Live from the Health Care Conference

Just Checking....

A Salute to the Boomers!

Message for Education in Health Care Conference

Communication Axis?

New Practices Blog
Communication Axis
AMEP Conference Presentation

How to Begin?

Thoughts on how to begin Friday's presentation:

Bee on Blogs

Barbara Dieu (Bee) from Brazil offers a few thoughts on Blogging for delegates of the AMEP Conference in Sydney.

Word Post (recheck)

And this is a post from Word. Again – just checking.

Another Email to Blog Test

Just checking to see if this still works...why wouldn't it?

- Michael.

What makes you reflect?

It seems blogger is just getting better and better. I can now upload photos directly into Blogger without having to use a third party like flickr.com Now let's see if I can add an audio bit.....

Check New Practices Blog for more musings on Reflection and Blogging.

Networked Learning Session

Archive available at LearningTimes Australia

Blog Tones

In response to Brad's post in New Practices Blog.

Reflections on Virtual Classroom Sessions

Elluminate = Elluminate virtual classroom

MMS'ing from Phone

OK. In the previous post I sent an MMS (multimedia message service)
message from my mobile to the email account for my blog and it
appeared. Along with a nice message from Telstra (the carrier) saying
they are responsible for putting the message there, not me. Thanks
Telstra. Now shall we sell you?

Also tried to MMS an image through but that didn't work. If I lived
in the US it would. Go to
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1131 for more info, and
to see some examples of how folks use this MMS to blog feature.

A'blogging we will go, A'blogging we will go.......

Message brought to you by Telstra MMS

This message was sent from +61417899912 This MMS message was powered by Telstra. Sharing picture and video messages is easy with Telstra's Picture and Video Messaging (MMS) service. To find out more, visit www.telstra.com/info/mms.

Text from phone 2 blog....

Blogging from Email

There seem to be so many ways to blog! Via Blogger, phone, Word, and now I'm sending this one via email.......

The Real Deal

Phoned, recorded, and posted this message for the LEARN network during my presentation on Emerging Tedchnologies. This was the first time I've tried this during a presentation and God bless Blogger - it worked! Meanwhile the folks in New Orleans struggle to stay alive....Fats Domino was found alive. It seems the wealthy got out - they had boats, or had the money to pay for one, and as nice as Fats may be he's probably a wealthy man. And he deserves to be. "I'm walkin' to New Orleans", "I found my thrill" etc.

Sample for Learn Meeting

Michael's House

Michael's House
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

If you haven't discovered Google Earth yet and wiled away precious hours having fun with it I recommend you do so! It's a collection of aerial photographs of the entire planet. Some countries have better photos than others, and the photos of Australia are good enough to actually find your own house. This is what my house looks like from above!

Tips re Using Headings

Tip – when using this tool don’t worry about using a heading in Word because when you publish you have to enter a heading in the title field anyway. So if you do use a heading in Word, delete it before you publish or you will end up with two headings on your blog.

Wonder how fonts, colours etc appear in blogger…..

Second Post

I can now post directly from Word to my blog!!!!!

This is Word Calling Blogger, Word Calling Blogger

This is a trial post using the new blog in Word feature. I am writing this in Word and am about to hit the publish button to see if I can experience yet another layer of blogging magic! Let’s see……. (

Group Podcast? Group Audioblog?

'See' what I'm talking about HERE.

Brief Greeting from Saigon

Phone Blogging - Test Post

Greetings to those at the Rosario EFL Congress

Rosario
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

A world far away from mine.... (listen for more)

Update:Rosario founded in 1812; Adelaide, Australia founded in 1836 - not such a big difference. Perhaps the differences in architectural style are more the product of different cultures rather than the age of the two locations?

Hallett Cove Geological Park

Hallett Cove Geological Park
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

Did you ever get tortured by your teacher and taken here? :)

Blogging: a luxury? Talking on the Net in a public/private space?

Educating the Net Generation

Educating the Net Generation Webinar Series

Hallett Cove

Hallett Cove
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

Listen to the audio for my thoughts....

Free Google Vlogging (video blogging) on the Way

Read all about it.

Audioblogging - Summary of Options

A colleague asked me about all the options for audioblogging, and it's a bit fiddly to go back through the various postings and find them all so here's a summary of what I've tried.

---

A long post about different avenues to audioblogging is here.

In summary, you have these choices:

1) record audio yourself and embed it in the page with html. See http://mikecogh.blogspot.com/2005/02/how-to-embed-audio-in-blog.html

2) use the free service provided by http://www.audioblogger.com/. This requires a call to a US number and your post is automatically posted in your blog.

