Mass global tourism is still a relatively new phenomenon.  Prior to the 20^th century mass global travel was usually military in nature.  Travel and tourism did exist but were usually the preserve of the pilgrim or the post Renaissance super rich of Europe whose children finished their preparation for ‘cultured’ adult life by embarking o a ‘Grane Tour’ of Europe. This involved visiting the Renaissance cultural centres of Western Europe. Later, for the more adventurous the Otterman world  was an exotic add-on.

Construction of large ocean liners in the early decades of the 20^th century soon permitted reliable inter-continental travel on a scale and of a standard not previously experienced.  Travel at this time was still a luxury, something for the cashed up elites of the developed world. By the 1950s when young Australians embarked on their Grande Tour of Europe they did so as back loads on migrant ships retracing the voyage back to Genoa or Southampton.  In these times the subsidised passage of migrants did something to off set the cost of travel from the antipodes to Europe, but such travel was still relatively expensive and globally speaking, for all but privileged few.

Not until the era of wide-bodied jets in the 1970s was it apparent that the cashed up developed world was on the cusp of a new economical era of global travel.  The rest is plain for anyone to see.  Now global air travel is a huge industry. In October 2009 he world’s airlines had 299.9 million seats available

Also in the face of the global economic down turn world air travel was still showing positive growth of 1.04% compared with October 2008 although the level

Growth is strong in the Middle East, with 12 percent more flights; Latin America, with 54 percent international and 48 percent domestic capacity growth; and Africa, with a 9 percent increase in flights.

Importance of the Youth Travel Market
Youth travel is no longer a pastime for European elites, but a far more widely accessible option for legions of backpackers.  Youth and Backpacker Hostels have mushroomed, globally. Youth travel represents 20% of all international arrivals, is one of the tourism industry’s fastest growing sectors. It also observes that today’s young travellers stay longer and spend overall more than mainstream tourists. Since 2002, the average spend per trip has increased by 40% to €1,915 in 2007.

Although growth slacked and fell a little this year flatter the trend seems set to continue . In September the World Youth, Student and Educational Travel Confederation reported that the basic expectation of the youth travel industry is that the recovery will start in early or mid-2010. Demand is expected to decline at about the same rate over the period September-October 2009.

A currently strong Australian dollar means that departures are now further ahead of arrivals than they have ever been, and there is little sign of the Aussie dollar flagging.  Such a strong dollar presents young Australians with attractive options for travel to some of the traditional destinations in Europe.  Anecdotal evidence suggests they are availing themselves of the opportunity. With the HSC finished for another year the expectation is that many will take their Gap Year in Europe during 2010.

Gap Year and learning languages
The majority of world tourism authorities identify youth and student central to the future of their tourism industries. Gap Year Travel and learning languages are a new and significant part of the Youth Travel market.  Japan has enjoyed a strong demand from the market for language related travel with Spain a close second.

Demand has driven the youth accommodation industry to a worldwide upgrade with Developments in social networking and increased global concerns for environmental issues and sustainable tourism has been an element in increasing both competition and professionalism in this sector. 50% of youth accommodation suppliers have recently invested in improving their capacity and facilities.

The Reality on the Ground
When a friend’s daughter embarked on a tour of Spain this month the cultural opportunities inherent in such a trip were taken for granted.  While not a ‘Grand Tour’ of old, the richness and diversity on offer in Spain left us all feeling it was an excellent choice.  Facebook kept us up to date.  Her entire extended family and friends network were able to follow her daily encounters.

Moving into the newly renovated Hostel seemed like a great idea they everything from small rooms with private bathrooms to dormitories with shared bathrooms (from 2 to 14 beds). Our rooms are comfortable, modern and clean.  This was definitely one of the new wave of up market backpackers with stacks of entertainment on site and apparently excellent security with new swipe card security lockers. Sadly we were wrong.

Early Sunday morning my friend was woken by an SMS message.  It was her daughter’s friend who’d been up late on Facebook and encountered a desperate plea from Madrid.  Eight young travelers had just lost their valuable, lifted from the security lockers at the Hostel.  It seems someone simply swiped a key card through the system, opened the lockers and walked off with eight backpacks full of clothes, electronic gear, cameras , cash and seven US passports.  Fortunately my friend’s daughter had her passport, her iPod and €125 with her.

