Uploading: cheetahs washing each other

I've been working on a video project for uni using this clip that is pretty durned cute - thought that it might be worth sharing with the world.

I've tagged it with cute, cats, cat and cheetah - why do I get the feeling I'm going to get so many more hits on this than any other video I've put up? :)

Watching: The lives of others

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) is a German film telling a tale of repression and redemption in East Germany in the 1980s.

Georg Dreyman is a highly regarded playwright and loyal socialist who (perhaps unfortunately) is in love with a beautiful actress - Christa-Maria Sieland - who the Minister of Culture has a major thing for. Being a right bastard, the Minister calls on his connections in the much feared Stasi (the secret police) to dig up some dirt on Dreyman to put him out of the picture.

This job falls to the talented and loyal Hauptmann Wiesler, who gets to know the couple well in the course of his surveillance of them.

(I won't go into further detail here but I'm sure you can see we have the beginnings of an interesting, chilling and yet beautiful tale)

Here's the trailer.



I've had a bit of a fascination with East Germany for a while now - as the communist state which I feel I can most closely relate to on a cultural level, it's interesting to get some kind of idea of what life might have been like in a place removed from corporate domination and materialism gone mad. (Not to say that what it was replaced with worked any better given the need to use fear and coercion to keep it running of course).

The idea of privacy and particularly of losing it to a faceless and repressive state system has come to the fore in recent years, particularly as a result of the war against terror which has seen the creeping up of more and more invasive and repressive state powers in the name of 'security' and the slow erosion of long held principles of law.

Anti-"sedition" laws (which in essence can criminalise making disparaging remarks about the Government or monarchy), extensions on surveillance powers and the ability to hold 'suspects' for extended periods of time without charge and making it a criminal offence to tell anyone (even family) where you were or why you were there when you are released point to a potentially frightening future.

These haven't been turned on the general population yet, for the most part, however the mere fact that they are available to the powers that be is somewhat chilling should these powers fall into the wrong hands.

The Lives of Others takes us directly into a world just like this - though it was interesting to see at times how systematic and bureaucratic such a system might be. After the Stasi agents methodically search Georg's apartment, cutting open cushions and such, the lead officer hands him a card telling him that "In the unlikely event that we have caused any damage, you are entitled to put in a claim for compensation".

Performances across the board are compelling (the Minister is particularly creepy and Ulrich Muhe puts so much across with just a stare), the music and photography is beautifully bleak and while the story leans a little toward the classy Hollywood drama at times, it's gripping and moving.

I've read complaints that it makes the Stasi guy too sympathetic and that things were never like that and there are no documented accounts of such things - these people seem to be missing the point. At it's heart, it's a story about people that happens to be set in East Germany in the 1980s. The time and location are pivotal parts of the film but it's still mainly about people.

Goodbye Lenin! it's not - it's pretty much the other side of that coin - but it still holds a similar level of fascination. (Goodbye Lenin! is a great film in it's own right but it's a comedy and doesn't really touch on the dark side of things)

This is well worth a look.

Watching: tv current affairs

One of the favourite issues that comes up seemingly every few weeks on tabloid tv current affairs programmes is that of speed cameras and how the government is doing you, the otherwise law-abiding speeding driver, wrong.

The ethical twists and turns that these programmes take in coming out and slamming people for breaking other laws (parking in disabled spots, scamming Centrelink, lying to dodge speeding fines) while simultaneously crying out that speed cameras are nothing more than revenue raisers for greedy governments and promoting ways to "beat the speed camera" are absolutely breathtaking.

A Current Affair last night got just a little obsessed with this, running three related stories back to back.

They began by talking about a new speed camera system being introduced in Victoria that uses two separate cameras located at a certain distance apart that calculate the average speed that you must have been travelling between the two to figure out whether you slowed down for the camera but then sped along to the next one.

Now let's put aside for a moment the slightly scary prospect of CCTV like surveillance of every car on the roads and look at the stated intent of the system - to prevent speeding and to avoid the common practice of drivers only obeying the law because they are afraid of being caught.

They even drag in a motoring journalist to make this point and in the process, trivialise it and perhaps even try to put some kind of near national pride spin on it.

"Slowing down at speed cameras then speeding up is almost a national sport. These cameras will certainly stop people doing that," Cadogen said.

The ACA journalist then got obsessed with the notion that a driver could whiz past the first camera at 200km/h and then stop by the side of the road, take a little rest and drive past the second camera at a legal speed and not get busted.

