openconversation

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HELLO Europe! (by projectconnecting)

We need more initiatives like that ! Europe could and should be a place where we feel home among a big family rich in cultures, colors, sounds and tastes... lets wish them luck !

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Creatives,,,

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While many of the challenges of sustainable development are similar everywhere, priorities and perspectives differ widely from region to region. Emerging economies, in particular, expect multinationals to contribute to the development of their countries. In industrialized countries, in contrast, maintaining competitiveness is increasingly becoming a key challenge. The table presents the results of our dialogue with the experts in condensed form and gives concrete examples of the varied expectations.

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Youth unemployment - a growing concern in Europe Youth unemployment is slowly but steadily growing, leading to serious concern in Europe. According to Eurostat latest report [EUS80113] in the past year, (Estimation based on November 2011 to November 2012) there is a growth of 420 000 new unemployed just in the Euro zone, which make the nearly 25% of youth searching for a job.  To fight this phenomenon, the European Commission just launched its initial plans for a Youth Guarantee scheme at the beginning of December, which would guarantee people aged 18 to 24 a job offer, apprenticeship, some training or combined work and training within four months of becoming unemployed. Emer Costello, MEP who participated at the conference launching the Youth Guarantee Conference expresses it simply  “No society can be vibrant, innovative and competitive if almost 30% of its workforce is unemployed”.  It is hard to say what will be the outcomes of such measures, even though some actions already implement like in Spain, where several ESF OPs were modified in 2012, particularly driven by the context of the aggravating youth unemployment situation. ESF reallocation focused on supporting the development of active labour market policies, including for young people, redirecting overall 135 million under the national program Adaptabilidad y Empleo. Some regional programs increased also support to actions targeted at young people, included a reinforced attention to early school leavers and vocational training.  Youth and its place in the society need to be rethought, and integrated through the develop of social innovation, to find new way to organize relationships within the social structure. Education strategy applied to local regional development can make miracle if we would empower the young generation with the right tools they need to understand how to invest themselves and put their skills at the service of a global society in a sustainable manner.

[openconversation]

#Open Ecosystem - A model to explore for massive collaboration

  - http://opensourceecology.org/

- http://blog.opensourceecology.org/2012/04/extreme-manufacturing/

Something that could be also considered for material for education materials

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Globalisation explained

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Summer is over Nice time, now back to work

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It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

Epictetus

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Why is "x" the unknown? The story would require some quotes and stuff, but it is an interesting additional explanation to any math class.

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Team work and archimedes Unusual story about an unusual manuscript. Very pleasant watch. A lot to learn and transmit

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Summer

Education is a 24/7 activity, more than a profession, it is a state of mind, like some need to provide to the world something right, something useful, that will help society to reach its next level. 

Therefore, when summer time is around, it is time to load the battery with tons of new ideas.

Summer is not for slack, but for creative time.

No classes, no lesson, no homework, it is potentially the most productive time ever to do all these things you wanted to do but never had time. Renew your teaching. Do a system check, that is the best to keep your working processes healthy.

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The future of education technology

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Discoverly - An app to get the kids out

It is summer time and the kids are around, if you want to get the them away from the TV, Peter McCormack and Clare Fowler have thought about you if you live in the around the UK.

Discovly is an email service designed to offer a few solutions each week on a regional basis. Users can sign up to receive an email every Thursday in time to prepare for the weekend.

Let them discover the world :)

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A short note to the readers

As you might have noticed, in the past 2 weeks the Open Conversation has been a little bit flat. I am really sorry for that, it is just that my work at the European Network for Global Learning is really taking me quite a lot of time lately.

We had an European seminar in Bucharest, then a week later in germany, and now I am heading to Denmark for the Global Debate (more information at The Global Debate Facebook page) where we will discuss global education issues and how Europe can deal with global collaboration challenges it faces today.

This was for the short updates, but I promise to send more detailed information in a week or two, and to get back to regular blogging about global education for a better world.

...

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TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More

It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit. 

TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More There is no "I" in "TEAMWORK"

-- Seen on Facebook 

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If people did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Mozart at school :)