Hostel management were either unable or unwilling to help.  The theft was reported to the police.  Just after my friend’s daughter had left the police station she was punched in the back of the head as she walked along the footpath.  Turning she took another punch in the face and her iPod was taken.

Five hours and much lost sleep later the young woman had received emergency funds from Australia and been booked into a more reputable hotel in another part of Madrid. Naturally we’re all relieved that she’s not serious injured, safely accommodated and ready to jet out to London on Monday.

There’s much more to emerge here, so stay tuned.

Any reflection on the biogeography of the Australian region is ultimately an affirmation of the ancient and undeniable porosity that is such a prominent feature of Australia’s northern margins.  Last week I cooked an Indonesian meal for some friends, using a Kemiri nut base.  An interesting nut, a Kemiri looks a little like a Macadamia.  Kemiri (Aleurites moluccana) is also indigenous to Australia and we call it candlenut.  It burns like a candle, hence the name I guess.

Aboriginal communities, in the Tropical North East of the continent, roasted candlenuts in a slow fire and ate the nut when the shells cracked.  The nuts are a source of thiamine and can yield as much as 4000 micrograms per 100 grams.  They were also used to produce oil for fixing pigment to spears.

I wonder how many people realise that Kemiri was also a popular food with Polynesian sailors who carried it east, on voyages of exploration, into the scattered islands of the Pacific.

Indonesians use Kemiri as an oily base for curries and stews.  So, it’s also indigenous to Nusantara (the land between).  This is the ancient name for Indonesia.  Inherent in the very notion of the land between is the fundamental reality that both Asia and Australia were in the consciousness of the inhabitants of the archipelago long before there was a Dutch East Indies, much less the comparatively modern state of Indonesia.

I also cooked some Kang Kung (Ipomoea aquatica).  It’s a remarkable vegetable.  It has the capacity to take on the flavours of the herbs or spicy bumbu base (Indonesian for a wet spice mixture) it’s cooked with.  Kang Kung is indigenous here and in Asia. I first discovered it in Bali.

Kang Kung, sometimes Kang Kong, is related to the sweet potato (I. batatas).  It grows as a trailing vine found around the edges of swamps and billabongs.  In deltas of East and South East Asia it grows in profusion.  Bundles of the young leaves and shoots are sold in markets throughout the region.  It’s nor merely valued for its flavour, but also as a source of vitamin C, producing 100 milligrams to 100 grams of leaf.

I often wonder just what indigenous means, when it comes to Kang Kung, which is also know as Chinese Watercress or Chinese Water Spinach. Is it evidence of early Chinese visitors in Australia’s north?

During the Autumn I found a large Lilli Pilli, growing in the grounds of a local school. The fruit had already started to fall, so I picked a bag full, a kilo in all, then I made some Lilli Pilli jam. Recipes were hard to find in the end I used one that suggested leaving the seeds in.  I removed them first. There are various approaches.

I’d intended giving it to my son, but my sister liked it so much it didn’t ever get that far.  Lilli Pilli is part of the clove family and a close relative of the water apple which also has Asian connections.

When people say we’ll control who comes to these shores and the circumstances in which they come I reflect on the absurdity of such comments.  We might be the land that’s girt by sea but we aren’t impervious, our northern margins are characterised by a most ancient and enduring porosity.

This last simple fact isn’t lost on asylum seekers, but then more than 96 per cent, enter Australia by air, preferring to jet into major population centres rather than chance it with the ancient porosity of our maritime borders.

Australian volcanoes are for many a thing of the past. Recent travels through the Monaro region of southern NSW rekindled my interest in our ancient volcanoes.

Sitting in a rain shadow between the Southern Alps and the coastal ranges, the Monaro is an immensely fertile area. Covering about 4200 square km, it was volcanically active from 57.5 – 34.0 million years ago.  In a more coastal location its stretches of rich basaltic soils would have ensured its potential for agriculture, unfortunately low and unreliable rainfall significantly restricts agriculture.

Spring rains and superphosphate bring green to the Monaro. The flat hills are remnant lava flows.

I find the Monaro an immensely beautiful place, under all conditions, from its extreme droughts to the intense greens of a moist spring.

Here’s another Monaro shot, this one taken on Richardson’s Rd near Bombala, with my iPhone.

