new to blogging

I have just been introduced to the world of blogging by a friend. I have not had access to the internet for a few years since my move to the village and find this a way of both sharing my thoughts but also informing my friends and relatives about what I am up to.

As part of this exercise I was surfing through many of the Sri Lankan based blogs and find that they are well designed and constructed by their bloggers who appear to be tec savvy, but reading what they have to say, I find the content lacking in direction. Also there is little substance in what is written.

Journal blogs are fine as they are primarily to be shared by one's family and friends. Then there are the informational blogs about current affairs or news, but many are very 'off the charts', with people trying to show off how educated they are, with a bunch of technical content and little relevance to information proper.

I therefore decided that I would use this blog for my musings and thoughts and another for what I have been up to with information on my daily activities so people can get an idea of what I am about these days.

Unfortunately I will only be able to get on line very infrequently to update the blog and read comments so I ask those who send me comments to be patient and understanding, as I do not have direct access to the net nor do I have electricity at my residence.

mahavilachchiya

I have been looking at Mahavilachchiya the e-village in the jungle, the website being www.mahavilachchiya.wordpress.com This is the sort of pioneering project we should learn from. I have been scouring the web to find out more about the actual results, or the current status of the various projects. I have not been too successful at getting the information I want.I have also looked at the websites of the students in the project, but I perceive they have been largely written by the teachers as the level of English is still far below that which is basically required.

I have recently had the experience of teaching English to small kids, and have found it very difficult to get them to learn and make an effort. It seems very hard as there is no mechanism at home for them to try out what they learn and therefore when they come to class the next time, its as if they have learnt nothing. It is also quite possible that the technique I use is poor. Nevertheless it is very important to get feedback from the volunteers who are well intentioned in this project, so we can learn from them and try to do any future projects of this nature in an improved way.

Please help me with this enquiry

internet

I live in a rural village in Sri Lanka. My village has electricity. No one is connected to the Internet in the village nor are any of the schools. There are a few people in the village who have fixed line phones and who can access the Internet.Many people in the village have mobile phones. There is a communication center in the nearest town where you can get on line for a fee and send or receive emails and bearing in mind the slow download speeds have access to the world wide web, though quite limited.

I believe in time we can start setting up Internet facilities in schools and get the youth in the villages to take up this medium and have access to the same information that any other student in any country has.

We cannot begin to start in this venture until the basic knowledge of English is improved so that this information that is available can be useful to them. This is the priority, as once this is done, the Internet costs and set up costs will come down and the hoped for access can be achieved.The youth are the future of the country. They have been able to take on the Internet like ducks to water once their knowledge of English is at an acceptable level. This is evidenced by the incredibly sophisticated blogs that some of the young people in Sri Lanka have managed to create. It is sad however that there appears to be a dearth of older people writing blogs in Sri Lanka as evidenced by some of the writings that appear to be more youth centric! as opposed to experience centric!

The teaching of English should be the priority. There are not enough teachers of English and firstly this should be addressed. I am willing to get involved in my local school in Giritale where even the parents are very disgruntled at the paucity of their children's education in all subjects.