The Global Ideas Blog

Theatre in Ghana, texting in Kenya

Two great projects in the media today worth drawing attention to, both trying, in different ways, to combat the AIDS/HIV problems afflicting both countries:

- Texts aim to fight AIDS in Kenya on the BBC website, details how people will be able to text questions and receive a free answer, as well as subscribing to tips and information.

- Theatre acts against HIV, in the Guardian Society section, details how a group called Theatre for a Change are using theatre (and real-life stories) to provide HIV and AIDS education in the areas where the HIV infection is at its worst. The theatre company are currently struggling to make ends meet: donations are accepted via their website.

Comic communication in India

It has been a while since I read the Dandy or the Beano, or any other comics; indeed, after a brief Garfield phase in my teenage years, I am now reduced to only my Daily Dilbert. Reading this article on Comics for development communication opened up whole new vistas though. As the piece puts its, the use of comics can help solve an issue in development work:

"Problems in communicating a message in an effective way have caused immense frustration to development workers. How can people be taught new skills at a low cost? What would be a good way to deal with sensitive topics such as health issues? How can complicated new research, like that in agriculture for example, be simplified so that ordinary people can benefit?"

The emphasis, as the article also makes clear, is on local artists being encouraged to create local comics, which follow local cultures and visual signs. With a rich story-telling culture, India is a particularly appropriate place to use the technique, which led to the forming of World Comics India. One of the pioneers of this type of work (who introduced it to India) was World Comics (Finland) which promotes this use of comics for social change.

Voice Vouchers

New research published by Demos today, which calls for, amongst other proposals, "voice vouchers" for parents. [See John Craig's piece in today's Education Guardian and post at Demos Blog] Voice vouchers would give parents control over part of the school budget. They would not be worth much on their own (a few pounds) but collectively could make a difference (i.e. parents would have to act in everyone's interests, not just their own). I like this idea as a way to get parents more involved in their children's education, though it might cause some problems: it could encourage an us vs. them atmosphere, perhaps, or even be hijacked by well-organised single-issue groups. The hope, I assume, would be that other parents would resist such attempts, thus nullifying them at source.

Parental involvement in education is so key, though, that I think this is worth a shot and, as the Main report points out, is not really that big a stretch to give parents control over 1%.

Other ideas to encourage parental involvement:

- Parent report cards

- Parents employed as 'natural' truant officers

- Sponsored go-back-to-school day

- Web pupil info shared by teachers and parents

- Letting parents use a school's resources

- Opening college libraries in summertime

Tuition fees or student loans?

So the Tories, if they get into power, will Axe all student tuition fees. OK. And their replacement is.....charging higher interest rates on student loans...a "commercial" rate. So students could be charged up to 8% interest on their loans, which surely defies the point of student loans, whose great benefit is that they are at a lower rate and can be paid back slowly. If they are run more commercially, would the same thresholds and schedules for repayments be available? Ok, so not paying tuition fees will reduce debts, but tuition fees are one-off payments, not loans which spiral upward. Would you rather pay £3,000 in tuition fees and have a debt of £10,000 in loans at 2.9%, or have a debt of £10,000 at 6 or 7%? It's actually a pretty tough call, I would imagine. Those lucky graduates going straight into a job earning a fair amount could pay this off swiftly, but for those starting on a salary just above the threshold, the repayments could soon become punitive.

Not sure about this, but it's certainly an interesting approach from the boys and girls in blue. Will be interesting also to see how the universities react to having no fees, but instead being given control of the loans system (and therefore the money from the interest on loans....).

Wikipedia: can you trust it?

WE've written a great deal on Open Source recently, both on the blog and also in this year's Global Ideas Book, including the rise and rise of Wikipedia. But news of it possibly publishing a print version has cuased a bit of a furore. The best piece I have found on it is on Corante's Many 2 Many blog, here: Wikipedia Reputation and the Wemedia project.

Essentially, the question posed is this: has open source gone too far when we could be educating our children with an encyclopaedia put together without the necessary checks and balances.....or is that exactly the point and shows a great way forward for the future? I'm torn between my traditional side and my groovy, non-narrow-minded side.......

Tagging schoolchildren, Osaka style

Future Now alerts us to the first (?) occurrence of schoolchildren being tagged with RFID technology. Up to now, RFID tags have mostly been used on retail products, but new uses are emerging all the time. Now the Osaka school authorities in Japan have decided that the benefits of the technology outweigh the disadvantages (see Schoolchildren to be RFID-chipped on Silicon.com).

The school kids will have tags attached to their bags, nametags or clothing, and "the tags will be read by readers installed in school gates and other key locations to track the kids' movements". I'm not sure whether this frightens the hell out of me or seems like a sensible safety measure. Certainly, the basis for the proposal (using technology to track children) is one that gets submitted to the Global Ideas Bank a great deal, so there are definitely afair proportion of the public who would seem to agree with it. Up to now, people have usually suggested using Mobile phones to track children, which is very possible now. RFID-tagging seems to be that one extra step of reducing privacy somehow....

Interestingly, also in the last week or so, Delta Airlines have announced that they will use RFID tags to track luggage. Lost luggage (1%) currently costs them $100 million each year, so the $25 million RFID investment could prove to be an extremely wise one. There would also appear to be fewer people arguing to defend the right to privacy of a suitcase.