This century the driest period in the Cooma area of the Monaro was the year 2002–03.  Records confirm that the period July 2002 to June 2003 was the third driest since record keeping at Cooma began, in 1905.  Rainfall was 46% below the long-term annual average at 298 mm.  The 250mm isohyet is the outer rainfall limit of desert in Australia.  Such conditions explain the remarkable contrast in these photos between spring this year and spring of 2002.

Monaro under drought, summer 2002

SurfAid has launched an Emergency Response Appeal to help the people of Padang who were hit by a huge earthquake (7.6 on the Richter scale) on Wednesday 30 September. Please donate here.

In their latest report on the Surfaid situation as of Thursday 8 October 2009. They advise that three SurfAid teams sent to assess where its initial relief efforts should be focused, have returned from the sub-districts of Agam and Pasaman Barat (West Pasaman). This is the region north of Padang which was heavily hit by earthquakes.

Surfaid planning meeting in Padang

Andrew Judge, SurfAid Chief Operating Officer, speaking from SurfAid Emergency Response headquarters in Padang siad today that SurfAid was requested by UN-OCHA to undertake rapid assessment of two coastal sub-districts of Agam and we found 75,000 people without shelter. He advises that Rain is forecast for the next week so SurfAid is urgently planning with other agencies to respond to this assessment.

Yesterday a SurfAid loaded a boat with 300 shelter kits, 700 tarpaulins, 300 construction kits and 500 hygiene packs, plus medical staff for Pasaman Barat left Padang for Sasak Harbour in the north.  The boat carries a team of six from SurfAid, along with one person from Trocaire. The journey will take eight hours.

The emergency supplies will be distributed to the three worst-hit sub-districts of Pasaman Barat:
1. Sasak Ranah Pasisia, IDPs* 1000
2. Luhak Nan Duo, IDPs* 15,000
3. Kinali, IDPs* 30,000

Kuala Intan will act as a floating warehouse, staff accommodation and communication post. The team will take two motorbikes onboard the boat. Other boats are standing by in Muara Harbour if further supplies are needed to Sasak.

SurfAid Founder and CEO Dr Dave Jenkins, Matt Hannon and Tom Plummer will depart Padang to Sasak with a speedboat to do primary treatment and further assessment this morning.

Shelter has been identified as key priority in all areas and SurfAid is currently sourcing shelter kits from cities outside Padang.

Provision of shelter is a priority

Dr Dave Jenkins, said all SurfAid staff have rallied, despite some of them having near-death experiences and others losing their homes. The team spirit amazes me yet again as we roll out our program to the many people in need, Dr Dave said. These are unforgettable moments for our maturing organisation – to serve with such warm-hearted people passionately committed to the welfare of others.

* IDPs – Internally Displaced Persons. These figures are a broad estimation only.

The dramatic events in Padang and Samoa once again highlight our fundamental linkages with neighbours throughout the Asia Pacific region.  We can hardly fail to be touched by the tragedy.  Our responses, as they were with the 2004 tsunami, have been swift.

As Australia slides slowly to the north and into the southern margin of the Ring of Fire the biophysical continuities highlighted by this dramatic history are easy enough to discern. Krakatau’s cataclysmic eruption, in August 1883, was reported throughout the region. The explosions were heard in Saigon and Bangkok, Manila and Perth, and at a lonely cattle station south of Darwin called Daly Waters.[1] In the history of Nusantara, or the Dutch East Indies as it was called at the time this was by no means the biggest eruption. Modest by historic standards it was still massive enough to convince stock men driving cattle across the Hammersley Range that there was artillery fire to the north west.

Although major tectonic events such as these are well documented none can approach the eruption of Mt Toba on the island of Sumatra, some 75,000 years earlier. The event had planetary impacts triggering a volcanic winter at least a decade long, possibly triggering the Pleistocene Ice Age and burying vast tracts of land, and elements of its emerging paleolithic cultures, under hundreds of metres of tephra.  Sea levels were as much as 200 metres lower and island hopping through the archipelagos became a comparatively simple event as new settlers found their way further to the south and the east. In those days it is likely to have been  possibly to walk between the sites of modern day Merauke and Darwin in about three weeks.  The biophysical continuity was most tangible and although there was no direct land bridge to the major islands of Timor or Flores only small ocean journeys were necessary to achieve direct passage.

