"I get by with a little help from my friends"

Seven weeks after having all my camera equipment stolen (see here for more details) I finally have got a replacement for the camera I lost. This is thanks to all the people who contributed financially via the internet and made it possible for me to do so. One of the good things to come out of the incident was the offers of help and support that flooded in via Twitter, Flickr and the blog, giving me hope when I was in a dark place and feeling very depressed.

I would also like to thank those who made it possible for me to contine taking pictures even when I had no camera of my own. Without the help of Eleni. Asteris, Orhan and D. H. Morton the last seven weeks would have been a photograph free zone on this blog.

550 euro was donated via Tipit and the 40 euros via Paypal. Of that 33 euros (6%) was deducted by Tipit for commission and I tipped them 20 euros. Unfortunately, there were several delays in getting the money to Greece hence the fact that only recently got it. The rest I borrowed from friends.

Publish Post

So now I'm the proud owner of a Nikon D90 DSLR with an 18-105mm lens which cost 899 euros. Also I replaced my stolen Toshiba T10 flipcam with a Traveller camcorder which cost 99 euros.

So, once again thank you for all your help.

Excitement over

Well, it seems that yesterday's excitement is over and the sites such as Indymedia that went down are now back online. However, I still can't post anything on Twitter. I can read other's tweets and search but it still refuses to let me add stuff except on a couple of occasions.

I think that it's all part of a plot to silence me and so I am not taking off my kitchen foil headset until the CIA stops beaming messages from their secret low orbit satellites. And people call me crazy! Just kidding folks, I'm never taking off my headset.

What exactly is going on?

I seem to be having a hard time accessing my blog. I keep on getting a message from Google saying that either my computer or network is sending out automated messages. I'm not sure what that means but it seems that other blogs in Greece are suffering the same difficulties. Also using Twitter is proving problematic, sometimes I can tweet but after a couple of posts it refuses to let me write any more.

It's interesting to note that so many sites have experienced problems in such a short period of time. Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Indymedia have all had difficulties over the last 48 hours. If nothing else it shows how vulnerable our supposedly open internet networks are to the possibility of interference.

As far as Indymedia is concerned the issue of the domain name seems not to have been simply a matter of human error according to Carpathia.dereferenced.org.

"If you are reading this page, then you probably know that Indymedia is down due to the primary nameservers being changed from NS2.RISEUP.NET and NS.LACKOF.ORG to NS1.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM and NS2.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM. People are presently investigating this change, however it is probably related to an ICANN whois data "inaccuracy" report (which, unfortunately, is a known tool that trolls have successfully used in the past to get sites they don't like taken down)."

Indymedia Athens and Indymedia Patras as still not accessible.

I'm not paranoid but......

It's enough to bring out the conspiracy theorist in you, I tell you. Yesterday the controversial Greek language blog, Troktiko.blogspot.com was taken offline since it had, according to Blogger violated its terms of service (TOS) agreement. This immediately provoked a furious response from the Greek language blogosphere who accused the company of censorship. On the same day Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot were subject to DOS (denial of service) attack which brought the sites down.

Today the Indymedia Athens and Indymedia Patras sites have gone down, though apparently they can be accessed from outside Greece according to some bloggers. In addition I can't put anything on Twitter, I can read what others write but the site will not let me tweet. Anyone else have this problem?

PS I have just tried other Indymedia sites from around the world but can't access them either. One exception being Indymedia London.

Still, this could all be a coincidence and I'm just being paranoid. Cue X-Files music..........

UPDATE

Just did some research on the internet and it seems that my conspiracy theories were misplaced, at least as far as Greece is concerned. The DOS attacks on Twitter, Facebook and Blogger yesterday seems to have been directed at a pro - Georgian blogger, at least according to executives at Facebook. In addition Indymedia is down across the globe though, according to the Entropic Memes blog this appears to be the result of an oversight by Indymedia.org concerning domain names rather than a devious plot to silence dissent and opposition. Also the Trotiko blog is once again back on the internet.

