Realiza-se de 24 a 29 de Outubro de 2008 o II Encontro Nacional da Juventude de Moçambique, na vila de Inhaminga, distrito de Cheringoma, província de Sofala.
O Encontro tem por objectivo avaliar os problemas da juventude Moçambicana na nova conjuntura social, política e económica do País, bem como criar oportunidade de diálogo entre jovens, comunidades e dirigentes governamentais.
Com cerca de 500 participantes representando várias sensibilidades do movimento associativo juvenil Moçambicano, o 2º Encontro nacional da Juventude de Moçambique é Organizado pelo Ministério da Juventude e Desportos de Moçambique em colaboração com o Conselho Nacional da Juventude de Moçambique (CNJ).
We all know I'm a big fan of technologies and gadgets... so when I read last week in the New York Times that one of the more innovative genetic mapping companies (23andme) had reduced the price of its Genetic Mapping service (which many companies sell for up to $2-3,000) from $999 to only a few hundred dollars, I decided it was an amazing amount of information and education to be able to get access to for that amount, so I took the plunge and signed up.
A day later, FedEx delivered a Spit Kit to my house, which requires about 10 minutes of spitting into and mixing together with a solution, and your DNA sample is ready to send back! And off it went to Los Angeles, California to a laboratory today. Funny enough, the FedEx Pak they provide specifically says "do not send liquids" on it :)
So in 6-8 weeks, I'll know where my ancestors are from, whether I'm genetically lactose intolerant, whether or not I love broccoli because I can't taste the bitterness in it, and whether or not I'm a bit more likely than average to get certain diseases or be susceptible to certain conditions in my lifetime, along with dozens of other interesting facts. For less than the price of a university course in genetics, I can view and learn much of the world's most up-to-date knowledge on the relationships between genes and personal/medical conditions personalized to my specific genetic data. How cool is that?
You can make a case against "messing with your life" this way (I had an interesting discussion about this with someone just the other night), but I think that given the great power we have as humans to be intelligent and understand life in a way that no other species can, we then have a responsibility to use it to maximize the potential of our lives. Right? I guess it's also just a bit of an extra motivation knowing that you're slightly more at risk than average to do something about it! (from 1-2 times more or less likely than the generally population, in most cases)
I'll check back in with the results in a few months!
I headed off in the morning to the Australian Science and Math School, hosted at Flinders University. The school is only a few years old, and is built with an open concept -- no classrooms, but instead a number of large spaces with desks and chairs that reconfigured in many different ways to foster teamwork and collaboration. We had a large group - about 50 teachers and school leaders, and had a really interesting day -- when I showed the "Are you listening?" video, a whole bunch of students gathered upstairs in the area overlooking where I was speaking to watch - I think they were really curious that so many teachers were learning about their way of using technology!
After a fantastic dinner by the water with a group of curriculum developers, I headed to sleep -- because I had to catch a 6:40am flight to Canberra!
I made it to the nation's capital early in the morning, and it was freezing! 0 degrees but it warmed up as the sun rose... I had a few hours to fit the gym and have lunch before heading to Canberra University -- the group in Canberra decided to have an evening workshop (4-9pm) with dinner. Although everyone had a full day of work before showing up, we still had a lot of active participation, and after wrapping up at 9 and getting back to the hotel around 10, it was time for sleep for another 6:45am flight back to Sydney for the last workshop of the trip!
Arriving in Sydney in the morning, with my 32kg on-the-dot bag faithfully appearing on the carousel, I headed off to Parramatta right on time, and arrived 3 minutes before the workshop was to begin! We had the biggest crowd of any session -- around 60 people, and so a lot of the interactive sections took a lot longer than usual, but they had great ideas and a large group of schools approached me after and wants to deeply engage their entire district with TIGed, which is exciting! After wrapping up and chatting with a bunch of the attendees, I was off to one of my favourite hotels in the world -- the Westin Sydney, to relax, enjoy their great gym, and have dinner with Jenny, who had the whole series of workshops organized, to debrief on the experience (yum, Tasmanian lamb!). After that, I met up with Jarra and Nick, and headed to Micky's for dessert (Banana Pancakes and Ice Cream!) to catch up and for me to celebrate the completion of 10 sessions in 11 days in 5 cities!
