Nina Ginsberg, Author at Bicycles Create Change

16/07/201917/07/2019

‘Thought control’ bicycle for spinal injury rehab

I am delighted to share this story. As well as being an incredibly inspirational story and testament to Dinesh Palipana’s unique fortitude and character, this story showcases some of the pioneering work that my university is doing. …And it is totally bike related! I’ve been working at Griffith for over 5 years now. I am continually impressed with the reach, impact and significant contributions Griffith makes to improve society. Last year, I posted about Griffith design graduate and PhD candidate James Novak’s global award-winning world’s first 3D printed bicycle – also unreal!! This story is about how Dinesh and his team turned an accident he had during his PhD into a scientific-bike research breakthrough. This article was originally published by Griffith News earlier this year. Here it is in full. Enjoy! NG.

Griffith medical graduate and Gold Coast University Hospital junior doctor Dinesh Palipana thinks about walking a lot, since a car accident left him a quadriplegic part-way through his medicine degree.

Now he’s thinking about pushing the pedals of a specially-adapted recline bike, and thanks to electronic muscle stimulation, he’s actually moving, in what is the first step towards a world-first integrated neuro-musculoskeletal rehabilitation program, being developed at the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP).

Griffith biomechanical scientists and engineers Professor David Lloyd, Dr Claudio Pizzolato and his team, together with Dinesh as both researcher and patient, are aiming to use their ground-breaking 3D computer-simulated biomechanical model, connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to capture Dinesh’s brainwaves, to stimulate movement, and eventually recovery.

Thinking about riding a bike

“The idea is that a spinal injury or neurological patient can think about riding the bike. This generates neural patterns, and the biomechanical model sits in the middle to generate control of the patient’s personalised muscle activation patterns. These are then personalised to the patient, so that they can then electrically stimulate the muscles to make the patient and bike move,” says Professor Lloyd who is also from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland.

“It’s all in real-time, with the model adjusting the amount of stimulation required as the patient starts to recover.

“We’re in the early stages of research and we’re having to improvise with our equipment, however we know we have shown our real-time personalised model works, basically like a digital twin of the patient.”

Dr Palipana is excited to be part of such novel research in his own backyard.

“I have a selfish and vested interest in spinal cord injury research and I’m completely happy to be the guinea pig,” Dr Palipana says.

“We’ve had equipment for many years where people passively exercise using stationary bikes, and stationary methods where people get on and the equipment moves their legs for them. The problem is you really need some stimulation from the brain.

“As the years go by we’re starting to realise that the whole nervous system is very plastic and it has to be trained, so actually thinking about moving the bike or doing an activity stimulates the spinal cord from the top down and that creates change.”

This top down, bottom up approach is novel, with the model effectively providing a substitute connection between the limbs and the brain where it was previously broken when the spinal cord was injured.

The neuro-rehabilitation research will dovetail with exciting research by Griffith biomedical scientist, Associate Professor James St John, who has had promising results for his biological treatment using olfactory (nasal) cells, to create nerve bridges to regenerate damaged spinal cords.

Establishing new neural pathways

“You use the modelling to recreate the connection, and over time, with the science of Associate Professor James St John, you establish new neural pathways. So over time patients will be less dependent on the model to control the bike movement and it will move back to their own control, with their regenerating spinal cord and their reprogrammed neural pathways,” says Professor Lloyd.

Associate Professor James St John hopes to move into human clinical trials in the GCHKP within the next 2-3 years, and in parallel Professor Lloyd and his team hope to refine their rehab testing with Dinesh, and develop the technology with leading global companies in exoskeleton design. These companies, could in turn, be attracted into the 200-hectare GCHKP.

“In ten years we want to be a one-stop shop for spinal cord injury and complex neurological patients,” Professor Lloyd says.

“I’m just really lucky to be well-positioned here where it’s all happening and I want to be involved as much as possible as a doctor and a potential scientist,” says Dr Palipana.

“It’s my university, my hospital, my city – it’s just really nice to be a part of that.”