For more details on the Indymedia story check out the article I wrote for NowPublic.com.

Greek government clamps down on internet critics

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/greek-government-attempts-shut-down-internet-news-sites

Greek government attempts to shut down internet news sites

The Greek government has made move to shut down Indymedia sites in the capital, Athens and neighbouring Patras according to local news sources. Following questions in parliament by member of the far right LAOS party, Kyriakos Velopoulos, junior minister for Education and Religious Affairs, Spyros Taliadouros demanded that the National Technical University of Athens (Greece's equivalent of MIT) immediately locate and shut down the site which is hosted on the university's server.

The site still remains in operation, however, Konstantinos Moutzouris dean of the university has said that while Indymedia sites make use of the universities facilities thay have not been given permission to do so. In addition according to national daily, Kathimerini the university is currently making attempts to find and shut down the site.

In addition an article in this Sunday's Paron newspaper claimed that the newly appointed minister for Justice, Nikos Dendias is aiming to inroduce legislation that would end Greek bloggers right to anonymity. The publication immediately provoked uproar across the Greek language blogosphere prompting the minister to make an official statment denying that any such legislation was being considered.

However, despite the announcement there is a widespread belief amongst Greek bloggers that the current ruling New Democracy party is attempting to reign in critics on the internet in view of the possibility of forthcoming elections.

With a slender one seat majority in parliament and its standing in the polls dropping badly the Kostas Karamanlis's government is seen as likely to fall. Growing resentment over the handling of last year's corruption scandals, mounting economic problems and an ongoing series of crisis in education, law and order and health care mean that elections seem likely.

To ίντερνετ ρίχνει κυβερνήσεις - the internet topples governments

Photo by Oliristinn

Η πρωθυπουργός της Ισλανδίας ζήτησε από τους διοικητές των τριών μεγαλύτερων τραπεζών της χώρας να παραιτηθούν, προσπαθώντας να αποκαταστήσει στην εμπιστοσύνη στο τρωθέν σύστημα της χώρας.

H νέα πρωθυπουργός ανέλαβε την εξουσία υποσχόμενος να αντιμετωπίσει την χρηματοπιστωτική κρίση που έπληξε τη χώρα, και έριξε την προηγούμενη κυβέρνηση, η οποία υπέστη και ιντερνετικό πόλεμο.

To ξημέρωμα στην Ισλανδία, η ατμόσφαιρα είναι παγωμένη και το σκοτάδι δεν δίνει σιγά σιγά τη θέση του στο φως της ημέρας.

Είναι η ώρα που που οι Ισλανδοί κολυμπούν στα νερά των ιαματικών γεωθερμικών λουτρών.

Μετά το πρωινό κολύμπι απολαμβάνουν τη ραστώνη, και συζητούν για τραπεζίτες και πολιτικούς.

“Έπρεπε να είναι όλοι στη φυλακή, πολλοί άνθρωποι χάνουν τις δουλειές τους, η κρίση είναι μεγάλη, είναι εγκληματίες και κλέφτες”, σχολιάζουν οι πολίτες.

Το σάϊτ Iceland Weather Report, είναι ένα από τα δημοφιλέστερα στη χώρα. Εκεί εκφράζεται ο ωμός θυμός πολλών Ισλανδών.

Οι πολιτικοί προσποιούνται ότι ο διαδικτυακός αυτός τόπος δεν υπάρχει, όμως το 90% των Ισλανδών κάνουν χρήση του διαδικτύου, και εξέφρασαν τις απόψεις τους.

"Μας δίνεται η αίσθηση μιας σιωπηλής επανάστασης, ο κόσμος ζητά ριζικές αλλαγές, οι επιφανειακές διακοσμητικές αλλαγές δεν είναι αρκετές, δεν φτάνει μόνον ένας κυβερνητικός ανασχηματισμός", επισημαίνει η Άλντα Σίγκμουντοτιρ, υπεύθυνη του διαδικτυακού τόπου Iceland Weather Report.

