Get Ahead's Blog

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Week in Review

Get Ahead — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:03:21 +0000

Staff Picks:

Attitudes towards disabled more negative in past five years – report

Ageing with dignity and disability

Social class and gender ‘have huge effect on the way pupils are taught’

Learning to cope with the job market

Higher & Further Education News & Views

Quinn to approve technology university in southeast

STEMs are vital if we want to grow

UCC sues ESB for €18m over damage from opening dams after heavy rains

Over 80% of UL graduates employed or in further studies, figures show

Top academics snub Quinn pay cut plea

Only college boss who agreed to pay cut lost just €1,500

NUIG lifts curtain on new degree in drama

Student seeks injunctions against newspapers in Facebook case

Disability Headlines

I’m 45 and have young onset Parkinson’s

Pupils in a class of their own

Teenager awarded €5.25m for injuries suffered during birth

Boy, 11, awarded €1 million after leg amputated

Plan for single welfare payment due in March

Disability Etiquette: Think Ability, Not Disability

General Education Stories

Parents camp out to secure school places

Hundreds to meet over risk to West Cork schools

‘Sacrificial lambs’ of education saved by volte-face

Time to get real for the Leaving

Up to 700 attend meeting over school fears

Closure of small schools is ‘death by a thousand cuts’ for communities

Exempting teachers from cuts ruled out

Schools fear parents may sue over cuts

Traditional ways of teaching still prevail, says study

Young women are the best educators

Maths teaching days vary by 18 days a year, study finds

Quality of teaching – Consistency is important

Deis protesters picket Department of Education

Mental Health in the Media

Festival targets stigma of mental ill-health

Lynch to hear plea over hospital closure

Thirty suicides already this year from all walks of life

Relief to fore as athlete admits his race is run

Most suicides linked to drink problems

Suicide study – 190 deaths is too many

Gambling a ‘major factor’ in suicide

Experts say mental hospital must close

Employment Features

New website aims to have 5,000 job pledges by June

[Ted Talk Tuesday] The opportunity of adversity

Get Ahead — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:32:07 +0000

The thesaurus might equate “disabled” with synonyms like “useless” and “mutilated,” but ground-breaking runner Aimee Mullins is out to redefine the word. Defying these associations, she shows how adversity — in her case, being born without shinbones — actually opens the door for human potential.

Sheila Nirenberg: A prosthetic eye to treat blindness

Get Ahead — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:48:53 +0000

At TEDMED, Sheila Nirenberg shows a bold way to create sight in people with certain kinds of blindness: by hooking into the optic nerve and sending signals from a camera direct to the brain.

Week in Review

Get Ahead — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:58:59 +0000

AHEAD in the News:

UCC head’s views are ‘widespread’

Heated argument

Staff Picks:

Back to the future – where are they now?

Death of tireless campaigner for the vulnerable

Most influential and finest journalist of last 25 years

The Case for a Four-Day Work Week

The only way is up when you upskill

Higher & Further Education News & Views

Entry points for colleges to rise

Seven steps to CAO success

Colleges spend €750k on taxis in two years

Sporting chance beckons in NY

UK academic to head science body

DCU to lead €3.75m science initiative

Irish mathematician cracks immunity code

UCC head rejects criticism from staff over speech

Disabled or disadvantaged?

Jobs boost is reason to go to college

The rule is simple: list CAO courses in order of preference

Help your children in the career process

Are you eligible for a grant or a scholarship?

DARE Application Advice Clinics

Disability Headlines

Offering stepping stones to local manufacturing

Race against time to fund ‘bubble’ boy’s life-saving surgery

Life-changing op to help Casey dance after €30,000 raised

Cerebral palsy boy’s assistance dog banned from school

Dental care for disabled kids

I was told I’d never walk again — today I’m aiming for the Olympics

Isolated twins now talking to world thanks to student project

Hospital doesn’t have to revive disabled boy

We’ve got wheels

Hands On

General Education Stories

Budding boffins put projects under microscope

Science & Innovation – Embracing change is key

Opposites do not subtract

Science key to future of State – Kenny

Minister calls for review of teacher cuts at disadvantaged schools

Rabbitte leads delegation to lobby Quinn

Prioritise maths in primary school, says NCC report

At-risk school schemes improve learning

Primary school prepares for the worst

Principal offers to buy e-voting machine — for €1

Ruairi Quinn admits DEIS cuts mistake

Mental Health in the Media

Suicide agency names ambassador

Senator: Suicide policy not working

Suicide debate highlights mental health

I needed a break from ‘me’

HSE trains groups in suicide prevention

Mental hospital ‘should remain in public hands’

Employment Features

Man with a plan to get people ‘back to work’

Bruton says new initiative aims to generate thousands of jobs

Courses encourage jobless into education

Waterford firm to create 250 jobs

Hands On

Get Ahead — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:48:36 +0000

Hands On, Series 16 Programme 7

15th January, 12.25pm, RTÉ One

Forget the long days and cold, dark nights; the next programme of Hands On will brighten up your Sunday! Curl up in front of a warm fire, with a cup of cocoa and watch this Sunday’s programme!

Check out the ISL promo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikf0yyNW46w or check out our website www.rte.ie/handson>

Deaflympics

The world of Deaf sport was rocked in February last year when, for the first time in history, the Winter Deaflympics in Slovakia was cancelled. It would have been the games’ 17th run. Rumours of corruption and poor handling of the games travelled fast, while Jaromir Ruda, the head of the Slovakian Deaflympic Committee, was arrested for fraud and embezzlement. Following the scandal in Slovakia, Athens withdrew their bid for the 2013 Deaflympics, leaving the future of Deaflympics looking shaky. Ciarán Moloney finds out what really happened and what this means for the future of the Deaflympics.

Take 5! Cathy Heffernan

The world of journalism is cut-throat and competitive, but Irish Deaf woman Cathy Heffernan made it! She defied the odds and landed a job at The Guardian newspaper in London. Eddie Redmond sends roving reporter Sarah Jane to find out the secrets behind Cathy’s success! Cathy is a woman of many talents – not only is she a sub-editor for The Guardian, but she recently produced a documentary, ‘Deaf Sisterhood’ for the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust. She shares his experiences with Sarah Jane and offers advice to other Deaf interested in getting into media.

Emergency SMS

For years the Irish Deaf Commmunity has been in the unenviable and dangerous position of having no way to independently contact the emergency services. The emergency relay service was the only option up to now – messages were sent via the minicom, an outdated technology that relies on a landline – no good in case of an emergency outside the home or a fire that requires a quick exit! Finally, after years of campaigning from the Deaf organisations, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has finally launched an emergency SMS service for Deaf people and people with speech difficulties which means that in emergencies, you can now send a text to the number 112 to contact the ambulance service, Gardaí or fire brigade. Seán Herlihy finds out how to register and how it works!

To register or find out more about the new Emergency SMS text service, check out:

http://www.112.ie/

To find out more about the Deaflympics, check the following websites for updates:

International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) http://www.ciss.org/ http://www.deaflympics.com/about/ If you are interested in sports and would like to get involved then contact Deaf Sport Ireland (formerly IDSA):

http://www.irishdeafsports.net/

Deb Roy: The birth of a word

Get Ahead — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:16:13 +0000

MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language — so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son’s life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.” Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.