Blog posts about Education, CyberSecurity, Digital Citizenship, Privacy, InternetSafety, curation, PKM, PLN, blogging, Global Collaboration, Coaching, Collaboration, eSkills, eLeadership, Coding, MakerED, MakerSpace, Social Media, How to learn, learning to learn
I was very happy when I got delivered that nice looking 2.8 inches TFT with incorporated SDCard. I ordered it on Amazon and it is from ELEGOO. It was delivered with a small CD where a lot of coding examples are integrated and a well done manual. SO, I started as soon as I unpacked it…
First step to do is opening the CD and reading the manual which is in PDF format… After that, chose the examples to see what is possible to do with TFT Display and the Arduino.
ALL the examples worked well…
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Here, below what is on the CD…
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To use the SDCard to create a Slide-Show, click on “Example05-ShowBMP“, the following window will open, see below…
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Click the “ShowBMP“, the following window will open, see below…
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The used TFT uses an ILI9341 controller and the code could get downloaded from the website of ELEGOO.
Double-click the “ShowBMP.ino” and the Arduino-IDE will open with the inserted code…
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As I wanted to use the SDCard to create a Slide-Show, so I remixed a bit the code in the sketch and I uploaded different images to the SDCard. BUT, it didn’t work :(((
I checked the manual which says:
The SDCard MUST be formatted first (use a NEW one as everything will get erased!!!)
TIP: DON’T format on quick way, it DIDN’T work for me; use the full format way!!
Images MUST be in 320 x 240 pix
Images MUST be in Bitmap format
Images MUST be saved as 28-bit Bitmaps
Images name MUST be less than 20 characters
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Check the above mentioned in the sketch below also, please.
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SO, I tried out a lot of different online image converters, I was struggling around for nearly a week as I didn’t get it working, frustration… BUT as I NEVER give up before I am on the winning side, so I was looking much more around on the internet to find the perfect solution, and I found it.
And that program is actually present on my PC, it is “Paint“: it converts (nearly) any image to the desired format so also Bitmap and THIS ALSO in 28-bit Bitmaps!! Check he PIC below, please.
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Click image please to enlarge it
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After saving my images with “Paint” into 28-bit Bitmaps everything worked perfect, actually with unexpected GREAT quality!
SO, for that YOU, dear readers, and Newbies on “Coding“, don’t have to struggle around like me, I created this tutorial.
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For the assembling, wiring and explication of the code, I suggest to watch this video tutorial, check below, please.
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As I wanted to use the TFT display as a digital badge with slide show, I created my own images by:
Creating a picture with exactly 320 x 240 pix and a black background
Using PhotoScape (image editor) to insert text and photos
Opening that created sample in Paint and saving it into 28-bit Bitmap
Saving that sample to the SDCard and inserting it into the SDCard reader of the TFT
Uploading the code to Arduino
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BUT, surprise, it didn’t work!??? The photo was mirrored, funny isn’t it? OK, so back again to the Photo-Editor and “Flip Horizontal“, delete the image on the SDCard and upload the new one…
Now everything is working perfectly 😉 I learned a lot with this project, especially being patient and not giving up, as well as learning more about the “Paint” program!
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Here below how it looks on the TFT:
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Let us repeat the steps:
First prepare the images (photos)
Images MUST be in 320 x 240 pix
Images MUST be in Bitmap format
Images MUST be saved as 28-bit Bitmaps
The SDCard MUST be formatted first (use a NEW one as everything will get erased!!!)
TIP: DON’T format on quick way, it DIDN’T work for me; use the full format way!!
Save the images (photos) to the SDCard
Images name MUST be less than 20 characters
Double-click the “ShowBMP.ino” from the demo examples and the Arduino-IDE will open with the inserted code…
Delete the images shown in the code and replace them by your own (must be the exactly name as the saved, check on the SDCard…)
Insert the SDCard to the TFT and upload the code.
The slideshow will run, have fun 😉
The next step will be to put everything into a housing, I ordered some stuff and after I get it delivered and finished it I will update this blog to show you the result, stay tuned 😉 BTW: I will use the shown example as an electronic BADGE…
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure). L’auteur était aussi gagnant d’un concours en électronique en 1979 ( Pays germaniques ) et voyait son projet publié dans le magazine électronique “ELO”.
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
The author was also a winner of an electronics contest (Germanic countries) in 1979 and got his project published in the “Electronics Magazine ELO”.
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Stay tuned for next blog post(s) 😉.. .
Keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: TFT Displays, video tutorials, Arduino UNO, Arduino Mega, Bitmaps, TFT size, Bitmaps size, 24-bit Bitmaps, Sketch, Coding, Slide-Show, SDCard, badge, Paint, image editor, photo editor,
Andragogy, Adult Teaching!? WHAT Is Different From Normal Student Teaching!?
It is a question which I get asked very often “Andragogy, Adult Teaching!? WHAT Is Different From Normal Student Teaching!?“. Well, first remember that adults and seniors are OUT of the <===> #SchoolCocoon <===> since long or very long, THEY are NOT used anymore for learning! That is a very important fact to consider first before YOU start teaching adults and seniors. ALSO, adults and seniors are NOW (as out of school) mostly more focused on the benefits THEY could have in their private life and are willing to learn stuff which fits to their needs in private life!
Another very important point to consider is that a lot of adults, seniors have a FEAR against schools and school-teaching, they made bad experiences with teachers AND still thinking on the stress with tests! AND they are used to an OLD outdated EDUcation System which told them that learning is finished once reached the degree (the diploma in the pockets)! BTW: a RETHINKING of EDUcation for <===> Life-Long Learning is a MUST! As well as how the diplomas are getting handled and valued: e.g. A diploma today doesn’t show any professional development made!!! My proposition is to create the diplomas as: first diploma after school is “A, B,C etc…”, then the professional development (followed courses) should get added such as e.g. A1-2015-1: first professional development made in 2015, one course. A1-2015-5 first professional development made in 2015, five courses, and so on…
This would make the diplomas more valuable as the workforce would recognize them much more than normal ones where they don’t see straight on if a person has followed courses after school or not…
THE factor time is ALSO very important, as said already above, adults and seniors need MORE time to learn as NOT used anymore for learning! Prepare YOUR courses by considering longer sessions!
And as (already) MOST of YOU know me, a music video, related to the TOPIC 😉
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Chose ALSO a room who doesn’t look sterile (white color) as it would remind them school again! And of course DON’T give the courses in a school! Sounds strange!? Think on the psychological background of fear 😉 Make the learners feel comfortable!
And last but not least, DON’T teach adults, seniors with a normal pedagogy, as THEY won’t accept it to get treated as 12 year old persons!!! THEY ARE OUT OF SCHOOL and they want to get treated as adult, <===> mature persons<===>!
SO… How To Teach Adults, Seniors!?
First of all, I mentioned it already above, DON’T let them feel like being in school and that YOU are a teacher, educator! Tell them that YOU will be THEIR coach who is guiding them and NOT teaching them and that THEY have a certain autonomy in the “Learning Room” (NOT Classroom!) They are allowed to move around in the “Learning Room”, searching help among their peers by respecting the noise level, copying from each other <===> YES, copying is allowed, OH WHAT FUN <===> everything which was forbidden in the <===> #SchoolCocoon <===> is allowed here, hey that makes engaging them and they have fun as well 🙂
As THEIR coach YOU take care of an individual learning, YOU assist the persons in their learning, DON’T FORGET about the learning rhythm, one size doesn’t fit all!Some persons need more time…
YOU may use a beamer (or a digital whiteboard, depending on YOUR budget…) to introduce first about WHAT the learners will attend to learn where YOU show ALSO the <===> Learning Path <===> which YOU have prepared for them, so they will know up from the beginning where the destination goes with ALL the different “stations“, they will feel comfortable as they can visualize it, they will know as well WHAT skills they will acquire, less unknown stuff to think about…
An example below:
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The learners will learn about any station in the “Learning Path” AND ALSO know about WHAT skills they will acquire! Click the above image, please, to enlarge it.
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Click the above image, please, to access the article.
Motivation for adults and seniors… NO excuses for NOT willing to learn 😉
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Click above image, please, to enlarge.
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Course participants may print the above images and keep it with them, so they remember how young their brain is <===> 18 years <===>!
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Facts to consider and advice:
Adults and especially seniors are NOT anymore used toLEARNing! By knowing this YOU need to take care about it: YOU SHOULD explain that to YOUR LEARNers and tell THEM that they shouldn’t fear, that they should tell YOU when being in trouble, YOU should tell them that YOU take ALL the necessary time so that THEY will understand it, YOU should encourage them at any moment so that they will find the pleasure to LEARN 😉 YOU SHOULD use Empathy, observing them and find out WHO are those who are shy; the ones WHO won’t tell you when there is a problem. YOU SHOULD interact with them, looking over their shoulders and finding out WHERE the problem is.
That is the hardest part BUT the MOST IMPORTANT one as when they understood that they could find confidence in YOU, then they will advance in their LEARNing, THEY NEED confidence in YOU and in THEMSELVES!
