"When you educate a girl you educate a nation"

To quote ... "When you educate a girl you educate a nation" (Unicef) - is a profound message to the international community, to raise levels of awareness about its critical significance to economic prosperity, social justice and the building of sustainable, co-operative futures.

Follow the link below to grasp the chance to view this highly acclaimed and informative film about the plight of girls currently denied their UNCRC right (Article 28) to an education:

http://girlrising.vhx.tv/#

The plight for GIRLS in HAITI is one of the significant features in this powerful film.

Your support and comments are always welcome - Please visit https://www.facebook.com/Projectpiece to pledge the commitment of your community group, school, further or higher education provider, organisation, individual or other and join us to raise the profile of a girl's right to learn in Haiti - ending restavek now, together!

Projectpiece is privileged to be working with Dr. Jean-Robert Cadet (a former 'restavek', now author, international advocate & grass roots activist towards the betterment of lives for some 300,000 children living in domestic servitude. Jean-Robert's annual visits (since 2011) to Wales & the UK will continue this October. 

A New Song for the Children of Haiti, with love from Swansea in Wales.

This new song from Wales is dedicated to the Children of Haiti. Created as part of a repertoire of music towards a musical tour by members of our local children's choir and orchestra from Ysgol Gyfun Bryntawe and Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr in Swansea. An inspired group of about thirty children have been invited to perform in Haiti next year when we aim to join our hearts in unison with Jean-Robert Cadet and the future Haitian generation.

Entitled "Love Can Join Our Hearts" ...this song aims to blend some of the essential principles of the UNCRC (children's rights) with a desire for universal love and participation - reaching out for global support towards an end to the child 'restavek' system in Haiti. Today more than 250,000 children are mercilessly trapped into a valueless lifetime of unpaid domestic servitude, in cities such as its capital, Port-au-Prince.

We believe the fruit of time has ripened and all Haitian children should be afforded the same axiomatic freedoms to access their rights to shine .... but this mission needs the solidarity of a Global collective ....

... For more information about child 'restavek' - How to pledge your support as an individual, school, education provider, university or community enterprise, please do not hesitate to ask what you can do - Perhaps 'Meet & Greet' former UN envoy, author and former 'restavek' Dr. Jean-Robert Cadet in Wales, or England, later this year.

Please feel free to use and share these lyrics widely but do acknowledge the author and most importantly the cause for which it has been written:

“Love Can Join Our Hearts”

I would swim across the ocean

Upon a float of rights for children,

To share with you a vision

For children everywhere.

I would share my right to play time

With every child denied;

To join our hearts in friendship,

Just to make you smile.

When life is hard and lonely,

Let us not forget,

The power that love has to

Rescue broken dreams

Chorus:

Love can join our hearts

Between your world and mine

Love can join our hearts

Don’t you think its time,

For equal rights to shine

I will sing my love so loudly

For all the world to hear,

Just so every child can know

They must no longer live in fear.

So reach out your heart to children

In global unison

Help our fellow man to see that love is strength

And no stronger bond unites us than the one we tie ourselves

Chorus:

Love can join our hearts

Between your world and mine

Love can join our hearts

Don’t you think it’s time

For equal rights to shine

So I will reach out my arms to hug you

If you feel lost, unloved or forgotten

I will be that special someone who

Shows you that I care

For my rights are your rights and so

Let’s leave ‘no’ child behind

Sing out loud and create a noise

For our future’s are intertwined

Chorus:

Love can join our hearts

Between your world and mine

Love can join our hearts

Don’t you think it’s time

For equal rights to shine.

 

(Lyrics created by Angela Smith @Projectpiece, Swansea: 20/2/2014)

Key Supporters include: UNICEF, Wales, Swansea Cabinet Members, Swansea University, University of Wales Trinity St. David ....

My Personal Experience of Mobile Technology and Learning!

Two years ago, I purchased a 'Smart' phone, mainly for the purposes of checking and replying to emails, especially useful if likely to spend any length of time away from my usual laptop, as a means of communication. I also am a 'Facebook' user, which almost sounds like a contemptible form of addiction, however in my defense I have tended to use it for following the pages that fulfill my interests and as another vehicle in which to be contacted. Occasionally I will actually spend time keeping in touch with my phone 'apps'.

The negative effects of using mobile technologies is the compulsion to be actively using it all the time! I feel as though I am sometimes failing to really experience the moment, that the reality of space and time become warped somehow. My environment diminishes into a kind of oblivion. This of course is a slight exaggeration, though the point raised in an earlier blog about whether being interminably accessible is making us more or less sociable or able to embrace the reality beyond mobile technology, I suppose is a matter of choice and self-discipline.

On the plus side, checking facts on 'Google' in an instant, during study time or when a new kernel of thought precipitates another line of inquiry, perhaps in transit between destinations, instantly satisfies the growing insatiability to know everything that peaks the personal and professional interests. Like it, love it or not at all, it's not leaving anywhere in a hurry!

As I continue my professional development in education, I can foresee a future when M-learning and mobile technologies will play a more creatively enhancing role in the lives I share with the post 16 community. Recording and sharing their creative experiences and in support of field studies, there I see the real value of this technology.

My Personal Experience with Microsoft Applications.

My experience in information technologies is not what you might call extensive, rather a rudimentary on a need to know basis has been the main motivation for using a select few of the Microsoft applications.

To date, I have a basic working knowledge of Windows 8, of using Power-point although embedding them onto a blog, somewhat challenging! Greater experience may be attributed to the use of windows 7 version, from Microsoft office, including use of 'Word' applications.