I'm writing this now on the flight to Vancouver -- I managed to get right to sleep after lunch on the 10am flight, which will hopefully mean I can work through the North American day and head to sleep at a proper time tonight. Saturday, we head to Quebec City for the World Youth Congress to meet TIG members from all over the world. I've also agreed to head to Brisbane on the 19th to speak at the Queenland Government's e-learning summit, and after that, I'll be ready to just settle down at home and enjoy the rest of the summer in Toronto :)
Now that I've been away a full week, I forced myself to carve out some time to reflect on the intensity of the time so far before kicking off the second stretch.
As always, our summers at TakingITGlobal are quite busy -- generally for the education "industry", most conferences are held during the summer when teachers have school holidays. This summer, as a follow-up to my keynote at last October's ACEL (Australian Counsel of Educational Leaders) conference (which was apparently quite good even though I was quite sick at the time), I was invited to be a "Traveling Scholar" for ACEL, presenting 5 full-day workshops on TakingITGlobal to school leaders and teachers across Australia. In addition, I started off the trip by keynoting a leadership conference at Melbourne Grammar School, and today keynoted the International Middle Years conference in Adelaide... so I've made quite good use of two weeks!
Sunday - Wednesday: Melbourne
After the trek from Toronto to Vancouver to Sydney to Melbourne, I knew the first thing I needed to do to keep my sanity was to spend a good amount of time at the fitness center at the Westin. What a great idea - it helped me refresh, have a fantastic swim in the beautiful infinity pool, and after a brief stroll that was quickly canceled when the rain started, I got to sleep at a reasonable hour.
On Monday, I woke up nice and early and arrived at the charming greened campus of Melbourne Grammar, one of Melbourne's oldest and most respected private schools. To their enormous credit, they had invited students from a broad cross-section of Melbourne to attend the conference, in addition to a grade of their students. I was brilliantly introduced by one of their capable students, and my keynote was well-received - with more questions from students than we had time for. Following the keynote, a panel including a futurist, scientist, and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson, who cited my presentation several times as they discussed issues of leadership in the 21st century and challenged students to act on the issues they felt challenged by. In the afternoon, I ran several hours of hands-on workshops guiding a small group of students through the TIG site and beginning the Guide to Action as a tool for action planning.
Tuesday morning, I visited Kilsyth, a suburb of Melbourne, and ran a 3 hour workshop with a group of teachers across that region looking at TIG and especially with an interest in Health education... it was a good challenge because we didn't have Internet except for a very slow 2G connection, so I was able to get well prepared and experiment with some activities for the following days' sessions!
That evening, I traveled to Mooney Valley Racecourse (home of Australia's best race - the Cox plate, worth $3 million!) and presented our work at TIG to about 150 principals, who also had some great questions, and I enjoyed meeting a teacher who grew up in Mississauga and had spent his recent years enjoying and exploring Australia's wilderness.
On Wednesday, I spent from 9 AM to 3:30 PM with an enthusiastic group of teachers and principals learning about TIG, exploring global issues, and understanding how to fit our programs and ideas at TIG into the curriculum and everyday use in their classrooms. I also shared our Best Practices on Global Education resource with them... and then I was off to the airport, heading to my next destination: Tasmania!
Thursday - Saturday: Hobart, Tasmania
On Thursday, I woke up and did it all over again, in a beautiful setting amongst Lemon trees at Lateare Gardens in Hobart with a fire burning to keep us all warm and cozy from the cold outside! I think the goals of what we do at TakingITGlobal really connected closely with some people - one teacher was literally in tears sharing how wonderful she thought what we did was... it's really a special opportunity (as exhausting as it is) to be able to share our work with people that are also dedicating their lives to helping young people develop. I think sometimes we all forget the power and opportunity we have to impact the lives of others - and I feel like a few people really felt reconnected to that opportunity, which is really an amazing opportunity to be able to stimulate.
After a short 2 hour break to refresh and do some e-mail, I headed off to the Hobart Yacht club, where I addressed about 50 high school principals, who weren't able to attend the day's workshop because they were having a leadership retreat. I had to pack 90 minutes into a 30 minute before dinner speech, so I think it was overwhelming, but many of them were quite excited by what we do... and I had delicious local Salmon which was a bonus!
