The Global Search for Education: Australia – Ticks
Tick-borne illness advocates from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the United States will join forces to build awareness in the Worldwide Lyme Disease Awareness Protest on May 10 and May 11, 2013. The advocates seek to educate the public on the many complex issues and challenges surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne infections, including monitoring incidence, accurate diagnosis, treatment options, blood transmission, tick-borne pathogens and the socioeconomic impact of tick-borne illnesses. More funding is needed for research into the tick-borne infections health crisis, which is a growing global concern.
Lyme (Borreliosis), Anaplasmosis /Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Bartonella, Tularemia, and more recently, Borrelia miyamotoi (a distant relative of Lyme Borreliosis) are recognized tick-borne infectious diseases in the United States of which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims Lyme disease is the most common and fastest growing illness.
Today in my focus on Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses around the world, I look at the situation in Australia. I am joined by Sharon Whiteman, President of Lyme Disease Association of Australia, Dr. Ann Mitrovic who is part of the Tick-borne Diseases Unit studying Borreliosis, Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichiosis at the University of Sydney, and Dr. Andrew Ladhams, General Practitioner, Immunologist, Virologist and renowned Lyme literate doctor.
Sharon, what is the annual incidence of Lyme disease in Australia?
Sharon: Lyme disease has been reportedly acquired in all states and territories of Australia… and city suburbs are not immune. The first locally acquired case of Lyme disease was reported in 1982, although the precise figures are unknown. Many patients with Lyme disease are not properly tested and are often misdiagnosed with a wide range of other diseases. Lyme disease is not a notifiable disease in Australia, therefore there is no mechanism for a formal tally.
In the early 1990‘s, Westmead Hospital’s specialty laboratory reported 1,000 suspected clinical cases per year. In 2012, the same lab reported processing 2,000 blood tests for Lyme disease. In the past year, demand for advice and assistance through the LDAA has more than doubled. We are aware that there are a minimum of 75-100 Lyme blood test samples being sent overseas for testing each calendar month.
The LDAA estimates there are more than 10,000 diagnosed cases in Australia.
Ann, what is the focus of your research and how does it relate to the challenges of identification and cure of Lyme disease and diseases triggered by Lyme?
Ann: Our situation in Australia is quite different in that a Borrelia species has not conclusively been identified in Australian ticks. One study published in 1994 surveyed 12,000 ticks and could not find evidence to support the existence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, so the position since then has been that Australian ticks are unlikely to transmit Lyme disease. However, I believe because this study was focused on the American Borrelia species, it would be worthwhile reinvestigating with a broader approach to see if any Borrelia species can be identified in our ticks. As you are aware, several pathogenic species of Borrelia have been identified in the USA, Europe and Asia. It may be that Australia has a unique Borrelia genospecies that has evolved within our unique fawna.
We are also conducting a clinical study investigating Borreliosis in participants that have supportive evidence (mainly serology) of an exposure to Borrelia and have clinical symptoms consistent with Borreliosis. We are interested as well in other tick borne pathogens that may contribute to the clinical presentation that have not been investigated in Australian ticks to date. As such, our research is at a very preliminary stage and currently we are not addressing issues of treatment/cure of Borreliosis or associated tick borne-infections.
“Several pathogenic species of Borrelia have been identified in the USA, Europe and Asia. It may be that Australia has a unique Borrelia genospecies that has evolved within our unique fawna.” — Dr. Ann Mitrovic
Ann, I have been told that there are numerous incidences of Lyme disease in Australia as identified by serology. How can there be there no conclusive identification of a Borrelia species in Australian ticks while there are so many apparent cases of Lyme disease?
Ann: I will need to clarify a few things to explain the serology diagnostics. In Australia, we follow the USA CDC criteria, ELISA first, then if positive or equivocal, a western blot is performed. Very few people return a positive western blot to meet the CDC criteria of 5 positive bands. The Australians that do return a positive western blot have usually travelled and as such are presumed to have contracted the infection overseas. In saying that, there are a few that have returned a positive but have not left Australia; these are then usually explained as a false positive, as have been reported overseas from non-endemic areas.
More recently, Australians have been sending their blood to overseas specialty laboratories such as IgeneX in the USA because they can’t get a western blot in Australia if they have returned a negative ELISA. IgeneX reports 2 criteria, the CDC criteria and also IgeneX criteria, which reports a positive if two IgG bands are positive out of a group of selective antigens.
Do you have a reliable test for Lyme disease in Australia?
Sharon: Currently, there is no Australian testing facility set up to test for all the bacterial species that can cause Lyme disease. The most reliable testing is conducted through the IGeneX lab in the United States and Infectolab in Germany.
Ann: Diagnostics for Borreliosis is such a complicated area that I don’t believe any one test will be reliable in all patients at all stages of the disease and perhaps a multi-test approach is warranted. I am afraid I am not an expert in this area.
Sharon, what does chronic Lyme disease mean to you?
Sharon: Lyme disease is caused by a bacterial infection, which soon after a bite from an infected tick will spread through the blood to lymph and then to other tissues and organs. It has been demonstrated that the bacteria can cross into the brain within 48 hours, although typically Lyme disease is classed as ‘early’ for the first 6-12 weeks of entering the body. After that time, untreated, the Lyme infection can spread broadly through the body into the brain, nerves and organs where at this point it is classified as ‘chronic’ or ‘disseminated’ disease.
It’s chronic or disseminated Lyme disease which most challenges health professionals in treating and Lyme patients in recovering to wellness. The bottom line – the sooner treatment is initiated, the better the outcome. It is not advisable to wait for symptoms to present as the delay may allow the tick borne infection to progress.
Sharon, do you believe doctors can adequately treat the symptoms triggered by this disease?
Sharon: To have effective treatment of symptoms and underlying pathology, there first must be accurate diagnosis of Lyme disease. Lyme disease is primarily a clinical diagnosis, based on the patient’s history, symptoms and presentation. Blood tests are relied upon to support a Lyme disease diagnosis but because current testing is not accurate, results are unable to be used to conclude a positive or negative diagnosis of Lyme disease.
It is important to remember that even if blood tests are negative, Lyme disease could still be at play.
Adequate treatment of Lyme disease requires a combination of therapies to address the bacteria, parasites, protozoans and viruses passed through the bite of a tick. Research indicates that initial combination treatment should persist for a minimum of 6-8 weeks and be repeated/extended if clinical symptoms persist. Research exploring the efficacy of treatments is advancing rapidly and each patient may require an individualized approach.
On what research do you believe scientists around the world must give priority in order to better treat patients suffering from tick borne illnesses?
Andrew: Ideally, there needs to be an accepted diagnostic and therapeutic approach to this illness, this should be the most simplistic imperative. But (and very big BUT), key stakeholders seemed mired in reaching a consensus on the disease itself. Overall, it is imperative that a memorandum of understanding be reached between the key clinical bodies involved with diagnosis and management of this disease. Chronic, not chronic, highly infectious, not highly infectious, tick-borne, arthropod (insect)-borne, sexually transmissible, blood-borne and not – science needs to focus on all these aspects, and not through proving negatives with negatives but proving negatives with positives.
Sharon: The global priority for research into tick borne diseases needs to be built on the foundation of recognition of the complexity of the bacteria itself. There needs to be awareness of a multitude of vectors for transmission, advancement in testing for the indicated 130 or greater species of the bacteria and recognition that different species will be prevalent in different geographic areas. Equally, these same advancements must embrace the testing for common co-infections as well.
Research advancements must also include rigorous testing on efficacy of treatments for both the Borrelia bacteria and other tick borne illnesses and must include the evaluation of the importance of detoxification to assist the body in sustaining treatment and optimizing foundational cell and systemic function. Priority research needs to be implemented in the area of the transmission of Lyme disease outside of vector initiated. The risk of transmission through blood transfusion, mother to child in utero and by sexual contact must be confirmed or eliminated definitively.
For more US information: http://www.TBDAlliance.org
For more Australian information: http://www.lymedisease.org.au/aboutlyme/contact-us
C. M. Rubin, Dr. Andrew Ladhams, Sharon Whiteman, Dr. Ann Mitrovic
Photos courtesy of Lyme Disease Association of Australia.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, includingThe Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
UK - Ticks
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
Some British experts think as many as 20 percent of the UK Lyme disease infections arise from Brits acquiring the disease while vacationing in Lyme disease hot spots such as the United States (New England) and parts of Central Europe. Lyme (Borreliosis), Anaplasmosis /Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Bartonella, Tularemia, and more recently, Borrelia miyamotoi (a distant relative of Lyme Borreliosis) are recognized tick-borne infectious diseases in the United States of which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims Lyme disease is the most common and fastest growing illness.