Thus meaning: make the LEARNing individual! Take care of each person till they have understood it. It is like <===> differentiated instruction <===> EDUcation, BUT more coaching than teaching.In one phrase, differentiated instruction is primarily suiting instructional means to meet individual learning needs.
As mentioned already, make sure that the room isn’t sterile, NOT white! Consider the psychology of colors as it works, my 9 years experience with adults and seniors (NOT teaching) coaching. I used a pastel yellow color in the “Learning Room“, why!?
Yellow adds optimism to your home, prompting feelings of happiness in all who enter. Yellow activates memory, stimulates the nervous system, promotes communication and sparks creativity. And THAT is WHAT WE want in learning, isn’t it 😉
Make ALSO sure that there is an extra room available, where the adults, seniors can jump in to drink a beverage and eventually have some chatting with other participants, make them feel relax…
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SO… WHAT To Teach THEM And How!?
Click the above image, please, to enlarge it.
As mentioned already, adults and seniors learn differently and slower (consider the time fact); they want stuff which they can use in their private life! SO… WHAT could be those interests!? Did I say interests, YES, it is exactly this WHERE YOU need to focus when giving courses to adults and seniors! Before starting a course I do every time an introduction session where myself and others present themselves, after the introduction I ask everybody to come in front to me and writing with capital letters on a Flipchart their interests, they could use ALSO 4 different colors (red, green, blue, black).
WHY this!? First of all, there is a bit action as they have ALL to move from their places which is different from <===> #SchoolCocoon <===> and the color they chose is ALSO a sign of their character and mood… By the way: I ask them later also WHY they were choosing that color, just to open a discussion and to make them curios about next steps; they will be aware ALSO that I observe what is going around me and that I give THEM attention…
WE will have a look all together NOW on the Flipchart and to find out the common interests, thus meaning: there will be a lot of people probably (mostly) who have THE same interests (hobbies) and NOW everybody knows WHO has the same hobby. WE created already an interest community without knowing it as these people will later talk together and probably will make an exchange of experiences 😉 It is up from there WE will build up OUR course(s)!
YOU certainly will encounter these hobbies: cooking, traveling, festivals, photos, gardening, cinema, reading, swimming, different sports, wandering, cards playing, taking videos, music, motorcycles, cars and more… That are the most common ones by my experience over 9 years.
Some examples of blogs and curation about gardening (flowers), cooking, festivals:
NOW WE know much more about OUR course participants and WE have a starting base: as anybody mostly is proud about WHAT they are doing and easily willing to talk about it (mostly…) WE will show THEM on How-To they can do it through using ICT by explaining THEM that more people would see THEIR exploits and knowledge by using curation, blogging and Social Media. WE will explain them ALSO how it will work by examples, so that THEY can see it visually. And WHY NOT, for the creative ones, how to use “ThingLink“. By experience, women are MORE creative than men, just saying…
Learn more about Curation, Blogging, ThingLink, PLN, PKM:
SO… How Can I Say That This (The PracTICE) Is Working!?
Well, I was a pioneer in my country Luxembourg (Europe) already in 2002 where I gave pedagogical courses about ICTto a wide range of the population as up from 12 years old (even younger when together with a parent) to 79 years oldwith different nationalities. ALSO there were two days in the week reserved (booked by planing inside the school) for the primary schoolwhere they could use OUR “ICT LEARNing room” by my coaching to learn the (at that time) NEW technologies. Schools didn’t have YET computers in the classes at that time and I was working very close together with the teachers and helped also to convince the responsible people from the commune about thenecessity of computers in the classrooms, which worked 😉
SO… WHAT was that “ICT LEARNing Room“, called “Internetstuff“!? And WHY was my “Internetstuff” DIFFERENT from ALL the others in Luxembourg!?
A bit History and Story Telling: What is a “Internetstuff”? It was a project by the “European Commission” to bring the “ICT” to ALL the inhabitants in any commune in the European countries. They called it at that time “eEurope” and in Luxembourg it was a special task force, called “eLuxembourg” that was charged about it. SO, they decided to create special places where the population could learn through courses about “ICT”, which they called “Internetstuffen”.
The Government in Luxembourg was looking at the time to find competent people to give those courses about ICT and they were advertising in the newspapers, where I made my application. I was selected and had to follow a 4 months long education through special tailored courses about the How-To to give pedagogical courses with ICT, a bit hard at that time as I was 45 years old already, BUT I did it and I found my vocation!
