Tag: language

Get a load of Stephen Fry (madly linguistic podgram)

Michael ChalkLeave a commentprofessional development

I’m listening to Stephen Fry’s podgram on my android phone. And he’s so delightful, as he explores the innards of his linguistic perspective, that i feel the urge to share. But i didn’t take notes, so now i don’t recall anything that he said. Think maybe i need to work on my auditory memory. Oh i’ve just realised from the wikipedia page, that it dates back to 2008. Link to the episode on his webble site, including all kinds of subscribing options. Link to the audio file here:

How hard is it to set Language (Australian!) ?

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

Whenever i glance over the shoulders of anyone on a computer in this place, i see red lines where they shouldn’t be. Microsoft word telling people, “You’re wrong!” “Neighbourhood House” gets a big red wiggly line. Which for literacy students is frustrating, and for an anti-imperialist language purist like me is infuriating. How hard is it for a tech department to set the default language to Local, ie Australian English??! Why should the tech department have to do it anyway.. microsoft knows everything about us, and we’ve told windows exactly Read More …

Indigenous Australian map.. inspiring & interactive use of google maps

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, e-learning, innovation

Impressive use of google maps over at the ABC web site. Moira and i were discussing this map of indigenous Australian languages.. so i looked to find some copies online while she looked in the book-on-shelf style atlas. Snap! We got our results at the same time. Since i first viewed the map (large poster print), i’ve loved the way it gives a sense of how geography has shaped cultural and language groupings over many thousands of years. You can almost see the mountains, the desert, the rivers reflected in Read More …

on becoming a twit (or a flap)

Michael ChalkLeave a commente-learning, professional development

i was recently reading Lankshear and Knobel’s piece on Facebook as an environment for multiliteracies (more on that over here). There is some disagreement around these social networking sites, that you must be self-centred to use them, or that they will damage your brain (eg this article).