COVID-19 Icebreaker

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Alexander Hayes

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Mar 20, 2020, 3:05:19 AM3/20/20
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Hi folks,

Alexander Hayes here in Perth, Western Australia sharing some news with you all.

Our illustrious Prime Minister in Australia has just announced that no public facility is allowed for anyone to occupy more than 1 person per 4 square metres. That excludes educational organisations because inside schools apparently everyone only needs to keep themselves covered over and aseptic with hand sanitisers.

I'm keen to hear from you how it is for you in your neck of the woods.

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes

Leigh Blackall

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Mar 20, 2020, 3:52:33 AM3/20/20
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At RMIT, our very handsomely compensated admin-is-trators follow the directions of the il-lust-rios PM. Our branch on the National Tertiary Education Union has called them out for not spending the copious sums gathered over years of unhealthy profiteering, and had successfully lobbied for a pittance to go to badly affected, casually employed doctors and post doctors. Many individuals are self isolating, and there is a rush on for basic training in the skills of TALO, but never the wisdom. Anti intellectual managers are turbo charging their Managerially Assured Distruction and are MAD with data everything. So we're all in a spin, filling out spreadsheets within spreadsheets, automating help desks, and avoiding all relationship building, so the headless chickens at the top can be reassured that they are data lead.

On the plus, I'm finally working from home and feel like I'm getting shit done, despite all the above. 

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Alexander Hayes

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Mar 20, 2020, 4:16:47 AM3/20/20
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Good to hear Leigh. Likewise, now that this thesis has almost gone into the examiners I can resurface to a world closing down just when I thought my illustrious career was opening up.

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes


Brent

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Mar 20, 2020, 5:20:59 AM3/20/20
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Today at school in NZ I really felt like we - students and teachers - were being asked to sacrafice ourselves for some semblance of an economy quickly becoming non-existant. All around us organizations are closing down, working from home, but here we are trucking along as if it's biz as usual. These people have no fucking idea how close quarters teaching is! I'm touching desks, student keyboards, mice,  paper, pens, bags, phones, basketballs, books all day! I'm over it. Like you said, we know how to do this from home. I'm not far from just walking out to be honest and telling a bunch of kids to walk with me.

Brent.

Alexander Hayes

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Mar 20, 2020, 5:39:10 AM3/20/20
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Another add on.

Simply put, if I get Corona I am DEAD. Sorry....I'm not going to die.

I'm enrolling to be put on PReP - http://www.pan.org.au 

Nothing to do with my sexuality.

Given I have an existing auto-immune condition signified by a gene called HLAB-27 I'm testing (guinea pigging) my way through COVID-19 using PReP. There is a correlation between Truvada which is a blue coloured tablet containing 2 anti-HIV medications: Emtricitabine 200mg and Tenofovir 300mg which has unofficial results closer than not to killing COVID-19 in lab trials.

In the absence of Chloroquine I'm taking the immuno-potentiator-

Meanwhile in China parallel tests:

"...doctors in China have given a combination of two HIV drugs – Lopinavir and Ritonavir ". at https://www.newscientist.com/article/2233510-well-soon-know-if-covid-19-can-be-treated-with-hiv-and-ebola-drugs/


I'll publish the results via Harvard Dataverse if I havent passed away meanwhile.

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes


On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 3:52 PM Leigh Blackall <leighb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Alexander Hayes

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Mar 20, 2020, 5:42:21 AM3/20/20
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We in TALO.....ARE the Future Of Learning in a Networked World.

We built this shit. Lets now lead the way out of this mess.

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes

PhD candidate
University of Wollongong, Australia
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

Twitter - @alexanderhayes
Website - http://www.alexanderhayes.com

Partner - Ngikalikarra Media 
Member - UNAA (WA Division), UNAA Academic Network 
Member - Australian Privacy Foundation

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I currently live and work on, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation. Always has been, always will be, Aboriginal land.



Alexander Hayes

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Mar 20, 2020, 11:04:46 AM3/20/20
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Poor fella. He looks a little worried.