Despite the emergence of the nation states of Australia and Indonesia in our shared biophysical realm there are no borders, merely an immense porosity.  In a social and cultural sense continuities are more difficult to discern. Many Australians have been reserved about acknowledging those long standing social and cultural connections with our Asia-Pacific region. Sadly some imagine that we inhabit a land whose national borders confer such a manifest degree of separateness that with a judicious border protection policy in force we need make scant adaptation to the social and cultural realities of our regional neighbours, seeing our regional relationships as primarily strategic.

Australia’s former Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, seemed to give credence to the purely strategic view of regional relations when at the Asian Leaders’ Forum in Beijing in 2000. He explained that Australia could not so much view regionalism as cultural but rather practical, not something built on common ties but only mutually agreed goals. What he was thinking about our long history of contact and engagement is hard to say. At the time I wondered whether he was conscious of the impact of such comments might have on Australia’s significant Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Khmer Diasporas. I wondered whether or not he was aware of the large numbers of Melanesians and Polynesians playing such a prominent role in sporting codes like Rugby. Precisely what he meant is hard to say, since even the most casual observation of urban Australia confirmed the ethnic and cultural transformations that has rendered our regional connections far broader than mere strategic interests.

Such outlooks are often grounded in a Eurocentric sense of nationhood and in a tendency to overstate our significance as a global and regional power. In its most extreme form this can become triumphalism and even neo-colonialism.  Although we are the land that’s girt by sea, this set of attitudes is at variance with biophysical and geopolitical realities. The reality of Australian history post 1788, and that of indigenous Australia, is one of a long engagement with our region. Aboriginal nations, and Torres Strait Islanders, had well established trading links in both tangible and intellectual goods before Europeans arrived. Survival of the first settlement, at Sydney Cove, was in a significant measure the result of emergency supplies shipped in from Indonesia on the sailing vessel.

Shortly I’ll post Sid Thompson and D Company . Set in 1914-15 it is the story of the first major Australian military expedition into the region to our north.  This is a little known event, involved the Australian Military and Naval Expeditionary Force (ANMEF). Raised from volunteers in Sydney three days after the outbreak of World War One ANMEF’s war began well before Gallipoli.  This was a an invasion that met little resistance from the chosen enemy, the German and Tolai colonial forces, yet it revealed features of European Australia’s encounters with the region that still shape Australian thinking.

[1]  Winchester, Simon The Day the World Exploded: Krakatoa.  Penguin. Books. London. 2004. P.264

The BBC reports that more than 1,000 people are known to have died and there could be up to 3,000 trapped beneath collapsed buildings in the city of Padang. There are many other surrounding towns, so these figures could well be significant underestimations.

One of the major problems is the lack of heavy lifting equipment. Surfaid International reports that many buildings have been destroyed with people caught underneath the rubble. There is a report that schoolchildren are still trapped underneath three schools. One hospital is destroyed and another so badly damaged that staff are working in tents outside. Doctors used car headlights and torches to operate on the injured overnight.

Surfaid International has set up an emergency relief fund for victims of the Padang earthquake. Please donate here.

Surfaid International has just issued this Press Release

SurfAid Padang Earthquake Update. Saturday 3 October 2009:

Two major earthquakes have hit the Padang, West Sumatra, region – the initial 7.6 on Wednesday evening and then a 6.6 quake on Thursday morning. Padang, the gateway to the Mentawai Islands and where most of the surf charter boats are based, has been seriously damaged and the death toll is more than 1,100 but there are fears that thousands more are still trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.

SurfAid has gone into emergency mode and has staff doing assessments of the needs of the people in the coastal areas south of Padang, which are heavily populated and impoverished. SurfAid had Mentawai health program staff already in Padang and they have been reassigned to emergency work. SurfAid will respond to the immediate urgent needs with medical staff and supplies. SurfAid has eight doctors and three nurses preparing medical supplies.

SurfAid is buying tents, tarpaulins, food, water and sanitation and medical supplies in Medan, North Sumatra, and getting these to Padang.

The SurfAid office in Padang survived, however the internet system is down, along with electricity and phones, so a priority is to get a new internet system in place along with satellite phones and gensets for power, along with fresh water as the mains water supply is cut off.

