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Tuesday Jan 31, 2006
Attend your lecture... or else
According to The Times, Oxford University is introducing a contract system for students, which apparently will force students to attend lectures or face a 'breach of cotnract'. The reasoning is that with increased tuition fees, there is a greater chance of students sueing for poor results. This way, the university is covering its behind.Michael Beloff, QC, President of Trinity College, who drew up the contract, said: "We took the view that we were out of kilter with the modern age. Fifty years ago no one would have thought of such a thing but we live in a much more litigious society."¿
Maybe so, but forcing students to go to class? Doesn't this seem a little backward? Switched-on publishers of content - and you could view university lecturers as part of this - realise that a generation is now growing up expecting their media when they want and how they want. And if this isn't 9am on a Monday morning then so be it.
There are examples of educators getting this: in the US, Duke College started handing out MP3 players to students in 2005 so they could listen to lectures outside of the set times. And now Apple have got involved, enabling students to access lectures and other video and audio course materials through the iTunes U initiative.
It may be a more litigious society but it's also a much more dynamic one.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 5:05 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Greater London Volunteering event
I went to an event yesterday evening in the 'mayor's living room' of the the splendid city hall, which overlooks London Bridge and, beyond, the mess of skyscrapers, ancient buildings, city centres and village-like neighbourhoods that is all of greater London. Sponsored by Greater London Volunteering (another essential acronym: GLV), it was a celebration of volunteers throughout this big city.
Greater London Volunteering is the network of London volunteering development agencies and centres, and a partner of Volunteering England, Time Bank and, of course, do-it, the national volunteering database, developed by YouthNet, where many London and UK volunteers find their first opportunity.
There were many speeches, as anticipated - from volunteer centre managers describing a rise in numbers and appealing for more money (a London Year of the Volunteer, please?), from charitable organisations lauding their volunteers' efforts, and from city staff looking forward to the 2012 Olympics with its promise of civic renewal (one speaker remembering the Sydney Olympics in which 50,000 trained volunteers encapsulated a community spirit special to the games). We heard young tabla players. We watched a hip hop dance. I didn't stay for the steel band.
But the more moving moments were speeches from volunteers themselves. One 20-year old woman left school as a young teenager with few options, and found a volunteer role at a local youth centre where she filed, assisted with outreach projects, and dreaded answering the telephone. She was recently told by a recruitment agency that she had a nice phone manner: everyone chuckled.
The canapes weren't half-bad, either.
~ko
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 3:34 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Always judge a website by its homepage?
A new bit of research from a team in Canada has suggested it takes users around 50 milliseconds to make up their minds about the quality of a website - not too long to play with then.Does this mean we can forget about not judging books by their covers when it comes to websites then?..
If the research is right then the implications could be really big, especially for charities asking for donations online (no pressure with the new YouthNet site then guys..) ;-)
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 3:20 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Monday Jan 30, 2006
American Red Cross cop some flak
American Red Cross have run into a bit of controversy with their new TV ads in the States. In a nutshell the ad compares the ease of giving blood to the complexity of solving other issues (like child labour, saving the rainforest and curing cancer).
Normally voluntary sector promotional campaigns avoid having a pop at the "competition" but could this looks like a bit of an exception.
Whilst the cause is definitely a good one, I can't imagine that highlighting how difficult it is to resolve some of the massive global issues out there will win them many friends..
Check out the microsite here (you can view the ads there as well).
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 10:37 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Friday Jan 27, 2006
The Internet is Social Glue
The BBC has a story on a new report which looks into the power of the internet to bring people together, especially in a times of crisis. Contrary to what many predicted - that the internet would stop people from communicating and diminish "real" relationships - it has in fact created many new, borderless commuities. People are meeting people they would never had the chance to do in the 'old-world'.
"(The) co-author of the report... identifies what he terms as the rise of networked individualism - where users of modern technology are less tied to local groups and increasingly part of more geographically scattered networks. "This creates a new basis for community. Rather than relying on a single community for social support, individuals often actively seek out a variety of appropriate people and resources for different situations," he said"
The opportunities this provides, in areas such as support and advice are apparent to us at YouthNet. The discussion boards on TheSite.org have members from all over the UK - and world; location is no barrier.
Interesting bit of nerdiness: on the site Frappr, 50 or so users of the discussion boards have "pinned" their locations on to a version of Google Maps. You can get a feel for where many of them come from by taking a look.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 1:38 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]New articles on TheSite.org
Here's some of the new content our editorial team has published this week on TheSite.org.
askTheSite Q&As
Money Q&As - Blown my benefits?
Relationships Q&As - Would like to meet...
Mental & Emotional Health Q&As - Uncomfortable with uncle
Legal & Rights Q&As - Nuisance caller
Sexual Health Q&As - In need of needles
Careers A-Z factsheets
Accountant
PA
Also...
An unusual gap year
And on Reach For The Sky (a site which we provide content to)
Mum's drinking
Lesbian crush?
