Video Reflection Task

Dear CAPES students,

I understand that some of you are having difficulties with uploading your video reflection tasks. I have created an assessment link on Blackboard for the assignment. You can upload the video there if you like. I took a screenshot and pointed out where it is exactly (see the jpg below.

Image

Hope all of you get the video up, one way or another. I’ll see you all (well, most of you I hope) tomorrow and you will get final marks for everything then.

Two in three Australians drive to work, study of commuting habits finds

This is that article which I mentioned in class about Australians driving to work.

Here’s a point that stands out in relation to promoting increased public transport services:

“More than half of Australians (50 per cent) said the reason they did not use public transport was that no service existed or, where it did, the times did not suit their needs.”

CAPES Excursions past and future

Reflecting on last Friday

As discussed in class, please register and account with Voicethread and then use your account to upload photos, text and voice-recorded comments on the things that we looked at during the excursion into Melbourne CBD last Friday.

This is a link to other students’ voicethread commentaries on past excursions

 

Possible content for your reflection:

Discuss how the art and architecture  that we looked at reflects Melbourne’s identity; how does the history of Melbourne’s art and architecture reflect the changing face of Australia?

Speculate on the significance (i.e. the symbolic meaning) of the works that you have photographed or filmed.

Excursion to the Immigration Museum next week

In preparation for the excursion to the immigration museum next week, please go to their website

You can research about immigrants to Australia from various countries, including:

Brasil

Vietnam

Colombia

Korea

Research tasks will be given to you in class…

Fantomas version of the Godfather soundtrack

For those Godfather fans in the class, you may be interested in listening to this particular interpretation of the classic soundtrack by the experimental metal group Fantomas. It may not be to your taste, but perhaps you will agree that, as a cover version, it is quite interesting. The imagery is sampled from the film by a fan. The video also begins with a scene taken from the film.

More thoughts on Data visualization.

Dear students,

I understand that a number of you are finding it difficult to come up with creative, interesting and effective ways in which to present information for your posters. I encourage all of you to keep brainstorming, discussing, sketching, doodling your ideas and keep developing them in and out of class. I believe that each group can achieve their own interesting and effective results in the final poster but it requires pushing your ideas along, nurturing and refining them. You may also appropriate ideas from existing designs. You could find some inspiration in design books and magazines. Even some more journalistic magazines have very interesting and often playfully creative ways of presenting information. Try looking at Colors magazine for example.
Also, if you find something that you think is useful, why not share it with your classmates by posting it on your blog…

Reflection task suggestion: Social media and cultural differences

In this morning’s class, the topic was ‘inter cultural communication’. We started by discussing a very basic question: ‘What is culture?’ and quickly found that, although the question is quite basic, the answer to it is not. In fact it is a highly debatable, indeed nebulous (there’s that word again) topic, difficult to define.

Then we listened to part 2 of the BBC Learning English series ‘Who on Earth are We?’. The report introduced the topic of culture and looked into why culture is so difficult to define and talk about. It noted the anthropologist Edward T. Hall’s beguiling definition of culture as being ‘the sum total of the way of life of a people.’ It also broke the concept of culture down into three primary aspects: products, behaviours and ideas. The term ‘products’ denotes all things that a culture produces, so for example architecture, art, music and literature. Behaviours entails verbal and non-verbal communication, gestures, routines and social etiquette. Ideas include our cultural world view, attitudes and beliefs.

The reading for the class was China’s social-media boom, an article by Cindy Chiu for McKinsey and Co. We discussed the article’s main points, including the impact of social media on social behaviour in China, in comparison with the experience of other countries. The article noted that social media usage in China differs considerably from that of other countries when it comes to influencing consumer behaviour. In particular, Chinese consumers are heavily influenced by the opinions of their social media peers. As a result, a favourable review of a product, especially if posted by an acquaintance or friend, would be far more likely to sway their decision to actually buy something than the average Western social media user. Chiu speculated that this may be partly because of the skepticism with which many Chinese consumers view formal institutions.

In the afternoon class, we continued with the theme of inter-cultural communication and social media. We discussed the question of whether social media was a force for public good or a force for public control. This was followed with a viewing of The Internet Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?  an RSA animated lecture by Evgeny Morozov.

Finally, I’m presenting a writing task which you may choose to tackle as part of your reflective writing assessment:

In what ways does the use of social media in different cultures reflect real cultural differences? If you want to address this question, please remember to relate your response back to the cultural categories as mentioned previously (products, behaviours and ideas).

CAPES reflective writing checklist

Over the next week you should try and do at least 4 of the following (You MUST complete 2, 4 and 6 as part of your reflective journal). You can do these by hand and have them checked in person during class or you can email them through to me and I will check them and return them via email.

  1. Write a short reflection on dealing with the heat last week: reflect on how you felt, and suggest ways you could deal with
    it better next time.
  1. Write a brief reflection on the best place you have eaten in Melbourne. You should make a recommendation about what to eat from the menu and try to persuade the reader that they should go there.
  1. Write a short piece to inform the reader about a film or book or website that helped you improve your vocabulary. If you can’t think of an example suggest other ways a student might improve their vocabulary, and explain why these other ways are useful.
  1. Read an article from The Economist, The Atlantic, or from QZ – reflect on the language used, and the whether you think reading sources like this is better  for your English than reading something like MX.
  1. Over the weekend,  write a reflection on your group work to date- How has it progressed? have there been any issues?  could your group work better together?
  1. On Australia Day, write a short reflection about how you might have changed since you came to Australia and think about whether
    you would recommend Australia to other people as a place to live/immigrate to. Explain why.