www.talkcyprus.org

Citro · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 7

Teachers interested in participating in an online bicommunal school are invited: www.classcy.eu

Dhavlos · Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 4697 Location: Birmingham

Brilliant idea!!!

also, unles you already know him, Mills Chapman has been going on about this for ages....give him a PM or something...

but your link doesnt work?

cypezokyli · Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 2344

i have a good friend who would be interested... but true your link doesnt work

city · Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 3370 Location: Larnaca area

as Mills isn't online very often, here is his proposal

http://www.cyprussolution.org/

brother · Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 8920 Location: London/Cyprus

Hi Citro and welcome to the forum :welcome:

Excellent and like my good friends above suggested, speaking to Mills Chapman would be a good option.

Birkibrisli · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 1404 Location: Australia

I applaud all efforts to bring the two communities together,but I am a bit puzzled as to how studying electronics would achieve peace in Cyprus?
:?

Citro · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 7

Birkibrisli wrote: I applaud all efforts to bring the two communities together,but I am a bit puzzled as to how studying electronics would achieve peace in Cyprus?
:?

Good question Birkibrisli, the aim is to bring together teachers and students from both sides. Electronics is my own specialisation subject. When new courses are added, common projects on conflict resolution and management will take place, face to face meetings and collaborative projcts on bi-communal interest.
But even studying electronics in a bicommunal class by itself as an experience. Peer support and collaboration can add to peace making.

Thanbk you for starting this thread off.

Citro Milo

Citro · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 7

Thank you all for your replies and voting.
Regarding the website, itis online between 3:00 pm and 11:00 pm because those are the times when my students are available. somtimes it is online from 7:00am to 12:00 pm, that is when i work from the classroom at school.

I am sorry for this intermitted broadcasting of the website, but the reason is because it is hosted at home with a normal pc and not a powerfull server. Providing i get some funding it will be more professional and faster.

Thank you all, also for the warm welcome and the link to Mills , i will try to contact immediately.

Cheers,

Citro

cypezokyli · Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 2344

what ages are we talking about ?
junior or highschool students and teachers ?

Citro · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 7

Dear friends:

Students are more appropriate to be of a high school age, as they will be more technologically oriented and literate, on the other hand, teachers can be of any background or teaching age specialism, but a language teaching experience would be an asset to the project as they will also be able to train each other.

Training to the teachers on online delivery principles and e-moderating skills will be provided as well as technical orientation towards the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) we will be using.

We can even arrange for a formal academic online course with a british university, having obtained some funding, that will be sponsored and the fees payed for the teachers to take part.

At the end of the course they will be nominated a postgraduate certificate while they will have the chance to employ their newly acquired skills to each other by teaching their lanugage subjects. The teachers that choose to follow the course (as i said, free of charge, hopefully) will be automatically most qualified to attain paid teaching post with in the bicommunal school, irrespectively of their daily job, as they will be eligible to work from home and on their own free time.

No need to mention that these teachers will become pioneers in their field of espertise as their online skills will arm them with the expertise of the next decade, if our country follows the steps of US, Australia, EU and the rest of the world in the educational praxis.

I hope i have not tired you with my writing, but i feel i need to stress out the financial and professional benefits for the teachers themselves, beyond the fullfilling work of working on a pioneering project that is both emotionally and ethically satisfying.

Citro

Citro · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 7

Folks i have not managed to reach Mills Chapman, does anyone have a contact, like an email?
From the website posted, he seems to be doing some serious work.

Citro

Mills Chapman · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:50 am Post subject:

Hi Citro,

Welcome to the forum. I applaud you for stepping forward with your ideas. I also thank the others for referring you to me, but I'm not sure how deeply I will be able to help. However, I will do what I can.

It sounds like you may be in the UK, but if you are in the US or Canada, I would be willing to talk to you over the phone. I'm not a big writer in these forums unless it is absolutely necessary.

A couple of suggestions:

1. You may want to have this thread shifted away from "Cyprus Events" and into the "Proposed Solutions to the Cyprus Problem" section. You might get more targeted viewers that way (readers interested in your ideas).

2. Saying this might get me in trouble, but I would also put your ideas in another online Cyprus forum where you might get a lot more readers too.

3. I look forward to looking at your website when I can do so during business hours, and I hope that there you have spelled out in detail your vision. Having a vision for something new (like a school) is very difficult to maintain, and when it is only in one's mind, it is hard to paint it clearly enough for others to grasp to the same degree of detail. Don't give up, but do be as specific as you can without wearing yourself out so that everyone else can understand as much as possible as to what you are talking about. I have found that many people get a slightly different interpretation than I do of my own ideas, and it can be frustrating to not have a photograph (on film paper) of one's vision to share with others. Fortunately, all visionaries have this problem, yet many have still succeeded.

Again, don't give up, and accept the fact that some might see you as a Utopian dreamer. If you can accept that, and still carry on forward, you will be in good shape.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time to e-mail right now as I am in a job search (not related to my schooling model but rather something that will pay my rent for next month!), but I will help where I can. Your school might very well be ready much sooner than mine, which is at least 4-5 years away.

Send me a private message if you have any questions. I tend to be self-absorbed on this forums: I just check out my own threads that I have started (as well as the jokes). So, pm me to get my attention.

Keep up the good fight. :wink: - Mills

Citro · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 7

thank you Mills for contacting ( i have already posted a private message to you) and also many thanks to those of you who notified Mills of my work and posted on this forum. this is what i call cooperative peer building.

Citro