Forensic facts
Thursday Jan 26, 2006
Transparency in the Voluntary sector..
The whole issue of financial transparency in the voluntary sector has quite rightly been big for a while now. On the back of this (and after £3M + investment) Guidestar launched in November of last year, with the intention of providing donors with a searchable database of registered charities in England and Wales.
It's meant to be a resource for grant makers, researchers and general donors, but I'm not sure how big it's impact will be. Each charity can update some of the information on there, but you can also access standard regulatory documents like the annual report and accounts. Given that these are documents that each charity has to produce anyway, I don't know how useful this is for an "average" donor on the street. Personally, if I'm convinced a charity is doing great work in an area I care about, I'm happy to donate, and I trust them to spend my money in the best way they possibly can - I don't need a new site (that cost more than £3M) to pool all this together.
Another good point (see Charity Blogger's review) is that it still relies on people typing information in from paper records, so how up to date is it going to be next year?
Anyway, what do you guys think?..
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 3:32 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]A challenge to current perspectives on volunteerism
In response to articles recently posted on the World VolunteeringWeb voicing concerns that volunteering may hold no place for theunemployed, indigent or disenfranchised, Jayne Cravens of CoyoteCommunications writes that current promotions of volunteerism should bebroadened to include individuals from across all socioeconomicbackgrounds.
Rather than seeing volunteering activity as a function of thegovernment and large corporations wishing to tackle social concerns,she argues that individuals have historically volunteered their time"to positive affect people and the environment in confrontationto or outside of the state or other power structures". She points tothe example of Americans in the 1950s and 60s who, in spite of -or because of - their socioeconomic exclusion, volunteered their timeto address a community problem: state-sanctioned apartheid in theAmerican deep south. Fighting for one's own civil rights as a volunteer?
As a call to reconsider what it means to be a volunteer,particularly in light of the promotions of volunteering activities onthe part of both the Government and opposition party, it's aninteresting perspective.
http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volunteer/realvolunteering.html
Articles on World Volunteer Web:
"Volunteer in Yemen? Please be serious!" http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/?id=9921
"Is volunteering just for the privileged few?" http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/?id=10032
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 1:08 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
McDonalds changes the face of the workplace
McDonalds (one of the largest employers of young people in the UK) may have just changed the way job contracts work forever.
Always an easy target, mainly because their food is (to be honest) shit, McDonalds have decided to allow whole families to share work, and may even be expanded to include friends sharing jobs.
It's an interesting new way to work and one that's bound to have an impact on students who may be unable to commit to full time work, but that can't find suitable part time work either. The idea of a job and flat-share doesn't seem that far away.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4649666.stmPosted by Jim Valentine ( 12:44 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Annual Student Experience Report
Wednesday Jan 25, 2006
Think not what your Tory can do for you...
David Cameron has decided that choosing to volunteer might not be enough to help out young people. He's proposing the idea of a national service (though without the fun stuff like guns) of community action. After all, if you strip away all funding for local government who else is gonna clean the canal apart from a bunch of young people desperate for an extra-cirricular activity to give their degree some kind of value?
Of course the big question is - if you take the voluntary out of volunteering what's do you call yourself? A compulseer? A peace-core? A slave?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4642334.stm
Posted by Jim Valentine ( 6:37 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
End obesity through video games
"Konami's Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is being installed in 157 middle schools in West Virginia to encourage physical activity and help fight obesity. The game has already been tested in a pilot project in 20 schools, and will be installed in 753 schools within three years."
Posted by Dom Waghorn
( 5:02 PM )
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Google agrees to provide censored version in China
This story is everywhere right now. Google, the company that has the famous motto "do no evil" has agreed to provide a special, censored version of its search engine for Chinese users. The company's argument is that it's better to be in there in some way than pull out completely.
This comes just days after Google was in the press for another reason, this time supporting its position as a company that believes in the freedom and privacy of its users. Unlike MSN and Yahoo, Google refused to hand over search logs (information on what people are searching for) to the US Justice Department; the government is hoping these logs would help them push through a law which has been widely condemned as unworkable and unconstitutional.
Both stories illustrate the massive role search engines now play in the way people live and governments govern.
Posted by Dom Waghorn
( 1:12 PM )
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Tuesday Jan 24, 2006
Layabout Lazy Students
The Guardian reports on a survey that says - shockingly - the image of students being lazy, layabout, good-for-nothing, tax dodgers is not quite on the mark.
"Instead, today's undergraduates are conscientious, dividing their time between the library and part-time work, and spending 20% less on alcohol than five years ago."
Who would have thought?
Posted by Dom Waghorn
( 5:27 PM )
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Monday Jan 16, 2006
Welcome to the YouthNet blog
Welome to the YouthNet blog.
We will be covering issues important to us such as volunteering, youth issues, the use of technology in charities and innovations in fundraising.
Our site are do-it.org.uk and TheSite.org
Posted by YouthNet staff ( 6:42 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