3) use the paid service provided by http://www.audioblog.com/. It's about $8/month. They have a free 7 day trial at the moment. They provide the code and you paste it into your blog. This is the one I would choose but I had trouble with it and so I now use

4) Instant Audio. It's quite a bit more expensive (about US$20/month), but it's a really good service, and you can send audio postcards, post via pc recording or phone (they have a number in NSW), and they have those nice little buttons! They offer a $1 trial for one month. Both Audioblog and Instant Audio also have a companion videoblog service for extra cash.


Note: to use any of these you have to have a standard blog to start with (eg Blogger.com). So audioblogging is actually done within a standard blog.

Technology and Innovation

Audio applet from Instant Audio (They have a $1/month trial at the moment!)

And here is the quote from Stephen Downes that I was trying to show in the presentation this morning. Quoting Antti Oulasvirta, Human Technology, April 27, 2005 he comments:

I'm not sure this is true: "innovation, development, and evaluation of design ideas cannot be based only on the designer's intuitions but must be grounded in users' actual needs and behaviors. We need to apply social and psychological sciences to understand how technology could qualify as a positive change for the users." The reason why I express doubt is that the 'need' for an innovation often becomes knowable only after the innovation has been introduced.

Any thoughts?

Emerging Technologies Network

Emerging Technologies Network Blog
Examples referred to in today's presentation:

information on audio blogging
combining written and spoken text
interview
feedback on classes/workshops
inserting home movies(long download)
Inserting Digital Stories

Recording of Presentation

Linking Voice and Music

Obviously there are copyright concerns doing stuff like this. The background music in this message is by Keb Mo. A very rough example of what I'm talking about but you should get my drift!

Mobile Learning Object?

(Audio recorded and posted by phone from location. Photos taken at location and uploaded via flickr.com)

O'Sullivans Beach
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

What is a 'New Practice'?

The New Practices Team:
Brad Beach
Josie Rose
Terry Taylor

New Practices Test

This was a phone blog test from the New Practices Projects induction workshop. More on the Marcus person mentioned!

Phone Post from Westone

Just another phone blog test. Just ignore this one! :)

Message to those at the APPI Conference

James
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

The photo above shows the Quest on James Apartments in Perth - I'll be beaming into the APPI Conference from here.

House Guests

joti_laura
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

The Week that Was

What's new in eLearning Workshop (April 8th)
Check out Blinxs for a fantastic web and desktop searching tool.

Mucking around with RSS

Nothing to say except:

Test From Adelaide Campus

This post is to see if we can post to a blog from Adelaide campus of TAFE.

Vlogging with Instant Videogenerator

Instant Videogenerator is a companion of Instant Audio. Let's see how it works.....

Audioblogging - the Saga Continues

Herewith an all written text summary of some of the available audioblogging tools from Webhead Elderbob Brannan!

---

Hang on cause this may get confusing. Audioblogger is free. All you have to do is set up an account. You may post a 5 minute post from a telephone, either land line or cell. If I remember correctly (I haven't used it in a while), you can ONLY post from a phone, and if, at the end of a 5 minute post you want to say more, then you make a separate 5 minute post...and these two post cannot be combined, but will show up on your blogger post on the same date in the order you submitted them. Now you can then open your blogger account, right click on the audio post, get the URL and move it around, but you cannot edit it and then repost it. Also, it can only be used (technically, OK, I wont tell if you copy that URL and put it somewhere else, but I think Audioblogger will be upset since they are owned by the same google folks that own Blogger), on a Blogger blog.

Audioblogger is owned by a company named ListenLab.com. They also own Audblog. Audblog is a similar program that offers both a one time free trial version (a three minute post...wooopeee) or a paid account ( A paid account is 12 Four minute posts per month for only
$3.00(AmDollars) per month, and if you need more Four minute posts, they are purchaseable at 12 for $3.00 per month - as long as you are willing to pay
the $3.00 per month, your 12 posts will be renewed each month, meaning only 12 per-month unless you purchase more. There is no roll=over of unused
posts), and it also allows you to post to a number of different kinds of
blogs (Type Pad, Moveable Type, Live Journal, Dead Journal and of course,
Blogger). In order to use Audblog, you must already have an account on one
of the accepted blogs, or you can have the audiopost sent back to you via
email to do with what you wish (Remember that neither Audioblogger or
Audblog will allow you to upload posts, so you are fairly limited in where
you can legally post them). I didn't think Audblog looked very reliable, so
I did not use them, so I do not know whether there is a way to edit your
audio post on line (keep in mind that that kind of editing would be a bit of
a difficult issue to negotiate for an off server network).

