Mediaboss Marketing

By Jennifer Kotila Staff Writer

DASSEL, COKATO, MN The DC School District has put a lot of time and effort into studying the most effective way to create an environment that caters to the 21st century digital natives tastes for learning.

For more than a year, the district has researched hundreds of articles and attended numerous workshops to understand all the choices available to create a digital learning environment.

All that research has led to the 21st Century Digital Learning Initiative, a plan to create a 21st century learning environment throughout the district by providing technology to all students, at all times.

We have been very deliberate and responsible in studying this. We want to make sure whatever we do is in the best interest of the students, said Dassel-Cokato Media Specialist Paul Beckermann.

It is now up to the DC School Board to decide if moving forward with the 21st Century Digital Learning Initiative is affordable for the district, and whether it will satisfy the needs of its students.

We need to move in this direction at some point if not, were not being fair to students, said Superintendent Jeff Powers.

The board was presented the initiative at the Feb. 13 board meeting, and had a lengthy discussion at the Feb. 23 meeting. The board plans to further discuss the topic at its Monday, March 12 meeting.

Digital natives learn better in a digital environment

The learning environment of the 21st century is much different than that of the 20th century, and is changing at a pace faster than the textbooks of yesterday can keep up.

Go here to read the rest:
Dassel-Cokato examines catering education to digital natives’ tastes

Further trouble for Manx2 as plane crash lands

By Pat Flynn

Saturday, March 10, 2012

An airplane operated on behalf of the same company involved in the fatal crash at Cork Airport last year, crash landed on the Isle of Man on Thursday.

Links Air flight NM-309 was arriving at Ronaldsway Airport on the Isle of Man from Leeds when it veered off the runway into the grass after the right main landing gear apparently collapsed.

There were 12 passengers and 2 crew on board the British Aerospace Jetstream 3102 turboprop aircraft, however no-one was injured. The aircraft sustained substantial damage.

It is also understood that it took fire crews almost five minutes to respond the incident, which was not immediately spotted by air traffic controllers.

It has been reported that it was the crew of another aircraft which reported the incident to the tower.

The incident is currently under investigation by British authorities.

Manx2, a virtual commuter airline, sells flights from the Isle of Man to a number of British airports.

Go here to read the rest:
Further trouble for Manx2 as plane crash lands

GEORGE TOWN, GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS--(Marketwire -03/09/12)- Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: CWCO - News), which develops and operates seawater desalination plants and water distribution systems in areas of the world where naturally occurring supplies of potable water are scarce or nonexistent, today announced that it has scheduled an investor conference call for 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (EDT) on Friday, March 16, 2012, to review the Company's operating results for the year ended December 31, 2011, along with other relevant topics of interest.

Shareholders and other interested parties may participate in the conference call by dialing 877-317-6789 (international/local participants dial 412-317-6789) and requesting participation in the "Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. Conference Call" a few minutes before 11:00 a.m. EDT on Friday, March 16, 2012.

A replay of the conference call will be available one hour after the call through Monday, March 26, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. EDT by dialing 877-344-7529 (international/local participants dial 412-317-0088) and entering the conference ID# 10011339 and on the Company's website at http://www.cwco.com through March 26, 2012.

CWCO-E

About Consolidated Water Co. Ltd.

Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. develops and operates seawater desalination plants and water distribution systems in areas of the world where naturally occurring supplies of potable water are scarce or nonexistent. The Company operates water production and/or distribution facilities in the Cayman Islands, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, and The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. is headquartered in George Town, Grand Cayman, in the Cayman Islands. The Company's ordinary (common) shares are traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "CWCO". Additional information on the Company is available on its website at http://www.cwco.com

Read the original post:
Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. to Host 2011 Operating Results Conference Call on Friday, March 16, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum's main message to Republican voters in Huntsville Thursday was simple. "Obamacare is, in fact, the death knell for freedom, and that's why it must be repealed," Santorum told a large crowd at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center five days before the state's GOP primary. He referred to the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and signed into law by Obama in 2010.

Santorum said the law is the "linchpin, if you will, that would tip the scales toward a country that would no longer be free." Mitt Romney, the GOP front-runner who signed a similar health care law while governor of Massachusetts, "is singularly the worst person to make that case," Santorum said.

Praising what he said was the Founders' vision of a country with limited government and maximum freedom, Santorum said, "We have a president who believes in a country that is antithetical to that country.

"He takes more and more freedom from you, takes more and more money from you and believes, as he's doing so, that he's making your life better," Santorum said. Instead, it's "a welfare state he's growing here in America."

Defeating Obama makes the 2012 election the most important "maybe in the history of this country," Santorum said.

Speaking to a friendly crowd about twice as large as the 400-500 drawn by Newt Gingrich two days earlier in the same place, Santorum did touch on one hot social issue. Human rights don't come from the U.S. Constitution, Santorum said, but from "the dignity of being created by a loving God.

"We believe ... in the dignity of all human life, the ability of every person in America, as imperfect as we are, to continue to refine and perfect ourselves to recognize the dignity of all human life," Santorum continued, "although we still fall short in a very critical area, and that is life in the womb."

The crowd applauded loudly when he mentioned that his family home-schooled their seven children and also when he promised to balance the budget in five years, but not cut defense spending and to "invest in the technology we see in Huntsville."

"I support Paul Ryan's budget," Santorum said, referring to the Republican congressman's plan that would, among other things, repeal the health care law, cut taxes on the highest-income individuals and corporations while closing tax loopholes, turn Medicaid into a federal block-grant program, and replace Medicare with private insurance subsidized by the government.

Read the rest here:
Santorum says health care law 'death knell for freedom'

OPINION:Media freedoms are absolutely essential to the long-term health of any democracy. New Zealand is no exception.

The production order used by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) against the National Business Review demanded that NBR give up their records, including sources, of the NBR inquiry into the South Canterbury collapse.

That collapse caused hundreds of millions of dollars of cost to tax payers. The huge losses led to allegations of improper behaviour by South Canterbury Finance.

Serious questions were also raised about incompetence of the Government and its Ministry (the Treasury).

They allowed the size of that risk to grow by hundreds of millions after the Crown guarantee was granted, and rejected alternative ways of solving the problem which may have saved tens if not hundreds of millions.

NBR was right to inquire into what had gone wrong. The SFO interference in the NBR proved beyond doubt that the SFO powers are excessive and undermine the important role of a free media.

The SFO issued that order against the NBR with no outside oversight.

The excessive powers of the SFO mean that they do not have to get a warrant from a judge. Records they take are kept by the SFO. Refusal by the media to comply with an order from the SFO put the journalist and the NBR automatically in breach of the law, and at risk of criminal prosecution and fines. Just for protecting their source!

In contrast the similar power proposed for police investigating of even more pernicious organised crime requires the police to get a warrant from a Judge, which may be declined.

For the police any disputed records taken are to be secured and held by the High Court (not the SFO or the police). A High Court judge then decides whether the protection of media freedom provided for in the Evidence Act means the medias records and sources should remain confidential.

Link:
Media freedom and independence under threat