reflection on EAP course

My favourite work: Fruit Bats by Lin Onus

Born in Melbourne, Lin Onus is a Scottish-Aboriginal artist who created this art sculpture in 1991. There is two typically Australian things, the hills-hoist and the fruits bats, put together. The hills-hoist represents the European culture and influence and the fruit bats, loud and annoying, represents the Aboriginal culture.  The fruit bats are made in fibreglass, they all seem similar but each of them are decorated with a different rarrk (crosshatching), hanging on a hills-hoist clothes line. That mean each of these bat is unique even they look similar.  On the ground there is bat dropping represented by wooden disks flower-like motifs which are decorated with dots painting.

I especially like this artwork because it represents the mixture of two culture, as himself, Lin Onus is from two different culture, Scottish and Aboriginal. And in Australia most of migrants have now two culture, one from their original country and another now by the fact that they life in Australia. 

Art Gallery of NSW

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Excursion on the Art Gallery of NSW

The excursion our EAP class will do is on 20th October (tomorrow). I heard a lot about the art Gallery of NSW, and i will finally see it. During this excursion we expect to see and learn more particularly about the, history and culture. To get prepared for this gallery tour we have watch a video in class called "the dreaming" and learnt some vocabulary linked with Aboriginal art. At the Art Gallery i expect to see some traditional and modern Aboriginal painting but also different kind material and some sculptures.

Art Gallery of NSW

embeded video

watch this video on academic writing :

Excursion next week to Art Gallery of NSW

We plan to go on thursday october 20 on an excursion to see Aboriginal Art at the art gallery of NSW. This excursion is part of our listening class. To go there we have planed to catch up to Merrylands train station with some classmates to take the train on the morning till St James station where we have to wait for our teacher.

Once at St James station, we have to walk to the Art Gallery.


directions to the Art Gallery

Three ways Twitter is used in academic studies and research

Twitter is a kind of micro-blogging on which users can send and receive short public messages instantly called tweets. The messages are limited by 140 characters. It is possible to follow people or groups of interest to build up its own personalized network. Twitter can be used for some personal purposes and also in academic contexts.  At university, students have little time and a lot of assignments to do and they need to find quickly and effectively information. By following an author or a specific topic, students can reach the relevant information for their studies. With Twitter, it is possible to be connected with people sharing the same interest or profession as us and communicate with them through tweets instantly.

Another use in academic context with Twitter is the possibility to build a network where someone starts a debate and people react to this. This can help to have a feedback from various people and keep to date a subject for a research project for example. With the tool “crowd sourcing” Twitter provide access for research activities in various domains such as sciences, social sciences, medicine, and history. The option called hashtag (#) can be used to index topics and find what it has been said about this subject immediately.

The third way to use Twitter in higher education is the possibility for students and teachers to discuss about an assignment, an essay or a topic relevant for the class or the course. By creating a specific #, I can share some ideas with my classmates and make a debate about the next essay we have to submit for example.

So using Twitter can add extra value to many research project and other academic studies in various ways. Using this social media tool can help to build a strong network to find instantly relevant and up to date information about any subjects. 

Reflection about Delicious bookmarking

Delicious is a web service on which it is possible to save, share and discover bookmarks. In this website, we can save the links we are interested in.  It is also possible to make some comments about the saved link, either to read it later or for people who are following us. There is also an option to create some tags on the subject or links saved, so people can see what are our interests and can decide if the article or blog or link saved worth to be read. The number of characters is limited which is positive in a way because this mean we have to be concise on the comment made about a link.

Another good point about using this bookmark is the possibility for the teacher to see online our work and what we wrote and links we have saved. It’s a kind of platform where the teacher can check our reflection or the comment made about a specific article for example.  Although, the extend of use limited because we can follow or be followed by people who know our user name or if we know them and if they use this tool. 

Reflection on use of email in academic study

Email protocols are used in university that’s why it is an essential knowledge to acquire.

Having studied nursing and worked in the west lead me to communication appropriately with my teachers and colleagues. It’s important for me to be able to deliver in a proper manner my work and this in order to demonstrate my capacity to be efficient. When sending email, I need to be clear about the subject line which gives the recipient a good idea of the mail content. For me being efficient in sending emails also mean to be brief and specific. For example writing an email with proper subject line will be easy for the teacher to recognize what is the email all about and will be efficient to search the document attach in email in the future. However, I have certainly learned some new features which will help me in my future academic studies and profession. For instance, insert file name on the footer helps me to be more organized and gain access to the file conveniently. In general, in the attached document the advantage of using footer and header helps to skim the document and know what it is about, when it has been written, who wrote it and where the document has been saved.

I have also learnt the importance of privacy when sending out emails using the blind copies to protect the recipient’s privacy and other parties involved in the group email.  This will be very useful when I have to work in group for a presentation for example. However, using the two step verification can also protect my own privacy by setting up an automatic SMS code verification sent out to my mobile as well as entering my email password beforehand. In conclusion, I certainly learnt new features following the above guidelines which will assist me in my future studies and profession.

My first post

This is my first post in EAP blog.