“Organisms in the Borrelia genus are widely distributed across the world. Species associated with disease similar to Lyme disease are found in Europe, North America and Asia.” — Tim Brooks
Today in my focus on Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses around the world, I look at the UK. I am joined by Dr. Tim Brooks, Head of the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory - Public Health England, Stella Huyshe-Shires, Chair of Lyme Disease Action, Dr. Richard Bingham, who is studying Lyme disease at the University of Huddersfield, and Ted Wilson, Director and Silviculturist at Silviculture Research International Ltd.
What is the annual incidence of Lyme disease in the UK?
Stella: We don’t know because only positive blood tests are recorded and these are about 1000/year. Public Health England estimates a further 2,000-3,000 cases are diagnosed at the stage of the rash. Lyme Disease Action estimates a possible 15-20,000 new cases/year, but this is based on a small sample area.
Tim: Since the introduction of enhanced surveillance in 1997, over 6,900 cases have been reported in the UK. Mean annual incidence rates for laboratory-confirmed cases have risen from 0.38 per 100,000 total population for the period 1997-2000, to 0.64 in 2002, and to 1.64 cases per 100,000 total population in 2010. Many cases are diagnosed by general practitioners on the basis of a rash, and since these are not usually tested for Lyme antibodies, they are not included in the figures quoted.
Ted: It is also important to note that a lot of UK citizens take vacations in other Lyme disease hotspots, such as New England and central Europe. We think that as many as 20 percent of infections arise from people acquiring the disease while abroad. At the present time, there is a significant government program dedicated to encouraging the population to be less sedentary and more physically-active. A big push is on the widest use of public forestland and other open spaces for walking and wildlife watching. Given that Lyme disease is the most significant health risk linked to the natural environment in Britain, it is important that information is given to balance and minimize the risk of ill-health among a population that believes it is “doing the right thing” by using outdoor venues as a place for recreation, exercise and restoration.
How easily do you think this disease can be spread to any part of the world?
Tim: Organisms in the Borrelia genus are widely distributed across the world. Species associated with disease similar to Lyme disease are found in Europe, North America and Asia. Related organisms are present in Africa, and cause a variety of infections, although research into the burden of this disease is only in early stages at present. Micro-organisms adapt to their vectors, and different Borrelia associate with their own preferred species of tick. Ticks can be transported long distances on birds, and do occasionally establish themselves in new localities.
“Many current diagnostic tools rely on detecting antibodies against Borrelial surface proteins. If we have more knowledge about exactly what proteins are present at the bacterial surface, this may be used to improve this type of test.” — Richard Bingham
Do you have a reliable test for Lyme disease in the UK?
Stella: No. Nobody does.
Tim: The PHE’s Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) based at Porton Down, diagnoses Lyme disease by detecting antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi, the organism which causes Lyme disease, in a patient’s blood. RIPL uses the two tier system recommended by American and European authorities, a screening test followed by a confirmatory test based on a western blot. All testing is fully automated to avoid subjectivity and ensure consistency in reading the tests. Sensitive screening tests are used because they can detect low levels of antibodies; but they have the disadvantage of producing occasional false positive results in samples from some patients with other conditions.
Do you believe that chronic Lyme disease exists or that it is a misnomer for other diseases triggered by Lyme disease?
Tim: Some patients who have been treated for disseminated Lyme disease with neurological or joint involvement will have persistent symptoms for some time after treatment, which may resolve with time. This is consistent with the tissue damage associated with an acute infection, but is not an indicator in itself of a chronic infection. Such cases should be investigated carefully if the symptoms do not resolve to exclude re-infection or other unrelated conditions.
Stella: Chronic Lyme means continuing Lyme disease after initial treatment, but as there is no effective test for this, there is much argument about whether it exists. We do not know whether continuing symptoms are due to active disease, and immune reaction or tissue damage.
Where are British researchers currently focusing their efforts in order to overcome the challenges of identification and cure of Lyme disease?
Tim: Public Health England (PHE) is working to improve awareness of Lyme disease amongst the public and recognition of the condition by general practitioners. We are also evaluating different diagnostic tests to ensure that any advances in this field are introduced in our practice when they offer a reproducible result that is specific for Lyme borreliosis. PHE Rare & Imported Pathogens Laboratory is negotiating with selected infectious disease centres to offer a special Lyme disease clinical service, and will be developing a specific set of guidance for the investigation and management of Lyme disease in the UK. Prevention of Lyme disease is one of the most effective ways of managing this infection. Although a successful vaccine against Lyme borreliosis was developed and introduced in the US, it was withdrawn for commercial reasons, so tick awareness, avoidance of tick infested areas if possible, avoidance of long grass, use of appropriate clothing in tick infested areas, and early removal of attached ticks remain the most important prevention measures. Nonetheless, research into new vaccines is continuing, but no product is likely to be available in the near future.
“Part of the challenge with Lyme disease is the fact that so many different elements and angles are required if we are to see a reduction in the incidence of the disease in Britain.” — Ted Wilson
Richard, what does your Lyme disease research currently focus on?
Richard: My research is directed towards structural studies of Borrelial proteins. I am currently looking at a variety of outer membrane proteins that have Factor H binding activity. We have cloned these genes and are producing recombinant protein in E. coli. Our aim is to use X-ray crystallography and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to determine 3-dimensional structures. This structural data will be combined with biological activity to further our understanding of how Borrelia evade the host immune response.
Richard, how is this research relevant to finding better diagnostic tools and treatments for Lyme disease?
Richard: We aim to gain knowledge and understanding of Borrelia surface molecules. Many current diagnostic tools rely on detecting antibodies against Borrelial surface proteins. If we have more knowledge about exactly what proteins are present at the bacterial surface, this may be used to improve this type of test. As for treatments, we are studying a range of surface proteins and enzymes in Borrelia. Some of these enzymes might be drug targets of the future. A significant proportion of the Borrelia genome encodes for proteins with very little similarity to other organisms. This limits our understanding of how these bacteria interact with the host and evade the immune response. My objective is to target these poorly understood molecules. We are currently cloning the genes, producing recombinant protein in E. coli and attempting structural studies. I hope to publish some interesting results during the summer.
Ted, could you explain in a little more detail the goals of your forestry project for forest managers and visitors.
Ted: At the present time, I am about to start work on a Best Practice Handbook designed for forestry and natural resource professionals, and also environmental educators. The aim is to provide background information on ticks, their ecology, and Lyme disease that can sit in any office around the country and can serve as a “ready-reference” of useful information. In addition, I plan to look at both the public health messaging side and also the habitat management issues, to provide a range of best practice case studies where the risk of infection might be reduced in any one forest. Of course, it is important to remember that the ecological and public health dimensions are only one (important) strand in the fight to reduce incidence of Lyme disease.
On what research do you believe scientists around the world must give priority?
Stella: We engaged in a Priority Setting Partnership in which patients and clinicians together voted on their top 10 uncertainties for research. The top 2 priorities were to find the most appropriate treatment for the different stages of Lyme disease and to find a better test.
Ted: I believe that we need to tackle Lyme disease from a number of equally important angles. Clearly, minimizing the risk of infection is going to be the best option. If more people know about the disease and are checking themselves carefully after woodland or nature visits, then we can have a dramatic impact on reducing the burden of disease. Also important is basic research on the ecology and prevalence of ticks and the Borrelia bacteria (and other tick-borne bacteria). However, where people have been infected, there remains great controversy and concern about both the diagnosis and treatment options. This implies more training among health professionals, especially GP’s, and also improvements in our diagnostic tests. So, part of the challenge with Lyme disease is the fact that so many different elements and angles are required if we are to see a reduction in the incidence of the disease in Britain.
For more US information: http://www.TBDAlliance.org.
For more UK information: http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk.
C.M. Rubin, Ted Wilson, Stella Huyshe-Shires, Richard Bingham, Tim Brooks
Photos courtesy of Lyme Disease Action, Public Health England, Richard Bingham and Ted Wilson.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
The aim of “Campus” is to allow experts on a diverse range of topics, from neuroscience to eating disorders to cyber-bullying, to share perspectives with educators.
Campus Talk
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
“Campus,” an idea born in Finland (the top ranking country in education according to recent international comparisons), is an exclusive professional seminar for all New York City public school teachers that will be held this Saturday, May 4th at Sunshine Cinema in New York, in cooperation with the NYC Department of Education. The aim is to allow experts on a diverse range of topics, from neuroscience to eating disorders to cyber-bullying, to share perspectives with educators on recent developments in those spheres.
