Shock horror !

I had a serious shock when I fired up my computer and found that my precious files were not where they should have been.  A brief hunt found them in the circular filing cabinet (The trash can).
I restored them and then did some backups of the vital files.  Now I have them on 2 separate hard disks and 2 flash RAMs all kept separately and for good measure I have it on SkyDrive as well.

This may seem a bit excessive but the thought of losing all of my invoices, and my precious Excel files (yes, I can use Excel now) quite daunting.

Play Dough

I am sure that most teachers prefer to avoid teaching young children like the plague.
I for one, quite like teaching the little guys.  There are some very talented students out there.  I had a troublesome class, with kids who were meant to speak but were not.  I resorted to using some Play Dough sushi.  I am not quite sure why but the silent souls in the classroom were suddenly speaking in English.  If anybody has an explanation for such behaviour please leave a comment.

I usually have a stock of colouring pages as backup material, I think I will include some Play Dough as well.

Stickers are always useful for the younger students.

History in Tai Po Market

Here is a rare sight in Hong Kong.  A well !  The well is a in a circular structure designed to keep run off water away from the well.  Piped water was introduced to Hong Kong in about 1920 so I have assumed that this well pre dates this.  It appears to be still in use.

It is a bit confusing !

It is all a bit confusing for me. I now have my own domain name. I also have a new gmail account. So e mails are forwarded to my gmail account. I reply from my gmail account and it looks like it is coming from my domain name. I have a link in my signature to my Google calendar so schools can see when I am busy. I have signed up for Google/analytics so that when I (OK the web site developer) get the web site up and running I am able to tell how much interest each page is generating. I am sure that it will all make sense one day.

Computer repairs

I had to replace a DVD player in my Acer notebook. I went to Sham Shui Po, the Golden Shopping Centre. There is a very big computer type shopping centre there where the prices seem to be cheaper than Wan Chai Computer Market. I got a used DVD at Shop 46, T & L Technology Co. I have had work done by them before, they seem to be good at repairing computers, this is always useful to know.

Great You Tube clip !

Here is a great You Tube clip !

Re: Art work

If you want to see examples of art work by Hong Kong students look for it at MTR stations. This is a good source of ideas for anybody who needs inspiration, especially if they are teaching the younger students.

Re computers and things

I was a bit stunned at a recent interview when the interviewer mentioned that some teachers did not have computers. I took my netbook out of my bag and that seemed to have a very positive influence on the interview. This may well be a selling point.

I have started using the calendar feature in G mail and by some electrickery the calendar also appears on my phone. This is a very useful function indeed.

For those of you that want to improve your vocabulary (and that includes me) you should try Free Rice. The level can be changed to suit the learner. A further feature of this is when you play rice gets donated to the needy.

My dodgy 320 Gb hard disk has proved to be very stubborn indeed. I doubt that I will get anything off it now. There is a moral there, if you have vital information store it in multiple locations.

My notebook is having a few issues and really I need to reinstall all the software on it. Windows 7 has a "Reliability Monitor" that assess the stability of a system. This can be found be going into the start menu and typing "Reliability" into the "Search programs and files" window. Every so often my computer hangs, usually at the worst moment.

A gem from a native English speaker !

There was literally two heads on me, I had literally two heads…”
LAURA MOORE
The Apprentice, BBC1

With thanks to Private Eye.

A bit Luddite !

I attended an interview at a learning centre on Hong Kong Island. Naturally I mentioned about You Tube and the enormous wealth of suitable material on the Internet. The boss told me that the parents did not want computers in the classroom as they could use computers at home. I became aware of this in Taipei a decade ago. It strikes me as being a bit Luddite. I would have thought getting youngsters involved with computers and keyboard skills was the way to go. If they get familiar with using and interacting with computers at kindergarten level it will greatly aid them later on in life.

I realize most people have grown up with computers, I am of the generation that did not. When I was at school if I wanted information I had to go to a library to find it. This was a laborious task that fortunately has been replaced by search engines.

Streaker Foomeister

I wonder if Streaker Foomeister will be true to form and will streak with just his mortarboard on the 16th of November ?

Dodgy external drive

I have an old 320Gb external hard disk that is not behaving itself. It is making odd noises and I can access it sometimes. I think I will have to buy another external hard disk, this time a 2 1/2 inch one and when I can access my old hard disk copy the files elsewhere. I fear then I can assign the old hard disk to the circular filing cabinet (this is a term for the trash can, garbage can, or what the Brits call the dustbin).

This dodgy hard disk has been causing my computer to hang. The disk sounds like a 747 on take off at times and this cannot be good. I am trying to extract files from it on an old computer. I find it very disturbing that it causes this computer to crash. Even using alt-ctrl-del does nothing. I fear this old hard disk is definitely destined for the circular filing cabinet.

In 1990 I helped a woman buy a computer with a *big* hard disk, 20 Mb ! The computer world has made huge advances since then.

A domain name and web site

I am going through the motions of establishing a web site with a domain name. The domain name was a name that is suitable for my company. I got the domain name from this web site. The web host is from this web site. It is all a bit confusing for me. However in due course I am sure I will have a greater understanding. I will have to find somebody to build the web site for me, I do not know how much this will cost. It strikes me that a web site is a very useful thing. I will have an e mail address with this very nice domain name. For me this is all a learning process, if I write about it in this blog maybe somebody else can learn from this. All suggestions about how to go about this are welcomed !

Thank God I have a warped sense of humour !

Computer courses

The CSC at CityU is again doing computer course. If you have the opportunity to attend the computer literacy courses at the CSC you should do so. These courses are invaluable.

Re: passwords

If you want a nice safe password do not use "password" as a password...duh !

Proofreading is a Dying Art these days!

Proofreading is a dying art, wouldn't you say?

