We Have Moved !!

This blog has moved to a new location. Over zealous New Year spring cleaning...

For the new Blog please click here

Development of Social Capital in Secondary Schools

A new research report by the DfES into Social Capital in two inner-city Secondary Schools has recently been published.

Social Capital as defined by this study:

"Social capital refers to networks between people and the relationships of trust and reciprocity they develop. It is seen as a desirable characteristic of communities and societies and as a valuable asset for individuals, enabling access through social networks to employment, skills, health and other individual benefits. . . .The ability of young people to develop this network of relationships while in school and in their local community, and its possible impact on school outcomes, is of increasing interest to education policy makers."

The study examined three types of social capital: sense of school belonging (a form of bonding social
capital), access to social support networks, and attitudes to social diversity (bridging social capital), social background characteristics, socio- psychological resources and educational and wider outcomes.

The key findings of the report which are fascinating to read in full:
• Types of social capital are inter-related.
• Young people’s social capital is related to healthy socio-psychological resources.
• Social capital and socio-psychological resources are unevenly distributed.
• Schools have an important role in developing social capital
School composition is important. In the highly culturally diverse schools in this study, most students held positive attitudes to ethnic diversity, but much more negative views of small minority groups within the schools, such as gay students.
Schools can develop social capital through different channels. For example, a feeling of safety, acceptance and support, and being treated fairly by staff and students all helped to build a sense of school belonging.

• School ethos can make a difference to students’ access to support. The school characterised by a ‘strict’ school ethos appeared to direct more academic support to students, while the school with a more liberal ethos seemed to facilitate students’ self-referral or informal access to socio-emotional support.
• Neighbourhood context and family support are important influences.
Strong family ties are linked to more positive orientations to school and less stress for young people. Other research shows that close, supportive ties with family can protect young people from negative neighbourhood influences.

The Power of Email

Email is wonderful but everyone recognises the dangers of email over face-to-face communication. The facial and physical emotional cues are absent and so our responses to emails are created in a vacum, out of context. Daniel Goleman discusses these in an article he wrote for the New York Times:



"When we talk, my brain’s social radar picks up that hint of stridency in your voice and automatically lowers my own tone of exasperation, all in the service of working things out. But when we send e-mail, there’s little to nothing by way of emotional valence to pick up. E-mail lacks those channels for the implicit meta-messages that, in a conversation, provide its positive or negative spin.

....One reason for this is that we tend to misinterpret positive e-mail messages as more neutral, and neutral ones as more negative, than the sender intended. Even jokes are rated as less funny by recipients than by senders.

....On the upside, the familiarity that develops between sender and receiver can help to reduce these problems, according to findings by Joseph Walther, a professor of communication and telecommunication at Michigan State University. People who know each other well, it turns out, are less likely to have these misunderstandings online."

In a recent Crucial Skills newsletter the authors said 'don't ever hold a crucial conversation over email'.

I have been playing very close attention to emails and feelings for some time. Some emotional intelligence observations reveal that we can still respond physically to email: that sinking feeling from an unpleasant email and a surge in happiness from a kind or supportive one.

Equally, email is an incredibly powerful medium to excite anger in other people - especially group emails. It is not difficult to get a whole group feeling angry and dissatisfied through using exaggerated or immoderate language. Words are very powerful, even without the face-to-face clues. For spreading good feelings as well as negative.

We have to use email alot - we live distances away from people and communication is very important. Here are my own guidlines - mostly obvious...

- No matter how long it takes , always re-read your emails from the perspective of every reader you are sending it to.

- Write with the assumption that people outside your circulation list will see it.

- Never forward or circulate people's emails without permission. It erodes trust very quickly.

- Always reply. Sometimes the odd one can get lost or forgotten but 'no reply' can be worse that a negative reply. Someone said to me the other day 'not replying is a really powerful message'. Probably, but is also unpleasant, and regardless of a current battle improving relationships should ideally be the objective. Not replying damages relationships. It works like game playing and even if no ill feeling is intended the person who sent the email always feels disregarded. If you know someone really well and have a very good relationship already then lax replying can become normal, but if the trust is already established then it isn't too damaging not to reply. But make sure the feeling is mutual before assuming this is OK.