I offered my services and skills to different communes and it was in ETTELBRUCK (North of the country and 30 km away from where I am living) that I found a new job and a new adventure as a pioneer. Apart from giving courses about and with ICT, NO ONE of the responsible persons had a clue about the How-To, so they told me “Do what You want, You should know what…“, OK, I was perplex and ALONE to do this job!
First I elaborated the opening hours, than I created a “brochure” which was sent to all the houses in that small city (8k inhabitants) to inform them about this new service offered by the commune. I created also a “member card” of a value of 25€ for a whole year who gave the participants the right to visit the place to use only the internet (very few had Internet in 2002) and/or to take part of courses. The place was open on a 5/8, 5 days from Monday to Saturday from 8h30 am to 11h30 am and from 13h30 to 17h30. Monday and Wednesday mornings were reserved for Primary School classes from 08h am to 11h30 am. Saturday and Sunday was closed.
There were also evening courses organized and I collected about 1k6 (1,600) hours of overtime work during 1 1/2 year (non payed hours)! I couldn’t do that job anymore alone, BUT I din’t get a co-worker allowed neither. NO budget for it! I decided NOT anymore giving evening courses and giving the courses on a different way:people (learners) could visit the place whenever they wanted during the opening hours (only in the day) and I would give them courses individually and on different disciplines (security, Office, Photo Editing, website building, email, Skype…).
The learners had more autonomy, I let them work by PracTICE after first having them explained about the How-To shown with a beamer and then also on their own PC (there were 10 PCs in the Learning Room). They could come WHEN they wanted and for how long they wanted. They were completely FREE, no MUST, NO STRESS… I explained them, showed them, observed them (studied their behavior…) and interacted only when needed, when I felt that they must get a bit help to continue. I encouraged them to try by error till they would have learned it and when learned I showed them some tricks by giving advice on How-To do BETTER. It was ME who adjusted and adapted to them, a win-win situation. They learned slowly but surely and once the basics understood (the most important) they learned the other stuff to learn much more quick as they felt more confident about ICT. I encouraged them to practice at home which they all did. I asked them where they still have problems when practicing at home and WE repeated it on another way when possible, otherwise same procedure…
I was also constantly updating my “Professional Development” by reading lots of books (insatiable…):
This, below, is NOT bragging BUT my pride about the feedback (which is a MUST) from my “LEARNers” who visited my courses.
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The above texts are in French, Luxembourgish, Italian, Portuguese, German: if YOU are NOT used to those languages please check this App with whom YOU can translate, actually very useful when visiting other countries then yours 😉
The above text is in French, if YOU are NOT used to the language of Molière please check this App with whom YOU can translate, actually very useful when visiting other countries then yours 😉
In 2015 Coaching-Mentoring Is Seen As An Education Difference-Maker
[START Text from On Educational Coaching, Mentoring & High-Impact Learning] Coaching is a difference-maker in education. Think of the mindset evident in high-performing athletic teams, chess teams, even actors and other entertainers. Content providers are valuable, but that is not what makes learning organizations distinct, especially not those that seek to reach and provide a high-quality education to a full spectrum of learners. The same thing is true as we continue to implement things like competency-based education models. Many celebrate the way CBE can reduce the cost of college degrees, increasing access and opportunity, and addressing critical workforce needs. However, if cost reduction happens at the expense of great coaching and mentoring, I am concerned that we will make little progress in the democratization of education. The “haves and have nots” of education depend largely upon the prerequisite skills needed to take advantage of newer and emerging learning environments ranging from CBE to MOOCs, self-directed learning to self-organized learning environments. [END Text from On Educational Coaching, Mentoring & High-Impact Learning]
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Click the above image, please, to access the article.
Learn more about my Global Collaboration and coaching on my following blog posts:
As already mentioned above, I asked a lot about WHERE some could have problems to understand and encouraged the learners to tell me, even I asked them to write down on the Flipchart questions they would have eventually. WE collected them all and when they were fit enough on the keyboard I let them create themselves (with my little help) a FAQ’s list (Frequently Asked Questions) and a glossary, see example below please.
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Click the above image, please, to access the glossary online.
Keywords: win-win situation… honesty, straight talking, dealing with mature people, provoking could be (I do…) welcome with a bit irony and humor, dealing with humans, different characters needs to get analyzed before action, a bit courage to go out of normal,
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Necessary Material For The Courses
Apart from the computers with internet connection here below a list of necessary material:
Flipchart
Printer All In One (with scanning function)
Camera for Photo Editing courses
USB Sticks
Head phones with micro for Skype use
Some webcams for Skype use
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Is My Proposed Way Of Coaching With ICT ONLY For Adult Learning!?
