27 January, 2012

Eyewitnesses, Memory and Oral History

Radio National’s Hindsight had an excellent program this week.

Inga Clendinnen, Paul Thompson, Peter Read, Heather Goodall, Sean Field and Bonnie Smith took part in the program (podcast here) titled The Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting.

I thought the program explored very effectively the relationships between history and memory. I liked in particular the discussion of Alessandro Portelli’s work.

The themes raised in the program took me back to some of my early interest in the Life History of teachers prompted by Ivor Goodson’s work.

I started thinking too about my introduction to eyewitness testimony through Ian Franks’ writings.

Photo Credit

LSE student conducting interview in the East End, 1946

 

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25 January, 2012

QR Codes: January 2012 Update

I received an alert to David Hopkins’ QR Code post this week.

As well as sharing a QR Code infographic, David provided news of a workshop to be held on 31 January hosted by Bournemouth University and the Higher Education Academy  Using QR Codes in Higher Education.

David points out that:

The idea for a workshop focused on experiences and good practice in the use of QR codes within Higher Education (HE) has been triggered by the overwhelming interest in David Hopkins’ and Milena Bobeva’s conference poster “Quick Response (QR) Codes in Education: The Business School Experience” shared via social networks such as SlideShare and Twitter in June 2011. Since the presentation of the poster, the scope of using the codes within the Bournemouth University Business School have expanded beyond marketing, programme contact details and directions to learning resources. The latest implementation of QR Codes has been as part of the Induction programmes for students starting their studies at the University. The team is now looking forward to the next evolutionary stage for QR Codes in Higher Education and identifying new uses of QR Codes and evaluation of the experience within the HE sector.

Postscript
A day after writing this post I read Tammy Worcester’s Tech Tip of the Week 110. She offers guidelines to auto generate a QR Code in a Google Spreadsheet. Tammy has two other QR tips (95 and 96).

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24 January, 2012

Cycle Tourism Conference and Rail Trail Symposium

The University of Canberra is hosting a Cycle Tourism Conference and Rail Trail Symposium on 2 and 3 February 2012.

Both events are being organised by Dennis Puniard.

The Tourism Conference takes place over two days and the Rail Trail Symposium on 3 February.

At the Tourism Conference there will be:

Four Keynote Addresses

Matt Lamont (Southern Cross University), The overlooked cycle tourism segment: Active spectators.

Chris Bull (Canterbury Christ Church University, UK) A Systematic Review of Evidence for the Local Impacts of Tourism and Leisure Cycling.

Craig Groke (Manager, Economic Development , Regional Development Australia, Barossa SA) The Chicken or the Egg? Which one is responsible for the success of Cycle Tourism in South Australia?

Sally Rodgers (Cycle Tourism Officer,  Murray to Mountains), The Murray to Mountains Rail Trail ; The Benchmark for Australian Cycle Tourism – The story thus far and future plans.

Fourteen papers:

Peter Thompson (Project Manager, Roads ACT), Build it and they will come – Cycling in the Australian Capital Territory.

Marjan Moris (Tourism Policy Support Centre,Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium), Cycling as a tool for regional (tourism) development.

Jun Shao (Beijing Forestry University), Connecting Through Social Media: The Case Of Chinese Cycle Tourists.

Dennis Puniard (University of Canberra), The impact of new technologies on cycle tourism; How cyclists use websites, blogs and social networking tools.

Ray Freeman (School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Royal Roads University, Canada), Mountain Bike Tourism and Community Development in British Columbia: Critical Success Factors for the Future.

Stephen Schwer (Tourism Development Officer, Southern Flinders Regional Tourism Authority), Falling in Love Again: Helping government to fall in love again with cycle tourism.

Darren Stewart (Makin Trax) and Rod Florence (Territory Venues and Events), Stromlo Forest Park – Cycling Mecca risen from the ashes.

Peter Thompson (Project Manager, Roads ACT), Canberra’s Best Kept Secret – The Off Road Path Network.

Bruce Ashley (Director, The Environment Works), Cycling touring information and guide books: how they can contribute an integrated cycle tourism strategy.

Peter Neilson (Chief Executive Officer, Oncology Childrens’ Foundation), Charities and Cycling Events: how they attract a special type of tourist.

Blake Rowsell (University of Northern British Columbia, Canada), Mountain bike tourism development under the Midnight Sun: Capitalizing on site characteristics to maximize potential in the Yukon Territory, Canada.

