voyeurism

bienvenue a Montreal

it's been a year since John presented the preliminary findings of my research at the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education's EdMedia conference.

today, he is once again at EdMedia, this time in Montreal. he will be giving an update on last year's presentation.

Technorati Tags: EdMedia2005

on podcasts and learning

whoa!

the muse hit me and i have produced the second installment of ventriloquy :-)

hear some of my preliminary thoughts on podcasts in education :-)

it's a 3.1 MB file.

here are the sites mentioned in this episode:
- The Education Podcast Network
- D'Arcy Norman dot net
- Edupodder.com
- Center for Instructional Technology, Duke University
- Mobile Learning

introducing ventriloquy

just over a month after dipping my toes into moblogging with my experimental moblog 'vertigo', i've decided to take yet another plunge, this time into the pool known as podcasting.

just like with 'vertigo', there was much i had to consider before committing to a podcast.

unlike 'vertigo', my podcast - 'ventriloquy' - is planned to be a quasi-regularly updated event.

in the end, the decision was a no-brainer, despite my reservations.

too many factors converged - from 'how-to's on podcasts in the February and June issues of MacAddict and Macworld respectively, then to the production of an entire episode of the BBC World Service's programme 'Global Business' by Peter Day, devoted to the phenomenon of podcasting on May 10, and finally to the podcast-friendly version 4.9 of iTunes (first demo-ed by Steve Jobs on May 23 at 'D: all things digital' and later again on June 6 at WWDC).

the introduction of 'ventriloquy' is, of course, timed to celebrate the public release of iTunes 4.9 today :-)

'ventriloquy' is thus the first education-themed podcast produced in Singapore!

for more on my deliberations, why not download the inaugural episode of 'ventriloquy'? it's 2.9 MB in size, and lasts six minutes, because i figured that's as long as anyone might be able to stand of my monologue.

to subscribe to ventriloquy using iTunes, just drag this chiclet into an open iTunes window. alternatively, navigate to 'Advanced' -> 'Subscribe to Podcast...' and enter http://feeds.feedburner.com/voyeurism in the textbox which opens.

blessings in disguise

hmm...

thanks to a letter i received from the journal 'International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education', which suggested that a manuscript which i submitted to them needed a few changes, i stumbled upon the following related works, which i can now use to improve the larger thesis:

- Gaughran's sub-factor theory, which formed the basis of my pre- and post-tests, actually has its roots in earlier work by Guay and others. apparently, Gaughran adapted his work (using technology to ease the rendering process) from a twenty-item test of "cognitive restructuring in the spatial domain", which, in turn, is the intellectual property of the Purdue Research Foundation;

- Ken Johnson of the Australian National University and i, both share a similar concern that observation is a key (and often overlooked) skill that is necessary for the effective learning of geography. apparently i have been unknowingly in concurrence with both Johnson and Meinig in my belief that the familiarity of geographers with our discipline has numbed us to the fact that geographical thinking and understanding (ie, spatial cognition) is not something that comes naturally to everyone, least of all our students;

- Johnson's writings also brought to my attention the work of the Virtual Field Course, which was initiated in 1996 and is a collaboration between the University of London, Leicester University and Oxford Brookes University. Essentially, the endeavour used panoramas, Java, and VRML to address (inter alia) the problem of transposing an interpretation of a two-dimensional representation into a three-dimensional environment. it's this very problem which drives my own work;

- J Gail Armstrong-Hall has some fascinating views on how spatial skills differ between the genders. This certainly comes in useful in my own work. For example, according to her, so-called male spatial skills include 'tracking using sense of direction', 'imagined mental movement of objects' and 'abstract mental movement in any direction at any distance'. Hmm...

- Simon Catling of Oxford Brookes' Institute of Education is no stranger to geographical thinking, yet i was only introduced to his name earlier this month at the recent conference. i've been trying to find out more about his work, and today i unearthed his emphasis on how environmental perceptions are contingent upon individual experiences, and the sharing thereof. you'll recognise this, of course, to be one of the fundamental premises upon which my research rests. Catling further makes a distinction between two kinds of geographical spaces: first, that which can be viewed and understood from a single vantage point, and second, that which needs to be explored and _roamed_around_ in order for a sense of its experience to be _constructed_.

Technorati Tags: cognition, constructivism, expert, gender, geography, learning, navigation, semiotics, wayfinding

'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus

this morning, i was awoken with these words sounding victoriously in my head.

(for a .midi file, have a look here)

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Refrain

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Refrain

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.

Refrain

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

Refrain

-- Louisa M R Stead

Technorati Tags: Christianity

God's grace :-) #5

got the wonderful news today that i've been given approval by both the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education to present findings from the main body of my research in a paper at the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, to be held in Las Vegas in July :-)

my airfare will be fully funded, thanks be to God!

i'm very excited about this, because this will be the first visit to Las Vegas for me, and also because it will afford me an opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon :-)