BarCamp Melbourne is on for the 23rd of February 2008 in Melbourne CBD. This will be the first BarCamp held in Melbourne itself, and hopefully this will make it more accessible than last year’s (there are rumours that two participants got lost and never made the event!!).
While this is a free event, please remember that you must register to attend. Details on the web site.
To remind you, a BarCamp is “an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees”, anyone is welcome to come along for free. Everyone is asked to participate by giving a presentation or leading or participating in a discussion, essentially forcing the sharing of ideas and knowledge.
Some people might not know it, but I’m a grammar nazi. You might not know this because I don’t correct people (except those who have asked me to correct them).
You’ll imagine my excitement (or at least extreme interest) in last Wednesday’s showing of Are you smarter than a 5th grader, when a contestant was asked this first grade grammar question:
Max talked to Darcy and …
A. I
B. Me
C. My
I knew she was going to say “I”, because almost everyone makes that mistake. I’ve noticed this mistake made more in Australia than in the UK, but it’s a common one nonetheless. Even the 5th grader by her side and her son made the same mistake, most likely because they hear the incorrect usage more often that they’re taught the correct one.
My little gem for today is an easy way to remember when to use I and when to use me without needing to know the grammatical rules. Simple remove the third party from the sentence, and see which sounds better.
Would you say “Max talked to I” or “Max talked to me”? Now add the third party in again to get “Max talked to Darcy and me”.
Conversely, consider “Max noticed Darcy and … were running late”. Would you say “Max noticed I was late” or “Max noticed me was late”? Now add the third party again to get “Max noticed Darcy and I were running late”.
Me hopes this help you.
(Photo courtesy of weliton at stock.xchng)
BarCamp Melbourne 2.0 planning is now well under way, and the event is slated to run on the 1st and 2nd of March 2008. The first BarCamp Melbourne had 10 participants, which isn’t bad considering the venue was over 2 hours from Melbourne! This time, we’re looking for a venue in, or very close to, the centre of Melbourne, and hope to get 50 to 100 participants.
Described as “an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees”, anyone is welcome to come along for free. Everyone is asked to participate by giving a presentation or leading a discussion, essentially forcing the sharing of ideas and knowledge. You might like to check out the BarCamp web site for more general information. Wikipedia’s entry on BarCamp might also be of interest.
I’ll post more updates as things progress, but in the meanwhile, sign up as a participant if you’d like to come along, spread the word about BarCamp Melbourne 2.0, and if you want to, or know someone that wants to sponsor this event, please check out or point them to the sponsorship page.
With the raging success of performance-based pay for teachers in America, Australia’s Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, today announced that a trial for the same will start in 2009.
The proof of the success of this method of paying teachers is evidenced by the fact that teachers in America have been said to give students some answers to exam questions in order to improve their performance and ensure job security and a good salary.
When will governments learn that the best way to improve the standard of education is to pay teachers a fair wage and encourage them to stay in the profession rather than make their lives even harder through red tape and administrative tasks? Or perhaps the Australian government is actively trying to destroy the public education system in order to enhance the value of private schools and justify the exorbitant government grants
they receive.
Update
Just saw a related article in The Age which points to the Center for Teaching Quality web site, which hosts the 50 page PDF document describing the “Performance-Pay for teachers” plan. I haven’t read it in whole, but it’s interesting to note they look to Singapore as a reference of a successful implementation. They openly admit that
Singapore’s public education system equitably funds its schools, and well-prepared teachers have the resources and technology needed to help their students reach world-class standards.
Doesn’t it then stand to reason that this scheme will fail (as it did in 1920’s, 50’s and 80’s) again unless our education system mirrors that in Singapore even slightly?
I just heard about VideoJug - yet another online video hosting service. I though nothing of it at first, but had a look anyway.
Not only do they accept user contributed films, they also produce their own, and say that every video they make available is vetted or produced, respectively, to ensure the highest quality and value. It looks like a combination of Wikipedia and YouTube (or Google Video).
Todays homepage highlights videos that help you give up smoking, live a greener life or improve your dating, while the most viewed films has a heavy bent on running small businesses. No sign of teenagers singing along to their favourite music or creating a video letter in response to someone’s cry for attention!
Drilling down and looking at one of these videos shows a really neat addition to the user experience: tables of contents. Each video has the ability to give the users way points in the film. Watching the movie on “Small Business and Pricing”? Why not skip right to the point where the presenter covers the definition of a price margin?
I haven’t had an in-depth look at this yet, but first impressions are pretty good. While I prefer to get access to text (most of my research is done with google and wikipedia), I imagine there will be numerous occasions were video is better. I’m not sure I’d like a video tutorial on configuring a new application, but my clients would probably appreciate a video tutorial to help them set up their email client.