Οι μπλόγκερς υποστήριξαν τις διαδηλώσεις που έγιναν έξω από το κοινοβούλιο της Ισλανδίας, οι πολίτες δεν ικανοποιήθηκαν από την ανατροπή της κυβέρνησης, θεωρούν όλους τους πολιτικούς διεφθαρμένους, και ζητούν νέα πρόσωπα στην κυβέρνηση.

Οι διαμαρτυρίες διαπέρασαν και υπερκέρασαν τις παραδοσιακές πολιτικές δομές, ο αυθόρμητος πολιτικός θυμός των ανθρώπων εξελίχθηκε σε κίνημα που ανέτρεψε την κυβέρνηση, κάτι που οι πολιτικοί απέτυχαν να προβλέψουν.

Χιλιάδες πολίτες μέσω των ίντερνετ καφέ και τις μπλογκόσφαιρας δημοσιοποιούν τις απόψεις τους και την αγανάκτηση τους.

"Οι πολίτες μάθαιναν τα νέα και τις εξελίξεις από άλλους πολίτες, κανείς δεν εμπιστευόταν τις επίσημες πηγές πληροφόρησης, οι πολιτικοί πρέπει να είναι ταπεινοί και να αφουγκράζονται το λαό", τονίζει ο πολιτικός ακτιβιστής, Στάρι Χόκστον.

Η Ισλανδία επικοινωνεί με ολόκληρο τον κόσμο, μέσω διαδικτύου, μια παλιά αποθήκη για ψάρια στεγάζει την ηλεκτρονική βάσει του μεγαλύτερου διαδικτυακού παιχνιδιού στον κόσμο, με 250,000 παίκτες παγκοσμίως, που προσπαθούν να κατακτήσουν ένα τεχνητό σύμπαν.

Στον πραγματικό κόσμο οι πολιτικοί προσπαθούν να ελέγξουν το διαδίκτυο, στην περίπτωση όμως της Ισλανδίας, το διαδίκτυο κέρδισε τους πολιτικούς.

From Skai.gr

And see here for the original BBC video report from Iceland

Iceland's new prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir has asked the country's three central bank governors to resign in an attempt to restore faith in the country's battered financial system.

The previous government was the first in the world to be brought down by the credit crunch, but it may also have been the first casualty of internet politics.

Brian Hanrahan reports from Reykjavik.

Live Station

Screened realities, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

One of the most useful applications I've came across recently is Live Station. After you've downloaded their programme (about 15mb) you can watch TV on your computer from all over the world as CNN, BBC and over 2000 other stations can be found. There are versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.

A great resource for anyone wanting to practice their English and of course for anyone who wants to get a wider view of world events.

Social media and the Greek uprising

Photo by Marplej@ne - Under Deconstruction

One of the most striking features of the recent series of revolts, rebellions and riots in Greece over the last few weeks is the use of social media to relay what has been happening to a wider audience. What I have witnessed is a form of internet hyper - Darwinism in which the forces of change which usually take years have been compressed into a time frame measured in weeks.

Before the recent troubles the use of Twitter, blogs, video sharing services and the like was a pretty limited affair. Many of those on the Left, and much of Greek political life saw the internet as irrelevant as TV, newspapers, public meetings, leafleting and marches were the order of the day. In addition there was a general distrust of the medium, an extension of the Greek Left's ambivalent relationship with the media in general.

For many TV, radio and newspapers are inherently biased and corrupt. Unfortunately, such claims, though often exaggerated have an element of truth to them. The state - run TV networks follow the line set down by the party in power and whilst not Stalinist in their propaganda style (why lie when you can spin?) are no more objective than say, Fox news.

On the other hand many of the private channels follow other agendas set down by their owners who see the TV and print as the PR wing of their business interests. A way of leveraging their position vis - a - vie the state, which is by far the biggest player in the Greek economy.

