"You call it desert, we used to live there" Jimmy Pike

If you are in Perth and wandering by the University of Western Australia area in Nedlands drop by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and see the newly opened exhibition of the some of the wonderful works of the late Aboriginal artist, Jimmy Pike.

 Jimmy Pike’s Artlines: You call it desert, we used to live there.

Last night we went to the opening and I will definitely go back again when it is not so crowded to take another look and take advantage of the many events over the next few months while the exhibition runs. The works are felt tipped pen drawings and brilliantly coloured.

The late artist, Jimmy Pike, was a Walmajarri man from the Great Sandy Desert of WA whose family were "first contact" and lived a traditional hunter-gatherer life before coming into contact with white people in the 1950s. What an amazing and terrifying encounter that must have been. We can't begin to imagine.

The exhibition has been organised by UWA's Berndt Museum and it runs til September 15, 2012.

WAGUL Research Day

I'm on the planning committee of the WAGUL Research Day and tomorrow's the big day. WAGUL is the Western Australian University Library Group and they are funding the full day of workshops, guest speakers, lunch and teas provided. We have Wilna Macmillan coming across from Monash University Library in Melbourne to speak about research data management. It's going to be a very comprehensive program covering many aspects of research and university libraries.  UWA is hosting the event which is really a mini-conference.

This is the program:

WAGUL Research Day UWA June 27th 2012

9.00    Introduction

9.05    The Research Process - panel of researchers followed by small group work exploring the research process

10.30    Morning tea

11.00    Scholarly Communication – Publication and Peer Review Panel of journal editors followed by presentation on copyright and open access

12.00    Research funding

1.00    Lunch

2.00    Data management – presentation from Monash University followed by summary of WA university library initiatives

3.00    Research measurement – what it is and current WA university library initiatives

4.00    Putting it into practice

4.20    Wrap up and evaluation

Those of us on the committee will be having celebration drinks after!

Day on the life of a data librarian

Recently we met with some of the marine science researchers as part of our series of interviews with researchers in the Collaborative Research Network at my uni.

On one level it might seem that marine data is fairly straightforward in that data sharing is well established among marine researchers and the data is not particularly subject to some of the ethical concerns that are present on other disciples. However there are many complexities with the types of data, physical, digital and the instruments used to collect data.

Prior to the interview we looked into what data sharing and data solutions were available for marine researchers in Australia and this is a huge area, but here are some starting points:

There are many records of marine data on Research Data Australia provided by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Australian Ocean Data Network and others.

Australian Ocean Data Network  is bringing together publicly available Australian marine data from many sources including CSIRO, IMOS, the Bureau of Meterology, the Royal Australian Navy, AIMS, GA and the Australian Antarctic Division. The Australian Ocean Data Network runs the AODN Data Repository of actual marine data.

Later this year a Western Australian Node of the Australian Ocean Data Network (WA-AODN) is being set up and will be lauched in August 2012.

Another important player is the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), IMOS is a contributor to the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN).

In Western Australia our university is a partner of WAMSI (the Western Australian Marine Science Institution) which is . WAMSI contributes to the AODN and they also have a lot of information about their appproach to research data management here.

So there is a lot happening in this space and before going along to the data interview it was helpful to have some knowledge of the area.

List and evaluation of iPad apps for higher ed

We have started an iPad interest group at work and my colleague, Lisa, has been looking into at some iPad apps. Here is Lisa’s post on using the iPad and list of useful apps. Thanks Lisa for letting me share this on my blog.

"This was the first time I had used an iPad (although I have since bought one). I found the interface very easy to use and generally intuitive. iPads should be able to replace textbooks and other digital media currently used by students, especially as universities could publish material into e.g. iTunesU.

As I was a complete iPad novice, I found most of these apps by looking in the app store, by asking colleagues, by doing internet searches for journal articles and web pages on ‘apps for tertiary education’.
All of the apps can be used by staff or students except those marked otherwise.

Dropbox
This gives ability to share files across multiple devices. Users copy a file to this and it can then be downloaded to their other devices, e.g., iPod, Windows and Linux computers. This is useful to transfer files (e.g. lecture notes) from iPad to home computer and vice versa. It also acts as an online backup mechanism in its own right, as well as enabling the user to save multiple copies of their files on multiple devices. Some online reviews criticize it for not dealing well with multiple file versions, but as a file distribution mechanism it would be very useful for students.