“What is School For? The Power of the Heroic Teacher,” will be the keynote speech by blogger and best selling author Seth Godin. Other speakers include Gary Carter, Dr. Eero Castren, Dr. Elizabeth Englander, Dr. Andrea Vazzana and Kathy Bostjancic. I was able to catch up with them to talk about some of the topics they will be addressing.
Seth, what makes a heroic teacher?
Seth: Heroism is about taking risks. Sometimes it’s the existential risk of running into a fire but more often than not it’s the vulnerability that comes from going off the beaten path, from standing up for what you believe in and, most of all, for caring more than you should.
Elizabeth, what makes cyber-bullying a major issue?
Elizabeth: Communicating through digital means represents a major change for the human race. Unlike the advent of some other technologies, cyberspace literally changes the way people perceive and understand each other. But because it is so new, these subtleties aren’t well understood, and thus the impact of social cruelty that occurs digitally is still an area of intensive study. Children, in particular, often don’t understand how severely their digital words and their sharing of images can affect their peers (and others), and thus the social problems caused by cyber-communications are far too frequent and can be very severe. For all its advantages, cyber-communication can also lead to serious problems, including depression, anxiety, problems with social skills, and difficulties in human relationships. Cyber-bullying is a major issue simply because it causes a great deal of grief and will not subside before it is better understood and before this knowledge is successfully transmitted to users.
Gary, do you believe our education system is doing enough for children with learning disabilities?
Gary: As I am neither an American, nor an educationalist, I am not qualified to comment on whether this education system does enough for children with learning disabilities. I am the parent of an adopted disabled child.
However, I am convinced that mainstream society in the Western world undervalues the lived experience of people with all kinds of disabilities, physical and developmental/learning. We assume that the experience of individuals with disabilities is somehow less than ours, or lacking, and as a result we tend not to focus on understanding, participating in, or enriching their experience of the world. We tend instead to move from a position of pity, to discussing the impact of non-mainstream children on parents and other (mainstream) family members, again usually in a context of the difficulties families experience in managing, dealing with or living with disabled members. This has a number of dangerous implications: it tends to make the whole family ‘about’ the disabled member, at the expense of other members of it, and at the same time it does little to enrich the life experience of the disabled individual or the other family members.
There is surprisingly little focus by professionals on the direct relationship or interface between mainstream family members and disabled family members, in an emotional sense and experiential sense, and even less on ensuring that disabled family members have a rich emotional and conceptual experience of the world. It’s as if we cannot imagine that a world that is experienced fundamentally differently to ours can be valuable, rich and inspiring.
Eero, how significant an impact can the neuroscience of learning have on what and how students are taught?
Eero: Many forms of learning take best place during sensitive periods in childhood and juvenile life. We have recently learned a great deal of new things about how learning can be promoted in adults, when the sensitive periods are closed, and about the neurobiological basis of this enhanced learning. Experiments performed in rodents demonstrate that certain commonly used drugs, such as the antidepressant Prozac, can promote learning by activating in adult brain a state similar to that present during sensitive periods of learning in juveniles. Drug treatment needs to be combined with a training program for any beneficial effects to become apparent. A similar plastic state can be activated by purely environmental changes, such as an enriched environment. It is currently unclear how these treatments might influence children still within the sensitive periods of learning, but these findings underlie the importance of a stimulating and supportive environment for optimal learning.
Andrea, how big of an issue is body image for students in the classroom?
Andrea: Awareness of one’s appearance begins during the preschool years. Sadly, negative body image begins soon thereafter and increases with age, peaking in adolescence. Among grade school kids, most girls and nearly half of boys report body dissatisfaction. It’s estimated that by adolescence, one-third of girls engage in unhealthy weight-control practices (i.e., fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pill/laxative use). Kids learn from parents, teachers, peers and the media to value thinness (for girls) and muscularity (for boys). Deviations from the ideal can result in decreased self-worth, even among normal weight individuals. School, where the preponderance of peer interactions occurs, is a prime setting for appearance-related conversations and comparisons. The school’s physical environment, as well as faculty’s role-modeling and direct comments, sometimes provides further inculcation of idealized appearance standards. The past decade has seen the development of school-based interventions that realign body image with realistic standards and protect students from otherwise deleterious effects.
Kathy, what should we be teaching students about the interconnectedness of global economies?
Kathy: The U.S. economy still remains the single largest in the world, and its influence remains great. However, the winds of economic power are shifting from the advanced economies to the emerging economies. In 2000, the advanced economies, including the U.S., Europe, and Japan, accounted for 60 percent of total world economic activity, while the emerging economies accounted for 40 percent. Just a decade later in 2010, the split between advanced and emerging economies shifted to 50 percent - 50 percent. In 2020, the emerging economies are projected to outpace the advanced economies, with the split moving to 60 percent - 40 percent in favor of the emerging economies. And China is forecast to displace the U.S. as the largest economy. Moreover, the global economies and financial markets are becoming more and more interconnected. Given these global realities, it is critical that U.S. students view the U.S. economy and their own future within a global context.
For more information and registration: http://campusnyc.eventbrite.com
Top row: Andrea Vazzana, C.M. Rubin, Seth GodinBottom row: Gary Carter, Elizabeth Englander, Eero Castren, Kathy Bostjancic
Photos are courtesy of Idealist Group (Helsinki, Finland) and the Consulate General of Finland.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
“Laboratory reports on Lyme Borreliosis cases (based on positive serology) have doubled in 10 years.” — Jarmo Oksi
Finland — Ticks
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium transmitted to humans via a tick bite. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) claims that Lyme Borreliosis is the most common and fastest growing infectious illness in the United States. The disease can cause a variety of flu-like symptoms such as fever, achy joints, fatigue and headache. Additionally, Anaplasmosis/Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Bartonella, Tularemia, and more recently, Borrelia Miyamotoi (a distant relative of Lyme Borreliosis) are other recognized tick-borne infectious diseases in the United States.
Experts have been unable to agree for decades on whether a case definition called chronic Lyme disease exists. Yet, some Lyme victims, even after taking the standard treatment of antibiotics, continue to suffer from long-term and often serious health problems for years after they first contract the disease. Does chronic Lyme disease exist, or is the condition which some patients experience an autoimmune or nervous system response triggered by the infection, or indeed is it a bit of both? These are some of the major questions researchers are trying to figure out as they take on the enormous challenges of identifying better Lyme diagnostic tools and treatment plans for what is becoming a growing global public health crisis.
Today in The Global Search for Education, I take a look at tick-borne illnesses in Finland. I am joined by Docent Jarmo Oksi, Finland’s leading researcher in the field of Lyme disease, who is based at the University of Turku in Finland. In addition, I welcome Markku Kuusi, Chief Medical Officer from Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare.
“The weakness of the Finnish surveillance system is that we don’t collect any clinical information on patients, we only get notifications from laboratories.” — Markku Kuusi
What is the annual incidence of Lyme disease in Finland and in Europe at large?
Jarmo: Laboratory reports on Lyme Borreliosis cases (based on positive serology) have doubled in 10 years and are now about 1,500. The estimated number of Lyme Borreliosis infection cases is about four times this number — i.e. estimated incidence in Finland is 5,000-6,000 annually (population 5.5 million), which is about 100 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. However there are areas in the Southwestern Archipelago with incidence of 1000 per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
Markku: Based on the National Infectious Disease Register, the incidence of Lyme disease in Finland has been about 30/100,000 during the past few years. In terms of the annual incidence in other Nordic countries, in Norway it has been about 6/100,000 and in Denmark, 1 - 2/100,000. It is hard to believe that there is such a difference in actual incidence, so that is why I believe the diagnostic criteria are truly different. The weakness of the Finnish surveillance system is that we don’t collect any clinical information on patients, we only get notifications from laboratories; so it is difficult to say whether the symptoms of our cases really are compatible with Lyme Borreliosis.
Would you comment on the annual incidence of any of the other tick-borne illnesses which are endemic in Finland in addition to Lyme.
Markku: Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE) is another important tick-borne disease in Finland. The incidence has been particularly high on Aland Island and therefore TBE vaccination is included in the national immunization program. Before the vaccination program, the annual incidence was up to 100/100,000 population. Now it has decreased substantially. It seems that in other parts of Finland (apart from Aland Island), the incidence is increasing, and therefore other areas may also be included in the immunization program in the near future (for example, the Archipelago around the city of Turku).
Do you believe that chronic Lyme disease exists or that it is a misnomer for other diseases triggered by Lyme disease?
Markku: This is a difficult question. I think it is clear that some patients have a prolonged course of the disease which may last several months. The most experienced clinicians in Finland think that a continuing Borrelia infection is possible if the patient has not received adequate treatment for the illness, resulting in disseminated infection. Even after adequate treatment, some patients have symptoms due to immunological mechanisms, but it is very hard to say whether these symptoms are related to Borrelia infection or to some other causes.
