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Sexist careers advice is damaging the job prospects of girls

The movement found many of its members feared they had overlooked an interesting vocation because they were given outdated and unhelpful advice.

Sixty per cent were told about teaching and 43 per cent about childcare but only 29 per cent were informed of opportunities to work in IT, 28 per cent business, 21 per cent engineering, 9 per cent construction and 6 per cent plumbing.

The Guides who took part also complained that they received little or no information about potential salaries.

The findings reveal that while girls outperform boys at every level of the education system, they are hitting a glass ceiling when they reach the job market.

"This suggests modern careers advice continues to affirm old-fashioned gender stereotypes," said a Guiding spokesman.

One respondent reported receiving only 20 minutes of careers advice in seven years at secondary school. Another remarked: "I feel that I have been pushed by teachers and career advisers to pursue a traditional female line of work. The opportunity to discuss other options was never presented."

Chief guide Liz Burnley said: "These outdated gender barriers must be broken down so young women can determine their own successful career paths. Our young members are calling for better information, support and guidance about career options so they can make informed decisions about their futures."

The CBI warned recently that the economy is threatened by an acute shortage of scientists, engineers and mathematicians. It found a disproportionate number of girls were dropping science subjects.

Here you are THE perfect Notebook for this summer... If you have the chance to be able to work remotely everywhere you want to... Well this PC will help you to "work" on the beach while other are stuck at the office, behold the LW25-EV, a 12.1" Duo Core T2400, 1GB of DDR, GeForce Go 7300, BMB TV Tuner, 3G EVDO Data and this for only 1.1Kg (Girls not included)

Lessons must be necessary and relevant.

Educators with a prescribed curriculum (such as the Virginia SOLs - standards of learning) face a challenging mandate. Students do not learn well when facts are presented in isolation, yet the concepts that students will be tested on in the SOLs are listed individually like a bulleted series of unrelated facts. Inexperienced teachers try to present these facts this way in their lessons and then they’re faced with yawning students who don’t “get it.”

Students automatically and unconsciously filter out useless information. In time, if too much information is meaningless (such as historical details without the “big picture”), the learner turns his or her attention to more useful knowledge, which might include how to win at Nintendo, picking popular fashions, or how to kick a soccer ball.

Educators face a challenge. How do we redirect students to learn academic content that we (i.e., society) need to teach them, rather than only what they choose to learn on their own — choices which may fail to prepare them for their future? We must, overall, present lessons in creative ways that link the information to the student’s own survival in the real world.

Learning becomes automatic when students can apply what they are learning immediately to their personal experience and surroundings. I call this the “When am I ever going to use this?” aspect of education. For example, memorizing the definition of “democracy” means little to a middle school student, but during the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, current events that were gripping the nation and piquing curiosity served as a dramatic, teachable moment to explore the difference between democracy and other political world views such as anarchy or dictatorship. Suddenly, the concept of “democracy” became personally relevant and comprehensible, and important to understand.

Rather than subscribe to the lineup of chapters and units in textbooks, teachers need to harvest the world of current events and real-time trends with a keen understanding of their students so they can find relevant, meaningful connections between cold facts and the students’ personal world.

Likewise, students deserve to know how they will use the facts and skills taught in school when they enter the real world of working or being an adult. This includes character development in addition to facts and academic concepts. Effective teachers go beyond the facts to include teaching work habits such as completing work, staying organized, and responding appropriately to peers and authority figures.

Teachers can build bridges between their classroom lessons and the professional world of the workplace. Bringing in adult experts from various careers, for example, affords students the opportunity to hear firsthand how facts they’re learning are used in the real world, and also how important it is to develop a responsible work ethic.

Best Laptop for College - Sony VAIO N laptop

I've found the best laptop for college, as of June 2007, while working on the cheapest laptop comparison chart. The chart shows that Sony VAIO N Series laptop in its basic configuration offers the best value for the money today. Sony VAIO N is only the lowest-end Sony laptop but it comes with some of the most advanced CPU Processor and features available today.

