Merry Christmas!

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There're some things that happened lately that recalled some proverbs in my head

Sit on the bank of a river and wait: Your enemy's corpse will soon float by.
Nobody can harm you the way you could harm yourself alone...

And I am glad, I am reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally glaaaaaaaaaaad!

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Last week I went to a drug store and I bought some medicines. The lady told me that they were expensive and one was around 6 leva (3 euro), but I said okay and she gave them to me and asked for 3,95 leva (2 euro). I gave her 5 leva (2,5 euro) and she gave me 1,05 leva (52 cents) back. When I got back home I saw the slip and the prices on the boxes of the medicines - the price was 16.40 leva (8,20 euro). I told some friends I was going back to the pharmacy to give the rest of the sum to the lady there and a couple of them told me I was stupid... Am I stupid actually?!

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Well, I am still not sure which language to use here... Perhaps English is better so more people all around the world could understand (if anybody reads my blog of course), But still Bulgarian is the language i think in better... Anyway...

I am tired. I am sleepy. But I can't help staying this late all the time since I am used to go to bed la... ergh... early in the mornings. It's a kind of a bad habit I can not get rid of. I used to write poems or paint pictures many years ago while staying awake, but now I just stay and stare in the monitor wasting my time...

Well, hello you over there!

Sorry, but I'll go in Bulgarian, because the survey I put a link to is for people who know it...

Здравейте!
Това е линк към въпросника за дисертацията ми: http://sc.noastudio.net/ Моля, попълнете го, а и го пратете на свои приятели да го попълнят! Цялата работа отнема около 10-ина минути, ако го попълвате, без да се замисляте кой е "най-подходящият" отговор ;)

Благодаря!

Hey, a poll here! Don't hesitate, but participate!

By the way, МОЖЕ ДА СЕ ПОПЪЛВА И НА БЪЛГАРСКИ!

A Poll

The Internet and audiovisual media influence is unprecedented in modern culture. Communication environment becomes a habitat where the Electronic Culture human builds his/her own self-concept, his/her image of himself/herself, his/her environment mental pictures and his interactions in a whole new way. Reality becomes less and less represented and imitated in the Information Society. It gets more and more simultaneously built but not as something that occurs alongside the human but around him. After being side viewer for a long time now the individual becomes a participant in the media and cyber space.

A unique feature of the Internet is that it depends on the user – the individual could control the information he gives about himself/herself, he/she could manipulate his/her own identity, he/she could build and maintain his/her own computer based person – a Virtual Self. As far as one possesses specific characteristics that are different from the Everyday's one and being compared to virtual environment, the Virtual Self transforms from being a metaphor to becoming reality.

Just compare your everyday to your virtual identity; are they different in the characteristics of the image you maintain in the physical reality and the one you build in the Internet?

It's 2 a.m. and I feel like I have to share a poem I translated some time ago. It's Nikola Vaptsarov's

Valediction
To my wife

Sometimes I'll be your night dream
And your unwanted company,
Don't leave me out there waiting
and leave the door unbolted.

I'll enter slowly and a quiet gaze
Will soothe your gentle shoulders
And when I get enough of you a kiss will haze
my footsteps on the threshold...


Here's the original (in Bulgarian)

Прощално
На жена ми

Понякога ще идвам във съня ти
като нечакан и неискан гостенин.
Не ме оставяй ти отвън на пътя –
вратите не залоствай.

Ще влезна тихо. Кротко ще приседна,
ще вперя поглед в мрака да те видя.
Когато се наситя да те гледам –
ще те целуна и ще си отида.

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Frankly I am not quite sure there is something meaningful to write about... It is not that nothing happens in my life but the things are either too trivial to spend time sharing or too significant to make me want to leave them behind... It is calm period I am in now. I hope it does not precede a storm...

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Back to Sofia... Well, everything comes to it's end one day or another. Sorry to disappoint you, but today seems to be not a good day for writing in my blog, so see you soon! ]:-)

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Oh, I haven't slept enough but I have to travel to Plovdiv. I have to see and give some presents to my parents and see my best friend prior to his wedding... Will be back soon!

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I don't know for how long I could stand writing here, especially in English, but it is still fun...
Anyway, after a looooooooong and exhausting trip, we've finaly got home from Ohrid. Now I am trying to focus on my everyday life - it's hard to get back on your feet after such an adventure.

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Last night we made our videos for the project. All team work! We borrowed a handmade stage the clawn I've written about uses for his performances, and we made our own puppet show using socks and other stuff like plastic bags and even curlers. It was fun! Creativiti is something we should use more often in our work and we should encourage our students to be more creative as well!
As for today, we are making our final preparations for The Day - tomorrow we will present our work...
Hope Minister of ecucation will like it...
Keep your fingers crossed!!!

A Poll

Since I have to make some embelishments of the wiki me and my group make, but I still can not choose which one of those two pictures to choose, so little help here:

The topic is Internet Education dnd the options are:

Option One:
A child burried under a heap of textbooks and agricultural production, but still there is a notebook giving some taste of technology

Option Two:
A young woman using multimedia, notebook and scanner with eyes that show strong and persuasive confidence

So, vote by a comment you can post under!