“The most experienced clinicians in Finland think that a continuing Borrelia infection is possible if the patient has not received adequate treatment for the illness, resulting in disseminated infection.”— Markku Kuusi
If you believe in chronic Lyme disease, what do you believe are the most effective ways to treat it?
Jarmo: If you mean chronic infection, I think that this entity after standard antibiotic therapy is very very seldom (I see about one case in five years). However, if detected —e.g. with cultivation or PCR (the most specific way to detect), the treatment I give is individual antibiotic treatment — maybe double the length compared to the initial treatment.
What do you believe is the most effective way to treat symptoms triggered by the infection, e.g. chronic auto-immune reaction?
Jarmo: During the first months I wait for gradual improvement. If there is no improvement after six to 12 months, I then start low-dose corticosteroid treatment for a certain subset of patients. Some other subsets may get help from, for example, amitriptyline, which raises the threshold for pain sensation.
What tests currently available to the general public, other than the Western Blot test, do you believe provide a better degree of certainty?
Jarmo: PCR (and culture) are useful in some situations (culture only in research settings), but even PCR is not sensitive enough to detect all cases — e.g. in CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) of neuroborreliosis cases. Besides Western Blots, ELISA tests based on C6 peptide are generally good as confirmatory tests.
“We are currently enrolling patients into a study on neuroborreliosis: comparison of IV Ceftriaxone for 3 weeks vs. oral Doximycin for 4 weeks. Hopefully this study will give us new knowledge on markers of how to identify patients with reactive symptomatology triggered by Lyme neuroborreliosis.”— Jarmo Oksi
Are you aware of any other promising tests in development?
Markku: Last year, a Finnish group reviewed the diagnostic tests in our country. It is my understanding that right now there are not unfortunately any new reliable tests available. So we shall have to wait awhile for them.
To what research do you believe scientists around the world must give priority in order to overcome the challenges the public faces with finding a cure for Lyme disease?
Markku: I think it is important to better understand the mechanism behind the sequelae of acute borreliosis. Therefore, we need more research on the immunology of the disease. In other words, how does the bacteria actually cause joint symptoms or neurologic symptoms. I think this will help us to develop better diagnostic tests and hopefully better drugs. I believe antibiotics are not the only solution.
What is the focus of your research and how does it relate to the challenges of identification and cure of Lyme disease and diseases triggered by Lyme?
Jarmo: We are currently enrolling patients into a study on neuroborreliosis: comparison of IV Ceftriaxone for three weeks vs. oral Doximycin for four weeks. Hopefully this study (with control CSF specimens) and long follow-ups of patients also will give us new knowledge on markers of how to identify patients with reactive symptomatology triggered by Lyme neuroborreliosis.
How can technology help us find a cure for Lyme disease faster?
Markku: This is not really a field in which I am knowledgeable, but I believe that better molecular and immunological methods may give possibilities for new diagnostics and for the development of new drugs. What I really hope is that there will be better and more specific laboratory tests for Lyme Borreliosis in the future. I think that one of the key issues is to harmonize the laboratory methods so that we can get a better understanding of the epidemiology of Lyme disease in Finland.
For more information about Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases, and Prevention and Protection, go tohttp://www.TBDAlliance.org.
Jarmo Oksi, C.M. Rubin, Markku Kuusi
Photographs courtesy of CDC, National Institute for Health and Welfare Finland, and Docent Jarmo Oksi.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
“If chronic or persistent Lyme disease exists, we will need more than antibiotics for treatment. Anti-inflammatory components or anti-cytokine treatment will be options.” — Dr. Leo Joosten
The Netherlands and Ticks
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
Lyme (Borreliosis), Anaplasmosis /Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Bartonella, Tularemia, and more recently, Borrelia miyamotoi (a distant relative of Lyme Borreliosis) are recognized tick-borne infectious diseases in the United States of which The Center for Disease Control (CDC) claims Lyme disease is the most common and fastest growing illness. With spring finally here, have you taken the right steps to ensure that your children and family can enjoy the outdoors without the fear of contracting a potentially severely incapacitating tick-borne illness?
The challenges faced by those trying to combat the silent epidemic of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases are overwhelming. They include better reporting of incidence (24,000 confirmed Lyme cases reported in the U.S. in 2011 but the CDC believe this represents only 10-12 percent of all cases), better education and prevention strategies, more funding for research to develop reliable diagnostic tools (there is currently no diagnostic tool that is even 60 percent reliable), and better treatments. In contrast to the U.S., as you will discover in today’s Q&A, the Netherlands had as of 2006 approximately 17,000 reported cases a year in a population that is 6 percent the size of the U.S., shedding further doubt on the reported US incidence figures.
Tick tock, tick tock — the clock is ticking and each day it seems another expert agrees that global warming is only accelerating the tick problem. Unfortunately, like all of us, those little buggers enjoy international travel. How is the rest of the world combatting these unwelcomed tourists? Over the next few months, I will be sharing the global perspectives of leading experts involved with tick-borne illnesses. Perhaps we will see commonalities and explore new ideas, and so discover ways we can make progress on this growing global public health danger.
This week I am pleased to welcome Dr. Leo Joosten from the Department of Medicine at the Radboud University in the Netherlands. Joosten has been involved in Lyme disease research for several years.
“I think that there is a persistent Lyme disease and there are patients that have clinical symptoms due to an active immune system. How many is not clear yet.” — Dr. Leo Joosten
What is the annual incidence of Lyme disease in The Netherlands and in Europe at large?
In the Netherlands, we have 1.2 million tick bites per year and around 17,000 erythema migrans (EM, the classical red circle on the skin of a Borrelia infected subject) per year, which is increasing every year. These are data from 2006. That is over 100 cases of Lyme disease per 100,000 people in 2006. There were 85,000 Lyme disease cases in Europe in 2006. The expectation is that the incidence of Lyme disease will increase; however, the percentage is not known. This is due to that fact that the number of ticks and the infection rate of ticks have increased in the last few years.
Which other tick-borne illnesses are endemic in The Netherlands in addition to Lyme? Is Borrelia miyamotoi a concern?
There are a few cases of Babesia and Bartonella that are known, but in general, are no real issue in the Netherlands. As far as I know, there is no report yet on B. miyamotoi in the Netherlands.
Do you believe the reporting of the incidence of tick-borne diseases (and in particular Lyme) is satisfactory, or do you believe it needs to improve in the Netherlands? If yes, what do you believe needs to be done?
The registrations of tick bites and the number of infected subjects are well organized in the Netherlands. The Dutch center for public healthcare (the RIVM) monitors the numbers of tick bites and the incidence of Lyme disease. In a collaboration with Wageningen University, the RIVM developed a program (see website: Tekenradar.nl) that allows individuals to send the tick to be evaluated for Borrelia infection. So in general, the reporting of incidence of Lyme disease is satisfactory in the Netherlands.
Do you believe that chronic Lyme disease exists or that it is a misnomer for other diseases triggered by Lyme disease?
I think that there is a persistent Lyme disease and there are patients that have clinical symptoms due to an active immune system. How many is not clear yet, but I think it is only a minority of the Lyme Disease patients. We think that due to prolonged exposure to live Borrelia or Borreliaantigens, the immune system is still activated. The pro-inflammatory mediators produced by the immune cells, such as IL-1, can be the cause of persistent clinical signs of Lyme disease.
“My focus is pathogen-host interaction: how Borrelia is recognized by the host and why some individuals develop Lyme disease while some do not. Which genes are needed for an optimal host defense response to kill the pathogen?” — Dr. Leo Joosten
What solutions that are currently being pursued do you believe hold the most promise for diagnosing Lyme disease at a high confidence level? What tests currently available to the general public, other than the western blot test, do you believe provide a better degree of certainty?
At the moment, there are cellular based tests on the market. LTT, Elispot and Spirofind are a few of these tests. These tests give us information about the cellular immune response towards Borreliaantigens. It seems that these tests will used in the future, apart from serological tests.
If you believe in chronic Lyme disease, what do you believe are the most effective ways to treat it?
If chronic or persistent Lyme disease exists, we will need more than antibiotics for treatment. Anti-inflammatory components or anti-cytokine treatment will be options.
What tests are currently available or in development that you believe will reliably identify diseases triggered by Lyme disease?
I think the new cellular based assays, such as Spirofind, will be helpful in identifying Lyme disease in the future.
What is the focus of your research and how does it relate to the challenges of identification and cure of Lyme disease and diseases triggered by Lyme?
