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Blogging for Seniors: Resident Consultant Finds Technology Not Just for the Young

by Loknath Das April 5, 2024

written by Loknath Das

Senior Blogger

Though technology may be dominated by younger generations, Cindy Mund knows the internet and social media have power with senior citizens.

Mund, a resident consultant for Stillwaters Estates, has found a large following in a blog she writes for the senior living community in Centralia. When she started the blog seven years ago, she had a list of about 75 subscribers. Today, that list is about 150 to 200 of the estimated 300 total Stillwaters residents. What’s more, she said she often hears from people who are considering moving to Stillwaters that they have read her blog.

“I’ll have people who come in and say, ‘You’re the one who writes the blog?’” Mund said. “So, we have people who go to the website and they read it.”

According to the National Council on Aging, 10,000 Americans turn 65 daily, and the most recent United States of Aging Survey noted that seniors are actually one of the fastest growing segments of social media consumers. Just 10 years ago, only about 2 to 3 percent of older Americans used social media of any type. Today the Pew Research Center estimates about 34 percent of seniors use some sort of social media platform.

While Mund has found a great number of seniors will read her blog, she is actually a minority when it comes to actual bloggers. Because of the sometimes-transient nature of blogs, it is hard to know exactly how many active blogs exist today, but it is estimated there are hundreds of millions of them. Bloggers who are older than 50 make up less than 10 percent of the blogs available today. A little more than half of blogs are written by people ages 21-35 with those younger than 20 making up about 20 percent and those 36-50 another 20 percent.

Mund actually began blogging in the late 1990s. She said she used the technology for her career at the Department of Social and Health Services and also kept a personal blog so she and her husband could share their travels with friends and family.

“The movie ‘Julie and Julia’ always intrigued me,” Mund said. “I read a lot of pages online. I read a lot of books about it. All of the things led me to what I’m doing now.”

Mund began working for Stillwaters seven years ago as a resident consultant. Her job entails working with residents of the community of apartments, houses and assisted living for those age 50 and older. Mund is also a Realtor and works with prospective residents to help them look at homes and lots for sale in the community. She said the Stillwaters blog began through a discussion about how to market Stillwaters.

“It’s a neighborhood where we have homes for sale and we’re also building new homes so I thought of it as a way to talk about life at Stillwaters and what it is like,” Mund said.

Though she already was comfortable with technology, Mund said before she could begin the blog, she had to first brush up on the software and technology. She said she started simply with the easiest resource possible: Google.

“The internet is a great place to start,” Mund said. “You can type in ‘how to write a blog’ and you get all kinds of advice.”

She said she found a lot of free resources, first through Timberland Regional Library and also through tutorials provided with WordPress, which is the online content management system she uses for the blog.

“I don’t think it’s all very hard to do you just need to pay attention to directions,” Mund said. “You don’t have to know coding to do this.”

No matter the subject matter, Mund said a blog can be a great way for seniors to connect with friends and family and stay active. She said her first piece of advice for would-be bloggers is to keep blog entries simple, quick and short. She said she shoots for entries to include an eye-catching photo along with just a few short paragraphs.

“Keep it focused on what your goal is,” Mund said.

Second, Mund said she feels it is important for bloggers to plan ahead and maintain their content. She said she hears often of people who start blogs and write a few entries but then leave long gaps between posts. Regular blog posts mean readers will keep checking in with you, whereas old, stale content could drive them away. Mund said she probably only spends about one to two hours each week on her blog, which includes brainstorming topics to talk about and walking the Stillwaters neighborhood in search of photos.

“I think it’s important to do it every single week,” Mund said

And when it comes to what exactly to write about, Mund said bloggers should always think about their intended audience. For example, Mund said her blog is meant to be both a way for Stillwaters residents to connect but also to share a slice of the community’s life with outsiders. Since her readers are likely ages 50 and older, Mund said she likes to talk about things that seniors would be interested in. For instance, downsizing is one subject Mund revisits often because it is an important and relevant to many seniors.

“Downsizing is emotionally hard, it’s physically hard and sometimes it’s just hard to know where to start,” she said.

[“Source-chronline”]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Education

Qualified nursery teachers make little difference to attainment, study finds

by Rajdeep April 5, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Children with graduate nursery teachers achieve only slightly more by the end of Reception than children with unqualified teachers

Children who have access to a qualified teacher at nursery school do only slightly better at age 5 than those who do not, research suggests.

A new study concludes that a child’s educational achievement at the end of their Reception year is only very slightly higher if they have been taught in a nursery with a teacher trained to graduate level.

There was also little difference between those attending a nursery rated “outstanding” by Ofsted and others.

Researchers from the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, the University of Surrey and University College London, compared data on children’s results with information about the nurseries they attended in the year before starting school for around 1.8 million people born in England between September 2003 and August 2006.

Literacy and numeracy

The findings showed that children who attended a nursery that employed a graduate had a teacher assessment score that was around a third of a point higher than those whose nurseries did not employ a graduate, where the total number of points available was 117.