Further links:

ABC Australian Story, 26 February 2018 http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/australian-story/NC1802Q004S00
‘I might be quadriplegic, but I’m your doctor‘

Images and text courtesy of Griffth University News.

11/07/201911/07/2019

NAIDOC Week 2019

What is NAIDOC Week?

This week is 2019 NAIDOC Week in Australia.

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life.

The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself.

During NAIDOC Week, there is a National NAIDOC Week awards ceremony. The awards are presented to inspirational Indigenous people in ten different categories including: Person of the year, Elder of the year, Artist of the year, Apprentice of the year, Scholar of the year, Youth of the year, Sportsperson of the year and the Caring for Country award.

Here’s a list of NAIDOC Week Events

NAIDOC Week 2019 Theme

For decades, NAIDOC has had significant themes to represent, celebrate and raise awareness to significant Indigenous affairs. This year the focus is on significant and lasting change to better the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples: Voice. Treaty. Truth.

Voice. Treaty. Truth.

This theme aim at getting everyone together for a shared future.

The Indigenous voice of this country is over 65,000 plus years old.

They are the first words spoken on this continent. Languages that passed down lore, culture and knowledge for over millennia. They are precious to our nation.

It’s that Indigenous voice that include know-how, practices, skills and innovations – found in a wide variety of contexts, such as agricultural, scientific, technical, ecological and medicinal fields, as well as biodiversity-related knowledge.

They are words connecting us to country, an understanding of country and of a people who are the oldest continuing culture on the planet.

And with 2019 being celebrated as the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages, it’s time for our knowledge to be heard through our voice.

For generations, we have sought recognition of our unique place in Australian history and society today. We need to be the architects of our lives and futures.

For generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have looked for significant and lasting change.

Voice. Treaty. Truth. were three key elements to the reforms set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. These reforms represent the unified position of First Nations Australians.

The Uluru Statement of the Heart

The Statement is a document Aboriginal people from all over Australia agreed on. In it they express that they are a sovereign people, and what they want the government to do to recognise and support this sovereignty. It also comments on the social difficulties faced by Aboriginal people.

It is not the first time Aboriginal people crafted such a document, but probably the first time Aboriginal people form a united position and a single key recommendation, or, as The Guardian put it, “the largest ever consensus of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on a proposal for substantive recognition”.

While previous documents of Aboriginal aspirations were usually addressed to the Parliament, the Uluru Statement From the Heart is directed to the Australian public.

Information in this post is sourced from the NAIDOC official website, SBS Learn NAIDOC Secondary Resource, Creative Spirits: Explainer Uluru Statement and Five Fast Facts by Reconciliation Australia.

06/07/201913/07/2019

Mike Lloyd’s bike research: The non-looks of the mobile world.

Mike Lloyd’s Bicycle Research: The non-looks of the mobile world. Bicycles Create Change.com 6th July, 2019. — Image: @Space4cyclingbne

In this post, we look at a recent publication by Mike Lloyd, entitled The non-looks of the mobile world: a video-based study of interactional adaptation in cycle-lanes.

Mike Lloyd is an Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies with Victoria University (Wellington, NZ). His research interests include ethnomethodology, sociology of everyday life, cycling and interaction and more recently video methodologies.

I initially contacted Mike after reading his article about NZ MTB trail rage – which was an absolute delight.

Since then, this blog has previously hosted two of Mike’s articles:

But I also still find myself returning to some of his earlier publications that explore media, cartoons and risqué humour via analysis of content such as The Adventures of Naked Man, Flight of the Concords and ‘dick joke’ competitions – my kind of academic!

See a full list of Mike’s work here.

Mike is coming to Brisbane in November for the International Cycling Safety Conference. So we are hoping to go for a ride together! Woohoo!

Article: The non-looks of the mobile world

In this particular article, Mike examines how cyclists and pedestrians in cycle-lane space adapt their interactions with each other, paying particular attention to the role of looking and non- looking as it unfolds moment-by-moment.

Any bike rider will be able to read and totally appreciate the happenings in this article.

It is very interesting exploring how differences between pedestrians ‘doing and being oblivious’ impact cyclists in bike lanes.