My focus is pathogen-host interaction: how Borrelia is recognized by the host and why some individuals develop Lyme disease while some do not. Which genes are needed for an optimal host defense response to kill the pathogen? With this knowledge, we can develop new diagnostic tools for Lyme disease and maybe better targets for treatment. Apart from these goals, we will explore novel pathways in host defenses to identify biomarkers for early diagnosis of disseminated Lyme disease. The final goal is to explore anti-cytokine targeting for patients with persistent Lyme disease. We think that anti-IL-1 could be an effective therapy for these patients.
Dr. Leo Joosten and C. M. Rubin
Photos courtesy of Phil and Co., CDC, and Leo Joosten.
For more information about Lyme and tick-borne diseases, and prevention and protection, go tohttp://www.TBDAlliance.org.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
Alice - The Legacy
Judi Dench and Ruby Bentall in the World Premiere of Peter and Alice
“So long as men can breathe and eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.” - William Shakespeare
Alice Liddell Hargreaves died on November 16, 1934, but her legacy — and its inextricable link to Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland tales — refuses to die. Who was the little girl that inspired Carroll to write what is possibly the greatest children’s story of all time?
John Logan, the playwright (Red) and screenwriter (Skyfall, Hugo, Sweeney Todd, The Aviator, Gladiator), has written a new fictional play about Alice that is directed by Michael Grandage and is currently playing at the Noel Coward Theatre in London. Inspired by the fact that at the opening of the Lewis Carroll exhibition in London in 1932, Alice Liddell Hargreaves met Peter Llewelyn Davies at the Bumpus bookshop, Logan wondered what the two immortal inspirations (the girl who fell down the rabbit hole and Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up) might have said to each other. After all, as Alice points out in the play, “We’re practically our own children’s department.” And yes, that’s quite some legacy.
Judi Dench (Alice) and Ben Whishaw (Peter) in Peter and Alice
In the production, Alice, played by Academy Award winning actress Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), and Peter, played by Ben Whishaw, recall their pasts, the fantastical worlds they each inhabited, the joyful and sad memories of childhood, and the personal experiences that shaped them into the people they have become today.
It’s not the first time a story about Alice Liddell Hargreaves has been inspired by the 1932 centenary of Lewis Caroll’s birth. Dreamchild, the 1985 British drama film written by Dennis Potter and directed by Gavin Millar, begins with the elderly Alice’s arrival in New York to receive an honorary degree from Columbia University and participate in America’s centenary celebrations of the world famous author. Here too, the story depicts Alice as an 80-year-old woman reminiscing her past, although this is a somewhat darker reflection of a woman who finds herself somewhat haunted by the characters which once upon a time had entertained her.
Judi Dench as Alice Liddell Hargreaves in Peter and Alice
Meanwhile, in just a few weeks time, on May 3, 2013, another “Wonderland in Wales” prepares to once again inspire visitors with the non-fictional story of Alice Liddell Hargreaves on Alice Day. Llandudno in Wales has a long connection to Alice Liddell Hargreaves. It was here that Alice’s father, Henry Liddell (who inspired the White Rabbit), his wife Lorina, and the governess Miss Pricks (who inspired the Queen of Hearts), sisters Lorina and Edith (who inspired the Lory and the Eaglet respectively), and the rest of the Liddell family gathered each summer to holiday at the family ‘s large, gothic styled vacation home, which they called Penmorfa. Many famous celebrities of the day, including Prime Minister William Gladstone, came to visit them. As the Alice in Wonderland books became more famous, Alice Liddell also became an important celebrity in this town. Tourists visited the beautiful Llandudno resort, perfectly situated on the western shores of Wales, curious to learn more about the story behind one of the greatest children’s stories of all time.
A.L.I.C.E., which stands for Alice Liddell’s Innovative Community Enterprise, continues to keep Llandudno’s connection to Alice Liddell alive and in the public domain. In addition, as Simon Burrows, one of the co-founders and organizers confirms, “It is a great excuse for a party and a jam tart.” Not content with achieving a world record for eating the most jam tarts (1,716) in a single Alice In Wonderland party last year, the organizers are hoping for a bigger audience and even more fun this time round. They have been working closely with local schools on a number of new educational initiatives while continuing to update Alice exhibitions around the town and to develop their much anticipated digital Alice e-tour. Alice Day on May 3rd has also become the annual event to celebrate the end of each Miss Alice Llandudno’s year long reign.
And so it makes me wonder… what might the original inspiration for the girl who fell down the rabbit hole 151 years ago have to say about all this?
C. M. Rubin
Photos courtesy of Johan Persson
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
“How ironic it is that our liberal arts and science institutions have long been admired world wide, and yet they now could be undermined from within.” — Howard Gardner
A Question of Privacy
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
At public universities, it seems generally understood that anything communicated through the university email system is subject to inspection. The question posed today is: Did Harvard University, whose position on the question of privacy seems more ambiguous, make the right decision to secretly search the email accounts of 16 resident deans without first informing them? The Harvard investigators were looking for information related to a leak about the University’s cheating scandal in which about half the students in an undergraduate spring class called “Introduction to Congress” were thought to have been involved. As reported in the Boston Globe on March 10, the deans whose emails were searched were informed of Harvard’s actions on March 9, almost six months after the search took place. Was this an extraordinary circumstance in which Harvard University had no other option? Perhaps they concluded it was. Was there a better way to handle the execution given the respect due to Harvard’s esteemed academic community? From a legal and ethical perspective, what do people believe the right course of action should be for a trusted, honorable, private academic institution? I asked Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Alan Behr, a partner at the Phillips Nizer law firm and a member of its Corporate & Business Law Department and Intellectual Property Practice, to share their perspectives.
Please tell me the degree to which you think this privacy incident has concerned members of the Harvard community. What proportion of faculty and students of the University would you estimate share concerns for what has transpired?
Howard: To my surprise, I see a degree of mobilization that had not occurred with regard to the cheating episode. I am not sure why. Could be a cumulative effect, could also be that this hits closer to home. After all, it involves faculty and those that faculty considered colleagues - senior resident deans who were apparently treated differently from ladder or tenure faculty. Absent survey data, it is impossible to know the percentages in any constituency. I will say that a number of departments and cohorts have mobilized in ways that they did not before, but it is not yet clear how the mobilization will go and whether it will have any effect.
Do you believe there are any egregious acts that would give the right to an organization such as Harvard to access a faculty member’s or an individual’s private correspondence?
Howard: There are two separate questions. One has to do with the seriousness of the alleged transgression; the other has to do with whether the faculty member should be apprised before the fact. I think that the offense has to be serious (criminal or one that comes close to the heart of the educational enterprise, like scientific fraud) and the reason needs to be spelled out.
Alan: Because the institution is accountable for what is on its servers, it has reason to say that it has the right to know what is on them. If the individual has something deeply private stored on the institution’s server, the first question is obvious: if it is so private, why did you upload it? If there is a dedicated electronic storage space for private files and it is so identified to the employee, the institution could have a tough time supporting any invasion of that space for almost any reason that is not listed within its information policy. If the private files contain information that is potentially related to a serious crime, the institution is perhaps on firmer ground in reading it than in most other serious situations.
“You violate a person’s right of privacy when you obtain personal data on that person when he or she is in a situation in which it is reasonable to have an expectation of privacy.” — Alan Behr
On the question of privacy, do you think there should be any difference between an education that is privately paid for and an education that is publicly paid for?
Howard: At public universities, it is already understood that anything you write on your university email is subject to inspection, perhaps without notice. And so employees at such universities are forewarned. Those of us at private universities thought that a different set of rules applied; I certainly did. Note however that private education is also publicly paid for, not only by grants to students but also by its tax-free status, and so the once assumed privilege may gradually disappear. That cuts directly into the heart of the academic enterprise, which has assumed trust, privacy, community, and a moral basis.
Is there a distinction you would make between privacy protections and rights for a paid employee (such as a faculty member) versus a student who is paying customer of the university?
Alan: Very generally, you violate a person’s right of privacy when you obtain personal data on that person when he or she is in a situation in which it is reasonable to have an “expectation of privacy.” Someone taking pictures of you through your third-floor bedroom window while you are dressing for dinner is likely violating your right of privacy. If you stand in your bedroom window and shout to people on the street, however, what you say would not be considered private. The Duchess of Cambridge was seated outdoors when photographed topless - on the veranda of a private villa, and the photographer was said to be positioned far off, on a road. Does a famous person in a private space have an expectation of privacy when visible only with professional-grade optics from a considerable distance? Many believed so. Most institutions take the position that there is no expectation of privacy when communicating via their email systems. It is worth noting that they take different positions about telephones: you have a right to expect that your call is not being monitored or recorded. The distinction is based in part upon the fact that email is a permanent written record, one that could potentially subject the institution to liability. The institution should have a clearly articulated, publicized and readily accessible information systems policy in any event.