Finally, the one that I have stuck with all this time and am most pleased
with is Audioblog (not audioblogger or audblog - one could get confused here pretty quick. I use the $5.00 per month paid
account. That allows me 1 GB of streaming audio bandwidth per month, and I
can record my posts in up to 60 minute increments. Now this gets real
complex. We are no longer talking about numbers of posts, but instead,
about how often each of those posts are listened to. This means that if you
a one minute post on your blog, it could be listened to over 5,000 times
without engaging in additional fees. This is really not a bad cost. First,
unless you have an extremely well read blog, then you aren't going to listen
to these post that much, and even if you need more, you can by a second, or
third, or even 4th Gig for only $1.95 more per month, and that fee is only
charged on those months when your streaming exceeds the original GB.
Bandwidth is reconfigured each month on the anniversary date of your
account. In other words, each month you start over with 1Gig of Bandwidth.
Confused yet? I know I am. I think this all means that you need to think
in advance about how you are going to use these post on your blog. If you
are going only going to use a few post over a long period of time, then this
may not be the best solution for you. For me, it means I can post long
interviews or make playlist of several interviews or even post up to one
hour of class time recording from another software (I have never tried to
post an Alado or Learning Times, but I if you can save the audio in WAV or MP3 to your hard drive, you can edit it and upload it from your own PC or laptop). Another item on Audioblog that I like is that it will broadcast in MP3. I don't believe either of the other two audio programs will do that. The reason this is good, is that now you have an audio post that can be
Podcast or streamed via Streaming Audio or even Internet Radio. I am not
sure that is important to you at this point, but I think in the immediate
future it is going to be more and more important. Essentially, it means
that after one semester of classes, you could load all of your audio posts
in MP3s and put them in a folder and download the entire thing to an IPOD.
Now, all the audios from your class are not only in the possession of the
student who will be listening, but you are now free from everything except
the original price of the bandwidth. Instead of listening to your post from
the Audioblog server, the student is now listening to your post from their
own hard drive on the IPOD. Another significant piece of the Audioblog
architecture that the other two do not yet offer is video. This is the only
device that I know of that allows both audio and video posting to blogs.
Again, the streaming bandwidth allocation is what makes it so attractive.
Those big bandwidth-eating-files of video that used to exist on your server
are now on the Audioblog server and you are paying a ridiculously low fee in
comparison to a website to host them. I am also under the impression that I
can make calls via SKYPE and save the calls as MP3 and upload those into
Audioblog. I haven't tried that yet, but as soon as the San Antonio TESOL
conference is over, I will be attempting that.

I get nothing for advertising for Audioblog, but you can tell from my post that I think it is the most advanced and useful of the devices listed. I think if offers many more options, but I am also not sure that you really want or need that many options. Keep in mind too, that Audioblog, does not yet have a professional version but it appears to be in the works. I think great things will eventually come from this group and am glad to be in on the ground floor. One last note: Audioblog has always been good about asking it's users what kind of design changes are needed. I believe that it would not have embraced audioblogging and videoblogging had it not been from such input from users. I think this makes the product much more user friendly.

Whatever service you eventually decide to use, keep in mind that all of this
is still leading edge technology. There are probably still a lot of kinks
and flaws in it all. However, I think we are all wise to look at a variety
of multi-media inputs to use in all our educational technology efforts. I
wish you well in your efforts and if I can be of further help with any of
them, especially Audioblog, please do not hesitate to ask....elderbob@elderbob.com

Vietnamese Music in Henley Square

viet_music
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

Every year over the summer months the local council hosts a music program on Sunday afternoons in Henley Square by the sea. Yesterday was the final event for the season and it featured multicultural music. One of the acts featured one of my wife's ESL students. She sang as part of a Vietnamese group performing traditional pieces from Vietnamese operas. It was a disconcerting experience. Initially I felt it was a matter of the music being so different that it was too difficult for my Western ears to adjust to and make sense of. It was charming visually, and the setting by the sea in the warm autumn weather meant that the whole experience was delightful, but when I came home and listened to some Vietnamese music I found on the web, I realized that some of the music we listened to in the square was out of tune, or just poorly performed. Here you can hear a short piece of how a zither should sound, and this is an example of an enchanting longer piece.