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
This one I caught in the SGV Tribune the other day and called the Editorial Room and asked who wrote this. It took two or three readings before the editor realized that what he was reading was impossible!!! They put in a correction the next day.

I just couldn't help but send this along. Too funny.
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
Really? Ya think?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
Now that's taking things a bit far!

-----------------------------------------------------------
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
What a guy!
---------------------------------------------------------------

Miners Refuse to Work after Death
No-good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-so's!
------------------------------------------------------

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
See if that works any better than a fair trial!
----------------------------------------------------------

War Dims Hope for Peace
I can see where it might have that effect!
----------------------------------------------------------------

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
Ya think?!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
Who would have thought!
----------------------------------------------------------------

Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
They may be on to something!
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?
----------------------------------------------------------

Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
He probably IS the battery charge!
----------------------------------------------

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Weren't they fat enough?!
-----------------------------------------------

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
That's what he gets for eating those beans!
---------------- ---------------------------------

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Do they taste like chicken?
****************************************

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Chainsaw Massacre all over again!
***************************************************

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
Boy, are they tall!
*******************************************

And the winner is....
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Did I read that right?

This was sent to me, I could not resist putting on my blog.

Re computer courses at CityU

I have just done 2 courses at CityU CSC, one was an introduction to Excel, the other was an introduction to MS Word. I really wish that I had done these before I started my MATESL course, such is life. These courses are well worthwhile and the price was right too !

I am not one to gossip, but free software !!!

Here is a site for a free Acronis Drive Monitor.
I installed this software it it told me my hard disk was starting to cook...not good at all, so I have bought a cooling pad to protect my hard disk as I do not want a hardware failure.

Smart folk, the English !

Dick or Dom: What is the suffix in this sentence? "Milhouse was hopeful that he would get top marks in his exam."

Contestant: I’m not exactly sure what a suffix is. This is embarrassing. I work for a national newspaper.

Dom or Dick: Which one?

Contestant: The Guardian. I think it’s “exam”.
Please email your entries to dumb@private-eye.co.uk

The Bonzo Dog Doh Dah Band !

Free software !!!

This is a place where you can get free software.

Are you sure that you want to be teachers ?

These are genuine answers (from 16 year olds)............and they WILL breed.  THEY will be allowed to vote in the next election, by then they will have turned 18 .
Q. Name the four seasons.
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q. How is dew formed ?
A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q. What causes the tides in the oceans ?
A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight.
Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on ?
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed.
Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections ?
A. Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.
Q. What are steroids ?
A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Q.. What happens to your body as you age ?
A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty ?
A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes ?

A. Premature death.
Q. What is artificial insemination ?
A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow.
Q. How can you delay milk turning sour ?
A. Keep it in the cow.
Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised (e.g. The abdomen) ?

A. The body is consisted into 3 parts - the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A, E, I,O,U.

Q. What is the fibula?
A. A small lie.
Q. What does 'varicose' mean?
A. Nearby.
Q. What is the most common form of birth control ?
A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.
Q. Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarean section'.
A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome.
Q. What is a seizure?
A. A Roman Emperor.
Q. What is a terminal illness ?
A. When you are sick at the airport.
Q. Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A. Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like umbrellas.
Q. Use the word 'judicious' in a sentence to show you understand its meaning ?
A. Hands that judicious can be soft as your face.
Q. What does the word 'benign' mean?
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
 Q. What is a turbine?
A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head.

Boh tea plantation

This is a photo of a tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.  Somebody has to hand pick the tea, so next time you drink tea, enjoy it as somebody has worked very hard to pick it.

Rewriting the rules.

Long ago when I worked in Bangkok I would play Monopoly with my Thai students. They would constantly revert to their L1. I rewrote the rules to include "Any student speaking Thai without the permission of the teacher must pay the teacher 20$". This really stopped the students from speaking Thai as they hated the idea of their teacher getting the 20$ fine.

Warped sense of humour !

Maybe I got my warped sense of humour from Monty Python !

When Insults Had Class

These glorious insults are from an era in the English language before they were reduced to four-letter words:

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my husband, I'd give you poisoned tea."
He answered, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

A member of Parliament to Prime Minister Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable dis-ease." "That depends, Sir", said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

He had delusions of adequacy -Walter Kerr

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. -Winston Churchill

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. - Clarence Darrow

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary. -William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it. -Moses Hadas

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. - Mark Twain

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. -Oscar Wilde

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one. - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one. - Winston Churchill, in response.

I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here. - Kip Adota

He is a self-made man and worships his creator. - John Bright

I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial. - Irvin S. Cob

He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily. - Charles, Count Talleyrand

He loves nature in spite of what it did to him. - Forrest Tucker

Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it? - Mark Twain

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork. - Mae West

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go. - Oscar Wilde

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination. - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

He has Van Gogh's ear for music. - Billy Wilder

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it. - Groucho Marx

Fortunately I have a warped sense of humour !

The Prisoner

This was a cult TV series during the 1960's in the UK. It may be old but that does not mean that it was not good.

Communal kitchen near a temple in Ha Tsuen

Here is a picture of a communal kitchen in Ha Tsuen.  This is the first time I have seen it in use.  It is wood fired as virtual all stoves would have been for hundreds of years.  I live in a village and they have narrow alleyways between some of the houses.  Not everybody lives in a high rise in Hong Kong.

Discarded firearm in Ha Tsuen

Here is a discarded firearm I noticed in my village.

The High Court this time !

Finally this man has got to the bar. The only trouble is this bar does not serve drinks !

I will give a cash prize to anybody who can identify this mystery solicitor.

Private Eye

Private Eye is a very British satirical publication.  They have excelled on this occasion.  Often Private Eye will write in an obscure way.  "Tired and emotional" means drunk.  This was a reference to a British MP (Member of Parliament) who was caught by the police driving the wrong way round a roundabout.  He claimed he was feeling all tired and emotional, the police thought otherwise and found he was drunk.  Privite Eye coined that expression.

