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EAWLC Dialogue with CBC Music Executive Producer: Say Yes with Kai Black

Just say yes to new experience” offers Kai, who is now an Executive Producer at the CBC, an exciting career creating award-winning projects. Hear his story, with engaging audio and video of some recent projects.

What if your life plan is different from the plan life has for you? At age 15, Kai Black learned he was going blind. What has he learned over time?… that we must let go of the life we planned and accept the one that is waiting for us. “Just say yes to new experience” offers Kai, who is now an Executive Producer at the CBC, an exciting career creating award-winning projects. Hear his story, with engaging audio and video of some recent projects.

Time: Friday, September 24, 2021, at 7:30 – 9:00 P.M. (Eastern Time)

Cost: Free

Language: English

Venue: Online Zoom meeting. Please click the below link to register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkc-ioqTwrHdE7m-91qmPYi-KM1Jr1K92b

The floor will be open at 7:15 P.M.

For inquiries, please send an email to: info@eawlc.org.  Thanks.

 

 

Guest Speaker Bio:

 

Kai Black is an Executive Producer at CBC Music. Over the 20 years at the CBC, he has created original radio shows, podcasts, TV  specials, and contests, including the award-winning initiative ‘Volkswagen Beetle Roadtrip Sessions,’ and the ‘TD Rock Your Campus’ contest. He is also the leader behind The creation of the CBC Music Festival that has engaged tens of thousands of concertgoers.

Kai is legally blind. He studied classical guitar performance and landed in broadcasting by happy accident. Today Kai is a charismatic team leader at the CBC, recognized for his mentoring activities, and passion for authentic engagement both with audiences, colleagues, and stakeholders. He works to find ways to include more people with disabilities in media, spearheading the creation of the first paid placement program for people with disabilities at the CBC.

The East and West Learning Connections is very much honored to have Kai with us.  Let’s listen to his fabulous life stories and music projects, and have a free dialogue with him.  It is surely to be a beautiful, uplifting evening!

Professionals or home-makers, grown-ups or young students, everyone is welcome!

EAWLC Frank’s Dialogue with Berlin Fang: Effective Learning in the Age of Surplus/Frank对话方柏林：过剩时代的有效学习

This dialogue will be conducted in Mandarin.  For English introduction please jump to next heading in English.

Frank对话方柏林：过剩时代的有效学习

不用提社交媒体和电子游戏的干扰，单单是丰富的学习资源，各种纷纷涌现的机会，已经让这个年代的人应接不暇，于是我们把这个时代称为过剩时代。如何有效地学习是当下困扰人们的重要问题之一。在美国大学担任教育设计专家的方柏林博士，也是《过剩时代的学习》和《知识不是力量》等专著的作者。机械工程学博士Frank Wang 倡导终身学习，业余时间从事教育专栏写作，对新时代的学习方法和专注力培养等问题非常关注。二位嘉宾将作客东西联学社，就“过剩时代的学习”以及学者专家们倡导的一些新学习方式展开对话与讨论。

欢迎朋友们前来听讲、参与讨论，也欢迎提前将感兴趣的问题发给我们。

Continue reading “EAWLC Frank’s Dialogue with Berlin Fang: Effective Learning in the Age of Surplus/Frank对话方柏林：过剩时代的有效学习”

EAWLC Dialogue with Berlin Fang: Effective Learning in the Age of Surplus

The abundance of learning resources and various opportunities in this age are overwhelming, not to mention the distractions of social media and video games. It is an “Age of Surplus”. How to learn effectively is a problem that affects us all in this time. Dr. Berlin Fang is the author of two influential books “Learning in the Age of Surplus” and “Knowledge Is Not Power”, among many others. Dr. Frank Wang, a mechanical engineer, also an avid reader, and an educational columnist, is keen on developing learning and concentration abilities in the new age. The East and West Learning Connections is honored to invite both to have a discussion on effective learning in the age of surplus, as well as new learning methods advocated by researchers and experts.

