My Twitter Network

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Checking in from Luang Prabang

The Blogging Revolution - Antony Loewenstein

Initial thoughts on a new book.

Demise of an Email Discussion List?

Just sent to TALO members

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Hi everyone.

I have been a member of TALO (Teach and Learn Online) for about 2 years now. When I first signed up I was amazed and invigorated by the level of healthy debate about elearning issues. It was a great place to learn. Since then I have seen the gradual decrease of any stimulating debate, and the number of postings reduced to a trickle.

Some of the people who created this group, and who drove the wonderful discussions of the past, have either moved on from this list or no longer engage with it. It has left a void that no one seems willing to fill. This list has currently 1272 members, and increases by about 15 new registrations each week, and yet the email traffic is minimal.

This may be because there is a range of new tools that many are using to communicate – especially Twitter, but also includes blogs and Second Life. But I suspect too that many newcomers to this list are not sure of the ‘culture’ here; not sure whether to initiate discussion because they are waiting for others to lead the way.

But I think right now there are no leaders in this group. There is no culture. It is up to people who are still here, and the many others who have joined in recent months to make this group live.

So how about it? Why not post what you’re thinking about? Say what you feel? Ask questions about things you want to learn about. This list is YOURS.

If we keep on getting new members and nothing is happening I do wonder whether there’s any point in staying here. Maybe it would be better to close the group and we all move on to other spaces?

But this space, if it is to survive, needs reinvigorating.

Over to you!

Letting go of what we know: the importance of unlearning

Brad Beach on Virtual Worlds - Live Blog from Big VETes

Should I Stay or Should I Go? (Mark Harris)

JF Live Poll

Create interactive meetings at Poll Everywhere

Al Upton at Learntel - Authentic Risks; Authentic Learning

Mark Keough at Learntel

Stewarding Technology for Communities (Nancy White)

Covering it Live at Learntel - Garry Putland

Covering it Live at Learntel

Cover it Live Test

Moodle Moot AU 2008

Some thoughts on the recent Moodle conference in Brisbane, Australia. Audio (7 mins 37 secs) provided from Utterli, and images from the conference provided by Slideflickr

A New, Free, Web Based Polling Tool

Slidecast - Voice Tools for Language and Literacy

I have just managed to synch the audio with the slides from a recent presentation on Online Voice Tools for Language and Literacy. The original session was held in Skype. I recorded both sides of the conversation (me and online participants) and uploaded the audio to the Internet archive.

I uploaded the slides into Slideshare and used their synching audio and slides tool to create a slidecast. I'm really happy with the result and now I know how to do this I'll be doing it again. Here is the final product.

(It's 45 minutes long.)

The Internet archive also provides the embedding code so you can listen to the audio only right here:

Utterz Re-Test

U Stream TV Test

About 9 and a half minutes.

Good Will Bonking :)

The following are a few notes from the recent interview that Will Richardson conducted with Curtis Bonk. It’s about an hour long and the audio is a bit of a struggle initially but it does improve in the second half.

Curt has just released a new book called Empowering online learning The interview touches on issues raised in the book but is not about the book.

CB: George Siemens' Theory of Connectivism is more a description of what’s happening rather than a theory.

WR: How does knowledge construction change in online communities?

CB: Learning is more informal than formal. People share stories

WR/CB: Books like Seymour Papert’s Mind-Storms (published 1993) feel like they were written today! It has taken this long for ideas of people like Papert to gain respectability and currency. Technology has made possible theories that have been around a long time.

WR: How do we unlearn traditional assessment approaches?

CB: Peer/extended network assessment. But there is still a place for traditional teacher-centred approaches

Reference: Darren Draper – have you been paying attention?

There was some discussion of new models of publishing. Curt himself is trying to decide how to publish his new book. Options include:

* Wiki + html (web) pages + book
* Pdf + comments facility
* Hypothetical: Blog daily for a year and compile into a book

Question left unanswered: will mainstream publishers accept these models? (Curt is conscious of the fact that he will be seen as a hypocrite if his next book is not an ‘open book.’, and is investigating new models with different publishers.)

