education & tech

The Centro de Estudios Interamericanos (CEDEI) is situated in Cuenca, Ecuador. The organization seeks qualified EFL teachers for October 2008. The Center is a not-for-profit institution of higher learning founded in 1992, dedicated to the study of American languages and cultures. To foster understanding among the people of the Americas, their organization sponsors a variety of academic activities independently and in conjunction with universities in North and South America. CEDEI has three locations in Cuenca, offering English classes to more than 700 students with a staff of at least 40 teachers.

Cuenca is a province of Ecuador and it is located high in a valley in Ecuador's southern Andes. Cuenca city has more than 400,000 inhabitants and is the third largest city in the country (after Quito and Guayaquil). Cuenca enjoys spring-like temperatures year round, during night time it's a bit chilly. In 1999, Cuenca was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site

The positions available are EFL teachers for children, high school, and adult groups.

Qualifications required: a Bachelor's Degree, a TEFL/CELTA/TESOL or other related certificate, and must be a native English speaker. Desired qualifications also include experience working with all ages starting at 7 years old to adults, teaching Business English, Pronunciation, and TOEFL Preparation.

Teachers are expceted to work between 15-20 contact hours per week with opportunities for extra tutoring and conversation classes. Most classes are Monday-Saturday but teachers will have a five-day week. CEDEI [es] also offers an environment where teachers are supported in their professional development with frequent workshops, curriculum shares and a well-stocked resource room.

If you meet the needed qualifications send via e-mail your updated resume and attach letters of recommendation – one of your references should be able to describe your teaching abilities.

Starting pay is $275 USD per 50-hour adult class, $220 USD per 40-hour children’s class, and $234 USD per 36-hour Saturday class. They offer classes over a 10-week and 5-week teaching cycle. Starting pay for tutorials is $5.50 per hour. While teachers don’t earn a lot of money by international standards, they do earn enough to live comfortably in Ecuador and gain much in teaching experience and cultural exchange. There are other perks included.


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This is not the best place to write about Ecuador's affairs but I still like to read about it and i want to summarize what some people is saying about Aids for the flooding victims that thanks to incident with Colombia, it seems everyone has forgotten, except The Prem Rawat Foundation; and how foreigners conceive the 'enculturation' process that needs to be shared with others.

Medicalnewstoday.com published an article where they explain what's the role of The Prem Rawat Foundation which donated $26,000 to Montanas de Esperanza((MdE), a local non-profit in northern Ecuador, to provide relief to flood victims in the coastal village of Santa Lucia(Nanegal, Ecuador). The grant will supply 32 tons of vital food supplies to feed 1,500 families ( about 7,500 people) at least for one month. This community is one of the most severely affected areas, MdE with the cooperation of the Ecuadorian Red Cross, Regional Andean Farmers Cooperatives, the National Emergency Operations Center, community leaders and individual volunteers will handle the deliveries of aid to flood victims, one of the largest provided in Ecuadorian coast to date.

Alicia Craven is teaching English in the Cuenca's city, where a historic and colonial environment makes her write about her experiences back there and how tourists visiting Cuenca may expect to see fedoras, flutes and roasted guinea pig, which is impaled on sticks like giant rodent popsicles. There is a passage that really makes me have some fun, because it reminded me of how culturally different people can be. This is it: "One night, on a night bus, I woke to find my chariot unmoving — a 10-foot layer of mud from a recent landslide had blocked the narrow mountain highway. Naively, I went to question the driver. "Excusing me, sir," I asked in Spanish, "but is there a plan for to cope with the mountain who fall down on our path?"

"Don't worry! There's a plan!" he assured me with a smile. "We wait!" Indeed, patience paid off, and with the help of a team of shovel-toting saviors, we were on our way a mere seven hours later."

Ecuadorans can be so much lucky. Jeff Hansel from postbulletin.com echoes the experience of a young girl back in Ecuador and in the Saint Marys Hospital. The young girl was grown in Portoviejo and unfortunately got hit by a drunk driver while she was crossing the street near her home. All help she's obtained is thanks to opportune intervention of Hands for Humanity, based in Rochester (MN).

In Ecuador if you don't pay medical services, up front, you definitely die. Panchi, short for Francisca in Spanish, is the mother's girl(Lidia Pazminio) and she remembers: "To come to Rochester, Panchi had to raise enough money for the flight and passports. During one fundraiser, she literally stopped cars, told Lidia's story to the occupants and accepted whatever they offered."