Every Picture Tells a Story

morocco
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

As mentioned a few posts back, my son Joti has just returned from a year of travels with a swag of magnificent photos. The country he enjoyed most was Morocco. Listen below and find out more about this curious scene.

They Did Stop the Rain

.

WOMAD is an extraordinary event. It is not just a weekend of music from around the planet, but a place and time of an underlying sentiment of peace and goodwill between all cultures. Palestinians and Israelis on stage playing music together. Vusi Mahlasela thanking Australians for their support of black Africa during the apartheid years. Africans and Australian Aborigines sharing the same stage for the sunset all stars jam Sunday night. (The ney - “the spirit of the Middle East’ joined with the digeridoo “the spirit of Australia” – to open this remarkable mélange of ‘sounds of the planet’.)

As I drove there on Friday I felt an intense feeling of anticipation, and I remembered why. To commemorate the 10th Womadelaide a few years ago Rip it Up editor, Robert Dunstan once wrote something like, “as I stood among the Moreton Bay fig trees with the sun going down listening to Nusrat Ali Fateh Khan I found myself thinking ‘I have never been happier’”. I have felt that more than once at WOMAD. And it is taken me into the depths of sadness at times too. Gazing upon a tall African man dressed in a full length blue robe playing the haunting melodies of the ancient Kora simply stirs the soul. And it can take you up or down. Yesterday I found myself crying tears of existence. Not because I was particularly happy or sad. I was just moved by it all. By the beauty. By the mistakes we’ve all made. By the fact that we’re all still here and enjoying our music together. When Richie Havens took the stage everyone there who could remember went back to Woodstock and their youth. To times so long ago when life was so exhilarating. And it still is. Many have gone and many remain. It's a very emotional experience to see people from all over the planet celebrating what we have in common, rather than focus on our differences.

The Music

There were great moments, with maybe the workshop with Michael McGoldrick from Capercaillie the hightlight. Yes, there were tears. And I realized at heart I’m a Celt. I sat looking up at the Australian trees, and it was as if a collective Celtic soul from far across the sea whence this wonderful music came was asking me ‘how did I get here’? It felt like a yearning to go home to the land of my ancestors. Vusi Mahlasela and Naziha Azzouz with the Adel Salameh Trio were the best voices of the weekend, and as I’m always a sucker for reggae, I loved Alpha Blondie and the Solar System. The only music that always makes me move. For local talent the Irish Phillipino Aboriginal family band, the Pigrams, was a lovely surprise. (Full program.)

If a WOMAD concert ever comes to your neighbourhood, go. Enjoy the sounds of the planet, and listen to the murmurs of your soul.

Who'll Stop the Rain?

WOMAD is here!

Mobile Blogging (Moblogging): from anywhere on the planet to the Net

Port Post Check

Did this earlier in the year, but just need to know if the firewall merchants have strengthened their defences. Can I post from the Port campus? If this works I might see if I can post a phone blog from here as well.

Audio Blogging by Phone to the US

Very cool. It works. I tried the audioblogger service that comes free with Blogger and it's great. Especially if you're in North America. I had to call a US number from here in Australia so there's a cost involved, but I got straight through, spoke my message, and it appeared here below seconds later! Astounding! I know hundreds of people do it every day, but this stuff still blows me away. If I was travelling in the US this would be especially useful. Now dear Blogger people, how about some international numbers for this same excellent service? One in each continent would be good for a start.

Voice in Blended Learning Environments - Aiden's Class

Three minutes of comment on the pleasure of being a guest speaker for Aiden Yeh's language and culture class today.


(If you listen to the recording of this session make sure you crank up the volume when the students are speaking (it is audible), then turn it way down again when I'm talking!)

Earth Lights

Earth Lights
Posted by: michaelc.

A wonderful and now famous photo! (Just experimenting with Buzznet to see how it coordinates with Blogger.)

emma_farewell

Emma's Farewell
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

Today began with me being quite late for an information session on Reframing the Future project funding. The traffic on Grange Rd on the way into town was the heaviest I've ever seen it. I've no idea why. But one of the attractions of this session was the venue - Ayres House, a famous heritage listed landmark in Adelaide.

Next stop was a farewell lunch for Emma (pictured at the end of the table). Emma has been our wonderful Janison helpdesk person for the last year, and she is taking time off to have a baby. We'll all miss her helpful manner and expertise.

