CNN Report Concerning Online Education – Video
Posted: June 3, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Go here to read the rest:
CNN Report Concerning Online Education - Video
Parents need some help with their navigation
Posted: at 7:11 pm
AS TECHNOLOGY blurs the boundaries between the classroom and the home, parents have a vital role to play in their children's online education - but not all of them feel up to the task.
A survey has found that 87 per cent of Australian parents say their children use the internet at least weekly for homework, research or educational games, but 45 per cent have not been able to help their children resolve problems using the internet.
The survey of more than 1000 parents with children aged 5 to 17 was commissioned by NBN Co and its results were released yesterday. It found 74 per cent of parents of primary school students were more confident than their children about using the internet, but that proportion fell to 47 per cent among parents of children at high school.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Philip Argy, of the NSW Parents' Council state executive, said parents had a vital role to play in helping their children's online learning.
''Many parents do not feel up to that task and part of our work is to help parents to understand the important role internet-connected learning has in their child's education, instead of being sidelined through technology mysticism,'' he said.
Schools and websites were increasingly offering advice for parents wanting to help their children navigate online, Mr Argy said. Ninety-four per cent of parents surveyed for the report agreed that having high speed internet at home was important for their children's education.
Read more:
Parents need some help with their navigation
Crestview Fire Department localizes hurricane excercise
Posted: at 1:16 pm
Crestview firefighters not only monitored the progress of a fictitious category 3 hurricane, they threw a few unexpected twists into the countys annual hurricane planning exercise that sent participants hunkered down in the county Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Niceville scrambling.
Technically a hurrex, or hurricane exercise, Hurricane Gispert (named for an emergency planner in Hillsborough County) was modeled on 1998s Hurricane Georges. That storms severe flooding rendered Crestview an island cut off from surrounding communities.
Crestview Fire Department veterans Battalion Chief Tony Holland and Assistant Chief Ralph Everage were on duty during Georges. When Randy McDaniel, chief of Okaloosa Countys Emergency Management department, asked Crestview emergency responders to join the Hurrex Gispert exercise, their first-hand experience proved invaluable.
Randy had asked for some input from Crestview, Everage explained. He wanted something other than a coastal component and asked for some input from us.
We wanted them to consider what they could possibly need in the city shortfalls they would have in a flooding event, making us jump through the hoops to find those things for them, McDaniel said.
As the virtual storm approached at 8 a.m. May 24, Holland and Everage logged into WebEOC, an Internet-based communications system used by emergency management agencies throughout the county. The system is also linked to the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, which monitored the states local Gispert exercises.
Using their experience from past storms, Holland and Everage devised injects, or storm-related emergency situation scenarios, and entered them into WebEOC.
As the storm buffeted the region, Holland entered, In the area of (State Road) 85 and (U.S. Highway) 90 there are power lines down and the traffic light is on the ground.
The scenario and others from neighboring agencies flowed into the system. County Emergency Management staff prioritized the incidents and assigned them to various emergency services function (ESF) organizations.
ESFs include county and municipal public works offices, fire and search-and-rescue units, the Red Cross and Salvation Army, public utilities, the military, law enforcement agencies, municipal governments, the county health department, and animal control.
Excerpt from:
Crestview Fire Department localizes hurricane excercise
Tips for exploring Bangkok for free
Posted: at 1:16 pm
BANGKOK Chaos is part of Bangkok's charm. But the savvy traveler quickly learns how to navigate Bangkok's legendary traffic jams and discover its soul, a mix of urban jungle and Buddhist serenity where shopping and eating are national pastimes.
Despite the weak dollar, Bangkok remains one of the best deals in Asia. Some of the world's tastiest street food sells for as little as 25 baht (80 cents) a plate. Beat traffic by zipping down side streets in a tuk-tuk or cruising up the Chao Phraya on public express boats for stunning views of the city's premier attractions both for about a dollar. Other favorite outings are free:
LUMPINI PARK: An oasis of tropical gardens and paved jogging paths in the middle of the city. Beat the heat by avoiding the park in midday. There are early-morning tai chi classes and after-work aerobics classes. You can rent paddle boats, take the kids to one of Bangkok's best outdoor playgrounds or marvel at the massive monitor lizards in the lake.
CHATUCHAK MARKET: Browsing is free at the largest outdoor market in Thailand, and it's a sight to see whether or not you take something home. Chatuchak's thousands of stalls are divided into sections that include antiques, home dcor, clothing and food. You can find everything from Buddha statues and Thai handicrafts to handmade jewelry and the occasional endangered species in the live animal section. For upscale, air-conditioned window shopping, head to shopping malls Siam Paragon, Emporium or Central World.
TEMPLE HOPPING: Catch some karma at Bangkok's many Buddhist temples, known in Thai as "wats." Some of the most popular, Wat Po and Wat Arun, ask foreigners to pay a minimal entrance fee but hundreds of others are free, including the impressive Temple of the Golden Mount, also known as Wat Saket. A temple compound's shaded walkways and quiet corners are a perfect place to escape the sensory overload on Bangkok's busy streets.
FLOWER MARKET: Bangkok's largest flower market, Pak Klong Talat, is open 24 hours but it's busiest just after 2 a.m. when traders unload their fresh-cut blossoms in bulk. It's a kaleidoscope of colors with an incredible selection of orchids at jaw-droppingly cheap prices. The market is just south of Wat Pho and not far from the Grand Palace in the historical section of old Bangkok.
PATPONG: For a walk on Bangkok's wild side, take an evening stroll along Patpong Road. It offers the incongruous mix of go-go bars and evening shopping. A thriving night market selling T-shirts, pirated DVDs and other souvenirs runs through the red-light district and spills onto the adjacent Silom Road, which is packed with street food vendors, restaurants and bars.