No everything is politics and not only Colombian issues are the concern of Ecuadorans.

(*) Picture by iAngelDJ

Technorati: ecuador, cuenca, ONGs

Video produced and distributed by UTPL under MIRADAS

This is the story of a foreigner in Loja, who discovered that growing older not necessarily means being invisible to the opposite sex.

She went to a party where, for the first time, she received not a glimmer of attention from any man there. She was happily married by then, but still, she remembers how stunned she felt to go unnoticed. Suddenly, she was out the game. After years, she confess, she loves male attention as much as ever.

This was an experience in Loja's (not far from Vilcabamba) not much crowded immigration office. Holding her ticket, she sat for about one hour, resigned to a long wait. A young man, half her age had completed her paperwork and asked her if she was married or single. She said 'single' and watched as he checked the box marked 'divorciada'. Wait. "Actually, I am a widow" she pointed out.

"Oh, seniora", he said, "I am so very sorry. Please accept my profound apology. I have made the most egregious error". Now here he was, spotting her in the back of the room and waving me up to his window. The bunch of visa-seeking gringos parted, then, she floated by, to be received by a courteous Ecuadoran male who took his time explaining the final steps in the visa renewal process. She will be able to come back into two weeks to pick up the visa, he concluded. "Until then", he said, taking her hand in his and cocking his head ever so slightly. "que le vaya muy bien, seniora".

This expression in Spanish means, "I hope that all goes well for you" and it's a standard good-bye in Loja and Ecuador. To the 70 and something old American woman, it feels like a resurrection from the dead. It hasn't been too long ago that she waited in a store in the States and her testimony goes about a middle-aged, balding clerk, who helped a 20-something, long haired blonded pick out a flat TV screen. The clerk was all charm with all information on every set in sight. When she finally got her turn, the employee barely made eye contact and offered minimal data on only the sets I asked about. Of course, she didn't buy a TV and walk out feeling upset and humiliated.

In Loja and the little town of Vilcabamba, She is born again into a world of easy-smiling men who give her a two handed hello or a peck on the check and people who always take the time to chat. Part of all this is custom; regardless of their sex, people stop and exchange pleasantries. A typical "hi, How are you?" flyby is a bad form for Ecuadorean culture; you learn at least to stand still and wait for an answer.

What you can experience down South Ecuador is more than good manners. Men you don't even know smile openly at you, make eye contact and say, "Buenos dias." Occasionally, they will give you a sly up-and-down glance as you pass on the street. The top video, at the beginning shows you the point of view of people living in Vilcabamba and this story reflects how nice and polite Vilcabamba residents are and continue to be.

The other day in Vilcabamba, the man behind the counter at a small hardware store felt free to place some extra gaskets on the hand of the history's woman and declare, "No charge , seniora. I ask only that you return soon to look at me again with your beautiful and rare green eyes around here". She had to laugh at this nonsense.

Remember, if you happen to come to Ecuador, go Loja and ask to be driven to Vilcabamba, you won't see only ancient people but surely you will feel younger as ever!

This post was inspired on the video shown up here and in Remember Sweet Things by Ellen Greene.

Technorati: vilcabamba, loja, ecuador, latin+america

"We have to move because Colombians might get confused as we are terrorists"

Cartoon credit: La Hora [ES]

On March 1st, Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla chief in the jungle, opened his laptop – and what did the Colombians find? A message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which they’re using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!

That’s what G.B. tells us. And he got that from his buddy, the strange right-wing President of Colombia, Mr. Uribe.

After the fact, Colombia justified its attempt to provoke a border war as a to stop the threat of WMDs! Uh, where have we heard that before?

The US media snorted up this line about Chavez’ $300 million to 'terrorists' quicker than the young Bush inhaling Colombia’s powdered export. What the US media did not do is look at the evidence, the email in the magic laptop. (Presumably, the FARC leader’s last words were, 'Listen, my password is ….') Does anyone knows computers around here?

G. Palast read them. While you can read it all in Spanish, here is, in translation, the one and only mention of the alleged $300 million from Chavez is this:

… With relation to the 300, which from now on we will call “dossier,” efforts are now going forward at the instructions of the boss to the cojo [slang term for ‘cripple’], which I will explain in a separate note. Let’s call the boss Ángel, and the cripple Ernesto.

