Let’s stop using the term “beneficiary” in global development and philanthropic work, and let’s stop asking local organizations to spend hours of their time gathering details to satisfy our expectations of ‘beneficiary metrics’. Why? 🫴🏽 The word ‘beneficiary’ implies a benevolent giver of charity, and a passive recipient. The concept erases the agency, insights, leadership, … Continue reading
In today’s world, children have unprecedented access to media and technology. As most parents will attest, young children are quite drawn to, adept at, and perhaps even addicted to the TV/videos, mobile/cell phones, and iPads and other tablets available to them in their homes and from the adults around them. This week, over two posts, I … Continue reading
In today’s world, children have unprecedented access to media and technology. As most parents will attest, young children are drawn to, adept at, and perhaps even addicted to the TV/videos, mobile/cell phones, and iPads and other tablets available to them in their homes and from the adults around them. This week, over two posts, I am … Continue reading
In Canada, as in several parts of the world, many children grow up in multiple linguistic contexts. They often live, learn, and interact in different languages at home, at school, and in other contexts. A number of research studies have demonstrated that it is beneficial for children to grow up bilingual from their earliest years (see … Continue reading
Recent news articles have been discussing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project being implemented in various parts of the Majority World. Here’s an article at Mashable, and another at Dvice. Basically, the OLPC programme recently gave tablets to Grade-1-aged children in two remote Ethiopian villages. OLPC has given tablets to children before. What was different … Continue reading
Sadaf Shallwani 