Flipboard
One of my favourite apps! I integrated my Twitter and Facebook account into this and use it almost every day (It is loaded on my own iPad now).  What I found useful about this was the ability to choose content streams (e.g. Technology, Entertainment). It would be useful for all students as it can cover all topics depending on the streams chosen (e.g. Politics, Media, Technology, Science, History students…)

Inkling
This includes free and purchased ebooks and chapters, and as far as I could see it only works with ebooks from the Inkling store. There is a chapter display on-screen which allows quick movement between chapters. Multimedia items can be included in the ebooks. It gives the user the ability to annotate the ebooks, which would be useful for students to combine short lecture notes with the printed text-book. A useful option is that for chargeable books they can be purchased chapter by chapter. There is also the ability to work collaboratively with other people using the ebook. The text is also searchable, in common with most other ebook apps. They are also accessible to students using screen readers.

Kindle
Ebook reader app. In order to use this you need to register with Amazon. Although I didn’t buy any books, my colleagues tell me that books are sometimes more expensive than the print editions, and that prices from the Australian online store are often higher than for the equivalent books in the US store. I could not sort the books into groups (this is possible on Pdf-notes). Users can email documents to the Kindle email address (assigned when user first signs up).

Paperport Notes
Free note-taking app which allows typing, writing or drawing with fingers, highlighting text (typed and written).  It also has a speech feature (useful to record lectures). Tests showed that it worked up to 8 metres but could be further (or less depending on level of background noise). Clarity and word recognition very good for dictation into iPad – could be used for students dictating notes.
Organisation of notes a bit confusing  - can’t categorise notes - but does integrate with Dropbox.

Pdf-notes
Similar to Paperport Notes but can categorise items and create new categories. I found it more difficult to use – toolbar kept disappearing!
 
Ebook search
Searches free and chargeable ebooks which can then be downloaded.
Free ebooks include those from Project Gutenberg (public domain originals), Feedbooks (classics and modern), Baen Books (sci-fi and fantasy), Smashwords (independent authors) and the Internet Archive.

Popplet Lite
This is a brainstorming / mind-mapping tool. It allows the user to create rounded boxes containing typed text, photos, and to write in the boxes using their fingers on the screen. The boxes can be different colours, and are linked by swiping from one box to another.
I found it was a bit slow to use and thus constructing the boxes and contents interrupted the flow of ideas when I was ‘mind-mapping’ during the trial.  I’m sure the process would speed up once I was more familiar with the software.
Could be very useful for students to construct revision mind-maps, but size of screen limits the size of the map.

Evernote
Note-taking app. Can put speech recordings, take photos, add photos and type into this.  Can also use it to store clippings of webpages (text and photos).  When using this you can search for text within images. Documents are searchable, including handwritten notes (as they are an image?). Students could record lectures using this. Users can import documents into this app, but when I imported a Word document it could not be edited, only read. This could still be useful for student importing lecture notes, etc. Staff could use it for creating staff handouts, etc.

Skitch from Evernote
This app uses annotations, and sketches using different colours and adds arrows to page. These can be used for note-taking and collaboration on projects. Users can take screenshots, take photos with iPad, use existing photos, annotate maps from Google Maps, and then email them, Tweet them or save to iPad camera roll or Evernote
.
Kobo
eBook reader which automatically syncs across devices – could be useful for students who could synch with iPad and home computer(s). Compatible with Facebook timeline so students can share the details of what they are reading and see what other friends are reading. Can access non-Kobo ebooks using this app. Allows multiple font sizes, so useful for those with reading difficulties.

Pages
App which costs $9.99 but is similar to a word processor rather than an ebook reader. The user can add designs,  diagrams, photos. Formatting is easy by using the Info button. Can use older formats of ebooks, and convert old formats to new using this.

Mendeley
Reference manager which would be useful for students. Allows finger writing, stamps, underlining and colour use to highlight text. Can also be used to import PDFs from other applications (website states EndNote, Zotero and Papers).

iAnnotatePDF
This costs USD 10.49. This is a PDF annotating tool. It allows highlighting of text using ‘highlighter pens’ selected from a palate. It is possible to search annotations, show  thumbnails and bookmarks.
It has tabs which allow several books to be open at the same time. These are also remembered when the app is next opened. There are multiple tools - pen, highlighter, typewriter, stamps, notes, straight line, underline, strikethrough, photos, voice recording, and date stamp.