I also like the analytical focus of dissecting action and the absence of looking – or non-looks. Original, interesting and pertinent to all cyclists!

Other key concepts from this article that stand out are: the gaze to shift another pedestrian, direction of views, standing in bike lanes, people getting out of cars, pedestrians and mobile phones, ‘observer’s maxim’ moving for public transport and my favourite: glance, action, apology.

Creatively, Mike uses video still data from a bicycle Go-Pro to explain key theoretical concepts and outcomes.

His writing is well researched, interesting and entertaining.

This article is valuable contribution to extend discussions of how bicycles and cycle-lane use feature within mobility, space/infrastructure and situational interactions discourse.

Get a copy of Mike Lloyd’s (2019) article here Download

The Abstract

This empirical study uses video data to examine interactional adaptation between cyclists and pedestrians in a relatively new cycle-lane. Existing research on intersections shows order is achieved through the frequent use of a look-recognition-acknowledgement sequence. Whereas this is found in the cycle-lane interactions, there is also an important divergent technique which on the surface seems less cooperative.

Others are made to cede space based on ‘doing and being oblivious’, in short, forms of non-looking force others to take evasive action and subtly alter their line of travel. Here the dynamic nature of this obliviousness is shown through empirical examples.

Even though it is not always easy to distinguish between the two forms of non-looking, it is concluded that ‘doing oblivious’, whilst possibly annoying for others, is most probably harmless, but there are good reasons to be more concerned about ‘being oblivious’, for it may lead to collisions between pedestrians and cyclists.

Aspects of non-looking provide an important addition to knowledge of the mobile world, suggesting we renew attention to specific sites where people concert their movements in minutely detailed ways.

Lloyd, M. (2019). The non-looks of the mobile world: a video-based study of interactional adaptation in cycle-lanes. Mobilities, 1-24. doi:10.1080/17450101.2019.1571721

02/07/201926/08/2019

New Materialism Conference – Abstract Accepted!

New Materialisms Conference 2019 - Abstract Accepted! Bicycles Create Change.com 2nd July, 2019.

I got an email yesterday saying that my abstract submission for the 10th Annual New Materialisms Conference of Reconfiguring Higher Education has been accepted!

Woohoo!

This conference will be held at University of the Western Cape (Cape Town, South Africa) from 2-4 December 2019.

This is great news!

I have been working furiously on my Ethics Submission. Ethics continues to be an epic mission because of the international fieldwork aspect where I will be bike riding with locals (the Ethics board want Risk Assessments, Ethics for me, the project and the locals). This means an added level of evaluation, justification and paperwork, more so than if I just had local Brisbane participants. But I am up for the challenge!

So for this event, aside from the opportunity to participate in an international theory/practice conference, I am also engineering this trip to work in with my fieldwork.

I am very excited! There are a few big NM names also presenting, including:

New Materialisms Conference 2019 - Abstract Accepted! Bicycles Create Change.com 2nd July, 2019: NM Reconfiguring Conference

Conference Streams

There are 6 conference streams this year. They are:

New materialities, decolonialities, indigenous knowledges
Slow scholarship
Arts-based pedagogies/research in HE
Neurotypicality, the undercommons and HE
New materialist reconfigurings of methodology in HE
Political ethics of care, the politics of affect, and socially just pedagogies

My Abstract

Title: An athlete-teacher-researcher mountain bike race (re)turned: entangled becoming-riding-with

In this paper, I share how engaging with new materialist approaches have enabled me to think deeply and disruptively about my unfolding athlete-teacher-researcher performativities and methodology. Using as a starting point a ‘moment of rupture’ (Lennon, 2017) during a popular female-only mountain bike race, I problematize how representation, subjectivity and embodiment matters in my research with respect to my own athlete-teacher-researcher-becoming entanglements. In doing this, I draw on Wanda Pillow’s (2003) concept of ‘reflexivities of discomfort’ and Karen Barad’s (2014) diffractive ‘cut together-apart’ to reframe critical becoming-riding-with moments in alternative ways. In doing so, I delve into some messy and destabilizing ways of becoming-to-know and knowing as I continue to experiment with foregrounding the agential force of bicycles within my research unfolding.

