Speakers
Get
the RealPlayer software
The RealMedia streaming file format allows you to listen to sound files
or see video files over the net without having to wait for the whole file
to download. You have to wait only a few seconds while a little bit of
audio (or video) file information is "buffered" to account for lapses
in network speed, and then the file begins to play, with no more waiting.
RealAudio or RealVideo requires the RealPlayer
plugin, available for free download from Real Networks. (Look for
RealPlayer Basic.)
Dr.
Jennifer James - “Cultural anthropologists want to know what
you believe about the way things ought to be. Because if you have a deeply
held story or belief system, the whole world can change and you won’t…The
best way that I believe you can lead in times of great change is to lead
by influence. And the way you influence is to be able to tell a compelling
story, which of course is a piece of cake for you because that’s
what you’ve always been doing is telling a compelling story about
the importance of literacy.”
Click
here for an audio exerpt from this speaker.
Dr.
Victoria Purcell-Gates – “When I think about literacy development
I’ve come to the point where I understand it as happening both in
school and outside of school. So I as a researcher am now trying to find
ways to talk about this as one process: learning to read and write both
in school and outside of school, not first one, then the other…We
had two main findings. The first one was, the lower the literacy level
of the student when they started the class, the more they changed their
literacy practices. That’s a confirmation of our teaching. But, the
students who were in classes that were rated as more authentic changed
more than the others regardless of literacy level.”
Click here
for an audio exerpt from this speaker.
Alexander
Weir gave a motivational presentation for students and other literacy
practitioners. He encouraged students to keep learning and to keep pursuing
their goals. With a mix of humor and inspiration, he kept his audience
riveted with his message and words of encouragement.
Walter
Anderson – “At the library, the librarians didn’t discipline
me. All they did was encourage me to read and I discovered something.
I could open a book and I could read it and I could be anybody, I could
be anywhere, I could do anything! I could imagine myself out of the slum.
I read myself out of poverty long before I worked myself out of poverty.”
Click here
for an audio exerpt from this speaker.
International Leaders
Raquel Arreola –
“Each Soroptimist Club chooses its own project that it wishes to
help in their local community. It also adopts projects to study the action
and it covers education, the environment, health, economic and social
development, human rights, status of women, and international good will
and understanding…These people started a school with four benches
under a tree. So we started working on the project to build some classrooms.
By today we have built eight classrooms…We have a library and we
have plants all around the school.”
Click
here for an audio exerpt from this speaker.
Mulegwa Zihindula – “Six months before I was born, my father was killed by his brothers. My mom was someone who had never gone to school—she did not know how to read or write. One of the reasons we went through a lot of turmoil and problems is because my mom could not read or write. My mom could not find a job—my mom could not do almost anything. The house we had was taken away by my father’s brothers—they confiscated the house we had and there was nothing my mom could have done because she did not even know there were laws existing on the books that defended people like her to defend the inheritance issue. She just thought it was the right of my father’s brothers to take the house that we owned. So we grew up very poor…So as I grew up this became a motivating factor for me---to ensure that no Congolese woman would have to go through the same situation as my mom had to go through because she didn’t know how to read and write.”
Click
here for an audio exerpt from this speaker.
Indira Koithara - “I just want to give you a little idea of literacy in India—a picture of literacy in India. We’ve been working in the urban slums and in the rural villages in the [8 largest] states and we have a committed network of volunteers who are working for us and when I say committed, I mean committed. I know many of you are here as volunteers working. Our volunteers get paid no stipend—they’re there because they’re there for a cause. I have been a volunteer for the last two decades and the satisfaction this has given me—I don’t think I would get any kind of satisfaction anywhere else in the world…Literacy cannot go as a simple objective alone. Laubach has its thoughtful phrase “Literacy for Social Change”—which is very very true because literacy can’t work as a single objective. We have to have income-generation programs; we have to have health programs; we have to have daycare centers—it’s only then can literacy be achieved.”
Click
here for an audio exerpt from this speaker.
Nasrine Gross - “You know this is one of the first times since the troubles began in Afghanistan that I’m talking to a gathering of people engaged in peaceful activity—talking about a peaceful activity…Contrary to popular belief, it’s not that Afghans hate each other that they’ve destroyed Afghanistan in this way. It is that the Afghan people in the last 25 years have had to fight two invaders to their country. As Americans you understand—you and Afghans share one major value and that is the love of freedom. Afghans love their freedom as much as Americans do…How can we help Afghanistan with 90% illiteracy? How can I tell them to pick up a book and not a gun?…When I was in school 40 years ago we had two first grades. Ten years ago they had something like four first grades. Today they have 28 first grades, and everywhere you go it’s that way. Young, old, men, women—it doesn’t matter from which walk of life—they all want to get into a school…As you know, an educated voice—even if it’s one—can do things.”
Click
here for an audio exerpt from this speaker.
