Comments for rossparker.org

Comment on Learning To Surf, Bali, 2007 by learn to surf bali

learn to surf bali — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:36:51 +0000

very nice information thnks to shearing surf Indonesia surfboats bali

Comment on 12 Hard Lessons by Ben Blain

Ben Blain — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:37:38 +0000

On number 4, I just now (coincidentally) had a religious question come up in HT class, and out of interest I asked how many people in the room (apart from me) believed in God. Believers were in the minority. So the challenging statement might just as easily be: God may exist.

However: when I was a (very religious) teen in school, it would have been helpful if I’d heard this: ‘Your church might be wrong.’

That leaves the question of God’s existence out of the equation and still lets us face up to the shocking personal (psychological, spiritual) and societal damage that believers can inflict on themselves and others. Jesus’s most bitter criticism was directed at religious people, if I read my bible correctly. God may not exist, but churches (religions in general) definitely do.

Comment on Self Assessment Guide by Mark Roper

Mark Roper — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:30:07 +0000

Hey Ross,

I really like the ideas here. It would seem like a powerful system to help build awareness and understanding of digital literacy concepts. I am curious, in the vocabulary cloud diagrams how is it that certain terms have their prominence (i.e. are bigger)? Is it from other curriculum materials and the frequency that they appear?

Comment on Where In Hong Kong? by Veronica

Veronica — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:35:26 +0000

Thank you for sharing these wonderful snippets of old Hong Hong. Wow, in 55 odd years, the changes are absolutely amazing. I do remember the old Kowloon train Terminal, the Hilton Hotel and the cricket ground in front of it. I was employed at CEPO, the army camp where the Kowloon Park in TST now is, and worked for the Deputy Command Secretary at the Army Headquarters just behind Pacific Place. I walked off the Star Ferry on HK Island when the sea went right up to the Mandarin Hotel then in front of the beautiful old HK Club, up Garden Road to the army HQ. Out at Tiger Balm Gardens, the whole hillside beside this was crowded with shanty huts, as was Ho Man Tin area on the east side of the railway line – right up the mountain there. A lovely trip down memory lane, thank you for sending this on.

Comment on Old Hong Kong by Ross Parker

Ross Parker — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 06:54:32 +0000

Thanks to Kevin Coniam of Surf Hong Kong (http://surfhongkong.com) who recommended this further source of interesting information on old Hong Kong: http://gwulo.com.

Comment on An Evening With CogDog (aka Alan Levine) by Ross Parker

Ross Parker — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 03:48:15 +0000

Charlotte, I am sure Alan will be thrilled with your very positive review. Thanks for sharing and I will reply to your email soon. Keep up your excellent attitude to learning!

Comment on An Evening With CogDog (aka Alan Levine) by Charlotte Tsang

Charlotte Tsang — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:53:18 +0000

Mr Parker,

Thanks for hosting the informative event which was highly beneficial not only to the teachers but also to the students. I would also like to thank Mr Levine for sharing his knowledge and for his effort in gleaning data from various sources that helped to elaborate his ideas in an abundantly clear and intriguing way. It was absolutely my pleasure to be a part of the event.

I have spent the weekend in revisiting the websites shared by Mr Levine and have written some thoughts of applying the ideas to help us learn. Please see my separate email for reflections.

Charlotte (student of ICHK)

Comment on An Evening With CogDog (aka Alan Levine) by Alan Levine (@cogdog)

Alan Levine (@cogdog) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:58:33 +0000

Thanks again for setting up the evening, Ross. Slides and links are available

http://cogdog.wikispaces.com/What+Mean+Ye+Storytelling
http://cogdog.wikispaces.com/Enquire+Within+Upon+Everything

Comment on Livingstone200 Writeup by Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:09:45 +0000

Fantastic effort, you’ll have to do it again now to get inside 13 hours!

Comment on Livingstone200 Writeup by Ross Parker

Ross Parker — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:12:59 +0000

Bethany, thank you so much for this amazing compliment!

Comment on Livingstone200 Writeup by Ross Parker

Ross Parker — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:11:14 +0000

Carly, you are too kind! It did feel glorious though, and I was certainly very happy to be done.

Comment on Livingstone200 Writeup by Bethany Chau

Bethany Chau — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:42:54 +0000

great job Ross, you are amazing, I am sure you are and will be a great model for your students and your children. Keep it up

Comment on The Art of Physical Labour by carly

carly — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:15:54 +0000

As a parent, I think we also need to be blamed for spoiling our children in such a way that they don’t even know the very basic skills which we used to have in our generation.

In 2009, I was so surprised to find my 20 years old classmate who told me that she had never ever used a peeler before when I asked her to help peeling some carrots for preparing a dinner for our host family in France. After I came home from that trip, I started to ask my sons to help preparing ingredients for cooking, doing the assembling of simple furnitures and some simple chores. But once they tried, they said OK, we knew it and refused to do again. I gotta be more persistent!

Comment on Livingstone200 Writeup by carly

carly — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:42:09 +0000

If William was not sick that day, I would have come to see your glorious finish moment. But I can still visualize the full day event through your descriptive summary.

Salute! To a man with halo on his head!

Comment on Teach A Teacher by Sam Yu

Sam Yu — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:09:55 +0000

can my group and I change our name back to MYTC 123

Comment on High Tech Stuff by Ross Parker

Ross Parker — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 02:21:11 +0000

My pleasure! It is always nice to see work be reused and adapted. My kids will be doing this unit in Febraury, and should be ready for some collaboration towards the end of that month, which I would love to have them do. We could have them chat on Skype in small groups and then share some ideas through Google Docs or Tumblr.