SurfAid’s Program Director, Dr David Lange, who has been with the organisation less than a month, narrowly escaped from the Ambacang Hotel just before it collapsed. The people behind him didn’t make it out and last night emergency crews were using heavy lifting equipment to try to locate any survivors. The Ambacang is a well-known stopover hotel for surfers heading out to the Mentawai Islands.

SurfAid is still trying to locate five of its Indonesian staff in Padang. Sixty Australians were still unaccounted for last night.

SurfAid CEO and Founder Dr Dave Jenkins is in Bali and will fly into Padang when we have our communications systems in place. SurfAid Chief Operating Officer Andrew Judge is in Medan, North Sumatra, hoping to get on one of the full flights to Padang today.

The SurfAid speedboat Sibex was dispatched to a village in Siberut yesterday to check on reports that a school and mosque had collapsed.

SurfAid Mentawai Program Manager Tom Plummer is heading to Padang from his base in Tua Pejat, the regional capital of the Mentawais. His house in Padang is completely flattened. Luckily his pregnant wife, Sas, had just left for the USA. “Thankfully she left on Tuesday, the day before the first earthquake,” Tom said. “She had finished a contract with an aid organisation in Aceh and had just shipped all her belongings down to our house in Padang. I haven’t told her yet that there’s nothing left.”

SurfAid Program Director Dr David Lange filed the first report to SurfAid staff after his narrow escape on Wednesday evening: “That was a very large earthquake. I don’t know the size yet but large chunks of glass and brick walls of the hotel I was in came down all around me. I can’t imagine how I got out. It was like the floor was falling away as I ran over it. I lost my passport, communications, all my money. The city is burning, infrastructure appears damaged (water lines, sewer lines, power lines are down). We need medical supplies, food, shelter and transportation. I would guess hundreds are dead and significant infrastructure damage worthy of a significant response.

“I have only scrapes. I’m in a safe place. We are going to set up a field hospital now. I’m using someone else’s computer and won’t be able to communicate.”

A few hours later, David filed this report: “I just can’t believe I’m alive. The people right behind me didn’t make it out, the blocks from the hotel were falling all around me.

“One hospital, called Silasi, is completely ruined and non-functional. One other private hospital is damaged severely but functioning out of tents. The main public hospital I did not assess. The Ambacang Hotel and Spice Homestay are both collapsed, with lots of westerners in the Ambacang.

“I saw dozens of the biggest buildings collapsed in town, most of the damage is concentrated in the commercial centre markets, the main pasar, which was fully packed. The one-storey homes seem OK but people aren’t staying in them because of fear. Water mains are ruined and power lines are down. No fuel is available right now.

“People are trapped and screaming for help but they are below huge slabs that will take heavy equipment and there is none. I would expect hundreds dead when the final toll is known, but the big issue is that the normal infrastructure is down. We should focus on supporting infrastructure: tents, tent clinics, clean water, food.”

SurfAid has launched the SurfAid Padang Earthquake Relief Appeal. You can donate via our website at www.surfaidinternational.org

Thank you very much – and many thanks to all who have already donated.

Kirk Willcox
SurfAid International Communications Director
E: kirk@surfaidinternational.org
M: + 61 407 063 829
http://www.surfaidinternational.org

Writing a small piece for the school newsletter about the progress of the DER roll-out and the use of laptops amongst students, led me to the conclusion that in many respects the results speak for themselves. The levels of student engagement are very high. Students have readily taken to programs like OneNote particularly where they’ve had guidance and leadership from their teachers. In my own Elective Geography class we’ve been studying World Development. We began with the Lenovo desk top computers and talked about the capabilities of OneNote before the students had their laptops. Since I had one from July onwards I was able to demonstrate OneNote using a digital projector. I also travelled to the UK with my iPhone and laptop during the school break. I had lots of visual material to show them. I had Photoshop Elements panorama capability working overtime. We’d also been using Delicious for most of the year. So when the laptops arrived we were already in stride.

Now that they have the laptops we’ve moved onto a case study of development in Indonesia. I’ve suggested that students select one province for a more detailed treatment. There’s a task sheet/study guide and a suggested OneNote format on Moodle. I’ve also given them outlines of apropriate tags for book marking the products of their research on Delicious. Everyone’s networked on Delicious so the research process is one of sharing and collaboration. It’s a comprehensive class so I’ve posted a basic set of resources on Moodle under the suggested research headings, for those that need more structure or simply work slower.

