I Have a FREE HP Laptop and Printer to Give Away!
Posted by Allison Fine on February 8, 2010
Morning, peeps, I’ve got a special surprise today! Beth and I have helped to plan and assess online contests such as America’s Giving Challenge sponsored by the Case Foundation over the past several years. Now, we’re part of a group of bloggers who get to help sponsor a contest and give away free HP stuff!
The giveaway is part of the HP Create Change effort. For every purchase from the Create Change site that is part of the HP direct purchase website, HP will donate 4% to one of the following seven nonprofits that you can designate. The nonprofits are: American Red Cross, CARE, DonorsChoose.org, Junior Achievement, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure, World Wildlife Fund.
You can download a widget for the HP Create Change effort form their site and follow their conversation on Facebook.
Back to our contest. HP has asked me and a few fantastic bloggy friends: Beth (of course!), Tom Watson, Katya Andresen’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog, Jolly Mom, and Amy Sample Ward to ask our readers a question about social change. And then each of us bloggers will pick a winner from the comments on our blog.
So, here’s my question to you: What conversations on which social media channels do you most want to have with your community this year?
Extra points will be given to anyone who works Foursquare or Tumblr into their answer!
AF Note: The contest closes on February 26th!
45 Responses to “I Have a FREE HP Laptop and Printer to Give Away!”
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Scott Colfer said
I want to speak to young people not in education, employment & training via Twitter. I want to hear what got them out of education, what would get them back into education, and I’d like to show them the millions of people on Twitter who’d given themselves a voice.
charles said
Scott i`m a graphic designer
after have be employed for about 6 year i did teach myself designing(Using Coreldraw) while working and manager to saving money and bought a computer a scanner and printer, my issue that effect my work is that whoever i go out to do marketing my work i can`t carry my design work, or to show client how their look like be i don`t have office i work from my house,
and my desire is to get a laptop or a notebook for marking my service to my clients
can you help me or known anyone give away free a laptop or a notebook thank you
sai krishna said
piease send me for free laptip and printer to this address 2-3-512/166 bapu nagar amberpet hyderabad or contact:7569120272
Lisa Hanock-Jasie said
Like Tumbler, one of the easiest ways to blog, evoking change with social media also is easy. The way to do this might be changing the social media conversation from “This is what I think” to “What do you think?” For example, what do you think about these life issues: Equal pay for equal work; Racism in America; The rising cost of education, or seeing peace in our lifetime. You get the point.
CauseWired’s Laptop/Printer Contest « CauseWired Communications said
[...] the deal with the contest? HP has asked me and a few social sector bloggers – Beth Kanter, Allison Fine, Katya Andresen’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog, Jolly Mom, and Amy Sample Ward – to ask our [...]
Brian Reich said
The conversation I want to have is about how to shift the way we address serious issues and respond to causes. And I want that conversation to happen on every channel, across every platform, in every community — online and offline – that exists.
I don’t want to talk about one issue. I don’t think we should focus on ranking issues or fighting over how best to prioritize our efforts to address one issue vs. another. Nothing is working. Everything needs to change.
- Hunger is a major problem — and hunger is closely tied to poverty, which contributes to other issues.
- The lack of access to books for young children is a critical contributor to the fact that more kids don’t enter school prepared to succeed, and that has a ripple effect on their ability to learn and succeed over time. But its just one, small piece of the challenge that exists with regard to education.
- Despite billions of dollars being raised, we are far – it seems – from finding a cure for cancer.
- The American population is out of shape, overweight — and beyond just understanding and being able to deal with the issues that obesity and lack of exercise create in our society, new diseases are emerging from these problems that we can’t even begin to understand the implications of.
All of these issues are important, and they are just a few of the big ones that are challenging our society. These issues are of great concern here in the United States — but they can’t really be contained by any border now that we are all connected. Plus, there are global issues, like the climate crisis, that need to be addressed. And political, economic, and social factors that need to be considered.
We shouldn’t be talking about one issue, or focusing on one platform. We should start with the conversation that will make it possible for us to have discussions about issues that drive real, meaningful, measurable change for all these issues.
That’s why the conversation I want to have is about how to shift the way we address serious issues and respond to causes. And I want that conversation to happen on every channel, across every platform, in every community — online and offline – that exists.
