Problem: How a principal’s limited leadership abilities within a highly coupled, culturally diverse organization led to an increased feeling of isolation, unappreciation, and alienation by a group of staff members, all of whom shared a common identity, by which they believed themselves to be grouped, secluded and ignored by the rest of the staff members from the administration’s decision making process.

September 27, 2010

While the differences in the identities of the staff members, and the socio-cultural complexity of the institution could have promoted an environment of tolerance, understanding and cultural exchange, inadequate management exacerbated socio-cultural differences between the members of the staff and led to a breakdown of trust and communication. This contributed to a decrease in the quality of instruction, voiced dissatisfaction by some staff members in regards to their employment, and an increase in turnover rate among the isolated group of staff members.

Hope Ranch Middle School is located in Ocala, Florida, and opened its doors as a public charter middle school in 2008. The school promoted the increased use of technology in education, the importance of afterschool academic programs in math and science, and the correlation between hard work and academic success. This science and math academy was very successful during its initial year, including finishing the school year as an A school as a result of its FCAT scores.

One of the most interesting aspects of the school was the composition of its staff members. The staff was evenly composed of both men and women and international and domestic teachers. The social science and the humanities departments were comprised of domestic female instructors, while the natural science and math classes were taught by foreign male instructors. Many of the international teachers followed Islamic beliefs, while the majority of the domestic teachers and students observed Christian values. However, at first, these differences did not detrimentally influence the quality of the institution, instead, as a result of good leadership, they contributed to the student’s educational experience. The success of the school was credited to a large degree to its principal, who promoted a feeling of openness and camaraderie among the staff members. However, due to an administrative decision by the consortium of charter schools, the principal was transferred to another school within this charter school conglomerate.

This decision proved to be highly detrimental to the school. After the principal changed, the new administration’s actions appeared to favor one group of staff members over the other. In addition to the general staff meetings, the new principal would meet with the foreign male staff members in his office during after school hours, where they discussed school policies in a foreign language and did not inform the domestic teachers about the decisions taken during their meetings. The poor leadership exhibited by the principal led to a fragmentation of the staff and increased dissatisfaction.

In an increasingly cosmopolitan world, this study hopes to contribute to literature regarding the impact of leadership in culturally diverse environments, tightly coupled institutions and the importance of increasing communication within diverse environments. This study is another example of how poor leadership can detrimentally impact and threaten the sustainability of a recently established educational institution. The findings could be applied to many other organizations, but are particularly relevant for institutions that are tightly coupled and/or have hierarchical, centralized structures.

**It is September 2015. You are a memetic designer whose task is to introduce culture change to the national education system of Tanzania. You are funded by UNESCO..

Your goal is to assist the leadership of the education system in its attempt to leapfrog hundreds of years of educational tradition, effectively moving from 12th-14th Century learning to advanced 21st Century learning, including routine knowledge production and innovation by students at all levels.

You are using the tools of the Anthropologist and the Experimenter. Indicate how you put these tools to use in your work, including how you solve problems that present themselves. Pay special attention to how simulations (including ‘serious’ games, if you so choose) play a role in your work.**

September 27, 2010

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Give or take, Homo sapiens have been around the earth for 200,000 to 100,000 years, yet in the past 100 years our level of innovation and the extent of generational and intergenerational change has increased exponentially. We have created items and innovations, and controlled nature to a degree that was reserved only to the Gods before us.

There has been rapid change, and great part of this change has been positive. However, during these years of rapid growth, humanity has also committed its most extensive atrocities. In addition, every day, we experience a greater separation from the general, cumulative human culture, as we are further unable to know, comprehend and retain a larger share of humanity’s collective data. This feeling of alienation can be dangerous. It can lead individuals to feel depressed, alienated, creating fear and leading some to return to what they know and then promote their (more manageable) traditional religious world views.

Promoting change and innovation can help individuals create the tools that will help to radically transform society. Yet, rapid change increases chaos, which in the past resulted in the establishment of reigns of terror and regressive leaps.

As an experimenter, one of my concerns would be to make sure that the change that is developed is not done without a comprehensive understanding of the context in which it will be promoted. Development can bring about a growth in economic production and increased material wealth, yet for thousands of years some traditional cultures flourished. At least according to their own perception, their society had been stable.

