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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

All learning is a consequence of thinking. I have these words printed and posted on the wall above my desk. It is a reminder of what I believe is a vital understanding. The consequences of this one statement are quite profound. They fundamentally shape what I do as an educator and the experiences I hope to create for my learners.

Sadly, many students have come to expect that there will nothing of consequence addressed on the first day of an on-campus class. It's often referred to as "Syllabus Day" because that is the only content of consequence presented by the instructor.

If you consider the day to day life of many of our students today, you see that they have very little time that is free from some form of programmed activity. Indeed, it is increasingly the norm for families to fill their children's time with the maximum number of learning, sporting and co-curricular activities. Schools naturally are happy to facilitate this and many see the breadth of programmes that they offer as a measure of success. But is there a consequence to all this activity and constant state of engagement?

Constructivism is one of those ideas we throw around in educational circles without stopping to think about what we mean by it. They are the terms that have multiple meanings, are at once highly technical and common usage and are likely to cause debate and disagreements. Constructivism in particular carries a quantity of baggage with it. It is a term that is appropriated by supporters of educational approaches that are in stark contrast to the opposing view; constructivism vs didactic methods or direct instruction. The question is what are the origins of constructivism and does a belief in this as an approach to understanding learning necessitate an abandonment of direct instruction or is this a false dichotomy?

At the heart of learning are the questions to which we do not yet know the answers and the journey to the questions we have not yet asked. Such simple truths and yet understandings that can have fundamental consequences for approach to learning and growth.

Evaluating Internet Information The Internet offers a virtually unlimited supply of information, but there is no-one who registers, describes or checks the quality of the material. One of the consequences is that you must yourself both search out the information and evaluate it - much more carefully than in the case of traditional, printed material. The problem of assessing sources calls for a sceptical attitude towards this kind of information. Who is in fact the originator? Can I be sure that it is correct? these kind of questions must always be present when browsing the Internet. Fortunately, the web also offers many useful tools, which can be of service when evaluating the quality of different information resources. Links http://servercc.oakton.edu/~wittman/find/eval.htm Here you find a good and lucid list, outlining what to consider when evaluating information resouces on the net. Recommended as a starting-point for evaluating sources. http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/education/net.html This is a similar and complementing site, but it contains more thorough information about evaluation criteria. Recommended for the more experienced user. http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm Contains a large number of links to material about evaluation of information resources, including a list of evaluation criteria at: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/index.htm The ultimate site on quality evaluation of information on the net. Always remember that it is finally you who are responsible for quality assessment efforts. That is in fact part and parcel of any research effort. [End of document]

eLearningInfographics: The Best Education Infographics As founder of the eLearning Industry's network I am super excited with our new user-generated infographics site. A few months ago, several members of the eLearning Industry network contacted me requesting a website that would be dedicated to the best education infographics. Having this in mind, we formed a team of creative, hard-working, and passionate online educators. As a consequence, we just released the eLearningInfographics.com Submit Your Favorite Education Infographics

When Pilate saw that he could prevail with nothing, but that he was only creating violent agitation [in the crowd of people], he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person; therefore you suffer the consequence of the injustice.

Blueback is a beautiful metaphor for life and particularly of the life we live in schools. When looked at close up, with an eye on the details, the experience of school is one of passing and recurring cycles. When looked at from a distance, with an eye on the whole, there are elements of constancy, the throughlines which bring meaning to our experience and which have as their consequence the residuals of education. 

""Concerns regarding the allegedly disastrous consequences of social networking sites on school performance are unfounded," says Professor Markus Appel, a psychologist who holds the Chair of Media Communication at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany. Markus Appel, PhD student Caroline Marker (JMU) and Timo Gnambs from the University of Bamberg have taken a closer look at how the social media use of adolescents correlates with their school grades. "There are several contradictory single studies on this subject and this has made it difficult previously to properly assess all results," Marker says. Some studies report negative impacts of Snapchat & Co., others describe a positive influence and again others do not find any relationship at all."

Destinationitis is the tendency to focus more on where you are going than where you are. You will frequently see groups of trekkers suffering from destinationitis. So focused are they on making it to the end of the trek or the next rest stop that they storm through the wilderness oblivious to the beauty that surrounds them. Destinationitis similarly afflicts educators but here the consequences are borne by the students.

A recent post by George Couros (author of The innovators Mindset) posed an interesting question about the role that culture plays in shaping the trajectory of an organisation. The traditional wisdom is that culture trumps all but George points to the role that individuals play in shaping and changing culture itself. Is culture perhaps less resilient than we are led to imagine and is it just a consequence of the individuals with the greatest influence? Or, is something else at play here?

Cybersecurity is an area that is new and exciting. People like to know how to be safe from cyber attacks to digital terrorism. It can at first seem daunting to dive into the field of cybersecurity because it is a complex topic. However, with technology being a greater part of everyday life, it is a must to know about cyber risks. Cybersecurity podcasts have been a useful tool for years to absorb security content, keep updated with the recent risks, hear about current events, and everything else you need to know in order to stay at the top of your game. If you work in technology or are only starting to learn about the field, these are the best podcasts on the topic of cybersecurity. There are several great podcasters lauding from the security field, delivering decades of experience, fresh experiences, and useful knowledge to listeners around the globe. We have discovered 10 podcasts full of engaging conversations, interviews, and resources on recent trends and events. These podcasts are great at keeping up on the news, gathering valuable advice, not to forget that they are fun to listen to, from the newest security technologies to the emergence of new malware. Here goes the list of top 10 podcasts in cybersecurity in 2021. 1. Darknet Diaries: Host: Jack Rhysider Date of podcast launch: September 2017 Three typical topics: ATM hacking, the history of carding, Stuxnet Available on: RSS, YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Google, Overcast, Stitcher and others Average episode length: 60 minutes, bi-weekly Website: darknetdiaries.com Darkest Diaries is undoubtedly amongst one of the most fascinating and interesting podcasts. Something that should be on the top of your watchlist. This investigatory podcast digs deeper into actual tales about cybercrime, malware, and everything else on the internet that is suspicious. Darknet Diaries provides extensive review for those who are pragmatic about the data breaches faced to today's people and corporations, featuring "true stories f

A good place to start in our efforts to shift the impact that our language choices have is with a focus on the language of thinking. If we believe that all learning is a consequence of thinking, it is natural to select language moves that encourage this from our learners.

If we believe that all learning is a consequence of thinking, then we should consider what types of thinking our learners are likely to benefit from at each phase of their inquiry. This is where the Understanding Map, developed by Ritchhart, Church & Morrison offers useful guidance. By contemplating the demands of each phase of our chosen inquiry model, we can plan for how we might scaffold thinking moves which will enhance our learners' learning.

post from Half an Hour: excellent explanation of how connectivist moocs work, what the difference is between them and x or wrapped moocs and what open is In this presentation Stephen Downes addresses the question of how massive open online courses (MOOCs) will impact the future of distance education. The presentation considers in some detail the nature and purpose of a MOOC in contrast with traditional distance education. He argues that MOOCs represent the resurgence of community-based learning and will describe how distance education institutions will share MOOCs with each other and will supplement online interaction with community-based resources and services. The phenomenon of 'wrapped MOOCs' will be described, and Downes will outline several examples of local support for global MOOCs. 

What does it mean to have learned something? What occurs within the individual as they are learning and what changes occur as a result of that learning? At some point in the teaching/learning cycle we need to ask this question and ponder our definition of learning and the consequences that follow from our conclusions.