- Ignore 'perceived judgements'. Examples: If I reply quickly eveyone will think I am not busy or have no life.... or if I reply at length I am not cool and have too much time on my hands. Respond as quickly and carefully as you can.

- Never reply angry - the clues always creep in somehow. Ranting is, well, undignified.

And if you find yourself in a real pickle through misunderstanding and misinterpretation, pick up the phone (carefully) or arrange to meet.

Don't be put off by the difficulties....keep communicating anyway you can!!!

Favourite website of 2007

This blog has seen over 100 postings this year about lots of amazing and different people and projects and websites and I would like to thank the very many people who have taken the time to send me information and news for this blog. Without any doubt, Thriving Too's popularity is due to the contributions of it's readers :)

One site has remained a companion all year - The FLOWmarket project is remarkable because it is one of the few which combines beautiful design with such a powerful message. Not only is the focus on environmental issues but also on the human aspects where we struggle to remain balanced as well. FLOWmarket is about how we are, how we think and behave and our impact on the world around us.

Daniel Pink on Emotionally Intelligent signage - really!

If I were an umbrella

Thank you V and P for such a lovely gift!!! I have guarded your identity for selfish reasons. Obviously. :)

THE THING

I have recently found THE THING. Their site explains that:
THE THING is a quarterly periodical in the form of an object. Each year, four artists, writers, musicians or filmmakers are invited by the editors ( Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan ) to create an everyday object that somehow incorporates text. This object will be reproduced and hand wrapped by the editors and then mailed to the homes of the subscribers with the help of the United States Postal Service.

Very curious and unusual and I think that Issue 1 is really interesting.

BUT . . . what I like best about this concept is how when you start doing imaginative and fun things.... people follow you, participate, help, get enthusiastic. How this happened here:

"Wednesday August 15th, THE THING had its first ever wrapping party at Southern Exposure. We weren’t sure what to expect in terms of participation, but we were completely blown away by the end of the evening. About 250 amazing people from around the Bay Area (and one person from Thailand) came to help wrap Issue 1 of THE THING by Miranda July. Thank you!One of the visions we had about THE THING when we were first thinking of it, was that there would be a sort of social aspect of it when it came time to send it out, like a barn raising. A group of us would pack it and send it out into the world. But the amazing thing about the wrapping party on Wed. night was that it took on a life of its own and suddenly become a sort of force that now seems to be driving the future of THE THING.Not only did we witness incredible innovation in the assembly line, but the entire night’s wrapping was completed in the course of an hour. (The beer and wine may have helped this).

The second amazing aspect of all of this is that THE THING has received invitations to set up wrapping parties in other locations around the city and the country for issues 2 and 3! We are still trying to get our heads around how this happened.The day after the wrapping party, we sat down at La Taquaria for our sixth carnitas burrito that week and we discussed the fact that THE THING has a life all its own, and it is sort of leading us along. We thought it was a publication that would be made and sent out with the help of friends.

We thought that the best part of THE THING would happen when it arrived at your door and you went to open it. But it turns out that it’s also a sort of public thing on the other end, the end that sends it out. So on both sides of the US mail there is an event that is taking place around THE THING: a party to send it out and a sort of excitement that we think happens when you see it in your house. It’s very exciting for us to think of THE THING existing in this way."

So if anyone needs any help at all doing new, fun and imaginative projects in 2008 - call me!

Skills and a non-competetitive environment needed at Primary Level

The Primary Review being conducted by Cambridge University led by Professor Robin Alexander continues to produce reports regarding the current state of Primary education. It is really important!

One of the reports released shortly before Xmas was on Social Development and Learning - Below are are some extracts which highlight very strongly the need for some structured tuition on communication to learn collaborative skills. Click on image to enlarge.

For more detailed information on the Review please click here to access their website.

The Primary Review is a wide-ranging and independent enquiry into the condition and future of primary education in England. It is supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and based at Cambridge University Faculty of Education. It is perhaps the most comprehensive such investigation since the publication of the Plowden Report in 1967.

A Compressed World

An interesting global perspective from the 6 Seconds network - Thank you Susan Matthew! :)

Philip M. Harter, MD, FACEP, Stanford University, School of Medicine.