We welcome everyone to send us questions in advance.

 

Guest Speaker Introduction

Dr. Berlin Fang is an educational columnist, literary translator, and expert at instructional design.  His major interests are faculty acceptance of educational technology, the diffusion of innovation, managed change, the ethnography of technology use in higher education, and cross-cultural comparisons of education.   He has over 20 years of experience in instructional design and educational technology in both China and the United States. Berlin is currently the Director of Instructional Design at Abilene Christian University. 

Berlin Fang contributes his writing to such publications as Educause Review, WISE Ed Review China Daily, Southern Weekend, South Metropolitan Daily, Chinese Education News, World Journal,  Overseas Chinese News, Financial Times (Chinese), New York Times (Chinese), Radio Netherlands, and Caixin News.  His books include 10 Lessons in Online Teaching,  Learning in an Age of Abundance, Beyond Knowledge, More than the Passing Grade, English: Trick or Truth, A Translator’s Rant, Don’t Get Old until You’re Wiser, Tea Eggs Under the Star and Spangled Banner, and How the Pamuks Read. 

As a literary translator, Berlin’s works include translations of The Sound and the Fury (by William Faulkner), Bend of the River (by V.S. Naipaul), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (by Betty Smith),  and Let the Great World Spin (by Colum McCann) and Songdogs (by Colum McCann). National Book Award winner Colum McCann considers him “one of the finest translators I have ever worked with: he is incisive, discerning, and imaginative. He is a trans-national figure, deeply involved in cultures of China, the United States, and Ireland. While working with him, I found that he crosses cultural boundaries with ease and grace. ”

Frank Wang is a professional engineer in Ontario who has worked in areas of robotics & automation, aerospace engineering, and nuclear engineering.  A Ph.D. from University of Toronto in Mechanical Engineering, and most proudly a father of three, Frank cares very much about learning, education, and their trends in this rapidly changing world.  He runs a book club for parents, advocating for lifetime study and generalist education. In his spare time, he enjoys writing columns for online magazines on education, among other hobbies.  In 2020, Frank facilitated two dialogues at the East and West Learning Connections, one with Zhihu honorary contributor Yingfeng Zhang on generalist education, the other with human resource development strategist Annie Wang on future career and education trends.  This time let’s hear what Frank and Berlin will bring to us about effective learning!

 

 

Time: Friday, September 3, 2021, at 8:00-9:30 P.M. (Eastern Time)

Language: Mandarin

Cost: Free

Zoom registration link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrd-2rpjkuHtZYdATW-SKIlAu47h43eIN6

Everybody is welcome to join the dialogue.  Don’t miss the opportunity to get some insight and foresight of two experts.  Bring your own questions to discuss with Berlin and Frank, and make the evening even more fruitful for you!

 

For inquiries, please contact us at info@eawlc.org.  Thanks!

My Reflection on Canada Day: An Immigrant’s Perspective / 2021年加拿大日随感

My Reflection on Canada Day: An Immigrant’s Perspective

Author: Yang Wang

English Translator: Jovial Si

July 2021

 

July 1st of 2021 marks the 154th anniversary of Canada. However, it was not celebrated with the joy and pride that were characteristic of this day in the past. The whole nation was disgraced by the heart-wrenching findings of the remains of more than 1,000 Indigenous children  in unmarked graves across the country since May.

This land had been home to Indigenous peoples for thousands of years until it was taken by European settlers. Then from 1831 to 1996, Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their parents to attend government-sponsored residential schools, run by Catholic Churches, for the purpose of cultural assimilation. In the schools’ textbooks, Indigenous peoples were called “savages”. Many of the children were sexually abused or mistreated, and many died either at school or while escaping from school. Each and every little white bone in the unmarked graves at former residential sites marks the dark history not-so-distant from now, and the cultural arrogance and barbarity of the European settlers who committed it. Continue reading “My Reflection on Canada Day: An Immigrant’s Perspective / 2021年加拿大日随感”