How can we ever hope that people will be able to get along, in a global context, just look at the mess in the newspapers.

We have terrorists, pirates, riots, political chaos and much more that all can probably be traced back to the simple fact that we don not care enough about the small things.

And how do I get to that conclusion?

How can we expect people to understand and accept difference on a large scale if we can’t make it happen on a small scale such what we wear as cloths in public?

This conversation is again happening in the UAE.

Why is it happening?

People do not care is the short and simple answer.

If we can’t dress with a bit of respect in the mall how can we expect people to deal with larger issues of state and ideological difference?

Here is the conversation from Nightline what is your view?

When we get a long weekend the euphoria is clearly felt.

So why not make every day a 3 day weekend?

I asked this question and THE ONLY people who were against it were business leaders!

The fear is productivity!

Is it possible that our business community is caught in 1900 think? YES!

And I suspect the mind-think lag is the fault of educators who are also caught in the lag.

We talk about outside the box thinking and action but how often do we actually get there? Almost never.

Manager NEED to care about there workforce!

Caring, simple respect for time in, could be a huge push for productivity and workplace satisfaction.

If workers are happy customers are happy!

Hmmm… I wonder who will be the 1st in the UAE to pilot the 4 day work week?

Here is the conversation from Nightline.

I have seen these in Canada, the famed Inuksuk, but never in the UAE!

And yet here we see one in Old Town Dubai in front of the Palace Hotel, very cool.

I always find it interesting how ideas cut the cultural barriers.

Too often if you are from Canada, like me, you might think Canada is the place to look for inspiration.

Or you might go to the US or a bit farther, but the reality is that there is a lot of great talent right here at home.

And then we get music!

How many of us live here in the UAE know any of the music around the country or the region?

Do you know any of the indie artists?

The reality is there is a huge amount of talent that is just waiting to be discovered.

I was blown away the other night with the latest pieces of music from triplew.me.

Totally inspiring!

This course has changed a lot since we first started it, but it has always stayed very true to the core idea of combining what has been learned in the curriculum of the communication college to real world activities.

My latest projects are all based around sound.

Part of the motivation to work with sound is my love for radio and the ability it has to be the ultimate education tool.

And then there is the fact that my students have a huge amount of technology on their person daily.

Laptop, phone, camera, MP3 players and more.

So what if we could use a students personal technology, their skills and my passion for radio to create a learning tool for UAE Nationals and expats alike?

The project involves students finding a sound that reminds them of something in their life.

Students record the sound on their phones and import them to their laptops.

Once the sound is on the laptop they record and intro and description of the sound and edit the whole thing together.

The result is magic!

And the reality is that while my students are not recording experts they have all the tools and talent to work in sound NOW.

When I say talent, in this case anyway, I am talking about cultural talent.

My Canadian sensibility leads me to listen to music that is being produced here in the UAE as a piece of UAE culture.

Well, last night on Nightline I had Paul Kelly of TripleW.me joining me in studio with 2 UAE based music producer, WOW.

Dylan Ellis, www.dylan-ellis.com, and Joshua Williams, www.joshuafwilliams.com, showed me a whole side of the UAE I did not even know existed.

Dylan and Josh not only talked about themselves but also the industry that they are helping shape int he UAE.

They are a perfect example of “anything is possible”.

Not only did we have a great chat that is well worth the listen, but they also brought in a track each that they have produced.

What a heard immediately was music of a global standard that could have been produced in LA or London, but it was produced here.

I enjoyed this interview, give it a listen.

And here is the music of Absolace and Beat Antenna at a little higher sample quality.

Cultural industries in the UAE are alive and well!

You need something to carry all the gear.

You need something that can house a generator.

You need something that has a toilet.

This may be the trailer for you.

I didn’t get a good look at the sewage storage system BUT there is a fan on the toilet.

One of the things I love about the UAE is the spirit of can-do, and this utility trailer is a clear example of that.

So what does the UAE film industry need?

UAE, Emirati talent!

It is great that we have many film festivals cropping up, and my favorite is the student led project at Zayed University, but festivals are not enough!

We, expats in the UAE and Emiratis alike, need to start looking at the core of the UAE industry.

What do we have today?

What is missing?

And how do we start.

First and foremost WE NO NOT NEED MORE EXPAT CONSULTANTS TO COME TO THE UAE TO FIX THINGS!

There are more than enough highly educated film, culture and public policy experts on the house to help shape/create/jump start the UAE industry.

And we also have the talent right here right now to create the public policy vehicles and measure the success of those vehicles in promoting the UAE film industry.

Maybe someone will listen.

It was interesting to speak to Saro and Ahmed about the UAE film industry as they came to the table from another corner of the conversation.

So, lets not just talk but start doing.

I put my expertise in the ring to look at the public policy issues.

Are we ready to start the change?

I was talking to an educator at an IB school about the mega play they are putting on this term.

My question was is is student written? NO.

Are the students directing? NO.

Students organizing the production? NO

Students are filming and recording the production? NO.

So what is the point of the production? Even the school must be doubting the educational value because during a week of IB inspections all rehearsals were cancelled!

We need to be thinking long and hard about what we are doing in education. Are we doing education for us or for the student?

I think we have forgotten the student.

Christian Long of be playful design passed this article along.

I love the lead.

IN a speech last week, President Obama said it was unacceptable that “as many as a quarter of American students are not finishing high school.” But our current educational approach doesn’t just fail to prepare teenagers for graduation or for college academics; it fails to prepare them, in a profound way, for adult life.

The article goes on to talk about an independent education project where the students design the school, what will be learned and how.

The students in the Independent Project are remarkable but not because they are exceptionally motivated or unusually talented. They are remarkable because they demonstrate the kinds of learning and personal growth that are possible when teenagers feel ownership of their high school experience, when they learn things that matter to them and when they learn together. In such a setting, school capitalizes on rather than thwarts the intensity and engagement that teenagers usually reserve for sports, protest or friendship.

Watch this video and be blown away.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTmH1wS2NJY[/youtube]

So my question is how can we do this at the University level? Let the students start their own school!

Check this out and lets start a conversation. What is stopping us from doing this?

Sure there are the vacations and the very nice working hours, but is that enough?

Then about this time of the year I get my answer to why I stick around.

This is the time of the year when the students who I met in the introduction to communication class are now graduating and doing their final projects. Those things that will show the world that their education has some application to things outside the classroom.

This is when I see the fruit of what I have been teaching, some students suggest it is more like torture, all the same it has been in the classroom.

Here are 2 examples being spoken about by 2 groups of students.

One example is a guide book to Dubai.

And the other is a cultural magazine for Emiraties to learn more about their own culture, today.

Sure I would like more money, who wouldn’t? But I get to watch emirate students go from being a bit nervous and tentative about media and communication to something amazing, becoming part of the media of the nation.

I think a MasterCard commercial could be made of my teaching year.

If you get a chance to work with students don’t even think twice! You get more than you give every time.