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
SO, you are in EDUcation and you need a Logo which reflects Modern-EDU, Modern-LEARNing, grab this one!
IF you are a student who learns to become a Teacher, EDUcator and/or if you are already on duty: when blogging and/or writing an article, sometimes one needs a logo or a “Word-Cloud” which represents Modern-EDUcation, Modern-Pedagogy and Modern-LEARNing. SO, the above logo you can use it with my permission by giving me credit with a link back to:
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).
I hear you screaming already: I would like to be innovative, I even have some ideas BUT I am fearing about WHAT OTHERS would say and think about!! To be honest, NEVER look about WHAT OTHERS would say, innovation is something NEW and the new will GET up from the beginning NO acceptance, apart from a few which Professional-Development is Up-To-Date, and you probably (mostly) will GET even very hard criticism because people tend for “Listening to reply and NOT for understanding”!!
With ICT in EDUcation and while being (nearly) Up-To-Date with your Professional-Development while you have read the most important books about Modern-EDUcation from renowned researchers and by being online and using Social Media, especially Twitter, you certainly “feel” what MUST change to give OUR students, learners, BEST EDUcation. DO SO, I am pushing you if necessary, the world needs people with courage, motivation, engagement to bring Modern-EDUcation farther!!
And I am NOT talking about tools, Apps, THEY are ONLY facilitators; THE main so-called tool is YOU!!! YOU are modeling the statues (your learners, students) from a raw piece to a Master-Piece because of YOUR talents, knowledge, experience, Up-To-Date Professional-Development. It’s YOUR talent, like in arts, YOUR creativity who sparkles over to the learners, students with YOUR motivation, engagement, passion…
IF NO effort is brought in, NO results will come out!!
NOW, you know the secret ingredients (it’s like cooking…) and then comes the way of the How-To, there WE need to use ALSO Social Media, especially Twitter to connect with the students, learners!!Did I say connecting with students, learners on Twitter and learning together with the whole world; an OPEN place, NOT a closed classroom!!??? Sounds strange, isn’t it!??? Well, it isn’t strange at all, as it is PracTICE for the students, learners, to GET straight in to WHAT they will get used once in the workforce. It’s actually the BEST PracTICE they can get.
As on January 2018 I just have seen ONE Twitter-Chat (if you know another one, let me know please…) WHERE students, learners (average age 20 years old) were involved and it comes from Canada, the University of Ottawa, run by Pierre LEVY. Please check below some screenshots from the transcript of the Twitter-Chat:
.
Click image please to access the tweets
.
Click image please to access the tweets
.
Click image please to access the tweets
.
By following that Twitter-Chat one can see and analyze THE way HOW students are thinking by bringing in THEIR Critical-Thinking, that shows their learning instantly… AND, the students use as well the <===> Twitter Moments <===> to make THEIR reflection about their learning while collecting different tweets from different persons on the Twitter-Chat <===> #UOTM18 <===> and even creating blog posts about it to reflect their learning. The moments and the blogs are made outside the <===> #SchoolCocoon (school, university…) <===> and Pierre LEVY is using this practice since 3-4 years already.
So, as I see it in we have two binary options – stay unfinished or be completely miserable. Let me explain, if we attempt to do the same things for kids in 2028 as we do today we will be woefully ineffective. Very rarely is someone who is ineffective at their job fulfilled by their job and happy in their professional life.
Okay, 2028 seems pretty far away. I challenge you to consider if it is really possible to make slight changes for eight years and then have a monumental shift in years nine and ten. Probably not. So, what’s the point?
The change in our world is constant. Our kids are different than they were ten years ago and will be vastly different ten years from now. Our communities are changing. Our world is fundamentally different and will continue to evolve. In education we must adjust to them and to our world (more importantly their world) or we are going to face becoming dangerously irrelevant.
So, as educators we have one choice. One option to stay relevant. One option to compete. One option to serve our kids with integrity. And perhaps most importantly, one option to be personally happy. That option is to stay unfinished. Embrace change. Love the grind. Have a deep, hard, introspective conversation with yourself that it is never going to be easier to be great at your job. And be okay with that realization.
And I hope – deep in my soul – that accepting the fact that it is never going to be easier energizes you. You were not put on this Earth to be average. None of us were. You have chosen to be a part of the best profession in the world. We have the opportunity to change lives every single day. It is an awesome responsibility, but an even more incredible opportunity.
As the semester comes to an end, I'd like to share with all of you my experiences in @plevy's Knowledge Management class. It's been a pleasure learning with all of you at #UOKM. https://t.co/AHiv5Jifpp
By reading carefully the students, learners blog posts, tweets (Twitter posts), Twitter lists, Twitter Moments and Curation you will see HOW they can GET interested for their own learning by following ONLY a few rules to become digital citizens who know how to use the tools in a responsibility manner WITH understanding about WHAT they are talking and posting!!