Everything about our society is changing – rapidly and constantly. How we communicate, get and share information, and engage each other — online and offline – is different than it was just a few short years ago. Information moves faster, people are more closely connected, and the level of interest and commitment that people have when it comes to social issues and causes has never been greater. Our society has shifted and how we support causes, respond to disasters, and mobilize the public needs to shift as well.
For all the wonderful things that technology and the internet have done to advance our society, the internet has also made us lazy. There are new, exciting tools. Collaboration happens quickly. Individuals can have impact. But, we are focusing on the shiny thing, not the impact. Technology won’t solve these issues. What will? How you use them. How you support people’s interest in acting. How you teach, engage, and mobilize is key.
This is not an awareness issue. We need a shift. A shift in thinking. A shift in behavior. A shift in approach. A shift in how dollars are spent.
And that conversation can happen everywhere.
- You can post your ideas on Tumblr so others can find them share them, re-shape them, and build on them
- You can use Twitter to promote what other people are saying, aggregate new insights and perspectives
- When 140 characters isn’t enough, you can blog your explanation of why an approach works or doesn’t –
- You can use Foursquare to find others who share your desire to change
- You can post a video on YouTube (or other sites) to give your story more life than just words can deliver
- You can post a picture to Flickr (or other sites) when its easier to show rather than tell
- You can create an app for you iPhone or Android (or other phones) that turn you location into a beacon
- You can use Google Wave to help organize lots of related ideas into something more organized and focused
- You can use Facebook to tap into communities you can’t reach on your own
- You can use television and radio to help push and focus broad groups of people around things
Of course, you can use all these different tools and channels to do all those things. You can use each of the tools or channels to ask questions or support conversation. You can use each of the tools or channels to help reach, educate, engage, and mobilize audiences. And you can do all these things, and more, offline — and will need to if we are to realize significant change.
I want to talk about shifting the way we think about serious issues, address causes, respond to disasters, build community, mobilize action — and most importantly, change minds, change behavior, and change how our society operates. And I want to do it on Tumblr and Twitter and through blogs and social networks, using my mobile phone or my hard line telephone (yes I still have one), while watching TV, listening to the radio, reading a newspaper or book, and especially when I am able to talk to someone face to face, offline, the old-fashioned way if you will.
Tara said
I’ve been working with my colleagues at Media Make Change (a brand new media justice organization I founded in December 2009), on an initiative called Project Haiti Speaks. With that, we are working tirelessly to provide online multimedia platforms to aid relief workers and Haitian citizens so their voices and stories can be heard without a mainstream media filter.
Right now, Twitter has been an amazing tool to connect with people and disseminate ideas about Haiti relief efforts. Twitter has also provided a platform where people can go for real-time information and find links to blog posts written by Haitian citizens via Tumblr. The conversations about Haiti, its citizens, and relief efforts via Twitter have truly been inspiring to witness and must continue.
It’s my hope that through these conversations, I can help contribute to a digital archive about the Haiti earthquake and, more importantly, about the resolve of Haitian citizens.
Furthermore, I’m looking forward to continuing these conversations in efforts to raise awareness about Project Haiti Speaks as well as stay informed about the most pressing issues and stories coming from our Haitian sisters and brothers.
P.S. I’m just getting hip to Foursquare (downloading it now on my BB). Bear with me as I leap into 2010!
Rachel said
The most important conversations for me to have on social media channels this year are the following:
1. Reaching out on Twitter to both arts/entertainment organizations and to patrons to find out what they want out of an evening out. By listening to what patrons want and what other organizations are doing successfully, we hope to get new ideas to structure our professional performances and events in order to attract larger and more diverse audiences (and really engage them in ways that they find interesting!).
2. Getting feedback on Facebook from students about classes and workshops they enjoyed or did not enjoy so that we can continue to develop our School in ways that directly serve them. Also, finding out what guest artists they want us to bring in, finding out what roadblocks keep them from attending our classes, and finding out how to best engage new students.
ShootingStarsMag said
I think twitter is intersting because you can only use 140 characters. I’d love to talk to them about social issues such as abuse in relationships and alcohol abuse. Things they are affected by sometimes.