I'm not going to get into how many different kinds of stupid this idea is but our hero just couldn't let go of it when he was talking to one of the traffic cops implementing this new system. It was like he had uncovered Watergate, found the stained blue dress and shot video footage of John Howard getting jiggy with Amanda Vanstone all in one, such was his level of excitement.

Eventually traffic cop admitted that this was possible but there are still road patrols and whatnot to deal with such anti-social types. The reporter then realised that he was probably being a tool and quickly moved on.

ACA followed this up with the standard stats on how much money is raised and how many fines are issued by each state every year (neglecting to put it into any context whatsoever - such as what proportion these make up of car trips, how many accidents are prevented, where the money goes etc) in some kind of bizarro attempt to say that punishing motorists for breaking the law is bad.

This is the same genre of tv that routinely cries out that criminals across society (well ok, mostly petty poor ones - heaven forbid we look into corporate/advertiser crime) aren't treated harshly enough and punishments need to be jacked up all round.

Personally, I don't give two hoots if there is a speed camera on every street at 20 metre intervals if that slows drivers down. Let governments raise all the money they need this way and put it into providing services for the community.

Another argument put by the anti-speed camera mob is that speed cameras fail in their purpose of slowing down traffic (to the legally prescribed limit) because drivers just slow down when they see them and then speed up again. ACA got all riled because the South Australian government (I think) was deceptively hiding speed cameras in wheely bins, fruit crates and bushes. (Interestingly, SA had the lowest revenue raised from speeding fines - connection there perhaps?)

The purpose of a speed law is to create safer roads - the purpose of any law is to create a safer society. If you only obey a law because you are worried about being punished, then you should accept the consequences of breaking that without bitching and moaning. You make a decision and you own it.

Again, I say put them bloody everywhere and see how much traffic slows down once speeders have received half a dozen fines and the message finally sinks in.

Actually, if revenue raising is such a horrible thing, change the system entirely - give community service orders to all speeders (as well as demerits). This would benefit society even more and teach people even better lessons. (Of course, the costs of administering this is another matter I guess)

They finished up with their favourite piece on people who have challenged speeding fines in court and won - one guy because his GPS said that he was (conveniently) only doing 59 in a 60 zone (he had been charged with going 85 and the other raising the more valid question of the accuracy of some of the handheld speedguns.

Ok, so if there are legitimate problems with the equipment, it's fair that these should be pursued and rectified. At the same time, these people have spent thousands of dollars to get out of fines in the hundreds of dollars and clogged up hours and days of court time. These people weren't actually called heroes but this is how they were portrayed. I wonder when the next story on "our failing legal system - how a clogged up court system affects us all" will go to air.

No mention in this story of Justice Marcus Einfeld, who (alledgedly) tried to get out of a $77 speeding fine by claiming that the car was being driven by a woman friend of his who turned out to have died three years earlier. (He later claimed that he was talking about another friend of his with the same name) I guess this didn't quite fit into the heroic category. (I assume they have covered his story at some point but can't find anything online - I wonder what angle they took in this case. It's ok to speed but wrong to lie about it?)

Wow, I had no idea this bugged me so much - I'm not saying that I think all laws are right and that we should blindly follow the ones that don't benefit society - in fact I think we have some kind of duty to society to constantly work on our system of justice - but speeding laws seem like the wrong place to start.

Jumping on people for parking in disabled spots (morally wrong sure and illegal but not so dangerous) while trying to encourage people to weasel around speeding is just wrong.

Shame current affairs shame.

Jealousing: V Festival Sydney (guest report)

Yes Jealousing is a word - I just verbed it :)



My rock buddy Jo made it up to Sydney on the weekend for the V Festival and sent me this wrap up email - it's too cool and too funny not to share. Thanks Jo (you lucky cow ;)

Phoenix and Nouvelle Vague playing as we arrived - never thought I'd hear 'Dancing With Myself" and "Too Drunk To F*ck" done as a bossa nova, but surprisingly entertaining.

New York Dolls - what can I say ? Glam punk pioneers, and poster boys for the long-term cosmetic benefits of a life time on the junk (c.f. Kim Deal, infra.). David and I actually screamed out loud at the horror, the horror, when David Johansen took off his sunglasses. And then his jacket. We both vowed that we'd have to leave if any other items of clothing were removed, but thankfully were saved that particular ordeal. All killer, no filler!

Gnarls Barkley - terrible sound quality, but a testament to the sheer joy one can get from bands who persist in wearing ludicrously over the top fancy dress. Sadly, they may never again reach the giddy heights of the entire band being dressed as Star Wars characters (Chewbacca on drums was uncannily like Animal from The Muppets). This time it was lovely crisp tennis whites and enormous sweatbands - Centre Court at Wimbledon generally an underrated motif in band costumery, although I guess Mark Knopfler was the pioneer of the dubious headband - will we ever come to grips with his horrifying legacy?!