"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it
would look something like the following. There would be: Fifty-seven
Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and
south, 8 Africans; 52 would be female, 48 would be male; 70 would be
nonwhite, 30 would be white; 70 would be non-Christian; 30 would be
Christian; 89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual.

Six people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth… and all 6
would be from the United States. Eighty would live in substandard
housing; 70 would be unable to read; 50 would suffer from
malnutrition. One would be near death; One would be near birth, One
(yes, only one) would have a college education. One would own a
computer (a year ago, no one had a computer).

How could the wealthy 6 live in peace with their neighbors? Surely
they would be driven to arm themselves against the other 94… perhaps
even to spend, as Americans do, about twice as much per person on
military defense as the total income of two thirds of the villagers.

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the
need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly
apparent."

Blogging on Boxing Day!!

.... Is it legal you might ask? Not sure but what would you expect from me! I also started clearing out to 'utility room' AKA 'drop everything and walk away room'. . . cleaned some shoes, went for a walk, went out for lunch, drove to Midhurst, hugged several people....Oh, and wrote a stupid remark on my dear friend (yes, he is a dear) Scott Pack's blog for Boxing Day . . . . Now off to play relationship enhancing Monolopy. Busy busy....

Creative Neworking Site

Fifzine is a creative networking site for all disciplines where you can browse, upload, manage, collaborate and commercially develop your work. It looks very interesting.







One particular artist has some very interesting portrait photography. Luke Turner writes:

"The subjects, standing, are confronted with the wide lens of an imposing large-format camera at uncomfortably close range. The resulting image suggests both a degree of intensity and intimacy, often offset by the sense of detachment, self-contemplation and reflection that such an encounter provokes."

Your brain on Violent Media

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center’s Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Research Center have shown that watching violent programs can cause parts of your brain that suppress aggressive behaviors to become less active.
For more detail please click here...

Creating Community

I found a lovely description of one person’s experiences into the online world of blogging and creating communities in a new publication by Community Links called Making Links . It includes some unique perspectives on community by some well-known people like Gordon Brown, David Robinson, David Cameron and Phil Beadle.

Russell Davies started blogging and built up a good readership. He describes blogging as ‘networking for shy people’, but ‘not in the horrible commercial sense of networking – serial small talk in the hope of opportunity – but the sort of networking that a village has, or a workplace, or a hobbyist club; like-minded people who help each other out, point each other at new like-minded people and generally see that what’s good for the network is probably good for them.”

Russell started online, but soon began arranging spontaneous coffee drop ins, and people started turning up in greater numbers. In June this year Russell arranged a people’s conference called Interesting2007 and 300 people turned up to short presentations of interesting topics, which included How to split a log with an axe, Ibsen and The Muppets, Appearing on Oprah and the History of Knots. You can watch some of the talks Here

Russell writes, “My blogging experience has taught me that technology can create real, important, sustaining connections between people separated by geography and all sorts of other things. It’s taught me that generosity can be its own reward but that there’s also real tangible benefits in sharing your ideas and your time with people.”

Teenagers prefer face-to-face

In a new report on teenagers and social media by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that there is a subset of teens who are 'super-communicators' -- teens who have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends, including traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and email. They represent about 28% of the entire teen population and they are more likely to be older girls.

This 'multi-channel' pattern could be described as transliteracy, defined as “the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks”. There is a very good article with examples from history, orality, philosophy, literature, and ethnography here.

Very striking about these latest figures is the percentages of teenagers who prefer telephone and face-to-face contact over email. The level of sophistication of using multimedia methods of communication is one that many adults are enjoying too! Lots of time juggling required.

Urban Farming Project on the Thriving website!!!

I am beside myself with happiness. My favourite community project is now a Case Study on the main Thriving website.

The Urban Farming Project in Middlesbrough won the Creative Community Award in October at the Dott 07 Festival and is a wonderfl example of a creative, inclusive community project which has captured everyone's imagination. That is David Barrie in the pic on the right, who led the creation of the project. :)

The project is now just spreading..... how fantastic!!

Multi-disciplinary collaboration

Just a thought. Howard Gardner at the MI conference at Wellington earlier this year noted that there was some evidence that techonology was reducing the time to master a discipline from 10 years to 5 years. I think his example was music composition.

