Mina, I love the video! You should upload it to Commons as well. :)
I'm sorry to hear about the reduction in teachers; I hope something manages
to work out and you can continue your excellent work somehow!
LiAnna
On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 1:27 PM, Mina Theofilatou <theoth(a)otenet.gr> wrote:
**
Hello all
I'm writing to share some news with you... first the good news: we
successfully completed and presented two school projects for the school
year 2012-13. The projects were featured in the Wikimedia Global blog
post
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/21/education-program-greece/#more-21982>I
wrote in February. In the post I had mentioned that we would be holding an
outdoor event to engage the locals in our work on Wikimedia Commons: the
event was initially planned for mid-March, but the weather was so
unpredictable this spring that we had to wait until mid-May to be certain
that we would not have to face a storm! Anyway, here is the video I just
uploaded :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWffhaJjAcY (in English). In
addition, I have submitted the video to the European "generations at
school" competition, as it was an intergenerational project both in the
making and presentation.
And now for the bad news: this may be the last project I will be running
in secondary education in Greece: the "Troika" (IMF-ECB-EU) has
demanded that 12.500 people are fired from the public sector, and the
government intends to fire around 8000 school teachers. They are looking
primarily at ICT teachers (such as myself), as they intend to gradually
eliminate ICT from secondary education curriculum (they have already
removed a total of 4 hours per week in 1st and 2nd grade of upper secondary
since last year). With no evaluation, no forward thinking or planning and
no consideration for the quality of work ICT teachers have produced, we may
find ourselves jobless in a matter of days.
The crisis in Greece has led many people to despair: with an unemployment
rate of nearly 30% (60% for the 18-25 age group), social structures
crumbling (schools, hospitals etc. are closing down on a daily basis) and
salaries cut by at least 40%, it's not surprising that suicide rates have
tripled over the last three years. Anyone interested in an eyewitness
account of the situation can read a post I wrote in English on my blog.
<http://agrypnocoma.blogspot.gr/2013/06/this-was-not-accepted-for-publication.html>
Anyway, sorry to convey sadness... hope you all have a nice summer, and
keep up the great work:)
Best,
Mina (saintfevrier)
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LiAnna Davis
Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
http://education.wikimedia.org
(415) 839-6885 x6649
ldavis(a)wikimedia.org