Conference Info.

Taken from the official conference website: Annual New Materialisms Conferences have been organised since 2009 by an international group of scholars who received the EU’s H2020 funding from 2014–18.

The conferences are meant to develop, discuss and communicate new materialisms’ conceptual and methodological innovations, and to stimulate discussion among new materialist scholars and students about themes and phenomena that are dear to the hosting local research community as well as interdisciplinary new materialist scholarship.

After having visited many cities across Europe, as well as Melbourne (Australia), the conference will come to Cape Town (South Africa) in 2019 in order to discuss the dynamic higher education landscape that we find ourselves in today. The recent #Rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall protests have, in particular, set South African higher education on a new course towards transformation, focusing on equitable access to higher education, Africanisation and decolonisation.

This has raised important questions regarding knowledge production beyond the South African context, particularly in relation to the use and value of western theorists in local research and curricula, as well as who gains epistemological and physical access to higher education.

On the other hand, we have seen many productive junctures between pedagogy and the new materialisms, including the use of Deleuze and Guattari in education studies. In particular, there has been a focus on cartography, schizoanalysis, corporeal theorising, rhizomatic learning and nomadic thought in socially just pedagogical praxis.

These junctures and innovative genealogies and methodologies can both address as well as be further improved and made more precise by engagements with transformation toward accessible, Africanised and decolonised curricula, and research agendas and practices.

It seems fitting, then, that the 3rd South African Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conference will be held directly after the 10th Annual New Materialisms Conference as we grapple, together, towards new ways of being and seeing in relation to higher education.

28/06/201901/07/2019

Tibetan Bike Rider Combating Climate Change

Nâm Arya is a first generation Tibetan-America. In 2016, she spent a year undertaking an epic bike-packing and speaking tour of the U.S called Bike for Tibet.

Her goal was to spread the word about the impacts of climate change in Tibet and to seek climate justice for Tibetans.

I got excited to find out more about the trip online. I went to Nâm’s online journal, but there was not much content there. Bummer because the trip itself sounds awesome! Even so, this initiative is so worthwhile. I suppose you have to go to one of the talks in order to get all the details! Fair play!

What is Bike for Tibet?

It was a year-long bicycle tour of the U.S. for the purpose of bringing Tibet and Tibetans into the global conversation on climate justice.

Along the way Nâm offered 60+ min presentations to discuss and dissect climate change issues in Tibet.

During these discussions, she highlighted key concerns including the displacement of nomads, the effects of dams along Tibetan rivers, and mining.

Nâm also outlined root causes, false solutions, issues of colonization, and how democracy features within the context of exploited communities.

A central theme in all the presentations is inter-dependence. She also linked wider issues from other communities seeking environmental justice in the US and abroad.

Who is Bike for Tibet?

Nâm is an exiled Tibetan woman who was born in Mungod Resettlement Camp in southern India. As a youth, she attended Tibetan boarding school in the northern India until she immigrated to the US in 1996 where she now lives.

She and her bike-riding-mad partner Jonni undertook the 12-month Bike for Tibet journey together.

Jonni is adventure bicyclist and Instagram celebrity under the moniker UltraRomance. If you have not seen Jonni’s IG before, check it out – he is hilarious!

What a brilliant idea for a bike project! Get out on the road with your favourite person, ride around living a simple life and promote a very important environmental and social issue at the same time– wicked!

How did Bike for Tibet get started?

Nâm says she was inspired by Drukpa Rinpoche’s Eco Pad Yatra and the enduring work of Tibet climate change organizations working to vision to bring stabilise the Himalaya Plateau.

She created Bike For Tibet to be a nexus for these projects, influences and practices – as well as something she loves best to do – biking!

The Bike for Tibet project builds on Nâm’s decade-long leadership and work within the environmental movement.

Nâm used crowd funding to get Bike for Tibet up and running. Although she is advocating for climate action, Bike for Tibet is independent and not affiliated with any one particular group.