Given the focus on innovation and creativity needing the collaborative input from a wide range of disciplines, perhaps there is a chance that in the future that in increasing numbers we could become multi-disciplinary all by ourselves? It seems so many energising people, great thinkers and visionaries of today already are . . . .

Very exciting really. :)

Simplicity and Complexity

Very interesting work by John Maeda on Simplicity. John Maeda is a graphic designer and computer scientist dedicated to linking design and technology. He is a graphic designer and computer scientist dedicated to linking design and technology. I was attracted by his work because I have always been very interested in the beauty of simplicity and complexity.

Here are The Laws of Simplicity:

Law 1: Reduce
The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

Law 2: Organize
Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.

Law 3: Time
Savings in time feel like simplicity.

Law 4: Learn
Knowledge makes everything simpler.

Law 5: Differences
Simplicity and complexity need each other.

Law 6: Context
What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.

Law 7: Emotion
More emotions are better than less.

Law 8: Trust
In simplicity we trust.

Law 9: Failure
Some things can never be made simple.

Law 10: The One
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

Very interesting - I am sure the book will be even more insightful.

Are more emotions better than less? I am sure that more is more enriching than less . . . . provided of course you don't end up feeling like a washing machine.

Just Like Heaven

Steve Stack Virtual Book Tour

Thriving Too has the great good fortune to be able to interview Steve Stack on his Virtual Book Tour. Steve has just published his first book . . . It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit, which started as a brilliantly uplifting blog full of Steve's chosen Wonderful, Lovely and Really Great things. . . .and was quickly picked up by The Friday Project .
Hi Steve, Thanks for stopping by the blog for chat. We know how busy you are with your book tour so feel really thrilled to have you here.

Steve: Not at all, I am delighted to be a guest at this wonderful site.

Tessy: Does this book reflect your outlook on life? Do you really spend your day thinking, Wow, thats cool... wow, thats fantastic?

Steve: Don't we all spend some of our time thinking stuff like that? I would actually consider myself a realist rather than an optimist but compared to some people I seem the be the happiest chap on earth.

Tessy: I think that comes across in the book Steve, you seem very open to appreciating all sorts of things in every day life. This positive focus must be a very good way of ensuring personal happiness? One of my favourites you mention in your book is the feeling you get when you have a meeting cancelled and find you have the time freed up. If you had to choose your top three from the book which ones would they be?

Steve: I have good and bad days the same as everyone else but I tend to remember the good days more - that is a pretty decent way of ensuring personal happiness I reckon. As for my favourites? I have to be careful how I answer as another blogger Clare is running a competition to see if anyone can guess my all-time fave and I would hate to spoil it. If I were to pick the three I enjoyed writing the most they would be Bacon Sandwiches, Bookshop Browsing and Falling In Love.

Tessy: That's so lovely. This positive outlook must make you a magnet to women Steve? This is certainly how I try to motivate some of my teenage students to appreciate the good things around them. How do you cope with all that attention?

Steve: Oh, I just blush and mention the fact that I am spoken for. That seems to do the trick.
You raise an interesting point though. I know lots of women who are attracted to [bastards][delete and replace with 'not very nice persons. Ed] and freely admit to being so. Nice guys are often knocked down the pecking order. To be fair, that has not been my personal experience. In general if you are nice to people then they are nice to you.

Tessy: Women are very attracted to men who see the best in them, rather than their flaws. (Aren't men the same?) I think your attitude would prove pretty irresistible. Tell us what it has been like working with Scott Pack ... he has a really tough reputation doesn't he?

Steve: Oh, I didn't have much to do with him to be honest. Clare Christian, the founder of The Friday Project, signed me up and another Clare (Weber) was my editor. What I do know of Scott suggests that you shouldn't believe his press. Also he is being nice enough to host a further leg of my virtual book tour so I will speak most highly of him, at least until that is done!

Tessy: Steve we wish every success with the book, I will keep dipping into both the blog and the book to remind me to keep my perspective firmly on the lookout for people and things to appreciate. Thanks so much for giving us your time!