Other Publishing Models:

Flat World Knowledge
Scribd - a ‘YouTube for text.’ (CB)

Other Titbits

Jay Cross and his work on Informal Learning has been pivotal in the move towards understanding new models of education.

* Manila is the chat capital of the world (SMS)
* Wikipedia is built in to mobile devices (Africa)
* You don’t need Internet access to benefit from the Internet (phones, download to CD, etc)
* “Googlization of knowledge” (CB)
* Students in Michigan have to take an online course to graduate.

Learning Object Repositories (LORs)

Curt not convinced of their usefulness. Prefers sites with peer reviewed resources like Merlot.

Second Life/Virtual Worlds
Curt thinks they’re too hard for a lot of people and is watching Google’s Lively

Online Language Learning

CB: Is exploding across the Internet; arrangements where learners of Chinese are matched up with teachers of Chinese who want to learn English and swap services are becoming more common; predicts even further growth

WR: Where will be 20 years from now?

* Jack Cummings, Indiana Uni Dean, dropped in briefly and said that now Harvard had joined those institutions adopting an open content policy others will follow suit. (There are 57 mirror sites of MIT’s open courseware initiative in sub-Saharan Africa.)
* As networks of personalized learning become more widespread there will be 24/7 access to subject mentors around the world, who won’t be aligned to a single institution.
* Cell phones will become more to central to provision of educational content.
* The move to synchronous education approaches will increase
* More and more visualization tools – of thought, networks. (MC: some of these already exist.)

(image at top courtesy of Oliver Ding's Freesouls slide show)

The Anthropology of YouTube

Michael Wesch at the Library of Congress. Brilliant. Inspiring. Insightful. Important.

"Media mediates human relationships."
"loss of community"
"networked individualism" > "cultural tension"
"context collapse"
Cognition and recognition. (McLuhan)
"We live lives constantly against the law in an age of prohibition." (Lessig)

55 minutes. Find the time and watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Ha Ha

Audio Post via Hipcast - still working?

This post has arrived by phone using Hipcast.

Cover It Live

What is the Internet Doing to Our Brains?

Picked this up from Will Richardson’s blog. This article from Nicholas Carr needs to be read and contemplated by all Internet educators.

I know exactly what Nicholas Carr means. More and more I find myself engaged in what I call horizontal learning (skimming multiple resources, multitasking), and have to force myself to engage in vertical learning (prolonged focus on a single topic or resource.) There is indeed a change afoot.

Implications? Identify, make explicit, and teach both approaches. See slides 13- 16 of this presentation for more on horizontal v vertical learning.

Addendum to this post

On a related note I just came across this article today - Society Hard-wired for a fall. More on what computer use may be doing to our brains.

Using the Moodle Book Module

Click To Play

Twitter Fountain #2 - Adelaide (with background images of Adelaide)

Twitter Fountain - Adelaide

The Digital Education Revolution (DER)

The Digital Education Revolution (DER) is an Australian Federal Government initiative worth $1.2 billion to advance ICT in Australian schools. Education au is currently sponsoring a series of symposia in Australian capital cities to get feedback from practitioners about what is being done, and what they want to see happen.

I was present for the first part of the symposium in Adelaide today. Sheila Willaston outlined some of the key policy elements:

• Online curriculum content (I hope this doesn’t gobble up too much of the money)
• Professional development for teachers (I hope this includes new teachers to be in training programs)
• Web portals for parental participation (great idea)
• Fibre connections to schools piggy-backing on the much talked about broadband rollout (if it ever happens)

Targets of the program include

• Reducing the computer to student ratio to 1:2 in the next 2 years
• 100 MB connections to all schools

Mark Pesce was next on the podium. Some highlights of Mark’s presentation:

About four years ago YouTube, RSS, BitTorrent, and Wikipedia did not exist. In previous eras any one of these applications would have been considered seminal changes of the generation. These days an equally powerful application appears at least once a year. (eg Google Earth). This is the world generation Y have grown up in – where “the only constant is change.”