The next day was my main day off. I decided not to head off to my next destination right away, but to stick around in Hobart and see some of the beautiful wildlife Tasmania has to offer. So I signed up for a Tasman Island Eco Cruise - having no idea how much of an adventure it would be! After a scenic bus ride to Port Arthur, one of the main convict colonies from the 1800s, we boarded a powerful boat (675 HP) that they describe as a 4x4 of the sea. Initially the ride was quite smooth - and we discovered some caves and amazing rock formations on the coast. The "swells" were only about 1 meter, and so it was just like jumping waves on a boat at home.
However, once we got out to the Tasman Sea, things got a lot more interesting. The waves and the winds were coming strongly from an unusual direction, and 2-3 meter waves and swells gave us quite a ride! I had chosen to sit in the 4th row (moved from the 2nd) and for close to an hour, we jumped waves and it felt like we were on a roller coaster as we plunged down after riding a wave.... but I stuck with my seat - a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
We arrived at two areas with Australian and New Zealand seals, and at a cove where dolphins chased our boat around until we had to leave - amazing to lean over and watch them at the water and bow of the boat jumping up playfully! A number of albatross with their huge wingspans also provided us with an amazing show - watching them fish and gracefully glide across the sky with nothing around us but huge rock and menacing water... or what looked menacing in my book. In 1998, however, the water was so rough that in the annual Sydney-Hobart race, five boats sank and six sailors were killed.
On Saturday morning, before heading to the airport, I spent a few hours enjoying the Salamanca Market, with hundreds of stalls offering delicious local treats and art and coffee and everything needed to pass a few hours and take in the culture of a place!
Sunday - Monday: Adelaide, South Australia
Now I'm here in Adelaide, where this morning I keynoted the International Middle Years of Schooling conference, and was again introduced by a fantastic student duo! I gave out dozens of bookmarks afterwards, with many many people promising to check out the site and connect their students into TIG. I was also followed by an excellent presentation by Professor Erica, who gave a talk on creativity that linked really perfectly and built on top of many of the themes I covered.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Australian Science and Mathematics School to do another day-long workshop, and then heading to Canberra the next morning... I'll be sure to check in soon with more! And I'll be editing this entry in about 2 hours with photos once they upload.
This is one of the main issues for discussion of current affairs in my country (Mozambique), a country where the largest age group of the population is young and where there is high levels of poverty. With the National Independence (1975), the opening to the world and with the development, more young people were gaining instruction and capaciddes, but many, due to poverty, remain in unemployment and with few opportunities for access to the labour market.
As in many parts of the world, crime, drugs, HIV-AIDS (AIDS) are a consequence of poverty and lead young people to take a big challenge: The COMBAT POVERTY.
Here is once again the question: Is the youth is prepared to lead this challenge and embrace these countries as Mozambique?
Esta é uma das principais questões de debate da actualidade no meu País (Moçambique), um País onde a maior faixa etária da população é jovem e onde ainda há elevados índices de pobreza. Com a independência Nacional (1975), a abertura ao mundo e com o desenvolvimento, mais jovens foram ganhando instrução e capaciddes, mas muitos, devido à pobreza, continuam no desemprego e com fracas possibilidades de acesso ao mercado de trabalho.
Tal como em várias partes do mundo, a criminalidade, a droga, o HIV-SIDA (AIDS) são consequência da pobreza e levam os jovens a assumir um grande desafio: O COMBATE À POBREZA.
Ai voltamos a questão: Será que a juventude está preparada para abraçar e liderar este desafio destes países como Moçambique ??
I'm speaking tomorrow at PUSH, an interesting conference here in Minneapolis, MN
The first session that just wrapped up was quite interesting - Chandran Nair took us through a look at the world's problems and how many misconceptions there are about what can solve them. What I found striking was the comparison of world problems to spending on trivial/much less meaningful things:
Health & Nutrition ($13B) : Petfood Spending in the USA ($17B)
Water and Sanitation ($9B) : Ice Cream in Europe ($11B)
Education ($6B) : Cosmetics in the USA ($8B)
Jonathan Greenblatt, one of the co-founders of Ethos Water, also gave us a compelling look into the world of Water and how simple and cheap ($25/person) it is to solve. The one thing I don't get - on a $1.79 bottle of water, Starbucks (which acquired Ethos) donates 5 cents (10 cents in Canada oddly). They were founded on the basis of donating 50% of profits... I can't believe profit on that bottle of water is only 10 cents! (considering how much cheaper other bottled water is). Anyway, he now works with a new magazine - GOOD - which has a unique subscription model of giving away the $20 subscription fee to a charity of your choice.