However, as the protests continued more and more people discovered the power of the net to organise, inform and disseminate their message without having recourse to the mainstream channels. They discovered that they too, could get out their message to a wider audience far beyond their borders. In addition, media outlets from around the world quickly gained access to sources of information which told a very different story from the local media's version of events which depended on more traditional news gathering tools.


With this realisation came a burst of creativity in terms of tactics, slogans, self expression. The hundreds of school occupations quickly started setting up blogs, thousands of those taking part in demonstrations started posting pictures and videos on the net, citizen journalism sites started getting eyewitness counts of the events as they were happening.

I thought that this would eventually happen in Greece but I predicted to my friends that it would take two, three years. Instead it took three weeks.The genie is now out of the bottle and I think that those working in the traditional media have been given a nasty wake up call. They've read about this kind of stuff in America and France but suddenly it has turned up, unbidden on their own door step.

Changing

I was in school today when I bumped into one of my old students. He told me that he'd set up his own blog and then went on to show me a whole bunch of interesting sites. How times have changed. Only a couple of years ago it was an uphill struggle to get my students interested in using the internet. Either they didn't have access or they considered it the sole preserves of computer geeks. In vain I tried to show them all the real cool things they could do.

Now, within a matter of months most of the students I tutor have acquired fast internet and are dying to find out how to use this wonderful tool. They ask about sites and applications, and are discovering a whole new world.

Kantalk - Using the internet to practice speaking skills

Photo by Splorp

One of the problems students face when studying English is that they have limited chances to speak the language outside the class. Unless you're lucky to move in English speaking circles then you are going to find it hard to practice these skills. Luckily, once again the internet has the solution in the shape of Skype.Now anyone with a fast internet connection and a microphone can speak free of charge. Even better Kantalk has been created for those who want to practice foreign language skills with others from all over the world.

Taking this concept a step further they have now created lesson plans which allow people to discuss various topics with others online. Check out their lesson on TV here.

Starting back

Luckily, more and more of my students have access to the internet at home and more importantly, access to ADSL. This is going to make life so much easier for me and learning a lot more fun for them.

I've been putting this into practice with two private lessons I stared this year. In the first case Stathis and Sofia are young learners who have completed two years of English. We've only done a couple of lessons so far but yesterdays internet lesson was a great success. I decided that a great way to start was with the British Council's Learning English Kids page which is full of brilliantly executed teaching activities. The Story Maker activity proved to be very popular and even if it was a tad difficult for their level the fact that it was so well thought out meant that they were willing to deal with any language problems. Next stage is for the students to perform their story. They have until next lesson to make sure they fully understand it and can read it aloud with confidence.

I've emphasised the fact that I don't want them to learn it by heart but rather be able to perform it as an actor might. We will record this performance next lesson using a digital camera an when they are happy with their performance we'll post it on their blog.

My second example comes from Kyriakos, a bright teenager who has just started his own blog. We ran though the basics such as adding text, pictures, video and links and now his homework is to write about the DVD I gave him last week (Final Fantasy) and add suitable photos, links and a video of the film's trailer.

This is just the beginning, of course, once the students (and parents) become comfortable using this technology then the next stage is to get them involved in projects with students from other parts of Greece and the rest of the world. if I have time I' d ideally like to set up a Moodle which would act as a hub for my students' efforts and allow them the chance to check out each other's work at a glance.

One cautionary note, however, comes from the other experience I had teaching yesterday. With another student virtually everything we tried to do connected with the computer and the internet ran into technical difficulties. A poorly maintained PC, out of date software, ignorance of basic internet safety procedures meant that the student's computer thwarted our attempts to do some pretty basic stuff. I didn't have the time to fix the problems during the lesson nor did the student have the knowledge to do it on his own.

Unfortunately, most people who buy a computer for their kids are blissfully unaware of things such as firewalls, anti-virus programs etc. As a result they leave themselves vulnerable. Sadly, the computer studies lessons the students do at school are of little practical help. Indeed I have been told by kids of weeks going by without them even touching a computer, let alone doing something useful with one. Instead, they read endless pages of theory which is unlikely to help them.