Wetlands in England

Many years ago I used to live in Somerset near Glastonbury Tor.  This is an area steeped in Arthurian legends, indeed legend has it that a chalice of Christ's blood was hidden in Chalice Well .  The area has many wetlands.  The name Somerset comes from summer settlement as the area was uninhabitable in the winter time. The area was drained by monks hundreds of years ago and became extremely fertile farm land. This is the home of the Sweet Track, nearby is the Glastonbury Lake Village.  This was an iron age village that now looks like small bumps on an otherwise flat field.  I have seen a canoe, a spade handle, and some bread (probably stale) from that village.

This was such a wonderful area of England that I used to practise my navigation using a compass and a map.  It was here that I came across footpaths across fields, only there was no field.  A field sized hole was all that was visible.  The peat had been excavated and sold.  What took 10,000 years to build was suddenly gone.  This rape of the farmland will affect the area for hundreds of generations from now.

There is an American Indian saying that you borrow the land from your children, you do not inherit it from your ancestors.  Rather than despoiling the land, make it better.  I do not entirely subscribe to the organic farming theory.  However spraying some pesticides on food crops is not really such a good idea.

Mystery person.

Who is this mystery person ? I will provide a substantial cash reward to anybody who can identify the mystery person.
This was taken at Wetland Park.

Mangrove swamps

Here is a photo of mangrove swamps at Wetland Park.  This is a habitat for many species.  Something like 80% of fish species spend some part of their life in the mangroves.  The mangroves are tolerant of brackish water (that is part salt water and part fresh water).  This is a place where mudskippers live amongst the fiddler crabs.  Every tide brings in more materials from the sea (hopefully not crude oil) which the numerous species can feed upon.  This attracts hungry birds as well.  There is a food web here.  The crabs will eat the dead fish, the birds will eat the crabs, the birds of prey will feed on the birds and the fish.   So it is all inter-related. 

Leeches

I have just had some dental work done.  I needed an injection and it did not hurt too much at all.  It made me wonder about leeches.  These are nasty little critters who feed on warm blooded creatures such as birds and mammals (that means you).  The only redeeming feature about these guys is they do not hurt when they bite you.  They do this by injecting a local anesthetic first.  They then inject an anticoagulant into you so that your blood does not coagulate.  Then they bite you and drink their fill and then drop off.  So for millions of years these guys have been doing this and getting away with it.  I wonder if doctors could use the same techniques when giving an injecting.  Inject a small local anesthetic first and then the needle.  I have had personal experience of leeches in Indonesia, Thailand and Laos.  They do not hurt, however they leave a bleeding wound which can become infected.  To remove leeches you can use tobacco (it is bad for leeches as well as people), salt, Tiger Balm, or a hot cigarette.  Do not pull them off as they might leave their mouth parts in you and then you will get an infection. 

This is a small leech.  If you have not met one of these then you have not visited damp rain forest areas.  They are a bit gruesome to put it mildly.  The last time I met leeches my reaction was to get my camera to take a picture.  The leeches were about the size of my thumb.  I then removed them and, being a vegetarian and an animal lover, sent them back to Hell where they belong.

Medical leeches have been used for many centuries and are still being used.  It is easy for surgeons to do organ transplants and such like.  Pumping in the blood is easy, taking it out is harder, this is where leeches are used.  So mankind has put men on the moon, yet cannot make a painless injection.  Something that leeches have been doing since mammals and birds (which are related to the dinosaurs) have roamed the Earth.

Wetland Park

Here is a picture of the stream at Wetland Park.

Wetland Park

Here is a picture of Wetland Park in Tin Shui Wai.  This is a place well worth visiting.  I thought it was a really enjoyable place to visit.

Your own domain name.

This may be the place to get your own domain name for more or less the right kind of price. This is from Google Apps and 10USD a year does not sound too bad to me.

Wetland Park

On Sunday 16 May 2010 I saw butterflies, birds, mudskippers, crabs, fish, dragonflies, and lots of flowers and plants at Wetland Park. Mudskippers live with the fiddler crabs in the mangrove swamps. This is a peculiar area where the sea tries to colonize the land and vice versa. Most fish spend part of their lives in such swamps. Mangrove swamps are particularly vulnerable to development. Then what do we eat ? There was an excellent exhibition there. It was excellent value, I got a 6 month ticket for 25 kwai as I am still a student. I will post some pictures when I can. I guest most people would prefer Ocean Park. Shame on them !

There are 3 types of places where there is great biodiversity, those places are coral reefs, rainforests, and wetlands. Probably most threatened are the wetlands as these are often close to habitation and are therefore prime real estate, once they are drained. This is a real shame as they are homes for many animals and plants. They can also perform a role in waste water disposal. These constructed wetlands can do a fine job at purifying all the waste water we produce. This is a bit like working with nature rather than against it.

The tiger who came to tea

Here is a nice story I found, just right for younger children. ">The Tiger Who Came to Tea.

Test your reaction speed !

Try your skill with the BBC Sheep Dash !

Mr. Bean !

Enjoy !

Mr. Bean is very English and very popular with students. There is very little English, but you can ask the students what is happening !

Article in The Times

This is an article regarding blogging that I found in The Times. Another article about using mobile phones in the classroom can be read here. The Times is a well established British newspaper.

Wetland Park

The last assignment is due tomorrow, so some of us may have time on our hands. Does anybody fancy a trip to Wetland Park to have a look at the birds and bugs and whatever else is there to be seen ?
It might make a nice change from looking at a computer screen all day long.
Robbie has suggested Sunday morning 16 May 2010 to go there. Sounds good to me !

Pupils interviewing teachers for jobs and promotion

From The Times
April 3, 2010
Pupils interviewing teachers for jobs and promotion

This is an article in The Times. The idea is that students should decide if a teacher is good, presumably by the amount of candy they give out.