As such, the introduction of new ideas should happen only to the degree that they are willing to incorporate these ideas into their society. After all, can we truly say that our society is better today than it was yesterday? Perhaps we can, but then is modern society in the United States today better in every aspect than society in Tanzania, including by measurements of carbon emissions and the generation of solid waste or the production of toxic materials. If anything, their society proved to be sustainable.

As such, Tanzania’s goal should not be to emulate the west, or the east (China, India), or a different point of view, rather their goal would be develop a formula for their own development and to improve their own culture only as they see fit. Even if an intrusion to their society is done with the best intentions, the reaction to those trying to change the status quo can generate a mobilization against “modernizing” or development oriented policies. Change should be endogenous and external organizations should only guide them by providing them the support and guidance to implement an effective project to develop their country in their own terms.

As an anthropologist, I would train a group of individuals to assess what are the most urgent needs in their communities and how certain changes would be received by the community. What do they consider to be the problem? Will the change be welcomed? In addition, various projects should be pursued simultaneously, including a control group. The control group could possibly be composed of the parents who most strongly believe in children’s adherence to traditional values. The project would be extensively evaluated every six months, and minor modifications will take place through the year. Various schools will implement different changes, from increased use of ICT, to greater emphasis in service learning, peace education, and teacher-led education, among others. Micro credits would be available for new schools to be established and the system would promote a degree of openness to innovation reminiscent of the United States charter school movement.

Among some of the innovations which I would be particularly interested in promoting is to insure that they have an increased access to information through the internet. OpenCourseWare materials would include subtitles in their local language and the government would increase its budget devoted to education, to promote, among other things, for every child to have a laptop. Sugata Mitra’s “Holes in the Wall” would be a way in which communities could access information. They could learn whatever they wanted to learn. Enough augmented reality devices (developed for rough terrains) would be distributed to provide access to information to those wishing to have it. By then Google translate may be able to translate in the community’s language without major glitches. Modern society has accumulated, through its research and development, extensive libraries filled with valuable information containing western society’s memes. Providing access to the people of Tanzania and allowing them to develop their own schools and promote various types of innovations would be a way in which they could adapt the knowledge generated by other cultures into their own without feeling forced to “modernize” or “develop”.

They would also have access to advanced simulations through laptops, the “holes in the wall”, and other augmented reality devices, where individuals would be able to learn about other parts of the world and professions by experiencing them through a virtual environment. Using multi-modal learning, abstract concepts and descriptions could be further explained through the appropriate use of media such as pictures, audio clips and video. While information has been increasingly made accessible online, some countries have limited access to the internet and information in their own language. In addition, a large amount of valuable information has not been presented in a way that it can be attractive to the average viewer. A large portion of the population continues to be uninterested in thinking critically and innovating. This can be encouraged by promoting reasoning techniques such as the “Socratic method”, but they can also be further stimulated by making usually dry information more appealing.

Focal Country Essay – The Dominican Republic

September 23, 2010

The Dominican Republic was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, becoming an important colony of the Spanish government and a springboard for Spanish expeditions to colonize the rest of the Americas. Economically, the country has traditionally been an exporter of agricultural products such as sugar, coffee and tobacco. However, in recent years there has been a growth in the service industry, including tourism, which now accounts for over 66% of its GDP. This change has been beneficial to the Dominican Republic’s economy which has grown steadily since the 1980s, having an average economic growth rate of 5.43% from 2007 to 2009 and a Per Capita GDP of $8,300 (CIA, 2010). Neo-liberalism and free trade policies have led to the improvement of aggregate economic statistics for most Latin America countries including the Dominican Republic. Through tariff reduction policies and the positive effects of globalization including the increased exchange of ideas and products, most countries may in the future obtain a level of economic development only previously achievable by a few western states (Sachs, 2005).

Yet, the vestiges of colonization, including the poor educational system developed by European colonists within most of their colonies, has made increasing economic prosperity and reducing inequality a difficult challenge for most colonies to overcome. While the country’s economy has improved in recent years, its low educational achievements by world standards can be linked to its history as a resource extraction colony. The Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti had in place a plantation system in which only a small number of whites, constantly fearful of a revolt, controlled a much larger black slave population, who were constantly monitored and whose education was not encouraged (Moya Pons, 1992). As argued by Rodney (1972), the colonizers were fearful of educating slaves as it would make them more difficult to control.