Morra said
The conversation I want to have everywhere is how we make work workable for American families. I want a huge online drumbeat to build into a big gathering–consciousness raising– of men and women who won’t stand for no paid sick days, no leave, no flexibility, and exhorbitant child care.
Online outlets like Twitter and Facebook start the drumbeat- and we need offline action to complete it.
Morra said
The conversation I want to have everywhere is how we make work workable for American families. I want a huge online drumbeat to build into a big gathering–consciousness raising– of men and women who won’t stand for no paid sick days, no leave, no flexibility, and exhorbitant child care.
Online outlets like Twitter and Facebook start the drumbeat- and we need offline action to complete it. I want it to be Woodstock- but for changing how we work.
Morra
Marlina McKay said
What conversations on which social media channels do you most want to have with your community this year?
One of my communities is the classical music community: fans and musicians alike. I want to take this beautiful music out of its gilded cage and place it where every one can enjoy.
As a member of a community (mostly volunteer) orchestra I seek to:
1. Engage people in musicology debates like:
* What makes Mozart so great? Or is he overrated?
* The role of modern classical music in society and how can we expand its exposure among orchestras. Who are its leaders?
* What’s your favorite concerto? Why?
* Is classical music more cultured / better than Rock or Rap? Why or why not?
* These could take place via blog comments or Facebook discussion.
2. Partner with other community orchestras in a Foursquare contest
* Performing groups overall are struggling in this economy. Why not see which groups have concerts that don’t conflict with yours? People who go to all the venues on the list (in the time frame) get a discounted season ticket from all groups in involved.
3. I used play in high school / college . . . . I’ve heard this many times. It takes much courage to play in front of people, so some people don’t even try to pick something back up. Through facebook status update drives and twitter hastags (#Iusedtoplay), I want existing community orchestra members to give a testimonial of how being a member changed their lives. This would let people know they are not alone and that they don’t have to just be a fan or armchair conductor. It would serve as a member drive of sorts when they reply.
4. To get to people who aren’t yet lovers of classical music, I would create YouTube PSA’s with that range from showing how pop artists use classical riffs to how classical music is used in movies. Purists may frown on “commercials for classical music”, but it I think it would be fun. Through comments I would be able to see the light bulb moments and respond.
People these days can have hundreds of mp3′s to listen to. Barriers are lowering for performing groups as well. It is competitive at times, but it doesn’t have to be so cutthroat. Its really about turning people onto music, especially live classical music.
Luv2CUSmile said
I want to use all forms of Social Media. I believe in their own way all are an asset in reaching many audiences.
I want to speak to teens on subjects like preparing for college early. Steps to take to find legitimate, little known scholarships. Tips on what they do in their daily lives that speak on a college application and more.
I want to speak on this because I am a parent to 5 kids and just as our oldest is soon to graduate, we have both lost our jobs. These are things that all kids and parents can benefit from.
I also want to speak to people who have lost their jobs. I want to speak to companies and organizations and be a voice for them to help America back into the work force. Let me help you prepare “us” for what you are looking for. I want to speak to politicians on Americans in the US who are now unemployed. Most of us have degrees and years of experience but can’t get another job either due to age (although this will be denied,) due to commensurate salary expectations (Yes, after years of working in a field we don’t expect to start back at a entry level salary point), or due to experience and education (Don’t forget for many positions a degree was not necessary at all or a Bachelor’s was needed where now many companies look for a Master’s Degree yet offer an entry level salary).
I want to speak to parents and more importantly Moms who keep the household running and organized through chaos. How do you face downward slopes in your finances? Your relationships? Your family? Your health? Your career?
Using many social networks as well as Blogs will reach a vast audience of people because where one will use Facebook, another person uses Twitter, and another will read Blogs. Eventually word of mouth gets involved and as social networks magnify the messages it is eventually seen by celebrities, news media, and more. The more voices involved the better chance to be heard. I know I can do this through social networks. The internet has come a long way and it is still growing.