"One teacher found out that her pupils had been asked to fill out a questionnaire on her performance only because they were so excited about receiving chocolate cake as a reward they could not keep quiet."

"One teacher applying for an internal promotion told the union that a student on her interview panel told her afterwards he was going to grade her low, because she recently gave him a detention."

This is happening in Hong Kong in a way. If the parents do not like the teacher they complain and the teacher has to find a new job. This used to happen often in Taiwan.

This is a bit like asking a patient if they liked the doctor's medicine. If it tastes bad, well that doctor had better find a new job.

I wonder what they will think of next.

Do you need comics ?

If you need to find comics there is always http://news.yahoo.com/comics.

Need to print money ?

If you need to print play money try this site. There must be other sites like that.

M learning ?

College opens door to cellphone learning

By Elizabeth Binning
4:00 AM Friday Apr 30, 2010

Students can study their lessons at any time on a range of mobile devices

Most schools have banned mobile phones in the classroom - but Howick College isn't like most schools.

The college not only allows mobile phones, it is encouraging a group of students aged 15 and 16 to use them as a learning device in a project that could change the future of learning.

The project is the brainchild of teacher Nathan Kerr, who was named the most innovative teacher in the world at Microsoft's international awards in 2008.

While the concept of m-learning may sound confusing to people who remember lessons with only pen and paper, Mr Kerr said it was about encouraging students to learn in a way that interested them.

The reason is that then they can walk away with these lessons and they can review it anytime, anywhere.

On top of functions like calculators, clocks and software uploads, cellphones are often free or available at very reasonable prices when compared with a laptop or computer.

With all that in mind Mr Kerr started "zapping" students' lessons into their mobile devices using free applications such as Powerpoint and Movie Maker so they essentially had their notes or learning resources with then all the time.

Students are now creating the learning movies themselves - something that makes learning fun.

The result has been that students can't wait to view their lessons and are looking them up on their phones as soon as they get on the school bus or during their breaks.

"Howick College prides itself on producing innovative thinkers who are future focused on leading education in the 21st century," he said.

"Students have been very positive about using mobile technology because it is part of their everyday experience."

By Elizabeth Binning

This is an interesting idea. The complete article can be viewed here.
NZHerald

I wonder

I wonder, is this the site that Robbie's group used to make a presentation ? Eslgamesworld
Editable Jeopardy Betting Powerpoint (PTT) does look familiar to me, well Robbie, was this the one ?
Anyway Robbie and his group presented Holes ( a very creative presentation, as well !), with the usual edible prizes. I now have some coloured A4 paper, maybe I can find some Monopoly money to print out and use that as prizes instead.

Free Rice

I did manage to get Free Rice to work on my phone. It is also possible to test your English grammar. It has a grammar section too !

Leave the blog alone and let it gather dust ?

I, for one, intend to carry on with this blog. I have enjoyed doing it a lot. I hope that some souls out there have gained some insight and ideas to help them. Just because the course is over does not mean we don't have to think, enjoy and write to our blogs anymore.

Week GOK Hubbard

Hubbard, P. (1988). An integrated framework for CALL courseware evaluation. CALICO Journal, 6(2), 51-72.

This was written in 1988 so it may well be dated. Shakespeare is dated too, but that does not mean that it is not good.

Most evaluation schemes for courseware using CALL use a checklist or set of questions. Hubbard suggests a flexible framework to enable teachers to develop their own evaluation techniques. Claire's blog has all the diagrams.

I suspect the same general ideas will be good, yet now people are far more connected with mobile phones and such like. This will mean that it is possible to have "micro software" to suit such mini applications as phones. Hardware has moved ahead by leaps and bounds with software in quick pursuit. I suspect this will provide new challenges for teachers. Students using software on the move, maybe it is already happening. Maybe Free Rice will run on phones. I will try tonight on my way home. I have an older smart phone, newer ones are probably even more capable.

Hot Spuds !

I have no idea why potatoes are called spuds. If you want to find out something try looking on You Tube and you might be lucky !

If you want to find more information on Hot Potatoes what do you do ? See if there are any more videos on the same topic.

Week 1 reading Warschauer

Warschauer, M. (1996). Computer-assisted language learning: an introduction. In S. Fotos (Ed.), Multimedia Language Teaching (pp. 3-20). Tokyo: Logos International.

The three phases of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

Warschauer described the there phases of CALL as behavioristic CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL.

Behavioristic CALL was the "Drill and kill" form of CALL. This was when computers were really in their infancy during the 1960s. The computer never tired and unlike the students it never got bored either. That is not to say that it does not have its uses. Learning the ABC is rote memorization after all. The computer was viewed as a tutor.

Communicative CALL came about in the 1970s and 1980s when microcomputers started appearing (The youth of today would consider these microcomputers as museum pieces with feeble capacities and a bit large to put it mildly. For those with an historical interest can click here.). It was thought that the "drill and kill" techniques did not provide authentic communication. Communicative CALL was intended to rectify the problems of the earlier CALL. One intention was to use computers as a stimulus. Now computers were also used as a tool, a workhorse.

Integrative CALL came about with the advent of multimedia computers and most of all the Internet. Computers have improved enormously and are continuing to make advances that will make them even more useful in the learning environment. Now there is synchronous software to enable communication with video link as well. An example of this might be Windows Live Messenger or SKYPE. Students are able to interact with peers in different countries for the cost of an Internet connection.
Software is very interactive these days. No doubt things will get even better with time. Software today is very different from the drill and kill approach of bygone times.

I suspect in the future smart phones will play a much bigger role in learning. There must be very few people who do not have a mobile phone these days. It is only a question of time before these will be exploited for learning.

Re Windows Live SkyDrive

On 22 April 2010 I up loaded an Excel file to SkyDrive and I have been trying to download it, I cannot as it has been "corrupted". I am not sure quite why this is. It does make me think that to rely on SkyDrive 100% is maybe not such a good idea at all. I am not about to dump my Flash RAMs. The original posting can be seen here.

