Saturday, March 29, 2014

Session #19 Ticket Out Responses

What are you curious about?

1. Integration of what was learned today into future lesson
  • Global competencies
2. Does our final for this assignment have to be a paper? or can we present in different ways?
  • It could be in any format
3. How we further approach developing our global competencies
  • Check out  video posted on YouTube on under 'Global Competencies Project Vlog'.
4. Why is vocational & technical is not advertise as much as business or enginneering?
  • This is an article about VET in Asian Perspectives
What did you learn?

1. Knowledge, Skill, Disposition
2.How everyone's pick one project are going and what they are getting out of it
3.Global competencies
4.Networking is important in keeping this valuable relationship
5.Problem associated with interacting with students outside of the country
6.Other student's awesome experience with their pick one project
7.That networking is a skill that was developing from the pick 1 assignment
8.New tactic for emailing my pen pal
9.About my classmates' experience. It was fun talking to everyone.

What do you want to learn more about?

1.Definition of global competencies
  • This is a simple article on the definition of global competencies by NAFSA
3.Making this I believe draft better
  • Talk  to your instructors 

Monday, March 24, 2014

China Agriculture Education Questions Responses


1.      Farmers

Do people that work in the Ag. industry take pride in their work as farmers in America do? Are people encouraged to pursue careers in agriculture?

No. In China, there is a social stigma with farmers. Farmers are considered as dirty, poor, and less educated, with low social status.

2.      Small-scale farm.

What percentage of farms are still small-scale? How much of the countries’ agricultural output is done in totally vs. small farms?

China currently relies heavily on small-scale farms. The statistics from Ministry of Agriculture (2013) show that the number of farmers working in large-scale farm accounts for 0.28% of the total farmers. The large-scale farms account for 7.3% of the total arable area, and the grains output in large farms accounts for 12.7% of the total grains output.

3.      Does the government have a big say in what agricultural crops are grown?

No. Our government did so in the past (before 1978) when our economic structure was planned economy. At that time, government did make the decision of what crops and how many should be grown. 1978 witnessed the economic marketing reform. Under current system, farmers today have the right to plan their farm work. Now China’s economic system is “communist marking economic system”. In my opinion, it is actually in the middle way between marketing economy and planned economy. In ordinary area, we have the right to make our own decision, but in some important areas which are highly related to national security, such as petroleum, communication and bank, our government is the controller.

4.      Since women make up a high percentage of farm labor, are there education programs that focus on women?

Yes. China National Women’s Federation has since 1989 organized activities entitled “Literacy Education for Women” and “Competition in Learning Knowledge and Technique”, which enabled a large number of illiterate women to become literate. According to the statistics, by the end of 2004, more than 20 million illiterate women had become literate; nearly 100 million women had mastered one or two applied techniques for production; 2.4 million women had got rid of poverty; 15 million women had attended the courses offered by Correspondence Agricultural University and Agricultural Broadcast School; over 600,000 women had got the academic title of “agricultural technician”; and a large number of women had made outstanding contributions to the development of local economy.

5.      It is estimated that by 2020, there will be 30 million more men than women, how do you think it will affect the agricultural production?

Although generally China has more men than women, actually more women stay in rural areas than men do. There are 150-200 million migrant workers who leave from rural areas to cities, and 2/3 are men. Now, the female labor accounts for 60-70% in agriculture. What our government concerns is that in rural areas women are less educated and less skilled than men, so the feminization of agriculture would make the agricultural activities less efficient. Therefore now there are more education programs focusing on women in rural areas.

6.      Machinery. Why are tractors or mechanical tools not used as frequently in production of Ag. products? Are farmers adapting to mechanical farming or sticking to traditional methods?

Less mechanical tools are used in China for many reasons. 1. Machinery manufacturing technology level is still fall behind. 2. Farmers’ income in rural areas is so low that they cannot afford expensive machine. 3. Most farms are small-scale where farmers can manage it without using machine. Besides, I’m not sure if this is related to culture. From my observation, I found that Americans use machines and tools more frequently in every aspect than Chinese do. We rarely use machine if we can do by our hands.