Colonization in Latin America was sustained primarily through the use of force and fear. Various authors, including McMichael (2004), have argued that colonization in Latin America was a “colonization of settlement, which often eliminate indigenous people” (p. 4). Similarly, Frank Moya Pons argues that to a great extent in the Dominican Republic, the native population was annihilated during colonization. While there may have been up to 400,000 “taino” natives when Columbus discovered Hispaniola, by 1508 only 60,000 remained (Moya Pons, 1992). The Indian population was further reduced to 11,000 by 1517 and only 3,000 by 1519 (p. 29). Most of the natives died from epidemics as well as from the harsh treatment to which they were subjected by the Spanish colonists.

To continue the economic production and “development” of the island, the Spanish crown quickly began to import slaves from Africa and organized the island’s economy along various agricultural plantations. According to local documents, by 1546, black slaves accounted to around 12,000 individuals and which were controlled by a white population of only 5,000 (p. 34). During the colonial period, there was limited internal trade as a result of lack of roads and low levels of production. The main trading partners were the colonial powers, more specifically Spain, and the country experienced high military expenditures as various colonial powers attacked and attempted to control the island (OECD, 2008).

Today, 84% of the population considers themselves mixed or of African ancestry (CIA, 2010). As such, part of the “achievement gap,” is undoubtedly linked to the purposeful perpetuation of ignorance among the black and taino populations during the colonial era. The Dominican Republic attempted to address this and other problems through the General Education Law of 1953, and while there were noticeable improvements, the country continues to lag behind in educational achievements in comparison to other Latin American countries (Murray, 2005).

Recent demographic trends as well as a transition to a service economy have increased the challenges. The rapid urbanization of the Dominican Republic and the growth of its population contributed to government difficulties in developing the human resources needed to deal with the demands for new skills from the changing economy (OECD, 2008). In 1950, the Dominican Republic had a population of 2.134 million inhabitants of which 23.8% were urban dwellers. In 2010, according to CEPAL, the population of the Dominican Republic is calculated to be at 10.169 million inhabitants with 68.54% of the people living in urban areas (CEPAL, 2010).

In order to increase the quality and access to primary and secondary education in the country, a number of reforms have been implemented to develop a more complex and dynamic educational system (OECD, 2008, p. 92). In 1992, the country approved a major education reform through a 10 Year Plan (Plan Decenal) which promoted: 1) modernizing the educational structure, 2) the introduction of new technologies, 3) the promotion of literacy, 4) strengthening vocational education, 5) increased investment in education and 6) increasing community involvement (p. 104). [E1] Implicit in these reforms is the belief that integration into the world economy will benefit the Dominican Republic and contribute to its development. This is more consistent with the views of many modernization theorists than theories of development such as Dependency Theory, which are far more critical of the way in which the international economy and globalization functions and how developing countries are integrated into systems of international trade.

Plan Decenal (1992-2002) was seen as a possible solution to most of the country’s educational problems and as the greatest educational reform since 1953. It has since functioned as the basis for a number of important subsequent educational reforms, most notably in 1997 and, more recently, in the creation of the second Plan Decenal (2006-2016), which addressed some of the problems following the implementation of the Plan Decenal (Gajardo, 2008). Plan Decenal reforms yielded various positive results. Among them, the literacy rate increased steadily from 60.8% in 1980 to 70% in 1990, 78.5% in 2000, and 81.6% in 2008 (World Bank, 2010). Through Plan Decenal, the number of children between 6 and 17 that were attending school increased from 71.3% in 1991 to 86.4% in 2002 (p. 10).

However, despite moderate success in some areas, several indicators remain below expectations. By 2006, the average enrollment rate for Latin America and the Caribbean at secondary school was 87.2%, while in the Dominican Republic enrollment was only at 58.7%. The literacy rate remains below the world average of 88.2% and total public spending on education (% of GDP) is low, at a level of 2.2% during 2007, compared to a world average of 4.6% in 2006 (World Bank, 2010). In addition, according to a 2001 study by PREALC, urban children in the Dominican Republic performed the worst in an assessment of education of all of Latin America, and rural children performed only better than children in Bolivia and Peru, where Spanish is to many children a second language (p. 23).