Comment on High Tech Stuff by Claire

Claire — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 03:18:58 +0000

Thanks so much for sharing this! I am working with a group of Year 5/6 students in New Zealand and our year long inquiry is heading along similar lines for 2013. We will be looking at the big picture of technology and all that it is. Kevin Kelly is exactly the kind of resource I was looking at to share with my team of teachers but think it could well be useful for the children as well.

Our curriculum is divided into 3 parts:
- Technological Practice, the Nature of Technology, and Technological Knowledge.

It lends itself to Future Thinking very nicely.

If you are repeating this unit this year, we would love to tap into your older children’s expertise!

Many thanks, Claire

Comment on The Art of Physical Labour by Raymond Chan

Raymond Chan — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 05:29:58 +0000

Interesting that these are now skills which children lack whereas only a couple of generations ago, it would be laughable that this would be something you would need to learn at school. Although I think it’s worthwhile that they have these skills, I think it’s also valuable to learn lots of skills, many of which they do not acquire totally successfully at school or are not delivered explicitly at all! So, it’s a matter of time and how much we can squeeze into the curriculum. A great activity nonetheless!!

Comment on The Art of Physical Labour by Toby Newton

Toby Newton — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:38:57 +0000

Good to know that it has been worthwhile, Ross – I think we were always confident that it would be, and hopefully some of the organisations for whom ICHK students perform a *service* will benefit as a result of this activity.

Perhaps the next step is to engage these, or other, students in a whole day’s labour – as the next insight to be gained is when it ceases to be a game or an interlude and becomes what a friend of mine always used to refer to as “graft”. Graft isn’t much (if any) fun, it’s just a slog – but it’s how most of the world earns a living and it’s worth experiencing at least once to gain even the most marginal insight to what this means for those who do it, day after day, week after week …

Comment on Copyleft: A Teacher’s Guide To Sharing by carly

carly — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:24:19 +0000

very inspirational. now i have another website for my own learning

Comment on Copyleft: A Teacher’s Guide To Sharing by Monika

Monika — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:20:36 +0000

very artistic and food for thought

Comment on David Livingstone & Us by Ross Parker

Ross Parker — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 05:19:55 +0000

Jessie, thanks for your visit, your comment and your donation to Crossroads for David! Your support is always welcome and appreciated.

Comment on David Livingstone & Us by Jessie Chau

Jessie Chau — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:54:41 +0000

Thank you all so much let’s know the other side of the world, which my kid also scarcely imagine.

Comment on David Livingstone & Us by Larry

Larry — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:28:37 +0000

Well done by all of you.

Comment on David Livingstone & Us by Merrin Pearse

Merrin Pearse — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 05:22:38 +0000

It is these types of breaks from “normal” class which make those life learnings so valuable and give students the passion to put into action their classroom learnings.

Looking forward to hearing of the updates and progress both here in HK and in Uganda.

Comment on David Livingstone & Us by Roy White

Roy White — Thu, 31 May 2012 23:34:43 +0000

Thanks for offering us this detail, including photographs, of the life of a child soldier. I am sure having conversations with Mr. Livingston also brought the plight of such people into total focus.

The contrast between his life, and the life of a student attending an international schools could not be more dramatic. Mr. White

Comment on Big City, Small Village by Ross Parker

Ross Parker — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:13:23 +0000

James, thanks for stopping by. Your Spanish is obviously better than mine! We’ll definitely head out next visit: it is not quite Australian beach, but has its charms for sure. I am not sure that what I do counts as surfing….but I try. Got to keep people on their toes regarding expectations of what I do. Typhoon surfing sure sounds crazy, and is something I hope to avoid. I like the mellow swell found at Sai Wan. As to the gear, it was a close run thing: some of it almost went in the bushes.

Comment on Big City, Small Village by James K

James K — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:40:43 +0000

You need to get Matty a new shirt \King of the Siesta\.
It sounds amazing, next time I’m up you’ll have to take me up there.
I didn’t know you surf. Is there anything you don’t do? I’ve heard of people going out in a typhoon to surf, that’s all the surfing I’ve heard of in HK. A bit nuts in my opinion.

How did you guys manage with all that gear and kids!!!

Looks like a great trip

Comment on Computer Guy by Jabiz Raisdana

Jabiz Raisdana — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:42:42 +0000

Wow Ross. Thanks for the shout out. I am glad that fifteen minute opus resonated with someone! But seriously, I think one of the goals of the “tech” people, whatever that means is to humanize the experience. I often feel that when I speak to people who are not as “teach savvy” or comfortable, that they think my life revolves around the gadgets and the tools and the sites, and it a way I am sure it does, how can it not, we are surrounded by it, but I want them to know that it is possible to love tech, use tech, but also….”I lead a full life as a husband, father, son and teacher. I think a lot, I write a little too. I have great friends. I am a man of varied interests. I do yoga, I hike, I play golf, I love music, I read (paper) books, I play ultimate frisbee. I love rollerblading really long distances. I’m a landlubber who aspires to surf. I jump off waterfalls and occasionally cliffs. I love hot weather and warm ale. I would like to believe I am an inspiring, caring and interesting teacher.’

These are the tools we use to help share who we are, just by making this video, Tweeting, I now feel that the next time I am in Hong Kong we need to met up for a hike. That is the power of tech. It bring us closer together.

Very nice to meet you and I look forward to tightening these bonds. Asia is a small place, I am sure our paths will cross soon enough.

Comment on Example Internet: A Role Play by Computer Systems « rossparker.org

Computer Systems « rossparker.org — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:28:11 +0000

[...] Role Play – This video was one of the outcomes of the unit. You can read more about it in this blog post. Tags: compueter, hardware, ict, network, people, secondary, software, systems, technology, [...]