Jarvis - living, breathing proof that skinny blokes in National Health Service specs can still get the girls (and boys) whipped into a complete frenzy. Best between song banter since Turbonegro - played his set just as the sun was going down, and said "ooh, it's about to get all atmospheric. You'll be able to touch each other". And lots of jokes about the French, always guaranteed to get a laff. Final song, of course, a rousing rendition of The C*nts Are Still Running the World. Not a dry eye in the house.

Beck - all the hits'n'memories from the world's most winsome Scientologist. And puppets! And a Pixies cover - crazy!

Pixies - Black Francis as surly as ever. Kim Deal off the junk and clearly on the pies, and has started dressing like the mum of one of your mates. And yet despite that, fully rockin' .

Groove Armada - totally fun. Gloss taken off the show a tad as a result of copping a stray couple of punches at the end when a skirmish broke out between two testosterone fuelled boys fighting over an inflatable ball - kids, eh?! Sporting quite the shiner today, but nothing that a spot of Siouxsie eye make up can't fix !!

Pet Shop Boys - we were second from front! Genuinely surprised at how tremendous they were. When we got home, Barry downloaded all of the concert pics from his phone, and a few little video snippets taken during their set. Pretty much all you can hear is me singing loudly and incredibly badly, interspersed with the occasional piglet-y squeal. Just be thankful that I was so restrained during Groove Armada ! So impressed that we've all bought tickets for their show at the Hordern next Friday - yay !!

(I'm just impressed to see what I think is correct legal citing in a music review - something sadly lacking in the rock press in general)

Thanks Jo

Scavenging: Second Hand Sunday

There is virtually no furniture in our shared space at Chez Ridley that was bought new - with the exception of the bookshelves, tv (is a tv furniture?) and a beanbag, everything is second hand and has either come from family, friends, previous housemates or Aussie Junk. (Aussie Junk is a great tip based recycling shop - they even extend this philosophy to their website, reusing one from 1997 - right down to marquee text)

While some may think that this just cements the mild squalor of share-house life, I like the sense that it lessens our eco-footprint a little and it brings a certain eclecticism to the mix.

(I also suspect that my parents - uh, thrifty is a nice word I guess - ways have rubbed off on me to some extent)

There's a certain thrill to the hunt when you score something second-hand, particularly when you are out looking for it (not looking is even better) and stumble across something that you need. I've known some people who couldn't imagine having everything but the newest and shiniest and I wish them well in their identical, treeless suburban estate lives.

Back in Melbourne, hard rubbish day (usually 3 or 4 times a year) was always a great time to just wander the streets and pick through parts of people's lives that they've decided to leave behind. It's a bit like walking through a contemporary antiques shop in some ways. (I haven't been to many but the thing I like about antiques shops is the sense of being in a musuem, but one where you can pick everything up and where you have more of a sense that everything has some story to it)

There are whole subcultures dedicated to making use of the things that other people have discarded - the French film The Gleaners & I is a beautiful celebration of this. (It also makes the interesting point that this is the foundation of a lot of post-modern sampling culture).

All of this is my (probably longwinded) way of saying that I'm quite the fan of Canberra's hard rubbish day equivalent - Second Hand Sunday. (SHS)

Second Hand Sunday works on the principle that you register your address on a website a few days beforehand and then a complete list of participating homes (ie people hoping to throw out their old, still usable crap) gets published in the Sunday paper. (The government doesn't follow through with picking up the leftovers as you get with hard-rubbish day but nevermind, points for effort anyway).

PC (I'll spare you the explanation of the no doubt nauseatingly cute pet names for now) and I stumbled across a few things on the way to brekky yesterday morning - notably a low-set lounge chair and stereo setup - and I remembered that it was indeed SHS. Fortunately PC shares my love of a spot of gleaning and plans were made to go a-foraging.

Now there's a little strategising to be done with a hard-rubbish day / second hand sunday - you might think initially that the primo locations would be the well heeled areas - in Canberra that would be places like Yarralumla, Red Hill, Griffith, Manuka and Campbell perhaps but the thing is that rich people tend to get that way by being a little on the stingy side.

Aspirational is where it's at - particularly people moving into shiny new homes in big estates who are gradually upgrading all of their old stuff to keep up with the neighbours. Areas around Belconnen and Tuggeranong were very well represented in the listings in the paper - kudos to Kambah in particular for their community spirit in being by far the most enthusiastic participants.

