[PN] International writing project (24 Jan. 2004)

[Steve McCarty]

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* Call for international writing project participation

PN subscriber Ruth Vilmi in Helsinki, Finland writes:
"I'd like to welcome teachers with classes, and trainee teachers to join
The DiscussIt online international writing courses; they run throughout
the year in six-week modules or rounds. New rounds will be starting
again on 19th January. Registration will remain open for the testing
period, until 26th January. Classes with a teacher and individual
students without a teacher are welcome. There will be two traditional
IWE courses, the Blue IWE for students 16 yrs old and upwards, at an
intermediate level, and the Red IWE for students over 18yrs old, at an
advanced level. There will also be a Technical Writing Exchange (TWE)
for students over 18 years old, at an advanced level.
I hope that some of you will try these courses with your classes. They
are excellent practice for teacher trainees too. If you are interested
in other courses, such as ICT or Earth Science, or having courses
arranged for other languages, age groups or levels, please write to me
off list. More information can be found from the course handouts:
http://www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/Current/iwe.php
and http://www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/Current/twe.php
Registration should be done from the appropriate registration form on my
home page http://www.ruthvilmi.net
Teachers should register their classes (i.e. only one person registering
per class!) before the next rounds start."
Ruth Vilmi, Lecture in English, Helsinki University of Technology
Creator of the DiscussIt Forums and Courses
Ruth.Vilmi@writeit.to
http://www.writeit.to/forums/

* Reference Website

"Sage Publications is offering Free Access via Ingenta Select to their
Electronic Journals from 15th January to 31st March 2004. Go to the
following site to register" [from future colleague Steve Cornwell]:
http://www.sagepublications.com/freeaccess.htm

* Periodical articles

2004: The Turning Point
"An overview of some of the issues that
will change the way we use the Internet"
By Stephen Downes
Ubiquity, Volume 4, Issue 46, Jan. 21 - 27, 2004

Nation of Second Guesses
By BARRY SCHWARTZ, New York Times, January 22, 2004
"In many areas, the president favors increasing our choices,
but having too many choices can be unsatisfying, even paralyzing."
[This article is not just about Americans being deceived
into earning their own retirement funds with risky
investments after paying one-way into Social Security.
Counter-intuitive findings of psychology weigh against
giving people too many choices. Applied to education,
we could be less dismissive when students, especially
non-Westerners, do not warm up to open-ended activities.
There is a reason for everything, though not always a
common-sense explanation. In such ways academic
rigor has practical value - Ed.]

Web lifeline for Iraqi academics
BBC NEWS | Technology, January 20, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3410923.stm

What I Saw in North Korea
By JACK PRITCHARD, New York Times, January 21, 2004
"Intelligence failures are giving the U.S. a false sense of security
while North Korea's nuclear program continues to grow."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/opinion/21PRIT.html

Survey: Cell phone most hated, needed invention
CNN.com, January 21, 2004
An MIT survey "asked what invention they hate most
but can't live without, 30 percent said the cell phone.
Alarm clocks were a close second, with 25 percent,
followed by the television with 23 percent"
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/01/21/tech.survey.ap/index.html

Collegially, Steve McCarty, Professor, Kagawa JC, Japan
Home page updated: http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/presence.html
E-mail (including items for Papyrus News): steve_mc@kagawa-jc.ac.jp