I spent the rest of the working day in at Adelaide TAFE making phone calls and planning professional development workshops for later in the term.

Tomorrow it's down to Football Pk for another round of funding information sessions - this time for LearnScope. Football Pk (otherwise known as AAMI stadium) is better known as Adelaide's premier venue for AFL football games, but behind the scenes it has surprisingly good conference and function facilities.

Prodigal Son Returns

joti_home
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

Well not quite prodigal. Joti is home again after lots of travelling and it's great to have him back. :)

Digital Storytelling Workshop - comments

(audio comment about 3 minutes long)

Carole McCulloch
Noarlunga TAFE Campus
Example of digital story in a blog
Another digital story made with Photo Story

Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling
Point of view
Dramatic question
Emotional content
Gift of voice
Power of sound track
Economy
Pacing

The Weekend

Presentation on Audioblogging (in LearningTimes)
Janet McMillan
Sunday Lunch Venue
Alison

Trial with audioblog.com

As you can hear, the first message I recorded with this service was cut short. Not a very auspicious beginnning. I'll let you know how effective their support department is in sorting out the problem!

Postscript: someone from audioblog.com has been in touch and just my luck - they've never seen this problem before. They're working on a solution. I'll report back when and if they provide one.

---

Some weeks later: bummer. The audioblog.com people can't duplicate or solve my problem so we've agreed to cancel my subscription and refund my money. Sad. It looked like a great and affordable tool. At least their help staff were very pleasant to deal with - responsive and understanding. The problem has to be a software conflict I reckon. Never mind. Time to move on!

New Userplane Sample - evonline 2005 Blogging Workshop

A/V Blog
by Userplane

---

It's great of Userplane to make this tool available for free trial. It is in beta version and you can sign up for ten free posts here. I don't know how much it costs after that because it's one of those 'price on application' arrangements - not always a good sign - but it would have to be better than the freebie for me to make regular use of it. It's slow to process your video when you save it, and buffering times are longer than usual for videos of equivalent length when you try and play it from your blog.

Still, it is easy to get it into your blog. Once you have saved your video, userplane gives you the code to paste into your blog. Easy. Instant Audio works the same way. I haven't tried their video (about $30/month) but their audio is excellent.

Visit to Melbourne

bourke_st
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

I know this is a blog about Adelaide etc, but occasionally Adelaide people go across to our nearest big city - Melbourne!

How to Embed Audio in a Blog

I've been doing it in various ways - one with the help of instantaudio.com, but that's not free. Another way is to record the sound file using your own pc (using something like Audacity), saving it as an mp3 file, and then uploading it to a server somewhere.

Now, if you go to VIEW > SOURCE, or PAGE SOURCE in the menu at the top of your browser you can see the code for this page. Look for the bit of code that starts with 'embed'. Cut and paste that bit of code into your blog, and change the URL so that it points to the sound file that you have uploaded, and you should see your sound file embedded in your page.
Good luck!

Birthdays, Glenelg, Garden and Blogging

I’ve had a lovely day today. It began with breakfast at the Stamford Grand Hotel at Glenelg for my Mum who turned 90 a few weeks ago, and my brother Damien. Mum thoroughly enjoyed herself and announced that she’d like to live in the hotel! She did actually live at Glenelg many years ago and has a real soft spot for the place. So did I once but IMHO Glenelg has been ruined by overdevelopment. Quite a sobering experience after our recent visits to Fremantle in the West where they have capitalized on existing architecture and history rather than bulldoze it all in favour of more modern ‘development.’ Quite sad really.

The rest of the day was spent in the garden in gentle 24 degree sunshine. We’re having very cool weather for February, typically the hottest month of the year around here with temps around 30 or more. And am now finishing the day with a blog post or two with backgound music from Morocco provided by the Rough Guide series.

The Garden in Quicktime

This movie was made with a Nikon digital camera and is in Quicktime or .mov format. The clicking sound you can hear is an annoying feature of movies made with this camera, but I have a hunch you can turn off that sound. I just don't know how to. If you want to see more pix of my garden start here.

Another Day.....

Another day in an Adelaide life. I did something rare for me. I got up early and went for a walk along Tennyson Beach before breakfast. It was beautiful. Just a few early morning walkers and a few dogs to share the sand and views with. Spent much of the morning at my desk planning the next two weeks work, before going to Port Adelaide TAFE to do some admin and see who’s back from holidays. Not many as yet.