Got that? Where is Hugo? Where’s 300 million? And 300 what? Indeed, in context, the note is all about the hostage exchange with the FARC that Chavez was working on at the time (December 23, 2007) at the request of the Colombian government.

So, the entire remainder of the email is all about the mechanism of the hostage exchange. Here’s the next line: “To receive the three freed ones, Chavez proposes three options: Plan A. Do it to via of a ‘humanitarian caravan’; one that will involve Venezuela, France, the Vatican[?], Switzerland, European Union, democrats [civil society], Argentina, Red Cross, etc.”

As to the 300, you must note that the FARC’s previous prisoner exchange involved 300 prisoners. Is that what the 300 refers to? ¿Who knows? Unlike Uribe, Bush and the US media, you won’t guess or make up a phastasmogoric story about Chavez mailing checks to the jungle.

To bolster their case, the Colombians claimed, with no evidence whatsoever, that the mysterious 'Angel' is the code name for Chavez. But in the memo, Chavez goes by the code name … Chavez.

Well, so what? We don't have to argue to what happened in Dominican Republic or wait until March 14th when the OAS hand out its report. This is what.

Colombia’s invasion into Ecuador is a rank violation of international law, condemned by every single Latin member of the Organization of American States. And Mr. President just loved it. He called Uribe to back Colombia, against, “the continuing assault by narco-terrorists as well as the provocative maneuvers by the regime in Venezuela.”

Well, our President may have gotten the facts ass-backward, but W. knows what he’s doing: shoring up his last, faltering ally in South America, Uribe, a desperate man in deep political trouble.

Uribe claims he is going to bring charges against Chavez before the International Criminal Court. If Uribe goes there in person, I suggest he take a toothbrush: it was just discovered that right-wing death squads held murder-planning sessions at Uribe’s ranch. Uribe’s associates have been called before the nation’s Supreme Court and may face prison.

In other words, it’s a good time for a desperate Uribe to use that old politico’s wheeze, the threat of war, to drown out accusations of his own criminality.
Furthermore, Uribe’s attack literally killed negotiations with FARC by killing FARC’s negotiator, Raul Reyes. Reyes was in talks with both Ecuador and Chavez about another prisoner exchange. Uribe authorized the negotiations, however, he knew, should those talks have succeeded in obtaining the release of those kidnapped by the FARC, credit would have been heaped on Ecuador and Chavez, and discredit heaped on Uribe. Do you like that?

Luckily for a hemisphere on the verge of flames, the President of Ecuador, Raphael Correa, is one of the most level-headed, thoughtful men I’ve ever encountered.

Correa has flown from Quito to Brazilia to Caracas to keep the region from blowing sky high. While moving troops to his border – no chief of state can permit foreign tanks on their sovereign soil – Correa also refuses sanctuary to the FARC . Indeed, Ecuador has routed out 47 FARC bases, a better track record than Colombia’s own, corrupt military.

For his cool, peaceable handling of the crisis, ecuadoreans will forgive Correa for apologizing for his calling Bush, “a dimwitted President who has done great damage to his country and the world.” (Watch an excerpt of Palast's interview with Correa here.)

Front Runners Speak About Border Crisis

We can trust Correa to keep the peace South of the Border. But can we trust our Presidents-to-be?

The current man in the Oval Office, George Bush, simply can’t help himself: an outlaw invasion by a right-wing death-squad promoter is just fine with him.

But guess who couldn’t wait to parrot the Bush line? Hillary Clinton, still explaining that her vote to invade Iraq was not a vote to invade Iraq, issued a statement nearly identical to Bush’s, blessing the invasion of Ecuador as Colombia’s “right to defend itself.” And she added, “Hugo Chávez must stop these provoking actions.” Huh?

I assumed that Obama wouldn’t jump on this landmine – especially after he was blasted as a foreign policy amateur for suggesting he would invade across Pakistan’s border to hunt terrorists. Now comes a person who's doing well in the campaign, but as for me, it’s embarrassing that Barack repeated Hillary’s line nearly verbatim, announcing, “the Colombian government has every right to defend itself.” Didn't he attended Law School?

(G. Palast is sure Hillary’s position wasn’t influenced by the loan of a campaign jet to her by Frank Giustra. Giustra has given over a hundred million dollars to Bill Clinton projects. Last year, Bill introduced Giustra to Colombia’s Uribe. On the spot, Giustra cut a lucrative deal with Uribe for Colombian oil.)