Hippy-esque left leaning university type suburbs were also a nice source of goodies - at least on first impressions anyway. (O'Connor, Turner, Ainslie etc)

Long story short, here is a sampling of the haul. (SP did some nice work with some tupperware, tins and a bananas-in-pyjamas knitted coathanger as well)(There is also a pretty nifty ergonomic chair in the haul but I've always found them a little odd so that quickly disappeared into Eric's room)

Highlight for me (our loungeroom is crying out for comfortable chairs - aside from my pride of place Aussie Junk recliner rocker, it's a challenging place to sit) was this baby - a little ratty at the front end but nothing that a bit of fabric won't fix up.



We've been on the lookout for an amplifier for quite a while, so finding this combo of a record player, speakers and amp was quite the treat.



Of course, sometimes things are left out for a reason and while the speakers seem pretty useful, the record player quickly showed itself to be a little iffy - unless of course you like the (random) variable speed thing.



My attempts to pull it apart and see if there was anything obviously the matter was I think the main part of the problem in terms of things getting worse.

Well it was either that or my choice of test album (thanks Electric Pandas)



The amp is offering it's own particular challenges - the times it worked (so far just in one speaker or the other) it has sounded great but the more I've tinkered, the worse it has gotten. (So obviously, more tinkering is in order there)

All in all though, a good days hunting.

Looking at: the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games 50 cent coin

I just happened to glance at a 50 cent coin that was sitting on my desk last night and I was transfixed by what appeared to an image of a woman whipping a bird.

There is a long (and proud, apparently) tradition of using our 50 cent coins in Australia to celebrate various significant events (uh - like the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana) - mainly because it's our largest coin and being twelve sided (a dodecagon, if you were wondering) I guess it's not distinctive enough already.

(Click on the image for a full size view)



At first I thought it was a nice (if not slightly random) collage of sporting images mixed up with images of native fauna - only after a bit of looking did I realise that it actually represents traditional Victorian events revived for the games.

Obviously, there is our most proud tradition, the bird whipping event. It is an event based on free expression and with roots to the earliest days of European occupation of this country - originating in farmer frustration with drought. Points are given for speed and accuracy but primarily for "making the whip sing".

This shouldn't be confused with a similar event - the bird teasing event. A gentler event in many ways, this consists of tying a small piece of bread to the end of a piece of string at the end of a stick and using it to lure a bird to walk around the "teaser" in delicate patterns. Points again for speed, time before the bird gets bored and flies away and how high up you can make the bird stretch.

(To be honest, I'm not entirely sure which of these two events is depicted on the coin so I thought I should cover both)

Directly above this is the "Chase an emu while walking like an Egyptian) event. This is relatively new sporting event in Australia, designed to celebrate a proud tradition of multiculturalism in Victoria and acknowledge our indigenous history. (It serves a secondary purpose of winding up Howardists in the federal government how want to abolish multiculturalism and wish that Aborigines would just go away).

To the right of this is a complicated event - the "Frog pretend". You will notice that it is the job of the athlete at the top to put themselves in a position judged by a panel of frog scientists to be the most similar to a frog hanging onto a stick. The origins of this sport are shrouded in mystery and it is assumed, clouds of smoke.

Below this is a depiction of basic kangaroo safety. If you are sitting and sense that a kangaroo is jumping on you from the sky, assume the crash position by leaning forwards and resting your arms on the seat in front of you.

Finally, we come to the swimming event. This is essentially the same as competitive swimming around the world but in Australia, we add an element of nature to the programme by having each swimmer compete with a platypus. Games and world record times are only validated if the swimmer is also able to best the platypus - only fair considering that humans are much larger than them.

Curiously, there is as yet no information about any of these sports to be found on Wikipedia (or even Conservapedia). This is disappointing but perhaps just serves to highlight how truly unique these events are to Melbourne.

Another distinctly Australian quality to the games is that (particularly in the Frog pretend and Chase an Emu events) some of the athletes portrayed are actually doing a fairly mediocre job of it. Heroic failure is a cornerstone of Australian history (Burke and Wills, Gallipoli) and something celebrated to this day. (Australian Idol)

Discussing: David Hicks

We were watching SBS News last night (Australia's best - and therefore most important and depressing - source of world news) and Jelena asked why there is such an obsession with David Hicks in Australian news. (There had also been an update on Dateline preceding it)

Her overall point was certainly a valid one - that this is just one guy but because he is Australian, hours and hours and hours of airtime and miles of print are dedicated to him but at the same time, who knows half of anything at all that is going on in South America. (Apart from Hugo Chavez perhaps.)