Some parts of this post were taken from the Bike for Tibet website to ensure accuracy of facts. All images by Bike for Tibet or IG UltraRomance unless otherwise indicated.

24/06/201903/07/2019

South African Bicycle Portraits: Stephanie Baker

Bicycle Portraits - Stephanie Baker (South Africa). Bicycles Create Change.com 24th June, 2019. — Image: Nic Groble *Bicycle Portraits*

Bike riders are a wonderful reflection of the society in which they live. Globally, there are myriad cultures, styles, approaches and lifestyles, just as there are bike riders and bikes.

It is rare gain access to the lifeworlds of bike riders elsewhere. But this is what Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Groble’s South African Bicycle Portraits project provides.

Bicycle Portraits is a creative 2-year project that showcases everyday South African locals and their bicycles. Through photos Stan and Nic took while riding around South Africa and meeting local bike riders, it reveals who rides, why they ride, and why so few South Africans choose the bicycle as a primary mode of transport.

It was ambitious and simple in its conception, yet community-minded in execution.

For many South Africans, bicycles are the only transport option.

Today, Bicycle Portraits has more than 500 portraits compiled over three years. Stan and Nic have cycled over 10,000 kilometers in order to complete their collection.

It is a wonderful expose and homage to South African bicycle subculture.

It is a fascinating insight into the diverse societal, historical and cultural characteristics that make up the eclectic RSA community.

Bicycle Portrait – Stephanie Baker

Vimeo: Bicycle Portraits – Stephanie Baker

Stephanie is an 82 and ¾ year old Pretorian local, who rides her bike a kilometre uphill every other day.

In addition to being a portrait participant, Stephanie was the only personality that Stan and Nic also made a short video about (see below).

And you can see why.

Most touching is that bike riding has given Stephanie a very particular view of how cycling improves ‘public relations’ and how it helps her connect with the locals.

Unsurprisingly, Stephanie’s wholesome outlook which she aptly describes, has been viewed over 14.7 thousand times.

Stephanie is a wonderful reminder that you are never too old to enjoy riding a bike.

Bicycle Portraits – Final Result

Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler are publishing their best 165 portraits and stories selected from over 500 images they’ve collected during their 2-year journey.

The selected final portraits are included in 3 volumes. Each book also has includes different 55 stories and two essays – one essay by a local South African and the other by major international cycling figure.

The three books have been produced in collaboration with other local artists. The books are designed by Gabrielle Guy. Also, celebrated South African artist Gabrielle Raaff had created an individual hand-painted watercolor map (based on Google Maps) to indicate where portraits was taken. The final product is impressive (see below).

What a wonderful project to showcase the diversity and characters that make up the unique South African bicycle culture. I would love to see more project from around the world like this!

20/06/201924/06/2019

How ‘the boy on a bike’ reveals so much more.

Headlines that read ‘bike rider shot’ evoke a very peculiar, disturbing feeling.

In May 2017, I posted about the US police shooting of Nick Provenza.

This month, another unsettling story of a youth on a bike being killed emerged– but this one was years ago and even more complex.

The story comes from Reuters journalist Andrew Gray.

In 2003, Andrew was embedded with a US tank battalion during the Iraq invasion.

Of all that Andrew experienced during his tour, it was a photo of the shooting of a boy riding his bike that had the most enduring and profound impact.

Andrew wanted to know why the young bike rider was shot.

In a recent ABC radio interview, Andrew explained why this particular incident haunted him and why he decided to follow it up.

How ‘the boy on a bike’ reveals so much more.

The image above was the impetus that lead Andrew to interview locals and military personnel, dig into archives, track down eyewitnesses, and keep pushing for explanations long after others had moved on.

His journey is now a documentary, called ‘The boy on a bike’.

In the documentary, Andrew tries to unpack the issues, people and events involved that ended with the shooting of a boy riding his bike. Andrew said “I’ve spent 16 years trying to find out the truth about the war crime allegation. None of it has been easy.

It is an incredible story.