THAT is what I call <===> Modern-EDUcation, Modern-LEARNing PracTICE!! Wishing to see OTHER EDUcators, #TEACHers to copy this 😉
.
You might NOT to forget to remind, please, the below, thank you!
.
.
.
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”.
.
Stay tuned for next blog post(s) 😉.. .
Keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: #UOTM18, #UOKM, PKM, PLN, Social Media, #Twitter, Curation, #Blogs, Critical-Thinking, Pierre LÉVY, Intelligence collective, Collective Intelligence, Big Data, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Modern EDU, Modern LEARNing, Communication,
YOU created your blog, WHAT to take care about now!?
.
SO, you created a blog; hopefully you did read my advice on my previous blog posts. Let us have a look back on those blog posts and finding out WHAT WE can do BETTER to have success in the internet blogging community:
In above list of mentioned blog posts you will find already a lot of Tips & Tricks, which are working perfectly as I use them myself. WHAT else to do?
Well, as I am watching a lot of blogs from EDUcators, TEACHers, I analyze that THEY are NOT back-linking as I do (see links above WHO are back-linking) to other published blog posts…); well that is a MUST as YOU have an audience of readers (EDUcators, TEACHers, Students, parents…) WHO want to know how it is run the BEST possible way!
From EDUcators, TEACHers, Professors, Instructors one expects that THEY know THE right way to do it!! THEY have a certified diploma for TEACHing, isn’t it!? 😉 THUS meaning: NOT ONLY publishing <===> Half-Baked stuff <===> BUT first getting informed (search skills on Search-Engines [Google, etc.]) and by curation to find BEST results and LEARNing (especially understanding it!!) from it before publishing!! DON’T forget <===> YOU have an audience of readers (EDUcators, TEACHers, Students, parents…) WHO want to know how it is run the BEST possible way!
VERY rarely (I am lurking on Twitter Chats as also participating…) I see THAT EDUcators, TEACHers and students DON’T know (too lazy???) the HELP and SUPPORT of blog service, such as mentioned below from WordPress e.g.:
Let us come back to the TOPIC. Once created a blog YOU need to GET it known as YOU want that your content gets read by people; SO WHAT to do to get an audience!? BEST PracTICE is to be on Social-Media, especially on Twitter as well as to make curation; both work perfectly together! You DON’T know WHAT curation is, nor Twitter!??? OK, let us have a look on it by following my blog posts and ALSO my curation about curation:
I will show YOU some practical examples as I am used to do, both Twitter and Curation below with screenshots…
.
Click the above image please to access the article(s).
You will see that even in my curation there are links related to my OTHER blog posts (back-linking) which are sending the readers to other blog posts for learning more! This back-linking permits also a BETTER “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) for the “Search-Engines” (Google and others…); thus meaning: YOUR blog will get BETTER found when searching the internet!
Check image below please to find out about the How-To to tweet (post on twitter):
.
Click image please to access the articles
.
By using Social Media Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest as also others… You are sharing your work with others!! Thus meaning: other people will see it and eventually also visiting and reading your precious work! You will grow YOUR audience, that’s what you want, isn’t it?
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).
.
Stay tuned for next blog post(s) 😉
.
Keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: Updates, back-linking to other blog posts, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Spellchecking, WordPress, Keywords (as mentioned in here…), Growth Mindset, Synthesizing Mind, WordPress HELP, Blog Infographic,
Blogging: Is It Difficult!? I Guess Not At ALL! Follow My Advice
I hear nearly each day: Blogging, WHY and How and THEN I don’t have THAT time to do it and WHY SHOULD I do it!? Well, a GOOD question anyway! I will try to explain…
Anybody has a story to tell, WE see it anyway on the comments made on Social Media Facebook and Twitter, SO WHY NOT creating a blog post about it to share YOUR point of view, YOUR learning and YOUR ideas!? Blogging is a GREAT way of sharing the thoughts of someone and it will be very GOOD for learning about <===> Critical THINKing and Proactive THINKing <===> actually a MUST in 21st Century! Society has changed A LOT because of ICT, and SO are the ways of learning and the need to show ALSO OTHERS WHAT’S wrong and WHAT are NEW ideas to make it BETTER! Use ALSO blogging after each “Twitter Chat” to reflect on it, see <===> Update Twitter Chats: WHAT To DO BETTER!?
Use blogging to show YOUR thoughts, WHERE YOU feel uncomfortable, use blogging to show YOUR passions, YOUR hobbies, it will get indexed by the internet and YOUR voice will get further, it will get amplified through the Search Engines; BUT respect the Ethics and Netiquette, as ALSO the Copyright!!!
