Education Blog

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Fall 2013 Colloquium Series: Sept. 25th, Canadian Poet, JonArno Lawson will present “A Talk from the Bottom of the Box: Reflections of an Award-winning Poet for Youth.”

The School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, the iSchool at The University of British Columbia, cordially invites you to the first of our Fall 2013 Colloquium Series, where JonArno Lawson, Canadian Poet, will present “A Talk from the Bottom of the Box: Reflections of an Award-winning Poet for Youth.” This colloquium is sponsored by the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature Program.

JonArno Lawson is one of Canada’s most noted poets for children and young adults. He is the author of a range of books for all ages, from collections of poetry for teens to single poem picture books.  He also is a writer of non-fiction. He will discuss his creative and publishing process and read from his books.

The Colloquium is free and open to the public. It will be held this Wednesday, September 25, from 12 noon to 1 p.m., in the Dodson Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC. map.

For more information about this presentation as well as upcoming colloquia, please visit http://www.slais.ubc.ca/news/colloquia.htm.cs2013

Wear Orange September 25th – SAFE SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS

UNiTE_Logo_E_0_0The United Nations Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence Against Women has declared the 25th of each month #OrangeDay. This month they are calling for all girls to have access to violence-free education.

Are you involved in initiatives to improve the safety of girls at and on the way to and from school? Share them @SayNo_UNiTE. Find out what you can do to make schools safe for girls at http://owl.li/mlJkg

ORANGE DAY ACTIVITIES (25th September)

In support of the upcoming International Day of the Girl Child (11 October), this Orange Day, the UNiTE campaign will highlight ‘Safe Schools for Girls’.

What can you do?

Call for Submissions: cIRcle’s Open Scholar Award

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UBC launches first local open online course

using_computerThe Faculty of Education and UBC Library have teamed up to introduce UBC’s first LOOC – or local open online course.

The offering, part of UBC’s Master of Educational Technology program, is meant to help UBC students, staff and faculty hone their digital literacy skills. The course, called M101, features topics including Mining (research), Meshing (idea creation) and Mobilizing (generating value from information and knowledge).

The LOOC is open to all members of the UBC community who have a campus-wide login. M101 is self-paced, and users can build their skills in any area, in any order that they wish. As the name suggests, a LOOC is a localized form of a MOOC – or massive open online course. MOOCs have been a big topic in online education recently and UBC’s first MOOC – which launched in January 2013 with Stanford University – attracted more than 130,000 registrants.

The LOOC project received a grant from UBC’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund in spring 2013. Work began in April, and the LOOC was opened to co-authors of content, including UBC librarians, in July. The first set of students from the MET program will be able to contribute as of September.

For more, visit UBC Library’s site.

Boston Public Schools will start serving a free lunch and breakfast to every student

biteThe Boston Public Schools announced this week that they will be offering free universal meals for every student regardless of income status. This change amounts to a savings of $450 per year per family.

““Children can focus on learning when they are well-fed, and families can focus on education when they don’t have to budget for school meals every week,” said BPS Interim Superintendent John McDonough. “This program makes sense for students. We expect that every major city will join this national program in the next few years – and we are able to put Boston’s families at the forefront.”

Click here to read the Boston Public School press release