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Alex P.Real

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Mar 21, 2020, 11:17:26 AM3/21/20
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Hi Alex,

Thank you so much for sharing... I live with two auto-immune conditions, ITP and CIDP, the latter also inflammatory, painful and rare, on top of migraines (a brilliant combination with CIDP). I was aware you had some trouble but not that we belonged together in this fascinating subworld.  Anti-inflammatory, immune-supressant drugs and chemo are my daily routine; COVID-19 is no joke for me either. As a Spaniard living in the Madrid corona epicentre the experience is far from pleasant but, at the same time, it's being quite sobering as we chronic, rare, pained, dysimmune patients are far better equipped to deal with this than the healthy population.  Risk is embedded in our daily lives and we and our beloved ones know how to adapt and cater for every scenario rather than stampede for toilet paper (yep, it's true). It is a pandemic, of course, but seasonal flu has a higher death toll (in 2019 it was 15000 only in Spain) and healthy people don't care nor has it stopped health cuts.

In the advocacy and support group I lead, after the natural bouts of excess worry and craze, we have more or less achieved a balance based on sticking to procedures, acceptance and comradeship. Laughs have come back because they empower us and know that we will overcome this.

You're a veteran; after all the shit you've been through you're a commander in chief. So lead your troops (including doctors) in the direction you think is right.

Advice: 1) Stay at home; 2) Extensive home cleanup with bleach (including outside door knobs); 3) If available, buy some FPP3 masks (they last 24 hrs) or FPP2 (8 hrs and less secure), the rest only prevent infecting others. 4) Wash your hands with soap very frequently. 5) Carry disposable gloves (if available) or napkins before touching anything outside home. It minimises the risk of touching your face with infected hands. Sanitisers are only useful if they contain 60%+ alcohol. 5) Extensive wash after coming back home. 5) Make your family abide by these strictly and, where possible, stay at home. 6) Avoid going to the doctor or hospital, unless it's life and death, for that's the most risky environment.

If you can, lobby for your government to follow the Korea model (extensive testing, even at home). To those of you who are healthy, this is the time for community thinking, not individual wants. It's the only way to avoid spreading the infection.

Stay strong. I'm sure you'll make it. 💪

Cheers,

Alex P. Real (not Hayes)







Alexander Hayes

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Mar 21, 2020, 12:41:41 PM3/21/20
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It is fantastic to hear from you Alex.

Your tips on COVID-19 are taken seriously. We are bunkering down here and today we invested as a family in $100 worth of seeds to plant out a 6 month garden.

Yes, the last 5 years have been particularly hellish but none better than seeing this to resolution - https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/transformation-through-telling-an-interview-ngikalikarra-medias-alexander-hayes/

It must be hellish where you are as I have another friend who has just made it back into quarantine in Madrid having travelled back from Finland. We are just at the tip of the beginning of it here in Australia with over a 1000 detected in a sample of 180,000 people in a country of 24.6 million people.

There are no testing kits available in the region I'm in unless you have directly come of a plane and are in the casualty unit convulsing. Teachers are being told to go home if they present at schools wearing masks. Children are told to wash their hands if there is enough soap and get on with their day.

There are no face masks available anywhere to buy. There is no hand sanitiser anywhere her in Perth that we can locate and today we spent 40 minutes shopping to buy two dozen eggs.

Yes...I'm regularly raising hell over here - https://twitter.com/alexanderhayes

Our inept government has no clue which way to turn and as always they are sending in the convicts behind the polie behind the army to force people away from their needs to ensure 'economic security' with great peril.

Wish us luck. We need it.

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes ( not P. Real) 



Alexander Hayes

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Mar 21, 2020, 1:00:45 PM3/21/20
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Seriously Brent.

I think the situation you are in is ridiculous.

We heard today that two COVIDs were cruising through the O'Reilly's bar not two blocks from my partners workplace.

Turns out they are fully fledged and actively infected.

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes

PhD candidate
University of Wollongong, Australia
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

Twitter - @alexanderhayes
Website - http://www.alexanderhayes.com

Partner - Ngikalikarra Media 
Member - UNAA (WA Division), UNAA Academic Network 
Member - Australian Privacy Foundation

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I currently live and work on, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation. Always has been, always will be, Aboriginal land.


