To blog, or not to blog

At the beginning of this month I had the chance to go to a seminary about education and blogging. It called my attention for a couple of reasons I’ll mention in a sec. As I said in my first post, blogging never called my attention but, since I found how interesting and fun this can be, my thoughts and opinions are being modified a bit.

Well, as I said before, the seminary called my attention because it announced blogging to be “the new way of learning”, interacting between teachers and students and also because it remarked the fact that technology is, nowadays, the only tool that many students have in order to study and increase their knowledge. Just think about Wikipedia which is an online encyclopedia. It has it all!

The lecturer said that teachers should include this methodology (blogging) in their teaching process in order to relieve all the work they have to do. Imagine how much a teacher has to do to mark tests and essays during the whole weekend because, obviously, cannot do it in classes, where he/she devotes all the time on teaching and planning new classes. I thought it would be nice to have all your pupils doing their homework, researches or essays online and then, at home (or practically wherever you are) check what they have done. That is amazing.

Some can complain that students will be even lazier because they won’t do an effort on reading and writing and analyzing most of the things they do and will only copy and paste everything they find. Actually, and contradicting this thought, if you Google something, you’ll have to read a lot before finding what you really need. Subsequently, to express what you want to say you’ll need to clarify your ideas and then post it… after checking that your other classmates haven’t posted the same in their blogs.

In addition, computing is what the students know the most nowadays. Therefore, why shouldn’t a teacher take advantage of this by giving them and bringing the students what they really like? The only drawback we can find when talking about blogging is the fact that only 50% of all the population in Chile has internet connection at home or at least, have access to it, which can be a major problem to face if blogging wants to be incorporated as a teaching and learning tool. Another problem is having students that don’t really want to do anything with it but that is up to every teacher and his/her teaching abilities.

Personally, blogging was and IS a good thing to be done. Firstly, it makes you think and be careful on what you post (you don’t want everybody to realize all the mistakes you make in a sentence). Secondly, you can write as much as you want of whatever you have in mind to write about. Isn’t that perfect? One of my assignments was writing about my favorite website but, as I didn’t have one, I wrote about my favorite music style and it was still accepted.

With no doubts, blogging should be used to teach in classrooms (or should I say everywhere?). I will do it for sure. I hate wasting paper in things that can be done in a pc. You see? There is another advantage: is environmentally friendly. To conclude, I have to admit that education has gone to old with its methods and techniques. Christopher Columbus was taught centuries ago just as we are being taught these years. We have to start a new way of learning, and blogging, who knows, may be part of it.

What a nightmare!

Cool!

That’s all I had to say after today’s class in which I had the chance to do whatever I wanted to do on Internet. Yeah, right! Whatever I wanted according to what the teacher told us to do (it doesn’t mean I’m complaining about it). If I have this kind of attitude is just because I had to face, once again, the reality of not comprehending crosswords puzzles at all. I mean, who do they think we are? How am I suppose to guess the word that fits in every blank space if there are many (not to say thousands) options?

How does this problem is still chasing me, when I thought test or quizzes at university were not based on this kind of methodology? I’m afraid that, instead of studying from English Grammar in Use, I’ll have to start buying crosswords magazines in order to train my mind and put my knowledge “up to it”.

I love taking pop quizzes on internet. I’m amazed of how many sources you can find to complement your classes as a teacher but, one thing I’m sure of: I’m not using crosswords puzzles ever. There might be more people around, like me, trying to hide themselves to the embarrassing truth of not knowing what to do with something like it. That’s something I desperately hope for.

Theater

Last week I had the chance to go to Teatro La Memoria to see the play “Rata de dos patas” (rat of two legs) and I had the impression that this good play would not become famous at all just because there are not enough chances of publishing such good activities anywhere.

It is interesting to see how the media tries to devote some time talking about culture and things connected with arts. The New York Times makes an effort on publishing about theater but, according to what I felt, they didn’t reach a good level of what commenting theater is about. They just talked about the event itself and how many people attended. The Brisbane Times website doesn’t even have a place to seek for such events, which tells us that, maybe, in Australia (or more exactly, the place where the newspaper comes from) people don’t even know what theater is.

What I’d highlight the most today is that The Guardian had in fact a good place related to the topic, and not only a place where they talk and describe about it but a place to blog your own opinion about the issue. What is more, apart from informing you about the play itself, they teach you some social concerns by including information about social concerns like Jean Charles de Menezes, who was a man confused with a terrorist and murdered by the police in England and that has became the theme of many plays within the city.

It would be very interesting to see at least one fourth of a page in Las Ultimas Noticias talking about good things like theater instead of gossiping about what this soccer player did last night with that brainless model. That is not culture at all but, if they sell that is because we’re asking for it, aren’t we?

Thank God

One of my most hidden dreams is having a kid. Actually, I’m not the one who’s going to have it inside, but my wife will. What I wanted to say is that I want to be a father and I think it will be the greatest experience ever. Even though I want to have kids I don’t want them right now, (despite the fact that I’m doing a big effort as if I wanted them now –joke-).

Nevertheless, I’m not here to talk about my wishes but to comment on something I saw today about pregnancy, population and birth control. It is a true fact that population worldwide has gone further than 6 trillion people (don’t know if that amount is ok, I have serious problems identifying numbers with lots of zeros) and, that that amount will duplicate itself within the century, bringing together lots of problems to our planet.

