Nothing Moves Me

The proposal of group 7 to ensure environmental sustainability at the Riverside Plaza was a good idea for conserving energy but I do not think that this would fully improve the slum. This may help for a short time to improve the lives of the low income families who live here to save money and to make things more convenient but I do not think it would completely improve the area. I have seen many public-housing projects that were built to conserve energy but this does not mean that they will improve the area. The McDonough Homes in St. Paul for example were not built long ago but the attempt to improve the lives of the low income families who live in them only succeeded for a time. Now the area is run down with rust stains on the houses, and furniture and garbage strewn around the lawns. Ensuring environmental sustainability is important. It is smart. But creating a sustainable environment will not solve the problem of a slum. A house is nothing but a “shell,� it is the families inside who make it a home and they can chose to care for the home or not.

If only looking at the short run outcomes of creating environmental sustainability in Riverside Plaza, the proposal was good, but I do not think the idea was fully thought through for improving the slum in the long run. The ideas that were thought about for conserving energy were good and the slideshow was also nice.

Posted by duena003 at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Living in the United States, people tend to take objects that we use on an every day bases for granted. I could not imagine life without my cell phone or without the internet. I do not consider how important these things are when I am using them but hearing the presentation the honors section did on developing a global partnership for development made me realize how important this technology really is. The United States has been widely developed and part of this has to do with communication. When I heard that only 10% of people in Somalia use mobile technology, I was shocked. Wireless technology makes things so much easier and it provides an easy access for acquiring knowledge. Before the internet was created people would have to do so much research about a subject by going to a library to find book after book and now with a couple clicks they can learn about anything they want. By having this technology Somalia will be able to be a better developed country. The group for goal 8 mentioned the “One Laptop for Every Child� program and I think that this is a good way of providing a good learning experience for kids. Also the solar panels that can be constructed are a good way of providing energy and they are good for a place that not all people have electricity. This would be a good way for Somalia and for other countries to be able to develop and to prosper.

I thought that this presentation was very insightful. I learned a lot from it and I think that the ideas that were discussed were a good way of accomplishing goal 8. The slideshow was aesthetically pleasing and having one of the computers was a nice touch.

Posted by duena003 at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PYC was low on staff today so the kids got to play computer games for 45 minutes. I was watching and giving feed back to two boys who were playing Super Smash Brothers. It made me laugh because it was the OLD version of the game when Nintendo came out with one of its first systems. Anyway, they got bored of that game and started playing Carbon Auto Theft. I didn’t see what the game was called when the started playing it. It looked like an interesting game. I thought the object of the game was just to try to get out of a parking lot without hitting other cars. Then their teacher came around and saw that they were playing the game and told them to stop because it was not an appropriate game to be playing. The kids did not know that what the game’s object really was. I felt bad because I did not pay attention to the name of the game and the guy who was driving the cars. I hope their teacher did not think I just did not say anything to them about playing the game because if I’d known what it was, I would have. I thought all the websites that were given to the kids that were games were “kid friendly.� I guess not. I’ll have to be more careful if they go to the computer lab to play again.
The rest of the time I played math games with a group of kids. The game was teaching them about fractions. I tried explaining to them why 1/2 is larger than 1/12. I don’t think they understood though.

Posted by duena003 at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)