Howard: I think that all members of a community should be equally protected. Interestingly, the Harvard administrator who defended the practice of looking at the mail of the resident deans said that the University did it to protect the privacy of the student. That argument did not work for me; in fact I think it is a specious argument designed to rally support from students and parents. I think it is equally important to protect the privacy of staff, faculty, and administrators. By the way, one faculty member pointed out that administrators should be considered staff and therefore should have their emails inspected. Needless to say, that provocative argument would not go well with administrators at Harvard or any other place.
“Unless these institutions make extraordinary efforts to show that they are attempting to repair these injuries and to heal the community, they will lose the respect in which they were held for many years, and post-secondary education in the U.S. will be in jeopardy.” — Howard Gardner
From an ethical, and/or legal perspective, what do you believe is the right course of action for the Harvard administration to pursue following an incident such as this, to maintain both Harvard’s legacy as an academic leader and its integrity as a moral community?
Alan: The best thing to do is to have a clear, unambiguous information systems policy and to enforce it uniformly. You can make the rules different for faculty, students and administrative employees. Within each category, the policy should be evenly applied. It is all about transparency and fairness: if the policy says that a student’s emails are subject to being read, and the student emails his parents via his university account about how he cheated on an exam, he can’t complain if that email incriminates him.
Howard: I agree absolutely with what Professor Rakesh Khurana of the Harvard Business School wrote to me. I quote here with his permission.
“As an organizational behavior researcher, we teach cases like this over and over again. And yet, no matter how many times, people seem to repeat the same mistake.
It seems that one of the simplest course of actions that would have ended this would have been a simple apology: “We were under a lot of pressure in a situation that we had no experience with. We made a judgment call. It seemed right at the time. In hindsight, it was wrong. We want to assure the community that something like this will not happen again.”
Instead, what we got was the same hair-splitting and legalese that apparently the administration board detests when it hears from students—no sense of personal accountability; splitting hairs; hiding behind technicalities, etc.”
More generally, after a genuine heartfelt apology along the lines suggested by Professor Khurana, I would say that the University needs to make it clear that it will follow a course that is much more respectful of the rights of all members of the community henceforth, and that it will try to embody in its actions what it means to be a trusting ethical community. Particular organizations, institutions, and professions do differ in the extent to which they embody trust, ethical behavior, a sense of community. As the best known and wealthiest university in the world, Harvard has a special responsibility to embody these virtues. Harvard’s reputation has deservedly been thrown into question by the events of the past year, as have the reputations of other schools that have experienced sexual harassment, ethical and racial slurs, drunken binges, misrepresentations to rating agencies, etc. Unless these institutions make extraordinary efforts to show that they are attempting to repair these injuries and to heal the community, they will lose the respect in which they were held for many years, and post-secondary education in the U.S. will be in jeopardy.
How ironic it is that our liberal arts and science institutions have long been admired world wide, and yet they now could be undermined from within.
C. M. Rubin, Alan Behr, Howard Gardner
Photos courtesy of Harvard Graduate School of Education and Phillips Nizer LLC.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
“Children with ADHD are typically comparable on estimates of IQ and cognitive abilities, suggesting that their disorder is what is getting in the way of learning.” — Dr. Gregory Fabiano
Health and Education Part 2
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
Inattention and hyperactivity is one of the most common types of mental and behavioral health problems that affects youth, according to Dr. Charles Basch, author of Healthier Students Are Better Learners. In Basch’s study, a synthesis of current research, he notes that approximately 4.6 million (8.4 percent) of American youth aged 6 - 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), and that the problem disproportionately affects urban minority youth from poor families who may not only be more likely to be affected but also less likely to receive accurate diagnosis and treatment. For Health and Education Part 2, I asked experts in the field of ADHD, Dr. Gregory Fabiano, Dr. George DuPaul and Dr. Thomas Power, to share their perspectives on how the ADHD problem is impacting our domestic achievement gap and on the ways it is being addressed.
Dr. Thomas Power is the Director for Management of ADHD and Chief Psychologist, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Power has conducted research on children with ADHD for over 25 years and has published extensively on interventions for ADHD and community-based prevention. Dr. George DuPaul is Professor of School Psychology and Chair of the Department of Education and Human Services at Lehigh University. He has published extensively on assessment and treatment of ADHD and is the co-author of ADHD in the Schools: Assessment and Intervention Strategies. Dr. Gregory Fabiano is Associate Professor of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Buffalo. He is extensively published in the field of ADHD and his particular area of interest is evidence-based assessments and treatments for children with ADHD.
“The most effective way to impact educational outcomes for students with ADHD is the systematic use of academic interventions that have been found effective in other populations for improving performance.” — Dr. George DuPaul
Have the consequences of ADHD, treated and untreated, been quantified with regard to academic achievement compared with youth who do not have this disorder? What is the “gap”?
George: The gap has been quantified and it is somewhere between .75 to 1.0 standard deviations. This is considered a large difference that means that the average student with ADHD would score at about the 16th percentile relative to his or her non-ADHD peers.
Greg: In almost every area of functioning within schools, youth with ADHD fare poorer on achievement. Interestingly, children with ADHD are typically comparable on estimates of IQ and cognitive abilities, suggesting that their disorder is what is getting in the way of learning. For instance, some children with ADHD fail classes, not because they are having trouble learning the material, but because homework assignments are missing or incomplete, careless mistakes are made on quizzes, or they forget to turn in long-term projects.
Thomas: It is clear that the presence of ADHD greatly increases the risk of children with ADHD for academic problems, including grade retention, placement into special education, and early school dropout. Behavioral and academic interventions for children with ADHD improve academic performance. Also, medication reduces ADHD symptoms in school and related academic problems, such as poor work productivity and disorganization. In general, research supports the use of combined approaches to treatment (i.e., combination of behavioral and academic interventions with medication) to improve academic performance.
“Treatment in low-income settings is more challenging for many reasons, including the likelihood of the child being repeatedly exposed to stress and trauma, overstressed caregivers who face challenges in consistently using positive parenting strategies, and under resourced schools.” — Dr. Thomas Power
Does the multi-media environment that surrounds youth today foster ADHD symptoms?
Greg: Probably not. ADHD can be thought of as a selective attention deficit disorder and many children do not have difficulty interfacing with multi-media. The problems are apparent in situations where the child needs to sustain and focus mental effort. I would suggest that the current educational system fosters ADHD symptoms - if one wanted to exacerbate the symptoms of ADHD, the best way to do it would be to step up academic demands in an overcrowded classroom with extended academic blocks. It would also be a good idea to remove natural breaks like recess and be sure to expect the child sit in a seat the whole time.
If the best treatment for ADHD is holistic (pharmacological, behavioral and environmental), it would appear that the disorder is more difficult to treat in low-income urban youth. Have you seen examples of successful efforts of holistic treatment for this demographic group? How should such an effort be organized?
Thomas: Treatment in low-income settings is more challenging for many reasons, including the likelihood of the child being repeatedly exposed to stress and trauma, overstressed caregivers who face challenges in consistently using positive parenting strategies, and under resourced schools. The most successful models of treatment use integrated approaches based in schools and primary care practices. In these contexts, mental health specialists can consult with teachers, provide education to parents, and promote collaborative care with primary care providers.
“I believe that computer-based training and practice of academic skills has enormous potential to improve the educational outcomes of students with ADHD.” — Dr. George DuPaul
What progress has been made over the past 5 years in reducing the educational impact of ADHD? What data gives an indication of this progress, if any?
George: Substantial progress has been made in addressing at least the short-term academic achievement of students with ADHD. My colleagues and I recently published a meta-analysis of school-based interventions for students with ADHD that involved combining analyses from 60 studies conducted between 1996 and 2010. Many of these studies examined the impact of various methods designed to address academic difficulties (e.g., computer-assisted instruction, changes to teacher instruction). On average, the use of an educational intervention strategy led students with ADHD to gain 0.5 standard deviations on academic measures. Stated differently, these strategies made up about half the typical gap in academic achievement between students with and without ADHD. Obviously, students were still behind their peers and we still have a ways to go in addressing academic difficulties, but the results of recent studies are very promising.
Greg: We did a study that showed a simple intervention, a Daily Report Card, significantly reduced children with ADHD’s disruptive behavior in class, increased academic productivity, and also improved teachers’ ratings of IEP (Individualized Education Program) goal attainment. Interestingly, the comparison group received business as usual and did not improve at all. These results suggest that students with ADHD could substantively benefit from simple approaches like this, and these interventions can move the needle further than current approaches.