Referring to data gleaned from Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, he mentioned the notion of co-presence, where people use communication tools to connect and communicate constantly. Pesce argues that this practice is nothing new – only the tools are new. [David Attenborough refers to humankind as the ‘compulsive communicators.’]

The hidden curriculum of banning and blocking the use of these connection tools in schools is “denying kids the connectivity they experience in their daily lives.” There is an “invisible argument going on between school and life.” “The classroom has lost respect for their lives and (so) kids have lost respect for the classroom.”

I AM ONE OF THE PUSHERS

Pesce then confessed to being one of the pushers of a tool that mahy educators and parents just see as something that promotes cyber-bullying and MySpace suicide pacts. :)

TWITTER

Twitter is now being used for purposes way beyond what it was designed for. For example, the recent earthquake in China was announced 30 minutes before the major news networks got hold of the story. “The street finds its own use for things” [A recent perspective I heard about ethics: “Ethics should not judge what is good or bad, but rather observe what people are doing.]

[“People no longer subscribe to magazines; they subscribe to people.” (The Human Network) ]

Mark did say that he thought he was probably preaching to the converted, and it did have that feeling, but his presentation was intended as a springboard for further discussion by symposium delegates for the rest of the day to come up with ideas for implementation as part of the DER . @theother66 twittered towards the end of the day that Gerry White was doing a great job of gathering all the ideas together in the final session. I look forward to seeing them.

Many thanks to education au for another great symposium.

eBeam Smartboard Thing

eBeam Smartboard Thing
Originally uploaded by mikecogh

This really is quite neat. Place the gizmo (see top of pic) on a table top and the tabletop (or any flat surface in theory) effectively becomes a whiteboard. Anything written on the table will appear on the pc it's connected to. And therefore remote users could see it while it was happening. The thing is - can anyone think of a useful application for this? www.electronicwhiteboardswarehouse.com/ebeam.htm

I am not a blogger

I am definitely not a blogger! Five weeks away in Japan (Nagoya, Tokyo), New York, Scotland, York, Cambridge, London and Scotland and not a note. Hundreds of photos though and I guess that’s how I prefer to blog – visually, or by incorporating widgets like Apture, the software that’s allowing me to add all these media links (are they hyperlinks?). Paralinks maybe?

So that’s what’s prompted me to write now. Highlights were meeting many Webheads f2f for the first time, spending time with Jonathan Finkelstein of LearningTimes fame, enjoying the space and grandeur of the Scottish highlands around Oban, the classic heritage of the built environment in York and Cambridge, and a wonderful spring day in London enjoying the sunshine with thousands of others in St James Pk.

And yes, as Will Richardson wrote, I did think in advance about what I wrote here. I chose words and items that were likely to have existing web content about them!

Dipity - a nifty Timeline Tool

This is a really smart tool (though the limitations of Blogger's display don't do it justice here. Create events with dates and pictures, state the location of an event and Dipity locates it for you using Google Maps. You can view it as a straight timeline, series of images, or on a map. Very cool. See a quick trip through some of my life:

Remembering Marie Jasinski

On Thursday last week about 70 friends and colleagues gathered at the Port Adelaide TAFE campus to bid farewell to Marie Jasinski. Marie had lived the last 20 years of her life living and working in Adelaide and there were a number of people who were not able to attend her funeral in Hobart and needed the opportunity to share memories and acknowledge her significant role in our lives.