I can’t deny that the statement deeply called my attention. I totally agree with contraceptives, but since I’m a believer I know I have a fight against my ethical thoughts and contraceptive methods. Nevertheless, and not denying reality, I knew that about 60% of the active-sexual-life people are using one of these methods to prevent pregnancy. The interesting thing that called my attention is what would it be if we no pills or condoms where available nowadays? Would we have 12 trillion people worldwide already? Would our world be already destroyed or, in other words, eaten by ourselves?

Thank God somebody had the great idea of giving us the chance to decide whether to have a baby every time we make love or when we really want to have it. I think that, ironically, we have to add to the global warming definition that “it is also when people make babies without protection”. Taking everything into account I must say that my opinion is, ‘to save the world, make love... not babies’.

Nourishment for your ears

One of the topics of our last philosophy classes was “worldmusic” and, according to what Professor Ramirez said about it, these CDs came to my mind instantly. I don't really know if these CDs can be categorized as worldmusic but what I can tell is that I cannot live without them. That is why today, instead of writing about my favorite website, I want to write about my favorite CDs.

Lagrimas Negras is the first part of this duo formed by the Cuban piano man Bebo Valdés and the flamenco singer Diego "el cigala". It gave me goosebumps while listening cuban and latin american ballads sung softly by that deep gipsy accent which mixes two different musical styles.
I personally believe that all the songs are worth to mention but if I had to choose a couple of them I would say La Bien Pagá and Lagrimas Negras (which is also the name of the disc).

Lagrimas Negras was released in 2003 and by 2007 they had sold more than 1,000,000 copies by now. In 2008, Diego Cigala released Dos Lagrimas which was made by himself (without Bebo Valdés) but following the same style. Some good songs I'd mention are María de la O, Dos Gardenias and Caruso.

I know that these productions may not be the most interesting thing to listen for young people nowadays but, I'm convinced that music is culture. Reggaeton, hip-hop, salsa or even cha-cha are good! but so is flamenco, bosanova, tango, folk and many others. Let's give our ears a break and give them a variety of sounds, impressions, feelings and traditions that only music can offer.

Movie comment

I’m trying to make an effort categorizing and selecting the movies I liked the most but it is a hard decision. I’m not good at watching movies. I rather take a nap than spending 3 hours to get nothing (valuable)... or maybe do something more interesting like reading a book or learning some new stuff on my pc.
Nevertheless, Couple months ago two movies called my attention because of the plot and the content which was not completely fantasy nor completely reality (and I love that! History mixed with fiction). The first one is Da Vinci’s code. I know it is old (…) but by the time I was living in a country where there the access to new movies was not good at all.
Anyhow, the movie I want to mention is named just as the book: Angels and Demons. It is Da Vinci’s Code’s second part (as a movie) but in fact, and according to what I’ve heard, the book was actually written before Da Vinci’s code. It takes place in the Vatican City and shows the conflict between science and religion rolled by the Catholic Church and the Illuminati, an ancient “enemy” that stole an antimatter weapon which will be used to destroy the city. The movie includes, wisely, all the myths that people (or history) has made up of the Vatican City and its people.
The main character of the movie is Tom Hanks (the same guy of the volley ball called Wilson) who works to solve a murder (well… there are many) and prevent the terrorist act against the Vatican. Obviously, Tom Hanks risks his life dangerously but, in the end, saves the city (just like every American hero does). Original... don't you think so?

WTF?

Couple days ago I was going to take a picture of a martial art school called Taekwondo WTF. As you see, there are not to many places called “WTF” nowadays and, when I was about to take the picture, some random guy came to me asking what I was doing. Surprised (and a little scared must confess), I answered that I wanted to keep a record of the sign without any other intention. Before I could finish, this man started talking about how much he enjoyed Taekwondo and how good he was at it.

At that certain point of the conversation I was absolutely terrified. His eyes never looked at me… they were moving all around like if he was trying to hide himself from the "enemy" or something. He kept walking back and forward like not knowing if he had to stay or leave. Fortunately my mobile phone rang and, completely frightened but looking absolutely calmed I finished the conversation making up that I was in a hurry.

After this experience, I wondered why people never realize how scary they can be. I'm sure the way this guy approached me that day wasn't the best one but I couldn't help wondering also if I was the weirdo that doesn't comprehends others. Anyway, what I'd like to say is that I understand girls now, more than ever, when they say they walk scared on the streets. I'm pretty sure there must be more than one I-love-taekwondo-guy walking around. Fortunately, I'm a man who owns a mobile phone that rings in the right moment... fortunately.

Youniverse...I'll give it a thought

The results on youniverse.com showed that I'm a "Sofisticat" (yeah, sure). Anyway, I felt kind of satisfied when I read the result cuz I thought it was going to be something different such as... "mad homeless" or "psycho" or just "English teacher" but not.

At least, the test showed something good. And it seemed to me that the purpose is making you feel better by showing only good stuff. There were no bad characteristics to describe! The test never showed how bad I am managing my time or the selfish I am with my money. It didn’t say how much I love gossiping and making fun of people.

However, and knowing that these are the same word for all who make it match correctly, makes me happy to know that I am a “worker bee” saying that I like new things and a never-ending appetite for learning and discovering new things. It also says that I’m a “high time roller” which is someone who lives in style, worried about fashion and health.

What worries me the most is that it says I’m sociable. I consider myself very reserved and taciturn. I don’t talk if I don’t need to do it and don’t share with anybody I don’t know but…who knows, maybe the conception I have about myself is wrong and I probably should pay more attention to what these smart guys of Youniverse have to say about me.