Nadine L said
I would like to speak on the need for help with animal shelters. They seem to be the forgotten in these hard economic times. Pets are being given up more and more everyday because their owners lose their homes or they cannot afford the vet care and basic needs like food for their pets anymore. Shelters are becoming overwhelmed and unable to keep up. We need to find a way to help. People are not the only ones suffering right now.
iheartsweeping@aol.com
velvet1116 said
I am so sorry to hear about your friend, Beth. My condolences.
What I feel, we as Americans should be talking about is getting the unemployment rate down,getting people back to work and we can.
Haiti is a country that needs to be rebuilt.
Sending 5000 to 10,000 trade people,teachers,DR.’s, nurses,vets,any person that wants to work,sent to work in Haiti for a week or 2 and have tag teams to relieve them, the country would be rebuilt in no time. Men and woman would be put to work for fair pay and keeping in touch by the social media ,twitter. If we ask the people on unemployment first,because many want to work ,just no jobs to pay them enough,our unemployment would drop. The next thing that would happen is more people in this country would be put to work making the supplies,thus creating even more jobs. We could work with the world ,many countries ,making it fair across the board with workers and supplies from each country.
It would be wonderful to see the world working together ,rebuilding Haiti and seeing it all happen on twitter,if it was the social media used .
Maybe it would be a start with the world working together on a project and may continue into greatness.
Many hands make less work.
Thanks
matternu@gmail.com
Jonathan Olaes said
I want to talk to the poor people. Not poor in a sense that they don’t have money, but also to those that are lack of education, I want them to express of what they really want, things they expect to our government, and things that they want to do but can’t because of lack of money. I want them to express of what really poor people needs aside from stable jobs, but also respect that most rich people don’t give them.
Annette D said
I would like to address the young people, especially high school students about the issue of continuing their education. I am a mom of two sons, one age 21 and a junior in College and the other age 16 and a junior in high school. I have been lucky enough to have been able to be a stay at home mom and I have used this opportunity to volunteer in my kids schools. I began volunteering when my kids were in elementary school by helping in a number of different ways including reading to the kids, being a room mom and going on field trips. I continued to help out in middle school and now that my son is in high school, I am helping out in the College Room. We have a room set up with college catalogs, applications, financial aid information and computers to aid the kids in their quest to pick to perfect college, technical school or even armed services. We try to help the kids by answering questions they might have and if we do not know the answer, we find the answer. We currently use the schools web site to post information about college visits and scholarship that are available. I think that it would be a great idea to set up a blog where the kids could interact, ask questions, and post responses. Kids are so attuned to all of the different types of social media and it would be a great opportunity to “talk” to them about one of the most important decisions that they will soon be facing. The youth are truly the future of this country and the better prepared they are through education, the more successful they will become.
Vanessa said
Unfortunately for me, I don’t really know what Foursquare or Tumblr are. However, I hope to learn what they are this year as I spread my passion for adoption.
While there are so many other things I want to blog about, or facebook about (and I’m sure I will) my number one passion is adoption. It can be international, domestic, infant, foster, any adoption. I just want to spread the word that there are hundreds of thousands of children out there who need to be adopted.
I come from a family with eleven adopted siblings. I have learned so much about what adoption really is through watching my parents parent my adopted siblings. Thus, my husband and I are currently in the adoption process and waiting for our child to be born.
We have found that many people don’t realize what adoption is or how it works. So many are interested, but don’t know how to get started. I am hoping that I can touch the world with our story of adoption through facebook, my blog, Tumblr, and Foursquare. If even one life is changed because of it, I will have succeeded!
Jeni said
I would love to spread the word about cystic fibrosis since i have 3 kids who have cf i would love to answer questions plus talk to new parents to let them know that they are not alone
Judy Bradley said
I am a mom and a grandma, and as such, I teach. I teach through direct teaching, example, and learning together. We all teach through at least one of these methods whether we set out to do so or not.
Because I have already raised my children, and am now helping with the raising of my grandchildren, I am able to see and compare education methods, changes in our world and local communities, in our family makeup. I feel it is vital to educate our children on not only the 3 “R’s” but also on how to learn, how to teach, and the ethics of both, the ethics of living and surviving in this modern age and adapting as the times change.