The book is a great Christmas gift - and you can even get signed copy with a personal message for the cheeriest or gumpiest recipient by ordering on Steve's brilliantly uplifting blog or Amazon

Al Gore's Office... a revelation

The art of beautiful blogging

Some blogs are all words and some are just put together like art work. Like Ace Jet 170 blog .

I have linked to this post on Paul Arden's books because I am a fan of his books, but also because they are such a wonderful example of taking visual care and presenting beautifully.

School gardens are flourishing

Another story of a great school garden, this time in E. Rivers Elementary School in Buckhead in Atlanta. With so many obvious benefits, fun and community, the environment, plus good health, you have to wonder why every school doesn't have one.

Click Here for more details on the Atlanta school garden

Men, Sheds and Community

I was totally charmed by the story about the increase in the number of 'men's communal sheds' springing up across Australia. At the last count there were over 216 community sheds open which are drawing older men to socialise and work. The men are working on a variety of craft projects, such as metal and wood work, as well as community projects. The increase has led to a decrease in depression and suicides in this age group as men who have become lonlier following retirement, rediscover a sense of community. Isn't this all just great!

This has led to a Men's Shed Movement .. . . . and they even have their own conference :)

Endangered Species in the British Isles

Gorgeous poster to order from Present and Correct

Social Change through Photography

Collective Lens is a wonderful organisation which promotes social change with your photos. Upload a photo and help bring awareness to important issues around the world. The website aims to create opportunties to bring important causes to the attention of others, and inspire people to get involved. If you're looking for a way to make a difference, your photos can help spread the word.

Collective Lens also serves as a networking site for nonprofits. Through a variety of tools, organizations may interact, learn, and discuss projects, funding sources, and best practices.

Non-Pompous, Non-preachy Guide to . . .

Grist has just brought out a new book called Wake Up and Smell the Planet. The team at Grist run a lively website filled with environmental news and commentary. Their blog is great.

I like their approach. A lot. Their website reads:

"Let's face it: reading environmental journalism too often feels like eating your vegetables. Boiled. With no butter.

But at Grist, we believe that news about green issues and sustainable living doesn't have to be predictable, demoralizing, or dull. We butter the vegetables! And add salt! And strain metaphors!

We exist to tell the untold stories, spotlight trends before they become trendy, and engage the apathetic. We're fiercely independent in our coverage; we throw brickbats when they're needed and bestow kudos when they're warranted. And while we take our work seriously, we don't take ourselves seriously, because of the many things this planet is running out of, sanctimonious tree-huggers ain't one of them."

Volunteering Fund that will work

V is an independent charity championing youth volunteering in England. Their aim is to inspire a new generation of young volunteers (aged 16-25) and enable a lasting change in the quality, quantity and diversity of youth volunteering.




The match fund is particularly interesting. If you are part of the private sector (company, charitable trust or wealthy individual) who is - or would be interested in - supporting youth volunteering, then the match fund could double the impact of your support. And if you are a voluntary or community organisation who would like to deliver youth volunteering programmes - or expand existing programmes, then this is for you too.

Originating from the Russell Commission, the role of the Match Fund is to inspire the private sector to support youth volunteering through a process where government money matches up to 100% of any new private sector investment in youth volunteering.

There is currently an incredible £42.6 million available for Strand One and £30 million available for Strand Two.

Better get your thinking caps on!

Of course it does!

A sign for Puccino's coffee shop in England with some unusual packaging.

Inspiring Photoblog 3191

3191 is an inspiring photoblog of two women living 3191 miles apart! Beautiful.

Community Links 30 Years Old

On Tuesday evening 30 October Community Links celebrated its 30 year anniversary on the top floor of City Hall (wonderful views). The work of Community Links is astonishing, with 50,000 people locally being helped by the Community Centre each year.

The highlight of the evening, were the presentations by Nicole Tofts, Malcolm N'Diaye, Terry Hawkins and Arpeeta Barua, all children and young people who described their personal experiences of being involved with Community Links. And they each pitched their project ideas, including a band and a football team. . . They were absolutely brilliant!!!

