People from Ecoland, this night at 7 pm we do have a nice dinner with all the Parliament members.
Please, be there on time and well dressed because we are going to have fun tonight, we promise you!
See you soon...
Friday, July 31, 2009
What President Takalani thinks
President Takalani feels very happy and content about his three years in government of Ecoland. He and the other ministers have achieved their goals which were: develop the country into a place where people like to live by changing the economy and persue ecological improvements by diminishing pollution.
Final day
As I have observed other groups over the past couple of weeks, I realize that some of us are very strong leaders, some are vocal and comfortable sharing with the group, some are more like the strong, silent type who gets the work done without a lot of attention. It appears, at least from the outside, that all of the groups worked very well together.
Our media group consists of women who are strong and have opinions about how to do our work. What worked for us was communicating initially on how we wanted to present our news, then we each worked in our respective areas to get the information. It all seemed to come together, and Judith's computer skills helped us achieve more than power point presentations!
Initially we tried to compose a newspaper to print in addition to our video reports. Things move so swiftly in Ecoland that by the time I wrote a news article for publication, it was old news! So we decided to stick with our broadcasts to the whole group. Time was usually an issue, because it took time for the government, households and companies to meet and form strategies and make decisions. By the time they were ready to share information with the media, we had little time to create a very polished and professional newscast. We had to accept that it could not be as nice as we would like it.
I was in charge of interviewing companies and I found myself confused at first about the numbers and decisions concerning the companies. It helped me to have their management session instructions, and each company was more than helpful in explaining their strategies to me. Because I only worked with companies for our media reports, I found that when we were in parliament sessions I tended to side with the company viewpoints. I believe the reason for that was that I did not spend time with the households to understand their point of view. I guess I was not a very good objective reporter.
I have learned so much during this program, but I have also made connections with people that I value even more. I would like to create a model for my 8th grade students based on what I have observed and learned during SITP, because I think that if we want to be a part of changing the mindset of the world on the balance between economics and the enviroment, we must start by educating young people.
Ways to improve SITP? From my perspective, it was a very good program and I am very glad I participated. But I did not stay in dorms on campus so my experience was a bit different. Maybe more whole-group interactions to solidify us during the first few days. And a bit more time to study the ECOSYS book to get a clearer picture of our work ahead. Some examples of what a 5% tax would look like as opposed to a 10% tax, for example, would help some of us who struggle with numbers. I don't think we could ask for more helpful, more patient or more personable instuctors than Ross and Peter, so thank you both.
Our media group consists of women who are strong and have opinions about how to do our work. What worked for us was communicating initially on how we wanted to present our news, then we each worked in our respective areas to get the information. It all seemed to come together, and Judith's computer skills helped us achieve more than power point presentations!
Initially we tried to compose a newspaper to print in addition to our video reports. Things move so swiftly in Ecoland that by the time I wrote a news article for publication, it was old news! So we decided to stick with our broadcasts to the whole group. Time was usually an issue, because it took time for the government, households and companies to meet and form strategies and make decisions. By the time they were ready to share information with the media, we had little time to create a very polished and professional newscast. We had to accept that it could not be as nice as we would like it.
I was in charge of interviewing companies and I found myself confused at first about the numbers and decisions concerning the companies. It helped me to have their management session instructions, and each company was more than helpful in explaining their strategies to me. Because I only worked with companies for our media reports, I found that when we were in parliament sessions I tended to side with the company viewpoints. I believe the reason for that was that I did not spend time with the households to understand their point of view. I guess I was not a very good objective reporter.
I have learned so much during this program, but I have also made connections with people that I value even more. I would like to create a model for my 8th grade students based on what I have observed and learned during SITP, because I think that if we want to be a part of changing the mindset of the world on the balance between economics and the enviroment, we must start by educating young people.
Ways to improve SITP? From my perspective, it was a very good program and I am very glad I participated. But I did not stay in dorms on campus so my experience was a bit different. Maybe more whole-group interactions to solidify us during the first few days. And a bit more time to study the ECOSYS book to get a clearer picture of our work ahead. Some examples of what a 5% tax would look like as opposed to a 10% tax, for example, would help some of us who struggle with numbers. I don't think we could ask for more helpful, more patient or more personable instuctors than Ross and Peter, so thank you both.
Who Is Going to Build the Highest Tower?