Former MindMedia colleague Jeff Catchlove mc’d the event and appropriately used a Thiagi whistle to call us to order and introduce some levity into the occasion. We watched a video of Marie and Marty’s wedding, and Adrian Marron, TAFE Adelaide North Director, spoke on behalf of the institute, the wider department of DFEEST, and the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. He told of being 'ambushed' by Marie at 8 o’clock one morning when he was compelled to listen to her tales of a recent overseas trip and all the exciting iniatives TAFE SA could implement based on her discoveries and new contacts. The last director of the now defunct Douglas Mawson Institute of TAFE, Mike Mulvihill, then spoke with eloquence and simplicity about how Marie had changed all our lives, and inspired a love of learning in us all. Mike also mentioned how he used to try and avoid sharing the stage with Marie because you were always upstaged - whenever Marie stood in front of a group of people she turned it an event of laughter and learning!

We then played a spoken tribute that Robby Weatherley, Marie’s long time friend and colleague from early LearnScope days, had sent down from NSW. This was followed by an opportunity for all present to share anything they wanted about Marie – a colleague from 1989 mentioned that even then Marie had shown by example and encouragement that one should always try and improve what you did.

Marie’s legacy to her colleagues in SA and beyond is clear. She was a living example of how one can be dedicated to teaching and learning, and her willingness to take risks and innovate to improve the lot of teachers and students was unremitting.

Marie’s husband Marty closed proceedings with a touching account of how Marie had added to his life – even if it had meant embracing chaos and complexity in the home! Marty added that Marie was one of those people who realized how much love had to be put into life to get it back. He then played a Photostory of Marie’s last months in Hobart. Marty – thank you so much from all of us for being part of this day. Though it was important that you were there to share an important event with yours and Marie’s colleagues, it could not have been easy.

After the ‘official’ business we all retired to the staff lounge for drinks and eats and more memories of wonderful Marie. Many took the opportunity of dropping some petals into the Port River as a final mark of remembrance to a remarkable person.

There is talk of a small mosaic being installed on the dock outside the Port Adelaide campus as a more permanent reminder of someone we don’t want to forget.

A sincere thank you all to those who attended. I think many of us now can move on – as Marty said – with any of Marie’s dreams that we care to take with us in our pocket. Marie had asked Marty to pass this message on to her colleagues. I think we can rightfully say that Marie would have approved of this event, and that is no mean feat. As Mike Mulvihill said, she was a class act.

Vale Marie. And from all of us who worked with you, thank you for your inspiration, support, guidance, and friendship. I don’t think any of those present last Thursday, and countless others around the country and the planet, will ever forget you.
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There are a number of photos of this event posted at http://flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/sets/72157604054284876/ If there are any images there that you would rather not be public please let me know and I’ll remove them.

(pic at top courtesy of Nancy White. Taken when Nancy was in Adelaide in 2006)

Others remember Marie

Mile High

It's Festival time in Adelaide and I've been reviewing some of the shows on offer so I'll drop some of them here. Here's the first one:

MILE HIGH
Holden St Theatres (The Arches), Sat Feb 24

Dan and Daisy set out for New York with the usual feelings of anticipation and trepidation as any couple might at the prospect of a two week dream holiday preceded by an 18 hour flight in economy class. Dan (Sebastian Goldspink), the nervy but experienced flyer, and Daisy (Megan Alston) the excited and excitable newbie, begin as normal – discussing the food, the cabin staff, past memories, Americans, plans for New York – and then the alcohol kicks in. After an eventful high talk drifts inevitably towards the relationship, and stuck like battery hens in the middle of the night they have to face the storm. Directed by Byron Kaye, this racy little play is very engaging. Despite their differences the chemistry between the characters is palpable. It’s as if you’re a fellow passenger observing them slyly without being seen – a kind of sneaky privilege. I’m tempted to down a few Bloody Marys and regale the person next to me the next time I’m on a long flight to see what happens. Really enjoyable.

Conversation about implementing web 2.0 in China

Leo Kottke

Tonight I went to see one of my musical heroes – Leo Kottke. I fell in love with his music when I was in my 20’s and the love affair has never ended. This clip shows Leo as a very young man but he plays even better now. No one plays like this guy. Thanks Leo. (There are lots more Leo clips on YouTube if you look around.)