I’ve become very conscious of the different learning styles and rates of learning amongst my students. Having set the task, I’m in a much better position now to work one to one with them exploring the issues that arise for them as they attempt it. I’m also noticing the varying levels of digital literacy but particularly I’m noticing their desire to share information. This is certainly something I’ve fostered, but their existing use of social media sites has ensured that many of them are most ready and willing to work in this manner. Some time back I wrote about the importance of Giving Students Access to Social media Tools

In preparing my recent article I asked members of the class to write me a paragraph giving their response to the laptop roll-out and their first impression of using wireless networks and laptops in education. One student wrote some very interesting comments. While quite positive about the roll-out the student also expressed a plea for further access to web2.0 possibilities.

Without the use of simple communication sites and programs such as MSN, Ebuddy, MySpace, Twitter, Skype, Ventrillo and Facebook the laptops become a tool for writing, a fancy workbook. The whole idea of the laptops is to connect students all around the country.

So this student is very clear on the importance of communication. We’ll discuss this further but I know from my conversations with the student that the views expressed are grounded in a commitment to learning communities, to sharing and to the creation of new knowledge in those communities.

I thought this was summed up very well on Charles Leadbeater’s site where I found this short video

Looking at Stu Hasic’s blog on Wednesday’s dust storm reminded me of just how our poor stewardship of this planet’s resources is starting to deliver some quite disastrous and sobering signs.

Blue sun in Five Dock

The blue sun as, I drove to work that day, filled me with a sense that I was in some surreal cinema event, re-enacting the plagues of Egypt.  Perhaps my unconscious hope was that this was all a dream.  Salvador Dali had been on my mind after listening to a most stimulating program about his life on the ABC a few days before. I am sometimes apt to dream of cataclysmic events but unfortunately this was real. I reached for my digital camera, it was still on the dining room table, I grabbed the iPhone and captured the blue sun.

Ironically the last similar atmospheric event I’d witnessed was actually in Cairo. Here a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors, in simple terms desert dust and photochemical smog, produce a dense and toxic atmosphere. Our problems are both similar and different.

The event triggered many memories.  I remembered the El Nino year of 1997/98. That year the chaotic tinder box litter of branches and secondary re-growth left where forests had been clear felled in East Kalimantan, burst into a firestorm.

25 percent of the forests in the province were burned and  such was the severity of the fires that even the NSW Rural Fire Service was involved.  People from cities like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur developed respiratory conditions.

For me it was a tangible expression of overheated and unsustainable practices which heralded the Asian economic crisis and swept away the apparently immovable Soeharto regime.

The Canberra fires of 18 January 2003 came to mind.  That day I travelled south, to the Holy Transfiguration Monastery at Bombala, making a short side trip to do an errand in the suburb of Cook.  It was hot and crisp.  The cold beers offered by my host were most welcome. As a retired senior public servant he has some interesting insights about the interface of politics and bureaucracy.  Soon the conversation drifted into a kind of cynical dialogue about politicians one that might well have been well recycled as comic lines in Yes Minister. It was all very cerebral.

Now it was time to go, we stepped outside. The air was intensely dry. The conversation drifted to tennis balls, he’d have to put them in the guttering, after all this was bushfire weather.

About 300 metres down the street a huge white smoke cloud loomed over the next hill, against a blue sky.  White means very efficient combustion, in short a firestorm.  I drove on to Tuggeranong and spent 20 minutes in the Supermarket bunker, shopping for supplies.  I emerged to a black sky. The car radio on ABC 666 sounded a siren alternating with warnings that Canberra suburbs, including Cook, were now declared fire emergency areas.  My route to the south, the Monaro Highway, was already cut. I pulled onto a traffic island and waited.

Not long back from the volunteer effort following the Bali bombings of October 2002, I had a sense that I could be looking at the apocalypse.  I felt strangely unemotional. My travelling companions were very unsettled, so we drove to the coast through a gloom reminiscent of Wednesday’s dust storm.

