Quirky author dies at 88

DAME MURIEL SPARK, acknowledged as one of Britain’s greatest novelists, has died aged 88 near the Italian village where she had lived for 27 years. She was the author of 22 novels, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Maggie Smith. Read more … Novelist who found her prime away from Miss Jean Brodie The role of fate in life fascinated Catholic convert who became exile in ItalyRead the article Tags: communication authors

Latrinalia - taking bathroom graffit to a new level

I have to say I am fascinated by what people scrawl on toilet walls. It is a tiny picture of lives and values and philosophies often wholly different to mine, or maybe expressing my thoughts with a wit I will never possess. I’m not surprised that study of toilet graffiti is old and taken very seriously. But there’s humour there are well. Fun, then to find his article and its links to further sites on the internet. Latrinalia - Learning From the Scrawls in the BathroomBathroom Graffiti Taken to Another Level— - It's the one private moment one has when out in public.The visit to the latrine, the bathroom, the commode is a time for eureka moments, private thoughts, emptying of contents, and fixing of the unruly hair or smudged mascara as well as a time for many people to scrawl their deep thoughts on bathroom walls. "It's a time when you are able to vent and be open," said Alex Kotch, a Brown University senior who put together a sound installation called "No one will see us." Read on … Tags: communication graffiti latrinalia

Online education - what can it deliver?

If online education can deliver education to people cheaply and easily, then we have a chance to redress the balance in our world.

(And on a personal note, I am fascinated by the global communities we form when we share learning online. The social and cultural implications in the long-term are immense.)

“Seven of the world's largest distance education universities—where students and faculty alike all use some form of computer-assisted learning—are located in developing countries. For these communities, educational resources available via the Internet can offer cutting-edge applications of cyberspace. Yet, roadblocks—from inadequate national communications infrastructures to teachers reluctant to adapt to e-learning—exist for the full success of online education for higher education. Meanwhile, the use of online delivery in corporate training is predicted to overtake higher education usage in developing countries, becoming an estimated $150 billion industry by 2025. This Special Report looks at lessons learned, innovations that work, and the future of ICT in education for developing countries.”

Read the report

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education elearning communication

Grow your organisation

Visit the Organisations Blog for tips and articles on leadership, public relations, communication and organisational management.

Tags: leadership organisations communication

PowerPoint Templates

PowerPoint Templates for Teachers from Vicki Blackwell. Also includes links to PowerPoint presentations for teachers and other template sites. Tags communication powerpoint teachers

Dealing with contention through computer media - the tone of your emails

Our everyday experience of email is one of mixed feelings. Email can be great. It is fast, convenient, easy to refer to, accessible from just about anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, its use can also be awkward and unpleasant. It is fast (replies can be sent too quickly), inconvenient (casual remarks are brought back to haunt us as promises), and has an unpredictable rhythm (batteries fail on a laptop, wireless goes down, the message recipient doesn't reply when expected). Tone = Emotional Force Possibly the hardest thing of all about email is to judge the 'tone' of messages, or statements within messages. It is easy to say that it is hard to do this because we don't get to see, for example, the smiles or the frowns that accompany the harsh black-and-white of text-on-screen. Certainly, the loss of non-verbal signals is a part of the problem - even with the benefit of smilies ;-> - However, interpretation of what is meant by any message relies on an understanding of the conversation. The tone of the conversation gives us grounds for reading the tone of a message Read on … tags:poetry communication Tags:

Bronwyn's blog

I also have a blog where I can share some of the interesting, crazy, thought-provoking things I find when I'm prowling the net for research. You're welcome to visit. These are the latest posts...

1. Is intolerance too trendy for us to Care for kids?
2. Latrinalia - learning from the scrawls in the bathroom
3. Online education promises much
4. What defines a generation of young women
5. Too busy being unprodutive to learn how to be productive
6. But what about the antioxidants ...?
7. The Selfish gene
8. Is this a scary sign of the times or just another example of "Only in America"?
9. catlovers with too much time on their hands?
10. Changing you - for the better

tag: communication

Support for your public speaking

For articles, tips and courses in public speaking, visit the Pivotal Public Speaking web pages. tag: public speaking

Pulitzer prize winner announced - are we missing something?