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Well, today we have worked on our Big Time EU-wiki-project. Have a bite :)

In using wikis in schools, students are not only learning how to publish content, they are also developing and using all sorts of skills like collaboration, negotiation skills and making things by common consent with others so this means they have either to persuade/make them agree on correctness and relevance of the information, or agree with other opinions, so this way students begin to teach each other in social skills.

Well, as far as socializing is another one of the activities I favour most, I should always be a good example for everybody, so now I am going to the beach!

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We had a beach party last night. Today everybody is nervous. I still wonder how do I manage to stay safe and sound with all these angry people trying to take over my computer...

Well, anyway, today we went DEAP(E)R in Designing, Encoding, Assembling, Publishing and Revising projects. This appears to be the framework of a good teaching process.

The first step is to create a visual concept, an immage of what you are going to do and hou you would like it lo look like in the end.

The other step, the one I think is the most important, is the Encoding process - you could move a mountain while designing, assembling and publishing а project but still it could be not of any use to anybody if he/she could not understand you because of lapses you might make in making the things understandable (decodable) to others.

Well, assembling and publishing seem easy when you have Internet and good experience working with the information sources there.

Eureka! I've invented the wheel! Whell, there was nothing to design, encode, assemble and publish about the wheel - it was a pure insight! But I sure have to revise if this is an actual wheel after all! So Revision is of course an important step - it's when you have to recount if the thing you have had in mind to do is the same thing you have actually done at the end. And if so - it's ok, but if not - one should go and check where exactly he/she went wrong in going DEAP(E)R... and hope not to sink...

Everybody went somewhere for the weekend: part of the classes went to Bitola and another part - to Struga. I stayed in Ohrid. Well nothing much happened on saturday except that I was sleepy all day long because of the music now we have every evening at the restaurant below starting friday evening. So being sleepy I fell asleep on the beach and got sun-burned on saturday. That was because I didn't want to use any oil or cream. I have been sunbathing for a week and have got no tan because of the cream I use, it appeared to be too protective... Sunday morning one of the women who helps us in cleaning the rooms came into ours went to the balcony to check if there was any litter there, washed the bathroom and then by habit she locked the door outside with her key although she saw 3 of 4 of us still sleeping in the room. I was actually awake and tried to say good morning but she didn't even look aside - just like a robot. She didn't even think if there was a point of locking the door and where the 4th of us was - all habits.

And all those three things (the music, the sunburns and the cleaning lady) remind me of the education system in a funny way. Well habits are something very dangerous in teaching. There is a proverb we use in Bulgaria that says "Why should I bother if I can not bother" but I am going to return to it later on.

First it was the band in the back yard of the dormitory's restaurant (so called terrace). They were Macedonian but all the three nights since they played only Serbian and Croatian songs (mainly turbo folk). This is what they are used to. And no matter there are many wonderful Macedonian songs, not only folklore but modern ones, they just kept playing Serbian ones: a rutine, a habit...? Or perhaps it is safer to stick to what you already know...?

So was the cleaning lady. I am sure she's not too rigid to see and realize that someone is in the room and someone is missing but perhaps she is so bored of her work that she just does not care about the world around her and she is just "robotized". So why try something new when it's easier to do things the way you've always done them...Well but trying new aproaches is not always quite safe anyway. So was the point with my sunburn. No matter I've gotten used to take care of my skin I've tryed a whole new way of sunbathing without any protection so now it hurts...

The moral of all these 3 stories is that you ought to be adequate to the novelties but you also have to be careful and not to be too eager to adopt them... There are many old-fashioned teachers in our education systems that might get really harsh sunburns if they just go on using internet without being prepared (well trained) for that.And let's just not talk about those who are too rigid and "robotized" at their working places not willing to see if there is something out of theis underground tunnels ;)

As for today we were given an assignment in order to please the EU* ;)

The other think was that we've made some revision of wikis. They are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. Wikipedia, for example, is one of the best-known wikis. But wikis' purpose in schools is to create an online text that teacher and students can both contribute to or students can even try to create their own class Wikipedia with whe fuul range of features - from pictures to videos. Besides the information wikis help to be shared they give an example of a collaborative environment that could even teach students how to work along with others and to respect other person's opinion.

So now I feel sorry I'havent been to Bill and Vasko's classes last year because I had my own group of university students this year and we did it the old-fashioned way, but just wait to see me next year!

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*That's Bill and Vasko actually but they think we do not know that... well we are not that... ergh... young not to understand it, but it's kinda sweet to ignite us this way - there is always big enthusiasm and a little bit of fear when you go into such an assignment so it has to be ok with the projects I think ;)

We went to a concert last night, for there is a Balkan music and dance festival here in Ohrid. The performers were dancers from Resen, Macedonia; singers from Sofia, Bulgaria and an ensemble from Bar, Montenegro. Montenegrins were those who stayed the most on the stage and they have been given the most of applauses... It was funny, Macedonians and Bulgarians were performing traditional folklore and Montenegrins performed some kind of "soft turbo-folk" - songs that you usualy enjoy being on a table trying to get drunk and forget the troubles you have. In two words: false singing through bad microfones... That made me think of the adequacy of the performance of the actor to the needs of the audience... Goffman again... so no matter how "arty" you are, no matter how hard you try to dance (Macedonians were great and hypnotizing), no matter how correct you sing (as a Bulgarian I have lestened to many professional and well trained singers but those young people were really magnificent), the public needs what it needs...

