SEOUL – South Korea is considering scrapping a regular military exercise with US forces next year to minimise the risk of an aggressive North Korean reaction during the Winter Olympics in the South, the Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday (Nov 23).
North Korea denounces regular military exercises between South Korean and US forces as preparations to invade it, and it has at times conducted missile tests or taken other aggressive action in response.
The Winter Olympics will be held in South Korea from Feb 9 to Feb 25, with the Paralympics on March 8-18.
The South’s Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean presidential office official, said the option of scrapping the exercise had been considered for “a very long time”.
The Blue House presidential office said in a statement no decision has been made on the exercise. Officials at the defence ministry declined to comment.
The South Korean and US militaries usually hold a military exercise in March and April called Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, which involves about 17,000 US troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans.
South Korea is hopeful that North Korean participation in the games could help improve their fraught relations. The South has said any North Korean athletes who are eligible for the competition would be welcome.
A North Korean figure skating pair has qualified to compete but their participation has not been confirmed.
Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for the past year with North Korea developing its nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of international condemnation and UN sanctions.
While North Korea has not conducted any tests over the past two months, it has repeatedly vowed to never give up the weapons it deems it needs to protect itself against what it sees as US aggression.a
Following the band’s groundbreaking stateside debut on the American Music Awards on Sunday, K-pop juggernauts BTS broke a Guinness World Record as the most retweeted band.
On Tuesday, Guinness World Records announced via its official Twitter account that the band landed a spot in the 2018 book for having the world’s most Twitter engagements for a music group.
In the latest edition, which was updated in May this year, BTS, with 152,112 average retweets per post, fell below English singer-songwriter Harry Styles at 180,607 retweets on average.
However, as of Wednesday, BTS, boasted 254,609 retweets per post, leaping over Harry Styles, whose average retweet figure dropped to 164,873, according to Social Blade.
Earlier this month, singer Melissa Schuman wrote a blog that accused Backstreet Boy Nick Carter of rape during a house party in 2002.
It took her 15 years to tell her story of assault and it’s a classic scenario of a man not understanding the meaning of the word “no.”
Nick claimed that this is the first time he is hearing about these allegations and that Melissa never told him that what they did was not consensual.
“I am shocked and saddened by Ms. Schuman’s accusations,” Nick said in a statement sent to the press.
“Melissa never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual. We went on to record a song and perform together, and I was always respectful and supportive of Melissa both personally and professionally. This is the first that I am hearing about these accusations, nearly two decades later. It is contrary to my nature and everything I hold dear to intentionally cause someone discomfort or harm.”
Both Melissa and Nick were cast in the same TV movie show in 2002 and during an off-shooting day, he invited her to come over his place to hang out with his friend. She agreed and even brought her roommate. After a few drinks, casual conversation, and video games, Nick asked Melissa if she wanted to hear the music he was working on.
Soon after listening to his new music, they started kissing. Nick wanted to take it further and brought her to the adjacent bathroom, they continued to kiss and he unbuttoned her jeans. Melissa told him multiple times that she was not interested in doing anything and emphasised that she was a virgin saving herself for marriage. He never listened and performed oral sex on her. Melissa felt trapped, most especially when Nick asked her to perform oral sex on him to return the favour. “I did it for you, its only right you do it for me.”
But that wasn’t enough, so Nick brought Melissa to the bedroom and climbed on top of her. She told him again that she doesn’t want it to go further because she was a virgin. He did not listen. Melissa recalled that she simply felt limp and looked away, paralysed by what is happening around her.
You’d ask why and how your ’90s boy band crush could do this, but think of all the other men in the industry who we never imagined to have sexually assaulted anyone, but then they did.
I just want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support. Thank you for bearing witness to my story. Thank you for providing me a safe place to be open and vulnerable. I love you all. Thank you for aiding me in the healing that I so desperately needed. I am free now.
The Thai woman implicated in the deadly Erawan Shrine bomb attack is now in Thai police custody.
Wanna Suansan was arrested upon her arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday. Police then took her to the National Police Office headquarters where Deputy National Police Commissioner Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul interrogated her.
Wanna is among the suspects wanted in Thailand for the fatal explosion that rocked the Erawan Shrine in the heart of Bangkok on August 17, 2015, causing huge casualties.
File photo She married a Turkish man, Emrah Davutoglu, who is also facing charges related to the bomb attack.
Wanna, a resident of Thailand’s South, and her husband suspiciously left for Turkey just before the bomb explosion occurred. Once the couple’s flight landed in Turkey, they were arrested, and the husband was accused of possessing war materials and bombs.
Photo: The Nation/Asia News Networ
Last month, Wanna’s relatives urged Thai authorities to help bring her back to Thailand even if that meant she would have to face trial for her alleged role in the bomb attack.
