recently, I’ve established a new blog and, hence, I will use that one. Please visit it (here) and read about my new publications:

“Die Atomwaffen nieder!” (Hamburg 2010)

“Von Platon bis zur Global Governance” (Marburg 2010)

”Das nukleare Zeitalter” (Düsseldorf 2010)

in a couple of weeks, my book “Die Atomwaffen nieder! Völkerrechtliche und zivilgesellschaftliche Abrüstungsschritte” will be published by VSA in Hamburg. If you like, you can order it here via amazon.de.

Thank you, yours Matt

please find here an article about nuclear disarmament, written (by me) on the occasion of the current Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (May 3-28, 2010) and the new “Nuclear Abolition Day” (June 5, 2010):

Read the article “Die Atomwaffen nieder!”

Yours Matthias

if you’re a geocacher, I’d like to ask you to fill out the short questionnaire (it just takes 2-3 minutes). I will use the data for a seminar in “nature sociology” in which we analyze today’s people’s attitude towards and knowledge about nature.  Thank you!

Click here to take survey

if you need concrete steps how to protect climate and environment (while saving money ) you may download the following document which contains dozens of practical hints about consuming, energy, heating/cooling, entertainment and other areas of everyday life; The list was compiled by my girlfriend, Anka, and me on the occasion of Marburg’s “Bildungsfest” in 2009. The sources we consulted are below the list. Download the document.

(wind energy plant near Gotha, Thuringia, Aug. 09, pic: Anka)

Yours

Matthias van der Minde

please feel cordially invited to the discussion evening about nuclear weapons (nuclear threats, political/legal solutions, possibilities for civil commitment) with Prof. Götz Neuneck, physicist, expert for weapons control and disarmament (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg):

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, 7 pm, Marburg, Historischer Rathaussaal.

Powered by: UN-Society Marburg e.V.

Thank you, yours

Matt

*NEW NEW NEW* (Nov. 10, 2009) Read a new article by Götz Neuneck which reiterates the content of his Marburg lecture.

I am supposed to create a dream project for students at school which makes use of new media. As I am highly interested in global problems (mostly, in climate change and nuclear weapons), I am keen to entertain those topics at school, unsurprisingly, maybe in a bilingual Civics and Economics classroom.

At this year’s “Bildungsfest: Bildung in Zeiten des Klimawandels” in Marburg (June 18-21, 2009), my girlfriend, another friend, and I have already encounteres working with students from Marburg’s Martin-Luther-Schule on the consequences of human-caused climate change. They were expected to create some posters on that: 

That’s everything but new media, obviously Nevertheless, the topic appeared to be quite motivating for the 9th graders. Thus, it should be dared to extend the topic of “global problems” to a huge project which runs for weeks and involves a big deal of work – and new media

My dream project:

- The students of my class would decide to build a website on global problems: its aim would be to gather information about global problems like climate change and nuclear weapons, to bring these information in order and to present them to the public in an appealing manner

- The students would form sub-groups; some students would be responsible for the web design: creating and administrating the website, uploading and ordering the content etc.; another group would be in charge of accumulating the climate change information, others would deal with other global problems – it’s important not just to upload a huge amount of information, but to rewrite them if necessary, to verify their credibility, to mix text with videos etc.

- As soon as the website is more or less adequately filled with information, the students should search for a platform to present their findings: this can be the school community, the local town (e.g. on a local festival), a NGO (e.g. Greenpeace), or a university community. They could print an information sheet about their website project and distribute it; moreover, they could consider writing a quarterly newsletter in which they report on new findings about global problems, about news at their website etc.

- The school’s head should take into consideration the huge amount of work, as well as the impressive cognitive output the students get from the project; maybe they can receive a kind of reward for their efforts, e.g. good grades, some privileges (e.g. not so much homework) or so…

Here’s one video example which would fit into the nuclear weapon’s section of the student’s website – it’s from the independent and non-profit “Nuclear Age Peace Foundation”, based in Santa Barbara, CA, and offers a good base for further critical discussions on the feasibility of global nuclear weapons abolition. It’s easy to understand, suitable for students, and brand new:

I hope you like my global problems project!? Please feel free to comment on it. So or so: enjoy your summer break

Yours Matt

http://www.eslpodcards.com/usa.php, accessed July 7, 2009.

Here are two possible questions regarding new media for students still attending school:

1) Do you think the use of new media like internet applications and smartboards has really improved your foreign language learning process?  OK, this question may be too long for a younger student; it simply wants to know: Are new media useful for learning English/French etc.?

2) Has your private use of new media (e.g. of web 2.0 applications) altered since you were dealing with it at school? I am really interested in the answers to this question…

Blog task 5.2

… and here are the answers I got from some 9th graders during the “Marburger Bildungsfest” (June 18 – 21, 2009):

to 1) “[...] We sometimes go to the computer room [...]. There, we work with English programmes to practise vocabulary and so on [...]. [...] Yes, it is useful because we get some tips how to work with the programmes at home.”

to 2) “[...] Yes, it (the use of new media in school, own remark) has changed (the way, own remark) I use the internet at home. My teacher has showed us new websites and new search engines [...] so that we don’t use “google” all the time. I try to read some websites of newspapers in English but this is difficult.”