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  Welcome to the NNEST Interest Section Website! We're glad you're here. As the NNEST CAUCUS we had a great 10 years, and our thanks to all the Caucus Members and all the Caucus Leaders who lead us so well and so far. We must particularly mention all the Caucus Presidents: George Braine, Jun Liu, Lia Kamhi-Stein, Paul Matsuda, Masaki Oda, Ahmar Mahboob, Lucie Moussu, Karen Newman, Luciana C. de Oliveira. Now, as the NNEST INTEREST SECTION, with new roles, new orientations on research, and new areas for outreach, we will work hard to achieve the same kind of success that the Caucus had and we hope you'll join us in making that happen. It is very important to us that the Interest Section find ways to maintain the sense of community, the support for member publication, and the commitment to developing new leaders that so characterized the Caucus. Those are some big shoes to fill, but together we can manage it. Over the next few months as the transition from Caucus to Interest Section occurs, we may need some help from you--engaging in processes like indicating that you want to be an NNEST Interest Section Member (and we hope you'll decide to make the NNEST IS your primary Interest Section), and participating in Interest Section elections (which we intend to carry out online in February so new officers will be ready to lead at the TESOL Convention in Denver). When we have guidance from Central Office on such matters we will let you know as soon as we can--your participation gives our Interest Section all its meaning.. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, don't hesitate to contact us--we'll do our best to help Katya Nemtchinova, NNEST IS transitional Chair (and final Chair Elect of the NNEST Caucus!) Brock Brady, NNEST IS transitional Chair Elect   ******************************************************************** What's New   December 2008 The International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC) in collaboration with The Amsterdam Center for Language & Communication (Research group Sociolinguistic aspects of multilingualism) announces an international symposium on"The Native Speaker and the Mother Tongue"December 11-13, 2008 Cape Town, South Africa Call for proposal: Inquiries, abstracts and proposal for papers should be addressed to Nigel Love (nigel.love@uct.ac.za) and Umberto Ansaldo (uansaldo@gmail.com). Closing date for abstracts: 31 Jul 2008   July 2008 New URL: The NNEST Caucus website moved from http://nnest.moussu.net to http://nnest.asu.edu.   June 2008 The TESOL Board of Directors has approved the creation on the NNEST Interest Section. Congratulations to all!   April 2008 The 42nd TESOL Annual Convention and Exhibit will happen on April 2 to 4, in New York,

As understood by Locke, tabula rasa meant that the mind of the individual was born "blank", and it also emphasized the individual's freedom to author his or her own soul. Each individual was free to define the content of his or her character - but his or her basic identity as a member of the human species cannot be so altered. It is from this presumption of a free, self-authored mind combined with an immutable human nature that the Lockean doctrine of "natural" rights derives. Tabula Rasa is also featured in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud depicted personality traits as being formed by family dynamics (see Oedipus complex, etc.). Freud's theories show that one can downplay genetic and congenital influences on human personality without advocating free will. In psychosanalysis, one is largely determined by one's upbringing. The tabula rasa concept became popular in social sciences in the 20th century. Eugenics (mainstream in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) came to be seen not as a sound policy but as a crime. The idea that genes (or simply "blood") determined character took on racist overtones. By the 1970s, some scientists had come to see gender identity as socially constructed rather than rooted in genetics (see John Money), a concept still current (see Anne Fausto-Sterling). This swing of the pendulum accompanied suspicion of innate differences in general (see racism) and a propensity to "manage" society, where the real power must be if people are born blank.[original research?]

key for lifelong learning and ongoing further development, not only to learn about ICT skills, but actually to learn with and from others in an continuum process of peer mentoring and support.

Another key thought of this session was the idea that the skills 21st Century learners need doesn’t rely so much on acquiring information, but actually making sense of that information. Anne states that “knowing a fact is no longer impressive; rather important is how we add some critical thinking to it.” In this sense how we manage the abundance of information available these days on the we web is crucial. And that implies new skills, like networking and collaborative work.