Private education has increasingly grown in the Dominican Republic as a result of the inefficiencies of the public system. While there were only 24 private schools in 1961, there were at least 2,500 by the year 2000 (Murray, 2005). In the aggregate, Plan Decenal resulted in another limited attempt to solve the educational problems facing the state, partly as the result of the high levels of partisanship within the government administration and conflicts with the teacher’s union (Murray, 2005). According the Murray (2005), the educational system has been detrimentally impacted by an “obsessive” centralization, periodic teacher strikes, violation of the law by educators, and a high level of clientelism within the education ministry. Unless some of issues problems are addressed, the impact of future reforms may be also be limited.

Bibliography

CEPAL. (2010). CEPALSTAT | Base de Datos y Publicaciones Estadisticas. Retrieved from CEPALSTAT: http://www.eclac.org/estadisticas/

CIA. (2010). The World Factbook. Retrieved from Central Intelligence Agency: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/dr.html

Gajardo, M. (2008). Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Dominican Republic – Country Case Study. New York: UNESCO.

McMichael, P. (2004). Development and Social Change: A global Perspective. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Moya Pons, F. (1992). Manual de Historia Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Caribbean Publishers.

Murray, G. (2005). El Colegio y la Escuela . Santo Domingo: Fondomicro.

OECD. (2008). Reviews of National Policies for Education. Paris: OECD.

Rodney, W. (1972). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle Le’Ouverture.

Sachs, J. (2005). The End of Poverty. New York: Penguin Press.

World Bank. (2010). World dataBank: Dominican Republic. Retrieved from World Bank: http://data.worldbank.org/country/dominican-republic

Education Quality – Johnstone

September 22, 2010

All the articles offer varying definitions of quality of education, in reviewing these definitions are there any common themes?

While “Defining Quality in Education” dealt directly with this topic, the other articles gave a particular focus to the question and elaborated on the complexity of the issue. Taking into account the context of the articles and their focuses, some disagreements such as to whether or not to promote a national identity and a language, whether to centralize or decentralize education, or whether to increase or reduce standardized testing were noticeable. In the aggregate, the articles agreed about the need to prepare students for a more globalized world and emphasized the importance of teacher training, curriculum improvements, increased access to vocational education, improvement of school facilities, increasing communication between the different administrative levels, and promoting peace education, among other changes. While, a basic recipe may be shared, the difficulty originates in regard to properly administering limited resources. In order to be successful, policies need to be adequately contextualized.

Should we focus on educational access for all or quality of education? Why?

While access to education has increased in recent years, access to education in rural areas in some areas around the world remains limited. Increasing access to education to these children is particularly important within the current economic system. Otherwise, we may be creating a group of second (or fourth) class citizens. Education should bring down barriers and serve as a way in which individuals can develop their talents instead of a stratified system with a glass ceiling for some. As stated by Morrow and Torres (2000), some areas of the world are increasingly being geographically excluded, becoming members of a “Fourth World” (pg. 14).  Yet without increasing access to quality education, some students will be limited to climbing a restricted staircase of social advancement.

Why should a government focus on either one? While economies deal with limited resources, if a government is truly interested in long term sustainable development a greater share of the GNP should be committed to education. Methods such as those utilized by the Nueva Escuela Unitaria (NEU) in Guatemala have attempted to solve some the problems faced by a country with limited economic resources (DeJaeghere 2004). If a government is truly interested in having a competitive advantage and a favorable economy in the 21^st century, then EFA and increasing the quality of education of the educational system should both be considered priorities.

Miske (Unicef, 2000) has noted that we are still relatively uncertain about what happens in classrooms in development projects. What is a remedy to Miske’s concern?

There should be a periodic assessment of the project as well regular staff meetings, together with proactive leadership. This leadership should start within the educational ministry, or if possible with a true commitment from the country’s administration. Within the particular project, promoting solidarity and cooperation between the teachers, the students, the parents, and the community can greatly influence a program’s success.  If there are funds, exit evaluations should be conducted. If the country in question conducts standardized testing prior to the program, during the course of the program and at the end of it, this statistical data can provide an additional variable of analysis. The program should have a degree of flexibility.

What are the resource constraints that development projects face when attempting to capture what happens in classrooms?