Kids on the net

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Once again, the school year has begun and once again I have to persuade students and parents that the"unusual" teaching methods and material I use will help them achieve their goals; namely help them learn more effectively and increase their chances of getting a certificate.

My hardest battle, however usually revolves around the use of the internet. For many parents the mere mention of the word invokes fear and suspicion. Having been bombarded with scare stories from the mainstream Greek media they shy away from allowing their children near it.

Of course, concerns about younger people having unsupervised access are not to be dismissed as there are dangers a plenty on the web. Yet, this is true for so many aspects of our life. We do not, for example, keep our kids confined to the house because there are traffic accidents on the streets, do we?

Instead we teach them how to behave responsibly when in the street and so one of my first jobs when introducing kids to the internet is teaching them how to do it responsibly and safely. Still, sometimes it feels as if I'm fighting a losing battle.

A twenty-first century moment

"But how do you find the next song?"

I was just explaining to my daughter, Lydia how to use a cassette recorder. No big deal except that she knows how to use an ipod, PC, Mac and the internet. I guess it's moments like these when you realise that many of the things you took for granted growing up are soon going to seem quaint, even unfathomable to people born after the 90's. For example having to fast forward through a cassette (what's that?) in order to get to the next song on the album.

I'm reminded of the time I found a box Brownie lurking at the back of a shed on my grandmother's farm, Although I recognised it instantly as a camera it seemed to me something that belonged in the Ancient Artifacts section of a museum, next to to the clay amphoras and arrow tips.

My teaching year

The school year has more or less finished for me here in Thessaloniki. My students have taken their exams and the language school where i work has closed down till the summer courses begin in June. So, I suppose this is as good a time as any to look back at what the year like was for me in teaching terms. Think of it as a State of the Union address for EFL/ESL in Greece.

In many respects this year has been just like last one. Although I have learnt an enormous amount about using internet an computers in teaching my ability to translate these skills into practical classroom practices has been hampered by a number of problems which haven't disappeared since May 2006. Technophobia, lack of equipment and a widespread ignorance of computers and internet has meant that in school my attempts at introducing new computer based ideas into the classroom stalled.

It's very hard to teach using the internet if there are no PCs or indeed any kind of technology that wasn't invented in the 70's. Audio cassettes and the occasional VHS video are about the limits of what is acceptable. This meant that that I was reliant on students being able to have access to a PC and internet at home. Yet even using this as a means of teaching was frowned upon and it was made very clear to me that it was not approved of. It distracted from the more serious goal of getting students their certificates.

Once again the lack of control over what I teach in class meant that integrating more up - date methodologies was limited and this, of course included the use of "new" technology. Exam practice, endless discreet grammar exercises, long word lists were once again the order of the day.The fact that students do well in their exams is, I suspect, despite all this not because of it.

On the other hand the students I tutor privately benefitted from using technology in a more creative way. I used blogging, vlogging, DVDs, digital photography, video and social networking tools to allow them them to use their language skills in real life situations. I think that their blogs alone (see here and here) show how much fun they found this. So much so, that Some of them have been teaching friends how to blog.

Using an ordinary digital camera's ability to record video has also been a major boon to me at all levels, whether it be preparing an CPE candidate for an interview or allowing nine year olds record themselves singing in order to improve their performance.

As far as next year is concerned I think that I'm not going to use the internet in school. The obstacles are too many and the resistance to innovation too fierce. I work too hard and my commitments too many to waste my energies on battles I cannot win. This is such a pity as I really wanted to explore the possibilities that things such as the Horizon project offer school. However, without the backing of the administration this is not feasible.

I will continue using the internet with my private students as I do believe it has really made a difference in many situations, especially with learners who have become bored with more traditional teaching approaches. I have seen disaffected teenage boys who loathe learning English work their butts off to improve, simply because we started doing activities on the computer that were based on their own particular hobbies and interests, be they football, cars or Star Wars.

