East Timor is a small  poor country of many languages. A few old people speak Portuguese and the former resistance fighters and leadership speak Portuguese. The Middle Generation speak Bahasa Indonesian. The young people speak mostly Tetum or one of 15 other dialects.   Many young people want to learn English to improve their job prospects, but the Official policy of the government is Tetum or Portuguese.  The government policy is partly based on a future hope of selling tropical fruit one da...
Continue reading ...

I probably should explain why I want to see students help East Timor.  Students can fly under the radar compared to Governments.  Also helping one of the 10 poorest nations on earth become a second world country will help the students feel proud of what they have accomplished, and be less self absorbed.  I have found a website which partly illustrates some of East Timor's problems ....
 www.asianews.it-en/East-Timorese-go-hungry-for-at least-five-months-of the-year-13498.html
Continue reading ...

I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT HOW I CAN INTRODUCE STUDENTS TO STORYBOARDING, I AM GOING TO LOOK FOR AN OLD DISNEY FILM ABOUT CARTOONING AND STORYBOARDING TO SHOW THEM. THEN I WILL TEACH THEM HOW TO PLAY SOLITAIRE (PATIENCE) THEN I CAN TEACH THEM HOW TO STORYBOARD  'HOW TO PLAY SOLITAIRE' THEN GET THEM TO MAKE A VIDEO CLIP TEACHING OTHERS HOW TO PLAY SOLITAIRE.  I WILL THEN TEACH THEM ABOUT THE "HUNGRY SEASON" IN THE EAST TIMOR HIGHLANDS AND GET THEM TO PARTNER WITH A TWO SCHOOLS IN EAST TIMOR, ONE...
Continue reading ...

I have been thinking about what constites meaningful learning. In western society we get to eat, and education is virtually free. What if a primary school teacher could help a class create an aid program to East Timor.  the students here could a) Enlist the aid of other schools b) collect old wheelbarrows and bicycles, and put them in a sea-container together with triicale(to feed chickens) purchased c) Create teaching videos which a school in East Timor could then use to raise chickens and t...
Continue reading ...

I am going to put a pretend wedding invitation as part of my social media assignment. I have to ask the guests to rank 2 menus out of 3 or to choose vegetarian if they are Vegetarians.  It isn't so simple. In real life I would probably email a link to them along with a cardboard invitation, then get them to post the bottom of the cardboard invitation back (with preferences) then send a second invitation out including which of the two of the three menus had been chosen.  Tomorrow, I pick up my...
Continue reading ...

I've had a lot of time to reflect. Digital Photography is easily 20% of the guts of personal website deisgn but it's more complex than film photography. The effect on the website can be quite dramatic.  To teach  a classroom of primary school students how to do digital photography is really the hard yakka of teaching personal web design !
Continue reading ...

Hi, this is the first entry of my blog.  I had a lot of difficulties getting here, because the lecturer showed setting up the blog on Yo LA  too quickly.  I also had difficulties using a laptop for the first time.  You don't anticipate half the page is not displayed at the bottom of the page.  I need to give out clear handouts including screen shots, to help the students set up a blog - YO LA is not intuitive enough, it is probably best giving out the handout, discussing, then showing on an e...
Continue reading ...