Microsoft office is a tool I use regularly to create documents, letters, templates and lengthy emails since it enables me to utilize the spell check and word count options, change the fonts, and make any necessary corrections needed before sharing them with the wider community. 

Power-point, like many other information communication technologies is an application that with practice has helped to further familiarise my usability to create more dynamic, interesting and interactive presentations. I started using power-point intermittently in 2009, however on the sparse occasions when I have needed to engage the function, its seems my mature brain has needed more hours in the seat, so to speak ... that really its the repetition and exploration of these technologies that have helped to embed the learning process, to a point where I feel a little more adept with its use.

Barriers to the effective use of technology in education.

Barriers to the effective use of technology in education include the following instances, ranging from slight annoyances to more ethical reasons why some teachers are not engaging in technology to enhance the learning experience of students.

According to Hew & Brush (2006), as quoted in the "Digital Librarian," found six general barriers typically affecting K-12 students, as listed here:

1. Lack of Resources - for some schools there is a shortage of technology supply and 'inadequate technical       support.'

2. Inadequate knowledge and skills - a lack of knowledge of specific technologies, which means for teacher    who do know how to use a particular technology, still may be unsure about how it might '...improve          instruction.'

3. Inadequate knowledge of technology supported pedagogy.  

4. Institutional Barriers - school timetabling structure, school planning prevents effective integration of technology.

5.  Attitudes and Beliefs - whether to use a technology or not '...depends on the individual teachers themselves and the beliefs they hold about technology.' (Ertmer, 2005).

6. Assessment & Subject Culture - The former 'refers to the "general set of institutionalized practices and expectations which have grown up around a particular school subject, and shapes the definition of that subject ...' (Goodson & Mangan, 1995, p.614).

Assessment- leaves little time due to pressures of 'high-stakes testing' in the classroom. Facilitates assessment rather than learning.

Further research has led me to the belief that the main overriding barriers holding back the technological enhancement of learning in education is due, to varying degrees to "...a lack of professional development for technology use is one of the most serious obstacles to fully integrating technology into the curriculum." (Franklin & others, 2009).

So, even if it supposed that the majority of schools and educational providers are more or less using technology to facilitate a more interactive and supported learning approach, as the rate of technology is developing perhaps quicker than practitioners have time to learn and apply it in their learning environments, this suggests that there might always be a technology gap between one classroom and another or from one education provider to the next.

The corporate industry openly recognises the need to employ the services of an Information Communications Technologies support technician to enhance their productivity and effective communication within the organisation; to improve its relations with customers. A similar idea might be applied to the principles that govern the commerce of education. If we are preparing the next generation and supporting adult learners in education, so they may be able to apply their knowledge and key skills, to generate wealth in their communities, the investment together with continuous research and professional development in new technologies needs redress, if we are to strengthen social responsibility and sustain effective communication in the corporate industries.

As a learner in the post compulsory sector, the need as a future practitioner to accelerate other learners practical knowledge of technology and how it might enable and shape their future prospects and experiences, is from my perspective, essential requisites.

References:

Hew & Brush (2006), as quoted in, The Digital Librarian - Barriers to Integrating Technology, Retrieved, 12/12/2013, :>  https://sites.google.com/site/thedigitallibrarian/barriers-to-integrating-technology

Franklin & others (2009), as quoted in, El Semary, Hebatella, Asia Transactions on ATST ISSN: 2221-4283, Volume 01, Issue 05. Retrieved, 12/12/2013 from:> http://www.asian-transactions.org/Journals/Vol01Issue05/ATST/ATST-50127056.pdf

Ted Talks! 'Doolittle' on 'How your "working memory" makes sense of the world!'

Peter Doolittle makes public speaking on Ted Talks appear as if its an effortless 'walk in the park' kind of task; he's funny, charming, engaging and informative. I find it incomprehensible to imagine how anybody could fail to recognise the qualities of this his professional expertise and delivery about 'working memory.'

Besides demonstrating a vast range of subject knowledge, Doolittle appeared to have captivated his entire audience ... I felt both able and compelled to join in as the session transmogrified into a whole new level from that of a lecture to an interactive workshop approach. To maximize the understanding of his audience, Doolittle engaged 'us' in an activity that aimed to prove that our working memory is something we are always aware and he made the critical point that since information bombards us at tremendous speeds, the need to improve our working memory ability is critical to success. 

I concur then that 'working memory' is about our capacity to make informed choices, to source and apply what we think might be useful tools to accomplish our goal targets. As Doolittle explains, the information we receive needs processing either through 'telling someone', writing it down or creating imagery but in all cases, we need to be "...doing something with it,"(Doolittle, 2013) in order for us to make sense of the world.

Challenge yourselves and check your working memory is functioning at a slightly higher than perfunctory level: Highly recommend you watch and share this Ted Talk and its certainly an area worth exploring further, in my opinion. 

How about this for a parting quote: "everything we do is an approximation of sophistication ... if we're not processing life, we are not living it!" (P. Doolittle, 2013)

Power-point Presentation Embedded on Restorative Practice

I will hold back from telling you exactly how many hours have been diligently spent trying to embed this power-point presentation here, as part of the PGCE/T micro teach assessment ...! Relief is an understated word, however after sourcing some technical hitches between different computers, finally the product has miraculously found its way onto the blog ...!

Think I might be trailing behind  my ICT fellow 'expert' students ... but determined to catch up ... so embedding power-point presentations on a blog, yes its possible .... feeling a real sense of achievement for one technology ludite!

Hope its a useful reference tool, for someone:

http://www.slideshare.net/angelaksmith01/pcet-restorative-practice-micro-teach-pp