This is something called Cloud computing. One advantage is 25Gb for free ! Another advantage is that whereas flash RAMs are very small and easy to lose, SkyDrive will always be there. If you have your vital data in multiple places if you have the misfortune to lose a flash RAM (Claire and Iris please take note) it is not a major calamity. If I have vital data that I cannot afford to lose I will store it on my flash RAM, an external hard disk, SkyDrive, my notebook and my netbook and then e mail it to myself. Computers do fall over, sometimes they get stolen, flash RAMs get forgotten, power surges can destroy computers. Unless you want to write that assignment all over again store it in different places.

Re the Antikythera mechanism

I looked at my posting about the Antikythera mechanism. Wikipedia suggests that the mechanism was refined. This makes me wonder what other machines might be lurking out there, or maybe have been lost to all time. The Baghdad battery comes to mind. What was that all about ? Can anybody explain that to me ?

Ex The Times

Grounded planes cause mass starvation in London
Flintoff

Ok, so the headline is a bit of an exaggeration, at the moment, but you never know what the next few weeks may bring. At the very least, you might think that with all the Kenyan mangetout, and suchlike, mouldering on planes that can't fly here, Britain's overwhelming reliance on imports might start to be a problem.

During the lorry driver's fuel strike of 2001 supermarkets warned the government that there was a real danger of food running out. Well, if the next Icelandic volcano goes of soon, and planes are grounded for a substantial period, we'll be stuffed - or not, if you see what I mean.

Surely The Times would get it right, the author has mixed up off and of, Shame on Him !

An Egyptian Plane ?

Here is a very strange artifact. Maybe this is an Egyptian plane from a pyramid ? So let me see, Australian aborigines developed a airfoil wing section. Egyptians might have know about it as well. The Wright brothers invented the airplane in 1903. If anybody has any explanation please comment.

For those that are unable to view this Egyptian plane (?) you can follow the link http://www.catchpenny.org/model.html

Classical music

Sometimes it is nice to use some classical music in a classroom. The Hall of the Mountain King is good as it has an increasing tempo. Some students have a musical ear, they may well enjoy things like this.


If a cartoon is preferred then The Old Mill has to be a good choice.



If you prefer fireworks you can try this site or even this one more fireworks.

Perhaps of course you need some really big fireworks !

Cards for games

If you need to make cards for your class try and laminate them so that they last longer. I have also found it beneficial to clip off the corners to make them rounded. Corner clippers are available at good stationery shops. Making cards does take time so it makes sense to make them more durable if they are likely to be used again. I have found that it is not necessary to leave a small margin around the card area to protect the cards. This means they are much easier to cut out.

A web site with lots of quizzes !

Here is a web site that I have just found. Nonstop English It has tests in it that may be useful. It might also give you ideas on writing tests.

Re using You Tube clips in presentations

IMHO it is a really good idea to save the video in some way if you are using it in a presentation. If you save just the link and use the Internet to access it, one day that clip may be removed, or the Internet could be down that day. If you save the clip to a hard disk or a flash RAM that will save the day. Embedding a video also removes the comments. Sometimes people leave objectionable comments. A further advantage of saving a video clip is it is not always desirable for parents to know exactly where you got the clip from.

There have been a few presentations in another class. These were all edible prizes, I am all for that naturally. Stickers work well also and may just be better for the students health and the teachers wallet. One school in Taipei used slips of paper with the word prize printed on it. If the students were good they got a "prize" if they were bad they lost a prize. The students treasured these prize slips, so they were working at a fraction of the price of candies.

Learner Autonomy and Tandem Learning

Learner Autonomy and Tandem Learning: Putting Principles Into Practice in Synchronous and Asynchronous Telecommunication Environments by Schweinhorst, K. (2003).
According to the article autonomous learning should not be viewed as a “laissez-faire” (French for leave it alone) approach, nor should it be viewed as self-access or self-instruction. The learner will have to have the ability to be self critical. The teacher will still have a role to play to ensure that the students are on task.

Tandem learning is where for example a German learning English would be paired with an Irish learner of German. They would use synchronous (such as Windows Live Messenger) or asynchronous (e mail) technologies. Each learner would be responsible for their own and their partner’s leaning.
Each learner has to support the other in order to accomplish their learning goals.
Both learners should use both languages in order to profit from the exchange.

It was noticed that pairing up students was not actually that easy. Often students would run out of topics. It was found that students of a similar age, with similar interests was the most useful and productive pairing. Mismatched students soon ran out of topics to talk about.

There are additional problems, there is only one hour time difference between Germany and Ireland, so synchronous technologies will not present a problem. However, if the learners are on opposite sides of the world synchronous technologies would present problems, due to the time differences. This is where asynchronous technologies would be better.

A problem arose with the asynchronous communication in that different e mails systems used slightly different systems. This is why Trinity College, Dublin set up the Electronic Tandem Resources the ETR. This was a dedicated web site where students had to log in. Their use of the L1 and L2 were logged and could be assessed by the students. Thus they could evaluate approximately how much of the L1 and L2 they were actually using.

It was found that a system such as this did have the advantage that students were aware and had prepared themselves for communication in the L2. Further they were not inundated by the irrelevant e mail messages that infest the usual e mail accounts.

A similar sort of thing was set up with synchronous communications. A logging system was set up so the students and the teacher could get a copy of the text used in each communication.
Tasks were set up again and used both synchronous and asynchronous technologies.
One example of a task was a chain story created via synchronous and asynchronous technologies, the story was edited and revised by the native speaker. The final version was submitted to the teacher. It would seem that specific goals are essential to help move the process along and assist the acquisition

According to the paper there are three areas where technology and pedagogy affect the reflection process. These are the pressures, affordances and potential to permit reflection.

