Literacy + Technology Network 'jumping'

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, technology

Well all right, it’s not exactly jumping, but what an interesting experience. There’s over eighty educators, researchers and students from all around Australia who have been sharing insights and stories related to technology in the classroom. A whole lot of amazing people, from outback Alice Springs to an island off the coast of ‘FNQ’ – far north Queensland, to Tasmania, Adelaide and the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Come and join the list if you’re into Literacy+Technology .. PRACE= outstanding provider ! Here at Preston Reservoir Adult Community Education (PRACE) Read More …

LERN conference in Havana

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development

Back from Cuba .. Well the LERN Conference in Havana was very exciting, very hot, and filled with whispers of radical dissent. What a lovely flavour! 600 delegates full of good ideas. Michael Apple’s keynote was definitely the highlight, setting the tone for the rest of the conference. He railed against the rise of the ultra-conservatives, and urged us educators to get fighting. Mary Kalantzis told us the reason for choosing Cuba – the country has very high indicators on all the UN tests for educational development. (A nation with Read More …

Publications and interviews

Michael ChalkLeave a commentresearch

“Open Source, Language and Literacy” It’s been an exciting couple of months for me, as i’ve been asked to write a few articles. One for the coming Journal “Australian Language and Literacy Matters”, a new project emerging from Australian Language Matters and the ARIS Resources Bulletin. [“Open Source, Language & Literacy” @ ALLM : ms word doc 180k] Current Directions in Flexible Learning Another for Literacy Link, the Australian Council for Adult Literacy magazine, about current happenings in the Australian Flexible Learning Community. [FlexiLearni @ LitLink : ms word doc Read More …

Legal challenge to Linux (Fud from Sco)

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

Need to know more about “The Lawsuit”? If you’re interested in the general hoo-ha surrounding the SCO group and their challenge to Linux, head over to groklaw.net/ where Pamela Jones will keep you informed on the case. A big site with a lot of user-feedback. If you want the Open Source perspective on the situation, no better place than Eric Raymond’s “Halloween Documents”. When i say “Fud from Sco” i use the acronym that means “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt”, a well known strategy used by large software firms to protect Read More …

how to sum up open source?

Michael ChalkLeave a commentresearch

Updating slows Hello i haven’t updated here for a while – yes i’ve become a ‘blogger who doesn’t blog’ .. and i’m still working on my final report – “How on Earth do i Encapsulate or Sum Up Open Source?” It’s so big! Updates will be rare from now on .. also working on more accessible presentation, categorisation and description of all the links listed in the blog section. Phew. Currently what i’m finding interesting is the economic and business models that are put forward by Eric Raymond in his Read More …

big shifts afoot (from microsoft to open source)

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

big shifts afoot Big predictions, as the inquirer reports a worldwide shift from Microsoft to Open Source. This article is a comment with attitude – Charles at the Inquirer puts the case that the Redmond giant is about to get very badly stung by a growing movement, as governments and corporations everywhere weigh a zero-outlay software against another which costs hundreds. (i should say at this point that i am not an anti-MS crusader. i like MS Word – it’s my very favourite word processor – and i’m very grateful Read More …

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace

Wikipedia tops Britannica Thanks to Stephen Downes for this link – a comparison showing that the open source encyclopedia using "wiki" software is now more popular than encylops Britannica .. WikiPedia is run on contributions from volunteers. .. incidentally the same site that gives these stats lists (alexa.com) a range of open source/open content encyclopedias in their category page.

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace

Review of ESL Sites Don’t know how many people know about this report – in 2002, the LearnScope team at Kangan Batman TAFE put together a thorough and very useful review of many online ESL resources. Get your copy Now! (whoops – sorry if you tried that link, doesn’t seem to be working – i’ll try & find another access point.) Using other people’s Scripts okay, i’ve been talking mostly about the big open source systems and the learning management platforms, such as GNU/Linux and Moodle, but honestly i think Read More …

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace

Photo gallery for learning English! i’m very excited about a new open source script i’ve found .. to dynamically create a picture gallery! I think using images is vital for language learning – especially for a theme-based topic like the beach – people want to see the beach in front of their very eyes, and how relaxing is it to watch a beach scene! There are a few ideas for picture-gallery-related language-learning activities on the site – would be grateful if anyone has additional ideas. There are many scripts for Read More …