How can this not inspire you with hope that the messages that captivate our friends in the U.S. voting this fall can be positive and not just negative? Messages that excite with the possibility of a positive future, not try to cast fear and uncertainty as the reason to select a person.
I'm very proud of them for ending the video with the simple message of "vote" - resisting the urge to squeeze it beyond need towards the candidate.
My apologies for this very geek-specific post. If you don't have a Dell m1330 laptop, you can ignore it!
My Dell XPS m1330 is my favorite laptop yet (I think it's my 10th in 10 years!), but Dell and Microsoft have made it far too hard to re-format it cleanly without Windows Vista Blue-screening on every second boot (caused by the AHCI setting in BIOS, but not providing AHCI drivers during install). It took me awhile to figure out how to do this properly, so I thought I'd share to help the rest of the Internet figure it out.
2) Run the file with a "-a" from the Windows commandline, which will put those files into the "C:Program FilesIntelIntel Matrix Storage Manager" directory
3) Copy the files from the "Drivers" or "Drivers64" (64-bit Vista) directory onto a USB Key
4) When you install Vista from the DVD, pick the "Custom" option, then click "Load Drivers"
5) Click "Browse", and point to your USB stick. Load the drivers from it.
I'm generally a big fan of Rogers - I feel they are probably the best and generally most innovative of the telecom companies here in Canada (Bell, which many people have terrible customer service experiences with - my experience has been the same - and Telus is stuck with CDMA, which doesn't roam well, so that's not good for people who travel.)
The one thing that never ceases to annoy and frustrate me though is their IVR phone system. It's probably been 3 years that I've been calling and every time I get through, I complain and ask them to note it down. They always acknowledge that everyone complains and they say they're working on improving it, but it never happens.
I don't know how they can get it so wrong compared to other industries (airlines, banks, etc.) or even their U.S. competitors like Verizon which have great phone systems! Here are the steps to get to Wireless Customer Service for example:
1. Say "Wireless"
2. Say "Talk to a Representative"
3. Say "Account Changes"
4. Say "Blackberry" or "Phone" (how does this make any sense?)
5. Punch in your Phone Number
6. Be greeted by a representative, who then asks for your phone number again?! Then you have to verify your name, postal code, and DOB. What a waste of time... they should just instead let you pick a PIN and then use that instead.
The best part is that this happens even when you dial 611 from your phone! It could easily detect your number from caller ID and not even bother to ask you anything.
There's a great site called gethuman dedicated to frusturation about IVRs and phone systems, and they've developed a Gethuman Standard for well-designed phone systems. A key point from it:
"# Callers should never be asked to repeat any information (name, full account number, description of issue, etc.) provided to a human or an automated system during a call."
The day that Rogers implements a proper system that does justice to their innovation in so many other areas, I will officially call them a company I love.
2007 was an exceptionally busy year for me and us at TakingITGlobal. But especially on the conference front - I was able to share our work with people in many countries! It all adds up to over 170,000 miles of flying, if you can believe it!
Speaking of travel, one of my favorite things to do in other countries is visiting supermarkets and buying some local treats... Now I can't visit New Zealand without brining home Tim Tams and Manuka Honey... and I have Milo from Bahrain in the kitchen! It's a fun way to check out the local culture.
Now I'm going to work on offsetting my flights by working on our new Understanding the Issues page on Climate Change!
Gostaria de neste post buscar comentários, ideias, criticas e tudo o que se julgue importante sobre os jovens e o mercado de trabalho. Também podemos aqui trocar impressões sobre o auto emprego, sobre como é que os jovens podem buscar auto-emprego, e qual é o papel dos governos, do empresariado e dos outros intervenientes nestes sectores.