There is a lot of common from the above mentioned with youth coaching and could be applied as well for them! WHEN YOU make youth feeling being accepted as adults, they will give YOU more respect and it will be a GOOD atmosphere for BETTER learning also! I had teens visiting my “Learning Room [Internetstuff]” for the ONLY purpose to listen and to observe when I gave courses with coaching to the participants. They came in their FREE time when there wasn’t school and made their homework while observing also my “style of teaching, as they said”. I got told by some of them that they learned MORE in 2 hours about ICT than they learned in a month in school. And THAT is THE difference between theory and <===> PracTICE! <===>.
Preparation, keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: EPAL, Andragogy, Heutagogy, Flowchart, cooking, nature, flowers, gardening, traveling, interests, PracTICE, profit for private life, NO THEORY!, engagement, Social Media, sharing, communication, NO FEAR, which websites to trust, which FREE services to use, which FREEWARE to use, Kursus schmackhaft machen, spice in LEARNing, quote Gust, LEARNing2LEARN, Life-Long LEARNing, blogs creating, NO STRESS, NO TIME LIMITATION, NOT FORCING, LEARNing-By-Doing, selfish, pride of something (sports, traveling…), bragging through Social Media (negative transformed to positive)…, staying in touch with (abroad) family, Skype, Facebook, Picasa, PhotoScape, Photo Editing, ThingLink, Creativity, positive Psychology, TEAM or WHO is BETTER, individualists, Streber, Alpha person and/or TEAMLEADER, community THINKing OR selfish, Empathy, NO RELIGION and NO politics allowed in courses to respect each OTHER, tolerance, Win-Win thinking amplified for course participants, win-win situation between coach and learners,
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure).
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
Privacy In The Digital World-A MUST To Talk About It!
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Since Edward SNOWDEN‘s revelations nearly everybody knows about the word “Privacy“, even those WHO were NOT interested about it, as it was worldwide broadcasted! This person did reveal WHAT is really happening in the so called “Virtual-World” (the internet) and how much secret services around the world are interested about to grab ANY information about ANY person WHO is online! BUT, it’s NOT ONLY them, ALSO Cyber-Criminals are looking for these information! And ALSO commercials who find out YOUR psychological profile through YOUR behavior on Social-Media!
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Start Text from The Guardian:
The UN general assembly unanimously voted last week to adopt a resolution, introduced by Germany and Brazil, stating that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy”. Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel , were among those spied on, according to the documents leaked by Snowden.
===> The resolution called on the 193 UN member states “to review their procedures, practices and legislation regarding the surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of personal data, with a view to upholding the right to privacy of all their obligations under international human rights law”. It also directed Pillay to publish a report on the protection and promotion of privacy “in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance … including on a mass scale”. <===
She told Berners-Lee that it was “very important that governments now want to discuss the matters of mass surveillance and right to privacy in a serious way”.
BUT is THAT all why I created this blog!? Certainly NOT, there is much more behind, mostly hidden by its creators BUT WHAT MUST get said to tell YOU to stay aware about WHAT YOU are publishing and on what you are get tracked in the “Virtual-World“, such as:
HTML5, NO needs of cookies anymore for Web Tracking and Geo-Localisation
===> Critical-THINKing: are WE creating a “Stalking-Society”!? <===
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WHAT do the above mentioned articles really mean!?
WHEN WE are online WE are transparent already as website owners are using OUR data for commercial purposesand with posting more about OUR private life, especially on Social-Media (Twitter, Facebook and…) WE give THEM even more information about ourselves!
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Network Hacking May Lead to Bigger Problems
[START Text from links below] While social networks don’t have your bank account information or credit card number, they may provide enough personal data for hackers to answer security questions on other sites. If you use the same password for your Facebook as your PayPal or Amazon login, hackers could then take control of these accounts. [END Text from links below]
Do WE Still Have Privacy Rights In The Digital World!?
According to latest press releases: Based on internal NSA documents, Der Spiegel reveals that the spy agency planted backdoors to access computers, hard drives, routers, and other devices from companies such as Cisco, Dell, Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor and Samsung.
This blog will get updated as soon as I get new information and certain Topics, such as Google Glass, Skype in Global Education and Google+ Hangouts in Global Education will get updated and described later…
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure)..The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
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My personal reminder keywords for creating this blog: Cyber-Security and privacy ===> Phishing, Kettenbriefe, chain letters, IBM, psychological profile, ads used by knowing psychological profile on Social Media, NSA, PRISM, GHCQ, HTML5, Apps, Google Glass, Skype, Google+ Hangouts, Laws in different countries, global EDUcation, smartphones, photos, GeoTagging, Google Latitude, Google’s Location History, WiFi, Foursquare, Klout… … . . . . ..
