Seriously interesting

london 010
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've come to the pub again in order to access the internet and put up my proposal for AERA. To write the proposal I have stayed longer in my student accommodation, spending about eight hours on the writing of it today. The proposal is not as tight as I would like but obviously I am short of time. Once I post this, I will head back to my room, pack my bags and then head for the airport. This journey will take some time -a bus, and then a couple of journeys on the underground. I'm due to fly out of Heathrow at 9.30 so I have some time but I'm not sure how much time. I also have to find out which terminal I leave from.

Meantime, I've been uploading my aera proposal and listening to talk occurring around me in the pub. four Sikh men provided the most entertaining talk - how to please wives and still please each other. mmm

redefining stress

I'm in the pub again, in order to access the internet to submit a proposal to AERA Proposals are due 15 July but I will be in the air for the next couple of days so needed to submit today. In fact, I needed to write a proposal today - so, I stayed longer in my cheap student accommodation in order to write (for about eight hours today). It cost me a few extra pounds but was worth it - otherwise, I would have been wandering around London town looking for internet access when in fact it is easily accessed at The Fox on the Hill.

I don't like writing quickly and gave always taken a lot of time to develop my proposals for AERA, however, this time I am operating on a desperately short time line. I will have fingers crossed although have done the best I could given a short time line.

Somewhere in South London

local street
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I'm now in London and staying in student accommodation at King's Hall. It's in the south of London and from what I can see is accommodation for university students who are studying medicine. The room is cheap -$143 for three nights with breakfast included. The room is basic (see below) but is good enough for my purposes. It's quiet and I have been able to do some writing.

Breakfast this morning was a hearty English breakfast - juice, cereal, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast, coffee. I could have had some other things, but thought that enough for one meal.

I worked for about three hours after breakfast and then took a break to head into Central London. I took the bus and it was a snip at only two pounds. I wandered around, mostly in Covent Gardens. [Gillian, if you are reading this, there are STREETS of shoe shops there. You must go there when you return to London].
I'm writing this post from a local pub which has free wi-fi. All I had to do was to buy a drink and set up my computer. Within two minutes I had free access to the internet. All hail to this pub -The Fox -because hotels continue to rip off people for access to the internet even when they are paying a lot of money to stay. In our hotel in Germany, for example, internet access was something like $20 per day. Outrageous.

Here is a picture of the pub that supplies free internet.

The Fox
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Out of support for this pub, I am just about to order another glass of wine and a meal (smile). I think I will have Chicken Tikka Masala. Oh, here's a pic of the room I am staying in.

my room
Originally uploaded by angie cat

my room

my room
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Here is a picture of the building where I am staying. My bedroom is the one nearest the white wall. So, you can see just a bit of one window and the tiny window on the side. It's a lovely room and I've been very productive while staying in it.I've got a very nice desk and an internet connection, so I've been able to do a bit of writing and some analysis each night and in the mornings before the conference starts.

It might appear that I'm a bit driven, but it is really nice to be in a contained and quiet spot and have some time to think and write. Besides, the proposals for AERA are now looming (due 15 July). I have become accustomed to going to America each year for that conference and my writing has certainly been helped by locking into the AERA cycle (which basically occurs over about about nine months of the year - smile). Each year I try to put up more than one proposal to ensure my chances of getting to the conference but this year I haven't written a single proposal yet. So, that's my focus for this evening and the next two days. I've been doing some analysis of new data (that I used today in my workshop presentation at the conference here in Winchester). It will take some work to go from that to a proposal of 2,000 words but I think I can make a good start on that here this evening. It's a pleasant night and my head is clear although I'm pretty tired. Conferences ARE tiring.

And to finish off, here's a picture taken from the front of the student rooms. Gorgeous, no?

student digs
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Up for a fine day in Winchester

Looks as if it will be a good day in Winchester today:

Winchester weather

I've been working on my presentation this morning by doing some detailed analysis of the segment of the recording that I am going to use. I am also making notes as I do the analysis because I will try to develop a journal article from the presentation, and perhaps a couple of related conference papers about aspects that are emerging. One, for example, might be about transcribing young children's actions during use of the computer. There isn't a lot written about transcription of on-screen activity by young children so that might be a logical follow-up to the article I had published recently here.

When I was in Mannheim, I received notice that I have had an article accepted for publication in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. I am absolutely chuffed about this as I have been reading this journal since I started working on my PhD. I admire the work of many people who publish in the journal so I look forward to being in very, very good company.

Thanks Tracey

eurostar
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Three days ago, I went to the Mannheim railway station to book my ticket back to London via Paris. I had a wait of an hour before it was my turn to get served. When it happened, the ticketing person turned out NOT to speak English. So, I had a further wait. Finally, I got someone who could speak English -Tracey.

Tracey was very good at her job. First of all, she suggested that my intention to go to London via Paris wasn't the cheapest option. She then busied herself and came up with the price for that trip (a lot of Euros) and then a price for a ticket from Mannheim to Brussels and then London (on the Eurostar). The latter journey was about $150 cheaper BUT was first class (smile).

The pic I have posted is the meal I was served on the Eurostar. Yes, champagne was included. I asked for sparking wine but the attendant said that they only had champagne. Okay!