“The most successful models of treatment use integrated approaches based in schools and primary care practices. In these contexts, mental health specialists can consult with teachers, provide education to parents, and promote collaborative care with primary care providers.” — Dr. Thomas Power
What have been the most effective tools for treating ADHD and improving educational outcomes?
George: The strategies that are effective for treating ADHD I mentioned previously (i.e., stimulant medication, behavior modification). Unfortunately, these two treatments have only small effects (about 0.2 standard deviation change) on educational outcomes. The most effective way to impact educational outcomes for students with ADHD is the systematic use of academic interventions that have been found effective in other populations for improving performance. Examples include teacher use of systematic direct instruction of specific academic skills, classwide peer tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, and implementation of self-regulation strategies by the students themselves. Again, the use of one or more of these approaches is likely to increase achievement by about 0.5 standard deviations.
Who should take the lead in the process to identify and treat ADHD? What examples of well organized approaches have you seen?
Thomas: School psychologists, guidance counselors, and school nurses are in a good position to orchestrate the efforts of school-based, integrated approaches to care. Pediatric psychologists and nurses are in a good position to orchestrate efforts in primary care.
“On average, the use of an educational intervention strategy led students with ADHD to gain 0.5 standard deviations on academic measures. Stated differently, these strategies made up about half the typical gap in academic achievement between students with and without ADHD.” — Dr. George DuPaul
What teacher training programs are in place for ADHD education and practices to use at schools? Have you seen any data on the prevalence of these programs?
George: The best example of an organized training program for teachers was developed by the Children and Adults with ADHD (CHADD) organization. I’m not sure if they have any data on the prevalence of use of this program.
What pedagogical approaches have been developed to focus on academic problems of ADHD youth? Are there many online programs that have been developed? Do you believe this will be a significant opportunity for addressing this issue?
George: Some online programs have been developed; however, I have yet to see controlled studies of their impact. That said, I believe that computer-based training and practice of academic skills has enormous potential to improve the educational outcomes of students with ADHD. The reason I believe this is that technology allows instruction to be geared to the unique needs of individual students, information can be provided at the student’s desired pace, and students can be provided with immediate feedback about performance. We know from studying other interventions that these features are especially helpful for students with ADHD.
C. M. Rubin, Thomas Power, George DuPaul, Gregory Fabiano, Charles BaschPhotos courtesy of Healthy Schools Campaign
http://healthyschoolscampaign.org
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
“My argument in favor of educating girls is more practical. We should do it because it is an incredibly powerful tool for ending global poverty.” — Richard Robbins
Girls
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
Girl Rising is the feature film to be released on March 7th, which tells the unforgettable stories of nine real and remarkable girls from Peru, Haiti, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India, Nepal and Cambodia. The girls’ stories are narrated by Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Salma Hayek, Alicia Keys, Chloe Moretz, Freida Pinto Priyanka Chopra, Selena Gomez and Kerry Washington.
This hauntingly moving film also reveals some harrowing facts. Sixty-six million girls are out of school worldwide. Girls are the victims of 80 percent of all human trafficking crimes. Girls and women are the victims of 75 percent of the AIDS cases in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region hardest hit by this disease. One hundred and fifty million girls are victims of sexual violence in a single year and 50 percent of all the sexual assaults in the world are on girls under 15. Fourteen million girls under 18 will be married this year and, tragically, the number 1 cause of death for girls 15 - 19 is childbirth. A girl born on Planet Earth has a 1 in 4 chance of being born into poverty. And yet…. If India enrolled 1 percent more girls in secondary school, their GDP would rise by $5.5 billion. Girls with 8 years of education are 4 times less likely to be married as children. A child born to a literate mother is 50 percent more likely to survive past the age of 5. A girl with an extra year of education can earn 20 percent more as an adult, and educated mothers are more than twice as likely to send their children to school. Is it any surprise that a revolution is brewing and that girls are beginning to rise up?
I asked the Academy-Award nominated director of Girl Rising, Richard E. Robbins, along with some internationally minded students, Rachel Levi, Kaoruko Mochizuki, Flicky Dodsley, Maud Paulis, and their teacher, Ms. Audrey Enriquez of The Dwight School, to share thoughts and perspectives on the issues raised in the film Girl Rising as well as on the global community’s next steps to finding solutions.
“If girls could get an education, the world would find new solutions to big problems that concern the world right now.” — Kaoruko Mochizuki
What did you think of the film Girl Rising? What did you take away with you after screening the movie?
Ms. Enriquez: I thought it was a very unique, creative and intelligent way to engage the audience. It was like weaving a hauntingly beautiful tapestry together — first stitched with sadness, then with hope. My favorite parts were of the little girls from Egypt and Calcutta, India - the cartoons and drawings interspersed with the story made them and their sad yet hopeful plights, which verged on the surreal, become very much real, present and alive.
Rachel: I have been really involved with an organization called WISER which gives girls in Muhuru Bay, Kenya the chance to get a secondary education, and so the movie had a strong impact on me. It made me think about all the reasons I became involved in WISER in the first place.
Kaoruko: Waking up early in the morning and doing our homework can be dreadful at times. But for the children globally who cannot go to school, education is a big dream. That’s what this film taught me. During and after the screening I felt a rather sad feeling inside me.
Flicky: I really enjoyed the film and I thought it was brilliant that the problems facing a lot of girls were being made even more known.
“Girls in Africa and Asia will learn about cultural differences and will realize from the spread of information through the internet that they too should have the same rights.” — Maud Paulis
Was there any particular girl’s story that resonated especially with you?
Flicky: It was Suma’s story that resonated with me the most because of the age she was forced into bonded labor and the tasks she had to carry out. I baby-sit for a young girl who only turned 7 a week ago and I imagined her in Suma’s position.
Kaoruko: Suma had to separate from her family and go to work while her brother was able to get a proper education.
Maud: The story that stuck with me the most was that of the Afghani girl. Hearing how she was married off at the age of eleven, and then forced to have children and take care of the household rather than going to school, was heartbreaking.
Rachel: Amina’s section of the movie particularly. Her hopes and dreams for the future reminded me of those of the girls at WISER in Kenya. It was that hope that sparked my passion.
“Thirty years ago global warming was not widely understood. I like to think that’s where girls’ education is now, although I hope it won’t take us 30 years to reach the level of awareness we need.”— Richard Robbins
Do you believe it is our responsibility to ensure all girls, regardless of socio-economic background, ethnicity or circumstances, realize their right to a quality education?
Richard: While I do believe it is both our responsibility to do everything we can, and every person’s right to have an education, I’ve actually tried hard to stay away from a rights and responsibilities argument in the film. Not because I don’t believe in it. I believe it with all my heart. But because I don’t think it is the most effective argument to be made on behalf of educating girls. My argument in favor of educating girls is more practical. We should do it because it is an incredibly powerful tool for ending global poverty.
If all girls around the globe could get an education, how do you think that would change the world?
Maud: The world would change and progress drastically. It would benefit the economy greatly. HIV/AIDS rates would plummet. Overpopulation would decrease. Not only would these cultural and health changes occur, they would also be maintained, as the next generation, with educated mothers, will have a much higher chance of being educated.
Kaoruko: If girls could get an education, the world would find new solutions to big problems that concern the world right now.
“I believe in education. Spread the word that there are girls rising - tell your friends, family, neighbors, community.” — Audrey Enriquez
The world has seen protests by girls across Africa and Asia this year and it is clear that in places where girls are treated as second-class citizens, girls are fighting back. What role do you think Social Media has played in helping these girls? Is this a good thing?
Richard: I will tell you that even among the poorest girls we met in our travels, a surprisingly large percentage of them have cell phones. Even in villages that don’t have electricity, people save their money to pay for an hour at a charging station run off a generator. I don’t think it takes a lot of imagination to think about what it means that girls like that can be connected, even through a simple phone.
Ms. Enriquez: It allows even the most seemingly insignificant tale from the most seemingly unimportant person in the most remote corner of the world to be told and heard by many.
Maud: Girls in Africa and Asia will learn about cultural differences and will realize from the spread of information through the Internet that they too should have the same rights.
Flicky: When I “liked” the WISER page on Facebook, a couple of my friends from England asked me what WISER was, so it was social media that led them to understanding the inequality girls face in other parts of the world.
“We need people to demand change on a policy level. Right now the United States spends less than 2 cents of every development dollar on programs for girls. That simply isn’t enough.” — Richard Robbins
What do you hope girls and boys who view your film will do to help this important cause?
