Articulate: Magellan Strait

Alex and I trounced Div and Luke at Articulate twice last night.

And yet there were many things (particularly world and people) that none of us could describe well enough for others to recognise. So now I (and future team members) have a new curriculum!

Study for today is the Strait of Magellan:

Rounding Cape Horn via kwout

Wikipedia mentions that "it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the unpredictable winds and currents and the narrowness of the passage."

Did you notice the mention of Francis Drake in the kwout above? He was one of the people the boys could not describe, I'll be checking my own possible memories about him another time. For now, an image of the Portuguese explorer after whom the strait is named:

Ferdinand Magellan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia via kwout

Blogging from Windows 7

Test post: How will Blogging with Windows Live Writer work?

Having recently upgraded computer components to enable faster graphics processing for Second Life, Div also recommended I upgrade to Windows 7.

Aside from the rather pretty default desktop view, two nifty features caught my immediate attention:

1. Sticky notes.  I’ve been using these constantly for a variety of to-do lists.  I wish I had tried to blog sooner about this because today (as I research to minimise my ignorance) I find that grooveDexter has described how to do the things I’ve wanted to and thought I couldn’t (like strikethrough) and more (creating a shortcut via which one can access a list of ones sticky notes). 
2. Snipping tool. Previously I was in love with Sprint32 and was afraid it might not work in Windows 7… but Windows 7 has its own! Super duper :D  

Of course I didn’t think to investigate the features of Windows 7 before now, so I didn’t have any idea about some of the nifty features shown in Getting Started videos (like shaking a window to dislodge other open windows; dragging windows to side of screen to view side by side with other windows). 

And it seems there is a lot more I haven’t discovered. Like Windows Easy Transfer that might have done a neater job of importing files from my old hard drive. Ah well.  Today at least I learned about Windows Live Writer, which was super-easy to install, and so far is very simple to use – but the ultimate test will be whether it talks to Blogger smoothly.  I’m not hopeful: in the past I’ve found Microsoft uses a bundle of such unpleasant html that editing was nasty work.

Waking, walking and wondering

Woken at 1:21 by Margie's SMS festive greeting; then around 4am worrying until a friend's text around 6am meant I could sleep again. And such a lovely sleep I could then enjoy for three hours until time to help the boys prepare for a seasonal visit with their father's family.

After lunch, GUF and I walked up to Black Hill. I didn't take the camera, but this is an older photo of a path we didn't take today :D It was a lovely walk in the sun, with enough breeze to keep us mostly cool enough. I enjoyed the wind in the trees, feeling the age of the eroding rocks and the passing of time shown in the shrubs crossing paths that were clear last time I was there.

Then this evening I pondered some of the puzzles GUF has been solving in The Eleventh Hour. Codes and puzzles are entertaining though I don't have nearly the gift or penchant for them that GUF has. We discovered that my sight (even requiring glasses) beats his magnifying glasses for finding the hidden mice.

So far with the help of a huge variety of proteins and salted pumpkin seeds, I've managed to get through the day without eating any traditional festive treats. Although once or twice as GUF prepared his sandwiches with Chocka Vlokken, or when I glanced at the tin holding Dutch rusks, or saw the Chocolate Hagel in the cupboard, it was a teensy bit tempting.

Tonight, a subscriber gift from Enniv Zarf in Second Life sent me to his Youtube Channel, and I introduced GUF to the joy of Paul Kwo's piano improvisations. I cannot choose a favourite, but of those I enjoyed tonight, this was the most mellow:

Educators & terminology

Has your research ever got hung up on pointless clarifications of terminology ... so much that you wonder whether the labels serve any function other than justifying a rehash (or mashup, or "recontextualisation" :D ) of old ideas by giving them new labels?

Today I'm browsing in Second Life letting my recent readings and contemplations on "Information Literacy" (aargh: that terminology is another example giving me grief) moosh themselves around in the back of my head. Having rezzed at the Movie Theatre where I quit at 6am this morning: I was tossing up my somewhat infinite options feeling for a purpose/preference. That is: do I go somewhere to sort my inventory, review my "to do" list, pick an unfinished study topic to pursue, head back to one of the places I've slooged to explore in more detail, explore one of the interesting-sounding places or groups I've noted...etc.