And attending a nursery judged as “outstanding” was linked with moving up less than one level on one of the 13 scales that make up the early years foundation stage, which assesses what children can do in areas such as literacy and numeracy at age 5.

The researchers estimated whether similar children who attend different nurseries then achieve different results in Reception, and found that the results vary depending on the nursery attended, but not in a way that is predictable by staff qualifications or Ofsted judgements.

‘Only a tiny effect’ on nursery outcomes

Jo Blanden, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Surrey, said: “Successive governments have focused on improving staff qualifications, based on the belief that these are important for children’s learning.

“Our research finding that having a member of staff qualified to graduate level working in the nursery has only a tiny effect on children’s outcomes surprised us, given existing research that finds well-qualified staff have higher-quality interactions with children.

“It is possible that our results are partly a consequence of the types of qualifications held by those working in private nurseries, as these are not generally equivalent to the qualifications of teachers in nursery classes in schools.

“Some nurseries are helping children to do better than others, but this is not related to staff qualifications or Ofsted ratings.

“It is extremely important to discover the factors that lead to a high-quality nursery experience, so we can maximise children’s chances to benefit developmentally from attending nursery, particularly as the government extends the entitlement from 15 to 30 hours.”

[Source:- tes]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Education

Half of young people are so troubled they can’t focus at school, study finds

by Rajdeep April 5, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Teenagers’ levels of happiness and confidence are plummeting, as they worry that their lives will amount to nothing

Almost half of all young people experience so many emotional problems at school that they are unable to focus on their studies, a new poll has found.

Meanwhile, their levels of happiness and confidence are dropping, and more than a quarter feel that they have no control over their lives.

And more than one in six believe that they will never amount to anything, no matter how hard they try.

More than 2,200 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 were surveyed by the Prince’s Trust charity. Nearly half (45 per cent) said that they did not believe in themselves when they were at school. And 48 per cent said that they experienced problems during their school years that prevented them from concentrating on their academic work.

Of these, 46 per cent did not talk to anyone about their problems. Largely, this was because they did not want other people to know that they were struggling. And more than half (58 per cent) did not think that asking for help would solve the problem.

The survey is the eighth such study conducted by the Prince’s Trust. This year, young people’s levels of happiness and confidence were at their lowest level since the first survey was commissioned.

‘Amount to nothing’

Their plummeting confidence is caused by a number of factors. Half of those surveyed felt that the pressures of finding a job were greater than they were a year ago. And 42 per cent believed that traditional financial goals – such as finding a steady job or owning a house – were unrealistic.

In fact, 16 per cent argued that their lives would amount to nothing, no matter how hard they tried. And 18 per cent said that they did not believe that they could change their circumstances, even if they wanted to.

Dame Martina Milburn, chief executive of the Prince’s Trust, said: “This report paints a deeply concerning picture of a generation who feel their ability to shape their own future is slipping away from them.

“It’s shocking how many feel so desperate about their situation, and it is vital that we support them to develop the confidence and coping skills they need to succeed in life.”

[Source:- tes]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Education

Computers and textbooks will not solve growing global education crisis alone, major report finds

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Simply spending money on computers and materials will not solve a growing global education crisis, experts have warned.

A major new report reviewing the impact of education programmes in lower and middle-income countries has revealed that computer-assisted learning, widely regarded as one of the most effective and forward-thinking classroom tools, does not improve learning outcomes in all contexts.

In some cases, such programmes even had a negative effect on learning, leading to concerns that education funding was being wasted in areas where resources were especially limited.

The study follows concerns that improvements in children’s school enrolment rates have slowed down considerably over the past decade.

More than a quarter of a billion school-age children are not currently in any formal education, according to Unesco figures, a much higher figure than previously estimated.

Birte Snilstveit, a Senior Evaluation Specialist for the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) who co-authored the report, said: “We find that just providing free computers and textbooks does not always improve learning outcomes.

“Our interpretation of this is not that children don’t need computers or textbooks to learn, but that many of these programmes have been poorly designed or poorly implemented.

“For instance, the teachers may not have been given training on how to use the computers in their teaching which may then result in lessons of lower quality.

“As for textbooks, in many poor countries you have a history of many different languages being spoken.

By analysing research from top education bodies across the globe, the NGO was able to determine the best and worst cases of development within education.

“The pattern we see with the education programmes that fail is unsurprising, because they tend to be badly thought through or poorly implemented,” said Ms Snilstveit.

“In order to reach sustainable development goals, education programmes being offered to areas of must be better designed to ensure that money is being spent wisely.”

“Textbooks and computers and building schools – these are things that are quite visible to the public and may receive funding more easily. But such resources need to be integrated with the curriculum, provided in a language children understand and combined with training for teachers on how to incorporate new materials in their teaching.”

Part of the UN’s sustainable development goals state that by 2030, all girls and boys should complete a free, high-quality primary and secondary education system.

On current trends, however, it is believed that universal primary education will be achieved in 2042, all children of lower secondary school age will have schooling in 2059 and upper secondary schooling will not be universally available until 2084.

