Stephen Fry on the new social media

Wikipedia and performance

There is an interesting discussion of Wikipedia in the latest TDR (The Drama Revew). The author notes that if you go to the entry for ‘theatre’ you will find that the entry is not particulary well written (in his words, ”slight” and “underwhelming”). Neither is he impressed by the standard Wikipedia defence that its virtue can be found in its open-source aspects, which allow a kind of consensus discussion around the topic by various participants; what he finds is mostly “anonymous sparring to exorcise spleen”.

The thing that he does find useful is the way it opens a series of associations and links with other articles and information. The point of Wikipedia is that its not that it is “volumes on a shelf” but that it occupies a kind of multidimensional space allowing inspiration, connections, lines of thinking and research. In his area of theatre studies he notes how the entry for the TDR editor Richard Schechner is linked to “‘New York University,’ ‘Tulane University,’ ‘Performance Studies,’ the ‘Performing Garage,’ ‘experimental theater,’ ‘The Wooster Group,’ and ‘SoHo,’ among others. (The link to TDR is still pending.)”

The author finishes by relating Wikipedia itself to his field of performance studies:

But this form of knowledge—open, combinatory, and mobile—is what I use in creating performance works that are born, live, and die in conversation with their environments and contexts. Performance does not just produce knowledge, it is itself a form of knowledge—caressing and recoiling against the conditions of its appearance. Wikipedia provides just such a way of looking at the world.

We might see Wikipedia as having a different kind of function, then, than the standard encyclopedia or similar. Students’ uncritical use of the information found on Wikipedia is a familiar problem. Use of the connections and lines of association that it allows them to explore is perhaps an underrated benefit.

Using programs from free-to-air TV

As many people will be aware the University pays a fee yearly to Screenrights that allows staff within RMIT University to copy and make use of free-to-air TV.

School staff are welcome to contact the Library’s off-air-recording service and arrange for selected programs to be recorded on DVD and added to the collection in compliance with the Screenrights Agreement.

See also the EnhanceTV site for information on educational TV.

Social Theory resource on trial

Social Theory from Alexander Street Press provides a comprehensive coverage of major social thinkers together with seminal texts from lesser writers. Essential for study in the areas of politics, economics, history, psychology, anthropology, religion, and literature, the works of many important thinkers in sociology have remained inaccessible until now. For many writers, the project represents the first availability of a major scholarly edition of their collected works. Extensive licensing allows readers to see both the original works and translations, searchable together in a single database for the first time. At completion, the product will include more than 150,000 pages, with well over half of the materials in copyright.

On trial until 26 November 2009

New APA Manual

The Library now has copies of the new 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style).

APA do advise that there were some typographical errors in the first printing and have provided a list of corrections, which will be corrected in a new print run. The Library will aquire copies of the corrected version when it is available.

Library survey winner

Thank you to students and staff who responded to our survey recently about services and resources. Such surveys assist us to be aware of those things you value and help us identify areas to improve.

Respondents to our recent survey were in the run to win a Nintendo Wii. I was very happy to see one of our School of Education students, Kate Francis, win the prize. I presented it to her recently and she tells us she is making good use of it.

Don’t frighten the children?

A piece from today’s Irish Times in defence of the “exhilarating, bloodcurdling journey of childhood”:

Sometimes it’s not the kids we’re worried about. Stories such as Where the Wild Things Are tap into the real fears shared by children and adults: disproportionate punishment, dislocation, feeling unloved, and, worse than being ignored, saddled with the responsibilities of leadership without any proper training. It’s similar to what happens upon reaching adulthood: after commencing the wild rumpus, it’s hard to know what to do.

RMIT Teaching Awards

Congratulations to Jennifer Elsden-Clifton and Baia Tsakouridou from the School of Education who were recently awarded 2009 RMIT Teaching Awards.

Jennifer Elsden-Clifton
For outstanding contributions to education students’ learning through innovative and engaging activities based on student centred reflective practice across courses and programs in the School of Education

Baia Tsakouridou
For adding value to the ESL programs by incorporating a Pathways component, an Australian Film Studies unit and an ‘End of year celebration concert’.

Language, Literacy and Numeracy Program Services

The Australian Government, through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, has released an Overview Paper on Language, Literacy and Numeracy Program (LLNP) service delivery.

The Overview Paper seeks to inform potential tenderers of proposed changes to the LLNP and arrangments for the next contract round.   A survey undertaken in 2006, found that approximately 7 million Australians aged between 15 and 74 years, had low levels of document literacy (the ability to read newspapers or follow bus timetables), and that there were 7.9 million who had the lowest level of  numeracy skills.

Source: ABS, Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, catalogue no. 4228.0

Whilst this paper is primarily aimed at Providers of adult education, these statistics should be closely considered by the Education sector as a whole.

ARTStor now on trial

ARTStor is a “digital library of more than one million images and related data in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes”.

Recent additions include collaborations with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to share more than 1,400 images of works from its permanent collection, and with the Saint Louis Art Museum to share approximately 1,700 images of works from its permanent collection in the Digital Library.

See the Library trials page for details about accessing ARTStor and don’t forget to give us some feedback.