Build your CV through a foreign education experience:

July, 24, 2010

With close to 10% unemployment in the United States and a 6.8% unemployment rate in Minneapolis (http://www.startribune.com/business/98507039.html), a substantial number of professionally trained and skilled individuals have found it very difficult to find a job in the current job market. In addition many have founds jobs in fields unrelated to their professional training, while others are considering continuing their education, taking out loans to return to school for an advanced degree or a particular certification.

Things could be worse, the outlook in America is not as bleak as in Europe, where various countries have accumulated debts close to or larger than their annual GDPs, their recession does not seem to be nearing its end, including some countries, such as Spain where unemployment has exceeded 20%. In America the situations is not as uninviting, but with an uncertain economic outlook; why not consider another way in which to upgrade your resume.…

EXCO – A Free Community of Continuing Education

July, 22, 2010

EXCO, the Experimental College of the Twin Cities, now in its 3^rd year, continues to offer classes for the members of the Twin Cities in a variety of subjects during this summer. Offering classes since 2008, EXCO, as its motto indicates, is an organization that sees itself as a community “where everyone can teach or take a class and all classes are FREE!” If you feel inspired to share your knowledge with the community and would like to teach a class, or attend a class to learn something new and different, EXCO (http://www.excotc.org) is worth visiting.

While some of the subjects may be somewhat different from the traditional college curriculum and there is no certification or accreditation involved, courses on subjects such as bicycle maintenance and health and wellness are actually one of EXCO’s strongest appeals. EXCO allows individuals to study more traditional subject such as French, through its French Friday Revival course, but also offers members the opportunity to study, free of change, a non-traditional subject and stimulate their mind in different ways.…

Ning New Pricing Plan

July, 20, 2010

On July 19, I attended a forum held by the Elluminate! Education software,(http://www.elluminate.com), in collaboration with FutureofEducation.com and Conversation.net, where representatives from Ning and Pearson discussed the upcoming changes to Ning pricing plans (http://about.ning.com/announcement). Since 2005, Marc Andersen’s newest product, Ning, (http://www.ning.com), a form of social networking where users could create their own online communities, had been used by some educators and students to form free continuing education networks with hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of online members within each community.

As a result of financial pressure, Ning has decided to phase out its free networks and charge Ning creators depending on the size of the Ning from $2.95 a month to $49.95. Unfortunately, after July 20, the new financial costs will make it more difficult for new start up Nings to establish a community and develop under their new for profit structure.…

The Dream Act – Allowing Young Immigrants to Continue their Education

July 10, 2010

As noted in a recent New York Times Article, The Obama administration is apparently allowing students that are illegally in America to continue their studies and remain in the USA despite having knowledge of their condition as illegal aliens. While the Obama administration has been more effective than the previous administration in removing illegal aliens with criminal records, the government is apparently turning a blind eye to illegal promising young students.*

As the United States increasingly loses ground to foreign countries in terms of the number of college graduates per capita, the decision is not only compassionate, with most of these students having been here for a large portion of their lives, but may also be beneficial to the United States’ economy.*

Yet, after almost a decade of attempts, the DREAM Act (The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), which text was first sponsored as the H.R.1918…

EXCO – Twin Cities Experimental College (Free Education)

July, 7, 2010

On the subject of free continuing education, having just moved to Minneapolis, I recently visited a couple of classes run by EXCO, the Experimental College of the Twin Cities (http://excotc.org). While there is a limited selection of classes, it is another available option for those seeking to continue their education and learn something new or simply relax in one of its Yoga or Meditations classes. If you have not visited EXCO, I suggest you visit it and see if there is a class that fits your schedule and your liking.

“To Sir with Love” – By Sydney Poitier

July, 4, 2010

This classic 1972 movie touches certain topics traditionally present in the educational industry and first year teachers. The movie focuses on a black man born in British Guyana and his difficulties during his first year of teaching. Coming to work at a school after failing to find work as an engineer for 18 months, “Sir” decides to teach at risk children at a London school. At first the job proves trying as children attempts to find ways to make him lose temper. “Sir” attempt at first to teach them to harsh discipline, but the children prove hard to reach. By slamming the door, talking to their classmates, rocking back and forth their desks, purposely reading poorly, the students make him lose it one day in which he yells at the children and momentarily dismisses half of the classroom.

Later that day, he realizes that unlike any other of the jobs he has held before, (which included from cleaning latrines to waiter to working for an oil company) this is the first time he has truly lost his cool on the job.…

Filming Videos – Office for Public Engagement

June, 22, 2010

1) Why is public and community engagement important to their work?

2) Give a specific example of community-engaged research, teaching, or service activity that was transformational and/or really made a different for anyone or all involved.

3) What is public engagement and how it is different from outreach/public service?  Address the question:  What does public engagement mean to me.

4) How does public engagement impact (a) students, (b) faculty,  (c) staff; (d) the community, (e) departments or colleges or other University units, (f) the state of Minnesota, nation, or world. Give a specific example.

5) How does public engagement help build a stronger University?

6) What needs to change/be enhanced about public engagement at the U of M?

ICGC-COMPTON INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP

May 4, 2010

As a native Venezuela, my primary motivation for applying to the PhD program on Comparative and International Development Education was the desire to equip myself with the skills and knowledge necessary for improving the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society and contributing to the human development of my native country, and Latin America as a whole. I was fortunate enough to be able to move to the United States when I was fourteen, and with the aim of returning in mind, I have taken advantage of the opportunities provided by the educational system in this country. Throughout my time here I have maintained a strong attachment to Venezuela, focusing much of my undergraduate and Master’s research on various political and social changes taking place in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Since 1998, Venezuela has become increasingly polarized and social tensions have escalated almost to a crisis point on a number of occasions.…