and mortar’ the only way to change instruction or pedagogical practices?

5. Why not expand school services and school day, incorporating education into the fabric of life?

6. How are you going to motivate those students than don't do anything on their own?

7. Is face to face interaction completely dead?

The order eventually may change because we are still one week away from the National Education Computing Conference 2009.

Update [06/26/09]

As we believed the order has changed and there is a huge amount of questions to be addressed right now:

a.(3) How might a shift to online education affect the current and future workforce of teachers?

b. (2) Rremains in the 2nd position.

c. (6) How are you going to motivate those students than don't do anything on their own?

d. How would losing the physical meeting place affect those coming from unstable home environments? (This is a new question ranked high)

e.(5) Why not expand school services and school day, incorporating education into the fabric of life.

f.(4) Is pounding down the ‘brick and mortar’ the only way to change instruction or pedagogical practices?

g. Does online education meet the needs for all considering many ages, abilities, and learning styles? (Completely new)

The other three mos prominent questions are:

- Rethinking the traditional desk, what adaptations might make the workstation relevant in the future?
- After #IranElection, Twitter, & US State Dept situation: Are social media blocks being reconsidered?
- In what ways can we make technology accessible for all students, regardless of socioeconomic status?

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En éstos dias estaba pensando en los errores que muchos ecuatorianos cometemos por falta de información y de cómo prestamos mayor atención a los que se comenta en la calle que a la información fidedigna de una fuente. Por ello y con el afán de que los ecuatorianos que viven fuera del pais tengan al menos una pauta de donde empezar es que escribo este post. Y por favor, actuen, no aplazen las cosas.

Comprando su primera casa

Miles de ecuatorianos han abandonado su pais en busca de mejor vida sin imaginar que han de hipotecar su libertad, la descencia y sus buenas costumbres. La primera y más básica idea es la de comprarse su casa. Para ello existen varias medios, pero el que por ahora tengo información son los projectos que desarrollan en el sector Calderón (Quito), FINAC Ltda. Ellos ofrecen viviendas desde los 22 mill dólares hacia arriba. Los interesado en ver los proyectos pueden vistar el sitio (Portal Flash) y solicitar información llenando la forma de contacto o enviado un email a: info[@]finac-ec.com. Dessfortunamente hasta el momento no tengo direcciones en EE.UU y Europa pero las consignaremos cuando ellos nos las proporcionen.

El último adiós a sus seres queridos

Otro gran dilema en el que se ecuentran los ecuatorianos fuera del terrunio es la repatriación de los restos de sus seres queridos cuando por una u otra razón han fallecido fuera del territorio ecuatoriano. El Banco del Austro en unidad con Seguros Unidos y Autro Finacial Services, ofrecen a los ecuatorianos fuera del pais que no sean mayores de 80 años, sin enfermedades pre-existentes o que no hayan perecido por suicidio, guerra declarada o un acto terrorista; un seguro sin costo, solo para sus clientes de 10 mil dólares y de hasta 15 mil para repatriar restos de sus seres queridos. Seguros Unidos amplia esa cobertura por un costo adicional de 100 dólares anuales. Para localizar las oficinas de Austro Financial Services en EE.UU y España, asi como las de sus agentes autorizados solo tiene que usar Google.

Retorno voluntario a su patria

Para aquellos que se han cansado o han decidido por voluntad propia volver al pais que les vió nacer, el propio gobierno a través de del SENAMI ofrece proyectos solo para emigrantes repatriados. Uno de los proyectos es el del Fondo Cucayo. Un individuo y su familia que quieran volver al Ecuador, pueden desarrollar una idea de negocio y luego de una selección, la propuesta ganadora recibirá del Estado el 25% y el 75% será aporte del emigrante. Con Bienvenido a Casa, el projecto central, la Secretaría Nacional del Migrante quiere que las familias que deseen radicarse de nuevo en el país pueden traer sus herramientas de trabajo, electrodomésticos, vehículos, sin pagar impuestos. Existía otro beneficio, el Bono de la vivienda para quienes residen en el exterior, pero ésta es una propuesta que hasta la fecha está suspendida.