We eventually reached our destination and spent the next five days living in smoke, erecting sprinkler systems, burying plastic water pipes, clearing gutters, erecting ember screens around water pumps and praying.  Finally we sat down for a beer while we listened to the cricket on the radio.  The Abbot smiled and said,  “Towards the end, a day like today will be a good day”.

Tomorrow we’ll take a delivery of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e at my school.  Stage 1 of the fast wireless network is in place. More optical fibre is currently going in so that we’re ready for stage 2 of the roll out when the entire school will be awash with access.

What follows immediately is the commissioning process in which each student is to be issued with their own laptop.  Things won’t be the same again after this, although it’s still far from clear exactly what the impact is going to be.

Teacher skills and preparedness for this change vary immensely.  We seem to have moved beyond the point at which any virtue is seen to accrue to those who overtly stand outside the application of digital technology. At least everyone is now having a bit of a go and this is becoming easier as there’s more and more conventional pedagogical material being digitised.  Mathletics has really taken off

Access to published digital material can only increase as publishers respond and provide more of their hard copy texts in a digital form.

What of our ‘Digital Natives’? Will we be able to take them beyond the Cargo Cult of the digital consumer and encourage them to become digital producers?

Setting up for commissioning laptops.

The set up was quite straight forward.  We set up four commissioning points, each with 12 power outlets, plus an additional 12 laptops with batteries fully charged.  This meant 60 laptops linked to two WAPs.  We began the process with 30 laptops then, after about 15 minutes, began comissioning the remaing 30. All ran quite smoothly.  There was the odd problem but nothing insurmountable.

Continuing on day 2 simply confirmed the technical quality of the DER laptop roll-out.  This is such an excellent and largely problem free innovation.  Overnight there were a few problems with students hot being able to gain access to the Internet.  All but one was easily rectified.  In the end we rolled-out 162 laptops.

Even with the relatively limited Stage 1 of the roll-out and the limited number of wireless access points available, we’re finding remarkable hot spots around the school.  New areas of the playground are suddenly being populated by students with laptops. The area between the school library and a nearby class room block has become propagation centre.

As a measure of the relevance of the DER I”ll recount one anecdote.

I was organising students to come to the library for the commissioning process and happened to walk into a photography class.  Here a student teacher was carefully and competently explaining the intricacies of loading 35mm film into a SLR Camera.  I excused myself and quietly explained the purpose of my visit, not wanting to disturb his lesson.  Someone overheard me mentioning the commissioning.  In moments the entire class was buzzing with excitement. There was no containing them.  The journey into analog photography would have to wait for another day, the digital realm was immediate and compelling.

Everything has run incredibly smoothly. We’ve been very well support by the Technical Support Officers (TSOs) engaged to assist with the implementation of the DER in NSW.  Since the roll-out is being staged, we had TSOs from our two other campuses plus two other schools.

Next week the real work begins.

Any regular visitors to my Blog will notice that I’ve changed its organisation a little.  For some time now I’ve been writing a suite of stories. Beginning in 1914 they unfold throughout the 20th century and tip into the recent past. The stories are chronologically related episodes exploring our relationship with Asia and Melanesia.  Characters come and go.  All of the stories are fact, I’ve made no attempt to fictionalise the episodes despite being tempted at times when I’ve considered the greater licence this might confer.

Growing up in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney has greatly influenced my sense of space and place.  There was always the vast Pacific Ocean, or more correctly that comparatively serene side branch known as the Tasman Sea.  Added to this, living in the lee of Wedding Cake Island protected us from the Pacific’s ultimate power, although its cyclonic storms at times depleted the beach.  Sometimes a particularly big sea exposed the foundations of old Coogee Pier, an early 20th century attempt at transforming Coogee into an antipodean Brighton.

Signs of the Pacific’s power were frequent, yet my sense of the ocean is one of peace, of a benign power I could hear as I lay in bed at night.  In the distance it was always lapping at the edge of my consciousness offering rich opportunities for dreaming.

When I started to explore my region it was from a position of peace, with a basic assumption that it would be a safe and welcoming place.  This was an exploration that began with stories, from family now long gone, arousing fascination and a desire to engage with what lay beyond the shoreline.

My stories will make far greater sense if read from first to last, although each one stands alone.  I’ll gradually add more of my stories, there are some 30 in all.  I hope you enjoy the read.