Updates and work changes

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, community, technology

So, it’s clearly been years since i’ve posted in this place. There’s been a whole lot going on in the meantime, including pandemic etc. Since 2017, my teaching has focussed mainly on technology aka “digital literacy” within adult community education (ACE), and i haven’t done much in the way of language and literacy teaching at all. I’ve been working as a “learning facilitator” aka Tour Guide at the Polly Woodside Museum, with the National Trust. For those who didn’t grow up in Melbourne, Polly Woodside is an old sailing ship, Read More …

Writings Reclaimed

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

I decided to bring posts to this blog from other projects, such as: Digital Learning at PRACE Digital Learning at Lalor Living and Learning ACFE Learn Local Communities of Practice the North-West e-mentor projects from ACFE Learn Local iPad for Seniors at PRACE the 23 Things project from ACFE, CAE and PRACE.   Having written nearly all the text in those places, i wanted gather it all together. It was relatively easy to export from Blogger, and then import into WordPress here. Unfortunately, now i’ve discovered several roadblocks, namely: the Read More …

Mark Hopkins’ story translated into many languages

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy

You remember Mark Hopkins, the adult learner from PRACE who told his story so well, not only in our publication, but also on the SBS Insight tv program last year? Well, some of the stories from this Resilience collection have been translated into other languages for the EPALE* site, and the first story to be translated was Mark’s. *EPALE: Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. https://goo.gl/XqROOX

Adult Learners in Conversation – “A Fuller Sense of Self”

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, community

Last night Tricia Bowen spoke about her experience of reconnecting with the adult learners who have shared their stories in this volume. I talked about how great it was to join with Tricia and Lynne in the whole creative and collaborative process of editing. Then Lynne Matheson invited us to launch the video into the world, so we all made rocket-launching sounds, and the champagne flowed. * It was such a good experience filming and editing these stories with Tricia. I would love to hear any feedback, especially related to Read More …

Reading between the Lines – SBS Insight focus on Adult Literacy

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy

If you think Australia is a highly literate nation, watch this recent episode of Insight from SBS. This powerful and moving episode features Mark Hopkins one of the students from PRACE. I spoke with Mark as part of the “Stories of Resilience” project, and it’s really heartening to hear his voice in this national forum. All these adult learners show real courage and vulnerability, as they describe their experience for people who have no idea of the extent of this hidden problem. Over 40% of Australians experience some level of difficulty Read More …

Dark Side of the Comment Section

Michael ChalkLeave a commentcommunity, technology

If you’re involved with any kind of online facilitation, you may appreciate this article from The Guardian. They’ve done some research into the comment section, finding that much more abuse is directed at female writers than male. (Also, for web designers, some really good layout effects, especially the way they’ve integrated the graphs and the “how would you moderate this comment” bits.) There’s a whole series around this research, articles interviewing people who have experienced the maelstrom of massive online shaming and bullying.. and articles on ideas for making things Read More …

PageTurners has a new online shop

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, community

Just sent out the latest PageTurners newsletter, letting people know that the new shopping-cart style website is up and running!! It’s taken me much time this year to get the site all updated and e-commercey, so i’m very happy that we’ve finally launched. Woot. You can read the newsletter here. Take a look at the site, tell us what you think. Oh, we need a feedback form don’t we. If you’re not subscribed to the PageTurners email list, you can join via the website.

iPad apps especially for Seniors??

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, technology

I wondered if there are any iPad apps that would be especially useful for people over 55, so i searched the web for  “best apps for ipad for seniors“. Sure enough, there are many many lists: “16 helpful apps for seniors”, “27 bet iPad and iPhone apps for senior citizens”. But are any of them useful.. and how many of these apps are FREE..? Well, some of them are designed to help people by improving things like: Visual accessibility: Silver Surf is a web browser with “large navigation buttons, dynamic text Read More …

Some help files for blogger

Michael ChalkLeave a commenthow to

Here’s a basic intro that Michael made – for low level students really (link: pdf stored in google drive). GCF LearnFree don’t have an intro to blogger, but they do have a great section talking about blogs in general, and an intro to Tumblr instead. Tumblr is much more visual than blogger, which can be text-heavy. Google themselves have a fairly decent help section. Grovo has a few videos showing the basics, including this overview. But they’re a commercial mob, and they’ll want you to pay for more. What good Read More …