.
#Blogging#HowTo: Are YOU struggling to write a #blog post!? NOT knowing WHERE to START and WHAT to do!? Create a private (NOT public) one. Chose YOUR TOPIC (Headline) and write some keywords each day and read THEM till YOU find the courage to START and follow, it works 😉 I do so ALSO! e.g. see PIC please…
SO, there a lot of blogging platforms, which one to chose!? I advice YOU to use WordPress, I do so also. It is easy to START with and there are a lot of HELP tutorials about it; please check below:
So, more advice!? YES, please try if possible (else learn about it…) the <===> #SynthesizingMind 😉
.
.
Keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: PLN, PKM, blogs, blogging, the desire to write, Social Media, SEO, Critical THINKing, Proactive THINKing, posting about professional work, posting about Hobbies, writing a story, Synthesizing Mind,
.
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).
Curation: The 21st Century Way To Learn On Its Own Pace And To Organize THE Learning?
Already since 2011 I use Curation for my learning and through it I built my “Professional Knowledge Management“, called also PKM. But WHAT is Curation?
First I was wondering about this new trend and was not sure what to do with it, but after some research on Internet about it I found out that curation to me is the best way to collect articles which I select through quality criteria, which I can archive under different topics and which I find easily back through the “Tags”, as the “Tags” play the role of a table of content. For a Life-Long-Learner like me curation is like a treasure of knowledge and information that is getting shared through the online community.
Through curation one has the possibility to FREE online learning and through sharing it on Social Media to create a community with the same interests. This community is called a “PLN” (Personal [Professional] Learning Network).
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.
BUT, WHY and HOW do I use Curation for my PKM (Personal [Professional] Knowledge Management)?
Content Curation gives me the freedom to OWN my learning, through well chosen sources on the internet, and by giving them the right “Tags” it allows me to find the sources easily back later. BUT first of all I read the articles before I curate them, so I learn through the reading and as more often I do this as BETTER my brain gets trained to understand very quickly!
Curation itself is nothing new, since 1998 I used the same system already with Word documents (in my documents I used keywords at that time…) to create my own learning; curation platforms although have a nice user interface, integrated Social Media sharing options and a possibility for “Tags” creation, as also included statistics!
To me, Curation together with Social Media (especially twitter) and blogging is THE BEST way to learn and ALSO for teaching online!
Keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: Curation, tags, user interface, UI, Lord of Curation, SEO, Learning To Learn, PKM, PLN, Social Media, twitter, Synthesizing Mind, …
.
.
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).
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…
.
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… <===
.
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…
…
.
The needed Tools And Services-The Preparation
.
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
.
.
.
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!
.
.
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.
.
===> 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… <===
.
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 😉
Strange title of a blog, isn’t it? Reality OR fiction? It is REALITY, sorry to say that, I lived it! SO… I decided to share it with YOU dear readers to make sure that YOU don’t have to face it YOURSELVES as it could be very dangerous for YOUR health and as it is NOT professional at all what happens on some places (Communes and Government)! This story shows what is: a lack of knowledge, ignorance, naivety, miser, NO BUDGET and the responsibility of some people! There is a deep need, a MUST for Quality-Control!
===> There is ALSO a MUST that persons who have a responsibility job to follow courses to have the knowledge about what is happening in the 21st Century while using the new technologies, called “ICT” (Information and Communication Technologies)! <===
.
===> NO “Communication” between the different services is lethal for an organization, remember the letter “C” in “ICT” which means “Communication“! <===
When Communes and Government are employing ONLY degrees or big diplomas who are dating more than ten (10) years ago then this is showing in practice where the competency is!!! And when they have ALSO staff members without the necessary 21st Century knowledge about ICT, then the situation comes out like described below…
This is certainly NOT a personal attack, BUT it needs to get said to go for BETTER and for QUALITY as well as for a healthy working environment!
When people with responsibility for the public act with a middle age mentality to integrate 21st Century technology then this comes out:
Scenario explication:
Imagine that YOU have a pool of eight (8) computers with Windows as OS (Operating System) for the public where:
Two (2) of them are NOT working (Out Of Order) since three months
Four of the PC’s run on Windows 7
Two (2) of the PC’s run on Windows XP (!!!)
Some of the PC’s run on Microsoft Office 2003 (!!!)
Some of the PC’s run on Microsoft Office 2007 (!!!)
Some of the PC’s run on Microsoft Office 2010
On ALL of the PC’s persons can’t run applications who need Flash, Adobe applications as the updatesare NOT made for months!
.
.
None of the PC’s has updated browsers, they ALL fail the update tests ===> check below!