David Robinson, the founder of CL, is now Senior Advisor - please see David's profile on the main Thriving site under 'Inspirations'. David is also the founder of the movement We Are What We Do - please see my rather enthusiastic blog on WAWWD earlier this year. David Robinson has also collaborated with Gordon Brown on the Prime Ministers new book “Britain’s Everyday Heroes” and is to lead the recently announced Prime Ministers Council on Social Action. Something is bound to go right now!!

Happy Birthday to Community Links and to all the great people who work there. :) Thank you for inviting me - I loved it!

Global Readership Explodes

The Thriving Blog is very popular... at least 5 people, a couple of dogs + a cat (apparently). So it was no surprise to receive an email on the weekend from, a master hynotist. Ralph runs a special site called Pnosis which draws thousands of readers every month on matters mostly related to hypnotherapy, but also includes 'accessing the power of imagination, experimentation, and consciousness'. I hope to have the chance to have a proper look through the site very soon.

Anyway, Ralph says he was alerted to the Thriving blog from a friend who was reading it from her hotel room in Bahrain. Ralph at the time was on holiday with his fiancee in Milan!

So there you have it ... a global explosion in readership! Thanks for writing Ralph :)

Obedience, facial expressions and rats

This week's New Scientist has extracts from a new book by Alex Boese which presents some of the craziest experiments of all time. The examples are fascinating but the one about emotions caught my eye. In 1924, Carney Landis designed an experiment to see if we all had a typical facial expression for particular emotions. So he set up this experiment where he created different stimulus (smell ammonia, listen to jazz, put hands in bucket of frogs...) and took photos of his subjects reactions. And...decapitating rats.

Most people initially resisted when it came to the rat 'stimulus', but ultmately two-thirds complied.

While Landis continued to concentrate on the facial expression issue, the obedience of his subjects is of course intensely interesting as they anticipated the now famous Stanley Milgram's experiment. In Stanley's experiment subjects were expected to administer increasingly higher voltage shocks to a fellow subject behind a screen, for incorrect answers to linguistic based questions. Two-thirds complied. You can watch a summary of these experiments with actual film footaged here. (Ten Minutes)

Paul Ekman is the world expert on non-verbal communication and has spent his career proving that facial expressions are universally expressed, with some social contraints in different cultures, and his fascinating discoveries are described in Emotions Revealed.

Curious about the Alex Boese book title? In 1962, in Lincoln Park Zoo in Oklahoma City, some rather strange people thought it would be interesting to see how an elephant reacted to 297 milligrams of LSD. It wasn't their intention of course, but the poor elephant died an hour later. Thank heavens for contemporary ethical safeguards - Non of the experiments mentioned here would ever be permitted today.

The Virtual Water Project

The Virtual Water Project has produced these incredible posters. The water footprint of a person, company or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the commodities, goods and services consumed by the person, company or nation. The idea of the water footprint is quite similar to the ecological footprint, but focussing on the use of water.

Very interesting and thought provoking. To order posters or just visit the site please click here

Work Empowerment Foundation - for a happier workplace

The Work Empowerment Foundation is a non-profit making social enterprise founded to make a difference to as many people as possible. Their aim is to help people create fun, freedom and fulfilment at work through their website, conferences and workshops.

The Empowerment Website is a portal of work issues. As the foundation develops, the number of work issues covered on the website will increase. By participating, you can help identify work issues and prioritise them. You will be able to interact with other members facing similar problems and with organisations and individuals with experience in the field.

For a happier workplace please contact Hina Patel, the Director and Founder.

Building Learning Communities - Short Course

A fantastic opportunity to take a two day course in Belfast arranged by Public Achievement (Directed by Paul Smyth) in association with the Horizon Project. The course will be taught by Dr Jerry Stein, of the University of Minnesota. The course will be ran as 2 day residential from Monday 12 - Wednesday 14 November, 2007 at the Old Inn, Crawfordsburn.

The module builds on Dr Stein's ‘Learning Dreams’ project, which has led to the creation of a similar initiative due to be piloted shortly in North Belfast. The work is predicated on the idea that one key to increasing commitment to learning amongst young people is to construct learning communities beginning with the learning aspirations of adults in these communities.

I think I might just get to this one :)

If you are interested in applying for this short course, please contact Sean Pettis, Training Officer with Public Achievement on 028 90 666948 or email sean@publicachievement.com

Public Achievement does great work in helping support and develop communities please see their full website.