Back to my desk for the afternoon writing some introductory notes for distance students who may choose to use the Talking Communities virtual classroom this semester for linking in to on campus lectures. Visited a local shopping centre in the afternoon after that – went to the post office and then bought a couple of lovely plants – Cordyline (one of the attractive tricolour variety), and Scaevola.

So nothing startling. Just another pleasant summer’s day as I ease into the working year.

Myponga - and the road home

sellicks2
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

Here's an example of using a photo and an audio blog in tandem.

A Day at Myponga

reservoir_view2
Originally uploaded by mikecogh.

Spent a delightfully tranquil afternoon gazing out over Myponga Reservoir from the verandah at the back of Michelle and Rob's. All was right in the world!

PS Am posting this in flickr.com to see if text and photo arrive at Blogger.)

Instant Audio and Reading Transcripts

An example of listening to an audio text and reading the transcript.



Transcript:

An advantage of an audio blog for language learners is that they can read and hear the text at the same time. So as you hear the text you can be following the written text, or transcript. For people with low literacy levels it may be a worthwhile exercise to have students write out their oral text after they have created it, or if that’s too hard, a teacher or fellow students could perform that task.

Wimba has been providing tools that enable these dual language channels (audio and written) for years, so the concept is not new. But this audio blogging feature provided by Instant Audio enables individuals to create these dual texts at little cost. I guess then it might qualify as an LTA, or low threshold application.

Crashing Browsers and Ambience

Mmm. I thought I was pretty clever getting that embedded video to work...until James Farmer told me it crashed his browser. Sorry James. I'm loathe to move it to another page so I'll just have to keep adding new posts so the offending embedded video is pushed down off the front page. Whatever gets me writing I reckon.

I'm thinking of changing browsers actually. IE may have won the battle with Netscape (sadly), but it just gets more and more dangerous. Mozilla and Firefox seem viable and sensible options. Anyone out there care to comment?

I didn't take the digicam to the beach tonight as it didn't like the sunset would be that grand. Wrong. It was an Adelaide classic. Here's where I was.

I had a good chat with Stephan Ridgway today. He has just spent a week at Henley Beach and he raved about Adelaide's ambience. (Stephan's from Sydney.) Nice to hear that. I'm kind of searching for Adelaide gems after the experience of Perth last week. Perth's public spaces are superb - eye-catching and people friendly - and it left me wondering what I would do with them if I had a visitor from Perth. Well Stpehan's solved the problem. Show them the ambience! :) Anyone know where it is?

Monkey Mia Revisited - with embedded video

When I say the sea is the same size as the sky, I mean colour!. It was amazing actually - very hard to see where the sea ended and the sky began. It was like an endless horizon. Also ignore the annotation "Eliz was here" if you don't know Eliz! It may take a minute or three to load, and probably longer over dial up. (sorry)

---

This digital story was made in Microsoft Photo Story.

More Cutting Edge Comment - with MP3 audio

Replying to Bee's blog on the Cutting Edge Presentation:

Monkey Mia

So much to say about this extraordinarily beautiful place, but for now I'll just leave you with a photo.


Dolphins 

Cutting Edge Tools in the ESL/EFL Classroom - Presentation Follow Up

Well that's another Webheads MVP done. I *think* it was OK. Listening to
the archive on playback was interesting as always. I think I sound a little
irritable and bossy at the beginning! This is what happened:

1) the agreement was that I would meet the IT support guy at 8.15 am (45
minutes before start time)
2) he arrived at 8.45
3) I had to load Elluminate (this was supposed to have been done beforehand)
4) we had Elluminate up and running and sound checked
5) I tried to play my movies and found out the laptop did not have a recent
version of Media Player
6) loaded and installed Media Player 10
7) before I could stop him the IT guy found some other problem and rebooted
8) as I was using a temporary log in this meant Elluminate and Media Player
had to be reinstalled!
9) we got started at 9.15 (15 minutes later than scheduled start)

By then I was annoyed and trying desperately not to be but you can hear it
in my voice! (:

Thank you to Christine and Buth for joining the presentation (Buth was up
at 2.00 am her local time in Kuwait!), and especially to Bee and Daf for
their excellent input. (Bee and Daf, sorry again for being such a time
freak! I hate cutting people off but I always seem to be running against
the clock.) Also thanks to Jonathan for keeping the whole thing flowing
online before and after. As is nearly always the case, the conference
audience was blown away by the MVP (multiple venue presentation) aspect of the presentation, and couldn't wait to get into Elluminate in the workshop
after the presentation. I think they were quite amazed too at what Daf has
being doing with guest lecturers and oral presentations.