I had to think about this for a bit but I think that there are a few main reasons for this.

It's easier and more engaging to hang a story on a person than a set of ideas

The war on terror and particularly the whole debacle that is the U.S "system" of military commissions and Guantanamo Bay AND the Howard government's subordination to U.S will is a pretty complex bunch of issues, ideas and problems that can be hard to focus a story on. Particularly a story that viewers/readers can necessarily connect to.

Having a person in the mix adds an essential human quality to a story - people are able to make more emotional connections to someone - whether it be "string the lousy traitor/terrorist up" or "well everyone deserves a fair trial regardless of what they may have done".

It brings our (Australia's) responsibilities in the issue to the fore

There are a lot of things going on in The War Against Terror (or TWAT as I like to call it) that are horrible but which we (Australia) don't have a lot of sway over.

Violence against the innocent (obviously), monsterous war profiteering by big well-connected corporations (e.g Dick Cheney's Halliburton and big oil), erosion of civil liberties, torture, militarism gone mad and divisive attempts to create fear in the name of greater power.

Australia, through our elected government, can jump up and down and stamp our feet about some of these things but in the grand scheme of things, our opinions won't get more than a diplomatic "I'll take that on board now smile for the cameras"

(And of course, that's assuming that the Prime Miniature is of a mind to object to anything in the first place, little neo-con that he seems to be)

The David Hicks matter however is another kettle of fish.

Australia is the only Western "Coalition of the Willing" nation to allow their nationals to be kept at Guantanamo Bay and put through the Military Commission system, a system which to all purposes appears to be highly dubious under any reasonable interpretation of international or American law. (I'm not a lawyer but it certainly doesn't appear to offer any sort of fair trial in any established sense)

This is one area where Australia (more specifically the government) is able to take a position and their (I guess our) refusal to do so is an important issue.

In an election year, this is particularly pressing.

It's like a frackin soap opera

Recent developments in the Hicks case have just gotten more and more out there, giving it a definite (though possibly legal trainspotterish) soap opera quality.

The sudden dismissal of two (out of three) members of Hick's defense team at the last minute and the gradual dropping of all charges but one suggest a lot of game playing and situation manipulating by an increasingly desparate (and seemingly highly politicised) system.

The fact that the outspoken military lawyer Major Michael Mori (thinking woman's crumpet to a number of women I know here) is also under threat of disciplinary charges for his actions in Hicks' defense is just another episode.

It's a wedge issue

Over the last few years the Howard Government has been very effective at using highly emotive and divisive issues to define itself and create a lot of froth and bubble in Australian society as a tool for holding on to power.

Australia's role in the war in Iraq - directly tied to our part of TWAT - has become one of the more substantial issues of our day and is one that is hard for people to be neutral about.

As opposition grows and it looks like this issue could be one of many that forces a change of government, interest grows - just as anything that changes existing power structures anywhere is interesting.

(Let's just hope that if a Rudd government gets in - please, please,please - that there is in fact a more enlightened approach to things. )

Watching: Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai

Wow, just wow.

Everything you expect from a modern circus; acrobatics, clowns, juggling, dazzling aerial work but with incredible costumes, music and overall spectacle.

I come back to the quote that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture" and this seems to fit in this instance.

Here's the search results page for Varekai in YouTube but it's hard to do it justice on screen.

These are some of my personal highlights. (Interestingly some of the costumes for minor characters in the Australian tour are completely different - and in my opinion better)

Connecting: French fries and French food

I took my new girlfriend (tee hee) out for a birthday dinner last night to a French restaurant in town (Ardeche - pretty bloody tasty I might say too) and while browsing through the menu was struck by the inclusion of French fries in the description of the boeuf bourguignon. (Essentially a beef stew with big honking chunks of melt in your mouth beef)


(Let's not get into the failure of 4 years of high school French to get me through the pronunciation of bourguignon here either)

Looking through all the other items, everything seemed so refined and then these french fries just kind of leap off the page at you.

Of course, far be it from me to make the connection between the French in french fries and French food, surely it's just coincidence right? Fortunately my somewhat more worldly dining partner was able to set me straight and make the point that they are actually a common part of a number of dishes in France.

Playing: Trivial Pursuit (online)

Lightening things up a little because, oddly enough, not everyone is interested in educational/learning theory first thing on a Monday morning (actually, that would be Muntzday today - Happy birthday gorgeous), here's something else.