PLE - process not product

PLEs and their companions, ePortfolios, are back on people’s radars at the moment. I had a go at spotting the difference between the two some months ago, and Leigh Blackall and Mark van Harmelen have being describing PLEs on the TALO list this week.

Leigh wrote:

"First and originally there is the software development line largely coming out of the UK and Europe that is looking to develop a single solution in terms of software that captures the intent of a Personalised Learning Environment. Things like ELGG. Through both the name PLE and the software developmental approach it is easy to see the influence of the Virtual Learning Environment or Learning Management System. It is this association that critics use against this approach.

The second, more recent, and deeper line of thinking with regard to the PLE ……is more interested in the PLE as a process. A process of establishing an online presence (with what ever is readily available), expressing yourself, and collecting tools, information, finding channels.... and in the process building relationships and networks around your expressed interests so as to develop a personalised learning environment.

To me, the second line of thinking is near enough the same to Networked Learning: Networked learning is a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another's learning. Wikipedia Feb 2008."

Mark adds:

"The integrated systems approach to PLEs (eg ELGG) is not at odds with the view of assembling resources, and the two co-exist well. In fact jumping over to wikipedia you'll find a definition (of mine) that captures the conjunction of the two 'views':
"Personal Learning Environments are systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to
• set their own learning goals
• manage their learning; managing both content and process
• communicate with others in the process of learning
and thereby achieve learning goals.
A PLE may be composed of one or more subsystems: As such it may be a desktop application, or composed of one or more web-based services."

What I'd particularly like to point out is that the PLE movement, whatever its 'guise', has settled on an approach that stresses independent learning (ie self motivated, often self directed) learning rather than teacher controlled learning. Teachers can assist and facilitate, but not control. Peers can assist and facilitate. This to me is the real nub of a PLE, as a tool / set of tools that enables this approach. So I'm not hung up on precise system characteristics, and I'd suggest that a system classification sidesteps the real and deeper and more meaningful and enduring value of the PLE movement." (my italics)

----------------------------------------------------
I’m not hung up on system characteristics either – a single all encompassing tool or a collection of web applications are both fine – but we all know that the organizations we work for are going to push option 1. They will want their staff/students to use the tool they have paid for or developed so they can control security, standards, etc. I guess in the spirit of PLEs as expressed by Leigh and Mark, students should be free to choose the endorsed tool or their own collection of scattered personal artefacts, and be supported in whatever choice they make. It is about process after all, not end product. Though I find that hard to accept sometimes. I love the process, but I also get a lot of satisfaction from looking at end-product I have created. For example, I’m gonna love proof reading this post and seeing it as a end-product that represents people’s thoughts on this topic right now, but also feel excited at knowing that it will be superseded within days. Such is our ‘habitus of learning’. (Norbert Pachler) But I’d hate to see Blogger fall over and never be able to find this post ever again!

Another Tool - Gifup

Made with images from Flickr (tag: FLNW08)


GIF animations generator gifup.com

The Classroom of the Future

Over at http://voicethread.com/share/42094/ is a wonderful example of how Voicethread can capture multiple voices on a topic, and a great selection of opinions on mobile learning and the role of the teacher/classroom in a digital world. Courtesy of webhead Dave Winet the founder of EFI (http://study.com/)

My Facebook Friendwheel

myfacebookwheel
Originally uploaded by mikecogh

Ever wanted to be at the centre of the universe? Facebook has made it possible.

BAW Voicethread

Audio Post for Alex Hayes!

Also

FLNW2 - en route to Korat

The Future of Learning in a Networked World #2

Well for the first two days the Future of Learning in a Networked World (FLNW)participants in Bangkok face a challenge similar to that faced by FLNW participants last year in NZ – exorbitant charges for Internet use at the hotel. About $3 per hour. Wireless. And can only be bought in lots of 3 hours. Seems like the less developed the country (India, Vietnam) the more likely b/band or wireless will be cheap or free. If you take your laptop into the mega shopping malls here you can enjoy free access, and Internet cafes are everywhere and cheap. But documenting discussions in and around hotel over the next 48 hours may be a bit skimpy…. We’ll see. It’s good to be here and I'm looking forward to it. Tag everything FLNW08. Some pix already up on Flickr.