Then, McCain weighed in with his own idiocies, announcing that, “Hugo Chavez is establish[ing] a dictatorship,” presumably because, Chavez counts all the votes in Venezuelan elections.

But now our story gets tricky and icky.

The wise media critic Jeff Cohen told Greg to watch for the media naming McCain as a foreign policy expert and labeling the Democrats as amateurs. Sure enough, the NYT, on the news pages Wednesday, called McCain, “a national security pro.”

McCain is the “pro” who said the war in Iraq would cost nearly nothing in lives or treasury dollars.

But, on the Colombian invasion of Ecuador, McCain said, “I hope that tensions will be relaxed, President Chavez will remove those troops from the borders - as well as the Ecuadoreans - and relations continue to improve between the two.”

It’s not quite English, but it’s definitely not Bush. And weirdly, it’s definitely not Obama and Clinton cheerleading Colombia’s war on Ecuador.

Democrats, are you listening? The only thing worse than the media attacking Obama and Clinton as amateurs is the Democratic candidates’ frightening desire to prove them right. Nothing to be with the 3 a.m. Hillary is calling to.

Disclaimer: Newsletter received in my e-mail by Greg Palast and edited for publishing in this page.

Technorati: politics, ecuador, colombia, venezuela, greg+palast, tonnet

A report from Nielsen Online shows the following results for social networking sites and blogs among which Facebook, LinkedIn and Club Penguin are with the most significant growing. Between 2006 and 2007, Facebook jumped from 8,682 to 19,519 users; LinkedIn went from 1,705 to 4,919 both with an average of 157% of increase.

Why Am I pointing this out? Because the number of online users who are looking to engage in social networks are on the move. Despite the numbers of blogger that are using Blogger as hosting for their free blogs, the company with the best results has been Wordpress.com, they were from 2,10 to 411,440 which represents the 444% of incorparated new users.

In this frame Ecuador after a few hours will start testing the output of its new Citizen Journalism oriented newspaper: Ultimas Noticias. This new project, according to Christian Espinosa, one of the most read online jornalists, is owned by the El Comercio Group. Let's keep track of this launching by 9:00 PM (Eastern Time), follow the links trend using the Microsoft Link Command, +linkdomain:http://www.ultimasnoticias.ec/.

Even tough, citizen journalism is not a new concept, it is for Ecuador. A good example is being set by Global Voices Online. They're at the same time looking for a correspondent in this country. Cobertura Digital brings the note, as well.

Have you all a great weekend and I hope you read this post with the great Firefox, latest version.

Looking forward to know what it will be the trend results for the next year!

Fragment of the article published primarily in Global Voices Online:

The blogger Don Xavier [ES] writes about the different threats and warnings given to voters if Correa was given increased power in the country's affairs. He makes a reference to childhood saying about witches, old men in coats and a cuckoo that would take small children away if they did not do what they were supposed to.

Ahora ya no dicen CUCO, se refieren a el como CHAVEZ, no me amenazan con la BRUJA en vez de eso me dicen que van a derogar la dolarización y que el VIEJITO DEL SACO no es nada mas ni nada menos que el SOCIALISMO DEL SIGLO XXI.

Now they no longer say CUCKOO, talking about him like CHAVEZ, they do not threaten me with the WITCH, and instead, say to me that they are going to change the dollar currency and that the VIEJITO OF the COAT is nothing more than the SOCIALISM OF the 21st CENTURY.

Libertad Ecuador [ES] is worried about the results and what might happen to the country now that Correa has increased control:

Solo cuando pierdan su trabajo o una posibilidad de negocio y se les haga imposible enrumbarse nuevamente debido a la recesión económica ya iniciada gracias a las políticas populistas del Rafico se darán cuanta del error cometido.

Only when they lose their jobs or any business possibility and for them it becomes impossible to find a path due to the economic recession already initiated thanks to the Rafico's populist policies, will they realize of the mistake that they committed.

El Federalista [ES] sums it up bluntly:

The winer: Correa, the losers: everyone

El ganador: Correa, los perdedores: todos

Cronica Cero [ES], mocks of two of the most senior parties in Ecuador for not acknowledging their defeat:

En la hora de la derrota, ni Jaime Nebot, ni Nicolás Lapentti acudieron a dar la cara. La historia seguramente los marcará como cobardes, faltos de entereza para reconocer que se equivocaron.

