Creative Consulting Group: Projects

PDF quickstart quide for RSS and educators

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 13:55:13 GMT

Whether you're just starting out with Weblogs and related technologies or you've dug in pretty hard, this RSS Quick Start Guide for Educators (.pdf) will hopefully help you see the potential for RSS feeds in your classroom

Very handy, and not just for educators>

RSS for teachers?

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:26:46 GMT

Found some interesting thinking about RSS feeds in schools. Assuming the whole class is blogging of course:

"...there's no reason why he couldn't create [RSS] folders in Bloglines that aggregate all of his students' homework in one, research in another, blogging posts in another, etc. It would take a bit to set up, but once it was, it would be easy keep track of the work of 24 students in that one spot."

These tools are available right now. But the big problem would be getting the whole class to use computers. Then use blogs. I'd guess this isn't so much of a problem in the US, where laptops are common. Here in the UK it's a different story. Perhaps this is different with gifted children, certainly for my six year old, who has some very modern machines in each classroom, five computers used twice a week by a technophobe 20 something teacher is nowhere near the experience of our US cousins.And I'd say her school is cutting edge for the UK.
>

Blogging Teachers & blogging power

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 23:28:36 GMT

Robin, this site's owner, and I had a meeting yesterday, about, amongst other things, blogging in education. The below article from a well respected education blogger, seems a good illustration to our discussion. For one; some good links to other ed bloggers who'll have RSS files. Two; a demonstration of voice and, through those plentiful links, lots of other voices--100,000 perhaps. Three; he'll get a trackback off his site thus this site may get some interested traffic, who may tune into our RSS XML file or pick from one of our channels.

"One thing I seem to be noticing more and more of is teachers who are blogging about their working lives. And it seems like there is a burgeoning support network out there that is pretty cool. Hipteacher has been on my blogroll for awhile. But all of a sudden I've run accross Mz. Smlph, First Year Teacher, Catherine Grimm, The Flaming Cheeto...

Sheesh...maybe there really are "a few hundred thousand" educators blogging out there.

And if you haven't already done so, join the Educational Bloggers group at Flickr.

So much to see, read, write, share, hear, experience together these days, huh?"

Amateur journalists

And the otherside of blogging, the dark underbelly of online reporting, the spread of memes and gossip that takes on a life of its own. After a recent story where bloggers forced the resignation of a high ranking journalist, bloggers were apprently thought of as being much worse than working in their pyjamas.

"Salivating morons." "Scalp hunters." "Moon howlers." "Trophy hunters." "Sons of Sen. McCarthy." "Rabid." "Blogswarm." "These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people."

The rest of the article says blogging is a public service. This rebuttal to the above name calling comes highly recommended. The combined voice of millions of bloggers, the combined wisdom of so many minds. Powerful stuff. But I worry, a little, over the madness of crowds. Our natural ability of drifting into herds, of collecting into mobs. Being hurled insults through your weblog is one thing, but bringing armies into world politics can be catastrophic. >

EU Asia Link Evaluation November and December 2004

Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:56:50 GMT

Creative Consulting Group has been invloved in leading the Evaluation of Project Proposals for the Second Deadline of the EU Asia Link Programme, which was completed in Brussels on Friday 10 December 2004.

The Evaluation Team at the EC in Brussels. Left to right: Do Huan, Anuradha Mukerjee, Wim Bervliet, Esther Velsaco, Robin Brooke-Smith, Kitty Bentvelsen, and Novella Ricciutti

Above: Kitty Bentvelsen, Anuradha Mukerjee, Esther Velasco

The Asia-Link Programme aims to promote regional and multilateral networking between higher education institutions in South-East Asia. The programme serves as a framework for a broad range of activities aimed towards:

upgrading and enhancing the skills and mobility of postgraduate students, teaching staff and administrators of higher education institutions through the provision of in-country and overseas training;
promoting the exchange of experience and encouraging mutual knowledge and recognition of study programmes and reciprocal access to higher education;
encouraging the creation of a basis for future development, including: common curricula and courses/modules; agreements on credit transfer and mutual degree recognition, and reciprocal access to higher education, etc.;
increasing the availability of information about the EU higher education system in the participating Asian countries in order to enhance the attractiveness of European higher education;
providing Asian students with a broader choice of study-abroad opportunities;
raising awareness of opportunities in the sector and developing links that can ultimately lead to mutually beneficial economic co-operation.

These objectives translate into activities undertaken to strengthen educational, scientific and cultural exchanges and ties with Asia>

Recent CCG Projects

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:17:56 GMT

Creative Consulting Group has been involved in a number of EU funded missions in recent months. All related to Asia and South Asia. See below for details

August 2004: coordinator in the Evaluation of Project Proposals for the ECCP bilateral EU-India programme. The mission took place in Delhi.
May and June 2004 leader of the evaluation team for the Asia-Link project proposals evaluation in Brussels (1st deadline) and,
Nov and December leader of the evaluation team for the Asia-Link project proposals evaluation (2nd deadline)

Programme Details
ECCP EU-India Programmme
The key objective of the Economic and Cultural Cooperation Programme (ECCP) is to promote and support links and joint ventures between civil society organisations in India and the European Union in the fields of media, culture, enterprise and university. The complete list of the funded project is available for consultation on the Delegation’s website: http://www.delind.cec.eu.int/en/eccp

Objectives of the programme and priority issues for 2004.
The overall objective of the ECCP is to strengthen and enhance civil society links and cross-cultural cooperation between and the European Union through increased dialogue, information exchange and networking. This will help raise awareness of in the European Union and of the European Union in

To do this the programme will:

Encourage and develop links between European and Indian media and cultural organisations, sectoral organisations in trade or industry, research centres, universities, professionals, decision-makers, and opinion formers;
Develop networks, exchanges and joint productions in the domain of media and communications;
Support the organisation of cultural events;
Promote the exchange of know-how between entrepreneurial networks;
Facilitate the exchange of information, joint research and the pooling of experience between universities;
Encourage cross-sectoral linkages between the three dimensions outlined below;
Help strengthen a two-way, dynamic, cultural and economic presence in the regions.

The programme comprises three dimensions for which grant support may be offered:

Media, Communication and Culture
Entrepreneurial Networking
University & Studies

Asia-Link Programme
The Asia-Link Programme aims to promote regional and multilateral networking between higher education institutions in South-East Asia. The programme serves as a framework for a broad range of activities aimed towards:

upgrading and enhancing the skills and mobility of postgraduate students, teaching staff and administrators of higher education institutions through the provision of in-country and overseas training;
promoting the exchange of experience and encouraging mutual knowledge and recognition of study programmes and reciprocal access to higher education;
encouraging the creation of a basis for future development, including: common curricula and courses/modules; agreements on credit transfer and mutual degree recognition, and reciprocal access to higher education, etc.;
increasing the availability of information about the EU higher education system in the participating Asian countries in order to enhance the attractiveness of European higher education;
providing Asian students with a broader choice of study-abroad opportunities;
raising awareness of opportunities in the sector and developing links that can ultimately lead to mutually beneficial economic co-operation.

These objectives translate into activities undertaken to strengthen educational, scientific and cultural exchanges and ties with Asia.