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The primary school year ends tomorrow and along with it the official one year run of our eTwinning project “Once Upon A Blog.”
This project has received international recognition on a worldwide basis and many teachers have told me that the project has had a positive influence on their teaching styles.
I received 11 links from educators in Europe, 4 from the USA and 2 from Australia all of whom have embarked on a similar media streaming journey as a result of viewing “Once Upon A Blog.” Unfortunately without exception, everyone of the sites carried unpredictable advertising and were subsequently blocked by Fortinet, HEAnet’s schools’ broadband contracted content filtering service.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the 1394 people who emailed podmaster@slua.com in the past academic year. It is a pity you did not comment on the site or give permission for your emails to be published. I realise teachers, in particular, are slow to put their thoughts in writing especially in a second or third language.
The project will continue though I do not know whether its eTwinning life can be extended. I will have to discuss it with my colleague in Malta who is very busy at present.
In the meantime take a look at this video. It is a bit long and the music could be a bit more upbeat but take it for what it is worth. The digital natives are growing restless! free video player & video platform - interactive video, online video solution: video player, video editor - kaltura
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Congrats!
Your are on the Etwinning.ie site. The link is to the gallery. Are you giving a talk anywhere in Dublin during the etwinning promo?
Regards to Jacqueline and her class in Malta.
Sean
Sorry about the delay in replying but your comment only appeared in a site rollback!
Yes Gary that is easily done but many visitors want instant transfer from site to site. The site takes long enough to load as it is.
It is a viable, tried and trusted solution.
Thanks!
Surely you could have left the links in place for the benefit of users in countires under a less draconian filtering regime.
TC
Podmaster’s Reply – July 24th, 2007:
Hello Trevor,
I undertook this project for the benefit of my own school and the children of Ireland and Malta. Specific criteria were put in place to suit the age and culture of the children involved. Furthermore, from a practical point of view, I would run the risk of having this site blocked in Irish schools as it may be deemed to be a conduit to other blocked content. It would also appear to be the case that the said advertised content changes from country to country according to that legislation in place.
One webmaster in Italy did not believe me when I removed her link so I had to send her a screen grab of the sun screen products which featured on the right side of her site. She was amazed! It was all local rail discounts and DIY ads on her site. We are now serving a multi-cultural, multi-denominational Europe which places its own strictures and structures on what we can and cannot publish.
And before you come back to me, I am aware that ClustrMaps and Babel Fish links carry context linked advertising on this site but it is closely monitored. In fact Babel Fish is blocked by Fortinet, (HEAnet’s school broadband’s contracted content filtering service) and only schools not linked to the Department of Education and Science’s schools’ network can view or following the link. The NCTE Help Desk informed me that there are occasional links to adult content in some of its translation services. So if in doubt throw it out.
Thanks for taking the trouble to comment.
Is there an eTwinning rule banning site advertising and sponsorship?
Podmaster’s Reply – 24th July 2007
Hello Margaret,
Sorry about the delay in replying to your comment but it only appeared in a site rollback this morning!
No there is no such rule. In fact “Once Upon A Blog” was the only project in the finalist’s enclosure that had not received sponsorship. I would go as far as to say it was not encouraged by Léargas. It definitely did not appear in their promotional material. There is an eTwinning meeting at the end of August and I will raise the question for you.
The links could be inserted in text form using “at” and “dot” where approptiate.
Gary
Please leave the site up for the summer as I am building my own bloggie type thing. I think it is great! It would be a great shame to scrub it. I have also sent you a query email on photos.
Geri