NONE of the PC’s has an unzip program installed, so impossible to unzip attachments from the mails to make them readable!!! Their are OpenSource versions (FREE), why are they NOT installed!?
The Network Printerdoesn’t work anymore since 1 week and the employees need to use a USB to copy the documents. Once the documents copied to the USB they need to go to their own office (I will explain later below...) where there are three PC’s and ONLY one where it is possible to print out on a different printer (YES, there are two printers…) who is NOT integrated in the Network, to print out the document and to handle it out to the users! A lot of walking around for... 😦
…
.
SO… Let’s come now to the office PC’s:
There are three (3) PC’s
They run ALL on different Microsoft Office versions: Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010 (!!!)
ONLY one (1) is able to print out (actually) on the printer who is NOT integrated in the Network!
It is ONLY possible to use OUTLOOK on one (1) of the PC’s, on others it doesn’t work!
On some of those three PC’s it isn’t possible to connect an USB on the front as the front interface is probably defect!!!
…
..
What needs to get said is that the employees can’t make any updates as they don’t have Administrator rights to do so!
.
What Does This Mean For The Working Staff!?
.
I just describe it in one phrase: THEY get nearly mad and that are UNACCEPTABLE WORKING CONDITIONS!!!
People who accept still to work on such places will face certainly one day serious health problems, body and brain!!!
.
.
In the practice this means that when someone is working on the office PC on an urgently needed document for the clientele needs to stop his work when somebody else needs to use the USB to print out a document, switching PC with other staff members!In the practice I needed on one day 6 hours to write ONLY one phrase on a Word document, because of such a confuse situation!!!Unbelievable BUT TRUTH!!!
.
Working under such conditions (there are still some other, which I don’t publish yet…) breaks down the energy of the staff and after three days working they are already out powered!!! The permanent switch from one “OS” installed to an other one (Windows XP and Windows 7), from Microsoft Office 2003 to Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010 and the technical problems which the staff has to deal with on a daily base, adding to serve a frustrated and aggressive clientele isn’t a healthy work atmosphere!
.
This is an HORROR SCENARIO on a daily base and this in the 21st Century 😦
.
It is to hope that one day the responsible people of such working (???) places will take their responsibility to change it to a ===> human way of working <===
.
How Could It Be Made Better?
.
First of ALL, invite the responsible staff members (NOT ONLY one…) of that service and ask them in a meeting where the problems are! BE REALISTIC and professional and don’t tell them to provide themselves a list of what is going wrong! When having read the above YOU MUST agree that those people don’t have neither the time, nor the working opportunities, nor the motivation anymore (impossible…) as ===> THEY are already OVERLOADED!!! <===
.
Health problems, increase of sick-leave are the consequences… read following blog to find out more:
A good idea might be ALSO to employ one of those persons forquality control as they know about what is going wrong!
===> Employ also people with field experience and NOT ONLY with degrees (diplomas), WE are talking about practice and NOT theory!!! BETTER even, let the responsible people work themselves in those areas for at least two days to find out about… <===
.
Since today (June 11, 2013) in a meeting, THE DIRECTION got an official report with ALL the mentioned problems! Even while not working anymore for that service I will keep an eye on it…
This logo was created with Wordle. You are authorized to copy it by providing credits to this blog!
.
Tip: NO TIME? Read ONLY the bold! Check out also my Wordle-Logo where the main keywords are present.
This blog aims to help people who start giving courses and/or would like to give courses one day, but others would certainly also find some new and interesting information to help improving their difficult tasks!
Introduction: What’s our role as Teachers, Educators, Instructors?
.The roles ofTeachers, Educators and Instructors are the following and especially in networked learning environments:
Sell your product, that’s your to learn Topic for the learners. Be a good salesman!
Educating the learners to Internet-Safety and to the basics of IT-Security is becoming a Must in 21st Century as we use e-Learning and “Bring Your Own Device” (Hashtag for Twitter = #BYOD)!
We should educate the learners to become good e-Citizen, Digital Citizen
===> The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. -Aristotle <===
.
.
.
KEYWORDS FOR THIS FREE COURSE AND WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
.