On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 5:20 PM Brent <pumic...@gmail.com> wrote:

Nancy White

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Mar 21, 2020, 4:48:28 PM3/21/20
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HI friends, from Washington State US where we started as a US hotspot. My husband,two grandchildren and I moved out to our remote-ish cabin 10 days ago, rapidly finishing the raised beds that were going to be mostly for native plants and flowers and I'm starting veg seeds like crazy. Even if we live on zucchini, right? 

Seriously, the waffling of our leaders has been unbelievable. Here in WA state our governor shut schools 10 days ago and I wish he had earlier. We are not in "shelter in place" like NY and CA, but I expect that by Monday latest. When out for veg seed and groceries, I see so much unsafe behavior it blows my mind. 

I am so grateful we can hide up at our cabin. (On Skagit Bay, for those of you from the PNW TALO tour might remember. We are between mainland and Whidbey Island...

I'm doing a ton of organizing to help people move humanely online, check their bad meeting behaviors before they design for online, etc. More blogging to come when I come up for air.  Hard to balance with two little girls. 

Waving

Nancy

Michael Coghlan

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Mar 22, 2020, 7:04:03 AM3/22/20
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Nancy - I remember the Skagit Bay area vividly. It was only 11 years ago after all :)  Anyone housebound and  wishing to reminisce will find some average to good photos of the time on Flickr with the tag flnw09.

Good luck out there Nancy - sounds like a wise move. Australians too are struggling (me included) with the curtailing of freedoms. It's not something we're used to. And I don't think they get the enormity of this tsunami that is just arriving...

- Michael

Alex P.Real

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Mar 23, 2020, 10:43:23 AM3/23/20
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Sorry for not realising you're not in a big city 😰 However, this is fantastic news, the less populated is an area, the lower the odds of becoming infected and higher probabilities of not having to undergo the imprisoned feeling. I don't have masks/disposable gloves due to hoarding, but there are workarounds. Soap and toilet paper is a classic among Madrid's educational activism; my daughter's high school only had soap the day prior to confinement...

Frightening as it is, it's only to be expected that some of our mates, coworkers, relatives, etc. become infected and unknowingly spread it around. It can take 2 weeks for symptoms to show and you may not realise; this is why confinement is necessary.

Still, unless you're 75+ and/or have previous diseases, there's a gigantic probability that it will be flu-like. Apparently, kids are transmitters but do not become sick other than a cold; hence, the recommendation to close down schools.

I only hope that countries coming later to this nightmare learn from others and don't repeat the same mistakes.

We'll make it and, hopefully, the planet will become more TALO-like and put an end to this neoliberal s*.

Alex P. Real (not Hayes)


Alex P.Real

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Mar 23, 2020, 2:31:57 PM3/23/20
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Dead right! So let's start doing something about it.

I'm currently developing the website of my tiny advocacy and support group (GBS|CIDP España) on wordpress and an intranet with bits from google apps and microsoft 365 (free as in beer for NGOs) because beggars can't be chosers and our hosting is cheap. Obviously using free and GPL plugins. Anybody around with coding skills in case I need help with a few tweaks? Glad to share the use of the intranet (to call it something) for TALO.

The COVID-19 crisis and the toll confinement is having on children, especially those who are sick and/or divergent makes me want to do something. I have initially thought about your wife, Leigh, and her fairy tale venture. An edited version of the promo video (if I recall correctly) ideally inserting the kid's name would do wonders. Sorry for the cheeky outburst, we have some little ones around and one ails me so much... On top of CIDP she has developed MLD and is vanishing much faster than expected.

Any ideas about how can we help kids/teens and the elderly in confinement?

Let's make it happen, please.

Cheers,

Alex P. Real

Leigh Blackall

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Mar 23, 2020, 4:44:17 PM3/23/20
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Hello Alex P Real. My x wife is involved in a business prospect to provide English lessons online to kids in China. She's looking for people with excellent online teaching skills, especially performative.