While I was reading, I couldn’t help but think of how many other people have been affected by this. Immediately, there is the boy’s family, his community, those who saw what happended, other military personnel, and the news professionals involved in distributing the story – but also those who are hearing the story for the first time.

I then read the full article Andrew wrote.

In his story, Andrew recounts eyewitness statement, raises critical moral questions, delves into the complexity of wartime experiences – and yes, he finally does find out who the bike rider was.

It is an interesting and humbling read.

How 'the boy on a bike' reveals so much more. Bicycles Create Change.com 20th — Image: Andrew Gray Twitter

Below is the first part of Andrew’s account.

Chapter 1: ‘Why am I doing this?’

I’ve never quite been able to let go of the story of the boy on the bike.

It set me on an international quest that has lasted 16 years, to find out if a war crime was committed that day.

I have sat opposite a soldier accused by his comrades of murder. I have asked people to revisit deeply painful memories. I have tried to find the answer to a grieving mother’s question: “Why did they kill my son?”

None of it has been easy.

I’ve had to ask difficult questions of myself too.

Why am I doing this? Is one small incident in a big war worth it? Is it even possible to reach back through the confusion of war and the fading of memories to find an answer?

And do I have the right — or the stomach — to publicly judge soldiers under great pressure in wartime?

Click here to read Andrew’s full story.

16/06/201918/06/2019

2019 UECA Assessment Symposium – Abstract Accepted!

Recently, I submitted an abstract to present at the 2019 University English Centers Australia (UECA) Assessment Symposium – and it has been accepted!

I am an action-orientated, hands-on, tread-the-boards participatory kind of educator. I used to think that assessments were a chore, ineffective, didn’t reflect the full student learning experience and was something that was most important to administrators. Now I have a very different view of educational assessment.

I applied to present at this symposium for the opportunities it will provide in: extending my classroom expertise into other areas of teaching and pedagogy I am not as familiar with; encouraging me to engage a direct approach to monitoring, tracking and evaluating changes I make in my teaching praxis; to see what current themes are occupying educational service providers; to gain more experience with the administration side of educational processes and policies.

For this presentation, I am using the Bicycle Create Change internship program as a case study for my key message. Find out more about the Bicycles Create Change Internship here.

Previously, four of us involved in the Bicycles Create Change internship program presented some of the key lessons, findings and insights at the 2018 English Australia (QLD) PD Fest and then again at the 2018 National English Australia conference.

The purpose of the UECA session is to specifically look at some of the unique assessment pieces we worked with. These are aspects of the program that we have not yet been shared.

This session will explore some of the co-collaborative assessment success and misfires that we went through and unpack why these important and productive processes.

Ultimately my central argument will be to consider using some inventiveness in assessments, so they are more creative, challenging and authentically related to ‘the real world’.

I hope to stir the pot just a little and advocate for more innovative assessments (and greater awareness for bikes!)

This presentation is also an exercise in sharing the insights derived from the Bicycles Create Change internship program to a wider range of teachers, educational institutions, stakeholders and interested parties.

It is also part of my aspirational long-term sociological goal of embedding bicycles into every aspect of everyday life. I would love to see a world where bicycles are a normative feature of our daily routines – and not just for transportation, fitness or sport.

So, I like to surreptitiously entangle bicycles into every facet of life I can – and especially into education, teaching and learning. This UECA session is a great case in point. It is safe to say that the participants of this conference won’t be expecting to be hearing about bikes at a formal assessment conference – and therein lies the genius!

In regularly doing these kinds of subversive biketivism moves in many areas, over time, I hope I’m building a future where, someday, bikes will just be a normative, necessary and accepted part of everyone’s life. Here’s to hoping!

What is the UECA English Language Assessment Symposium 2019?

University English Centres Australia (UECA and The University of Queensland’s English Language Centre (UQ-ICTE) are presenting the 2019 Assessment Symposium.

The Assessment Symposium is supported by the English Australia Assessment SIG (Special Interest Group).

It aims to bring together English Language Teaching professionals in order to share best practice in English Language Assessment and provide quality opportunities for learning. Here are the conference streams:

What is the presentation format?

