The bubble has burst!

Bubbleshare has finally pulled the plug on my slideshows and I'll be uploading them to Slide when I have half a chance.
The priority was to do the same for the CNLCtalks slideshows and you can view these at cnlctalks. The only problem is that its a closed wiki now and you can email me for the ID and password if interested.

Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chemisti/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Jill loves Mary

Now that I've got your attention, this post is really about the highlights of our recent trip to Queensland such as the Mary River and surrounds. I'm going to use another Bubble Slider to feature some of the places we visited.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

The first day in the Sunshine Coast hinterland was spent at Great Sandy National Park on the way to Fraser Island. We attempted to follow in the footsteps (or rather tyre tracks) of most Queenslanders with four-wheel drive vehicles and drive along the beach to Inskip. The car didn't behave well and the Victorians felt uncomfortable about the whole thing so we soon turned back and spent the rest of the day exploring the rainforest: admiring the buttressed tree species, keeping our food away from the goanna and swimming in the creek with the catfish.

Our trip to the Conandales was again characterised by verdant habitat and flowing streams (a novelty for Victorians). We bought up cheeses and other local produce from the Kenilworth Cheese factory before heading for the Bolloumba Falls to cool off.

The next day we paid our respects to the mighty Mary River, stopping first at the Information Centre, traversing the undulating hills above the proposed dam and finally pausing at a crossing downstream from the dam. The Traveston Dam would indeed be a travesty: flooding the rich dairy farming lands above it and robbing the river of water below it - both threatening the future of the local endemic species such as the lungfish and the Mary River turtle. And, sure enough, on cue we spotted a Mary river turtle in the water, which, from its profile, could be identified as a male (due to its long tail).

[Not my photo, but from the Care2 petition site - closed 31/12/08]

Storm chasin'

When you're driving for three days, it can get a bit boring: the road stretches out ahead and it helps to have some interesting clouds, road signs or tree species to observe and share. After a pleasant camp at Mt Kaputar National Park, we had a brief downpour which necessitated a hasty retreat to the tent for breakfast. The clouds dispersed as quickly as they had formed. Apparently the sub-alpine habitat of  the park enjoys its rain mostly in the Summer.

We set off  for the NSW-Queensland border, stopping only for the most essential rest breaks and fuel-ups. Early afternoon we spotted the storm clouds and could clearly see the front of the storm. I photographed it as we were driving - largely for self-amusement as I didn't expect the photos to work out. By the time we got to the border we knew we had caught up with the storm, having followed it for at least 40 kms (or had it followed us?). The rain started hammering down as we drove through Goondiwindi and on a rather confusing roundabout (the first of many in Qld) we realised we had taken the wrong turn to Boggabilla (its twin border town).



With windscreen wipers on the maximum speed and still not coping with the downpour, we quickly decided to pull off the road and wait out the storm. We watched as the other traffic slowed, and small bushes and tree branches blew across the road into the paddocks. Albert manoeuvred the car so that its rear faced the brunt of the storm and it rocked with the force of the tempest for about half an hour. What an experience for drought-stricken Victorians!

For the next 50 kms we drove very carefully to avoid the trees that had fallen into the road, blocking one or the other lane. The Gold Coast experienced the worst of the storm with much damage to properties and power blackouts.

Moyhu to Parkes

A smooth afternoon drive from Moyhu to Parkes through Shire of Bland. Hey, it wasn't that boring. There were lots of interesting clouds skudding across the sky and regular emergency broadcasts interrupting the cricket on local radio about a raging bushfire near West Wyalong. But no smoke was to be seen.
We kept east of Bogan Gate: avoiding any negative association with the west.
There was nearly a parting of the waves at the Murray crossing when I dared to dispute the RACV itinerary as there now is a new bridge crossing the Murray and bypassing the twin towns of Wahgunyah and Corowa.

wet breakfast cold picnic

It was such a good title I had to use it! We shouldn't complain about the rain - it's filled our 2,500 litre tank, and I know how quickly we can use it all in the toilets and the washing machine. Our outdoor end-of-year party was curtailed by drizzle. And the birthday party in the park in the dark got unbearably cold as darkness fell. Never mind, they were both lovely locations and I'd happily risk getting wet again.

Today I finished my contribution to the canuhearus wiki - well I got so close to finished that I'm feeling ready to move on. It was somehow appropriate that the last task to complete was the one that caused me so much angst at the end of last year: editing an extended voice file, in this case, an interview, in Audacity and uploading it to my wikispace. It seemed to take a long time to bed down these skills and a lot of lost saves.

In recent weeks I've tried out a number of web2 tools and most have been easy to work with though time is needed to get really competent and confident.

This entry is drafted in Windows Live Writer - thanks Anne S for that brilliant tip. I will attempt to insert an audio (the reason for trying out this software) at a later stage.

Violin of the heavens

Yesterday we had our end-of-year presentation of certificates and party at CNLC. It went well thanks to the hard work (paid and unpaid) of staff and students and the active participation of everyone especially in the feast.
I recorded Carina, our professional cellist from Mexico playing 3 dances from Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suites. She introduced her instrument, explaining that the violoncello is literally the violin of the heavens, (cielo in Spanish, of course). It was an odd choice of pieces for a group of people who probably had never heard the cello solo and live before. And she sounded quite nervous. Nevertheless she had a strong tone and she won me over: having struggled with the first two pieces myself for several years.
Here is one of them, recorded very roughly with the ipod perched precariously on the desk in front of her. The classroom was stuffy and overcrowded, and we had to leave the door ajar so that nobody fainted. You can hear the relentless traffic outside.
*********Pretty soon I'll work out how to put an audio in.**********

A visit to Footscray

So after a seamless journey, thanks to Connex, I walked purposefully direction Victoria University, Nicholson campus. I had a vaguely formed notion to drop in to a few African shops to pick up some myrrh (or was it frankincense?) and a burner.
Fathia's gift shop was clos-ed. Oh well, I'll pop by some time again soon.
Then I noticed the bakery selling Injera bread. The polite retailer agreed to sell me half a pack for $4.00 and the contents were quite heavy, probably equivalent to the weight of a medium loaf of bread. I was thrilled to fall upon a consolation prize - equally culturally distinctive and something definitively 'Footscray'. (Where DO our African students purchase their Injera bread?)

Then followed an interesting workshop on web tools for 'promoting learning through collaborative activity' for teachers.

In his prelude to the hands-on discovery of online tools, Colin Lankshear discussed the implications of the evolution of a digital learning culture. He compared it to traditional 'analog' learning cultures, which involve conventional time and spaces (classroom, course programs).
Those of us who persist with developing online PC skills for learning and teaching may become bi-discoursal people - and thereby be able to reflect critically on both learning cultures.
Digital learning is typically non-accredited, collaborative and following the 'pull' model rather than the 'push' model. It necessitates crowd sourcing - something we witnessed Sue Waters demonstrating last week at ConVerge08. She called upon her virtual network at Twitter to answer a question from the floor and within an hour there were half a dozen responses from her expansive network of 'followers' to assist her.
Colin's prelude was, in fact, the perfect reflective epilogue to ConVerge08.

Much later we explored the various ways of consuming injera with ready to go Indian curries: rolling them up in the injera like in a crepe/ dosai or tearing off bits and using it as an eating tool to grab bite-size bits of curry - yum!