This leads me to wondering why, in our TALO world, we haven't discussed the performative aspects to teaching online before. At least I can't remember us doing so. I'm Australia, we had a lot of international respect in the 90s for Playschool. Televised primary education. All that and more could be done online. A quick list of examples in YouTube anyone? Sunshine, my ex, started a fairy webcam business, and sold it.

Perhaps TALO can come out and offer its services now. There's a LinkedIn Group, everyone on it? It's not active, but a good way to get CVs in one place.

It seems like a good time to launch something TALO. We might be the oldest living network on the topic by now!

minh mcCloy

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Mar 23, 2020, 7:48:23 PM3/23/20
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Offer courses, workshops in how to TALO. I’ve a young friend just starting out as a music therapist. Once the shutdown comes there are systems in development for continuing to offer therapy (specialised, high need for privacy etc).

However she is thinking of developing a web series to help people use music to self manage anxieties, relax, stimulate, just use music. Playing, composing, listening are all in the skill set.

She has a Masters but it didn’t provide much in the way of TALO-oriented skills. Zoom for meetings is about it I think. She’s smart and adaptable.

How can you folk, elders in the field, help her and others?

Geez I love when TALO sends out fruiting bodies from the mycorrhizal subterranean mass.

rgrozdanic

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Mar 23, 2020, 9:53:38 PM3/23/20
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How I despise Zoom! @#$!!!  How did it come to this? I look at most of the modern tools and think they're overbloated pieces of garbage. When I try to avoid using them or to point out how completely ridiculous they are I am called a laggard and a neophyte. I try tell them about simple and effective tools that were freely available in 2002 or 2004. Stuff that made conversation, presentations, document creation and exchange incredibly simple. Noone believes me. I am told of the fabulous cloud, where all our troubles disappear. I blame the Simpsons (not you, Brett) because I'm sure that's what people imagine when they hear or think about the "cloud" - lovely fluffy things in a bright blue sky. Or perhaps images of God up there, minding (mining?) our data.

What strikes me most about TALO is the way there was a sliver of a window of time where relationships were built and have sustained for 20 years. Even though most of us never met or met very infrequently. There's a high degree of trust and belonging even though most of you (ok me too...) are misfits.  I'm sure there are many many older communities who have had a similar experience. Is this like the facebook mom groups? I don't know. Perhaps someone here will be able to tell me.

I wonder about your friend, Minh, and her Masters. Is there a need to teach people this stuff anymore? The tools are ubiquitous. People who really need to get things done (commerce, porn, romance, conspiracy theorists and con artists) seem to have no trouble. So what are TALO-oriented skills in this environment? What are we talking about when we imagine how it could be?

r

Alexander Hayes

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Mar 23, 2020, 10:53:00 PM3/23/20
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Hi Rose,

Well GoToMeeting has a billion times less bloat wear and they are NOT running algorithms with enhanced Artificial Intelligence that tracks even microsecond of film and analyses it for 'marketing' purposes.

I set Zoom up the other day by filming a toilet bowl and a bong for 24 hours and then sent their marketing team a link to the recording on my cloud server for them.

Twittering our way forward openly using #talo2020 would be an interesting open concourse venture. Literally sitting and listening to the myriad of ways and platforms people are using is interesting enough too.

These guys seem to be getting some great trade - http://www.reclaimhosting.com

Reliable one-click installs for most softwares and platforms including MOOOOOOOOOODLE. 

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes

PhD candidate
University of Wollongong, Australia
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

Twitter - @alexanderhayes
Website - http://www.alexanderhayes.com

Partner - Ngikalikarra Media 
Member - UNAA (WA Division), UNAA Academic Network 
Member - Australian Privacy Foundation

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I currently live and work on, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation. Always has been, always will be, Aboriginal land.


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Alexander Hayes

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Mar 23, 2020, 11:19:00 PM3/23/20
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Some Zoom privacy concerns - https://mashable.com/article/zoom-conference-call-work-from-home-privacy-concerns/

An interesting hack together thread on the topic here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22664219

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes

PhD candidate
University of Wollongong, Australia
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

Twitter - @alexanderhayes
Website - http://www.alexanderhayes.com

Partner - Ngikalikarra Media 
Member - UNAA (WA Division), UNAA Academic Network 
Member - Australian Privacy Foundation

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I currently live and work on, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation. Always has been, always will be, Aboriginal land.