Each session is 40 minutes long. Presenters do a 30-minute presentation/workshop and have 10 minutes for Q & A at the end.

The organisers also bravely stated that ‘all presentation topics relevant to English language assessment within university English language programs will be considered”.

So, with that in mind, I submitted my abstract.

My UECA Abstract

Stream: Assessment

Title of Presentation: Increasing student assessment satisfaction. Increasing student satisfaction and engagement with assessments: What emerges when students develop their own assessments.

Abstract: Most programs that teach Academic English to international students are heavily based on teacher-led assessments in order to meet organizational benchmarks and standards. In many University English Language Centers, student feedback on course content, materials, teaching, facilities and services is usually positive. However, student feedback about assessments remains a sticky point. The challenge for teachers and administrators is how to increase student satisfaction of assessments in relevant, measurable, practical and meaningful ways. This aim of this session is to reframe current ways of thinking and doing assessments and encourage greater consideration for innovative negotiated assessments.

Using the case study of an independent, experimental, collaborative, 8-week pilot internship program designed by Nina Ginsberg and four international students, this session shares unique student-developed processes that emerged during the course of the internship. The internship was an exploration of how international students could consolidate, progress and apply their English, academic, professional and personal skills in authentic and creative ways. This internship recently won the 2018 English Australia Bright Ideas Award (QLD).

This session will focus on a series of unique and challenging academic and employment-related assessments devised and undertaken by the students themselves. Three student-created assessments in particular that will be unpacked in more detail are: Pivots, Most Significant Change and Working your way backwards. It is hoped that the assessments discussed in this session will provide inspiration for developing more engaging curricula and thus increase student satisfaction.

Bio: Nina Ginsberg is a Griffith University teacher and Language Instructor at GELI. She has worked with international students for over 15 years and is known for her engaging and innovative teaching and learning style. Nina has worked on all levels of General English, Academic English and Direct Pathway programs and uses quality teaching and learning approaches, tools and practices to help progress student capacity, participation and enjoyment. Recently, Nina’s Bicycles Create Change Internship presentation won English Australia’s 2018 Bright Ideas Award (QLD). Her current PhD research uses New Materialist approaches to explore how bicycles might (re)configure rural African girls’ access to secondary education.

Prelim schedule

Post note: I’m including the details of my abstract submission here because while doing a PhD you often have to submit abstracts to various events, but we often don’t get any help, guides or examples of how to do this. Only after the event schedule has been confirmed do you get to see the abstracts – and some events don’t release them to the public or online. So unless you actually go to these events, often you don’t get to see details about the session. It used to frustrate the hell out of me. Some thoughtful event managers upload a full program that includes session abstracts – and these are goldmines. So on this blog, I always include my abstract submission because it just might be of interest for someone else.

12/06/201914/06/2019

The Kiwi Cyclors America’s Cup Catamaran.

I love cycling and grew up sailing as a kid. When I lived in Sydney, I was invited out on a swanky yacht to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart race – it was awesome! I currently live on Morton Bay in Brisbane and the Queensland Royal Yacht Club is just down the road. But like most people, I don’t have much to do with boats. But that all changed recently when I saw a live clip from the 35^th America’s Cup. It’s a whole new sport this year! NG.

The Kiwi’s Cyclos America’s Cup Catamaran. Bicycles Create Change.com 12th June, 2019. — Image: Richard Hodder (ETNZ)

Have you seen the new Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) 35th America’s Cup Catamaran?

OMG – it’s incredible!

Suddenly, I’m into sailing and watching the race highlights.

The Kiwi Cyclors America’s Cup Catamaran.

The ETNZ has created a radical world-first design that includes a cycling system to use pedal power generated from cyclists instead of the traditional arm-powered grinders.

To keep the 50-foot catamaran roaring around Bermuda’s Great Sound at incredible speeds, four of the six crew are continuously bent over, furiously pedalling away.

The guys on the pedals are called ‘Cyclors’ – not sailors.

When it’s time to turn (tack or gybe), the Cyclors unclip from their stations in one hull, sprint across the trampoline middle and clip into the bikes in the other hull – and then continue to hit the pedals HARD.

