Are you involved in teaching in any way? I really appreciate your comment and all what you want to see in teaching/learning.
The good news is that many of those things you mention you can already find if you search for them. Education in virtual environments is an example of how education in virtual worlds and online education (they are, of course, two different things) have made possible for students and teachers around the world to be able to visit and explore museums, archaelogical sites, the deep sea and all what you can imagine virtually.
Now tell me that Internet access is not a basic need in education. I have researched these things and all what I am saying is happening as we speak.
I have a couple of links that I can pass on to you about plant/flower recognition -if I am undertsanding what is what you want. If not, tell me more about the insect/flower sample recognition and I might have something for you.
Scandinavian countries are so cold and miserable for many months of the year I can understand why some of these countries need to declare the internet as a basic human right. How else could they entertain themselves and prevent madness during the long hard winters. Now if I had the choice of the basic human right to walk on a beach in the warm evening sun or the right to surf the internet, I know which one I would choose. I personally believe human rights are basic rights we need to live a decent life. I am not so sure the internet is in that class as I could cite some examples of its detrimental effects on today's society. Now I will apologize unreservedly to anyone I have offended by this light hearted post.
Basic human rights: health, education, security and liberty. Most countries have implemented wide number of human rights into law to protect their citizens.
In the US any human rights are considered social rights and they don’t make same progress in law. If majority does not want any medical protection for our citizens we will not have any internet rights for sure, even if it would be part of education and communication.
The internet access as an human right? i support whole heartedly. It really doesn't change much as far as i'm concerned. Education is one of the fundamental human rights but millions in developing countries have no access to it. Some don't even have shelter, not to mention education, so internet access has no meaning to them.
HOwever, if it is stated as an human right, as education is, as countries that are underdeveloped begin to develop, they have a good sense of what they must provide as basic for their citizens.
for developed economies, it forces toe government to take conscious efforts to provide it, giving more people access.
The chart shows that most believe that access to the Internet is a fundamental right. I do agree with that wording. "Human right" makes it a little more difficult to justify. Although, if you look at the part the Internet played in the uprising in the middle east, that is easy justification. The Internet helps connect people and eases the means of communication. You can argue that the Internet can be a tool for the attainment of human rights. Also, there are a lot of on-line courses, schools use the Internet to communicate grades of children in school, on and on. Perhaps more important than the definition of the Internet, is the importance of making sure one and all have access. If some countries have to designate it a human right to make sure that all its citizens have access, then I support it.
Not to my knowledge. It's more about making it available everywhere and very accessible in a way that everyone can access to it and have a decent speed in every household. It's free in all the public places, though.
Finland is aiming to 100MB per second for all by 2015. My Internet speed at the moment is 40M and I also have a USB Internet access (2M, planning to change to 5M) that I use to work with my netbook when I am not at home or where there is no free WiFi in a public place -but this is also rare. You find free WiFi in public places and everywhere in the city center, trains, etc.
Laura Vikkonen, the legislative counselor for the Ministry of Transport and Communications said about broadband Internet access: "We think the it's something you cannot live without in modern society. Like banking services or water or electricity, you need Internet connection."
The fact that is has been put in the lines as education and healthcare is because, at least in Finland, education and healthcare do need the Internet to exist today. The use of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) by public and private healthcare is almost 100 percent at the moment in the whole country. Without Internet this wouldn't be possible.
The same with banking. No one will stop you if you want to use cash or go to a physical bank but most of the people use ebanking and most of the transactions are electronic. There are already talks about cash disappearing.
To be able to see why broadband Internet access is a right in Finland we need to consider the way all the basic things work in the country and how they depend on the Internet. The Internet is a basic need in Finland.
All this may not be happening everywhere in the world, you may argue. I say this is the model and the future of things to happen thanks to the use and access to the Internet.
Unfortunately the world tends to look too little at the small countries in the north. There is a lot to learn about and from them, though.
I think you are spot on with your examples. The internet is merely a tool for delivery of goods, not a human right. My other question would be who's going to pay for all of this? It's easy to compare the U.S. to some European countries. Yet everybody seems to forget that the U.S. is bigger than all of Europe combined. We have vast rural areas where people live, many without internet, and survive just fine. Who is going to pay for the infrastructure to set up a broadband network throughout the continental U.S.? And if we come up with a way to give everybody access, who's going to pay for their hardware to get on the internet if they can't afford it?
Our tax dollars fund schools so that nobody is left out of getting an education. We have school systems, local and state governments who are all having budget problems. Yet the schools still have to be funded because everybody has a right to education and a better life. How are we going to pay to ensure everybody has access to the internet? A "human right", hardly. More focus should be on the main elements of food, shelter and education.
We need the Internet to be able to do basic things, things that we used to do in a different way years ago. Our lifestyle has changed and we have o be able to adapt to the changes. This includes seeing the Internet as a fundametal tool very much needed to help us in other fundamental rights, like the aquisition of knowledge through education ("the right to education"),
The Internet has also affected commuting as we knew it. Now many companies choose to have most of their employees working remotely from their homes -telecommuting. This means the Internet is fundametal for many people's jobs, becoming essential as part of "the right to work" for many.
Let's take a case of a physically disabled person. His mind works fine, he is capable of performing well in a job that requires his mental ability but unfortunately he can't go to a physical work place. He has the right o work, though. He can work from his home with laptop and Internet connection, he receives his payment into his bank account (that he checks and manages using Internet banking) and has a better quality of life feeling and being useful to the society.
He can do that because he has the right to Internet access, even living in a rural area.
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Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
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