On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 9:53 AM rgrozdanic <rgroz...@gmail.com> wrote:
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Peter Allen

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Mar 24, 2020, 12:01:00 AM3/24/20
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On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 5:35 PM Alexander Hayes <al...@alexanderhayes.com> wrote:


I'm keen to hear from you how it is for you in your neck of the woods.


As i was planning to retire in12 months -  the virus that caused the stock market crash has been quite untimely - if i still have a job, I might have to work it a bit longer.

I spoke to my investment portfolio manager today - and she provided a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.   she said -  that china have turned the corner when it comes to corona virus infections. If that's a model we can apply elsewhere, other countries that took similar measures will turn the corner in 3 months.

I did a bit of googling to see if it was true and found this : - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/


In my corner of the world  - it was the financial planners that seemed to understand the severity of crisis well before anyone else - as they were accessing international market research -  which seemed better informed than the news outlets and our governments.

I'm feeling a bit of hope from this news anyway.

cheers

Peter A







 

Alex P.Real

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Mar 27, 2020, 8:00:05 AM3/27/20
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Sorry for the late reply, confined but hectic due to the corona war zone (plus the irony of now having to go shopping as online markets are blocked).

Leigh, my apologies for touching a rough spot. Can't I be dumb... I'm not thinking of a biz/venture or storing CVs but rather putting TALO discussions into practice.  Aren't we becoming a momentarily deschooled society?

Minh, your friend's skills are far more needed than most people may realise. The two most successful actions in Spain to help people cope:

1) The clap to support health workers every day at 20.00 from windows/ balconies, etc.;
2) An oldie camp version of I will survive sang/shouted out from windows. In my hood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq3XtePCiyA&feature=youtu.be
 
There are underlying cultural issues here, of course. I like zoom because of its ease of use and is far more stable than skype, but I'd suggest the easiest for starters for her to test/adapt. This might be WhatsApp/Telegram or whatever apps is the most spread. I'm running a 50+ member WhatsApp support group and it really works. I use WhatsApp Web due to accesibility issues. Opera includes both WhatsApp/Telegramon the sidebar and has integrated VPN.

Cheers,

Alex P. Real



Alex P.Real

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Mar 27, 2020, 8:28:26 AM3/27/20
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Hi Rose,

I love your "the king is naked" perspective. So refreshing! Nice-looking and herd mentality have imposed themselves in tech and edutech has evolved into this sad affair of teaching to the tech, which is unpedagogical, boring and pretty ineffective.

Our freedom to facilitate learning has almost evaporated and we're losing the battle for privacy. Our dreams in the TALO utopia and the free internet have being hammered down on a daily basis over the last year (e.g. look at what social networks are and what they used to be).  I was always a misfit too, but anybody who thinks is been pushed to the margins.

Due to geographical span and access to bandwidth, I can't be that choosy for fellow patients to have access. Still, the same way Im glad to share the little we have/are building, I'm happy to test whatever alternative TALOnians have to offer!

Sorry, Minh, it slipped my mind. In terms of data protection & privacy for your friend I'm not familiar with Aus regulations, but if EU regulations come in handy, I'm certainly familiar (both general and medical purposes).

Cheers,

Alex P. Real



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Alex P.Real

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Mar 27, 2020, 8:49:33 AM3/27/20
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Hi Alex,

Many thanks for the pointer. I'll check them out. I haven't looked at Moodle in years but it used to be a pain and haven't seen many user-friendly configurations.

For legal reasons my community needs to be hosted within the EU, preferably in Spain. Medical and patient's associations need to be extremely cautious. It's illegal for medical records to be transferred outside the EU. It's Google Ireland I deal with, not Google US, and Microsoft Spain/Ireland, depending on the product. It's a bit nightmarish but it has positive aspects such as reflection by every site owner upon data use, and accountability.