The GPS Tracking of photos SHOULD get disabled first of all in any device, smartphones, iPad, iPhone! SHOW the students (learners) how to do this while following the tips of the below links:
This is the second blog about “Blogging” and in the first one ===> PracTICE: Using Blogs for Critical Thinking and Proactive Thinking <=== WE were talking about WHAT would be the BEST way to introduce the students (learners) to blogging. NOW, lets go for a practical examplewhere the teachers (educators) tell the students (learners) to create a blog on a specific topic. It should be a topic WHERE there will be a lot of engagement from the students and from WHAT they would get a maximum out of ICT SKILLS, creativity, use of the technology (camera, smartphone, photo camera…), Social Media knowledge, communication, Social Learning, preparation knowledge, privacy knowledge (not publishing blog…), working in a team, collaboration…
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SO… WHAT could that be for a topic? Well, I think that something everybody could do is to write a blog about WHAT any single person makes probably different, ===> WHAT are WE eating at home? <===
Of course, if someone of YOUR students (learners) OR parents don’t WANT and allow to use that topic, leave it FREE to them to chose another topic! Make sure ALSO that the parents sign a paper that they agree with such an action as it goes into PRIVACY!
Other possibilities could be: pet, sport activities, reading (my books…), games (games which I play…), my hobbies (some have more than one hobby…), my friends hobbies… Talk to YOUR responsible psychological person in YOUR school, in case if YOU have kids with problems to find out WHAT could be the BEST way to get THEM also ===> engaged in that learning process… <===
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OR perhaps about an excursion which YOU made with the students, I recommend to visit my following blog to find out about the possibilities:
Depending in which country and/or state YOU are living, this could cause problems as well because of social status and privacy and certain parents wouldn’t allow such actions (NO one needs to know what’s happening in our family…)… Feel FREE to prepare a form which YOU handle out to the parents to hear THEIR opinion about it and tell THEM that THEIR kids (students, learners) are NOT forced to apply to it and could use another topic as already mentioned above… YOU will NEVER get a 100% agreement, BUT YOU could make the project a worth way to create together a project THAT shows the different ways HOW people THINK and HOW to show THAT it is STILL possible to create a COMMON project WHERE people are working together!
YOU will face the problems of REALITY from the REAL-WORLD by using the possibilities of the VIRTUAL-WORLD and YOU will be able to discuss these problems as well with YOUR students (learners) ===> Critical-Thinking and Proactive-Thinking… <=== Do YOU have this courage!???
Explain THEM also WHY it would be a good idea to agree to that projectbecause of:
Students would work together to exchange about life, about the REAL-WORLD…
Students will learn from each other about different ways of life…
Students will learn how to use their smartphones and how to blog, learning about Social Media, blogging, getting 21st Century skills, how to combine smartphones, tablets, using THEIR creativity, working in a team, how to edit and correct photos for BETTER quality…
Students will learn how to stay private while using blogs, securing their privacy so, because the teacher (educator) WILL FIRST HAVE A LOOK ON IT AND GIVE ADVICE before publishing the final version…
Students will learn to accept each other whatever their social status is…
Students prepare first THEIR own blog and than later a selection of the photos from each student will get used on THE COMMON COMMUNITY BLOG, where the students write also THEIR experience to document it…
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The needed Tools And Services-The Preparation
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First of all, WE need a FREE blogging service. I recommend WordPress as it is very easy to use and as it allows the students to chose from a variety of templates, so each student could use its own template to show its creativity. Then WE need ALSO an easy to use and a multi-platform (any OS compatible) PHOTO-EDITOR, where I recommend PHOTOSCAPE for Windows users ONLY, and GIMP (Windows, Linux, Mac) see below the links:
Keep It Private Till Everything Is Checked In Depth
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As already mentioned above, students blogs should get kept private, WordPress offers this (check left hand screenshot) till the teacher(s) checked them in depth to make sure that their isn’t any privacy problem such as:
Students took photos of parents and sisters, brothers: do THEY agree to that the photos will get published on the internet?
Photos are using the GPS tracking and show WHERE the real location is! THIS is NOT good and the tags should get removed before publishing!
Check out the video below, please, to understand WHY it is important to remove the EXIF and GPS data!
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How To Remove The GPS Tracking Of Photos
The GPS Tracking of photos SHOULD get disabled first of all in any device, smartphones, iPad, iPhone! SHOW the students (learners) how to do this while following the tips of the below links:
To make sure for NOT loosing the topic of the created blog(s), I suggest to add at the bottom some reminder, the keywords which explain about WHAT the blog should be and ALSO the guideline for the students (learners), as shown below.