Do you think English is easy ?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

The Magic Gopher

The Magic Gopher is from the British Council. This will keep some of the students guessing for a long time. Maybe you could ask them how the Magic Gopher does this truly astounding magic trick! There is a link to The British Council, this has a whole range of resources that may be of interest to you or your students.

Technology in testing: the present and the future.

Technology in testing: the present and the future by Alderson, C. (2000).

This paper covers the uses of computers in testing.  It is a bit dated as it makes extensive reference to CD ROM.  These days downloads off the Internet would probably be used.  It is common these days to have computers sans DVD.  External optical drives do have their uses, far more so than built in optical drives.  Optical drives are prone to falling out of alignment so they are easily damaged.  So it makes sense to have external drives where possible as this makes a computer lighter as well.

A monumental disadvantage of CBT (Computer Based Tests) is there are some students who lack computer skills and aptitude, indeed some people have a very negative attitude to computers.  I have seen somebody type with one finger, that could make test taking really problematic.  This kind of problem will be greatly reduced with time.  As a decade has passed since this paper was written this sort of phobia is less likely to be a problem.

The paper cites a disadvantage that speaking cannot be assessed, this was before Windows 7 was launched.  It has a facility to teach a computer to recognize speech.  I have not had a chance to fully evaluate it yet.

There are distinct advantages of CBT.  Certain items such as Multiple Choice (MC) can be marked by the computer, so instant feedback is possible.  This is not possible with pencil and paper tests.  Some people (myself for instance) have appalling handwriting, this is not relevant with CBT.   It is not necessary to coordinate hundreds of test takers into entering an examination hall.  Students can take the test at a time of their choosing.  It can be done from wherever there is a viable Internet connection.  The mention of “diskettes” does suggest that this paper is somewhat dated.  These days much software is downloaded via the Internet.  Hence tests can be up to date.

Computer adaptive testing is where the computer estimates the student’s abilities, and presents the next item to suit the student for example freerice.com .  This particular programme gives the correct answer if a student fails to answer correctly and submits the failed item again to see if the student remembers the right answer.

An entirely incidental feature of this programme is that when the programme is used a donation of rice is made. The programme claims to improve the users abilities more information on this can be found in the Free Rice FAQ.

Some students do find a test intimidating, more so if it is taken in a large examination room with many others.  CBT do away with this, so they are far more user friendly (But not to Luddites).

In listening tests students are able to adjust the volume of the headphones.  Naturally this would be a problem for deaf students.  I had a deaf student who needed to lip read (In Cantonese and English !).

CBT is clearly most suitable for low stakes assessments.  There is the chance that some people will cheat in computer based tests, however the only person they will delude will be themselves.

DIALANG was and still is used for low level testing in 14 European languages.  This was experimental and at the time used major innovations.  The author mentioned the limitations of DIALANG in assessing students’ productive language abilities, however computers and technology have progressed greatly in the last decade so this may have been resolved now. It has been suggested that this is not particularly suitable for the younger learners.

When this paper was written computers would not have been as numerous as they are today.  CBT does enable more frequent testing of students with a reduced workload for the teacher. Students and teachers are more computer literate and technology has advanced considerably.  Moore’s law still holds true (and will probably hold true for at least another decade), consequently it can be expected that CBT will become more commonplace and more versatile. Smart phones are like mini computers, so students could test themselves when in transit. Perhaps the challenge is to make the test appear like a game, this would give a much broader appeal to an assessment.

Puppet show material

This is good for very young learners. Further if you photocopy some teddy bears and put them on chopsticks there is the opportunity to get the children to reenact the video in the puppet theatre made out of an old box as described earlier.

An advantage of using embedded material is that it removes the comments that people make, sometimes these comments can be quite offensive.

Concordance feedback

A reflection on “Can learners use concordance feedback for writing errors?” Gaskell, D,. & Cobb, T. (2004).
This was a paper to establish whether concordance was an effective way of assisting students with their writing abilities. The study involved 20 adult Chinese EFL students, 11 male and 9 female. All were computer literate and most were graduates. The students were required to complete 10 assignments over a 15 week semester. Peer feedback was used and the instructor then gave feedback with a concordance link for the five typical errors.

The students provided a short essay, these were analyzed and the most common errors were given concordance feedback throughout the course.

In order to not overwhelm the students only five concordanced errors were targeted. These identified errors were then searched for in the correct form. Online concordance software was used to show the correct way of using the examples.

After a four week training period the students were shown how to conduct concordance searches themselves.

At the end of the course the students were asked if they felt their English writing skills had improved. All of the students felt that their English improved however only 40% felt that this was due to the concordance work.

It would seem that a longer training period and a much longer study period would have had more favourable results. It did seem that after week four some of the interest waned. It seemed from this study that this was not going to work well with more basic students.

I usually teach very young learners and as such I fail to see how concordance software could work with the younger students. This article was written six years ago and software improvements may have been made since then.

Some culture for you !

This is from Madame Butterfly.

Puppet shows

This is a puppet show by edmontonpl. That is Edmonton Public Library, a puppet show by edmontonpl is usually pretty good. As a rule young children love puppet shows. Again this is low tech, however it opens the door to a range of activities, reading, acting the parts, drawing and painting. If a puppet show is performed by your students, maybe it could be uploaded to You Tube.



As you all know I am not one to gossip, but I did find this site and it looks great to me ! Puppet theatre Often children enjoy making things with their hands. Somehow it seems far more satisfying to them if they have made it themselves. Cardboard boxes are easily available and can be decorated to suit. Sometimes activities do not have to cost lots of money. Children can sometimes become great story tellers. If a puppet theatre was made classes could preform their own plays. Puppets can be made out of cardboard and painted. The tale of the gingerbread man could be retold. I am sure the younger students would enjoy this sort of activity. Scenery could be added to any play. This is where artistic students could play a role. These days the Internet is the way to search for material and ideas. Younger students might be able to find material, resources, and ideas. This would also improve their keyboard skills.