World leaders attending a UN General Assembly last month were urged to better address the growing education crisis, particularly in war-torn and underdeveloped countries.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai also called on government officials to guarantee all refugee children access to a full 12-year education, in order to avoid a lost academic generation.

Speaking on 3ie’s analysis, Ms Snilstveit said: “Part of the issue is that the challenges in some of these countries are so great and the resources being put into education are so limited but they are being put into the wrong places.

“Yes, we need more money for education – but we need to make sure that money is being spent as effectively as it can be. Across low- and middle-income countries around the world, we find that successful programmes are those that are well-designed and implemented, and appropriately customised for the local context.”

The systematic review also contained positive findings, in that structured pedagogy programmes –whereby schools were given materials, curricula and teacher training customised to their needs – had seen proven positive developments to learning.

“Education is everyone’s responsibility,” she added, “we need to use what we know works, but also find new, better ways of improving learning outcomes and ensuring better spending of resources to tackle this education crisis.”

[Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

England’s schools have ‘chronic lack’ of black and ethnic minority teachers, analysis finds

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Just 7.6 per cent of teachers are from BME backgrounds compared to nearly a quarter of pupils, making schools unrepresentative of their local communities, analysis finds

England’s schools have a “chronic lack” of teachers from black and ethnic minority (BME) backgrounds, research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found.

Analysis by the group found just 7.6 per cent of state school teachers in England came from BME backgrounds, compared to nearly a quarter of pupils.

The study found that 97 per cent of English state school headteachers were white.

It found that in some areas, teachers were particularly unrepresentative of their local communities. In Newcastle upon Tyne, two per cent of teachers and 23 per cent of pupils came from a BME background. In Liverpool the figures were two per cent and 17 per cent respectively.

The report said the teaching workforce was only slightly more diverse than MPs, with 7.6 per cent of teachers coming from a BME background compared to 7.5 per cent of MPs.

The Bureau’s figures show that only 13 per cent of postgraduate trainee teachers in the 2014-15 academic year were from BME backgrounds, compared with 35 per cent of people studying medicine, dentistry and law at higher education institutions.

Leora Cruddas, director of policy at the ASCL school leaders’ union, said: “Part of the solution is to actively encourage young people from BME backgrounds to consider teaching as a valuable profession and at the same time, to talent-spot and nurture BME teachers to consider taking up leadership positions.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We trust school leaders to recruit the right teachers for their classrooms but we are clear that good teams should reflect the diversity of their communities.

“The percentage of BME teachers is at its highest level on record, and the percentage of BME trainees on postgraduate training course continues to rise.”

[Source:- tes]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Private school fees soar to £160,000 per child, research finds

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Parents face a bill of almost £160,000 to have their children privately educated amid the soaring cost of fees in recent years.

The average cost of a private school education for a day pupil who started reception in 2003 and left after sixth form in 2016 is £156,653, according to research by Lloyds Bank Private Banking.

Annual fees have almost doubled in that time, with the average cost of sending a child to private school for a year rocketing from £7,308 in 2003 to £13,341 today, a rise of 83 per cent.

In London parents have seen fees rise by 25 per cent in the last five years alone.

But costs have risen far more than average earnings, putting an enormous strain on families who want to choose private education for their children.

School fees rocketed by an average of 21 per cent over the last five years, up from £10,983 in 2011 – an increase that is 8 per cent above inflation.

The steep hike means that the £13,341 school fee accounts for almost 40 per cent of the average full time earnings of £34,545, a marked change from in 2003 when fees amounted for 28 per cent of earnings.

Despite the increasing financial burden on families, pupil numbers at private schools remain largely unchanged over the last five years.

Those going to senior school – between the ages of 11 and 16 – have fallen by 3 per cent, but numbers going to private sixth forms have grown by 10 per cent, and those at junior schools have gone up by 6 per cent.

Sarah Deaves, private banking director at Lloyds Bank, said: “All parents want the best for their children and a good education is no exception.

“A place at a private school is a huge financial commitment, almost an eye-watering £157,000 for just one child, from reception to finishing the sixth form as a day pupil.

“With average annual fees at £13,341 per child and the compulsory school leaving age now 18 years, many families may well feel some strain.

“It has, therefore, become increasingly important that parents, and sometimes grandparents, plan their finances as early as possible if they want a private school education for their children.”

The research, based on data from the Independent Schools Council and the Office for National Statistics, showed that private schooling in London was the most expensive in Britain, costing £179,145 to educate children from the age of five until they are 18.

Parents in the North paid the least, at £126,609 for 13 years of fees.

In London, school fees have almost doubled since 2003, rising 97% from £8,016 to £15,828 today, compared to the lowest increase over the same period in the West Midlands, a rise of 66 per cent from £6,984 to £11,580.

But there is help for parents, with around 160,000 children getting assistance for their fees – almost a third of all pupils at fee-paying schools, not just day pupils – that is worth more than £850 million a year.

The vast majority of this assistance, 85 per cent, comes from schools themselves.

[Source:- independent]

April 4, 2024 0 comment