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===> create blogs private, teacher checks blog & discusses with learners in a group, photos will get later ALL published in one blog as a TEAM blog, blog will get used with other students on a global view, like Skype, global exchange of habits to know each one better, social global approach… <===
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This blog was created to make YOU THINK, to know about possible problems, to make YOU Critical-THINKing persons and Proactive-THINKing persons, use it as such, please 😉
Actually everybody knows what it means when WE say searching something on the Internet, and most people think of Google as a search engine! BUT searching is not equal searching, different people will get different search results and that is NORMAL!
Why?
Let me explain, please:
The quality of the answer is ONLY as good as the question is!
As more precise the question, as BETTER quality the answer would be!
Also meaning that: as BETTER informed one is (more knowledge) as certainly one asks better questions (mostly…)
The search engine will NOT replace the brain 😉
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Demonstration of Searching in the PracTICE
Let’s make a demonstration of this in the PracTICE, in the classroom together with the learners. The learners will play a role-play where they will be the different search engines…
How could this be realized?
It’s actually a very easy Scenario:
Step 1
First ask your learners which search-engines they know and they should think and write it down.
They could also already search on the internet to find more.
Ask some of them to come to the chalk board and write the found results on it.
If you have a whiteboard technology, so let them do it while using the learner interface.
Step 2
Compare it with your own list.
Explain that there are normal search engines and meta search-engines.
You got now the number of search-engines and the names of them.
Assign a search-engine to the learners, one per learner only.
Design a search-word, example “chair” and write it on a sheet of paper about the size of DIN A4.
Below that word to search, fill in also the names of the search-engines by leaving a bit place for the search-result below the name.
The paper sheet could already be prepared.
Take the sheet of paper and shape it into a paper-ball.
Step 3
Tell your learners now that you will throw the “paper-ball” to someone who needs to fill in his search-result.
Once done so, this person should shape it again into a paper-ball and throw it to another person.
That person does exactly the same, and so on…
When ALL the persons did their job, THEY will throw the paper-ball back to the teacher.
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Step 4
The teacher opens the paper-ball, scans it and shows it with the beamer, and/or won the white-board to the learners and explains the different search results! They will be different…
NOW, the teacher goes to next step and explains how IMPORTANT it is to give the search engines the exact query…
In OUR example we used “chair”, this is NOT enough! WE should use “metal chair”, or “wooden chair”, or “plastic chair”, or “modern chair”, or “LifeStyle chairs”… and so on… As more precise WE ask, as BETTER results WE will get!
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See the screenshots below who will show YOU the difference:
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The word ===> chair <=== results by 624,000,000 answers
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The word ===> plastic chair <=== results by 60,000,000 answers
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The word ===> “plastic chair” <=== results by 3, 450,000 answers
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The word ===> “red plastic chair” <=== results by 339,000 answers
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SO, as YOU have remarked NOW, as more precise YOU answer the search engines (e.g. Google), as more precise OUR results will be and ALSO less results are shown! This makes it much more easy to find the adequate stuff 😉
[Start Text from Google] If you’re not finding what you’re searching for after using our basic search tips, try a search operator. Add one of these symbols to your search terms in the Google search box to gain more control over the results that you see. Don’t worry about memorizing the operators – you can use the Advanced Search page to generate many of these searches. [End Text from Google]
Often people need license FREE images, especially for educational projects. But when searching on Google the results show ONLY ALL images! But there is a little trick to find the right stuff, which I will show you here…
In below example (screenshot) YOU will see the search results by ONLY typing ==> creating animated gifs with photoscape tutorial <=== and there are about 4.270.000 results. WE will try to make a fine search NOW by using the quotes, see next screenshot.
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Make a fine search NOW by using the quotes, see next screenshot below. The search results returned ONLY 72.300 results, a lot BETTER and more easy to make OUR choice.
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Search ONLY the secure websites!!!
One can’t trust any web site and any content published on Internet, don’t be naive! It’s the same as on real world, there are bad guys and good guys, but how to find out? My favorite FREE Software to make me my Online Life easier and more secure as they show me which web sites are trustworthy and which websites I shouldn’t visit at all because they are malicious and could infect my computer is McAfee SiteAdvisor!!! But don’t forget also, there is and never will be a 100% security!