ART: Giving life to clay
Posted: at 5:11 am
Crisci Chan
CLAY art teacher Crisci Chan enjoys giving life to the mundane. And she has opened up another world to children, a world of favourite cartoon characters.
Chan has, in her own way, moulded the future of these children by developing their creativity. Her classes at her studio in Paramount Garden, Petaling Jaya, reverberates with the ooohs and aaahs of children, who marvel that at the turn of their fingers, characters such as Smurfs, Angry Birds, Tony Tony Chopper and Hello Kitty come to life.
Chan says that a child who had no interest in the art at all became totally engrossed after he learnt that he could make miniatures of the chocolate cakes he likes.
Another, an autistic, began to communicate with Chan after she gave special attention to the child and earned his confidence.
These are some of the extraordinary encounters I had with children through my art, says Chan who gave up her promising marketing career in Singapore last year to promote clay art.
Chan teaches her art at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, kindergartens and shopping malls and also offers one-to-one coaching.
Clay art is one way of helping children develop the brain. Art trains us to think outside the box. It helps children to understand concepts with greater ease and achieve better grades, says Chan.
I loved making things with my hands ever since I was a child. When I was about 15, I made a miniature of my home using cards and balsa wood. I still have the model. Art is not limited to 2-D, it is much more fun doing 3-D art.
Her mother was instrumental in helping Chan develop an interest in art. She sent me to art tuition every Sunday when I was little until I was 17.
See original here:
ART: Giving life to clay
Coaching chess match subplot to Spurs-Thunder series
Posted: at 5:11 am
OKLAHOMA CITYIt is like a game of chess with real, live human pieces, a move that leads to a countermove and men always trying to anticipate the next two or three or more moves that the opponent will make.
It is difficult and stressful and all thats at stake is a season as Scott Brooks of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs try to figure out what the other will do in the NBAs Western Conference final.
It was said early in the best-of-seven series that Popovich was playing chess while Brooks was playing checkers. It was a cute oversimplification and a nifty throwaway line, not to mention dead wrong.
Its an intricate business figuring out what might work and putting your players in position to assure that it does. As criticized as Brooks was after the Thunder fell behind 2-0, he was lauded when Oklahoma City clawed back into the series with a Game 3 victory.
Brooks decision to use the 6-foot-7 Thabo Sefolosha to defend San Antonios 6-foot-2 point guard Tony Parker worked wonders, as did the move to switch a lot of high screen-and-rolls and make life difficult for Manu Ginobili once he got the ball.
Well, there were changes, said Ginobili. Its hard to tell which one influenced the game the most. But they had a switch more on me, and it worked in that game. So hopefully we make them pay a little bit more in the next one.
And thats where the move-countermove coaching game plays out with the most intrigue. Brooks made an adjustment, shifting the focus onto the Spurs to come up with something new.
We went to dinner (between Games 3 and 4), and we talked a lot about what happened and how we can improve, but players things, said Ginobili.
Yeah, we thought about some things, which Im not going to tell you guys.
It wasnt exactly a stroke of genius teams have been using taller defenders to crowd Parker for years but Brooks alteration brought kudos.
Read the original:
Coaching chess match subplot to Spurs-Thunder series
My Turn: Jeff Miller — Life, the universe and the game of tennis
Posted: at 5:11 am
My grandfather once described my aunt and uncle as "two people who spent their entire life taking care of a bird."
Grandpa had a knack for those kinds of unflattering insights. If I ever see him in that, you know, other world, I would not be surprised if he dismissed my wife, Julie, and me as "two people who spent their adult life trying to nudge their tennis game a notch above mediocre."
Mercifully, Grandpa wasn't courtside for my spectacular 1987 come-from-behind doubles victory in the Men's C Division of our local Tracy Austin Doubles Tennis Tournament, uh, against a 9-year-old boy and his big-hearted dad. My 40-year-old partner and I made a strategic decision that achieving victory by relentlessly hitting every ball to the 9-year-old boy was the lesser of two evils.
But I have come a long way since then. Starting any sport later in life is always a huge disadvantage. When I was growing up in the '50s and '60s in a small Midwestern town, folks didn't respect tennis the way they did, say, football, hockey, boxing or baseball. Tennis had a bad rap as the sport for "rich sissies" and baseball ruled as our national pastime.
Nonetheless, both sports involve the same basic activity, hitting a ball with a club.
The only difference is that tennis players actually move around to hit the ball.
Baseball's much higher status, back then, solely stems from the risk of getting beaned in the head by a hard ball.
Plotting my
He looked me over with a condescending smile: "I just told a father it was way too late for his 13-year-old daughter to begin tennis with any hope of turning pro. It takes at least 10 years and 1,000 hours to develop high-level skills, and pre-puberty is the best time for developing certain capabilities. I redirected the family to badminton, where the numbers are a little better."
A career as badminton pro? How embarrassing. We joined the Peninsula Racquet Club, which at the time should have been called the Peninsula Racquet and Drinking Club.
Read more here:
My Turn: Jeff Miller -- Life, the universe and the game of tennis
What is Share It Fitness? (www.shareitfitness.com) – Video
Posted: at 5:11 am
View original post here:
What is Share It Fitness? (www.shareitfitness.com) - Video
Body-Mind Health and Fitness – Video
Posted: at 5:11 am
Read this article:
Body-Mind Health and Fitness - Video
Achievable Health and Fitness Tips – Video
Posted: at 5:11 am
Read the original here:
Achievable Health and Fitness Tips - Video