The primary constraint is financial. Also the context may provide additional limitations as to what reforms will be acceptable to the community and which are likely to be sustainable. Even in countries with resources that can afford to monitor their teachers through enhanced technology, the use of cameras can feel invasive to an instructor, increasing uneasiness and compliance due to fear. Cameras can be useful, but only on certain cooperative environments which promote constructive criticism.

Describe a research study that you might conduct within a particular context familiar to you. How might you better understand what is happening with learners, environment, content, and processes?

My study will likely focus on the growing use of ICT in Latin America, most likely in the Dominican Republic. The study will evaluate what technologies are being utilized in classrooms throughout the island, as well as how are the teachers trained to use this technology, what hardware and what software is available for the students and teachers, what initiatives and curriculum programs are being implemented, what are their major problems and achievements. I am also interested in researching and comparing online learning culture in Latin America.

CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – Fall 2010 – Second Event

Robotic Sensors Networks for Environmental Monitoring

Monday, September 20, 2010

During this interesting session, Volkan Isler introduced to us what his research team at the UMN has recently been researching and implementing. Through the use of a sensor network, Isler has programmed a robotic boat to help with a carp control program by monitoring carps within a particular region through the use of wireless controllers. The boat was first developed and launched in 2008. While the original boat stayed within his via points, the boat was somewhat fragile and the boat’s router kept breaking. As a result, in 2010, the team introduced its second drone. This time, the robot has not only a sparkling and sharp look, but it was also resistant to the wake generated by nearby boats. Carps have increasingly threatened to enter the great lake system and various control alternatives are being researched. To prevent a recent invasion, the Chicago sanitary system poisoned the ship canal to prevent carps from entering the system. This project hopes to offer an alternative to unselective destructive control measures. The new boat covered 1.23 kilometers in the single trial coverage. Regarding some of the technical details, the boat’s antenna pans in steps of 15 degrees every 5 seconds, and the fishes beep every second. Despite their success, they are currently working to make the robot completely autonomous.

Another project in which Isler is involved includes using roller robots as data mules. Prof. Cavender-Bares of the University of Minnesota used a Cambell CR3000 Micrologger to collect environmental data in hopes of finding out how topical plant populations respond to climate change. The data used to be collected manually. Now, however, through the use robots as data collectors, they can cover a large area without using relay nodes. The robots have been tried at the park between 15th Ave and Como, as well as in the flats behind Coffman Union.

During the presentation, Isler engaged the audience by providing various algorithm problems such as: Given locations of sensors, what is a good order to visit them? The class went through the algorithm logic together taking into account the relationship between the distance to the node, the travelling time and how long it takes to download the data. Among the results, we saw how the minimum path is of length at least 0.48r. They are currently trying to improve the energy use by the system.

Isler also introduced us to include various polygon pursuit evasion games. He argued that no matter what three cops are enough to capture a criminal within any polygon, and if it is a polygon with no obstacles, a single pursuer is enough. He is currently exploring of what happens if the cops cannot see the robbers at all times. Another project he is working on includes a robotic videoconferencing system to record realistic setting such as when a person is playing with their pets or walking around the house. Currently, multiple robots are needed to have an image at all times. All in all, we can all agree that despite the challenges, robotic sensor networks provide an almost limitless potential for their implementation when fused with a bit of creativity.

An IPID – Reconsidering Development Proposal (LA and OCW)

September 16, 2010

Proposal:

IPID will promote web 2.0 technologies with the goal of offering quality educational material over the internet to the global community. Through improvements in technology and the increased access to information around the globe, it is possible for individuals today to access a large quantity of educational material over the internet. IPID hopes to support this movement by not only openly publishing the journal but also by offering information about interdisciplinary development research in various formats, including audio-visual and recording of forums and speeches.

Following in the footsteps of the philosophy in which the University of Minnesota was founded and its greater purpose of not only promoting the search of knowledge within its student-body but also throughout the greater Minnesota, the United States and the World. IPID believes that information should be increasingly made available for free to the general public.