Now for the day... Bill's public needed more on RSS and netvibes, so Bill gave it what it needed. Now I know what RSS is for so netvibes is waiting for me to put some stuff on... Then it came the turn of Wikipedia to get into the focus of our attention. The Wiki is something I know and I've written there some infos about my home city and the villages my parents are from...

No beach today!!!


Hey, I was kiddin' ;)

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There was a clown in the back yard of the dorm last night. He was funny of course provoking others. But he was kinda sad in his 'funnyness' as well... Making fun of oneself seemed always sad to me... Anyway it reminded me of Goffman's role theory where everybody appears to be an actor and through his acting he tries to make others act as public and the public - act the way the actor wants it to... Well every one of us tries to get into the actor's role so here's my play

Me (a good student): Today we've spoken about Netvibes, RSS and Google alerts. Netvibes is something good so it helps a person have an easy access to all the content he/she needs to operate with in one place. I think it will be of a great help to me in order to organize all the feeds I am using to find information and search for different oppinions in the topic I work on, my dissertation.

Others, especially professors (a good public): Oooooohhhh...

Me (a good student): RSS is something I didn't get too well but I've remembered there was an explanation in the textbook, so I've checked it there... it's said that RSS helps the content come to the reader instead of the reader retrieving the content... Well, I have to read it one more time...

Others, especially professors (a good public): Hummmmmmmmm...

Me (a good student): Google Alerts is the thing I liked most and I've already created almost 10 of them... It's a shame it only operates with and searches within English sources but not Bulgarian for example... Ergh, I'll survive I think... But it is cool anyway - you have all you need without having to go and search everytime and then search ahain within the pages that have* been found already...

Others, especially professors (a good public): Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh...


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*There I am not sure if it should be "have" or "had"... Perhaps I have to take a beach therapy... ;)

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It's too cold here... my fingers are like little dark blue stones so I can hardly write... my thoughts freeze in the very moment they occur...
Today we made a new blog working in groups. Though we were divided into randomly selected groups, almost everybody went along working with his friends again. So I went with Lina and Laura - two beautiful blond girls, one form Russia, the other - from Latvia. All of us (or so me and Laura believe) speak Russian so it was fun refreshing my foreign language skills. Three of us made a new blog on teaching matters, everyone could go and see it here It's fun but besides that it's a real experience because me and Lina have to pretend we are students and Laura should behave as being our teacher - a kind of psychodrama that makes me look at the education process in another way and from another perspective. I think walking in someone's shoes helps a person see clearer the world he operates in even it is as small as a class-room and be more adequate to needs of others. I should do this more often... it's kinda refreshing...
Now I have to go doing my homework - it's hard here and professors are very demanding!

PS Do not hesitate to leave your comments!
See ya at the lake! ;)

some other thoughts

Well what...
Today we've been discussing on educational matters and the advantages of blogs in educational process. I've actually had some mistrusting thoughts on relying only or mostly on computers and internet in modern education because I still think the teacher-student liaison is of great importance not only for the learning but for the personality forming process as well. I do not think so any more... it was just another manifestation of my innate initial scepticism towards everything... after I've counted to 10 I've realized that computer is not going (or at least so far) to replace the teacher-student liasion but it could only be of a great assistasnce... anyway, normal people change, me too ;)
I've always known blogs exist and I've always known they were a kind of diaries where people share thoughts and oppinions... and I've always kept this secret far away from my dissertation chairperson ;) My dissertation is on Self-concept Dynamics in Specific Environments of Communication this means Internet and Virtual Self, or in other words the Self that went on virtualising himself/herself. So far I am surveying MUDs, chats and forums and how a person represents him/herself to others in the Virtual reality but blogs are another story - there a person is supposed to have a picture (if real) so this lives him no room enough for experiments with identity. Anyway if being real blogs are a simple reflection of the true identity... But if not...
I am confused... this means I'd have to put some more sentences (there are a few so far) about blogs in my dissertation... may be some research...
My head is a mess... I am in a desperate need of a beach!!! Is there any there!?

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Good morning!

Here's almost OK... there was a party last night but I went to bed early... I try to get in shape so I go jogging everty evening but there was not any hot water yesterday so I took a cold shower and it appeared to be not too good for the mood ;)
There are some beaches nearby, most of them are not too look-alike, but it's still okay. The problem is that we have to take a person who's not into sunbathing with us so he should look after the luggage. Well we didn't find any yesterday so the beach thing was spoiled but today I think I am going to join some of the bigger groups that go to the lake coast...

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My first blogging attempt... I thought I was too old for this... Anyway, in every man's life a day comes when he discovers he's never too old for anything ;)