ITunesU
This is very useful for students, as they can search for free lessons uploaded from multiple universities, including some well-known ones (e.g. Ashridge Business School,  Harvard University,  Cambridge University, George Washington University, Baylor University, and Australian universities such as Australian National University, Griffith University and Curtin University). Students could study these courses as a complement to their studies.

Jotnot

This can be used to take a photo of a page of textbook or notes, and it then allows the user to enhance the image. These can be grouped into documents, or pages inserted into an existing document. This could be useful for both students and staff in preparation of notes. It would be better if it allowed text recognition.
myHomework
This app allows students to enter their classes, times of class, and work assignments as well as their due dates. Academics could also use it to keep track of assignments they set, but it is mainly for students.

Keynote
This app is similar to PowerPoint, and users can add photos, various shapes (e.g. speech bubbles, and arrows) to their slides for presentations using their iPad. Staff could use it for presentations in the same manner.

Teacher’s Pick
Only for staff.
This allows staff to create classes, and to add students names to these classes. It keeps track of who within a class are asked questions. There is an ability to note those students who have already been chosen, and either exclude them from the random name generation or include them. Staff can also mark absent students so they are not chosen. There is also the ability to group students and choose an equal number of students from each group, delete students and copy a completed class.
 

Google Forms
This allows creation of forms which can be used by staff for student assessments in class (e.g. students complete the forms, or staff  use them while checking students work as a checklist. They could also be used by students if they were doing surveys, etc. There is an ability to create questions with text boxes, paragraph boxes, scales, checklists, and multiple choice questions."

Video on using iPads with tertiary students

This video includes interviews iPads with students using first generation iPads at Te Puna Ako in New Zealand.

James Oldfield gives and overview as follows:

"Prior to the beginning of semester two 2010 a class set of first generation iPads was ordered to be used in an introductory Information Systems course on the Bachelor of Business. James Oldfield the lecturer and Thom Cochrane from Te Puna Ako undertook a transformation of the course."

A Royal Affair, my lesson in Danish history

This week I saw the new Danish film, A Royal Affair. Before going along I did the usual trick of Googling the title and came up with the IMBD lowdown. I love the way movie synopses on IMDB have a way of demeaning a whole movie and making it sound very trite. Consider this description of the film:

A young queen, who is married to an insane king, falls secretly in love with her physician - and together they start a revolution that changes a nation forever.

No doubt that is the gist of the story, but the film is much more and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A Royal Affair is a costume drama and love story beautifully filmed in the Czech Republic. For me the most interesting aspect of the film was the political history, in that it covered the era when the ideas of the Enlightenment were being brought to Denmark. We all know about the French Revolution, but what happened elsewhere in Europe at that time? The above-mentioned physician, Johann Friedrich Struensee, was a figure of the Enlightenment, influenced by the ideas Voltaire and Rousseau. He brought these dangerous new ideas to the King of Denmark and his Queen.  The action takes place between 1766 and 1775, covering the reforms of the so-called "Struensee era" …that is before the start of the French revolution in 1789.

More about Struensee era in Danish history here on Wikipedia.

Also check out the official A Royal Affair site

There is a very good Variety review - here:

The film will be showing at the Sydney Film festival

In Perth it will be showing at the Windsor Theatre Nedlands

Go and see it if you love costume dramas, with royal court intrigues, starring hot Danish actors. You will learn a bit about Danish history along the way.

iPads in Perth schools, ECU research

Last week I attended one of the ECU Twilight Series of PD sessions for WA teachers run by the ECU School of Education researcher, Dr Jenny Lane. This seminar was a result of Jenny’s research: Track iPad Project in Schools (TIPS) 2012. Several local teachers presented on what they were doing in schools and it was really inspiring hearing about some of the work going on. The research is underpinned by educational theory. Speakers talked about using the iPad to truly transform learning by moving beyond just replicating what you do on a computer with an iPad.

For more about Jenny’s research look at the ECU news here

There was also an article about Jenny on the Science Network Western Australia:  iPads open door for m-learning in education

I have written about Jenny's TIPS blog  already. The blog has links to many of the resources that were talked about by the various speakers, including tips on iPads, apps for students, apps for teachers, apps that don't need wireless. The blog is already attracting national and international interest with over 14 500 accesses. Check out the story of the young boy, Jude, from London.