...In the hour of the defeat, neither Jaime Nebot, nor Nicholas Lapentti appeared. History surely will mark them as cowards, without integrity for not admitting that they were mistaken.

El Manaba [ES] author of a very popular blog in Ecuador concludes:

Una leccion para los partidos politicos, o se renuevan o mueren

A lesson for the political parties, either they change or they condemned to die.

Ecuador is a country of 13 million people, more than half of whom live in poverty. The government claims that oil revenue is necessary to meet the development needs of its citizens. These revenues account for around 40 percent of the federal budget every year.

Ecuador is burdened with over 15 billion dollars of external debt, including substantial amounts owed to the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank - more than enough to cover Ecuador's ITT compensation offer.

'Ecuador doesn't ask for charity', has said President Correa, 'but does ask that the international community share in the sacrifice and compensates us with at least half of what our country would receive, in recognition of the environmental benefits that would be generated by keeping this oil underground.'

It's time to pay attention to personalities such as Dr. Matt Finer of Save America's Forests, a conservation group based in Washington, DC. who said: 'What are urgently needed now are viable proposals from the international community to present to President Correa.'

Yesterday, I was in Maryland and had the chance to read The Washington Post. Chris Kraul brought in the interest of something that is happening with the poor citizen of latinamerica. Everyone should remember the huge wave crashed down of a vessel like 100 miles off the Colombian cost. On August 2005, ninety-eight Ecuadorans were drowned, leaving behind 170 orphans and many grieving relatives.

The 15% of Ecuadoran population have migrated to the U.S.( Total is about 2 million). Half of them since a devastating financial crisis in 1999. Most of migrants come from Azuay, Tungurahua y Loja. They have to pay between $8,000 to $10,000 to the smugglers or 'coyotes' in order to arrange a five-day, 1,000-mile voyage from Ecuador's cost to Guatemala.

Almost after a decade that Ecuador turned blinded to coyotes, the nation had taken a harder line with the human smugglers. Paul Vasquez is a special migration prosecutor with the province of Azuay and has said:'The coyotes deceive their victims from the beginning, promising visas, that they are friends of ambassadors or consuls, and that they will make it easy to get to the U.S...Once they have their money, the tricks become obvious and they take them on these highly dangerous trips'.

Milton Bautista Guzman has been sentenced to spend eight years in prison for his part in the scheme of August 13th voyage. He was one out of ten alleged coyotes in the business. In comparation with sentenced Tyron Willimans who was driving the truck that suffocated 19 illegal immigrants in Texas, it may sound too light sentence for Bautista, considering he was indicted for the death of 98 people!

We must be clear the 'coyote' is not only one person, it is a network said attorney Auquilla from Cuenca Lawyers Board. 'It's a network that includes lawyers, congresmen, bankers and police, who have been bribed or blackmailed and who remain hidden from view'.

Those among other reason of why the emigrants are losing to coyotes their houses and farms. Many Ecuadoran cannot make payments on the usurious loans they take. Let's say they borrow $10,000 they need to repay 8% monthly which makes nearly 100% of repay after a year! But hold up a second! Coyotes are not devils in everyone's eyes. If they do their job and the human cargo arrives happily to the U.S. the smugglers are seem with appreciation.

Lorena Escudero, a sociologist from University of Cuenca says that in some homes, there is a picture of the coyote next to that of the Virgen Mary. That's Ecuadoran culture. There are gratitude for those in business for decades who happen to be helped generations of families get to El Norte. Same history must be written about Ambato's people or Cariamanga y Macará ex-residents!

I happened to visit ebiquity and found a post from Tim Finin, where he says the American Government if funding the Rutgers Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science in order to keep an eye over all online social networks, looking for potential terrorist activity.

Among the initial projects are two involving social media. One will study the problem of analyzing large, dynamic multigraphs that arise from blogs. Another will develop algorithms for identifying hidden social structures in virtual communities with a goal of finding hidden groups, coalitions and leaders by non-semantic analysis of large communication networks.

American Senator Murphy (Illinois) has a blog as everybody else but what brings our attention is the projects he's working on, especially the SJRCA18 that has to be with the safety of our kids, protecting them against online predators at public libraries and schools. Yesterday, after I watched Lockup I've started rethinking about our own safety not from outsiders but those detainees all around US.