I have created a page <http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/els/pres.htm>
where all the tools referred to are listed. The archive is at
http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=638193 (slow loading but it does work).
=====================
See Daf's blog on this session HERE.

Types of Student Blogs (with Userplane)

A/V Blog
by Userplane

Instant Audio Mark 2

An example of an Instant Audio recorded directly into the PC.



So you have the option of using the phone or doing it this way. Bravo!

Instant Audio

Amazing - how good is this! Listen to more:



Courtesy of Instant Audio.

Phone Blogging

This is amazing - I've found a company that has phone blogging via an Australian number. Well at least Jonathan from LearningTimes did! Let's see if it works.....

Comments Feature

Have changed the template so hopefully now the comments feature will be visible....

Using a Blog to House Student Work

(This is actually working better over at livejournal where I have the comments feature working properly.) BUT, it seems only those who I have invited to be 'my friends' over there at livejournal can see it! Mmmm.---------------------

Blogs can be used to house student work, together with teacher feedback. If students post their work in a blog it is a convenient way of housing all student work and teacher feedback in one location. It might look like this:

Student Writing

My name is T. I come from Vietnam. I had been in Australia over ten years. I refuge because my country has war. I has three children. When I came here they young. I had a part-time job. I work in Vietnamese Restaurant a few month. Then I work in factory The Raptic and son. Although butcher shop in Kensington.

The first time I came to Australia I find everything too strange and difficult. For example: I can't speak English to communicate with people. He food's different in my country and the weather made unwealthy to me.

I like living in Australia because Australia has a tranquility and freedom. I think I have a new life and I started. Furthermore, I learned a lot of new things I open my knowledge lived in Australian society.

In the future, I would like to do aged-care or nail technology. I hope I have a successful in the future. I think I'm very lucky to lived in Australia.

DRIVE BY PHOTO BLOGGING?

Someone told me the other day that some people are now clicking their digicams randomly and constantly out of the window of a moving car as you drive. Theory is that you produce some gems and just chuck out the rubbish. I gave it a shot the other day - 99% rubbish. Here's the only shot vaguely worth keeping:



Car Blog Fluke 

(And even this didn't work very well. The word freedom should be visible above didtribution centre. Like having to explain a joke.)

It’s been a crazy 24 hours. Domestic disagreements at the end of a long night and I woke up a little the worse for wear. I ambled out into a gentle beautiful blue Adelaide day to pick up milk and paper from the deli (that fast fading Adelaide institution), and felt the vitamin D recharging my system.

Thoughts of the Asian Tsunami still provided a moody backdrop as I walked, and the evening news was filled with recently found amateur footage (some of which can be found HERE.

I fought the urge to just lay on the couch and be tired in front of the TV and forced myself to go out and see an old friend, Meng Meng. Meng Meng was an English student of mine when he first came to Australia in the 1990’s, and is now happily entrenched in Adelaide society. He had discovered the Seven Stars Hotel in the city and suggested we meet there. We sat outside in the cool night air drinking cokes (yes cokes), relived old times, and then broached areas of conversation too personal to add here. While we were outside on the pavement I noticed Mark Keough of Archer College fame come into the inside bar. Before we left Meng Meng introduced me to the manager as a musician, and lo and behold the pub are looking for musicians who might be able to attract an over 30’s crowd and I reckon I could fit that bill. I also dobbed Mark in to help out and he accepted the challenge! So stay tuned to this space for more news on an exciting new kind of musical soiree at the Seven Stars coming soon.

So once again the effort to drag myself out into the night was energy well spent. And Meng Meng was the link man. He is one of those few migrants who come to a new and very different culture (Meng Meng is from Beijing), embrace the local elements and find ways to link locals.

So Adelaide, education and life came together in the last 24 hours. Maybe it was the inspiration provided by the latest in excellent Walk on By series . Last night’s show was on the 60s and highlighted the confluence of remarkable musical trends that occurred in that decade – the Beatles, the songwriting teams like Bacharach and David, and Holland/Dozier/Holland, the Motown sound, Dylan, folk, and protest lyrics. Corny, but it made me feel proud to have been part of it as a small boy in Port Lincoln making my own Top 60 chart as a I listened religiously to 5DN – which is about to close after 80 years on air) - after school every day and sang along with all those songs. My parents were frustrated that I didn’t go outside and play, but I did do plenty of that. I was one of the children described in this excellent piece that just arrived from Bill in Israel. I has been wanting to see (or even write) a piece like this for ages. Thanks Bill. What a different world it was.