Big decisions of 2007: Facebook

After a false start in May, where I registered with Facebook, discovered few friends and beat a temporary retreat, I am now a big fan. But it does seem to be a controversial, and important decision for many people my age.

These are the sorts of questions we all seem to ask ourselves before signing up to a social networking site:

Does it make me and my life too transparent? Will my children think I am lame? Am I too inexperienced with technology? Why would I want/need it? Am I too satisfied with my social life already? Am I too important, clever, senior, worried, insecure, old, young, traditional, suspicious, private, well-connected, popular, unphotogenic? What exactly does it say about me? Am I too busy? Does it make me look like I am not busy enough? Do I disapprove of online connections? Do I just think that face to face communications are the only way to develop friendship?

Yes, No, possibly. . . . I think it is different for everyone. My advice: Just do it.

My experience is that it has enriched my life, both working and personal (where is that line anyway?). I love being connected with so many wonderful people. I honestly believe that initial contacts through Facebook break the ice and can ultimately lead to real and enduring friendships with outward looking, exciting people, often with shared interests. . . from all over the world. And it has virtually wiped away that agony of walking into a room of complete strangers. Being so connected makes me feel Happy :)

Thriving Group on Facebook now has nearly 150 members. Please join when you can and support the work we are doing. And don't hesitate to add me if you would like to. :) I need all the friends I can get!

Greenest man in Hampshire

Meet my very dear friend Alex Gadsden. Alex has invented a pedal powered washing machine and has taken it to shows all over the country, including the Big Green Gathering in Somerset. The invention has generated a lot of interest and I hope that it really takes off. Perhaps a laptop stand . . . .mmm

To find out more please go to the Cyclean website

FIrst Thoughts on life, blogging and the creative process

A gorgeous new book by artist and extraordinary blogger Marie-Chantale Turgeon!

W-A-N-T :)

Beautiful Photo set

Beautiful Flickr Photo set

How a graphic designer contributes to our understanding of feelings?

Orlagh O’Brien is a graphic designer who has designer and created a wonderful project which examines emotions and has created a visual impression of 5 different emotions, anger, joy, fear, sadness and joy. Ultimately, 250 men and women from over 35 countries between the ages of 6 and 75 responded. The sample was a mix of friends, their friends, colleagues and strangers.

The question started as: How do you ask a stranger (not necessarily fluent in English) to recall and describe their private emotions? A survey was developed and tested over a number of weeks. Each final survey contained five sheets of A4 paper, one reusable colour swatch board, a red marker pen and a memento card. After the first written questions was a free-form drawing one which led to pages that were more specific, asking for: ‘one spot only’, colour associations and just arrows.

In describing the project Orlagh O'Brien says, "Emotions can be overwhelming. But not always so. They affect our thoughts and perceptions far more than we realise. It is well established that we are subliminally affected by visual media, and particularly in terms of unconscious emotions, drives and feelings."

"I wanted to question how feeling can be experienced in the body, not simply in mind. I believe that we can use familiar tools to express understanding of experience, and not be restricted to the use of photographic stereotypes.

Can people describe their visceral feelings of emotion visually, and if so, would any patterns arise? In order to answer this, I had to develop some way of asking people to reflect on and describe their private feelings in a simple, repeatable manner, the results of which could be correlated visually and demographically.

By gathering concepts of feeling by word, colour and line and creating visual languages for anger, joy, fear, sadness and love - a kind of democratic visual language is created - a backwards-brand."

I love this project so much :) Please see more of the results on the Emotionally } Vague Website

Looking at Books - for children

By Bridget McKenzie from Flow Associates
Booktrust has just produced Guides to Looking at Books to highlight the importance of illustrations and the value of picture books. This is part of the Big Picture, the Booktrust's campaign launched recently at the Early Years Awards by Michael Rosen, the Children's Laureate.

There are two guides, one that explores the thinking about visual literacy and how children develop symbolic skills. It covers five dimensions: Pleasure in looking, Imagination and fantasy, Stimulating curiosity, Developing Empathy and Understanding Stories & Art. The second guide suggests a wide range of picture books and loads of creative ideas for exploring them. Both are available to download from the link above.

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