No Meu País, Moçambique, as taxas de desemprego rondam em pouco mais de 35 por cento nos principais centros urbanos, apesar de ainda não haverem estudos e pesquisas mais profundas sobre o emprego, sobre as taxas de desemprego em Moçambique.
No entanto, há esforços tanto do Governo, bem como do empresariado e sociedade civil no sentido de criar mais postos de trabalho, gerar fundos de empreendedorismo juvenil, e outras oportunidades de geração de emprego...
Isto são apenas dados iniciais sobre o debate que pretendo que seja continuado por si caro jovem leitor.
In English:
It would like in this post to search commentaries, ideias, you criticize and everything what if it judges important on the young and the market of work.
Also we can change impressions on the self employement, on as it is that here the young can search auto-job, and which is the paper of the governments, the private sector one and the other intervening ones in these sectors.
In My Country, Mozambique, the unemployment taxes make the rounds little in more than 35 percent in the main urban centers, although still not to have studies and deeper research on the job, on the taxes of unemployment in Moçambique. However, it has efforts of the Government in such a way, as well as of empresariado and the civil society in the direction creating more ranks of work, generating deep of youthful empreendedorismo, and other chances of job generation...
This only is given initial on the debate that I intend that he is continued by itself expensive reader...
What an interesting 48 hours! After Susheela and Andrew’s wonderful wedding on Saturday afternoon, I headed off to the airport to speak on the final day of the Fikr 6 conference happening in Manama, Bahrain. Today, I attended a morning session with John Clippinger moderated by Joi Ito, discussing the implications of technology on the region and for the future. The discussion got into intellectual property and open source, and I found particularly interesting comments made by the panelist from Saudi Aramco, the Saudi oil company, who spoke about the fact that SA was a very open partner and keen participant in many technology collaborations, attributed to the fact that they weren’t interested in owning or licensing intellectual property, but rather just getting access to the best ideas that they could implement locally. It’s nice to be in that position sitting on top of such a resource!
Later, there was a discussion on sustainable housing and building – and the future of energy in the region. One of the speakers was talking about how valuable the sun resource was in MENA - and quoted the fact that a 50x50 square km field of solar panels (current technology) could power the whole MENA region, 100x100 all of Europe, and 300x300 sq km all of the world! Everyone seemed quite intrigued by that, reflecting that only the low low cost of oil has prevented that from becoming a reality. I hope that the cost of Solar will come down to make these types of projects possible in the future…
Before our panel on Social Networks, the Crown Prince of Bahrain was interviewed on stage, and the conversation really heated up over a government plan to impose 200BD ($500 CDN) surcharges on companies for hiring immigrant workers. An interesting solution to a perceived challenge of immigrant workers taking jobs from locals – however, it was also acknowledged that many locals aren’t interested in certain types of hard skill jobs. The prince committed to re-opening a polytechnic college to train more locals on skills.
My panel on Social Networks included Cory Ondrejka From Linden Labs / Second Life, Eric Case from Google / Blogger.com, and Joi Ito (photo credit to Joi for the Prince Bandar photo). We discussed why Web 2.0 isn’t just about wasting time, how sites (like TIG!) can be used for youth to continue the conversations and take action on the issues discussed, the digital divide, and closed with a question of the potential negative impact of technology. (Joi and Cory saved it from being too much of a downer...) :)
Later this afternoon three different youth innovation groups presented ideas on Technology, Investment, and Education for support and endorsement from the audience – all very articulate and with great ideas! Tonight there’s a dinner hosted by the Prince and then tomorrow I have a few hours to relax and check out Bahrain’s UNESCO site before heading home…
P.S. To follow-up on my last blog, we were surprised and honoured to find out in San Jose that we weren't just a Tech Awards laureate, but the prize winner in the Education category! Congratulations to Luke and Emily for leading TIGed to make it all possible!
I've been busy lately and meaning to blog for ages, so I thought I'd give an update on what's been a whirlwind last few weeks for me.
During the last week of October, I had the honour of presenting at the TTI/Vanguard conference on leveraging networks - this is the conference that Jen and I were invited by Nicholas Negroponte to speak at back in 2000 that connected us to several friends and advisors, so I was excited to have the chance again, and it was a great learning experience too! Although I had to leave after the first day to speak at a conference in Calgary.