Nice music

Here is Black Velvet

The Dinosaur Song

This is the Dinosaur Song, great for kids !

Sooty and Sweep

When I was a young boy I used to watch this show on TV. Maybe I am exposing my Chinese peers to new ideas here. I have been thinking for years about starting a puppet show. Maybe a glove puppet show like this one is the way to go.
I am certain that something like this will captivate the younger learner. Puppets have been used for hundreds of years. In Indonesia children learn body language from the puppet shows. Sooty does not speak at all, he whispers into the ear of the presenter. Sweep talks by squeaking and the only puppet who can speak (In English naturally) is Soo, who is a sweet natured panda. I am sure that young learners will listen to the puppets rather than to their teacher. This is decidedly low tech, however that does not mean that it will not work.

Second Life

I suspect that Second Life could have been used instead of attending a lecture at CityU. This was a drama session where students sat around a table and did a skit. Most people on the course live close to the campus, it takes me at least an hour each way. When you factor time and transport costs into things SL might well have much wider applications. Years ago children in Australia would study by radio if they lived in the outback. Maybe much work or study could be done without leaving your keyboard. It is not quite the same as a face to face meeting but it could save time and money.

The Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism is a mysterious computer that was made about the time of Christ. Nobody knows who made it or what civilization made it. It was inscribed with Greek so maybe it was the Greeks who made it. This makes me wonder what else is out there that we don't know about. It is quite an astonishing bit of technology not repeated for 1400 years. Does anybody know of anything else like this ?




This is a very puzzling machine indeed. More information can be found here.

Suitable material for students ?

How Stuff Works I wonder if this web site would be good for the curious student ?
Oxfam say that if you give a starving man a fish you feed his family for a day. If you teach a starving man how to fish you feed his family for a life time.

I used to have a deaf student who could lip read in English and Cantonese, I found it all a bit mind boggling. Sometimes she did not know what a word meant, she made the mistake of asking me what a word meant, I would not answer her but I would pass her the keyboard and direct her to OneLook.com. I helped her to help herself.

Knock offs

When I lived in Shenzhen I did suffer from the plague of fake goods there. This was often the case with dodgy hardware such as flash RAMs that suddenly did not work anymore. They looked like the real thing but suddenly they would stop working, usually when you needed it to work the most. I had an MP3 player that stopped working after a few months. Not so good. For that reason I used to shop for electronics in Hong Kong. Many Chinese mothers do not like using Chinese formula (baby milk) due to the various scandals, such as putting chemicals into milk powder. It strikes me that China needs to improve its quality control if it is to capture more of the world market for its goods.

Copyright

We covered copyright in Monday's class. In 1995 I taught at a school in Bangkok. The school used photocopies of an entire book. This book was not cherished by staff and students alike. On a practical side when it came to teaching colours, how do you teach when all the colours were various shades of grey ? This was where I used my picture dictionary. Taiwan and China had much the same attitude as Thailand, photocopies of entire books were good enough. There is not much incentive for the author to produce work if it is promptly photocopied. I do not think the odd page being photocopied would be a problem. If I wrote a book I would be pretty annoyed if it was promptly copied by a school and I got no money for it whatsoever. It would destroy the incentive to produce original material. Thus overall the standard of material available would fall drastically.

The Government of the HKSAR has amended the copyright law to permit greater flexibility for teachers and students. A reasonable amount of copyright material is allowed to be included in presentations and lessons. Hong Kong's Amended Copyright Law states that fair could be the following "A teacher including a short clip of a film which is not being currently shown in cinemas, for illustration in his teaching presentation. The title of the film, the producer and the principal director must be acknowledged.". Thus if a teacher screened all of Avatar as an end of term treat for their class might find themselves behind bars. A brief clip of Flash Gordon with acknowledgments would not.

It was noticeable that British English was used and further the document was gender specific. I suspect a female teacher might well have a job arguing in court that the law did not apply to her and that she had not breached the Amended Copyright Laws.

Also mentioned was for an Intranet suitable security measures were in force and the copyright material was deleted after a year.

If a teacher or a student was to photocopy or scan an entire book that was deemed too expensive, that certainly would breach copyright laws.
http://www.ipd.gov.hk/eng/intellectual_property/copyright/edu_guide.pdf.

Intellectual Property Department. (2007). Hong Kong's amended copyright law: a guide for teachers and students. Retrieved 28 December, 2007. from http://www.ipd.gov.hk/eng/intellectual_property/copyright/edu_guide.pdf.

Re Windows Live SkyDrive

Last night one of my peers left her flash RAM in the computer. Fortunately for her I saw it and rescued it. This could have been catastrophic, indeed Claire lost her Flash RAM and had to rewrite all of her assignments. I am looking into using Windows Live SkyDrive as it has 25Gb storage for the right kind of price, that is free of charge. Maybe it is the flash RAM you cannot lose as long as you remember the password.
I have uploaded one of my assignments and will attempt to recover it at CityU today. It could well save all sorts of grief using SkyDrive.
To access SkyDrive sign into Windows Live. On the top task bar on the right there is a button called More. Click on that and then click on SkyDrive. Then you can upload or download stuff to SkyDrive, public or private viewing. To download stuff go to the Windows Live web site, sign in go to SkyDrive locate the document and download it. Your file will look like _your.file.docx_. Then you have to select a programme to open it. I have tried this for small files and big files. Small files upload and download quickly. Big files take a lot longer, so don't throw away your flash RAMs quite yet, and don't lose them either !

April Fool's day is near !

You will notice that this is from the BBC so it has to be true !

The English Club

The English Club is site that may help you or your students.

Singapore versus Hong Kong

This is the song from Singapore that has caused rivalry between the two countries, oops country and SAR.