This cycling technology uses the force generated by Cyclors to power the wingsail hydraulic systems and raise/lower the daggerboards (the invaluable hydrofoil extensions).

This innovation has also seen a significant change in crew and training. Instead of seasoned sailors, this rig has elite specialist athletes on the pedals – including Olympic rowers and Olympic track cyclists (like 28-year-old Simon van Velthooven).

The training and race effort the Cyclors do is hardcore.

The NZ design is kick ass fast – and the team is tipped to win the Auld Mug.

It’s so great to see such a productive, innovative and exciting fusion of sports.

Stats for the ETNZ AC Class catamaran:

2332-2432 kg: boat weight
60 metres: optical fibres
49,2 feet: hull length
25 meters: height of wing above water
over 46 knots: top speed
6: crew members
87.5 kg: average crew weight
90: Emirates Team New Zealand’s members

The 35th America’s Cup schedule in Bermuda

May 27-June13: Challengers selection series, divided into Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers and Challenger Playoffs.

See the action and race highlights on YouTube.

08/06/201912/06/2019

AWCC 2019 – Abstracts open!

It’s Australian Walking and Cycling Conference (AWCC) time again!

Hooray!

I really like this conference.

The people are great, the program is always interesting – and it doesn’t cost and arm and a leg to get there. Perfecto!

In 2017, I presented an AWCC roundtable session entitled Bicycles Create Change: An innovative guide to creating memorable and meaningful engagement in community bike projects.

The session went very well and it was great to share my work people outside of Griffith Uni and Queensland.

It was also a valuable opportunity to network and meet some incredible people. I came home from the last AWCC with a big smile and many new ideas and resources.

Last year, the 2018 AWC Conference was held in the Victorian regional city of Bendigo,

This year, AWCC is returning to Adelaide on October 24-25^th 2019.

AWCC 2019 – Abstracts open!

The 2019 conference and related activities aim to engage more directly with local issues of climate change mitigation and adaption in relation to walking and cycling.

The 2019 AWCC theme is Active transport in a changing climate.

Abstracts for AWCC sessions are now open.

Session Formats

Learnshops: 20 min podium presentations with 10 mins Q & A.

Spin cycles: Short, fast-paced podium PPTs of 3.45 mins for 15 slides.

Roundtables: To a table of 10 – present for 10 with 15 mins group discussion

Key dates

Abstract submission opens: Monday 22 April
Abstract submission closes: Monday 22 July
Authors notified of outcome: Monday 19 August
Authors notified of program placement (date/time): Mon 26 Aug
Presenting author registration deadline: Monday 16 September
Conference: Thursday 24 and Friday 25 October

Below is more info from the AWCC website.

Conference vision

The simple acts of walking and cycling have the potential to transform the places we live, our economies and how we engage with our environment. The Australian Walking and Cycling conference explores the potential for walking and cycling to not only provide for transport and recreation but solutions to challenges of liveability, health, community building, economic development and sustainability. As one of Australia’s longest running, best regarded and most affordable active travel conferences, we bring together practitioners and researchers from Australia and across the world to share their work and engage with conference participants.

Conference theme: Active transport in a changing climate

We aspire to promote work which creates a transport mode shift away from cars towards walking and cycling, and using active means to link with improved public transport in suburbs and rural towns. We want to shift away from CO2 reliant mobility and keep people active as temperatures rise, and extreme weather becomes more common.

What can a transport mode shift in our suburbs and rural towns contribute to CO2 reduction nationally? What concomitant air quality benefits are felt in suburban streets and towns as a result? Acknowledging that climate change is occurring, what changes are to be made to suburban and town environments so that walking and cycling are almost always convenient, pleasurable, safe and life affirming even in the face of rising temperatures? What does a small town or suburban neighbourhood retrofit look like in the next ten or twenty years, so that people are out and about and interacting? How do people of all ages and abilities avoid retreating to air-conditioned ‘comfort’ – ‘comfort’ that is inactive, isolated and CO2 producing?

These questions indicate the directions we hope to explore in the 2019 conference.