===> 21st Century Skills <===, Proactive Thinking, 21st Century Tools, motivation, engaging your learners (students), Learning to learn, respect, e-Citizen, Digital-Citizen, competencies, Professional Development (PD), Life-Long-Learning Strategies, Curation, How-To create a Book on WordPress, Critical Thinking, Quality Publishing, How-To use the 21st Century Tools, The SUCCES of our learners (students) depends on our knowledge, WE as teachers, professors, educators, instructors can always improve, WE as professionals are not allowed to have a “lazy bone attitude”, WE as professionals need to protect the reputation of our profession by providing quality content, Accessibility, Blogging, Online-Safety, Cyber-Hygiene, hygiene, Awareness, motivation, engagement, heroes, Security-Scouts, stay out of the box, adapt to new technologies, be aware of the malware, nobody is perfect, knowing the dangers and risks, responsibility, responsibility of School, responsibility of Education, responsibility of IT-Admin, responsibilities of BYOD users, Apple insecurity, Insecurity of Apps, Principals responsibilities, Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM), risks of BYOD, BYOD-Policy, IT-Security Infrastructure, Teacher-Parents Meeting, Cyberwar, Cyberwarfare, Government, Internet-Safety, IT-Security knowledge basics, UK govt encourages insurers to reward good IT security…
The weakest link in the Security Chain is the human! If you don’t respect certain advice you will get tricked by the Cyber-Criminals!
===> NOBODY is perfect! A security by 100% doesn’t exist! <===
===> “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie – <===
===> The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. -Aristotle <===
.
Protecting the organization’s network and its data from attack and misuse requires more than just a BYOD mentality; establishing secure, mobile-enabled operations requires a mobility access control program that includes corporate-provisioned, approved employee- and partner-owned devices as well as unmanaged guest devices.
Take your time, please! There are a lot of information for some to learn; take it easy 😉
.
.
The Main Skills of a 21st Century Learner and Teacher
The quest to be a modern teacher or student is in full swing. First though, figure out if you have these important 21st century skills.
Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;
Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;
Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;
Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;
Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.
First of ALL, please check these images as on my point of view they show BEST:
I think that “Is your Professional Development Up-To-Date?” is the first question which you need to ask yourselves! You can ONLY give BEST and QUALITY courses when knowing about the latest knowledge in a 21st Century Education. But HOW TO know this?
That’s a question I am getting asked very often from Teachers and Teacher-Students around the world through my Social Media presence on Twitter and I must say what I see on a global base doesn’t make me feel really happy! Lots of teachers around the globe are tweeting, which I encourage to do as much as possible by joining ALSO a so called “PLN“, a “Personal Learning Network“, but ONLY a few shows a real understanding, competencies, about what they are doing; even the so called “Edu-Stars” in certain countries!
Here is my selection of BEST articles and Curation on HOW TO find out:
How-To prepare for giving a good quality course? That’s a question I got asked often from teachers and students in real life as well on the Internet from my “Personal Learning Network” (Hashtag on Twitter = #PLN), so I decided to share my knowledge through this blog and also giving practicaladvice about my lived adventures of giving courses and my evolution for giving better quality courses… We all make mistakes (especially when newbies…) and we have to learn from them; learning by doing and also the will to make it more perfect by a “Life Long Learning-Strategy”!
This professional learning module is designed for those who are unfamiliar with the background to Assessment for Learning. It provides information which answers the key questions about Assessment for learning, proposes some key ideas and asks teachers to reflect on their own classroom practice.
First of all, for whatever writing stuff and teaching activities, make a serious preparation by “brainstorming“. Let it go, let it flow and don’t take care about the order how you write down the stuff who is in your brain; it must first come out and you can later review it and trying to organize it… Below, e.g. you will see my thoughts and “brainstorming” for a new online course, it’s handwritten and not yet completely organized, but it contains the main idea and keywords and that’s the most important anyway…
===> Update (August 05, 2012): I got told about my handwriting that it is :((( I agree, most of the keywords were written while walking and on places where I didn’t have a solid underground to write properly 😉 Check below and read more, so you will understand, but really read it all, my critics back, sorry 😉 <====
.
.
So, once written down as handwritten, for me the best and quickest way, you should have a look on how you could create Topics out from your keywords and best is to create Topics with a question mark! Actually to create this blog ALL my ideas were first ONLY in my brain and I wanted to use the above handwritten “brainstorming” to explain, but then, in the middle of writing the blog I got new ideas, found new stuff through “curation” and “serendipity” gave me new “brain food” to continue with it… So I decided to show you also my handwritten “brainstorming” and “keywords” for this blog, see below”…
.
..
You may even see some keywords represented twice, don’t worry; better bringing in something twice than not at all! Keep your concentration on what your brain tells you to bring out… PS: I hope you can read myhandwritten notes; I keep every time a paper sheet in the shirt pocket and so I write notes down where ever I get the ideas (in the bus, while walking in the nature…). No, no… The other place what you think, I don’t, at least one taboo place, LOL…
.
1st Step: get organized
.
.
.We were talking already about brainstorming by handwritten notices and curation, but I didn’t give you practical examples apart from the handwritten brainstorming, so let’s do this now… I will give you FREE resources which you can use for a best organization for your research, as you need to research first to find best adapted articles to give your courses:
.