Our first task as the Media Group was to build a tower. The only material we were allowed to use was a newspaper. After quite some thinking and many discussions we finally started to roll the pages and join them in order to get a long, thin, sticklike pole. The base of our tower was kind of a tripod. Because in was inclined (even more so than the famous tower of Pisa) it threatened to slide and fall on the slippery floor. Nevertheless we succeeded in building the second highest tower. It had been our first attempt of collaboration and we had a lot of fun.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Ecoland News
Don't forget to read our newspaper Ecoland News. The second edition has come out.
http://sites.google.com/site/ecolandnews/home
http://sites.google.com/site/ecolandnews/home
More Teachers for Ecoland
So far out of the promised 1500 posts for teachers during the following year, only 175 have actually been created. Government explains this by not having enough revenues, which means they'll have to find more money to spend on education. As the expenditures for administrations underwent a raise of more than 10 million CHF, this may be, where at least part of the necessairy funds could be taken from. Administration seems to be rather "blown up".
Cascades
Regarding yesterday's excursion to the cascades. There are even more people to be congratulated for swimming in the cold water: at least Thomas and Helmut were brave enough too.
hikeing to the cascades
yesterday afternoon we went to hike to the cascades.
It was beautiful, there is not more to say.
we are really proud of Peter, Ann, Sonja and Andrea, because they went to take ab bath in the really cold water.
It was beautiful, there is not more to say.
we are really proud of Peter, Ann, Sonja and Andrea, because they went to take ab bath in the really cold water.
Wednesday morning in Ecoland
Hi, folks
Now in Ecoland, members of the Parliament are talking about the release of the results about last Parliament session and the impact of those decisions in our economic life.
Elsbeth, our government reporter, went out to get some information about the results. Are they thinking about increase the employment rates somehow? Are they increasing other taxes? We`ll see soon.
The households are focus on the numbers to come up with some new initiatives to the Parliament session tomorrow.
That's Ana from Ecolandnews
See you
Now in Ecoland, members of the Parliament are talking about the release of the results about last Parliament session and the impact of those decisions in our economic life.
Elsbeth, our government reporter, went out to get some information about the results. Are they thinking about increase the employment rates somehow? Are they increasing other taxes? We`ll see soon.
The households are focus on the numbers to come up with some new initiatives to the Parliament session tomorrow.
That's Ana from Ecolandnews
See you
Monday, July 27, 2009
Visit of Blacksburg Lane Stadium
I find it amazing that a town of 23 000 permanent inhabitants and some 27 000 students can fill a stadium that holds 65 000 spectators. It was also impressing to see the different sponsors' suites with all their facilities. Pity, that we won't be able to assist at a game, though.
FloydFest
This weekend, people from Ecoland were invited to this unusual festival in the middle of the forest in Floyd town.
Again everybody had a lot of fun listening to folk music, bluegrass music ... we saw many hippies and people of all ages. Food was amazing and very typical.
building a tower as group activity
one of our first activities as a group was building a tower out of newspaper. look at the picture... (unfortunately there is only one with Judith on it... The others had already left....) *smile", I'm just jokeing
How Does it Work?
I am Elsbeth. It is my responsibility to inform about government decisions. I am still having a very hard time coping with all this new technology. I'd need much more help, which I somehow don't seem able to get. Trying out something needs a lot of time and very often, my questions are not answered in a way that really help me any further. If I am lucky, I this text is going to be added to the blog of the media group.
Digital Editior
Hi, I'm Judith Staeheli. I'm the digital editor and I really love to play around with computer-stuff... :-)
Now I'm just tired and I'm looking foreward to the party tonight at Rebas house!
Now I'm just tired and I'm looking foreward to the party tonight at Rebas house!
Households reporter
Hi, I'm Ana Santos and I'm the reporter responsible for all households in Ecoland.
I write about people's interests in our country as a family.
If you need me just let me know and I 'll pleased to help you out.
I write about people's interests in our country as a family.
If you need me just let me know and I 'll pleased to help you out.
Monday, July 27
The media group has been busy keeping up-to-date information to the people of Ecoland. Our struggle has been meeting the time constraint between gathering information and the news report. We are working on publishing a newspaper, which takes time for writing articles, while we are gathering video or making power points for the broadcast.
Judith is our publisher, and has created our very professional multi-media introduction and does all of our video-editing and recording.
Ana is our household/social reporter.
Elsbeth covers the news of government.
Reba reports on the status of companies.
Judith is our publisher, and has created our very professional multi-media introduction and does all of our video-editing and recording.
Ana is our household/social reporter.
Elsbeth covers the news of government.
Reba reports on the status of companies.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Day 2 in Torgerson
Lots of information! Today we have learned about google docs. We have inserted, linked, created webpages and blogs. There has been some frustration as some would feel more comfortable with written step-by-step directions instead of playing around with the tools.
I have had a few hang-ups but have been able to figure everything out, it just takes me a little while. I am hoping others begin to feel more comfortable and less frustrated as the week progresses.
I have had a few hang-ups but have been able to figure everything out, it just takes me a little while. I am hoping others begin to feel more comfortable and less frustrated as the week progresses.
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