Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Divina Frau-Meigs the 53 year old Moroccan professor in information science and communication and language has been interviewed by Clarinha Glock for the IPS News Service titled ‘Schools need Transliteracy’ in which she states “It [transliteracy] is knowing how to read, write, calculate and compute. But “compute” includes understanding these three categories of information: code, document and current events/press. Students and teachers must be trained. The role of school is to clarify and help people understand all kinds of contents, modify them, and comment on them. …Students think they know everything, from their perspective of dealing with computers and tablets. And professors say that if students have good knowledge to read and write, it is enough. It is necessary to break down this resistance to awareness-raising, in hands-on practical classrooms. For example: I ask students to look for the information they need for their projects. They respond: “There are millions of pieces of information, I don’t know where to start.” Teaching students to eliminate, evaluate, assess, change – that is the role of schools. It’s a way of learning to learn, which is what we must put again at the centre of the curriculum. …Transliteracy doesn’t only occur in schools. School rhythms are changing, because students can now connect at night, outside the school premises. The role of teachers will also be different. Their salaries must be enhanced, but knowing what they need in terms of training, and the new conditions of schedules, rhythms and resources. The decision must be assumed by teaching staff, government ministries, trade unions, companies and students – as a new social contract. …Since the 19th century, the social contract has been free, public – even though many schools are private – and secular education. And another characteristic has to be incorporated: “open” – through informatics, which gives access to many contents from other countries and cultures. With informatics, ideas can be developed to the maximum. And if we use it well, it can empower everyone…”  Inspired by Clarinha Glock, IPS News ow.ly/l33Ri Image source Frau-Meigs ow.ly/l34fd

Butheina Kazim the United Arab Emir ant New York-based Scholar of Media, Culture and Communication discusses among many things, the difficulty of being Muslim in an article published on Aljazeera. In the article Kazim states “The holy month of Ramadan is notorious for its wide assortment of television viewing. Broadcasting tycoons and media moguls of the pan-Arab television industry spend the better half of the year carefully preparing the brain stuffing that they would peddle to Arab audiences …There’s your celebrity Quran-readers who make an appearance every year, usually an hour or so before iftar followed by your staple live Q&A Fatwa Sheikh Show with list of questions that seems to have been dropped down as a recycled standardised list of Ramadan concerns for the past decade. …For the soul-searching, information-rife, questioning Muslim youth, there is little consolation in such superficial attempts at spiritual pacification. Outside the grasp of the television screens, Ramadan is the season for those seeking to use the annual routine-shuffle and disruption of the quotidian to grapple with the tough questions of the spirit and matters of the heart. Riddled with questions about their place in the world, an increasing number of Muslim youth in the Arab world are becoming impatient with this regimen; and they want answers. It’s a scary world out there. Rohingya Muslims are being massacred in Myanmar, Syria is a battlefield of warring ideologies spilling blood, girls are being married off to their rapists and Pamela Geller is on yet another anti-Muslim mission across the US transportation systems. It is not easy being Muslim.”

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/d7kwH image source Twitter ow.ly/d7kdo