This has nothing to do with current politics but beliefs. I am a catholic and hope not offend nobody of my readers being a roman catholic confessed but what TIME magazine holds is critical for all those millions of catholics worldwide. If Jesus and his family have been founded dead in their graves in Israel then, Christianity become an empty vessel! Why? Because there is not Resurrection, the myth of all Christians.

Please allow me to go back to my home country, how come a company can make money with such a high pay in OT to the management only and not to the people who really do the Service? Alt1040 put his finger on Pacifictel and says $ 3.71 millions were paid as over time! My God! Besides, between the 2003 and 2007 the Ecuadorean telecommunication's company (Pacifictel) had eight CEO's and that during such a period those directives rose their salary 977 times! Want to invest in Ecuador? You're just in time. God Bless President Correa.

I couldn't post earlier today because I felt like staying home. The temperatures are so cold that you want to stay home the whole day. Who doesn't love the warmness of home. The bad news I've found is Technorati just shut down 2000 bloggers even when I love the hilarious definitions of memes. The good one is that Steve Jobs is the best linkbaiter! Will it be another lesson of good linking?

I didn't know about this new term or concept if you prefer to call it that way. Bliki, defined as a web based collaboration and publishing system that marries the concepts and benefits of a blog based publishing software and a wiki based collaboration system. No bliki, no love.

PurpleMoggy has a new way to offer your feeds but not through Blogger syndication itself but using a direct procedure with Feedburner. You should give it a try. I am not using it but I trust Purple when he comes with discoveries like this one.

I am fond of socialnetworking and this new system comes to Change the traditional way we are doing it (non-profit organizations. Among all this pages and blog I've found of my interest, I guess yours, too; I have to talk about a beautiful new design of a blog to which we are subscribed, it is Basang Panaginip, in terms of blogging, she's a pretty good example of neat blog design. And speaking of designers, in Ecuador is working in this field Michael Muller, his name doesn't look too much 'guayaquilenio' but what we are pleased he is working from Guayaquil(Ecuador).

It's being quite a bit I don't write, link or publish nothing about web design. Thanks to the time I've got today and after reading Funny Monday (everyone should have a section like this one, I guess, came through a blog that expose everything about entertaining but not webtech or categories like that. However, Essential Tools Every Blogger Should Have is a good selection which be just handy when you have to write in your blog and want to look a litte bit different that everybody else. All writing is both a mask and an unveiling. Pass it on!

Now this are news to me, Amit Agarwal say that Wikipedia must rollback the rel=nofollow change. Why? Because third resources will be penalized and chastening everyone for the spammy actions of few individuals is just not right! he says.

The market and we the bloggers are inundated with too many application and webservices but when it comes to video then we stop and start thinking what are the best services that can find around and that could overpass YouTube service. Well, no more go and read Paul Stamatiou and his post about Zudeo. Enough said. The decision is yours.

I am sure you also want to chage once in a while the face of your blog. No because you don't like it anymore but you go and visit others' and see interesting designs or something that catch your eye and want to introduce it to your personal blog. I think you will find useful the services Open Designs, you need to register, though.

Do not get scared, but the Earth Warming had hit Ecuador. Do you know anything about the Cotopaxi Volcano? This volcano is located 70 km south from Quito and it just started to melt. See the Spanish report.

Nowadays you don't read only books, newspapers and magazine in a traditional manner, our kids and teen have Internet access most of the times and from that computer, they've changed their way of reading. But the question is how blogging plays a role in developing a sophistication in reading interactions?

Will Richardson arrives to the following conclusions:

1. Students are and will be doing more reading in hypertext environments.
2. Reading in hypertext environments requires different literacies than in print environments.
3. Teachers need to teach their how to read effectively in hypertext environments.
4. In order to teach these literacies effectively, teachers must also model their use.
CONCLUSION: Teachers should be reading and writing online (blogging).

Want to keep an eye of what is going on around educative neighborhood? Please, head to Wesley Fryer's List of Edubloggers.

Now as is normal in bple, we need change topic. I am in MyBlogLog network but this analysis got me thinking about the real benefit of belonging MyBlogLog. Every blogger should be aware of this and I am not whining or complaining what I try to say is the sometimes we just follow as others do and that's all. We better start thing about what we do and the quality of what we use in our blogs.

In Ecuador there was a rally to vote and find the best Ecuadorean blogs. Erebe.net presents his results in five categories: opinion, technology, personal, groupal, thematic and revelation. See results.

