Early Australian fairy tales

Sometimes research is peeling the layers to find the essence of a person... or a thesis.  In 3 days I had written what I thought were perfect paragraphs u sing the mantra* ' knowledge claim – reason – warrant – evidence – implications' .     from a Thesis Whisperer post. U nfortunately, despite the length of time for serious writing with no coffee breaks (Vanilla Pod cafe closed) - I'd only managed three! (It could be argued that 3 perfect paragraphs are better than 30 mediocre ones but I'd like to finish this thesis.) I discovered  Scrivener . The Thesis Whisperer  confessed falling in love in 5 minutes and I was sceptical. Any-one can fall in love with an iPad in 1.5 seconds but not a software program! I was wrong... 3 days later I have restructured my thesis outline.  Back to writing!

Looking forward to having four weeks to write and reflect, plan the Brighton Historical Society Display for May and hope to have a paper accepted at University Kassel in December.

Eine australische Kinderbuchautorin deutscher Abstammung Olga Dorothea Ernst, eine frühe australische Kinderbuchautorin, war von der reichen deutschen Kultur ihrer Kindheit geprägt. Deutsche Einwanderer, die ab den 1850er Jahren in Melbourne ankamen, brachten einen hohen Grad technischer Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten mit und leisteten damit ihren Beitrag zum kulturellen Reichtum der Kolonie Victoria. Als Forscher, Künstler, Autoren, Dichter and Wissenschaftler schufen sie die Grundlagen für viele Melbourner Institutionen, als da sind die Sternwarte, der Botanische Garten, der Zoologische Garten und die Königliche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft von Victoria. In dieser Atmosphäre wuchs Olga Ernst auf. Olga fühlte sich inspiriert, ein australisches Märchenland zu schaffen und schrieb 1904 als Sechzehnjährige das Buch ‘Fairytales from the land of the Wattle’ [‘Märchen aus dem Land der Akazien’]. Sie übernahm sehr geschickt viele der althergebrachten Feengestalten aus den Erzählungen der G

It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales. [Ger., Nicht die Kinder bloss speist man mit Marchen ab.] - Ephraim Gotthold Lessing , Nathan der Weise  (III, 6)  It has taken me 30 minutes to trawl through various literal translations to understand the meaning of this quote. It seems to be most commonly used to reinforce a subtext of childlike naviety in certain circumstances but I am appropriating it in this instance to mean that adults may enjoy fairytales.  Found at the beginning of Bottighemiers book 'Fairytales and Society' I had the jist of what it meant... but to be accurate is important. Various google translations include:  Not only one feeds the children off with fairy tales or   Not   just   the kids   fed   off   with   fairy tales which translates back to German as  Nicht gerade zogen die Kinder weg mit Märchen ein. Entrapment: new Uni library work space Reading translations is fraught with danger but I need to read the original text of fairytal

It is now possible to have a library in every classroom or even in your pocket. Terence Cavanaugh , 2006 For those of us who like the feel of turning crisp new pages, physically browsing for a hidden gem in a familiar bookstore and have taught students literacy with a Big Book balanced on the literacy stand and struggled to eke out budgets to buy a new sets of interest based readers, the e-book challenges the our personal notion of what is a reading experience. Yet in the time since I began my PhD (3 years ago) Ernst's books have been digitised and downloadable. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2486700. By January of this year, e-book sales at Amazon.com had overtaken its paperback sales .   The idea that we can all carry our own miniaturised and personalised library via e-device challenges the old world print access to books. For educators, who are faced with rapid changes in technology, there are new questions to be answered. Will e-books will engage tech-savvy students? Wi

Mark Treadwell  encouraged conference participants to use digital technologies during his two days of presentations. An interesting experience for me with my brand new iPad2: permission to play while listening to a presentation.. On the positive side, the ability to instantly access his lecture notes, zoom into diagrams and find the answers to questions posed was useful.  Mark would say that googling for the answers is 'collaborating not cheating'. My table group ' found ' the answers Mark wanted and offered them to the discussion without any need to reflect deeply. It felt like cheating! I am NOT a digital native and found it exhausting. Normally those ideas that 'pop' in a random manner during PDs I jot down to later act on. This time I actioned them as I thought of them! During Mark's presentation: I sent the url to my latest photo book to a colleague who'd introduced me to Blurb.com while Mark was explaining neurons. I recieved a physical thumbs

Longing for Highland Waters snow and solitude! Study tidied, feel like despite the digital world of research paper continues to pile up and another self of the bookcase is folderised while the filing cabinet has been culled of old papers. At least paper remains while my Time Machine has suddenly decided that backing up is too stressful and has refused to do it. Mild panic but Ross had rescued the thesis until the TM can be repaired or replaced. Have spent the weekend emailing out research findings, following evidence trails and procrastinating on the Methodology chapter.