March 5, 2013. Meeting of the Rotary Club of Oak Bay

Meeting held at the Oak Bay Recreation Centre. Reported by Wynn Taylor. Photos by David Sills

President Joan Peggs, left, with Renate Gibbs, Lynne Murray, Heather Aked, Speaker David Hladik, and ever-faithful pianist Tom Lidkea

President Joan called the Meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. after which Tom Lidkea played for the singing of O Canada and Lynne Murray gave the Invocation. There was one guest, David Hladik, our speaker.

President Joan announced that John Jordan, presently in Rwanda, needs help for five children who appeared at their village. He needs $250 each to cover the cost of a year's schooling. If you are able to help please contact Brian Lamb. Donations are eligible for a tax receipt. Further information can be found at John's blog: www.rwandanvillage.blogspot.org To donate directly via Canada Helps, use this link, and choose "Rwanda" under the ICO Initiative menu. 

Our Meeting next week, March 12th, will be a Club Assembly at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. The cost is $20. Please let Heather Aked know if you are coming, and if you are bringing a guest, so that she can inform the Hotel of the numbers.

President Joan welcomed back Renate Gibbs.

Jim Force spoke about Literacy Month: We support the Start Early Literary Awareness Project. There is increasing evidence of the importance of reading to young children. Specifically we are fundraising for baby books for the 1,000 by 5 program. These books are to be distributed to families who would not normally get them. As used baby books are hard to find in good condition...they are often chewed...

we can rely on donations, but must fundraise to buy them. Jim drew our attention to the 'bring a book...buy a book program this month. Members are asked to bring some books and leave them and to buy some books by donation. Donations over $20 are tax receipt-able. Tonight there is a Literary Fireside at Berkwick, Royal Oak, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. It will feature the showing of the Aboriginal DVD on oral literacy - i.e. story telling. Bookmarks were left on our table courtesy of the Greater Victoria Rotary PR Committee.

Jack Petrie reminded us of the Club Fireside as his and Brannan's home on Wednesday, March 13th. at 6:30 pm. RSVP to jwpetrie@shaw.ca. If you have doubts about coming, you must be there for Dallas' baked brie. 

Fines Master, aka Sergeant at Arms, Dallas Chapple:

Several members were fined for 'stalking' the S@A this past week - crossing her path in undisclosed locations. David Sills had to buy back his name tag. If you haven't yet ordered Tuscan Dinner tickets or bought a bottle of wine...$1; Jessica was the last one in. Renate was fined for going to the wrong location last week. Eugen was fined for dressing like he was on his way to the Papal Conclave!

Birthdays: Ann Sims and Jacqueline Mealing; Wedding Anniversary: Will and Jackie Carter:

Club Anniversary: Brian Lamb

Happy and Sad Dollars:

Heather is looking for Hardy Boys books. Sadly her partner Kim is on leave of absence for medical reasons so she will be taking up the slack and thus will be very busy. Jack Petrie learned the hard way never to take your cell phone to Mexico and incurred mucho roaming charges. Vicki Pitt's husband Tim suffered transient global amnesia - i.e. temporary loss of short term memory. It was quite frightening, but fortunately he has recovered and the doctors say it is unlikely to reoccur. Joan Firkins had a happy $10 for being back from a great holiday in Hawaii. Bill Burns had a happy time playing with his 6-month-old grandson.

Draw: Neil Madsen drew the black marble.

Heather Aked introduced our Guest Speaker, David Hladik, founder of the Byte Camp programs  which her son Alexander attended.

Byte Camp is a lifestyle project based upon computer camps for youth. In 10 years, 10,000 children have come through the program, which asks: What is happening with the education of our youth and what skills should they be learning to succeed in life and in work. Byte Camp focuses upon obtaining digital literacy, teaching students to become literate masters of the language of their generation. What skills will young children (elementary age youth) need when they enter the work force 15-20 years from now?  The traditional task of reading, as most of us learned it, is cognitively difficult. By contrast, using much of the media is easy -  we have all seen pictures of preschoolers playing with iPads. Counterintuitively, overexposure to all-consuming media may lead to media illiteracy in the future. What needs to be taught is creativity, not just consumption. We don't want our children to be caught in the technological time warp of their early childhood. It is the ability to process rather than the availability of equipement which is the challenge. In teaching media-awareness literacy our youth have to learn what we already know. If you watch TV, somebody is probably trying to sell you something or persuade you to their point of view. Much of the media is full of stereotypes...we think immediately of sexual stereotypes. Youth have to learn how to filter these messages and take a critical attitude. Just as our generation was told that not everything you read is  true, not everything on social media is true. Children have to be taught personal safety when using social media. The Internet is an information highway. Would you allow your children to stand beside a real highway like the 401 if they didn't know the dangers? So too with the information highway. Being literate means being able to create...not just to consume; e.g. at Byte Camp children learn how to made videos...to edit, manipulate, communicate.  David showed us some amazing videos of what his students had created. Social media today are more influential than print media - living in this new world is a learned skill. An online first impression can be as important as a physical first impression; be careful what you post. David showed us a picture of a 3D printer and passed around a sample of an engine block which he had printed on his 3D printer. This is the new world of augmented reality. 

In the question period, David spoke of the difficulty of teaching media literacy in schools...part of the problem is that the young students know more than the teachers which changes the whole dynamic of the classroom. School budgets usually  pay for hardware, then software, then instructor training ... in that order. Check out some of the students' Byte Camp work by clicking on one of the links on this page.

Renate Gibbs thanked David. Tom Lidkea then led us in singing God Save the Queen.