After ten years of political instability, today Ecuadorean Congress sworn in Rafael Correa as their new President. He's a well educated person but his political convictions goes to the left. Many Ecuadorean expect him to save the country from the disaster the dollar currency had caused and to increase the PIB to get a descent and better life to the average Ecuadorean citizen.

These are some highlights about him until 12:30 PM:

"Ante Dios y ante el pueblo ecuatoriano juro cumplir el mandato que me dio el pueblo ecuatoriano el pasado 26 de noviembre" -ElComercio.

"Ecuador ha quedado alineado expresamente con Cuba, Venezuela y Bolivia y Nicaragua en una alianza revolucionaria regional" -Apuntes Iberoamericanos.

"Vamos país, la esperanza está puesta y flota en el ambiente. Ójala que el nuevo gobierno sepa aprovecharla y cumpla con la tan anhelada reforma profunda al estado" -Ecuador de Hoy.

"La Patria Vuelve: Convocaré a la consulta popular para que el soberano, el pueblo ecuatoriano, ordene o niegue esa Asamblea Nacional Constituyente de plenos poderes que busque superar el bloqueo político y social en el que el país se encuentra sumergido" -El Universo.

"En décidant, en décembre 2006, la reprise des épandages aériens d'herbicide pour venir à bout des plantations de coca à la frontière, le gouvernement colombien d'Alvaro Uribe (droite) a déclenché une crise diplomatique. M. Correa a qualifié le fait "d'agression inadmissible" -Fanette.

"Let us make a true democratic revolution, constitutional but still a revolution... radical, profound and quick changes to the current model of so much exploitation, of so much injustice" -Vox-Live From Ecuador.

"Correa had traveled to the impoverished community for a ceremony in his honor, in which he received a streamer-draped scepter signifying authority in Indian communities" -Dominican Today.

I was surprised to find out all by myself the Proyecto Ruidoso which is managed by Samuel Perichon(Can be read in Arab language, as well). I've ever heard it before but this post about Loja. If you browse around and type in Churute in google you will find that this is an Ecologic Reserve that belong to the National Patrimony of Natural Areas protected by the Ecuadorian State, it is also enrolled in the Ramsar International Treaty to be one of the most important humid forest zones for Ecuador. Its extension is 49,383 hectares, which:35,000 are manglar zone, and 5,500 hectares in the hills of Mate, Cimalon, Perequete Chico, Perequete Grande, Pancho Diablo. 8,883 hectares include the denominated Lagoon of the Canclon and the agricultural zones of the communes who are inside the reserve.

Sorry but being an ecuadorean, I've missed this Reserve and feel compeled to report it like it is. See pictures of Proyecto Ruidoso (Noisy Project).

I've been writing while ago. I don't mean the scolastci writings that our teachers used to asked for, but the professional writing. When I was a teen I always dreamed of being an anchor or at least a person with strong network in the media. That was my dream! After many year spent in College, struggling to learn French and Russian I've ended up learning English! OMG. Things happened and nowadays I am fluent in both languages: English and Spanish. The French and Russian have flown, I don't know whether from my tongue or from my mind!

This personal disclosure is brought to you because I wanted to thank all my readers, those visitors that fall on any of my post and kindly drop a note or a message to tell me I am doing good or even to let me know that my grammar sucks! All due respect, for mild language. I've been plugged for a one of the best citizen journalists, David Sasaki. Much appreciation deserves Claudia Peña who has being kindly enough to inlcude our blog in her blogroll.

Alexis Rebolledo a chilean teacher and blogger made a generous review of our bple. You will notice how the bple had gone from time to time, changing not only in design but in contents. Our dearest Carmen from Spain also made a very short but provocative analisis of TonNet's blog and BTW, everyone is entitled to belong to UBH(Spanish Bloggers Network). And just yesterday a professional, very familiar with the Mac's World, wrote a presentación for our 'second son' a blog which is written in Spanish and that is focus on my mother country issues: Carlos Correa has a way, way genereous presentation for De la vida y algo mas....

Thank you all and promise to keep doing things better!

Let me put this straight. I am promoting the GoMeme 4.0 in a Spanish page known as UBH and someone wrote a comment where the person says Google may be punishing for having too many links un the same page which means the GoMeme have gone over two hundred members. Any ideas from your own experiences or any tip about it?