It was a fantastic trip and I'm very grateful to Tracey for putting the suggestion to me.


After arriving in London, I went straight to Waterloo and hopped on a train to Winchester. I'm writing this blog post from my room in the student accommodation at the University. As you can see from the picture below, I have a lovely view from my window. I'll sleep well tonight after a long day of travel and will hopefully be in good form for the start of the conference (United Kingdom Literacy Association conference. I'm presenting a workshop on Saturday and will return to London the next day.

winchester
Originally uploaded by angie cat

from Mannheim

I'm currently sitting up in a room in the University of Mannheim where the CA conference is being held.I've had a great deal of difficulty using the internet since I left England -today is the first day that I have been able to get online. The wireless is free in this room and I have managed to fix my computer after a few days of trying.

The conference has gone well. This morning we have attended a keynote by Lorenza Mondada. She was a fantastic speaker and did a very detailed job of analysing and describing pointing in meetings. I think that she has done the best job so far of thoroughly addressing multimodality.

I"m not presenting at this conference but it has certainly been worthwhile attending. I have met some new people who are working in the field of conversation analysis and caught up with academics from Australia. In particular, I was pleased to discover that there is a discourse analysis group that runs in Canberra. I spoke to Maurice Neville about joining that group and -in chatting- discovered that he once held a lecturing position at Charles Sturt Uni. It's a small world. After another session yesterday I met Libby who turned out to be an academic of the Albury campus of the uni. It is funny to come so far to meet people who actually live or work so close to me in Australia.

Each evening we have been out to dinner and tried out some of the local cuisine. Last night it was dinner with Gillian (Central Queensland), Maryann Theobald (QUT), Val Williams (Bristol) and Libby (CSU). We had drinks sitting outside a quaint pub in the middle of the city and then a meal after that. I went for liver dumplings and bratwurst. Delicious.

I'm leaving here tomorrow. I've had a slight change of plans. I was going to take the train back to London via Paris. However, a very nice railway ticket seller persuaded me that going via Brussels was a better option. She showed me that there was a substantial difference in the fair because going via Paris is more expensive. So, she saved me around $300, and I will still be travelling first class. I will get to London around midday and then head straight to Winchester. It's a hard life!

willy nilly in London town

I'm home after my first full day in London. I ALMOST went to Windsor but decided to go with the first bus that came along. The one I got on took me to Terminal Four and from there it was the Piccadilly line into London. It was a good day. I walked around and took in the place. I'm familiar with Central London so today it was a matter of walking around, soaking it up and noting how things have changed since the last visit. So, Charing Cross first off and to some book shops. Then I wandered through Soho and Chinatown. I had some Thai soup for lunch and then made my way down Shaftesbury Avenue and into Piccadilly. By then my feet were starting to blister so I opted for a bus to South Kensington and then the train back to Heathrow.

This evening I am going to get into some work. I need to work some more on my workshop presentation for the United Kingdom Literacy Conference. Here's the abstract:


Examining how digital literacy practices are situated: Young children’s computer use in the home
Young children’s digital literacy practices are integral to contemporary understandings of the changing face of literacy. Children engage in a range of practices including computer activities such as game playing, use of the Internet, and desktop publishing. While we know what young children like to do on the computer, we know rather less about how they do it. This workshop will enable participants to examine how young children accomplish their activity during computer use at home. The workshop examines a recording of two children aged four and seven. Participants will use the recording, and a transcript of it, to examine the children’s interactions with each other while playing a computer game. The specific focus for analysis will be on the ways verbal and non-verbal actions situate their computer activity during turns-at-talk. Questions that will guide analysis are: What aspects of context do the children orient to and use? How does this contribute to the course of their computer activity? Analysis will enrich understandings of digital literacy practices, including how talk indexes prior knowledge and experiences and situates these in the here-and now of digital literacy practices.

I will be using data from by cyberspace project. The recording that I am using is of two young girls from Rockhampton who regularly used the computer together. It is the final recording that I want to analyse and I am looking forward to getting into analysis again. The conference workshop will be interesting. I plan to show a small section of the recording and then work through some analysis with participants. I hope that the workship will enable some interesting insights for participants and also allow me to share some of my ideas and work.

in England

So, I've arrived at my hotel and I'm exhausted. I've just calculated that I arrived here at the equivalent of 3am Friday morning, Wagga time. So that means that I was travelling for over 36 hours. That is too cruel.

I'm looking forward to a good night's rest and then a day in Central London, or Windsor tomorrow morning. I'll see how I feel when I wake up. I've been for a walk and purchased some milk and Wheetabix (yes, that's the right name -Wheeta). So that is breakfast taken care of. This hotel is right near the airport and I selected it cos it is cheaper than most and because I will be flying to Frankfurt/Mannheim the day after tomorrow so it is easier.

I quite like checking out different places, even if it is the rundown suburb at the airport. So, I've my walk and made a cup of coffee and I should think I will probably be asleep within the hour. btw, the time difference between here and OZ is nine hours. So, it's a little after ten pm here and my computer (Still on Wagga time) says that it is little after 7am.

Anyhow, it is good to have arrived.