« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
"By not allowing them to print books, will the thoughts and ideas go away? If they want to teach radicalism, someone can teach without a book."
-- Gershon Baskin, Israeli Director of the Israel-Palestine Centre for Research and Information, on the decision by Israel to halt the importation of textbook paper into Gaza. Click here for more.
Powered by ScribeFire.
I made a joke a few days ago about a ban on pencils as a logical equivalent to Turkey's ban on Wordpress. Now Israel is banning the importation of paper into Gaza. The paper is destined to be used to print school textbooks, and since paper is not defined strictly as a component of humanitarian aid in the same way as food and medicines, it is not exempt from Israel's blockade.
It is so widely known that education is one of the greatest weapons against poverty, that I can not imagine the logic of this ban. An unidentified spokesman for the Israeli government said the ban was to keep Hamas from publishing textbooks with inflammatory propaganda, but depriving children of the opportunity to read --and learn-- for themselves seems bent on sealing the fate of those school children to remain impoverished and to become uneducated, undiscerning and without hope.
That sounds to me like excellent raw material for a whole generation of suicide bombers.
For more on the blockade and its impact on education in Palestine, click here.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Another foreigner-in-Turkey blogger just sent me an email with his new url, explaining that Wordpress is now blocked in Turkey. Not just his blog, mind you, but everything that has wordpress in the URL.
My friend's blog is just an innocent bystander caught in a legal dispute over a jailed cult leader and the press both for and against his cause. Since one blog in English that is hosted by Wordpress was deemed inflammatory, a judge decided that it would be best to just block Wordpress than try to get Wordpress to ban a single blogger (although that strategy did work in a similar debacle with YouTube a few months ago.
As the smoke which rises from such virtual blog bonfires becomes visible to more and more, we can expect the court decision to be reversed. How those who are threatened by such freedom will respond can still apparently go either way, but they are bound to learn that there is now no closing the door to borderless blogging.
This certainly puts the my-school-blocks-my-blog woes in perspective.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Over the last year edubloggers have discussed more and more the role of mobile phones in educational technology, recognizing the near-native ability that young people have with text messaging and "info sharing" (read: photos and music). What happens though, after the final bell rings and those same young people head for the school parking lot?
Today was a slow day for me, so I got to watch Dr. Phil for the first time in my life. Today's show was about teens who read and compose text messages while driving. Dr. Phil interviewed a 17-year-old girl who has been driving for 4 months, and who averages 5000 text messages a month. He also had on the show a young man who struck a man on a bicycle with his car while text messaging; the man later died from his injuries.
The tenacity of these teens' addiction to texting parallels that of other substance abuses. I've seen similar cases in Turkey (and not limited to teenagers), but what I haven't seen are programs that impress upon people the seriousness of this kind of behavior while driving. At the very least, we can borrow a question from Dr. Phil and calculate how far a car going 80 kph will travel during the 2 seconds it takes to take your eyes off the road and look at a text message.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I think that before mobile phones get mainstreamed into the classroom there ought to be some way to ensure more responsible phone use outside of class. The last thing we want is to require students to become even more dependent on something that can cost a life.
For more on this episode of Dr. Phil, follow this link: Dr. Phil.com - Shows - Season 6 Premiere
On a related note, one new TV commercial I've noticed since we came to the US this summer shows a car salesman pointing out the features of a new car to a couple of young men. The best selling point turns out to be a dock for an MP3 player in the car's dashboard. So much for encouraging teenagers to think critically and make good choices.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Just got back from taking JoNell to the airport for her return trip to Ankara. Now it's just Andy and me in his place at our friends' house.
When the iPhone came out in late June, the retail price was $599. Now they're going for $399. While that's still out of range for anyone's dreams of a one-iPhone-per-child school project, we can see the gadgets slide down a little closer to the intersection of demand and supply.
According to Steve Jobs, "there will always be people who pay top dollar for the latest electronics but get angry later when the price drops". True, but few expect next generation technologies, and lower prices for the displaced technologies, to hit the market in only three months. Bill Gates seems to always get worse press for his capitalist ventures, but maybe Bill's got some things right about the world that Steve still hasn't learned.
Link: Apple responds to backlash, offers store credit - Wireless World - MSNBC.com
Powered by ScribeFire.
Both boys are settled and have completed their second week of classes at college. This week it's been JoNell's turn. Since she goes back to Turkey on Sunday we're making sure she gets some time with friends, music shopping and other stuff she enjoys. A highlight was when we took off for a few days to stroll in San Antonio, something we hadn't done since before we had children.
We love the River Walk there, which is a shady riverside walkway that meanders through the city, below the street level so it's out of the noise, and lined with the city's best restaurants, bars and shops. It was great to relax, put away the to-do lists, enjoy the food, speak some Spanish, reflect on 22 years together, and let out one long sigh of relief that the boys will be OK after all.
We'll finish out the week with some last minute shopping for things that JoNell will take back. I'm staying behind a few extra weeks to keep an eye on the boys and wrap up some family affairs. Being away from Ankara has made me drop out of step with my edublogger colleagues who are now cranking up for a new school year and filling up my Bloglines aggregator with lots of new conversations. I'm sorry if I'm getting behind, but I'm officially on leave of absence now, so I'm not yet in any back-to-school frame of mind.
Just give me one more week.