I believe Twitter is a a wonderful social medium to discuss these things and help one another as there so many parents involved in family/mom/dad type blogs and just tweeting itself, as I do. There are always discussions groups going on, often with corporations involved and sponsoring. Sure, they have a commercial interest, but it ignites comments, thinking, and interacting about these subjects. I am not familiar with Foursquare or Tumblr, but I have seen firsthand how effective and interesting these discussions on Twitter are, how passionate the participants are and how willing to share and listen to one another.
Over the years I have been a part of teaching, volunteering, reading, panel discussions, presenter, and listener. There can never be enough help to reach out and teach and help one another, every year there are new parents with new sets of problems, changes in the communities, and in the world about us. We need to discuss and learn how to help each other, to educate each other and our children how to live effective, ethical lives.
catherine copeland said
What conversations on which social media channels do you most want to have with your community this year?
They say that the pen is mightier than the sword but I think the keyboard has usurped the place of the pen as the impetus of change. Most people routinely use the Internet to look for health and medical information, search for employment, and get the news. These days you will find the social media sites using the power of the Internet to raise awareness and champion causes, change or promote legislation, and build a coalition for change.
Conversations that involve helping children are important to me. I try to be a champion for my students. I work hard to find out about scholarships that are available to them as well as programs that help their families as they struggle to deal with unemployment and the social issues that are associated with it. I tend to spend time on social media channels that champion these causes and when possible I donate either time or money to causes they support.
As a teacher it is my job to try to help my students utilize the technology that is available to them today and to develop their higher order skills to help them function more effectively in the world outside the classroom. All students have opportunities to use a variety of modern technologies, including a wide range of software applications, telecommunications, and video applications.
I have witnessed first hand how technology used in classrooms helps provide students with the tools to gather information that helps them explore the world, learn about different cultures, and develop real world skills. Site like Foursquare or Tumblr can also help my students learn!
If I were to win an HP Mini Notebook and printer I would use them to help me develop relevant lesson plans for my students that will support engaged learning for my students. It would help me develop lesson plans and handouts that help students obtain, organize, manipulate, and display information.
While some might argue that one teacher may not change the world you might ask yourself if you had a teacher who has changed yours. I know that over the years I have touched the lives of hundreds of students. Many of contacted me throughout the years to tell me of the impact I made in their lives. So even if I do not win this contest, I know that I have been very blessed because I have touched the future.
Sally Sundeen said
The conversations I would most like to have with my blog community this year are going to be about awareness.
First, my most important goal this year is to bring awareness to autoimmune diseases in youth. I was diagnosed with Lupus at 17 and had a difficult time finding information on how this related to me as a young adult. The majority of people I found online were older adults who had been diagnosed with the disease or other autoimmune diseases in their 30s and 40s. Since then I have been diagnosed with 2 other autoimmune diseases and have talked to young people who are suffering from autoimmune diseases. It is unfair to be diagnosed with any illness in the innocence of youth, and I would like to create a website to bring them together so they can discuss with other youth their age who are going through the same thing. I want to have a place where they can find resources, support and most important young people who are going through the same thing.
Second, I was inspired by a story called the Power of Half, about a young girl who wanted to give up some luxuries to give to those in need. With the amazing support of her family they decided to give up their million plus dollar home and downsize and take half the profits from the sale and give to those in need. This truly inspired me to do what I could to help those in need. I started thinking about those little extras and what I could do without. I decided to have a garage sale with 100% of the profits going to lupus.org. I plan to do this again and helping out the local humane society. My daughter is 2 but we have all ready talked about how important it is to help others. She has helped donate new and used toys to local families in need. I think this is something we can all do, whether it is a couple cans of soup getting donated to the local food shelf or deciding to skip on purchasing the new DVD or the latest shoes and taking that money and putting it towards a good cause. We all should take a step back and look at what we can do. No matter how small we may think it is, it will be huge to someone.