Pam Faulks (THINK CANBERRA Director,  Canberra Convention Bureau), The Tour de Timor experience 2009-2011.

Daniel Carruthers (Zhejiang University, China), Sportive Cycling Events in China: Local Governments Promote their Unique Regions.

Louise Rose (Department of Resources Energy and Tourism), Tourism and Strategy – The  View from the Top.

Two panel sessions: Cycle Tourism Experiences; and Cycle Tourism Research Issues and Funding.

The Rail Trail Symposium program includes:

A Keynote Address by Sally Rodgers (Cycle Tourism Officer, Murray to Mountains)

The Murray to Mountains Rail Trail ; The Benchmark for Australian Cycle Tourism – The story thus far and future plans.

Ten Papers:

Steven Kaye (Vice President, Rail Trails Australia), The State of The Nation:  the best of the bunch and where we can get better

Michael Oxer (Chairperson, East Gippsland Rail Trail Committee of Management), Count your chickens as they hatch, OR Is there anyone out there?

Arianne Reis (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Southern Cross University), A conceptual model for rail trail development as a significant tourism product and Combining tourism products to increase tourism demand for rail trail tourism

Darren McClelland (Director, Enjoy Inspire Consulting Pty Ltd), In anticipation of a new adventure: what do cyclists expect?

Michael Maher (Director, Transplan Pty Ltd), Overcoming Adjoining Landowner Opposition to Rail Trails

Dennis Puniard (University of Canberra), Rail Trails in Southern NSW; Prospects and Possibilities

Petrina Quinn (Riverina Highlands Rail Trails Group), Riverina Highland Rail Trails – A work in progress

Denise Cox (Fraser Coast Regional Council, Queensland), Mary to Bay Rail Trail

Peter Lee (Newcastle Cycleways Movement), The Fernleigh Track

A Panel Discussion on the topic of Rail Trails 2020: A vision for the future of Rail Trails in Australia.

 

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23 January, 2012

Practice into Action

Most Sunday mornings I go up to my local rural fire station for a radio check.

Last Sunday after the radio check we looked at a short video produced by CFA Victoria.

Although the content is related specifically to a fire incident I thought there were some great generic lessons about:

  • Thoughtful decision making
  • Transferring training into action
  • Reflecting on practice

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22 January, 2012

Wiki Workshop January 2012

I am participating in a wiki workshop at the University of Canberra on Monday, 23 January.

It is a part of a week of activities for research students planned by Joelle Vandermensbrugghe.

Whilst preparing for the workshop I noticed an interesting announcement from Michael Gove in the United Kingdom:

Advances in technology should also make us think about the broader school curriculum in a new way. In an open-source world, why should we accept that a curriculum is a single, static document? A statement of priorities frozen in time; a blunt instrument landing with a thunk on teachers’ desks and updated only centrally and only infrequently? … The essential requirements of the National Curriculum need to be specified in law, but perhaps we could use technology creatively to help us develop that content. And beyond the new, slimmed down National Curriculum, we need to consider how we can take a wiki, collaborative approach to developing new curriculum materials; using technological platforms to their full advantage in creating something far more sophisticated than anything previously available. (My emphasis)

I am profoundly interested in collaborative learning and have been using wikis for some time. My use of wikis was accelerated by some work I did with Leigh Blackall at the University of Canberra in 2011. One aspect of this work was for a unit titled Business, Politics and Sport, the second was connected to a history of the Paralympic Movement in Australia.

I have created a Wikiversity page for the workshop.

I will look at some other wiki opportunities too including PBWorks, Google Sites and Wikispaces. I will alert the group to this comparison of wiki opportunities.

I am hopeful that Laura Hale will work with me in this workshop. I am keen for Laura to share her experience and I would like her to say something about her Mind the Gap writing.

Postscript

I was delighted to discover that Jenni Parker is involved in a wiki workshop this week.

This is her blog post. She writes:

I started the Open Content Licensing for Educators online course on WikiEducator today. It is a free open course that runs for 5 days. I am already familiar with the concepts of open learning and open educational resources as I have been an advocate of open resources for the past few years and a WikiEducator user since 2007. I license most of my work under creative commons licenses and I encourage my students to “give back to the community” by publishing their work under a creative commons license. We obtain much of the information and photos for our own creations from the work others openly publish on the web and I believe we should return the favour in kind by adding our own work to the open web.

Photo Credit

Wiki Wiki

Open Space Principles

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