Friday
21st February, 2020
1900
Well
so much for giving the blog a break today.
First of all, I decided to make the break after nine and a half years with my lifeline to the western world and television. Bought three years with another provider and promptly found myself unable to download it!
First of all, I decided to make the break after nine and a half years with my lifeline to the western world and television. Bought three years with another provider and promptly found myself unable to download it!
Two
hours later after getting online help from the geeks, I was in. Touch
wood, not only can I watch what I want but it seems the BBC is
downloading for the first time in a month. I did fire several
warnings to the firm I was in because they concentrated only on
American customers and left Brits like me at the end of the queue.
Well, no longer. This Brit spent his money elsewhere.
And
then Dean Delia called me.
Remember
I said I thought the beginning of March was ambitious?
Hate
to say I was right but I was. Seems the school won't open until April
now – as I predicted. So online classes have been ordered. Great. A
chance to ask THEM how the hell I am supposed to actually conduct
oral classes because if you recall I said days ago I had no idea how
it would be possible.
It
seems the authorities have no idea either! Physics, Maths etc, no
problem, just conduct a lesson with a blackboard and beam it to the
kids. Oral? Not possible!
Mentioned
my writing project, well received, then asked if I had Wechat. Nope!
I have Skype though? Well Jody just informed me that in China you
can't get Skype on your phones, only laptops and desktops. I never
knew that. Not that it would be possible to effectively monitor 30
students in an online class anyway.
And
the hell of it is – when I am not actually teaching in classrooms I
am going to be twice as busy marking and giving feedback on videos
and essays they send me!
On
a personal note, I would enter a classroom full of students with no
mask and take that chance but of course they don't want to take the
chance with the pupils.
And
now Jody tells me we can't leave the Province even if we want to take
a trip or we need to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Paradise?
I get Skype on my mobile, normal, business and teams, Hehe. Schools here just seem to be indefinitely closed, no opening date given by the authorities as of today. Have fun.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I will pose the question tomorrow although to be honest I really don't waht 300 kids contacting me on Skype - or any otner instant messaging site for that matter!
ReplyDeleteApparentky not the case now. Last year Jody was able to access Skyoe but now not, says you need a foregn address for it.
ReplyDeleteOkay, don't know about that, but don't see how it works on a computer but not a mobile when they use the same wifi signals.
ReplyDeleteWorks for me, so not really bothered. Haha.
ReplyDeletePlus all JiZhe's remote schoolwork is on Skype and teams and the school has a no VPN policy. I'll ask him tomorrow if he can use his mobile if he needed to.
ReplyDeleteShe's got it on her laptop but iPhone has apparently deleted the app unless you have a foreign address online
ReplyDeleteJiZhe has an iPhone I have an Android.
ReplyDeleteConnected to VPN? She is ten feet away.....
ReplyDeleteJust thinking, what address do they have for Skype on the computer? I have the same address regardless of what I use. So why is it allowed on an apple computer but not an apple phone? To be honest, I know 'f' all about apple products and have no interest in knowing anything about them.
ReplyDeleteWell I have no idea and my calls hav been ignored so in the wee hours I think it is safe to assume she is in the land of nod!
ReplyDelete