Incredibly Frustrating

Never have I been so frustrated with people before. I feel as though I have been repeating myself, and now I'm a lovely shade of blue. And I am surprised by the ignorance and stubborness of these people, these people of the same generation as I am.
The topic of course is the U-Pass.
For those of whom don't know what this U-Pass thing is, I will fill you in. So during the month of Feburary and March, the University of Regina introduced a new referendum, to allow for all students to have a bus pass and have the express bus routes continue, and run longer all for the cost of $69 a semester. Students that lived outside of the city were the only people that could opt out. Now for this last year the university had the transit system provide an express route, which are availible in certain area's in the city, such as the north, east and south, that took students directly to the university, in a matter of 15 minutes. The bus routes ran from 6:30am until 9:30am and ran again at 2pm until 6:30pm. This was basically a free "trial". Now the gap from 9:30am to 2pm was inconvenient but what this referendum would do is have these express routes have the full availibilty from 6 to 6.
Students were truely torn by this referendum as people debated its importance. The students on the opposing side didn't understand how it would benefit them as they drove to school, and how an additional $69 was going to "kill" them. This is where I turn that lovely shade of indigo. To begin, the students that truely are the ones "suffering" are the ones who currently take the bus (either that, or they want to reduce their carbon footprint). Those who can afford the luxury of a car, especially with the teetering (upward) gas prices, have some better economic being. This bus pass is also applicable to regular buses, weekdays and weekends, and would lower the cost for us from $69 a semester, over what students regularly pay, which is $48 a month. Aswell the increase in time the express bus routes is splendid as it becomes more convenient and availible allowing for an alternative for those who drive to school. It helps the university lower its carbon footprint, and promotes a greener environment.
Now the downfall: if the referendum is voted down, these express buses will be taken out, and students will have to resort to regular bus routes. What this means is what would normally take anyone (going straight to school) 15 minutes, would be a agonizing hour and thirty minutes. And if this happens, people will resort to driving to school, will have to buy a parking permit (or park somewhere incredibly far otherwise- in risk of a ticket and cold walks in winter), and this allows for more CO2 emissions. I don't want to get a car, I don't want to pay $100+ parking, I don't want to create more polution in our natural environment, but because of the incredible inconvenience, and unavailibity of our ridiculous transit system, I might HAVE to resort to this. And because of peoples closed minded minds, that wont allow for a positive change because there is a small price to it, our transit system will never improve. They're offering changes, changes we've longed to have, and we're just pushing it away because of the majority don't want to "sacrifice" $69, which will go towards junk food, or a pair of jeans.
Look at it this way, I don't ever use the gym, so why should I pay for a $130 gym pass I will never use? Because other students WILL use it and benefit from it. So why are people so opposed to helping one another? Next to go is our universal health care if people so selfishly continue to think this way.

Changing Disabilities

For our tech task assignment #7, it was required we watch a video from the K12 Online Conference 2008. The video I chose was called "Changing Disabilities". They focus on the McGiver approach of changing disabilities into possibilites. (I thought this aspect of the presentation was the funniest!)
They mainly focused on a site called voice thread. It's kind of like elluminate. You can present things online and you can comment varying from typing it into the chat, recording it on a microphone or video, or telephoning.
These teachers presented it in their kindergarten class, and most specifically, children with disabilities. They talked about 3 students with different problems, and how the site had help them advance and improve in school. My favorite was about Lindsay. Lindsay was overly sensitive to loud noises, which made school pretty uncomfortable for her. When she attended school, she didn't talk (selective mutism). So when it came to knowing where Lindsay was in reading, her teachers didn't know because they have never heard her talk, let alone read. The solution? Her teacher scanned the pages of a book and uploaded them onto voice thread. She showed Lindsay how she could record herself, and left the room. A few minutes later, Lindsay presented her work and her teacher got to know that Lindsay could read, and she was a remarkable reader.
This is just one example of how voice thread could really help out, and the rest of the video is just as interesting. I never thought of the advantage technology could offer with people with disabilities. It's actually quite incredible! I really loved the idea of voice thread and almost find it easier, and more visually engaging, than elluminate (no offence Dean).
Anyways, if you're interested in more about voice thread, just click my hyper link and they have a audio/visual recording on what it is. It's great.