The third thing I want to talk about is education. It is so important for everyone to get an education. I come from a family of educators, and am continuing school to become an educator. However, I believe that our one size fits all approach to education isn’t working as effectively as it could. In fact that is something I would like to blog about in Tumblr (new member) and see what other people think about it. I was a 4.0 student in HS and in college, and school came very easy to me. I didn’t have to study for hours, I just understood it. However, that is not the case with a lot of people, not because they don’t try, everyone is wired differently. We do not all learn the same, and I think for optimal results in education we need to consider different ways of teaching. One of my best friends in high school was a B/C student, but she would study harder than anyone I knew. She had a hard time connecting things especially when it came to math, but boy could she sing. She also could tell you all the lyrics to almost any song. I bet if we would’ve put some formulas to song she would have had a better time in algebra. There is a theory of multiple intelligences that there are lots of different areas of intelligence and people are more intelligent in some and less in others. I think that if we could design education aroudn the principal that we all learn differently that we could truly have no child left behind.
In conclusion, I love that I am growing up in the time of technology with all these great social networking sites; where we can find others who share the same dreams and ideals. We can share our dreams with the world. We can start a movement with a few clicks of a mouse. What a great WORLD WIDE WEB it is. Thanks HP for your Create Change Campaign. I hope more companies will adopt a similar idea. Giving back truly is one of the best things we can do.
Court said
What conversations on which social media channels do you most want to have with your community this year?
This year, I want to start communication between moms and moms-to-be in support of more natural childbirth options in my community. I believe that a blogging network such as blogger or tumblr would be an excellent way to promote responsiveness to this topic and sites like foursquare would make it easy to find others who support this train of thought. Not only will I be able to share personal stories and experiences, I believe that it would be a positive way to encourage one another that although not very common, natural childbirth is a beautiful and easily attainable thing! In my community right now, there are very few options for birthing in hospitals with a midwife and the region I live in currently has one of the highest C-section rates in the country! Being informed and having support are some of the best ways to have a healthy, natural experience that I believe many women have no idea is possible! I feel that as more interest in these choices comes from the members of our community, it will open doors for doctors and our local hospitals to cater to the wants of the women in my area! I am extremely hopeful for positive changes through these avenues!
Jer said
What conversations on which social media channels do you most want to have with your community this year?
This year I want to have a conversation with my community about personal responsibilities and becoming debt-free! We’ve all seen through our nation’s recession over the past year that many families are struggling to pay their mortgages and have gone “under water” on the values of their homes due to choosing adjustable rate mortgages and unfortunately being mis-informed and making poor choices. I believe that many of the problems we’re facing stem from policies that we cannot immediately control, but what we can control is our decisions! On networks like blogger or tumblr, I would love to promote better financial decisions from a conservative financial point of view. Through foursquare, I can connect with others who support these ideas and gather new ideas to promote individual personal responsibility and give advice to others through the information I find out. I firmly believe that most Americans own and spend more than we need to, but there’s a great freedom that comes from lowering ones debt and I have some simple ways to do this that I would love to share to give others the same peace of mind that I have from doing so for myself! I think this is an important conversation to have and in starting it, it will help put other individuals back on track, as it has for me!
Christine said
What conversations on which social media channels do you most want to have with your community this year?
As much as people have spoken about this to no end I’m sure, I think that we STILL need to talk about environmental respect. I don’t even mean to preach to people about changing their ways and not building anymore. I simply want people to learn to respect the world we do live in and take care of it. If we don’t, who will?
Tharun Namboothiri said
I’m an Msc student.I think the best social media still are the TV and news papers,as people around me still prefer them.Although Internet has grown way huge,still we are able to convey our thoughts and ideas clearly through these media…
Also i want to share my anciety about my country that injustice and corruption has almost swallowed and spoiled my country…The only remedy,i think,should be correcting ourselves as a force from within ourselves does more than from outside……
Heather said
I would like to talk to kids via twitter and facebook about how important it is to treat everyone the same. Whether they have down syndrome, cancer muscular dystrophy, autism, or another disorder or disease. That these kids are just the same as kids without these disorders. Also, I would tell them about how they could donate to Make a wish Foundation to make sure all kids get that one last wish they may have!
Rafael Santos said
There are numerous topics that I would love to speak to my local community. However, if I were to talk to them about all of which I am quite knowledgeable, it will take a while and they are likely to experience information overload and forget everything I tell them. So for the time being, I will focus mainly on two topics- education and health- that they can connect to on a personal level.