Thankfully, and coincidentally, the Information Literacy Group cut off that random mental browsing with a notice for an upcoming session. Entering the event "From Library 2.0 to Library 3D – Participatory Libraries of Today" into my Magic Compass made me realise I haven't yet visited Infolit iSchool (which belongs to the University of Sheffield). Decision made.

After a broom tour which ended head first in the wall of a hut :D I flew around exploring. I happened upon a structure created during a discussion on the nature of Inquiry Based Learning at the LTEA2008 conference...



The sign offered a webpage (about the LTEA2008 session) that I viewed, and investigated the chat logs of discussion at the session.

Unfortunately I didn't come away with any better understanding of what was supposed to be significant about "Inquiry Based Learning" from any other instructional approach that aims to get students to develop their own questions, explore, discover, synthesise and develop their own answers, or new questions. Considering my own family unschools I was amused to see this comment:

What is Inquiry Based Learning? via kwout

Some glancing mention of assessment was made, but I didn't notice any discussion of whether the programs in which they use any of these "student-centered" approaches experience conflict with expectations in terms of assessment, or consequences or changes in the nature of assessment.

So, I googled elsewhere...

In the process of defining Problem based learning Savery (2006) distinguished it from inquiry-based learning and other experiential approaches to teaching. As he tells it:

In an inquiry-based approach the
tutor is both a facilitator of learning (encouraging/expecting higher-order thinking) and a provider of information. In a PBL approach the tutor supports the process and expects learners to make their thinking clear, but the tutor does not provide information related to the problem—that is the responsibility of the learners (p.16)

Which is not quite the sense I received from the session discussers at LTEA although it may be true. It seems like a rather odd distinction.

I *was* interested to discover a paper arguing "Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching [pdf]" by Kirschner, Sweller & Clark (2006).

but as the whole thing has begun to feel like a pointless diversion of my time (except to have developed an inkling that if I ever become involved in instruction I believe I will want to avoid using approach-labels; and I guess that could dry up funding opportunities) - I've decided to leave it there.

Second Life: early development of an avatar

My First Female shape and outfit.
When I created an avatar (AV) a couple of years ago I got it stuck somewhere in Orientation Island and couldn't move her. Then I became diverted by other things in life... as one does.

Recently I returned to find my AV free of whatever had her stuck and I quickly graduated to Help Island and meeting some of the friendly and generous personalities within this virtual world.

It is difficult to study in Second Life... I had moved from a tutorial on inventory management to one on basic building when I met a delightful pink fox who gave me some dance animations, a tail and some light sabers before whisking me off to Freebie Heaven. I'm grateful I fit in the inventory management tutorials because all those Freebies need managing.

Next time I was attempting to learn something about scripting when I was met by a voluptuous brunette who was determined to make me over so I could make $L (Linden money) dancing or hostessing. It was a somewhat amusing and confusing experience. I felt determined myself: I really wanted to perceive this lady's gifts as generosity rather than grooming. Although quite upfront I mentioned that I had not been thinking about making money, and I doubted those occupations would suit shy old me, she suggested changes for my appearance, even gifting me with shapes, skins and short skirt, telling me she could hook me up with work. Very generous. Of course meanwhile, using Search, I scoped out the groups and picks listed in her profile - one advertised its dancing (my generous friend mentioned pole-dancing), hosting, 'escorting' jobs available and mentioned the bonus it pays AVs for recruiting.

How the dancer dressed me.

Perhaps a more adventurous soul would have pursued this lead to its conclusion - all in the name of knowledge and $L. I was slightly curious, but Second Life is a big world, and there are other places I would rather see and other things I would rather do first. And for much of it I do not yet need $L.

Somewhere along the line, probably via someone else's profile, Tranquil Events invited me to a show... I happened to catch MrMulti Writer, enjoyed the show, joined the group and met Starla Farella who specialises in making realistic avatars and photography. She took up the challenge for me and this is how I now appear (when dressed for ballroom dancing):

After dancing.