They said Wanna had been locked up throughout her time in Turkey and even had to give birth to her baby in prison.
Bomb blast at Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine: Turkish man arrested
SINGAPORE: “Technology cannot fix education,” said Steve Jobs in 1996 when asked about his spearheading of initiatives that give computer equipment to schools.
Those four words uttered more than 20 years ago provide a guidepost for how we should think about e-learning and educational apps.
Indeed, mobile technology has become pervasive and entrenched for most aspects of our lives today. From getting up to read the news on your phone, to scrolling through social media to see what your friends have been up to, the real world is merging with the one online.
For our children, this means that the traditional classroom will increasingly be complemented by the use of smartphones, as well as tablets and laptops.
While the emergence of mobile learning apps has generated optimism about the opportunities they present for children to learn at their own pace and through their preferred learning styles, there has also been panic over children’s dependency on handheld digital gadgets at such a tender age.
A recent news report from Channel NewsAsia asked to this effect if e-learning is making our kids dumb, and highlighted experts sounding a warning bell.
Learning apps may not teach children anything but instead, mess with their brains in the long run, hooking children, getting them to stay the course for as long as possible, and eroding human connections with those around them, said the report.
The report also included a video showing four-year-old twins performing basic tasks to test their executive functional skills after drawing or using a learning app on a tablet, with the latter twin experiencing more difficulty after.
While the report highlights the dangers of an overreliance on technology, it misses the mark on e-learning entirely for many reasons.
THE NEW SOCIAL REALITY
As our world becomes increasingly digital, the use of digital platforms to augment real life chores and activities will be a reality.
Most of us are spending more time on our phones in the last few years alone. According to Yahoo’s Flurry Analytics, Americans spent on average 2 hours 42 minutes per day on their mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2014. By the second quarter of 2015, an average of 3 hours 40 minutes was recorded – an astounding 35 per cent increase in just six short months.
Children are today’s digital natives, whose lives revolve around technology and media, and for whom the real and online worlds have little distinct boundaries. They reach out instinctively to these platforms – and most probably know how to swipe before they can walk.
Even our kids are spending more time online and from a young age. (Photo: Reuters)
As workplaces too increasingly migrate towards online meetings and discussions, isn’t it intuitive that the classroom uses similar tools to engage learners? Where too much screen time is obviously bad, did our parents tell us not to read because too much reading was causing short-sightedness?
To wish e-learning away in this context is therefore not only grossly myopic but naive. It is not a matter of if but how, when and where digital platforms are employed to augment our children’s learning journey.
The question then becomes what is a sensible and prudent approach to incorporating these tools into our homes and classrooms. Even as we ourselves are coming to terms with how to do so, one thing is certain – we should stop approaching online and offline learning as two separate spheres, and come up with a coherent, comprehensive approach to learning that considers this new social reality.
In a world where food, shopping and entertainment are at our fingertips, to tell our children to avoid mobile devices is to do as I say, not as I do. We surely cannot let our nostalgia for the pencil and paper override the inevitability of what education and learning in a digital world will entail
ENGAGEMENT STILL HAS TO BE HUMAN
One thing to bear in mind is that digital platforms are precisely just that – tools to be used for a purpose.
Technology cannot be a panacea for a well-rounded education with strong foundations, and certainly will not do anything in of itself to ensure our children develop a love for learning.
Computers and apps cannot shoulder the responsibility that falls squarely on parents and educators alike.
The upside to digital technology has often been about how it promotes a less instructive, more explorative approach to learning via communication and collaboration.
Social media pages where students can share information related to the course and add to discussion threads, class polls for teachers to gain quick insights into students’ engagement and understanding, and live online documents for collaborative note-taking and editing are some examples where mobile technology, with careful thought and planning, can be effectively utilised for education.
A further benefit lies in how technology can help boost participation. Where school lessons are constrained by time, tools like online boards allow discussions and debates to extend beyond the classroom and school hours. Shyer individuals can still have their feedback captured through polls or online forms.
The traditional classroom will increasingly be complemented by the use of smartphones, tablets and laptops. (Photo: Terimakasih0/Pixabay)
At EduEdge, for example, online technology helps to boost student engagement through sharing viewpoints, raising disputes and analysing various current affairs issues.
Therein lies the crux of the issue. With the right digital tools, a participatory and collaborative learning culture becomes possible. But the use of the “right” digital tools boils down to how educators use these tools to achieve specific ends. The thoughtfulness in which they incorporate these platforms and devices into their lessons, and their ability to mediate these discussions are ultimately key.
