Thinking aloud

  • What does immunization have to do with climate change?

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    With climate-driven shifts in disease patterns and emerging health threats, the need for a robust immunization infrastructure is more obvious than ever. As the demand for both existing and novel vaccines rises in response to an expanding disease burden and new health threats, immunization staff will inevitably play a key role. Immunization staff, trusted health…

    Interplay between climate and health
  • Digital bridges cannot cross analog gates

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    I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about an interesting question, as I’ve observed myself and colleagues starting to travel again: “Why are we again funding high-cost, low-volume face-to-face conferences that yield, at best, uncertain outcomes?” I am surprised to have to ask this question. I was hoping for a different outcome, in which…

    Analog gates or digital bridges.png
  • Metaphors of global health: jazz improvisation ensemble or classical orchestra?

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    In the realm of classical music, the orchestra stands as a formidable emblem of aesthetic grandeur and refinement. However, beneath the veneer of sophistication lies a deeply entrenched system that stymies the potential for creative exploration and spontaneity. As in a straitjacket, the rigidity of this system threatens to reduce the rich tapestry of human…

    Jazz ensemble or classical orchestra
  • Credible knowers

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    “Some individuals are acknowledged as credible knowers within global health, while the knowledge held by others may be given less credibility.” – (Himani Bhakuni and Seye Abimbola in The Lancet, 2021) “Immunization Agenda 2030” or “IA2030” is a strategy that was unanimously adopted at the World Health Assembly in 2020. The global community that funds and supports…

    Credible knowers
  • Defunking Grunter

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    Part 1: The Journey Begins Suspended in the swirling galaxies beyond our own, the celestial stage of the Cat’s Eye Nebula shimmered. The nebula was a kaleidoscope of iridescent gases, dazzling cosmic dust, and radiant energy, an ideal sanctuary for the Astral Scholars. Their gathering place, the Obsidian Forum, was a levitating, jet-black platform, as…

    Saci in Defunking Grunter-small
  • How do we shift our capacity to embrace a volatile, complex world?

    This week, the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is Devex’s “Presenting Partner”. We are proud to be sharing with Devex’s 170,000 NewsWire subscribers the remarkable progress and the results, outcomes, and impact we have achieved since the pandemic hit. Discover how we connect people, organizations, and communities to achieve collective impact better and faster… Get in…

  • What lies beyond the event horizon of the ‘webinar’?

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    It is very hard to convey to learners and newcomers to digital learning alike that asynchronous modes of learning are proven to be far more effective. There is an immediacy to a sage-on-the-stage lecture – whether it is plodding or enthralling – or to being connected simultaneously with others to do group work. Asynchronous goes…

    Time travel
  • The significance of digital platforms to the business

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    Business gets done by groups in workshops and meetings and by individuals in private conversation. There is an undeniable cultural advantage for diplomacy that comes from looking your interlocutor in the eye. Emerging digital platforms are in the margins of this business. The pioneers are creaky in their infrastructure and, ironically, playing catch-up. They have…

    Diving platform on Graveyard Hill in Kabul from TV-Hill, Afghanistan. Sven Dirks, Wien
  • From ivory tower to walled garden

    Question: “So what learning platform do you use?” Answer: “The Internet.” I first remember hearing the phrase “Everyone hates their LMS” from a defrocked priest of higher education. That made so much sense. At the time, I was wrestling with a stupid, clunky corporate learning management system designed for the most paranoid kind of HR…

    Walled garden
  • Why gamification is a disaster for humanitarian learning

    Is gamification an advantageous strategy that can help increase knowledge and application when it comes to humanitarian responses? What are these advantages? Can gamification contribute to better humanitarian preparedness? Certainly, if you have been forced to maniacally click through 500 screens of a boring “e-learning” from the past – dressed up with multicolored bells and whistles…

    Sinistar Wallpaper – Beware — I Live! (Retroist.com)