After getting back on the Trivial Pursuit horse on the weekend (with much fun), I thought it was time to share a very evil and disruptive website that I've been trying hard to avoid for a week or so now, in the spirit of offering a mental distraction from work that we all need once in a while. (Like when, oh, I don't know, blogging perhaps :)

There's quite a nifty online version of Triv available here - http://www.gamefools.com/onlinegames/free/TrivialPursuitBringonthe90s.html that offers a scaled down version of the game (playing for 3 pieces of pie) against the computer. It also allows you to jump in first on questions that the computer has to answer and steal the turn back, which is a nice work around to the problem of waiting for it to get through its go.

It's 90s themed, not too taxing and makes nice little chimey sounds when you get it right.

Enjoy.

Learning: about learning

And I thought I knew everything that was worth knowing ;)

I was doing a bit of reading the other day and came across the following tidbit that I thought was really interesting - it's all about how they (the mysterious they) believe our brain works in terms of learning and memory.

Two memory systems, working memory and long-term memory, shape human learning. Working memory is the center of all conscious thinking, including deliberate learning. However it is limited in memory capacity. The well-known limit of seven plus or minus two chunks of information first articulated by Miller (1956) applies to working memory.

In contrast, long-term memory is a permanent, large capacity repository of information consisting of organised structures called schemata. However, it has no processing capabilities. There is an interaction between working memory and long-term memory in that, the more related knowledge that is stored in long-term memory, the larger chunks working memory can absorb.

Therefore, novice learners with little related knowledge in long-term memory are much more susceptible to cognitive overload than are more experienced learners. This is why prior knowledge of the learner is an important individual difference characteristic that must be considered with designing instruction

So in essence, the more you know about something already, the easier it is to digest new information about it. (Maybe this is just common sense but it's exciting to me - I'd normally say I need to go out and get a life at this point but I'm pretty durned happy with the one I have at the moment)

(find out more about this in:

Colvin, Clark, R. & Mayer, R. E. (2007). Using rich media wisely. In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (pp. 311-322). Upper Saddle Creek, NJ: Pearson Education.)

Edublogging : why games are good

This is a copy of a post from my edublog - it's only about 400 words so is a little more readable than the sprawling (drawling?) 4000 words I put together the other day.

I'll try to spare you most of my writing but I enjoyed this one

Interactive multimedia makes Behaviourist learning strategies more engaging.

The use of simple online games and quizzes provides positive reinforcement to learners and adds interest to subjects which focus on fact based learning by bringing variety and heightened sensory experiences to repetitive tasks.

Robyler and Harviluk (1997) point out that among the “needs addressed by directed instruction” (their term for the Behaviourist approach) are “making learning paths more efficient... especially for instruction in skills that are prerequisite to higher-level skills” and “performing time-consuming and labor intensive tasks (e.g., skill practice), freeing teacher time for other, more complex student needs”.

This has been demonstrated in a project undertaken in the Learning Medical Terminology subject at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT).

Anecdotal evidence from the teacher of the subject indicates that students now learn and retain the words more quickly and complain less about the subject.

This heuristic is useful to me as a learning resource developer at CIT as we are part of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector and many of the initial subjects in our courses require learners to acquire a certain base level of technical subject-specific knowledge. Many of these games can be produced easily by teachers with free or inexpensive software and require minimal technical ability to create and put online.

I chose to write about it as I am a firm believer in the educational possibilities of interactive multimedia, particularly in the form of games and quizzes. Games are a familiar, accessible and engaging medium which can be used in situations ranging from Behaviourist drill and practice exercises to more Constructivist problem based scenarios. There is currently a growing group of educational game producers – known as the Serious Games movement – focussing heavily on the possibilities of the latter.

Learning practitioners wishing to make use of interactive multimedia in the form of games and quizzes should allow themselves adequate time to become familiar with the game/quiz creating software that they wish to use. While most of it is designed with the less technically inclined user in mind (i.e. a wizard based approach), it can often still require the uploading of multiple supporting image and javascript files to your website or learning management system.

References:

Robyler, M.D., Ewards, J., & Harviluk, M.A. (1997) Integrating educational technology into teaching. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Chapter 3, p. 54 – 77.

Simpson, C., (2005). Medical Terminology – Prefixes and Suffixes. Retrieved 23/7/2007 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTfs4axi1YU

Ertmer, P.A. & Newby, T.J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50-72. (abstract)

Oliver, R. & Herrington, J. (2001) Teaching and Learning Online (p.52) Western Australia, Edith Cowan University

Wikipedia - Serious Game. Retrieved 23/7/2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game

Waiting: with baited breath

Sorkin Will Script Flaming Lips Musical | Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | EW.com Exclusive | News + Notes | Entertainment Weekly

This is just so cool on so many levels. (Of course it could well be one of those things that you hear about once that never comes to fruition - David Cronenberg directing American Psycho for instance)

Aaron Sorkin - wunderkind writer/creator of The West Wing, A Few Good Men, The American President and the upcoming Studio 60 on Sunset Strip - is apparently all signed up to write the script for the Broadway musical of the Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

I think my brain is going to explode.