Education
America, even under current economic distress, is a rich nation. So why is American education so poor? Year after year in countless studies, the United States ranks near the bottom in the educational rankings among wealthy countries. So how did US end up like this with so many great resources? Obviously, there are a lot of contributing factors but two, in my opinions, really stand out: government bureaucracy and school unions. It is no secret that there is a great deal of bureaucracy in public education, and many people holding very highly-paid jobs who do very little, if not, tell other people how to do their jobs (such as teachers) when they themselves have never actually done those jobs and know next to nothing about the practical realities of those jobs. There is plenty of room for reform there, and plenty of those jobs could be eliminated, or at the very least , occupied by individuals with real, recent, hands-on experience in educating. However, there is also any problem with those educating fellows, that is teachers’ unions. I don’t know if you are aware of this or not, but union demands make it very difficult for schools to balance budgets, hire the best teachers and fire ineffective ones. I am strongly in favor of overhauling the seniority system supported by teachers’ unions, because I do feel that very often that system allows incompetent individuals to remain in their positions, earning increasingly substantial salaries, long after it is clear that they are ineffective. So what can we do about this inefficiency in education? For one, I highly recommend giving qualified principals more control over their perspective schools. They can provide incentives to lure good teachers to their schools and propel existing teachers to devote more efforts to bring about ACTUAL, not misleading, good student performance. And principals also can fire all those teachers who fail to do their job without the need to plow through all the red tape. I have had a teacher, the worst in my memory, that couldn’t control the class and even got teased frequently by every class she taught (This happened only in her class). It got so severe that the school had to hire a security guard to sit in the class so that students would behave. Yet despite this massive failure, she wasn’t fired until after the semester ends. So between those times, we only learned a fraction of what we could have learned if it was taught by a good teacher. And don’t tell me that it will take forever to unseat this deep-seated educational efficiency in America. It can be done in several short years if we have the policy in place that ensure only qualified teachers are hired. Here I find a recent article in USA Today about how a principal turned a public school from one of the worst to one of the best in the country. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-13-native-american-school_N.htm
The second issue that I would like to speak to my community is college education. Is a college degree really worth the cost? A wide variety of studies show that, on average, college pays off in financial and non-financial ways. But some college graduates, especially those who attend low-quality institutions or take worthless courses,will be below that average and might very well be wasting their time and money. A lot of these same individuals rake up huge debts to pay for their college tuition and end up working at jobs they could have attained without going to college. And no matter how many times they declare bankruptcy, they can never shake off these tuition debts. Furthermore, with so many people attending colleges at this point, degrees worth substantially less than several years before. So a lot of people are misinformed about the actual payoff of a college tuition. I am sure you have heard countless time that those who have a college degree earn one million dollars more on average than those who only have high school degree. That is a bit misleading. They don’t take into account deductions from income taxes or breaks in employment, nor do they factor in debt, particularly student debt loads, which have ballooned for both public and private colleges in recent years. So the actual lifetime difference is more likely to be only a fifth of that amount. And college graduates typically only earn more because, on average, smarter people attend college. It seems to me that successful people will be successful with or without a degree. Many wealthy dropouts, with the famous one being Bill Gates, have shown that it’s the person, and not the degree, that determines success. And yes, you are right to argue that education has the power to opens and raises minds, but people really NEED to make a cost-benefit analysis to see if they are worth the cost.
