Article for This Week

Dear all,

As Maria said that she can't make it this week, I think it would be a good idea to postpone the poverty and education topic she picked to next week, so that she can still be the host :)

One or two weeks ago I posted some discussion materials about Google TV Ads here. I think we can discuss it this week. Here are the materials I posted earlier, from Slate Magazine.

1. How I Run an Ad on FOX News: video clip from Slate
2. Google TV Ads Official Website
3. Google TV Ads: Still a Tough Sell: Analysis article from Business Week

Please at least take a look at the first and third materials. For Google TV Ads' official website, please take a look at sections like "Product Overview" and "Product Guideline" if you have time. (you can read more if you like :p)

Talk to you soon :)

All the Best,

Angela

on Poverty, Education and Creativity - topic for April 3rd

Lately I can't stop wondering about world poverty, which lead to the others issues. The article and clips are not new, but I don't see that the knowledge is outdated:

• Is Education the Cure for Poverty
• if too much Schools Kills Creativities
• What is Creativities anyway?
  

I tried to find some answers on the internet. But I believe both of you might have a different point of view.

1. Do you think higher education is equal to higher income?
2. Why do you think higly educated people tends to live inside an ivory tower?
3. The article wrote that "Education is a supply-side policy; it improves the quality of workers, not the quality or the quantity of jobs." If the job available is only the labor jobs, will do you still think we still need to invest on education?
4. Do you agree with Ken Robinson, that schools kills creativity?
5. Don't you agree that, dancing or performing or art profession in general can't feed you well?
6. Did you ever experience Muse, god of inspire, was sneaking around you like what Elizabeth Gilbert said?
7. Beside art and technology, caould you think of other fields that need creativities? Do you think creativity is needed for simply running our daily life?

cheers,

maria ^.^

On Capital Punishment and Anti-Olympic Campaign

Dear all,

The week earlier we (i.e., James and I) discussed anti-Olympic campaign and touched a little bit on capital punishment, though these two seem irrelevant haha. Last night I had chance chatting with my Canadian friend about these two issues and now I would like to share with you his perspective.

For one of the eight reasons for the anti-Olympic campaign, mentioned in this video, both James and I were curious about the reason of "Impact on Women," that is, causing women trade, missing, and prostitution, etc. My Canadian friend basically opposed such statement, saying that there is no valid evidence for this. He though Olympics is a family event where the activities held are healthy and joyful. He though it doesn't make sense to him that Olympics causing negative impact on women.

On the other hand, I have to mention that Olympics indeed causes heavy economic burden to the hosting country / city. With the conclusion of 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic (actually now the Paralympic is still going on), the B.C. (British Columbia province, where Vancouver is located) government is going to increase the fare for public transportation system (see translink website: fare increase). effective starting from April 1st. One of the reason for the increase, according to some consensus, is because of the heavy economic burden caused by Olympics. With such policy, I will also be one of the victims :(

For the capital punishment, as far as my Canadian friend remembered, Canada has long been forbidden capital punishment, though himself, a faithful Christian, does support capital punishment. When being further asked in terms of the overall consensus here in Canada, he said that most Canadian people may be against capital punishment, yet they do think the current justice system is not good enough to supplement the absence of capital punishment. There should be stronger and fairer justice system so that the justice can be realized if there is no capital punishment.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Angela

Discussion Material for Next Session

Dear all,

Whether we will have next session on March 26 (Taiwan time March 27th) or not, and whether it is me or Maria or James who will host the session, I think it would be a good idea that we have a back-up plan, that is, some tentative discussion material for next session. I can volunteer for that. As a matter of fact, just now while googling some interesting topics, I went to Slate Magazine and found something novel to me: Google TV Ads. I think we may discuss this next time.

Here are some materials that I think you may need to browse:

1. How I Run an Ad on FOX News: video clip from Slate
2. Google TV Ads Official Website: take a look at sections like "Product Overview" and "Product Guideline" if you have time
3. Google TV Ads: Still a Tough Sell: Analysis article from Business Week

That's pretty much it so far. Hope Maria and I can discuss this on March 26 (Taiwan time March 27). If not, we can still discuss this the week after. Or, if Maria you have the topic you wanna touch with, you can post it here and we can postpone this one later :)

All the Best,

Angela

Question on Mar. 26 (Taiwan Time Mar. 27) Discussion

Dear all,

Here is something about next week's discussion. James is going to France for a conference (yay!) for a couple of days and thus won't be able to make it for next week's discussion. I was wondering if Maria you are able to make it or not. If so, then we can still have the session next week, for I will be available then. If you are not able to make it, please let me know, and we may postpone the session to the week after.

Also, if you can make it next week (Taiwan time March 20), and if you are interested in leading the session, please let me know and post materials on this blog. Otherwise I will post the articles. Thank you for informing us :)

All the Best,

Angela

Mar. 19 (Taiwan Time Mar. 20) Discussion Materials

Dear all,

Hope you are all doing well. This time we're going to talk about something related to social networking sites / tools. I chose two articles, which you may find not so related to each other.

1. Let’s Come Back Offline
2. From Farmville to the classroom

We may share our experiences as to how you use social networking tools and how they affect your life. Are there any educational benefits that the cyber games can generate? If so, how? If not, why not? I think these are all interesting questions :)

Talk to you soon!

Best,

Angela

About Mar.19 (20th Taiwan Time) Discussion Materials

Dear all,

Currently I'm kind of busy and will post the discussion materials no later than March 17th (18th Taiwan time). Sorry for inconvenience!

All the Best,

Angela

Article for March 13th Discussion

As I now live in Vancouver and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Game just finished, though I spent the most of Olympic break in Taiwan, I think we can still talk a little bit about the Olympic Games.

This is the article that we're going to discuss (click it): Anti-Olympic protesters converge on Vancouver.

During the beforehand preparation and even the game events, there were some anti-Olympic protests. Such anti-Olympic events are not exclusive to the Vancouver one; they can be traced back as early as maybe a decade ago. Issues such as globalization and sustainability and poverty are often addressed in anti-Olympic demonstrations.

You can also refer to this video:Resist 2010: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics.

You can also take a look at the The Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) website.

What's your opinion regarding the Game and the demonstrations? Let's talk more about it on March 13th's discussion :)

Talk to you soon!

Best,
Angela