How to cite photographs/images from Flickr in APA

Figure 1. I am a Golden God. (2006), by Piero Sierra, 2007, Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/piero/130565603. Made available under Creative Commons Licence.
MyBloglog told me that someone visited this blog from a Google Search: referencing photographs in apa style

For some reason google pointed to my 'citing vimeo' post. That post doesn't answer the question but I hope this one will, sort of. The search also reminded me of a question I've had in mind for a while: If I used an image/photograph from Flickr in an academic paper, how would I cite and reference it?
Google provided links to university and college citation guidance resources, which raises a point people need to remember... that while APA might be the style guidelines required, institutions and publications frequently amend the guidelines according to their own preferences and thus the institution/publication requirements need to be checked First. Some of the online guidelines looked good to me, although they are not consistent with what I've read in the Publications Manuals of the American Psychological Association 5th or 6th editions (APA, 2001, pgs 198, 175); (APA, 2010, pgs 151, 166, 38). However the examples in both editions don't really address online sources.

1. If the photograph (or a portion of it) is included in the paper then it is a Figure and will be consecutively numbered with other figures and the source (photographer and, if different, copyright holder) will be credited with permission after your Figure's caption (APA, 2010, p.166).
• as for example the above image, which is a pleasant reminder of my strolling meditation in Bendigo while Mr. 16 was bowling in the recent Country Cup.
2. Could it be possible that your paper might refer to (cite) an image, perhaps making some point evidenced by the image without actually including the image in the paper?
   ... then I would guess that it might be treated like a text data/information source.
• I can't think of an example (please readers send me one) of a truly valid academic reference to a photograph that would not itself be included in the paper... so let's pretend I am rephrasing or referring to a point made by a rather lovely image of a rainbow over SMB (moonflowerdragon, 2008) <-- citation.="" in-text="" li="">
• in this case the bibliographic or reference list entry could be:
  moonflowerdragon. (2008). Rainbow over SMB, [online image]. Retrieved October 5, 2009, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonflowerdragon/3130940612/

An interesting feature of Flickr (and possibly other online photo storage services) is that when images are uploaded from a digital camera, data about the photo is also uploaded - including the date it was taken. So: if the precise date of the image was relevant it could be included in the caption.

The Flickr screen name of the photographer of the above photo appears to be a real name, were that not the case I would check the user's profile page and its url to check for a real name, but when no real name is available we use the given screen name. Or if you have Zotero with Firefox, and you capture the citation by clicking the photo icon in the address bar, then Zotero will grab the artist's name for you. Zotero does not include [online image] in its APA style for images.

Examples of citations of photographs (eg: online database, books, journals, websites) in APA style are given by Calpoly. However you may note that Calpoly appear to prefer that the full citation of source would be given in the bibliography rather than the Caption Note of the image.

Update: 12 Jan 2015 While I have closed comments to cut-off the spam, I still want to help puzzle through the query that led you here, so if this post is not enough, you're welcome to ask me through the index to my APA style citing series.

References:

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Citing Vimeo in APA Style

Darn, I can't come up with a context in which I would cite the fantastic video below. There are more authoritative sources for the chemical facts it contains, and I know nothing about animation to refer to the techniques or effects Christopher Hendryx (2009) uses.

Well that should do I guess to get to the point, which was to give an example of citing Vimeo in APA Style, which would appear in my reference list as:

Hendryx, C. (2009). Oxygen [video]. Retrieved May 7, 2009 from http://vimeo.com/4433312

Unless of course one wanted to cite an aspect of the video that was contributed by someone else... for that video, perhaps some aspect of the narration (very appealing, I'd listen to Andrew Bailes (2009) again :D )... In that case:

Bailes, A. (Narrator). (2009). Oxygen [video]. Retrieved May 7, 2009 from http://vimeo.com/4433312

(or see a different example, citing an interviewee, below the video)

What makes it fantastic to me is the FUN presentation of basic information about Oxygen (and its interaction with Iron, Barium and Helium), perfect for an educational setting. I'd love to see a whole series of similar videos presenting the qualities of other elements (as would other viewers, like Steven White, {sad that I could not link directly to any of the comments at Vimeo}).

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo.

I wonder will anyone read this far?

Okay, say we have a video that contains a few interviews, and we are citing only one of the interviewees? Perhaps David Rosenthal's (2009) points about his Doctors 2.0 endeavour within the video The Next Generation of Doctors. I would do this:

Rosenthal, D. (Interviewee) (2009). The Next Generation of Doctors. [Video] Retrieved August 21, 2009, from http://vimeo.com/5379566

Please tell me which video you're planning to cite in your paper?