Archive for category university
Media – Definition
Posted by kmcg2375 in english, Lit_Review, social media, technology, university on June 8, 2011
Was looking for a good defintion for ‘medium’ in English and along the way have found my new go-to definition for media:
MEDIA as a word derives from the plural of Latin medium, meaning ‘middle’ or ‘between’ (hence ‘mediator’ as a ‘go-between’, also medieval, coined in the nineteenth century to label the age between the classical period and the Renaissance). From the early twentieth century, however, it has become increasingly common to talk of ‘the media’ (definite article and plural). The media thus understood mean two interrelated yet distinct things:
- those specifically modern technologies and modes of COMMUNICATION which enable people to communicate at a distance, characteristically through print (especially newspapers and magazines); the various telecommunications (‘tele-‘ comes from the Greek word for ‘far’, hence telegraph/’far-writing’, telephone/’far-sound’, television/’far-sight’), as well as film, video, cable, satellite and the Internet;
- by extension, the institutions which own and control these technologies as well as= the people who work for them (e.g, newspaper proprietors, TV and film companies, advertising agencies and governments, as well as reporters, camera operators, editors, producers, presenters, etc.).
Pope, R. (2002) The English Studies Book: An introduction to Language, Literature and Culture (2nd edition)Routledge, London. p.68
Book Art
Posted by kmcg2375 in english, university on June 7, 2011
Long have I prefered DeviantArt to Flickr, as I like the more ecclectic collection of ‘deviations’ (or text/art/photo/whatever-you-submissions) to the focus on photography at Flickr.
One of the best thinigs that I have found through my ramblings through DA are the other (seemingly increasing amount of?) ‘deviants’ and groups working on pieces of BOOK ART.
Take for example this whole group dedicated to making book arts:
http://book-arts.deviantart.com/
Or this group, where altered books are featured (I think the difference is a focus on assemblege?)
http://alteredbookgallery.deviantart.com/
Here are some examples of two excellent pieces by the deviant hogret:
the books never tell you. by hogret
autobiography (work in progress). by hogret
The other genre of visual/written blending featured heavily in the DeviantArt groups is visual poetry. From what I can see it’s a more established genre, but please tell me more if you know.
Some of my favourite pieces come from deviants carrieola and giantshadow, who often contribute their work to the Daily Poetics group.
Here are a couple to help you get the idea:
cosmic cradle on canvas. by carrieola
universed. by giantshadows
Enjoy 🙂
Chat to Hemingway 0.5
Posted by kmcg2375 in books, digital storytelling, english, learning community, technology, university on May 26, 2011
Having the best time right now chatting to Simon Groth’s chat bot.
Hemmingway 0.5 is a chat bot based on the character in the eponymous short story. You can chat to him about anything you like.
Simon is a real find. Made getting up today totally worth it!
Simon Groth is a writer and editor whose first two novels were shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and whose short fiction has been published in Australia and the United States. His co-edited collection Off The Record: 25 Years of Music Street Press (with Sean Sennett), was published in 2010.
Simon is the manager of if:book Australia, exploring digital futures for authors, readers, and publishers.
Do yourself a favour and go browse his site: http://simongroth.com/
At least go and chat to Hemmingway.
Building the game layer
Posted by kmcg2375 in education, research, university, video games on May 11, 2011
Thanks Andrew Jessup for showing me the work of Seth Priebatsch, who as it turns out has a lot of material covering the exact topic that has been bugging me.
How do I integrate Games Based Learning, or GBL, into my pedagogy without disrupting or contradicting my current approach to learning and teaching?
I think the idea of ‘the game layer’ is the answer. I think it’s also a great concept for me to use in thinking further about the role of motivation and learning theory in explaining the success of teachers who ‘gamify’ their teaching.
Seth is the Cheif Ninja at SCVNGR and the use of the popular game meme here did make me chuckle. Playful right down to the business card eh? I like it! Especially as I’ve been characterising myself in class as the ‘Cheif Pirate’. I wonder who that is in Seth’s camp, and what they do?
I highly recommend a watch. He has quite a few talks online now but this TED talk (above) gave a great overview of four key elements that build a successful game.
Watch the video and your reward will be to find out what they are 😉
An Introduction to the CLDR Project
Posted by kmcg2375 in books, education, english, online tools, technology, university on May 3, 2011
Children’s Literature Digital Resources.
Australian schools can now access the full texts in this online resource.
Others can access the Auslit resource through university and other library databases.
NAPLAN is evil
Posted by kmcg2375 in education, english, politics, university on April 11, 2011
How, in just a sniff of time in just one lecture, am I going to be able to convey to my preservice teachers all of the evil in schooling that has come from NAPLAN testing?
I think I’ll start with this news article from today:
Parents of about 12 students in Year Nine at Miami State High School were asked last week to sign a waiver so their children did not sit the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy) tests, to avoid stressing the teenagers.
The parents of one student who refused to withdraw their son were told they were the only ones not to sign the form, out of those contacted by the school .
