World Friendship Day Celebration

Times have changed, teachers have evolved, and we now have a new breed of learning technologists empowering students by giving them access to a wide range of web-based tools that allow them to engage with their peers all over the world.

The Head Mistress of St. Mary's Girls High School invited me to connect their students with global students. Today, I met the teachers and explained the benefits of a Personal Learning Network. They are eager to connect to the world and we decided to Partner with a School through British Council's platform.

Thanks to the dedicated teachers of St. Mary's Girls High School, Cherthala.

St. Mary's school is lucky. They connect with a global teacher, connector extraordinaire, Mrs. Anne Mirtschin. Anne is no stranger to Kerala. In 2012, she participated at the inauguration of Nanma Learning Centre by our Chief Minister Sri Ummen Chandi, demonstrating online teaching to the Chief Minister, Dignitaries on Stage and Online Enthusiasts at the gathering.

Nanma Learning Centre Inauguration from eSchool Kerala

We shall finalize the details to celebrate World Friendship Day! Confirmed participants are:

1. Anne Mirtschin and students, Hawkesdale P12 College, Australia
2. Teachers and students of St. Marys Girls High School, Cherthala

Teachers and students of St. Mary's school will participate at Global Education Conference.

As a volunteer mentoring teachers at Professional Development, I plan to connect the teachers with:

1. Hello Little World Skypers 
2. Global Classroom 
3. WikiEducator etc.

... and the reason?

Callous Officers at BSNL, Varappuzha

The Manager of BSNL office at Varappuzha branch needs a push to do his/her duty!! To my experience, the office would come to a standstill if a line man goes on leave. Does a manager merit the post if he/she cannot run his/her office?

I have been training Nixon, a young man paralyzed from chest downwards since the first week of June 2014. As he gets trained to work online, he applied for an Internet Connection to the above office in the first week of June. Unfortunately, "the lineman in charge of WiMax connection is on leave" said the officer!

Many a phone calls and five visits to the almighty officer requesting the high office for kind consideration to a person constrained to bed due to disability has fallen on deaf ears... Still Nixon has no internet service. He has been waiting for seven weeks to get an connection and still he is waiting.

Tired, he sent an SMS complaint to 54141, a number given for grievance redress at BSNL's website. They have sent a message saying "Sir, JOY V.L  will contact you regarding ur lead KLERN 19071400044 and his mobile no. is '9446605484'.. the number doesn't respond, true to BSNL efficiency!!

BSNL spends millions on advertisement to boost it's image, trying to compete with efficiently run private telecom operators.

The official high-handedness of the callous of heartless staff should remember that BSNL is built on the sweat and blood of the public.

Now Nixon has entrusted me to tell his story to the public...

This blog post is just a warning shot to the BSNL authorities. If BSNL Varapuzha fails to connect Nixon, we start a campaign against the callousness of BSNL office, Varapuzha. We shall use Google Hangouts on Air to record our grievance on YouTube Channel and tell this story to the world.

As the word spreads, BSNL will lose face, thanks to the heartless pen pushers at the office.