As is so often the case, there are the questions about why literary prizes are awarded. Are we missing something? Are we not literary enough to appreciate this book? What were they thinking? And it seems to happen all over the world and across all genres. Today it applies to the latest prize-winner – of the Pulitzer prize. Here is the announcement of the winner: From Yahoo news … NEW YORK - "March," Geraldine Brooks' novel that imagines the life of the fictional father in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday. For the first time since 1997, the Pulitzer board declined to award a prize for drama. Brooks depicted the life of John March, the father absent for most of Alcott's famed novel of four sisters growing up in Massachusetts during the Civil War. And here is the review also in the news this morning. “ …It is difficult to pinpoint where and when “March” loses its appeal. Although Brooks is a creative writer, she is missing an essential ingredient that makes readers want to continue reading and find out what happens next. Novels based on previously published materials, especially those like “Little Women,” which have found a special place in many readers’ hearts, have a lot to live up to…” Read the whole post Tags: communication books

Rare Shakespeare folio to be sold

The rare first folio is likely to raise £3m when auctioned in July A rare book of Shakespeare's plays, considered to be one of the most important in British literature, is to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London. The complete first folio of the playwright's work had a print run of approximately 750 in 1623. Read on ... Tags: books

Boy wizard beats chef to win top award

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest installment in JK Rowling's record-breaking series on the adventures of the boy wizard, was last night named book of the year at the 17th annual British Book Awards.
.  Read on …

Tags:
communication books

Need help with your public speaking?

For articles, tips and links to useful sites, visit the Pivotal Public Speaking blog.

Tags:
Communication public speaking

The latest chapter of the e-book

By Spencer Kelly
While music, games and videos have all enjoyed the move to electronic hand-held devices, maybe it is a bit surprising to think that our favourite way to enjoy the written word is still on paper.  

Read on …

Tags:
books ebooks communication

Training live and online

TRAINING magazine's "Training Live & Online" Certificate Programs "Choose from these online programs starting in April: E-Learning by Design Certificate Program - Project Management Certificate Program - Fundamentals of Managing Training Certificate Program - Creating E-Learning with Flash Certificate Program - Beyond Bullet Points: PowerPoint for Learning Certificate Program - Designing Learning Assessments Certificate Program" Tags: powerpoint e-learning training

Young People's Poetry Week 10-16 April

Young People's Poetry Week is your chance to encourage people to celebrate poetry—read it, enjoy it, write it—in their homes, childcare centers, classrooms, libraries, and bookstores. During the third week of April, the Children's Book Council, in collaboration with the American Academy of Poets (sponsor of National Poetry Month) and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, sponsors Young People's Poetry Week. You can get 2006 YPPW materials, find a list of ways of Celebrating YPPW, follow links to New poetry for young people, read Articles on sharing poetry and see ways of Promoting YPPW tags: poetry communication

LA Times young Adult Fiction Award

L.A. Times Finalists Named The finalists for the Los Angeles Times prize for young adult fiction have been named. The five nominees are: Looking for Alaska by John Green (Dutton), Black Juice by Margo Lanagan (HarperCollins/Eos), You & You & You by Per Nilsson (Front Street), The Center of the World by Andreas Steinhofel (Delacorte) and I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (Knopf). The winner will be announced on April 28. Tags: communication library books

Help for your public speaking

For articles, tips and links to useful sites, visit the Pivotal Public Speaking blog tags: public speaking communication

Bye bye Microsoft Word hello ajaxWrite

What if there was alternative for Microsoft Word that would install and open in 6 seconds, read and write Microsoft Word .doc files and run on Macintosh, Microsoft Windows or Linux computers? And oh yeah, it was FREE so consumers didn't have to pay $499 for Microsoft Office. I'm excited to announce that day is here. Read on … open source programs