Diversity Day & Geospatial mapping

Diversity Day

It's that time of year again and the LRC were manning a stand at the College's Diversity Day event last week.

We asked students to mark on a map where they come from.

Diversity Day map on LRC stand
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

One of our LRC assistants created a Tagxedo image of the places students mentioned.

Tagxedo showing where students come from

Geospatial Mapping Resource

If you want to find out some of the areas of the UK where students were born, remember that you have access to digital maps of different kinds through the  Geospatial Data resource. You can add symbols and labels to the maps, plot routes, add layers and print off A4 maps. Access is available from the LRC electronic resources page on Moodle. There are also video demonstrations linked within the resource.

Diversity Day 2018

Diversity Day

This week the College has been celebrating Diversity Day and the LRC this year used their stall to focus on 100 years since women in this country got the vote. We created a table quiz where students were asked to match the year to each country when women got the vote. Nearly everyone got Saudi Arabia right with 2011, but the others were tougher. It was hard to believe, for example, that women only got the vote in Switzerland in 1971 and in Portugal, it was 1976. 

We also had a word search - remember to hand these in at the LRC for the chance to win a prize - and some bookmarks to take away. As a backdrop we had a display of inspirational women which many found interesting.

LRC Diversity Day stand
Photograph: Peterborough Regional College

Diversity

Diversity is about celebrating our differences. There is a saying of Muslim origin:- "A lot of different flowers make a bouquet". Also, Stephen Covey has written "Strength lies in differences, not in similarities". This relates especially to teams in the workplace as well as groups in College.

Finally, have a listen to this short clip from a Radio 4 programme. It gives a scenario which could be said to test whether we unconsciously harbour racist and sexist attitudes - known as implicit bias. See what your first thought is when you hear it!

Holocaust Memorial Day

Google and Did the Holocaust really happen?

Tomorrow (27th January) is Holocaust Memorial Day and Google have been in the news recently for returning high ranking results on its search engine which promote the view that the Holocaust didn’t happen when searching for whether the Holocaust really happened.

This should be a concern, not only to the majority who accept that the Holocaust did exist (and that genocides still continue today), but also to everyone who relies heavily on using Google to search for information (and yes, librarians use Google too!).

If you think that there is an office of people at Google sitting behind their search engine, trawling the internet to find the best information they can on what you are searching for, I am going to shatter that illusion for you now. Google returns results for you using algorithms – numerous mathematical instructions that tell computers how to go and find the best information for you based largely on what keywords you’ve used before.

Google also relies on advertising income to exist and so will prioritise websites which have paid to be ranked higher. For those of you studying marketing, you will know that there is a whole art behind designing and labeling your website so it gets mentioned higher up in the Google rankings.

Google has responded to the criticism (and the results to this query now seem to have been changed), and you may argue that it isn’t Google’s job to censor information. As a student if you have to argue the case for whether the Holocaust happened or not you will need to be able to read both arguments whatever your view and make a case. However what this highlights is that internet search engines are not infallible. You need to use your critical thinking skills to assess which results are best for you and which you can trust (more on this in a future blogpost). Of course, you could always ask a librarian!

Auschwitz concentration camp. Public domain photo from www.pixabay.com

Holocaust information on the Internet

For some useful resources on the Holocaust, try some of these below!

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has all sorts of information on their website including a list of resources if you want to find out more about the Holocaust and other genocides (Rwanda, Cambodia), some of which are happening today (e.g Dafur). This year the theme is “How can life go on?” which has its own microsite. If you like poetry, you might like to read their featured poem Birdsong.

You can read real life stories from survivors as well as an “easy read” story from Berge Kanikanian who has learning disabilities and how he wanted to find out more about what the Nazis did to people with disabilities. Read this here.

For some images of the Holocaust, visit the Wiener Library website

http://www.het.org.uk/ is the website of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The BBC has a number of useful resources too (e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11108059 )

Celebrating Diversity

Diversity Day

Next Thursday is the College’s Diversity Day event when everyone focuses on celebrating the variety of backgrounds and cultures within College as well as raising awareness of the 9 protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation). Library+ will have a stand there so do come and talk to us and have a look at our resources and marriage ceremonies of the world quiz.

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 legislates against discrimination (including indirect discrimination), harassment and victimisation because of these characteristics as well as making sure adjustments are made for disabled people to ensure they have equal access to services. (Only this week, someone won a case in court ensuring that more is done to ensure disabled people are better able to use buses).

Library Resources

In the Library we have various books which cover subjects such as racism, disability, gender, marriage and partnership, religion and human rights.
The Issues series is a good starting point for a whole range of topics like these and are well used as they are a good introduction to some very current and relevant issues discussed on the news and in society. They contain a selection of articles which are short and easy to read.

Issues Online e-book

However, we not only have these in print but also have online access to these with extra material through Issues Online  from the Electronic Resources page (under Library+ on the menu bar) on Moodle. Just use your network ID and password to access these e-books or to search by subject either inside or outside College. The resource includes extra material such as videos, graphs and also curriculum/ assignment ideas for tutors.

We also subscribe to the Equality Review magazine which can be accessed online from Moodle. Login details can be found there with the relevant link.

Videos

To finish, we've found 2 videos for you.The first is a collection of snippets from BBC3 interviews with disabled people called Stupid Questions not to ask Disabled People. (There are also other similar videos available for other protected characteristics).

The second video is a more light-hearted look at the topic of gender discrimination. It is a spoof public information video (from the 1940s) by Harry Enfield. Enjoy!