As one of the greatest tools to increase the quality of life in foreign countries, through the promoting of free online material in the form of video-recording and hopefully in the future, OpenCourseWare, IPID hopes to help students worldwide to obtain access to some of the greatest minds and their ideas. Serving as a way to promote critical thinking and diverse opinions, educational videos do not hope to replace traditional education but only to enhance it. A future objective of IPID may include the promotion of educational videos and OpenCourseWare in a variety of languages or subtitles.

This year, IPID will record a number of lectures it will sponsor with a focus in Latin America and urbanization in developing countries. The rapid urbanization of Latin America and other areas of the world facilitated a resource and management crisis as the demographics of various states had to deal with an increasing number of individuals rapidly migrating to the cities in search of a job or a better standard of living at a rate that was difficult to administer.

IPID will record the lectures given by the scholars, academics and guest speakers that it will sponsor through its funding during the 2011-2012 year.

Functioning with limited resources and facing obstacles such as a rapidly growing population, it is within our social responsibility to increase access to education and improve the quality of education around the globe. In addition, we should provide individuals with the tools to help themselves.

CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – Fall 2010 – First Event

Discovery of Patterns in Global Earth Science Data using Data Mining

Monday, September 13, 2010

His lecture was interesting and informative, but it left us with a challenge. To truly take advantage of the data that is increasingly being gathered, more specific and encompassing algorithms need to be developed. Also, one can anticipate that with the success of the program, future more accurate and detailed satellites and imagery systems will be developed.

The lecture talked about the challenges in analyzing Eco-Climate date. During his lecture he showed comparisons of global sea surface temperatures, a 3D rendering of the globe and how “green” different locations are around the world. The satellite permits data from fires around the world to be analyzed including the extent of the damage.

He illustrated the applications of data mining. The satellite can analyze the changes in forests which account for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions (2^nd only to fossil fuel). Twenty five percent of climate change production can be provided by terrestrial carbon. The “carbon offset” notion takes root on the REDD program within the United Nations. REDD stands for Reduce Emissions from deforestation Destruction. The goal of the program is to determine where, when, ad why land cover changes occur. The program has become increasingly popular, and even made TIME’s list of 50 best inventions on 2009.

The system obtains data from forest fires, droughts, floods, logging, as well as reforestation. The system will help quantify the carbon impact of these changes, and understand their relationship. While the state of the art algorithms for land cover change detection did not scale up well to analyzing data at the global level, this satellite scans the whole surface of the earth every single day. This billion dollar a year project from NASA not only allows their scientists to analyze the data but the data has been made freely available to other scientists across the world.

Existing algorithms have problems, because currently there is too much noise on the images. As a result his group has developed an algorithm to analyze the data. He demonstrated the capability of the system by illustrating some of the global changes taking place from logging in Canada, shrinking of lakes in Africa, the impact of Katrina, reforestation in China, and Deforestation in the Amazon. Deforestation in the Amazon accounts for 50% of all humid tropical forest clearing. That amount is 4 times as much as the next country, Indonesia, which accounts for 12.8% of tropical forest clearing. Despite its high hopes, Indonesia’s attempt to increase its bio fuel industry through deforestation and planting, has proved disastrous.

After presenting data from his research, Dr. Kumar challenged the audience by encouraging the development of better algorithms, multi-resolution and multi-variate analysis, and data quality improvement. During his lecture he also provided an overview of a newer project promoting a data driven approach. NSF Expedition intends, through the collaboration of various universities, to utilize the physics based model and find what can be achieved with this model, and what can be built in top of it. The program is promoting the need to study the ecosystem as a complex environment.

Contactando a la Republica Dominicana – Proyecto

September 8, 2010

Buenas,

Mi nombre es Alfonso Sintjago. Yo soy un estudiante de doctorado en la Universidad de Minnesota en los Estados Unidos. Mi programa de estudio se enfoca en la educación comparativa e internacional en países latino americanos. Estoy comenzando el programa y aunque naci Venezuela, me gustaría hacer mi estudio en la Republica Dominicana. Mi abuelo Rinaldo Sintjago era dominicano, y junto a mi tío ellos murieron en un intentando derrocar a Trujillo como miembros del movimiento Constanza, Maimón y Estero Hondo.

http://www.museodelaresistencia.org/resistencia/testimonios/Carta_Alfonso_Sintjago.html.