Internet redux

Sometimes I get sick of hearing the same old complaints about the internet. I'm sure you've heard them as well, that it isolates us, cuts us off from real contact with our fellow human beings, reduces to screen slaves, digital zombies who click instead of live. Yes, I can just imagine the same kind of conversation a hundred or so years ago.

Time 1875 AD

Luddite A -I don't know what is going on with young people these days.

Luddite B - What do you mean?

Luddite A - Well, ever since they started teaching kids how to read all they do is stick their nose in a book

Luddite B - Too right mate. In my day we'd go out with our friends, playing games, worrying livestock. Now all they want to do is read.

Luddite A - It's making them right anti - social. Hours and hours spent in front of those pages. It's not natural.

Luddite B - I tell you, young people are going to the dogs.

Walking off the internet

And into real life. About a week or so ago I got a phone call via Skype from Mario, a teacher/journalist based in Northern Italy. As he was travelling here to Thessaloniki to cover a theatrical award he wanted to ask me a few questions about the city. I was more than happy to oblige and later after a flurry of emails we got to meet up for coffee on the sea front and chat about Milan, teaching, eating out, theatre, politics and and the like.

It was great to see how the internet, which is supposedly cutting us all off from "real" human contact can, in fact do exactly the opposite.

Weird, weird , weird

justin.tv, originally uploaded by fetching.

I've been reading about this guy over the last week or so. Justin TV is a guy who walks around 24/7 with a webcam strapped to his his head which is streamed live onto the internet. Think of it as his own reality TV.

Thanks to Fetching (an awesome photographer) and Laughing Squid (one of the best designed I blogs I've come across) for putting me on to this.

A postcard from the nineteenth century

Today I was helping my daughter (aged seven) with her homework and she asked me to check put some exercise she'd been given to do over the weekend. As well as the usual times tables she asked me to look at the following activity;

For those of you who don't read Greek, it is a declension of masculine, feminine and neutral nouns in Greek along with with an exercise which asks them to give example of various tenses such as present perfect, future simple etc.

For anyone who studied Latin or Ancient Greek, I'm sure the format is familiar, however, trying to teach young learners in this fashion is madness. It shows an almost total lack of understanding of the way in which children learn. Imagine teaching a second grader English by asking them to list the differences between the present perfect continuous and past simple. The ironic thing is that I can't help my daughter with these exercises because I never bothered to learn the ludicrously complex (not to mention outdated terminology) used to teach syntax in Greek. Instead, I actually went out and used the language to read, write, speak etc.

The exercises Lydia has to do are all set out by the ministry of education and have to be followed to the letter by teachers in elementary school. (see here for the curriculum and material). I'm starting to believe the the school curriculum in Greece is the longest suicide note in history. How is this generation going to compete in a global economy where their peers learn skills at, say ten that they won't till they reach university, if at all?

If you believe that this is an exaggeration then tell me where in the country students in the public education system can do what these American fourth graders can?

La Jetee

This is a film which has been a major inspiration for me, even though I've only ever seen clips of it. At long last I found a full - length version posted on Google Video. Basically, it is a short film based on black and white still photographs that tells the story of a man sent back in time from a post apocalyptic future.

I first heard about La Jetee when 12 Monkeys came out. According to the writers, it was one of their sources of inspiration and this is reflected in the script they produced.

The idea that you can make a film based just on photographs has had a grip on my imagination ever since. Now that we have cheap digital cameras available, photo sharing services such as Flickr and PhotoBucket and free software such as Photo Story 3 and Windows Movie Maker means that we can all produce such films with remarkable ease and at virtually no cost.

Just think of all the possible ideas that could be used as class/student projects. At long last I now have the access to affordable technologies and fast internet which means last years theoretical lesson plans have now become concrete realities.

For a great introduction to Photo shop 3 (my programme of choice) check out Teachnet's page