Thursday, August 31, 2006

Native orchids growing wild at home

Pterostylis melagramma -Tall Greenhood

Pterostylis nutans, Nodding Greenhood

Chiloglottis formicifera? valida?

Maroonhood, P. pedunculata


Pterostylis nutans, Nodding Greenhood

It was good to find a native Greenhood orchid growing wild at home.
Post updated 12 September with 3 more species.

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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Outhouses with style



Graceburn Weir and Aqueduct were built in 1891, Graceburn Creek catchment covers 2500 hectares forming part of the Maroondah catchment.

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Thursday, August 24, 2006

Social bookmarking

Its worth documenting the online presence of the individuals who comprise the ASISTM Games Programming Cluster. Sorry for any omissions.

I find the social bookmarks particularly interesting. You can see who has been reading an article that you are interested in, then you can see what else they have been reading.


Bill Kerr
Al Upton
Margaret Meijers
Roland Gesthuizen
Tony Forster
Public discussion fora frequented by the group

http://lyris.education.tas.gov.au:8080/read/?forum=gamemaker The world's first forum on game creation in schools. Australian based, focus on pedagogy, Gamemaker and Klik&Play. Interesting history.
http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=81 Game Making. Australian forum, pedagogy & game creation (currently very active)

http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=24029 Games in Learning. Australian forum, covers game playing and game creation
http://www.gamelearning.net/ UK based forum, game playing and creation

My other subscriptions
http://lists.becta.org.uk/mailman/private/gamesandeducation/ UK based, mainly game playing

seriousgames@listserver.dmill.com Serious Games. USA, mainly game playing, strong representation from software houses (currently very active)

http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=639 Games as Pedagogy Australian based, game playing

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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

James Gee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison spoke in Melbourne on "A Productive Approach to Video Games, Learning, and School" on Saturday 19 August.


Dr Bernard Holkner of Monash University thanks Professor James Gee

James Paul Gee is the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his PhD in linguistics in 1975 from Stanford University and has published widely in linguistics and education.

You can download the overheads or read Roland's notes.

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Friday, August 11, 2006

The Kuurian Expedition

The Kuurian Expedition is a guild on War of Warcraft for teachers, education researchers and so on.

"The first Kuurian Expedition has been founded in World of Warcraft, on the Silver Hand server, Alliance side. To join, speak to a guild officer and give the secret word, which you can obtain by contacting SWI directly."

So I joined the guild and became a WoW player rather than an observer. What have I learned that I did not know as an observer? I already knew that WoW developed leadership skills , that fantasy worlds can develop new literacies, that virtual worlds are powerful tools for social research, there are big skills and conceptual age skills, that WoW could develop moral values, that raids take hours of meticulous planning, that a guild master must be adept at many skills, and that WoW has more population than Israel Denmark Finland NewZealand or Ireland.

What I have learned is that playing WoW is a continuing complex decision making process. You have to make judgements on incomplete information (or maybe the info is complete but you cant possibly remember it all) you have to decide which items to keep and trade, which quests to do and when, which attack and defensive moves to do in which order and in which circumstances, where to go and how to get there, mapreading skills, navigation skills.

I have an increased respect for WoW players

Plutarchus
Kuurian Expedition
Silver Hand

Plutarch
Frostmane

Australis Gondwana
Secondlife

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