Group items tagged

Computer hardware can include plastics made with dioxin

When these materials get into the water supply, they can lead to birth defects and worse.

A few years ago, the question would end there: we would have to decide whether we want portable electronics or zero harmful waste.

OLPC is funded by a number of sponsor organizations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, SES Global, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat. Each company has donated two million dollars.[6]

The laptops will be sold to governments, to be distributed through the ministries of education willing to adopt the policy of “one laptop per child”

ndia has rejected the initiative

CULTURE, LANGUAGE, AND DEVELOPMENT Differences in the ways groups think and act are more than a matter of using different words or performing different actions for the same purposes. Differences in cultures are more substantial than whether members of a community eat white bread, corn pone, or tortillas. The behavior of people varies, and the beliefs, values, and assumptions that underlie behavior differ as well. Culture influences both behavior and the psychological processes on which it rests. Culture forms a prism through which members of a group see the world and create shared meanings. And a group's culture is reflected by the group's language. Child development follows a pattern similar to that of culture. Major structural changes in children, such as language learning, arise from the interaction of biology and experience. Such changes are remarkably similar in kind and sequence among cultural groups. But the knowledge and skills--the cultural learning--the child acquires at various ages depend on the child's family and community. Learning a primary language is a developmental milestone. However, which language a child learns and the uses to which that language is put are determined by the culture. As the ideas from a child's social world are brought to bear through the guidance of the older members of the community, children come to share meanings with their elders. Classroom discourse presents children with the challenge of learning new rules for communication. The use of formal language, teacher control of verbal exchanges, question-and-answer formats, and references to increasingly abstract ideas characterize the classroom environment. To the extent that these new rules overlap with those that children have already learned, classroom communication is made easier. But children whose past experience with language is not congruent with the new rules will have to learn ways to make meaning before they can use language to learn in the classroom. When teachers and students come from different cultures or use different languages or dialects, teachers may be unaware of variations between their understanding of a context and their students'; between their expectations for behavior and the children's inclinations. When children and adults do not share common experiences and beliefs, adults are less able to help children encode their thoughts in language. TEACHING CHILDREN FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES Teachers facing the challenge of teaching children from different cultural communities are hard-pressed to decide what constitutes an appropriate curriculum. If children from some groups are hesitant to speak up in school, how can teachers organize expressive language experiences? If children from some groups are dependent on nonverbal cues for meaning, how can teachers stress word meaning? How can teachers test for mastery of the curriculum if children do not speak a standard language or use the same styles of communication? Cultural diversity makes it hard for teachers to assess each child's developmental status, find common educational experiences to promote growth, and measure the achievement of educational objectives. Given the complex interaction between culture and development, is it possible to design a developmentally appropriate curriculum? If that question implies that the same curriculum can be used for all children, the answer must be "no." However, the following developmental principles can provide a conceptual framework for teachers trying to bridge the gap between children's cultural backgrounds and school objectives.

Quite a large number of civil society organisations and NGOs have no organically-evolved mandate from the citizens,"

Mkaronda said complaints about NGO conduct may sometimes stem from public misunderstanding about the roles of these groups: "For example, the Zimbabwean community in South Africa expects us to mobilise resources to sort out shelter, feeding and legal (immigration) status. Yet our role is to highlight the crisis in Zimbabwe."

believes self-regulation may hold the key to improving matters: "It would be a good idea if NGOs and civil society groups came up with a code of conduct like the one which guides other professionals such as medical doctors and lawyers."

All over the world, countries are stricken with famine. Children and adults alike are forced to live in miserable circumstances without proper living conditions or enough food. This situation, known as poverty, is an economic condition brought about when people lack sufficient income to be able to provide health services, h

develop, evaluate, and promote cleaner products and cleaner technologies that minimize pollution at the source and contribute to long-term sustainable development.