Aunque solo he visitado en dos ocasiones, tengo un gran amor a la isla, y la Republica Dominicana abarca un gran espacio en mi corazón. Actualmente, tengo varios primos que viven en la Republica y me gustaría ayudar a el país como sea posible. Como estudiante en los Estados Unidos podría al hacer un estudio comparativo crear vínculos y fortalecer conexiones entre la Republica Dominicana y la Universidad de Minnesota, la cual es una universidad muy prominente en los Estados Unidos.

Tengo cinco años para realizar mi tesis de doctorado, pero pretendo apenas sea posible viajar a la Republica Dominicana para hacer más conexiones. Sería posible hasta visitar este año o durante los primeros meses del próximo año. Aparte de estar comenzando mi doctorado, tengo una maestría de la Universidad de Florida en Estudios Latinoamericanos y me gradué de la universidad originalmente en sociología y ciencias políticas. Soy bilingüe y he dado clases de español y ingles en el pasado.

Si hay alguien con el que me pueda comunicar y llamar para ver cuáles son las posibilidades de ayudar o hacer un proyecto comparativo en la Republica Dominicana sobre la educación y los TICes sería muy provechoso ponerme en contacto con ellos. Espero poder dialogar con ustedes en el futuro y visitar la Cámara TIC dentro de poco. Muchas gracias por su tiempo, los mejores deseos desde los Estados Unidos.

Alfonso Sintjago

El enfoque de mi estudio va a ser en relacion a lo TICes in la educacion en la republica dominicana, o por lo menos, esa

Webinar – Technology Innovations in Higher Education

September 6, 2010

Despite missing the actual webinar, I was able to listen this online session later through a Phoenix Online courtesy email. The webinar overviewed the changes to the online education industry over the years, where online education is moving towards, and how the University of Phoenix plans to take advantage of social networks within their education program to enhance their online platform. The speakers, Adam Honea and Michael White, contend that the proper use of technology can promote a more student centered, constructivist, personalized, social, and convenient form of education.

Here is the link to the webinar recording. The interface also allows the viewer to download the presentation slides as a pdf file. Hope you enjoy it!

—–

We heard a wide range of viewpoints on “Technology Innovations in Higher Education” from University of Phoenix leaders Bill Pepicello, President; Adam Honea, Provost; and Michael White, Chief Technology Officer.

If you would like to view a recording of the Webinar, please visit http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=234475&s=1&k=93ED6BC452966C814B7DCF069E4CFD50. We encourage you to forward this e-mail to any colleagues who may have also missed this session.

To gain a better understanding of how University of Phoenix is supporting our communities through higher education, please visit http://www.phoenix.edu.

Best Regards,

University of Phoenix

The original event was broadcast on:
Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010
Time: 2:00 PM EDT
Duration: 60-minutes

Service Learning Conversation

September 5, 2010

In a meeting with Dr. Andrew Furco while discussing service learning, we talked about ways in which UMN could design a course together with Argentina – FLACSO in which undergraduate students could learn about the capability of youth in bringing about global change and the different programs in the world where this has taken place, analyzing both advantages and disadvantages. The class currently is conceived as a six credit course in which students could learn the theory and its history during the spring semester of 2011 at the University of Minnesota, where the students divided in groups of 3 to 4 students will partner with a local organization and help their youth members conduct a service learning project. The goal is not to help the children directly but rather have the students work side by side with the young adults and children taking part in this project and learn the capabilities for youth to bring about change. With few assessed limitations and a high level of idealism children are at times more willing to tackle issues that adults would be hesitant to be involved with.

While continuing to dialog about the subject, Dr. Furco elaborated on the capabilities of children led movements by talking about a previous child led initiative in which children at an elementary school when discussing slavery in America asked their teacher if slavery still took place in the world. Being a good teacher, she researched the topic and explained to the children how slavery was still taking place in Sudan, where at times when the parents were indebted, they would sell their children as laborers. When the young students learned about this, they decided to take action and coordinating with an NGO they collected thousands of dollars to buy the freedom of a number of child slaves in Sudan. While purchasing slaves raises some moral questions, including whether or not it alleviates the problem or perhaps exacerbates it, as slave owners may see the purchasing of slaves by NGOs as a way to generate revenue, what is unquestionable is that from a simple classroom idea, children in the United States were able to organize a movement to free children from the bondage of slavery half way across the world.