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Tip: you may use different similar software and add-ons together, there is no problem to do so. I use McAfee SiteAdvisor, WOT and as I have installed Symantec Internet Security (security suite) I get also their results shown… Other Security-Suites from different security manufacturers are also proposing similar solutions…
Curation is going to significantly affect how we search and find information about topics we know little of or that we want to learn more about. [Robin Good]
[Gust MEES] Through curation one has the possibility to FREE online learning and through sharing it to create a community with the same interests. Curation could also save people of same interests a lot of time and provides them with valuable content which could get used to link back to them in written articles, blogs, web sites and social media sites. Also one learns from each other in the curation community as one has the possibility to follow interesting curation.
As an ICT course instructor most of my curation is related to educational content and so I provide the curate content to an educational audience and to people who are willing to learn. Therefore I see curation also as help for a collective global learning and a contribution to a collective intelligence.
Curation will probably become the next generation of search! Why? Because the curated content is done by humans who give ALSO their insight(s), SO… the results in search are more valuable then ONLY the offered results by a machine who is depending on its algorithm…
When working together with your students and when they are publishing content (even yourself…), please take care about the copyright, you are not allowed to copy&paste content from Internet and text from books from other persons without their knowledge and their permission…
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When writing a book, creating a presentation for your students and when teaching your students and asking them to make researches (on Internet and on books) you are not allowed to copy and paste from other web sites, nor copy from an existing book, be conscious and responsible about that, please… Respect other authors property… Here below an non exhaustive list of laws in different countries…
Creative commons is a system for licensing copyrighted work under a variety of different conditions. Creative commons licensing is widely misunderstood. Some people seem to think that creative commons is the same thing as public domain, but this is not the case, and there are important differences. If you plan to use work that has been licensed under creative commons, make sure you read the licence attached to it first and comply with the conditions of use, to avoid unintentionally breaching the author’s copyright.
The table below explains the meanings of the symbols used in creative commons licences:
Reflect on what they already know about copyright law.
See the connection between the history of innovation and the history of copyright law.
Learn about fair use, free speech, and the public domain and how those concepts relate to using materials created by others.
Experience various stakeholders’ interests and master the principles of fair use through a mock trial.
Teaching Copyright will require your students to think about their role in the online world and provide them with the legal framework they need to make informed choices about their online behavior. [End Text from http://www.teachingcopyright.org/]
Often people need license FREE images, especially for educational projects. But when searching on Google the results show ONLY ALL images! But there is a little trick to find the right stuff, which I will show you here…
McAfee SiteAdvisor™, software is an award-winning, free browser plug-in that gives safety advice about Websites before you click on a risky site. These site ratings are based on tests conducted by McAfee using an army of computers that look for all kinds of threats (detailed below). The result is a guide to Web safety. The SiteAdvisor software is free, easy to install and even easier to use. And it doesn’t collect any personally identifiable information.
Let me show an practice example here with a request on a Search Engine (Google) with search word “serialz“, I choose this word to show you ALSO the danger of trying to use illegal software, as you will get a “special bonus“, an infection of your computer with a “Trojan“, “backdoor” and other “malware” while downloading them and/or by using these not serious and illegal services, but check yourself by “learning by doing“; search first without having installed McAfee SiteAdvisor (but without clicking the proposed links, otherwise your computer will be infected) and then install the FREE service from McAfee SiteAdvisor and make the same search, screenshot below shows you the results obtained with different protection software installed (WOT, McAfee SiteAdvisor)…
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First result found in Google shows a web site which is detected as malicious, so don’t use the web sites marked wit a red dot!
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By moving the cursor over that “red dot” you will get more information about the state of security of that web site, so NEVER click on such links!!!
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This works ALSO for photos, e.g. search for “justin bieber”, check out screenshot below please.
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You will see again this “red dot” on right hand photo, NEVER click on such photos and don’t download them also!!!
Check my #curation to find best articles, blogs and courses about #education #itsecurity #CyberSecurity #EdCollCoach #GlobalEDU #cyberbullying, #AR #RA #augmentedreality #health #science #QR #qrcodes in EN, FR, DE…
Play the FREE Game and Learn about Cyber Security and Coding
App Advisor
App Advisor helps safe-guard your personal data by telling you exactly which apps you should be cautious of, before they become a threat to your privacy.
Click image to use this free service and find out of your installed Apps are “privacy-friendly” or check new Apps before installing them!
I was very happy when I got delivered that nice looking 2.8 inches TFT with incorporated SDCard. I ordered it on Amazon and it is from ELEGOO. It was delivered with a small CD where a lot of coding examples are integrated and a well done manual. SO, I started as soon as I unpacked it…
As I wanted to use the TFT display as a digital badge with slide show, I created my own images by:
EDU: Digital CitiZENship, CyberSecurity, eSkills, Modern EDU by Gust MEES 