Currently most farmers are still sticking to traditional methods, although government is trying to improve the degree of mechanization. I think China still has a long way to go.

7.      What’s your personal experience with agriculture? Are any of your family members involved in Ag?

I don’t have much experience with agriculture. My grandma and uncle used to live in a small village and I just visited them in summer vacations. I remember when I was young, they rent some land to grow tea, vegetables, fruits and chicken, and I would help them with a little farm work. After I went to high school, my uncle became one of those migrant workers leaving from the small village to the city.

8.      Migrant worker. What about the income levels of factory workers? Can they sustainably support their family? Do many families leave together from rural areas to urban areas?

I cannot tell an exact number of the factory workers’ income, because it varies significantly between different cities. However, I’m sure the income of migrant workers is lower than other workers in urban areas. Although their income is lower than others, it is still higher than the money from doing agricultural activities in rural areas, so they can sustainably support their family. Most families did not leave together. The reasons are complicated. We have household registration system (Hukou in Chinese), which requires citizens to register as permanent residents in their usual place of abode and the local government only provides residents who have local hukou with welfare. Migrant workers who come to cities generally do not have urban hukou, so they are actually deprived of housing, health care, education etc. I believe this is the main reason most migrant workers do not take their children and family with them to urban cities.

Global Learning Plan


Click on the photo to see a larger size.  Also, remember that you can make an appointment to see anyone on the instructional team to get feedback on your plan before you turn it in.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Session #17 Ticket Out Responses

What are you curious about?

1. Are there other opportunities similar to Peace Corp?
2. Amount of time a peace corp must stay in an assignment before going home?
  • Peace Corps service is 27 months.  Volunteers may visit home after serving for 6 months.
3.Peace Corp
4.Where Peace Corp work after service?
  • RPCVs work in all sectors.  This link might be helpful.
5.How our guest speaker time in the peace corp affected the choice of path they took career wise afterword?
  • Our guest speaker would be happy to speak to students about this in person!
6.How many successful peace corps volunteer enter with almost no language experience at all
  • The three months of pre-service language training, while living with a host family, equips most volunteers with intermediate language proficiency (which continues to improve throughout the two years of service).
7.Grad option relating to Ag and Global development
  • Talk to your instructors
8.Is there any short term project that we can involve in Peace Corp (less than 2 years)
  • There is a program called Peace Corps Response, but this is only open to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers or to those who have at least 10 years of relevant work experience.

What did you learn?
1. Much better understanding of the peace corp program
2.Flexibility and cultural sensitivity are the most important skills to have
3.About the Peace Corp
4.People of all ages,life situations, etc serve in the peace corp
5." You don't need much to teach''
6.The peace corp is very competitive program
7.Peace corp are only allowed in stable countries and countries who requested for peace corp
8.The mission of the peace corp
9.Average age of peace corp volunteer age is 28 years old
10. One in three applicant become volunteer
11.A lot opportunities for agriculture majors
12.Benefit within the organization and the influence of volunteers
13. Information to join peace corp and a recruiting center at Penn State 
14.Amazing peace corp opportunities

What do you want to learn more about?

1.Peace Corp success stories
2.How a country is determined to be stable
  •  Social , economic and political. This link might provide more explanations
3.Application process for countries to get peace corp volunteer
  • This link provide some information on countries involve with Peace Corp.
4.Peace corp projects
  •  Peace Corp Passport Blog
5. Living arrangement for peace corp volunteers
  • All volunteers live with host families during pre-service training.  During their two years of service, some volunteers live with host families and some live on their own (it varies country to country). Check out this link for some photos.  Also, many volunteers have posted Youtube videos of their housing under 'Peace Corps cribs'.


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Readings for Session 17

Readings for Session 17 on March 18 are #4 and #13.  Here's some details about how to proceed:

Reading #4:
  • Read the introduction, plus one personal account from each of the four sections.
  • Read the teaching suggestions that follow each personal account. 
  • Think about how you might incorporate similar lessons into an agricultural or environmental education program. 
  • Be prepared to ask the Peace Corps representative one specific question related to how lessons learned from Peace Corps experiences are shared with others.
Reading #13

Please contact me if you have any questions.