Richard: First is that they simply inform themselves about this issue. Thirty years ago global warming was not widely understood. I like to think that’s where girls’ education is now, although I hope it won’t take us 30 years to reach the level of awareness we need. Second, we hope that people look for ways to get involved. We are at the dawn of a new era for individual philanthropic engagement. Individuals with skills, ideas, and money can make a dramatic difference half a world away. And finally we need people to demand change on a policy level. Right now the United States spends less than 2 cents of every development dollar on programs for girls. That simply isn’t enough.
Now that the girls in this film have come forward to tell their stories, what do you believe we can do to help their cause?
Rachel: After traveling to Kenya and creating personal bonds with the girls at WISER, I understand that money is a strong way to help girls looking for an education. I have learnt that support to each individual girl brings them strength and power.
Flicky: I think the most important thing people can do to help the girls’ cause is to spread even more awareness and to join groups.
Kaoruko: Donate pencils, notebooks and any other school equipment that a child can use.
Maud: I’m already involved in the WISER group supporting girls’ education. I now know I want to continue supporting girls’ education.
Ms. Enriquez: I believe in education. Spread the word that there are girls rising — tell your friends, family, neighbors, community. Tell them about their stories; tell them about the film Girl Rising.
For information on the campaign to educate girls in developing nations.
Top Row: (l to r) Richard Robbins, C. M. RubinBottom Row: (l to r) Audrey Enriquez, Felicity Dodsley, Kaoruko Mochizuki, Maud Paulis, Rachel LeviAll photos are courtesy of Girl Rising and The Dwight School.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
“Edmodo has been a platform that can be adapted to any type of classroom in the US and in every part of the world. We already have over 17,000,000 users.” — Crystal Hutter
Social Learning
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
Have you done your Edmodo, honey?
Yes that’s right, I said “Edmodo,” not “homework” or even “school work”.
An impressive 17 million plus users worldwide are doing their Edmodo. The company’s mission since it’s beginnings has been to provide a free and safe platform that allows students and teachers to come together to collaborate and learn.
Think Facebook with a big educational vision that focuses on using many unique technology features to augment what’s already happening in the classroom. New ideas are often introduced and expanded by teachers themselves at the company’s annual teacher conferences; the last one brought together 12,000 professionals from 117 countries. Jennifer Bond, a 3rd grade teacher at Walled Lake Consolidated Schools in Walled Lake, Michigan, has been using Edmodo extensively for years and says she likes it because it is “education minded”. Jennifer is actively involved in the Edmodo Global Read Aloud, which she says “can be challenging with time zones and scheduling video conferences, but the pros are that the kids have the opportunity to connect with kids from all over the world and gain new perspectives.”
“We see our opportunity as being able to connect teachers and classrooms around the world to create a powerful network of learners so that all of the best ideas and resources can surface.” — Crystal Hutter
Does Edmodo’s Digital Citizen Starter Kit handle the challenge of educating kids to be good digital citizens? The answer is “Yes!” according to Bianca Hewes, a high school English teacher in Sydney, Australia who’s also been doing awesome things with Edmodo since 2009 (including connecting 30 of her students with registered Edmodo teachers in the US, South America and England to mentor their individual writing projects). “Edmodo is a social network with training wheels,” says Bianca. “By introducing it at a young age, teachers are able to develop the habits of the mind that are essential for students to be good digital citizens. Students learn to use appropriate language, to speak kindly and with compassion, to be supportive rather than critical, and to ask thoughtful questions.”
I had the opportunity to chat further with the Company’s COO, Crystal Hutter.
“Edmodo is a social network with training wheels. By introducing it at a young age, teachers are able to develop the habits of the mind that are essential for students to be good digital citizens.”— Bianca Hewes, English teacher, Sydney, Australia
How is Edmodo helping to address the achievement gap? Isn’t the lack of computers and bandwidth a significant impediment?
We see our opportunity as being able to connect teachers and classrooms around the world to create a powerful network of learners so that all of the best ideas and resources can surface. With Edmodo, teachers can discover content in real time and deliver it in a personalized way to their students. For example, teachers can receive instant feedback on how his/her students perform by giving them a quiz on Edmodo and getting real time analytics to see how each student is grasping the material. She can put students into small groups where each group gets different content or different instructional materials to ensure that every single student in her classroom learns the concept that she is teaching that day.
Have you come across limitations of low-income families in affording good quality computers and satisfactory Internet access to use Edmodo? My concern is that this would be a significant impediment to students in low-income families.
Every district and school handles access to technology differently. Many schools are starting to adopt “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) environments, where each student is allowed to bring in their own mobile devices to use in class. Some schools have laptop or iPad carts that teachers share amongst their classrooms. Other schools have computer labs that students can access at specific hours during and after school.
While not every student has access to a computer, most do have access to a mobile device in their household. Edmodo offers a mobile website and native apps for iOS and Android devices.
“Teachers are teachers because they want to change the lives of students, so Edmodo allows them to be able to do that on a whole new scale with students and with their fellow teachers.” — Crystal Hutter
I see Edmodo as a platform with resources that could also be helpful in classrooms where learning has been more challenging. If every poor child in the US had access to Edmodo, what impact could it have on our domestic achievement gap?
The demographics of Edmodo in the US, which is about 75% of our users, mirrors the demographics of the US K-12 system, covering everything from grade level to subject area and from rural to urban, high income to low income as well as public versus private. I think it’s important that Edmodo has been a platform that can be adapted to any type of classroom in the US and in every part of the world. We already have over 17,000,000 users. Teachers have been an important part of creating a real change in their classrooms by being a part of this global network and by engaging their students in it as well.
If students are doing so nicely with Edmodo, why not just home school them?
Every student and family has a different need and approach and we support all of those environments. I was recently talking to a woman who home schools her son. He is extremely gifted and takes a large number of courses. She spends a massive amount of time curating his courses, which involves using many different platforms with varying levels of technology. So she brings all these courses and all of his tutors onto Edmodo and this has made her process much more manageable. She also feels now like she’s not a lonely island because she’s connecting with other teachers who have great ideas. So whether you are a Mom curating your child’s lessons at home or a teacher in a classroom, the idea is to make sure that you don’t feel like you’re on a lonely island but that you are part of a much broader community.
“Kids have the opportunity to connect with kids from all over the world and gain new perspectives.”— Jennifer Bond, 3rd grade teacher, Walled Lake, Michigan
Can social interaction in an online environment ever be quite the same as social interaction in a classroom?
For us it is always about the blend of offline and online. What teachers on Edmodo do so well is combine the best of the tried and true of pedagogy in the classroom with new digital applications and technologies that are coming online. It’s all about making sure the offline and the online worlds are seamless so that you create the best personalized learning experiences for students. We are social creatures and learning is a social experience but we see that every student is different. We hear stories from teachers about students, for example, a student who was not as vocal in class, so the question was, “Is she/he really engaged in the learning process?” The teacher has told us that Edmodo has really taken a leadership role in helping that student to find his/her voice.
Do you find that teachers are happy to share their content with other teachers around the world?
Yes, the vast majority of teachers that we meet are. There are teachers who spend up to 40 hours developing a lesson to teach to students. If a teacher can feel that by sharing that lesson with the Edmodo community she will be able to get amazing feedback from other teachers and that it may have impacted the lives of many more students, that’s important. Teachers are teachers because they want to change the lives of students, so Edmodo allows them to be able to do that on a whole new scale with students and with their fellow teachers.
“Edmodo will continue to be the place where learning happens, connecting teachers and students around the world to the resources and tools that will help them reach their full potential.” — Crystal Hutter
Great to hear that - I know that encouraging more teachers to share their multi-media lessons has been challenging for the Wikiwijs platform in The Netherlands.
I think the difference with our platform is that teachers are on Edmodo every single day teaching their students so it becomes second nature to them to share. For example, while they’re on it they may have a question for the community and another teacher may immediately respond with, “Here’s what I did.” Real-time is much easier and I think it allows for all types of things to be shared. There is an app on Edmodo called NoRedInk (a fun way to practice and master grammar and writing skills). It was built by a language arts teacher at this time last year and it actually went viral on Edmodo.
Edmodo is a free learning platform. Where do the revenues come from in this model?
Edmodo is free for teachers and students and always will be. In March 2012, we opened our API to educational publishers to enable them create web-based apps for the platform. These free and paid apps integrate with the features of Edmodo and enable teachers to streamline all the educational tools and resources they use with their students in one place (Edmodo).
Five to ten years from now - where do you see Edmodo?
Edmodo will continue to be the place where learning happens, connecting teachers and students around the world to the resources and tools that will help them reach their full potential.
Crystal Hutter and C. M. Rubin
Photos courtesy of Edmodo
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
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