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Nairobi 2010 Conference Reoprt  Climate Change and Natural Resource Use in Eastern Africa: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation Report of the 3rd Scientific Conference of the Ecological Society for Eastern Africa (ESEA) and co-hosted with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) at Multimedia University College, Nairobi, 19 - 21 May 2010 By Nicholas Oguge, Caroline Lumosi, Teddy Odindo, Joseph Ngondi and Philista Malaki October 4, 2010 Summary While the Earth's climate has changed throughout history, the current warming trend has been of particular concern because most of it is human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented.  One of the greatest concerns of this global warming is climate variability and change.  The risks associated with climate change add to development challenges such as food and water insecurity. Although climate change is only one of the many drivers negatively affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services, it certainly exacerbates the other factors such as land degradation and unsustainable natural resource use. There is general concern on the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources. This would widen poverty levels confronting eastern African countries and threaten gains made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Thus, the Ecological Society for Eastern African organised its 3rd annual scientific conference with a theme addressing this global challenge.  The idea was to bring together researchers, policy makers and the general public together to discuss the climate change phenomena, its impacts, mitigation strategies and adaptation measures with regard to natural resource use in Eastern Africa. In order to address above issues and to reach out to a wider audience, we designed the conference strategically on three tiers:   1. Plenary talks: to provide policy information and direction, science on climate change, ecological and socio-economic effects, how to commun

The Highlights is update to tweets in reverse chronological order, and based on your previous behaviors (reply, Retweet, or like), present the feeds you're most likely to care about at the top of your feed.

"special education, SPED, Pencils, Pencil Grips, Highlighters, Highlighter Strips, Post-its, Mailing Labels"

I'm a so-so fan of Skype. I've used it on an infrequent basis and have had more than a few dropped calls. Audio and video alike. However, it's a cheap way to make long distance calls and seems to work better over wi-fi and the video quality is improving on a regular basis. So therefore it's probably a great tool for the classroom. But how can you use Skype to do more than just make calls? Well, there's a pantload of interesting ways! Check out these fun ideas: Collaborate! Meet with other classrooms: One of the most common projects educators utilize Skype for is setting up exchanges with classrooms around the world, usually for cultural exchange purposes or working together on a common assignment. The program's official site provides some great opportunities to meet up with like-minded teachers and students sharing the same goals. Practice a foreign language: Connect with individual learners or classrooms hailing from a different native tongue can use a Skype collaboration to sharpen grammar and pronunciation skills through conversation. Peace One Day: Far beyond classroom collaborations, the Peace One Day initiative teamed up with Skype itself and educators across the globe to teach kids about the importance of ending violence, war, and other social ills. Around the World with 80 Schools: This challenge asks participating schools to hook up with 80 worldwide and report back what all they've learned about other cultures and languages. Talk about the weather: One popular Skype project sees participants from different regions make note of the weather patterns for a specified period of time, with students comparing and contrasting the results. Collaborative poetry: In this assignment, connected classrooms pen poetic pieces together and share them via video conferencing. Practice interviews: The education system frequently receives criticism for its failure to prepare students for the real world, but using Skype to help them run through mock-up

Well made games highlighting the work done by the UK Department for International development to elevate poverty. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/PSHE%2C+RE%2C+Citizenship%2C+Geography+%26+Environmental

Safer Internet Day is an annual event in early February that highlights e-safety. This site has many good child-friendly resources and downloadable school packs about e-safety. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

igital Learning Day Read some of the highlights from the recently-held Digital Learning Day in the USA. I haven't fully explored all these myself, but they look promising! Digital Learning Day Showcase Digital Learning Day Round-up Digital Learning Day: The Aftermath  

A useful site which highlight the effects of bullying and how it can be stopped. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/PSHE%2C+RE%2C+Citizenship%2C+Geography+%26+Environmental

A role-playing game which highlights what we can do to make a better world by being citizen scientists. Take the character on a science adventure and follow the clues to complete the missions. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

tolles kolloboratives toll zum notizen anlegen!

Digital identities Case Studies describe critical incidents of practice, highlighting key design challenges and possible solutions.

" Boundary object (BO), originally introduced by Starr (1989), is a concept to refer to objects that serve an interface between different communities of practice. Boundary objects are an entity shared by several different communities but viewed or used differently by each of them. As Star points out, boundary objects in an organization work because they necessarily contain sufficient detail to be understandable by both parties, however, neither party is required to understand the full context of use by the other - boundary objects serve as point of mediation and negotiation around intent. Boundary objects are flexible enough to adapt to local needs and have different distinct identities in different communities, but at the same time robust enough to maintain a common identity across the boundaries to be a place for shared work. Boundary objects are not necessarily physical artifacts such as a map between two people: they can be a set of information, conversations, interests, rules, plans, contracts, or even persons. It is around BOs that Communities of Practice (CoPs) often gather. BOs are 'used' by members of different communities in very different ways, although the representation is shared. BOs are an important class of knowledge artifacts. They are center stage in the dynamics of knowledge exchange. BOs are also known as CISs (common information spaces). Examples: Reports are a classic example of traces as boundary objects that the professionals and other members share. Faxed documents and email massages are also the boundary object among distributed members. Information spaces, where particpants gather to exchange information, co-ordinate activites and create knowledge are another example of BOs A library catalog, an order entry process, travel assistance request form, an organizational knowledge map, i.e. one of the products from your knowledge mapping project! Mapping BOs: Boundary objects are a very useful way to structure and

This site seeks to give a way into the wealth of government data. As highlighted by the Power of Information Taskforce, this means it needs to be: * easy to find; * easy to licence; and * easy to re-use. We are drawing on the expertise and wisdom of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt to publish government data as RDF - enabling data to be linked together.

Highlighted in HBR "Must-Read" strategy articles, this online simulator is a gret reflection on considerable research, teacher of what is most effective in execution, and sanity check of your own assumptions on strategy and execution.

An interesting article highlighting the traditional neglect of educational software by Silicon Valley; with links to companies doing innovative work, mostly outside the US.

"The report is based on questionnaires and interviews conducted by BCcampus with a cross section of institutional stakeholders (instructors, teaching and learning centres and IT administrators) at 9 BC post-secondary institutions (25 were contacted) in the Fall of 2010. The paper highlights some of the concerns and benefits post-sec institutions in BC are grappling with when considering using cloud-based applications and services (specifically those hosted in the US), and illustrates some examples of how BC post-sec's have addressed these issues within their institutions."