Later that week, I visited the amazing Orchard School in Indianapolis, where I spoke at the Middle School leadership conference, and also to the faculty about TIG and how they could get involved with global education through the TIGed tools! I got some great feedback and several of the teachers saw immediate ways to get started on TIG.
In the first week of October, I was supposed to fly to another conference in Sydney stopping in Auckland to present two workshops at ULEARN 07 with the help of Cherrie Kong, one of our TIG members from NZ that was involved in our Student Voices contest and been involved in helping with many other things since then. However, after the crazy few weeks beforehand, and with a lot of needs at TIG on the tech front, I decided to stay home for the week and carve out some serious coding time to catch up with all the things I needed to work on! Cherrie was a HUGE help managing the workshop remotely and I presented via video conference :)
Last week, I travelled to Sydney to speak at the Australian Council for School Leaders (ACEL) and ASCD joint International conference, where I shared my story and TIG's vision and programs with over 1,500 school leaders from Australia, Asia, and the USA. I feel like it went very well - I've been invited back by a few different people and noticed many new Australia TIG members each day for the last few days! I did something a bit silly too. I really wanted to get Air Canada Super Elite status this year (which you get by flying over 100,000 miles) - so I flew to Sydney via Taiwan and Singapore - an extra 7 hours each way! It was the same price and Singapore Airlines is fabulous, so it wasn't too bad. (plus I got upgraded on several of the flights so I ate some tasty food - and spent time in the gym at the Singapore airport in both directions!) And now I have the status so I'm looking forward to extra-special treatment by Air Canada in the future :)
This week, I spoke in Edmonton yesterday at the Alberta Distance Education symposium to about 500 educators from K-12 and Universitiy, and hopefully got a lot of people in Alberta excited about TIG and TIGed! I took a few hours before dinner to check out the West Edmonton Mall which was actually quite cool.
Today I flew to Fairbanks, Alaska to speak at the University of Fairbanks tomorrow to their Student Leadership conference, and Monday to University faculty and local educators before flying back home on Monday night. I'll enjoy almost a week at home before heading to Helsinki, Finland next week for the School of the Future conference where our advisory board for the MS education program will be meeting, and I'll be presenting TIGed. The week after that, I'm excited to be travelling with Nick to the Tech Museum Awards, where TIG is being honoured this year as a winner in the Education Category!
I hope all of you are doing well, and welcome to all the new TIG members that I have been recruiting in my travels! :)
I was playing around with this software and created a demo of the new Member Map feature on TIG. Is this helpful? I think we'll create a number of screencasts to demo and explain how to use all kinds of tools and features on TIG. Hope to hear your feedback!
After the trek from Toronto to Vancouver to Sydney to Melbourne, I knew the first thing I needed to do to keep my sanity was to spend a good amount of time at the fitness center at the Westin. What a great idea - it helped me refresh, have a fantastic swim in the beautiful infinity pool, and after a brief stroll that was quickly canceled when the rain started, I got to sleep at a reasonable hour.
On Thursday, I woke up and did it all over again, in a beautiful setting amongst Lemon trees at Lateare Gardens in Hobart with a fire burning to keep us all warm and cozy from the cold outside! I think the goals of what we do at TakingITGlobal really connected closely with some people - one teacher was literally in tears sharing how wonderful she thought what we did was... it's really a special opportunity (as exhausting as it is) to be able to share our work with people that are also dedicating their lives to helping young people develop. I think sometimes we all forget the power and opportunity we have to impact the lives of others - and I feel like a few people really felt reconnected to that opportunity, which is really an amazing opportunity to be able to stimulate.
What an interesting 48 hours! After 
Before our panel on Social Networks, the Crown Prince of Bahrain was interviewed on stage, and the conversation really heated up over a government plan to impose 200BD ($500 CDN) surcharges on companies for hiring immigrant workers. An interesting solution to a perceived challenge of immigrant workers taking jobs from locals – however, it was also acknowledged that many locals aren’t interested in certain types of hard skill jobs. The prince committed to re-opening a polytechnic college to train more locals on skills.
Last week, I travelled to Sydney to speak at the Australian Council for School Leaders (ACEL) and ASCD 