Michael and Govind

Introducing Audioblogging to Govind. (pictured)

Golconda

Intro Post from Hyderabad

Hey presto - it worked!

Blooming Lilly Pilly

Blooming Lilly Pilly
Originally uploaded by sridgway

Flickr talking to my blog

Jigzone

My First Animoto

Mmm, It takes a while to create one of these Animoto critters, but it certainly is exciting to see what it will do with your images and music - they are all auto-mixed. I think I prefer PhotoStory or MovieMaker and the like where you have more control over the final product, but the thrill here is the unexpected. The link with Blogger was very clear and efficient - Animoto took just a few seconds to send over to Blogger and have it ready for viewing in this blog.
(thanks to Marg O'Connell for some of the images I've used)

eLearning 07 Event (NSW LearnScope)

01-11-07_1321.jpg
Originally uploaded by mikecogh

Protopage Portal
Photos from the event

Test Entry for Feed to NW Event

Text for text's sake.

Mum

Mum
Originally uploaded by mikecogh

You left us one year ago today Mum. Rest in peace. Here's what Sarah thought.

Where I've Been

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Test Audio Post via Hipcast (Brisbane Workshop)

Web 2.0 and the Ethical Responsibility of Educators

Check Alex Hayes on the radio at NSW LearnScope
Blog , and the new book from Peter Sheahan: FLIP

Happy Birthday Shaun!

this video was originally posted to moblog.co.uk by user michaelc

Say and Post

Message posted using say and post. Say and post can be found here.

Audio Post from LearnScope Workshop

This post has arrived by phone using Hipcast.

Audio Post via Hipcast from IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG Conference in Chennai

Audio Post via Hipcast from Chennai - success!

This is where it all begins...

Chennai Ad
Originally uploaded by mikecogh

Saw these adds in a street in Chennai. Sounds like a good job doesn't it - about $600/month. My guess is that may be reasonable income here, but I'll check. Funny there's no mention of driving Australian people crazy...after the way Mohammed Haneef was treated that might solicit a few more interested takers.

Teaching ICT In Bali

A Conversation about Podcasting

Recorded in May - present were Michael Coghlan, Trevor Bennet (Edith Cowan University), David Day (Pilbara TAFE), Jenny Heathcote (Swan TAFE), Stuart Knox (Flexible Learning Framework) and Sue Waters (Challenger TAFE). The pedagogy of podcasting (podagogy?).

Springcast

You too, can Springdoo

Getting Up Close and Friendly with Your Helpdesk

I'm adding this here because

1) it's funny. (Communication with Indian Call Centres is a fact of daily life Australia these days.)

2) Marlene requested that I add it to my blog so it could be seen behind TAFE firewalls.

So Marlene - your wish is my command. Let me know if it works.

Talking about Webheads

Sue Waters, a friend and colleague in Perth, has posted a conversation about Webheads that took place in Perth in May on her wonderful Mobile Technology in TAFE podcast site. I think I was a bit grumpy and a little cocky - it sounds like people had to drag the information out of me. I know I was very tired at the time....

Goodbye Cathy

17-06-07_1507.jpg
Originally uploaded by mikecogh

In memory of Cathy Birnie, my dear mother-in-law, who passed away peacefully this afternoon aged 81. We'll miss you Cathy. You've been a wonderful friend to us all.

Photo Blogging by Phone?

Not quite sure what this photo of the Burswood Casino in Perth is doing here. It may have been me experimenting again. I'm going to leave it here till I work out how it got here! Days later: OK - Telstra still can't manage posting direct to your blog. This average pic has come via Flickr - where you can upload directly using a Telstra account. (Telstra is the main Australian telco.)

