Archive for May 13th, 2009
Gesture
Iraqis are giving passing Americans the “thumbs up” sign, which the troops interpret as a symbol of support. But many veteran travelers insist that the gesture is a crass Middle Eastern insult. How should coalition forces take those skyward thumbs?
Depends on how media savvy those Iraqi bystanders may be. It’s true that “thumbs up” traditionally translates as the foulest of Iraqi insults—the most straightforward interpretation is “Up yours, pal!” The sign has a similarly pejorative meaning in parts of West Africa, Russia, Australia, Iran, Greece, and Sardinia, according to Roger E. Axtell’s book Gestures: The Do’s and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. So, it’s possible that the ostensibly cheering Iraqis are, in fact, silently voicing their displeasure.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2080812/
Add a comment May 13, 2009
ICT in Education-China
I didn’t find anything closely related to ICT in Chinese education during the last 45 mins. Although I use a lot of tools related to ICT today, they are not always available in China. However, I find my university does involve ICT in the daily life after Andreas’s stimulation. We have an online system which students can log in and check their schedule. We also choose the courses at the very beginning of every semester through this system. I know there are a lot of functions are useful but few people use it. By this reason, ITC teaching is not so popular and effective in China.In fact, China is far away behind comparing to Norway.
What surprise me a lot is that I can log in an American university’s website and even use their awesome database without account&code. I guess they probably have a deal on such things like open resources. This is really impressive.
Here’s a link about ICT in Chinese education from UNESCO: ICT:China
Add a comment May 13, 2009