When Alexandra Fox demanded her son Mathew, 13, sit the NAPLAN tests, she was told that Mathew was quite good at English so could sit those tests, but he was not as strong in maths so she should sign the waiver for those tests.
Mathew’s father, Anthony Jarrah, said his son had no medical condition or diagnosed learning difficulty that would require his exemption from the tests.
“He’s a normal kid, has no learning difficulties or anything. He’s just one of those kids who takes a bit longer to grasp things,” he said. “They’re not educating kids, they’re not doing their best.
“He’s already 13 and it’s not that long before he’s out of school. All they want to do is to hide him all through high school like they did in primary, then once he leaves school he’s not their problem anymore.”
(Ferrari, ‘School uges students to skip tests’ in The Australian, March 11, 2011)
Is it time yet to make the call? Seriously, the (yes, very valid, very real ‘if done properly’) diagnostic function of the NAPLAN test is being compromised so much here.
Your performance will only make our school look bad.
What a delightful message to send to the students of today.
Learning Styles Don’t Exist
Posted by kmcg2375 in education, online tools, personal, university on April 8, 2011
I came to this interesting video via Tom Whitby on The Educator’s PLN, explaining the theory of learning styles and the relationship (or lack thereof) it has to helping students to learn something new.
I certainly remember doing quizes in class at high school and talking with teachers about my learning style score. I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to be though – I guessed language and visual based – so I went and did some online tests to find out. Here are my results for tests of Visual/Audio/Kinesthetic (VAK) style preferences:
From the University of South Dakota (2009):
you answered A-6 B-5 C-5
based on this info you are probably
a Visual
learner.
From Businessballs.com (learning and development resources) – simple test:
Visual = 9
Auditory = 3
Kinesthetic/Tactile = 1
Interestingly, taking the Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences quiz (again from Businessballs.com) I didn’t score so high on the ‘visual’, which I suspect may be conceived differently than in the VAK model:
| Intelligence type | your totals |
| Linguistic | 35 |
| Logical-Mathematical | 25 |
| Musical | 32 |
| Bodily-Kinesthetic | 24 |
| Spatial-Visual | 29 |
| Interpersonal | 34 |
| Intrapersonal | 31 |
So, I went back to searching for VAK learning style tests.
This one didn’t peg me as a visual learner. It also gave me some fancy numbers about how my scores matched up to the mean profiles for each style:
- Visual = 3 (correlations with mean profiles = -0.07)
Auditory = 6 (correlations with mean profiles = 0.56)
- Kinesthetic = 1 (correlations with mean profiles = -0.54)
Weird.
I suppose I should be less surprised then that I have ended up an English teacher that highly values multimodality 😛
Though, I never have put too much stock in quick, fr3e online quizes…
I’m going to show my class the You Tube clip next week. We’re about to talk about differentiation and I know that learning styles comes up every time!
…and community…another vital ‘C’!
Posted by kmcg2375 in education, english, reflections, university on April 4, 2011
So if we are to connect, collaborate and create in a way that
fosters social justice
then as well as adding ‘critical literacy’ to the C-list, ought not we also add
community?
The FOUR C’s
Posted by kmcg2375 in education, english, reflections, research, technology, university on March 30, 2011
We edu-tweeters often use the catchphrase ‘connect, collaborate, create’ to signal our pedagogical perspective.
But…what about this really important fourth C:
CRITICAL?
Surely this must become another essential C-word?
Learning from: Mary Poppins
Posted by kmcg2375 in education, english, university on March 28, 2011
I’ve been keeping an eye out for a range of texts (‘literary’ and ‘pop culture’) that I can use in lessons with preservice English teachers. I’m looking for things that are interesting texts in their own right, as well as can shed some light on an important aspect of secondary education or English curriculum.
My find for today is: Mary Poppins (1964)
In every job that must be done
There is an element of fun –
you find the fun and snap!
The job’s a game!
An uplifting message and one which bears a clear connection to Games Based Learning.
There are certainly conflicting discourses in the song though – I’d love to take an extract from 1984 to compare and contrast here, the one where Orwell describes how the proles are kept in line through pop music and the lottery…
‘a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’ (eek!?)
Another one of my favourite songs from the movie (and no, I’m not generally a fan of musicals) and another that I think bears exploration is the Chiminey Sweep song. I’ll let you do your own reading of that one!
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when
I shake ‘ands with you
Or blow me a kiss
And that’s lucky tooNow as the ladder of life
‘As been strung
You may think a sweep’s
On the bottommost rungThough I spends me time
In the ashes and smoke
In this ‘ole wide world
There’s no ‘appier blokeUp where the smoke is
All billered and curled
‘Tween pavement and stars
Is the chimney sweep worldWhen the’s ‘ardly no day
Nor ‘ardly no night
There’s things ‘alf in shadow
And ‘alf way in light
On the roof tops of London
Coo, what a sight!I choose me bristles with pride
Yes, I do
A broom for the shaft
And a broom for the flumeThough I’m covered with soot
From me ‘ead to me toes
A sweep knows ‘e’s welcome
Wherever ‘e goesChim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
When you’re with a sweep
You’re in glad company…
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