.
.
.
There are different ways to collect the necessary information such as collecting, curating information by your own but you can do this also on a collective way (might be good to do it together with your students/learners…):
By providing Topics as a question that will make people curious and it will allow you also to bring in your “critical thinking” which is very important for a quality course. Use also empathy and “emotional intelligence” to get your learners engaged in your course…
.
.
What else should I consider?
.
.
.
To make your course interesting to your learners propose them also to make curation about the Topic they will have to learn, so they will get involved into the learning process by researching their own related resources…
.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, so use pictures and multimedia to enhance the learning. Create a Pictures and multimedia library to enhance your worksheets and blogs… Make this library also available to your students and ask them also to help for building up that library…
Some learners would be curious and they might also want to read some books, so prepare also a list of books and eBooks which they could retrieve in the school library; here again: involve yourlearners also to help building up that list…
Let your learners blog about what they learned and let them Peer review their own blogs, read more here to understand the idea behind it Peer to Peer U – A New Model of Learning.
.
Why connected learning?
Connected learning is a necessity in this digital age. More and more of our students learning, attention, and access to information is taking place outside of classrooms and through online networks and exchanges. Connected learning, however, can help them cultivate the skills necessary for fulfilling adult lives and careers and that formal instruction alone could not afford. Check complete article here Connected Learning.
For young kids choose first a safe blogging service where the blogs will not be public and where ONLY you as teacher, parents and kids have access; this to educate them first about blogging, Internet-Safety, e-Reputation, e-Citizenship, Digital-Citizenship, the dangers of Internet! Once they have the necessary skills you can switch over to the normal blogging services…
.
Create your courses on a “living way“, make them interesting and alive to your learners, show a bit humor as well, show your own motivation and your passion for your job…
Summary: Matching your web site colors isn’t always as easy as it should be. Colors that look good to one person may look terrible to someone else. Color Match is a web site tool that helps you to easily find a perfect color scheme generated from a base color then displays the matching HTML color codes.
.
You want certainly also to create some day online courses, aren’t you? Please check the links below who give you advice:
Accept critics from your learners, how? Create a multiple choice poll where your learners can vote about the quality of your course, accept their critics and discuss with them what about you could change, example below…
.The poll below is multiple choice, so go for it please to let me know your meaning about this blog. Thank you in advance…
.
.
Don’t Forget The Copyright Laws…
.
.
.
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…
.
.
.
.
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 author’s property… Here below a non exhaustive list of laws in different countries…
Please help making this list bigger, when knowing other resources let me know and I will include them. Thanks in advance…
.
Remember the 4 C’s
.
.
The Four C’s: Making 21st Century Education Happen features educational leaders from Envision Schools (California), Catalina Foothills School District (Arizona) and Virginia Beach City Public Schools (Virginia). Each school profile focuses on a unique aspect of how 21st century skills can help prepare students for college or a career. This film highlights both the student perspective, as well as how educators are using the 4 C’s to create a collaborative environment. A presentation of EdLeader21 [edleader21.com] and the Pearson Foundation [pearsonfoundation.org].
.
Is your blog, web site created for best accessibility?
.
What is Accessibility?
.
[Start Text from Online College] The worlds of web designand online learning are interconnected in many ways. As an instructional designer, I work to ensure that courses are effective not only in terms of online navigation and working links, but also in the presentation of meaningful content and interaction. Not all websites are created equal – some have much more helpful layouts and information than others – and it’s a similar situation with online courses. Just as web designers consider the “user experience” when creating new web pages, you should consider “learner experience” when creating new materials for your online course. [End Text from Online College]
.
I suggest to use this tool to check for best Accessibility: “Wave” WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM. It is used to aid humans in the web accessibility evaluation process. Rather than providing a complex technical report, WAVE shows the original web page with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the accessibility of that page.
One can respect best accessibility knowledge and still have forgotten something (so did I…), here a screenshot from my test of this blog, check below to find out. So I really love that free service as it gives me best results… But it’s ONLY a tool, there is still more to consider as giving a transcript for published videos as well as a header for videos, which I still have to include also, later…
.
Click image to enlarge…
.
Check the links on your publication(s)!
Once your blog and/or website published check ALL the inserted links to control if they are working correctly (broken link?) and ALSO if they are pointing to the RIGHT address! One wrong letter included in the URL could lead to direct YOUR visitors to a malicious website, take care!!! This is called “Typo Squatting” or “URL Hijacking“!
The bad guys created already domain names using these mistakes to infect your devices with malware!
Are you prepared in case of a break of Internet connection?
.