This was the response from the Hong Kong Wokstarz.



So, what song do you prefer ? Comments please !

Timing

New teachers should always wear a watch. After a while you know when to start finishing a lesson. I worked in Taipei with a teacher who overran a class by 30 minutes. We were doing back to back teaching so his next class was short change by 30 minutes and so was mine.

Second Life

Here is a quickstart guide for Second life.

Hail to a redundant technology ?

“A book is a wonderful thing, it doesn't care what you look like, your race, or your social status. Yet it offers the same treasures to all who are wise enough to seek it out.”

On line literature resource

Here is an online literature resource. There are a few books in this web site so there might be something for everybody.

A picture dictionary

I have always found picture dictionaries very useful. Anyway have a look at this picture dictionary maybe you can use it. Here is a dictionary and here is a thesaurus. Free Rice is a way of bolstering your vocabulary or maybe your students vocabulary.

Re reading for week 7 by Liou

A response to Practical Considerations for Multimedia Courseware Development: an EFL IVD Experience. Hsien-Chin Liou.

In Taipei in 1998 I was drafted into transcribing some of the scenes from the movie The Mask. Every time I missed a word I would have to replay the movie and I would have to go back about 7 minutes and watch again and try and transcribe the word. The net result was it took a lot of time to transcribe even a small clip of the movie. Liou describes a technique called IVD Interactive Video Disk. This article was written nearly 6 years ago, so I would expect that the technology has vastly improved since then, a 486 and 8Mb of RAM was mentioned. One of the movies being used to developed this was Ghostbusters. This is all very well but some would argue that this was a bit dated. Today's blockbuster is tomorrow's old movie. Maybe now the technology has evolved so that Hollywood's latest can be used in the classroom almost immediately. It strikes me that students would really enjoy this sort of activity. It did mention that lay teachers would be able to use the software. That would be a huge plus IMHO. Quizzes can be constructed, there seems to be many options for students to interact. If this sort of thing could be used with the latest popular movies I am sure it would be very useful indeed. The bottom line is will the students like it ? Esperanto is the perfect language, regular verbs, easy to use, the only trouble being hardly anybody uses it so it is worthless.

Blind Cricket

Here is a clip about how the visually impaired can still play cricket.

Re PowerPoint

On Saturday I did an advanced PowerPoint course at CityU. I was unable to do a basic PowerPoint course, I guess I will have to pick that up from somewhere. I did not realize how much you could do with PowerPoint. At Christmas I switched from Open Office to MS Office and started using MS Word. In January I was required to work with Excel, and now PowerPoint. They are all from the same stable which means a lot of the buttons do the same thing. I thought that text dancing across the screen was pretty cool. However, animations, music to suit, the occasional drum roll, the odd movie popped in for good measure. There is a lot more to PowerPoint than I was aware of. I was transfixed by the displays. I teach the younger students and I imagine that they would be transfixed as well. I think I will go to You Tube to try and find basic PowerPoint tutorial. Probably the most useful button in PowerPoint/Excel/Word is the ? button, the help files, they may have the answer to your question right there !

Just a point

I used to work at a language training centre where they used computers and You Tube a lot. The parents wanted instant results with the computer games their children played in class. Second Life could hardly be called a quick fix, it is very much a long term thing. So, how do you explain that to the parents ?

Hungry ?

If you are hungry today just remember there are some people out there who are even hungrier than you are !
Go and visit The Hunger Site and make a donation of food at no cost to yourself. There are other sites there as well, go and visit them and donate.

The National Palace Museum Taipei,

If anybody gets the chance to go to Taipei, do go and see the National Palace Museum. This has the world's largest collection of Chinese artifacts. When my ancestors were dodging wolves and bears in England, Chinese people were writing, painting, making exquisite bronze pots and creating all sort of artifacts. If you are Chinese, go and see the museum, if you are not Chinese, go and see it anyway ! Gong Hay Fat Choi !

The FBI has developed new technology to save the world from terrorism, click here for a demonstration !

An Inital Proposal

I have some serious reservations about “Games” such as Second Life. In Bangkok in 1994 I used a game with students called The Oregon Trail. This proved to be extremely popular with the students, less so with the administrative staff and probably the parents. By and large Thais are extremely conservative. I would imagine that many parents might object to “games” being played by their children. To be truthful regarding Second Life I have only had a brief glimpse of it. Judging by some of my peers comments on their blogs they got a lot further with it than I did. A trip around the Globe Theatre for instance really intrigued me. If it fired my imagination, I wonder if it would fire a student’s imagination. Judging by my experience in Bangkok in 1994 I would have said that students would be fascinated by it. Perhaps field trips could be organized with trips around the world without ever having left the classroom. Maybe students could keep blogs about their travels.

My guess is my generation is probably the last generation that has not had constant exposure to computers. Things have changed a lot with computers. In 1990 I helped a woman buy a PC. It had a large hard disk by the standards of those days, 20Mb. Nowadays computers are far smaller, far quicker and with massive capacities by comparison. Further in a few more years they will have improved further.

In the past I have given ex students my e mail and Windows Live Messenger and SKYPE name. Very few students bother to keep in touch. With hind sight keeping a history of conversations would be a really good idea. http://thefoomeister.blogspot.com/ has a suitable caution about online behavior on dated 31 January 2010. I wonder if SL allows you to speak and listen to other players you meet. If anybody has information on that please let me know.

What I would propose is taking a more in depth look at SL, particularly with a view to being able to talk and listen, (maybe this could be done with another programme like SKYPE running in a different window. One thing that I think was very relevant was SL is not the sort of game (?) that you would be able to spend 20 minutes with and be able to do anything useful. I would imagine it would take many sessions just to master the controls. Then again maybe the students would be able to lead their teacher around and show them how to do things. The question then would be who was helping who ? The answer might just be does it matter ?