15-05-07_1309.jpg
Originally uploaded by mikecogh

Telstra MMS to Email

Beyond Text - WA Training Forum (May 07)

Short audioblog message:




and excerpts podcast by Sue Waters below, and at Mobile Technology in TAFE

Test for WA Workshops

This post has arrived by phone using Hipcast.

Weligama Revisited

Me and Jyothipala

Firstly, I stand by what I said in my previous post. Further observation and conversations with others corroborate what I said – Sri Lanka is slipping behind other countries in Asia. The civil war cuts down the numbers of tourists and deprives the nation of what was a profitable stream of income, and any excess government cash goes on the military. And then there was the tsunami. It was clear too that as one got further from Colombo that conditions improve. But….

I took the train like I used to – a second class pit of dirt and heat. At least when the train was moving you had moving air on your face if you had a window seat. Tuk tuks were lined up at Weligama station on arrival (they didn’t exist in the villages before) and one whizzed me to the Bay Beach Hotel. And I set off on my pilgrimage to 26 years ago. I hadn’t walked 5 minutes when Lalith, a young man on a bicycle, asked me where I was from, what was I doing etc. He knew Jyothi Pala, and took me to his house. Long and very pleasant story – we all wanted to believe we knew each other and we agreed to make contact next day, but I wasn’t convinced. Lalith said he also knew Walter – he lived next door to a wine shop. We continued there on his bike, me riding donkey. We stopped outside the house. I saw Walter and I knew it was him, Titus brother. I greeted him with tears streaming down my face. Through the mists of time it dawned on him who I was and a smile broke through. Words can’t explain the happiness and intensity I felt. Somar, Walter’s wife appeared and verily screamed when she saw me. She knew who I was. Out came the photos and there was lift-off. A coffee, happy conversation in broken English, we shared our memories in words and looks and eventually got to the topic of the tsunami. Walter and Somar had avoided it because they were inland at their daughter’s house when it happened. But it took everything they had except their house. The wave lapped the ceiling and deposited a one metre layer of back mud throughout their house.

They invited me back for lunch the next day and I walked out into the street. I got no more than a few metres when a woman walked up to me and said ‘You know Lou!” “Yes.” Mayhem. Photos again. Bubbling conversation. The name Titus was spoken. A man behind me said “Titus my friend”. I turned to him and said “Titus was my friend too” and I realized who it was. It was the real Jyothipala. Again a flood of tears – not from Jyothi – just a look of warmth and empathy that was his trademark. The woman who recognized me was Champa, his daughter, and she spoke fondly of Lou and Nanette. We went back to Jyothi’s house and it was just like 26 years ago. Friends and extended family everywhere. The photos did another round and one by one people started identifying themselves or others in the photos they knew as kids. And then came the first really sad tsunami story. Jyothi’s delightful intellectually disabled son died that day. The rest of the family were out when the big wave came and wiped out half their house.

Others on the roll call – Eden died several years ago of a heart attack. Nandi in a car accident. Lillian lives in Colombo and all the kids are well and employed. A couple of people told me the boys were tall and handsome (“just like Titus!”) and working in banks.

Jyothi and I then went down to the beach to see where the old cadjan huts, Titus’ and Walter’s, used to stand. Not a trace of them. Now just a busy bus stop. But they weren’t taken in the tsunami. There had been recurring storms and high tides over the years that frequently damaged these houses and the local government decreed that they be removed and everyone relocated. Good thing too given what happened further down the track.

I had one more thing to do before my pilgrimage was complete. I wanted to go to Titus’ gravesite and formally bid him farewell. Jyothi, me, and one of his daughters (Genaderie) went there by tuk tuk next day only to find that the site where Titus and others were buried had been reclaimed and built upon. This apparently happens in Sri Lanka if you are buried on public land.

So a little while ago I stood outside the hotel, looking out over the bay, and thanked him for the huge role he had in my life for a short time. He was a teacher to me, before I ever was.