It certainly happens once to each teacher, educator, course instructor that in the middle of the course the Internet connexion was broken, not a real fun when one based its course ONLY on Internet, isn’t it!? But when we are well prepared we can continue our course also without the Internet connexion if necessary! But, how?
.
There are several freeware programs on the software market which allow us to copy complete websites with all the present linksinHTML format and we need then only to burn it to a CD or DVD. One of those programs is HTTrack which I have been using since long…
.
.
[Start Text from HTTrack]
HTTrack is a free (GPL, libre/free software) and easy-to-use offline browser utility.
It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site’s relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the “mirrored” website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system.
WinHTTrack is the Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Seven release of HTTrack, and WebHTTrack the Linux/Unix/BSD release. See the download page. [End Text from HTTrack]
.
Once the whole web site with all the links and its content are downloaded you only need to burn it to a CD or DVD or maybe to a Memory-Stick, your choice…
.
.
And what about IT-Security + Internet-Safety in a world of BYOD?
.
I see strange words in that Topic there, what are You talking about there, could You explain more, please!? That is probably the questions you have, isn’t it? Most of teachers, educators and instructors are using Apple and Mac related devices and are not used to IT-Security, vulnerabilities and don’t even see the necessity of IT-Security in a world of “Bring Your Own Device“, called also “BYOD” and/or “BYOT” (Bring Your Own Technology)! But in 21st Century YOU should, remember your responsibility against your learners and the society, you are the ones who should give BEST education to your learners to prepare them for the working world and there IT-Security plays a BIG role!
.
Click image above to access the FREE courses about basic IT-Security and “BYOD”…
The trend involves exploiting vulnerabilities that go as far back as 2009 in Office documents. Other cross-platform, third-party technologies favored by hackers include Java, Adobe PDF and Adobe Flash, Microsoft security researcher Methusela Cebrian Ferrer said Tuesday in the company’s Malware Protection Center blog. [End Text from InfoWorld]
.
As this course is already very big, so I won’t bring in more information in here, instead check out please the following links where you will find the necessary information with Tips and advice:
By checking the above courses you will remark also that I used different “techniques” to present them, even that one is made with “cartoons”. Why? There are different types of learners and different age of learners, so one course could attract more attention to a certain targeted group as another one! Think about that also, when you don’t see that wanted success so show people these different styles of presentation and ask them which one they would prefer and if necessary adapt your courses to that style also. You will sometimes need to create courses in different presentation styles…
.
Make a list of possible questions that learners could ask, be prepared!
.
For new teachers this will be the hardest part, for “oldies” that would be easy anyway as they know already the questions which would get asked even before the course starts, experience… But anyway, I suggest to create a FAQ‘s list online, on the internal server and/or an a server where your blog is hosted. Why? You would have at any time and from anywhere where ever you are (and your learners) access to it to revise it, very important! I suggest also that you ask your students to help for creating such a FAQ’s list, engage them! They will learn to learn…
.
Creating a FAQ’s list, but how? I am not used to that, what is your advice? There are different ways to create a FAQ’s list:
.
You can do it by using tables (easy way even for non-programmers), check my example in French here please:
This list will be a great tool for yourself who saves you a lot of time when once created, show it to your learners and every time you would have access also to it: So once a question is asked, switch to that resource on Internet and/or on a local server…
.
So, after evaluation of some Tweeps (Twitter user) of my “PLN“, here below my FAQ’s with questions and answers I got asked already…
.
Q01: I looked over your blog, and it has a ton of info. A bit overwhelming for folks new to your site.
A01: Overwhelming, YES when one doesn’t know how to learn 😉 I suggest to read it like a book! Bookmark it and read it by chapters…
Learning-to-Learn
I consider later creating a WordPress-Book and bring in the whole in different chapters… But first the whole knowledge must come out to not lose the main ideas and then later it should be split into different chapters where one can even go deeper…
Here the link on How-To create a WordPress-Book for people who are interested…
Q02: between the lines a bit wider? I use an iPad…
A02: I use the free version of WordPress and I don’t have influence on how WordPress converts it to iPad visibility, sorry. On a Laptop it looks OK, as I every time take care to leave enough space between the lines and also between the paragraphs to make it an easy read…
Q03: Lot of stuff. I loved that role of educator. Handwritings little bit messy. You got point!
A03: Concerning the handwriting, YES it looks mess as I wrote most down by walking without having a solid underground to write, but ideas must come out when one gets them 😉
Q04: Concerning IT-Security, I use a Mac and other Apple devices, I don’t need to take care about IT-Security!
A04: Hahaha, a BIG laugh for that 😉 What’s about updating your knowledge base? Check here please to find out the necessity to take care about IT-Security:
Engage your learners into the learning process, How-To?
.
