TED – On The 8 Spot

Who would ever thought that a Filipino could make a big difference in protecting the environment, especially in the field of law? Tony Oposa did, not only once but twice. First during his case which is popularly known as Minors Oposa vs. Factoran in which he sued the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and demanding the cancellation of all existing logging concessions and an injuction against new one. These logging concessions deforest what remains to be only 4% of virgin forests in the country. The second was his case against government agencies in cleaning up Manila Bay which after 10 years, was ruled by the Supreme Court in favor of Oposa’s cause. These two famous cases was a landmark victory in environmental law, testing the waters for future cases and paving the way for environmental law in becoming an established branch of the legal system.
via Antonio Oposa Jr – Environmental Lawyer and Activist | FreeMan | Bluepanjeet.Org.

Was able to catch his TEDxManila presentation. Inspiring! Intergenerational responsibility, truly an Idea worth spreading

remember sir Ken Robinsons TED talk here, of how schools kill creativity, he says something there like “college produces college professors”, I love my professors but sometimes feel this sentiment. same with the board exams, the EE board exams produces exam takers/passers not electrical engineers. red the half of the post i didnt grab

In praise of dumbing down
Complaints about “dumbing down” have become a cliché. However, in narrow technical terms, the dumbing down of exams could be a good thing, as this recent paper explains.
The intuition is simple. Exams can only measure a subset of the skills required for most jobs. If you set tough exams, people with good skills which the exam doesn’t test will either fail or not even enter. The result is that employers who look for exam grades plus other skills will not get a pool of able candidates.
In such cases, the dumbing down of exams can help. They’ll allow those people with good but non-tested skills to now acquire credentials as well. And as these people can now get jobs ahead of good exam-passers with poor other skills, so labour productivity might improve. This would happen if the decline in average tested skills is small, relative to the improvement in average non-tested skills of the new exam-passers, or if non-tested skills are very important for job success.
It’s possible, therefore, that dumbing down can be good for the economy.
So much for theory, what of practice?
via Stumbling and Mumbling: In praise of dumbing down.

Tag: TED

rePost:Please Send This To All My Teachers In College hehehe:Stumbling and Mumbling: In praise of dumbing down