Health
Lastly, I would to talk to my fellow citizens about a particular health issue: junk food. It is pretty well-known that we consume a lot of junk food. In large areas of the U.S, fast food has crept into every facet of society and is perceived as the normal way of consuming. With chains like McDonald’s expanding rapidly in the U.S, this perception does not look likely to change any time soon. As of right now, a lot of Americans are obese. And that puts a huge burden both medically and financially on those individuals. So what can we do about it? One possible way is to post accurate nutrition values on all types of food that are easily accessible and viewable to everybody. Do you think people would still consume fast food at current speed if they know that a whopper burger alone from Burger King has over 600 calorie and 15 grams of saturated fat. We also need to teach people what those on the nutrition labels mean. On top of that, the nutrition labels on those junk food at the supermarket are misleading. They are based ridiculous size portion that it is so crazy that they could get away with such a thing. Who is going to eat only 10 chips or 4 cookies in a setting? And there is also the problem with misleading advertising. They use words that sound good, but hold no real meaning. I am sure you are aware that manufacturers of “energy health bars” pass off a candy bar as health food. That is not the only sneaky activity that corporate America engages in. Couple year before, I read an article at Consumerist that, in order to avoid hefty sales tax on their potato products, P&G managed to successfully claimed that Pringles aren’t potato chips even though on all of their labels, they are labeled that way. S yes, they will do whatever it takes to sell more of their junk food no matter how absurd they can be. There is another way to curb the consumption of junk food, that is to tax on junk food. Everybody buys them in a great chunks because they are so cheap. So by placing tax on junk food, we effectively raise the price, and that has been shown to effectively curb people’s consumption. An article that I read yesterday shows that it is quite effective. You can read about the research over here at http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_articles/food_cops_tax_junk_food_change_eating_habits
And we can use the money from the junk food tax to pay off medical care, and other projects. Obviously, we will face huge resistance from corporate America that has a lot of money and a army of lawyer and lobbyists up their sleeve. So in order to effectively bring about change, we need to do it through our spending habits. If we want companies to sell healthier foods, we have to commit ourselves into buying them. We need to show them that we prefer green vegetables and fruits over junk food. Once we have enough commitments, companies will start taking notice that there is a huge market for healthy foods, and thus start making changes on their own to cater to the market demands.
So with these ideas on our hand, the next logical step is to spread these messages to as many people as possible. And thanks to great advancement in technology, we have numerous social media outlets to communicate these issues and propel others to action. It doesn’t take a lot of money, mostly just our time. In below, I will list several channels people can use and have been using to keep the conversations rolling in every corner and at every moment:
TV; Even though TV channels have been losing viewers to other media outlets, it is still by far one of the most effective way to reach fellow citizens as there are millions of people tune in everyday. TV commercials may be a bit too high for us average folks, but we can still have these issues broadcast by calling and writing letters to various TV channels (ABC news, CBS news, Fox news, etc.) to urge them to make a program in their news segments about these issues. If enough people do this, they will happily follow through because of the market demand.
Blogs: There is a huge explosion in the number of blogs out there and they are increasing at
an exponential speed. With so many people embracing blogs as their source of information, they are one of the best ways to share information. Hosting costs not a lot and you can also easily get a blog set up for free at popular hosting sites such as blogger and tumblr. More often than not, they already have templates, designs, guides, etc. set up for you, so you can start your blog right away. Since blogs from these sites tend to be hosted by average folks, just like you and me, people can see the issues more clearly on a personal level. Better yet, you can work in collaborations with other blogs to share your ideas/solutions concerning these issues affecting our society.
Micro-blogs: This particular channel is evolving too at a rapid speed. The head of the class is obviously none other than Twitter, the pioneer of this channel. And right now, there are a lot of good start-ups adapting their platforms. Initially, there were concerns that such media will be limited to mostly mundane updates of people’s lives. However, there are also a lot of people who put so channels into great use. They can tell others what they are doing to help local community in real time. One of the best features about them is the word limits. This forces people to write clearly and concisely; therefore making it easier for other to read and that in turn makes them more likely to tune in for the next message.
Social networks: There are many types of social networks, and a lot of them have their respective niche areas. These sites hold massive potentials for people to spread message and share information. Perhaps the most effective site to do such conversation is through Facebook. One of the best features on that site is that you can create and join various interest groups that share similar concerns. This allows you to reach groups of individuals in other communities that you can’t reach by other means. And by using other niche social network platform, such as Foursquare, you can tell others what you are doing for your causes and where in real time.
Video-sharing sites: Like social networks, there are also numerous video-sharing sites out there: Youtube, Vimeo, AOL video and many more. With each site, there are millions of visitors tune in every month. And that means it holds great potentials for you to spread your message. And to post a video, all you need is a camcorder or a webcam. What’s really good about this media channel, as opposed to TV, is that you have more control over the videos you post.
Image Sharing site: There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. With the growing popularity of image sharing sites, it couldn’t be more truer. Sometimes, all it takes to gain supports for your cause is just one candid picture.
Thank you for your time. Hope you like what I wrote
Olalekan Mabadeje Davids said
I want people to know that peace is the key to good life, search for it, get it and teach people about it. remain bless.
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AF
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