Propose them also a Twitter Chat concerning a certain Topic of your courses, they will get engaged and motivated also. And they will get used to Social Media… But make a professional preparation for your Twitter Chat, I have seen strange “pseudo Chats” from big companies (I don’t name them…) and such Chat’s missed definitely their goal and didn’t reach the audience wanted…
My proposition for organizing an professional Twitter Chat is to follow #lrnchat, where here the link of their Blog who explains in detail on How-To http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/. Enjoy to follow this Twitter Chat, you will learn a lot through that Chat and about how to run a Twitter Chat, BEST Practice 😉
Why all these mentioned topics and why is this blog so big?
.
Personally I want that my learners will get the best education and that they also have a certain freedom of working themselves for their own knowledge acquisition.
Getting learners engaged in a course makes learning more valuable for them, they will learn even more as you might realize…
By providing a blog with a lot of information it’s like a “book“, bookmark it and find your resources which you need also later; ONLY one address.
In 21st Century we need to have a lot of digital knowledge and digital skills…
Creating a quality course needs a lot of things to think about…
Use your blog to create a real website if there are a lot of information to bring over, like I do with most of my blogs… Once the whole information brought down in the blog you can later create small blogs who include ONLY a part of the published knowledge and you can even create a book with WordPress where you bring in the different chapters. This is also possible with WordPress, check here: Write a Book
Thus meaning, create first your main blog (as I did here…) and later on you create the chapters as a new blog (a short one…) and create then a “WordPress Book” where you detail the single chapters mentioned in your main blog…
You may have a look here to see how YOU can use a WordPress-Book as I did it with my FREE courses about IT-Security in French already http://gustmeesfr.wordpress.com/
.
Final word: did YOU find out where YOU have to improve!?
.
BTW: I learned a lot while creating this blog (mostly a website now…) and I know that myself I have to improve, and YOU!?Life Long Learning that’s what ALL of us who are involved in Education need to do, isn’t it!? I created this blog to give some guidelines to young teachers and educators which whom I am in contact in real world as well as on Internet and who asked me what is best preparation for a giving quality course… As I gave courses for eight (8) years to youth, primary schools, teachers from primary schools and mostly to adult and seniors, so this above is my experience and also my learned while preparing this blog.
Advice: What you should know absolutely is when giving courses to adults and seniors is that they are not anymore used to learn, the brain is not anymore that much ready to accept new “input” to learn, they don’t have anymore practice with learning! They are out of the learning process and their brain is more directed to “profit”, as they are in the working world 😉 So use, the “profit” psychological to get them involved with pleasure again to learn. My own experience has shown me that you will need about +/- 4-6 hours before you get them used again to learn really, before the brain switches to “back to school“!
.
I will accept also any constructive critics as also some more resources from you dear reader, nobody is perfect, so you might have more knowledge as I have… I will update this blog when getting new knowledge and also when getting new valuable resources from my readers and they will get mentioned as well in this blog then (if wished so)…
And don’t forget it, been involved in Education as a teacher, educator, instructor is not only a job! It’s a passion, love it and share your motivation with your learners…
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!
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 and Security Enhancement Structure).
First I was wondering about this new trend and was not sure what to do with it, but after some research on Internet about it I found out that curation to me is the best way to collect articles which I select through quality criteria, which I can archive under different topics and which I find easily back through the “
===> 21st Century Skills <===, Proactive Thinking, 21st Century Tools, motivation, engaging your learners (students), Learning to learn, respect, e-Citizen, Digital-Citizen, competencies, Professional Development (PD), Life-Long-Learning Strategies, Curation, How-To create a Book on WordPress, Critical Thinking, Quality Publishing, How-To use the 21st Century Tools, The SUCCES of our learners (students) depends on our knowledge, WE as teachers, professors, educators, instructors can always improve, WE as professionals are not allowed to have a “lazy bone attitude”, WE as professionals need to protect the reputation of our profession by providing quality content, Accessibility, Blogging, Online-Safety, Cyber-Hygiene, hygiene, Awareness, motivation, engagement, heroes, Security-Scouts, stay out of the box, adapt to new technologies, be aware of the malware, nobody is perfect, knowing the dangers and risks, responsibility, responsibility of School, responsibility of Education, responsibility of IT-Admin, responsibilities of BYOD users, Apple insecurity, Insecurity of Apps, Principals responsibilities, Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM), risks of BYOD, BYOD-Policy, IT-Security Infrastructure, Teacher-Parents Meeting, Cyberwar, Cyberwarfare, Government, Internet-Safety, IT-Security knowledge basics, UK govt encourages insurers to reward good IT security…
EDU: Digital CitiZENship, CyberSecurity, eSkills, Modern EDU by Gust MEES 