Cheers,

Alex P. Real



Alexander Hayes

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Mar 27, 2020, 9:07:54 AM3/27/20
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Zoom.

Major privacy bleed that one.

Now picture an Axon on everyone. Its seems thats where we are heading fast.

Seriously folks. Why did you think I was investigating body worn cameras?


Tell me what you think of that please.


Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes

PhD candidate
University of Wollongong, Australia
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

Twitter - @alexanderhayes
Website - http://www.alexanderhayes.com

Partner - Ngikalikarra Media 
Member - UNAA (WA Division), UNAA Academic Network 
Member - Australian Privacy Foundation

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I currently live and work on, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation. Always has been, always will be, Aboriginal land.


Barbara Dieu

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Mar 27, 2020, 10:04:45 AM3/27/20
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Bee from Brazil here after a long interlude :-)

This quarantine (which for me started on 16th) has seen me busier than ever. Although I am enjoying the greenery and pure air in the countryside away from the big city of São Paulo, school was closed but my 4 classes have gone into Google Classroom from one day to the next. Again, even with an idea of how to work online and 36- year teaching experience, it was not easy to get things up and going on the spot, explaining to students and parents the technicalities on how to go about it, where to post their work, how to submit it.  Fortunately, after two weeks of intense work,  I am now at cruising speed and the kids got used to it. I have 3 classes a week with each class: two are asynchronous and one is synchronous. We are using Google Classroom (Google...I know- but it has proved very useful for all assignments, marking).  The school has set Jitsi.org for the synchronous meetings. Works wonders and what is good is that it is open source so the tech dept can tweak it to our needs. What is nice is that after these two weeks, I have a much better view of the students, their skills and what they need in order to improve.

However, for many teachers, who have always given their classes face to face, just using sometimes one app or another to enhance their classes, this has become a true nightmare. Not only because of the planning that is required beforehand but also because they are unprepared to use the best tools  for the skills they want their students to acquire and align them into a coherent route.  Secondary school still manage to go about it but in primary school we have a total disaster. Parents are desperate, threatening to stop paying the fees (we are a private school). Besides, some families have one computer at home which is used by the parents who are doing home office  so the kids cannot use them and follow. Cell phone are not the best option for the kids to post longer assignments required by the French system.  Enfin, it's chaotic. We'll see how this pans out. Any suggestions are welcome.

On the personal side, Pierre and I are well, enjoying the countryside and planning to settle here when the whole thing is over. Our younger son is with us, helping us with the shopping as,  elderly at risk...lol, we cannot venture out. My other son is arriving with our 7-year-old grand-daughter tomorrow so we will stay all together until the whole thing is over. My elder son is living in Canada with his family and has also gone into quarantine. Differently from our government, Canada seems to be giving a lot of support to its citizens and Justin has set the example.

It's good to hear from you all and know what is happening Down Under (and up North with Nancy and East of us, Alex Real, in Spain). 
Take care guys and let's keep talking!
B.



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Alexander Hayes

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Mar 27, 2020, 10:44:51 AM3/27/20
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It will never return to what we knew. If it does, can you wake me up again. Nice to hear from you Bee.

--

Barbara Dieu

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Mar 27, 2020, 10:51:53 AM3/27/20
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>It will never return to what we knew.
The world as we knew was not reassuring so do not think we should.  Hopefully we will be able to rebound and do something new. Exciting times to pull our inner resources and create.
Stay well,
B.

Alexander Hayes

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Mar 27, 2020, 1:11:47 PM3/27/20
to TALO
I hope so. This present state wont be good in the long term WE must ensure it returns to a better world than the one we were tipping back into being

Kind regards,

Alexander Hayes

PhD candidate
University of Wollongong, Australia
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

Twitter - @alexanderhayes
Website - http://www.alexanderhayes.com

Partner - Ngikalikarra Media 
Member - UNAA (WA Division), UNAA Academic Network 
Member - Australian Privacy Foundation

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I currently live and work on, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation. Always has been, always will be, Aboriginal land.


minh mcCloy

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Mar 27, 2020, 4:15:36 PM3/27/20
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Thank you Alex I will pass that on. Be safe. 

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