Here's the video for the title song from the album

Here's a promo for Studio 60 on Sunset Strip. (I'm assuming you've watched The West Wing - sadly S60 is to be screened by Channel 9 so who knows what they are going to do to it)

Blogged with Flock

Solving: the mystery of the missing Simpsons

Thinking about some of my childhood reading favourites yesterday (the Hardy Boys and Jupiter Jones of the three investigators) has put me into a bit of a detective mode - ok, not hugely so but it's all relative.

A quick check of the email last night reminded me that Mum and Dad are off in Tassie and my sister Penny is currently in the U.K (Where hopefully she won't bump into the newly boganish Susan Kennedy/Kinski and Dr Carl - or get mixed up with that minx Izzy). (If you have no idea what I'm talking about there, you're probably better off :)

I'll just have to wait a little while to share the story of the week with everyone.

(How cool would it be if while she's in the U.K, Penny bumped into Rachel's brother though)

Wondering: at the serendipity of it all

This is one of those stories that if you saw it in a film, you'd think that the writer was straining the bounds of credulity (or watched a lot of Bollywood).

But it's true - I know because it happened to me. (It's actually not that dramatic - freaky yes but not so dramatic - I've just always wanted to say that.)

About a month ago I started seeing a (fantastic/smart/beautiful/funny) girl that I'd met through RSVP, a popular internet dating site. We clicked pretty quickly and shared tales that indicated that we had a few things in common in our respective pasts. (Which I guess is one of the things you do in the first flush of dating, nothing unique there.)

We both have (Aussie) dads called Bob who have worked in engineering type jobs, both travelled to the UK in the mid/late 1960s and both met their wives there (our mums - Vicki and Marg) who were nurses and both came back here to live.

Interesting coincidences right but in the grand scheme of things, probably not that unusual. But of course there's more - you know there is - why would I be telling this story if there wasn't more to come?

Anyway, things meander along and Nancy Drew here (not me obviously - if it was me I would have said the Hardy boys or perhaps Jupiter Jones) heads down to Melbourne for work and along to Healesville sanctuary, which triggers memories of a childhood visit there with family friends at the age of five.

Fragments of the visit whirl around in her mind for a few days, gradually taking form until out of the blue, she asks "What's your mum's name?". "Vicki - why?", I reply.

At this point, she gets a little excited. "I knew it, I knew you were going to say Vicki".

Anyway, long story short, it turns out that our dads actually shared a flat in London, our mums did nursing training together and my mum and dad introduced hers to each other.

I haven't had a chance to chat to my folks about this yet but Rachel has confirmed it all with hers and her mum and mine still exchange Christmas cards.

I think I'm still processing it to a degree but it's quite the weird story - particularly given that we may well have met as kids.

Getting: all academical

Because I obviously don't spend enough time in the blogosphere, I've started up another blog where I can get my thoughts out about the things I'm reading and doing in the pursuit of my Masters in Education (ICT in Education).

(Hey, at least I'm not Twittering - now that seems like a massive waste of time - not to mention intrusive, trivial and hyper-ego-centric)

My edublog elearningnews.edublogs.org is probably pretty academic/technical/snorefesty however I have a stack of readings and reflections to plough through and if you're interested in education and eLearning, there might be something worth taking a bit of a look at.

(If not, I completely understand - just figured I'd mention it anyway)

Whistling: in the shower

You know your day is going well (great even) when you find yourself spontaneously whistling in the shower first thing in the morning.

In previous times it's been (somewhat oddly) Click Go The Shears but today's selection was a little cooler - Pavement's 1994 hit Cut Your Hair.

Here's a sample.



Here's the Wikipedia take on the song too

Cut Your Hair is a song by American rock band, Pavement on their second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The song is Pavement songwriter Stephen Malkmus' snarky ode to selling out, and, as such, it snidely attacks the importance of image and musicianship's decline in importance in the record industry. Perhaps with a bit of irony, the song was also released as a single and became the band's best selling and most popular song.

(I didn't actually realise that it was about selling out, I just thought it was about hair - oh well, there you go)

I wonder if making yourself whistle (or sing) in the shower in the morning would help you to have a good day

Thanks beautiful.

