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

Tags:

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