I've following the ecuadorian blogosphere since a while and I couldn't find relevant information -at least to me- and I couldn't see also David Sasaki pick anything from the ecuadorian blogosphere. Could it be that I and GVO are both wrong or it is only matter of another issues. Let's see what's going on.

There in a southern ecuadorian blogger that is working hard to keep the local bloggers kicking, he is a very well informed person and if you are well prepared to to talk about Mac's then Carlos Correa is the right person!

I guess I've already mention this blog in other posts but today he's trying to show u s a new way to leave voice comments in our blogs. You better take a look in Library Clips.

Thanks to the great Ramani, bple has another face, I am still working to make a little changes and what I've learnt today is the NEO design is not comtible with the Table of Contents proposed by Hans. Maybe our new fried from Blogger Hacked can lent us a hand a help to solve this matter. Or perhaps Aditya Mukherjee who, by the way, had just updated his Native Blog Search. Kudos!

Ahora que YouTube ha mejorado sus funcionalidades será mas efectivo el trabajo y aprovechamiento del tiempo libre mientras usamos y hasta abusamos de StumbleUpon. A pesar de los 100 y mas websites que hospedan videos, AOL sigue ofreciendo un muy respetable servicio y aunque lo he mencionado no puedo decir nada de SoapBox. Así que me quedo con YouTube!

Hey! Flickr ha aumentado la capacidad de alojamiento tanto para las cuentas gratis como para las pagadas. Free accounts cinco veces lo que ofrecían, o sea 100MB y las Pro (25 dólares) hasta 2GB! Con toda esa capacidad de almacenamiento no solo que debería usarse para hacer su screencast que muestre su cuirriculum vitae sino que podría ir pensando en elaborar una cuantas tarjetas especiales de Navidad para sus amigos y familiares

En el area educativa existe una cita que debe acuniarse para futuras investigaciones: Teacher is a connector. Desafortunadamente hasta hoy no hemos podido encontrar ni podemos seguir el hilo de la conversación respecto a ésta nueva declaración filosófica, no siquiera en la edición nueva de Interactive Educator. Talvéz nos haga falta revisar los mas nuevos compendios publicados en WikiSummaries.

And least but not last, gracias a Jaxtr(y a Techcrunch) podemos ampliar y diversicicar las formas y medios de crear nuestro propio socialnetworking. Ahh... algo mas, el electo Presidente de los ecuatorianos promete unirse al gran proyecto del Open Source, el reporte original está en el blog de Rafael Bonifaz.

Es una excelente iniciativa de Webtoolscollection, pero en idioma inglés. Puede que el futuro veamos algo parecido en la blogósfera hispanos, considerando que existen bloggeros para quienes escribir se ha convertido en un acto de electrifying text.

Desde nuestro blog un saludo cordial y fraterno para los ecuatorianos nacidos en la capital, hoy es seis de diciembre y los quitenios están de fiesta. Viva el 6 de Diciembre!.

Fabio Cavassini nos muestra la forma mas simple y sencilla de poner un slideshow en su blog con solo reemplazar el código de usuario. El procedimiento es original de Paul Stamatiou y su ID es fácil encontralo haciendo click aquí. Ya lo verán muy pronto implementado en bple en su parte inferior (Up and running right now!).

Solía tener un wishlist. Todavía lo tengo, pero no apunta desde el blog. Estoy esperando que Papa Noel, Santa o el Ninio Dios se acuerde de nosotros y nos permita al menos disfrutar de una sola cosa de ésta lista de posibles regalos de Navidad. Alguna alma caritativa. :)

Wikipedia es como muchos saben una encilopedia online escrita en varios idiomas entre ellos el espaniol con tan solo 174.000 artículos y digo tan solo porque la versión inglesa va por el 1'508.000. Y eso por supuesto muestra una marcada superioridad y una notoria deficiencia en la producción literaria en lengua hispana, nóteseque está por debajo de todas las demas lenguas en cuanto número de artículos.

Y sucede que hoy voy a la página en inglés de Wikipedia y encuentro en la página principal al electo presidente de los ecuatorianos, Rafael Correa. Y me he puesto a leer algo mas sobre él y algo que no concocía era su dominio de las lenguas francesa, inglesa y el quechua. Mis respetos senior Presidente y ojalá otros ecuatorianos pudiesen llegar a permanecer en la página principal de Wikipedia.


No necesitamos estar en las primeras planas por escándalos como el de Britney Spears, aunque hayan defensores de las libertades civiles.