I’m going back to see Jyothi and Walter and families tonight, and will spend time at both their houses watching the cricket. An amazing coincidence has Australia and Sri Lanka playing off in the final of the World Cup. I think I hope Sri Lanka wins!

So it’s done. I’ve shed the tears, shared the joy, and thanked people for their incredible kindness all those years ago. I think they know now how much it meant to me – and Lou, and Nan, and Pete Brennan, Minou, Pete and Sue, Jean-Pierre, Frank. They had a huge impact on many lives many years ago. I can let this go now. It’s been something I’ve been holding on to for 26 years.

(lots more pix)

Colombo Revisited

Sometimes a lot changes in 25 years. Sometimes the fact that nothing changes can be the problem. There is evidence of both in Colombo as seen through the eyes of someone who last saw the place in 1981. A lot of what hasn’t changed is the result no doubt of being riven by civil war. The main part of town, Fort, is a high security zone – the Tamil Tigers have left their mark here. Bombs have left buildings destroyed and lots that once had buildings on them are left empty. Those buildings that do remain in Chatham St are left to rot – there’s no investment in an area that has few people filling it. The Pagoda Café was an icon back then – a stylish model of old-world charm that had the place thriving. People flocked to the Pagoda for the ambience, and the instant plate of cakes that arrived as you sat down. They, sadly, don’t do the plate of cake thing anymore. You have to go the counter and choose what you want like you do in normal places. But the Pagoda wasn’t normal. That was the whole point. And there’s not much point anymore. One waiter in the full length white attire (when there were once 6 – 10 of them) goes through the motions. The fans still turn and keep the place relatively cool but they are about the only thing providing any buzz.

The Pagoda’s neighboring buildings are all run down or half used. The traditional heart of Colombo is dead. I wasn’t able to record any of this with photos because of the ‘high security’ status of the area – no photos, no videos.

Elsewhere in Colombo I have been surprised at how poor the place looks. I don’t remember it looking like that. In ’81 Sri Lanka was considered one of Asia’s more comfortable nations – real poverty and hunger were scarce. People in the main still look well-fed, but it’s the infrastructure that’s suffering. The lack of paint, the overflowing open drains, the giveaway smells coming out of small laneways, rubbish on the streets, broken windows.… The typical little roadside stalls have a touch of well-being about them in downtown Saigon, or in Kuta and environs in Bali, but not here. It looks depressed. It’s as if no money’s being coming here and nothing has been spent on the basics for a long time. It could be that in ’81 Sri Lanka seemed fairly comfortable compared to other Asian countries, but it’s marked time and its neighbors have progressed. You can probably put all this down to the civil war.

One charming custom hasn’t changed. As you walk along Galle Face Green (under the watchful eyes of soldiers) young lovers still huddle under parasols on the park benches by the seafront. It’s the guy’s job to bring the sunshade to keep the one he’s courting sheltered from the surging sun, and it enables couples to steal pecks and kisses out of the sight of prying eyes of those who wander by.

Meanwhile, the soldiers train their eyes out to sea to make sure we don’t get any unexpected surprise from the Tigers. And in a lovely mash-up of commerce and military, they sometimes use the booths of companies like Commercial Leasing (who must have practiced there in the past) as their observation points. So heavily armed soldiers look like they’re at a trade show ready to answer your questions and lend some advice about your financial future, but I doubt they’d get the joke.
In other areas much has changed. The hotel I’m staying in for one. It’s all a Western traveler could ask and the price is fine. WITH IN-ROOM BROADBAND!!! at a reasonable extra charge. There’s now a World Trade Center for heaven’s sake. And yes that’s what it called, and it has twin towers. So money is being spent on development at the top end of town, but I haven’t seen much evidence of the average punter getting much leverage out of it. But I’ve only been here 24 hours and may not know what I’m talking about! :)

Kuta Continued

The Philippines project.