Concertgoing: At the edge

Maybe I'm the eternal optimist but of all the people that I read the following blurb to last Friday, I was the only one not to be dubious.

At the Edge is a new concert series exploring hybrid forms of music and visual performance. This event is the first of two for the year and features exciting and various new media music and electro acoustic composition performances. This concert showcases the talent and diversity of soloists and ensembles within the ANU School of Music and the Centre for New Media Arts.

Now I will admit that I was aware of the possibility that this could well consist of a handful of half naked performers painted blue standing in a circle singing the word "poop" for the better part of an hour in front of projected video of paint drying while some feral banged away mindlessly on a djembe but given that this is Canberra (and the ANU) and interesting things are tucked away all over the place in this town, decided to give it a go. (Just don't get me started on my issues with ferals/hippies/crusties playing drums).

As it turned out, it was great. (Ok, the first half was great and if it wasn't for the fact that I was starving and crying out for a drink I would have stuck around, honest)

The performance was held in the Band Room at the School of Music and entry was by gold coin donation - attendance was sparse and Buj wondered if we might be the only people there not in the performers immediate family.

The programme began with a piece called Piano Phase, which consisted of a man (Gary France) playing midi percussion pads behind a screen on which was a projection of a man (Gary also) playing midi percussion pads.

The two "performers" begin in sync playing a repeating pattern (which isn't drumlike but a keyboard sounding melody) but gradually one of them speeds up their tempo to move an eighth-note in front of them. (I actually thought that there was a third layer of sound - two percussion tracks and a looping keyboard melody - but according to what I have read, there isn't).

Might I just add at this point that the old axiom "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" feels painfully true at this juncture

Fortunately, I just found an example of Piano Phase - check it out here. (This version seems a little faster than the one I heard but you should get the gist)

This rolls over and over for what felt like about twenty minutes (though who knows how long) with slight shifts in the tune every so often keeping it from being completely maddening. In fact, it was beautifully hypnotic and while I was listening my mind wandered all over the place, all the while tuning into the music to see where it might go next.

The repetitive nature of the piece made me wonder if it was a response to the information age and the way that we are so bombarded with information that it needs to be repeated endlessly to have any chance to get through. This also reminded me of a lot of contemporary electronic music and the nature of samples and repetition there.

On further reading though, I learnt that this piece was actually composed in 1967 by Steven Reich, so there you have it.

Next up were Shoeb Ahmad and Evan Dorrian, with a simple drums, electric guitar and laptop/effects box setup. They played two pieces which brought together random seeming but still somehow patterned drum beats, building "riffs" from the guitar (as well as randomish notes) and beeps, bleeps and other sounds from the laptop. The first track came to remind me a little of early Sonic Youth noiserock experiments and the second was a little more laid back but equally engaging.

(Did I mention the whole dancing about architecture thing?)

All in all, a great way to get out and hear something different and be carried away for a while. Further evidence that while there may not seem to be a lot going on in Canberra, the little city that could, when you get out and scratch beneath the surface, there are all manner of treats.

(Oh and the crowd grew to pretty well fill the hall as time passed)

Feeling: relieved

I submitted my first substantial piece of written uni work in close to fifteen years yesterday afternoon - a timeline of the history of the use of I.T in Education over the last 100 years or so based on a set of readings we'd been given.

As I think about it I consider all the elements that I left out - Open source software, RSS and much of the whole Web 2.0 thing (Flickr, YouTube et al) - but I think it was comprehensive enough to scrape a pass, possibly a credit out of.

As the first piece of writing I've been required to do, it was something of a battle to get stuck into - the required readings seemed just as interested in the minutiae of which professional organisation changed their name in 1923 from the Visual Instruction Association to the AudioVisual Instruction Association (I know this is wrong but you get the gist) as they were in how the advances in technology actually affected people on the ground.

That's academia I guess. (Fortunately my other subject deals with multimedia and seems somewhat more grounded.)

Watching: Battlestar Galactica (end of Season 2)

Wow, just wow. I'm reluctant to say too much in case you haven't seen it yet - there are some major changes, which is refreshing in a series in general - but it sets up for a most interesting season 3.

(Ok, just a short one today as I reeeallly have things to do - hope you have a great weekend)

Quick update - this is just too nerdy not to include here - Digg.com discussion of who would win a fight between Battlestar Galactica and the Enterprise (Star Trek).

One of the comments sums it up perfectly - read the comments imagining the voice of the comicbook guy from the Simpsons.

http://digg.com/television/SciFi_Smackdown_The_USS_Enterprise_vs_the_Battlestar_Galactica