Japanese Character Animations

The LEWS team have worked with Japanese Language staff in BSSH to develop a set of interactive Japanese character animations to assist students in drawing characters using the correct stroke order (an essential element to many langugaes such as Japanese, Chinese and Hebrew, for example). Characters from Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji have been covered, with each character set being broken down into animation and simulation files. Animations display the correct stroke order whilst the interactive simulations allow students to practice and consolidate stroke order. Download these character sets from here.

These Interactive Japanese Character Animations are produced by the University of Ballarat - LEWS, and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.

Adjunct Professor of Literature Awarded

Congratulations to Dr Alice Mills who has been awarded the position of Adjunct Professor of Literature for a three year period. Alice is a prolific researcher in Literature at the University of Ballarat specialising in picture books, myth, Jungian and Kristevan theory. In addition to her academic position with the University, Alice also organizes and participates a range of writing and book reading groups in the local community.

Alice's webpage with publication details can be found here. Use the navigation pane on the left to select 'Mills' from the stff member list.

Understanding Feminsim book launch

The University extends an invitation to all for the book launch of Understanding Feminism for Jane Mummery from the School of Behavioural & Social Sciences & Humanities. Published by Acumen, Understanding Feminism was co-authored with Peta Bowden from Murdoch University, and will be launched by Adjunct Professor Alice Mills.

• When: Thursday 22 October 2009, 6pm
• Where: Post Office Gallery, corner Lydiard & Sturt St
  

Understanding Feminism provides an accessible guide to one of the most important and contested movements in progressive modern thought. Presenting feminism as a dynamic, multi-faceted and adaptive movement that has evolved in response to the changing practical and theoretical problems faced by women, the authors take a problem-oriented approach that maps the complex strands of feminist thinking in relation to women’s struggles for equal recognition and rights, and freedom from oppressive constraints of sex, self-expression and autonomy. Each chapter focuses on a different cluster of concerns, demonstrating key moves in second-wave feminist thought, as well as some of the diversity in response-strategies that encompass both socio-economic and cultural-symbolic concerns. This approach not only shows how central feminist insights, theories and strategies emerge and re-emerge across different contexts, but makes clear that far from being “over”, feminism remains a vital response to the diverse issues that women (and men) find pressing and socially important.

Understanding Feminism is part of Acumen's Understanding Movements in Modern Thought series. This series provides accessible and lively introductions to major schools, movements and traditions in philosophy and the history of ideas since the beginning of the Enlightenment, revealing both the unity and the dissonances within that particular traditions or school.

Further author details, reviews and ordering are available from the Acumen website.

UB Equity & Financial Aid Scholarships Program 2010

I've had an increase in students who've recounted that they are homeless or without permanent address and general recounting of serious financial hardship. I can't stress enough the importance of letting students know about student services, counseling and medical attention that is available to them. I urge staff to disseminate the following information on scholarships for next year. Please note the closing date for applications is the end of this month.

UB is releasing a range of scholarships to students to aid in their pursuit and continuation of study. Under the title of the UB Equity & Financial Aid Scholarships Program 2010.

There are a range of scholarships available to UB students including:

• UB Regional Relief Scholarships (Drought/Fire/Flood Affected)
• UB Education Costs Scholarships
• UB Accommodation Scholarships (for students who have had to move to commence study)
• UB Dr Mary Atkinson Scholarship (for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders)
• UB School Based Financial Scholarships

As usual, there are eligibility criteria. I don't have much more information than this but I have a flyer and can make copies for interested students or staff. Further information is available from the following links:

UB Equity & Financial Aid Scholarships
Other UB Scholarships
Online applications at VTAC

Applications close 30 October 2009

November Reading Group

Thomas Mann 1939 photo by Carl Mydans.

• "No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself"

This month we're reading Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain - first published in 1924 - widely considered to be one of the most influential works of twentieth century German literature. We meet on Sunday 1st November at The Known World bookshop in Sturt Street for a 2:00 PM start.

ReMarks Feedback Management Software

ReMarks is a software programme with which educators can annotate, collaborate and report on student electronic submissions. Of particular interest to educators should be the ReMarks XML Word 2007 integration plugin tool which appears to seamlessly integrate ReMarks into Word's menu bar.

The ReMarks toolbar includes the usual features you'd expect from a mark-up programme including the ability to highlight, insert comment boxes, and use a felt pen. More advanced tools that make this worth serious consideration are the Media Tools which allow you to insert voice annotations to documents, or Management Tools which allows you to PDF documents.

This programme is being endorsed by both the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) and by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. ReMarks is making the software freely available to all Australian university staff until 2011. You download a 60 day trial version of the software and then contact the company (with the supplied form) for a product key.

The programme is only available for PC (sorry fellow Macsters) and the website contain aseries of training videos to walk you through the processs. I'd be interested in hearing from people who try this out. to see if you think it's more useful than the usual track changes. The voice annotation inparticular will appeal to those marking online journals and the like.

webpage link: ReMarks Feedback Management Software

October Book Group

Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses.

The October meeting of the book group will tackle continue with the second chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses. It was suggested that we also read the second chapter of Homer's The Odyssey in conjunction with Joyce's Ulysses. We meet at The Known World bookshop on Sturt Street at 2:00pm on Sunday 4 October.

Here is a link to the Ulysses page at LibriVox where you have the option of downloading the smaller MP3 files or the higher quality (and larger) MP3 files for each chapter.