Priced at $899 (VGN-N320E/W) and equipped with Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.6 GHz processor, all necessary ports and, in addition, with the ExpressCard that enables laptop to connect to even more external devices, Sony N series is the best laptop for college today for the lowest price. Sure you can buy cheaper Dell or Compaq for around $499 with an instant rebate today ... but these lowest-end models are not nearly equipped with the features and performance. College students often find themselves in the environment where they have to use many different connectivity options and be able to work fast while having multiple applications running simultaneiously. The best laptop should also be designed from a sturdy material to take any college abuse and should last through at least 4 years without repairs - repairing or exchanging your laptop while away from home on campus is often a tough task. Sony brand fits perfectly to all these requirements, Sony Vaio N fits well for a college student budget. And it's good looking too ;). See all specs or buy it at Sony.

Sony VAIO VA TV-PC....

Sony announced their new All-in-One LCD TV and PC running Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005. The new Sony VAIO VA TV-PC VGC-VA10G and VGC-VA11G both remind me of an all-in-one iMac (monitor and computer combined in the same chassis). I own a Sony VAIO Media Center PC myself, but it's a traditional desktop PC, which sits on top of one of my speakers. I wish I had a thin horizontal Media Center PC so I could slide it on top of my other home theater components.

In any event, I can certainly see this combined "all-on-one" Sony unit (with built-in TV tuner card) being great for cramped quarters such as a dorm room, but I wouldn't stick this in my family room. It certainly might be good as a "2nd" TV when your roommate wants to watch something else, but it definitely is NOT a TV replacement. You are better off buying a Media Center PC that slides into your home entertainment theater shelving unit, such as the line of Media Center PCs offered by Alienware. (though there are other manufacturers that offer "horizontal" Media Center PCs that can slide into your theater's shelving.)

Many people attributed Dell's recent purchase of Alienware to the perception that the giant PC maker just couldn't create the kind of cutting-edge notebooks and desktops that performance nuts and gamers want. Dell's XPS engineers must have missed that memo, because the new XPS M1710 notebook announced today looks pretty smoking.

Dell calls its XPS desktops and notebooks its luxury brand, and the XPS M1710 comes with the hardware, looks, and price to match that moniker. Most notable about the high-end unit is its nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX graphics chip with 512MB of memory. Yep--this notebook has the mobile version of nVidia's fastest desktop GPU.

The company is offering two starting configurations of the M1710, in two different colors. The Metallic Black model starts at $2,600 and includes a 17-inch display, an Intel Duo Core T2400, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, a 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS graphics chip, 1 GB DDR2 memory, and a 60 GB hard drive. The Special Edition Formula Red model starts at $3,400 and has the same display, OS, and RAM but upgrades to a Core Duo T2500, the 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX graphics chip, and an 80 GB hard drive.

Both versions also have an illuminated XPS touchpad and adjustable 16-color perimeter lighting. I guess that's so you can find your notebook back should the power go out at your LAN party.

We haven't tested the M1710 yet, but we did get to take a peek at a unit during a briefing a short while back and it looked sharp. We're looking forward to running the notebook through our WorldBench and graphics tests, so keep your eyes peeled for our official review in the near future.

In the meantime, you tell me: Would you buy a high-priced gaming notebook from Dell, or would you be more inclined to buy from boutique vendors such as Falcon Northwest, Voodoo PC, or even the Dell-owned Alienware?

Just don’t get too excited, because this is old news [circa 2004]. And something that is currently being rehashed as new on Digg, Slashdot, and Linux sites…

I’m sure you have seen it too: the news along the lines of “[insert random OEM here] releasing incredible Linux offers”, quickly followed by naive comments proclaiming the end of Microsoft.

The fact is, OEMs and companies like Wal-Mart have been attempting to sell Linux based PCs and Laptops/Notebooks for years. Take a look:

Unfortunately, most of these attempts have resulted in complete failure or extremely small volume [Wal-Mart couldn't even sell 1000 of those Laptops]. And every few years, the waters are tested again, with the same exact outcome.

Lets face the truth: Linux does not work for the average consumer, it never has, as “choice” is not something that consumers are looking for. Familiarity, function, and eye candy are the determining factors here.

As “Linux” is not synonymous with “Wal-Mart”; it neither is with “Desktop.