Parents too, have a role. It is their responsibility to have cultivated in their children respect for others’ opinions, online or offline as well as respect for quality family time without the use of technology.
GOOD OUTCOMES
Many studies attest to the fact that carefully designed educational apps do improve students’ learning. New evidence also show that early incorporation of such educational technology into the classroom can produce immense learning benefits later on.
A 2010 study on an educational gaming app showed a 30 per cent improvement in the width of vocabulary of three-to-seven-year old kids who used it.
Other studies have shown improvement in skillsets including arithmetic, communications, speech, articulation as well as motivation and engagement levels when using certain apps. These include studies on mobile learning for students with learning difficulties and special needs.
We can cite more studies, but that isn’t the point because it all depends on what skillsets apps are designed to hone and how they’re used.
Mobile technology has become pervasive and entrenched for most aspects of our lives today. (Photo: AFP/Paul Crock)
NOT A SILVER BULLET
The most important thing to remember is that mobile technology complements not substitutes teaching and learning; it is not a silver bullet.
This means that a concerted effort from all stakeholders in education namely, policy makers, schools, parents and students, is required to make e-learning viable so as to reap its full benefits.
Effective teachers cannot be IT savvy without being pedagogically sound and vice versa. Yet when policymakers and educational institutes relook their curricula with a view to incorporating mobile technology, it should not be for the sole reason of moving with the changing times.
Thought must go into adjusting policies such as class participation assessment, to ensure the goal remains the students’ learning, instead of incentivising them to summarise and rephrase a random article off the Internet.
Parents should also take note that not all learning apps are made equal or will deliver what they promise. So-called educational videos that only serve to narrate at children for instance, will not be as impactful as programmes that encourage interaction. The fine line between games and educational tools must also be treaded carefully.
Parents should also check whether an app’s publisher is a credible provider of quality educational learning resources and for positive reviews before downloading the app.
The most important thing to do is to observe and engage your kids from time to time, to see if these learning apps and platforms are doing them good, instead of handing them the tablet before turning back to your Korean drama.
Learning apps are poor babysitters.
“Socialness” is becoming a huge part of the learning experience characterised by peer-to-peer support and interaction, mentoring and knowledge sharing.
We would do our children a disservice if it were otherwise.
Edwin Edangelus Cheng is founder and principal of EduEdge learning hub.Â
Phramongkutklao Hospital has dismissed concerns surrounding the recent death and reported “missing organs” of an 18-year-old military student.
Phakhapong “Moei” Tanyakan, a first-year student at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School (AFAPS), died on October 17 under what the family believes were suspicious circumstances.
Lt Colonel Narut Thongsorn, a senior doctor at the hospital’s Army Institute of Pathology, said yesterday: “His body had no signs of injuries at all so we partially removed some of his organs, like his brain and heart, for detailed examination.”
He said the organs could be returned to the family now that the examination had been completed. “The results show he died of acute heart failure,” Narut said.
The hospital held a press conference yesterday in response to the complaint from Phakhapong’s family members. They said they secretly submitted Phakhapong’s body for a second autopsy and were told some of his organs had been removed.
This week, the family contacted the media to voice their concerns about what they claim were irregularities in Phakhapong’s death. AFAPS commander Maj-General Kanokpong Channuan told reporters that the issue of missing organs was a medical matter linked to the first autopsy.
Kanokpong insisted that the fatal heart failure suffered by Phakhapong was not related to punishment he suffered three months ago. Phakhapong’s elder sister, Supicha Tanyakan, said yesterday that her sibling almost died on August 23 because of punishment he received at the school. “He fell unconscious and demonstrated low vital signs that day,” Supicha said.
She added that her brother later told her that he had been punished because he and his friend were on a path prohibited by his seniors. “His senior forced him to put his legs up and his head down in a sauna room for hours,” she said. Supreme Commander General Thanchaiyan Srisuwan summoned Kanokpong to explain the case after the scandal broke.
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is a former Army chief, said he was sad to hear about Phakhapong’s death. “I’ve heard that he fell ill quite often and received medical help at the school from time to time,” Prayut said. Kanokpong said Phakhapong took part in the school activities as usual on October 16 but then reported accelerated breathing.
“So, he went to the first-aid room. CCTV has recorded all that,” Kanokpong said. He said Phakhapong fainted on October 16 and 17 “and we sent him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead”.
Asked about the incident in which Phakhapong was punished and almost died a few months ago, Kanokpong admitted that the punishment had taken place.
“But we have already taken disciplinary action against those involved,” Kanokpong said, adding that the case was also not related to the symptoms that caused Phakhapong’s death last month.
Prayut said if any investigation showed Phakhapong did not die naturally, those responsible for his death would face a stiff penalty.