=======================================


To those born in the 40's, 50's and 60's:


First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for
diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were
back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.



We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet or internet chat
rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little league, football and baseball had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

We did what we were told, most of the time, and were soundly corrected when we didn't -- we were held accountable. Imagine that.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT!

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids,
before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

Tsunami Aftermath:

A/V Blog
by Userplane

For an amazing photograph of the tsunami itself go HERE.

This is my first example of an audio blog with Userplane.

A/V Blog
by Userplane

Just doing a firewall test at Port Adelaide......

Write text here with links

Topic X - the grand ingredient of blogger's paradise... is it the technology and the process that has eveyone rivetted, or the pearls of wisdom in regular blogs?

Adelaide is an education and does exhibit some small evidences of sentient life

Adelaide is an education and does exhibit some small evidences of sentient life

I wonder where this will go????

Tuesday, Feb 11th, 2003

Mmm...just figured out that the latest entry in the blog should really go at the top of the page...I wonder if I'll ever get into the habit of writing worthwhile things here on a regular basis??

Can I insert text here?

Adelaide's weather is stuck in one of its holding patterns, and this is a good one. Days of 28-30 and cool nights. Mid-February and still no savage heat waves in this part of the country. A bit gloomy to be back at work. Everyone is on about the usual back to work stuff - principally budget cuts. There was a little relief from this analysis of the TAFE system called the Kirby Report which told us what we all knew (we kind of felt for a short time that it wasn't our fault). The organisation has been badly mismanaged and squeezed at the same time by a government that was more intent on divesting itself of ownership of, and responsibility towards, public services. Things may improve in the next budget but in the meantime the belts are tightened. No matter whose fault it may be, economic hard times at work are ahead.

Highlight of my day? A wonderful walk along Semaphore beach on my way home from work. Saw these 2 guys kite surfing (is that what it's called?) and it looked exhilarating.

---

Thursday, February 6th, 2003

With all the best will in the world I haven't been here for months. Too many other things to do, and summer to be enjoyed. Still, here I am. I'm back at work (I've been made permanent!) and I'm hoping to win a Flexible Learning Leaders scholarship this year looking into the use of voice online. If I'm successful this will mean a wonderful year of travel and lots of hard work.

I guess the highlight of my summer was a week over on the West Coast of South Australia reliving old haunts with my brother, and visiting lots of places we frequented as kids. We got as far as the legendary Cactus, headed back down that superb coast via Elliston to Port Lincoln, and back to searing hot Adelaide. In the background all summer was talk of war with Irag, and it is still on the horizon. We've got to somehow stop this happening......

First Entry

To blog or not to blog? Well the time has come. I am going to give it a try.
I don't promise any great literature, but it seems everyone is doing it. Well
a lot of people are. And I am interested to see if I can maintain this on a
regular basis, and to see if anyone reads it, and whether anyone will contribute.

Blogs do seem a viable alternative to email listservs, and in some cases may
even function much the same way as websites do.

Today I've been down the coast south of Adelaide. It was a superb spring day
and I had a wonderful walk along the beach at Moana
before going to visit my friend Mark
and his partner Sue. Mark has recently become a full time employee of WebCT,
and Sue looks after the Adelaide Theatre
Guide website, for which I write occasional reviews.

Song #20.1 Down by the Sea

DOWN BY THE SEA

Chorus

See no reason to leave peace by the sea

See no reason to leave down by the sea

 

Daughter of Hitler’s land

You showed me the rocky path

Down to the sea

You brought peace to me

Down by the sea

Chorus

Lady from a forest home

Who knows the joy of touching skin

Your man there with the always grin

Smilin’ so easily

Down by the sea

 

Chorus

And those from the midnight sun

Mid-life crisis just begun

Young suitors in tow

Down by the sea

 

See no reason to leave down by the sea

See no reason to leave down by the sea

We’ll all meet again some day

Maybe under a southern sky

In the Antipodes

Down by the sea

 

And those who call this island home

Turn to wine to help them through

Too many foreign mouths to feed

Sweet bitterness

Down by the sea

 

Chorus

 

Patmos 1981

 

Commentary

Observations of various people met on Patmos. I remember playing around with this while sitting on the sand right at the water’s edge at night. The sound of the gentle lapping of waves made the perfect accompaniment to the soft moody feeling of the song. Any recording would need to include such a sound effect!