Las notas de éste artículo no han sido subencionadas por las partes y tampoco endorsamos esos servicios. El objetivo es únicamente informar. Les recomedamos pedir información, no entregar dinero contante y sonante y leer bien las clausulas antes de firmar nada.

Posted in Ecuador, Howto, Society, USA

Desconocía hasta el dia de hoy el trabajo de una institución educativa creada en Loja después de que el autor saliera de la capital musical del pais. Me refiero a la Unidad Educativa Calasanz. Ellos se encuentran preocupados por algo que está constituyéndose en una subcultura o como ellos le llaman:Tribus Urbanas.

Estas subculturas juveniles están ganando espacio entre los jóvenes y como comopadres de familia, los lojanos deben estar atentos a brindarles el soporte necesario para entender y asumir una postura frente a esta ‘ola cultural’ que tiene mayor influencia en nuestra ciudad, como la denominada tribu de los EMO, acompañada de la moda , el snobismo y a veces la pura curiosidad. Existen otros grupos como los Punk, los Bakalos (Música electrónica), Skin Heads, Neonazis, Góticos, Metaleros, Flogers, todos ellos acompañados por la invasión de los dibujos japoneses Manga o Anime que por medio del YAOI y el YURI, promueven la homosexualidad.

El aporte del Calazans radica en que este año académico prepararon charlas sobre esta temática misma que ha sido dirigida a sus estudiantes pero también fue vista por los docentes y padres de familia.

La iniciativa cundió la ciudad y la experiencia se ha trasmitido también a otros centros educativos como: Colegio “Eugenio Espejo” (docentes), Unidad Educativa “La Porciúncula” y Unida Educativa “Santa Mariana de Jesús” (alumnas), Colegio “27 de Febrero” (docentes y alumnas) y el Instituto Técnico superior “Daniel Álvarez Burneo” (docentes del ciclo básico), próximamente estaremos trabajando con la Pastoral Juvenil de la Diócesis, la Unida Educativa a Distancia de Loja y la escuela “Simón Bolívar”.

Nuestra admiración y respaldo a la gestión del Padre Angel Campelo Campelo, Rector de la Unidad Educativa Calasanz.

Los principales medios de comunicación realmente sabe cómo despedazar una insignificante insignificante pieza de datos. Caso al punto: todas las noticias resaltan que Obama es el presidente de los EE.UU. que ha nombrado más que nunca, la mayoría de los latino a su gobierno. ¿Cuántos? Un enorme 11% de las posiciones que requieren confirmación del Senado:

El Houston Chronicle, por ejemplo informaba el domingo que Obama ha llevado a un número significativo de latinos desde California y Texas para servir en su administración.

Brent Wilkes, Director Ejecutivo de la Liga de Ciudadanos Latinoamericanos Unidos, dijo que él cree que el hecho de debe a que California tiene una gran población latina, un sistema educativo de calidad y a la concentración de los “latinos más progresistas ” en éstos estado, las razones por las cuales Obama ha llevado a ésta gente a su administración.

Si bien se trata algo que maravilla a muchos latinos, Obama está siendo comparado con el ex Presidente George W. Bush, con 5,5% y el ex presidente Bill Clinton con un miserable 4,5%.

Estos nombramientos son bienvenidos, pero no olvidemos que los latinos ahora representan el 17% de la población de los EE.UU., y sólo contando a los residentes reconocidos en el Censo.

No se deje engañar. Este tipo de ‘noticias’ lo que hacen es ayudar a la derecha en sus sugerencias de que Obama es, para utilizar su término, un salvaje “racista a la inversa” (reverse racism) , cuando en realidad lo que el Presidente está haciendo son escasos intentos por diversificar su administración.

Posted in Politics, USA