Pig Sty Avenue

Once the summer's over, I'm looking at a rather bleak landscape so far as teaching goes... I'll be finished the MA by then (though I don't get to wear the funny hat until January). Besides, I'm sick and tired of renting myself out by the hour to the cowboys and cocksuckers who manage EFL. Therefore, I plan, if possible, to get paid to do research. Probably in language testing. Getting funded is very complicated. But findaphd.com seems as good a place as any to start.

... Comes from Bad Science . Unless of course it really does get very much worse.

This has been rattling around inside my poor bald head all morning: I cannot get to my love if I would die: The water of Tyne runs between her and me; And here I must stand with a tear in my eye, Both sighing and sobbing my sweetheart to see. O where is the boatman, my bonny hinny? O where is the boatman? bring him to me! To ferry me over the Tyne to my honey, And I will remember the boatman and thee. Oh bring me a boatman, I'll give any money, (And you for your trouble rewarded shall be), To ferry me over the Tyne to my honey; Or scull her across that rough river to me. Here's a version from Blip . And here's the tune on YouTube:

It feels like a regime change, with all the Leica and 35mm gear going out the door, and 120 Agfas coming in. Mind you, the Agfa Isolette situation is very complicated, with mixed opinions, from what I've googled. I might start a wiki, if I don't get a job soon, and tie it all together. At the moment, I'm bidding for a II with a Solinar - which has its original receipt from 1955 - how cool is that? The downside is, the seller thinks there may be a problem with the shutter... From what he's saying, (and he admits to ignorance), he might just have fallen foul of the double-exposure prevention mechanism. I'm going to have a busy day tomorrow, packaging and posting. Do me good to get away from Testing for a few hours. Herself and I have had some kind of nearly-flu. Seem to be on the mend.

It's a hoot. One of the things I like about it is the ebb and flow, the refinement of the DJs one likes. For instance, say you blip... A Sensational Alex Harvey Band track. You get all the others who have blipped that band, and you add those blippers to your list of DJs. There's a good chance you'll have the same musical tastes, but you can test that as time goes on. If they keep blipping shite, well, hasta la vista. However, your fellow Alex Harvey appreciating pal might also blip some great stuff which you would never otherwise have encountered, and then you go in search of that, encounter others who like it, and so on... Brilliant.

Starting to look at implications of computer ownership demographics. Carroll (2005) , for example.

Some ideas.

Maybe the research should include an error or other discourse analysis of the writing produced. So: "Student 29 scored x on the pen and paper test, and y on the computer test, and demonstrated the following linguistic forms and/errors on the one test, and these on the other..." Or something. Qualitative, anyhow. The point is, are we engaging cognitively in a different way when we write at a keyboard compared to pen-and-paper? If I do this, I need to reframe the central question beyond advantage and disadvantage.

And that was itself a generation ago, so now we are the children of swine. It would be fitting, then, if we had a swine 'flu pandemic . I doubt it, mind. It feels like a piggy version of the bird 'flu baloney of a couple of years ago, which led to me and Dad being bullied by our wives into giving away the chickens we had then. Ffs. Mind you, it would seem to have a fatality rate of 5 or 6%. So if it mutates to become very infectious, and millions get it, many thousands will find themselves permanently recession-proofed. Or something.

Way (2008) notes that two studies (Russell, 1997, and Russell 2001) show higher performance in computer mode tests, whilst two others (Way, 2006, and Bridgeman, 1998) show a lower performance compared to handwritten mode. He comments: "These findings may have to do with the keyboarding skills of the students involved in the studies." It would be nice to eliminate that "may" by correlating the test score with a score on a simple keyboard skill test. There are a number of them online, for example at typeonline.co.uk . There's a online test here at TypingMaster , which also includes a downloadable test. (It occurs that if I was expecting teachers in, say, the Czech Republic to conduct this research on my behalf, under the auspices of FEB, I could make a wee TBL lesson out of it, so that it's more teacher and learner friendly). Bridgeman, B., & Cooper, P. (1998). Comparability of scores on word-processed and handwritten essays on the Graduate Management A...

Here, by way of a reading list for the initial literature review, are the references lifted direct from Way (2008) which is the most recent paper in this area; I've added in the reference for that, too. ACT, Inc. (2007). Writing framework for the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress: Pre-Publication Edition. Prepared for the National Assessment Governing Board in support of Contract No. ED-05-R-0022. Iowa City, IA: ACT, Inc. American Educational Research Association (AERA), American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: AERA. Belden Russonello & Stewart. 2007. The 2007 Survey on Teaching Writing: American Public Opinion on the Importance of Writing in Schools. (Conducted for the National Writing Project.) Washington, DC: Belden Russonello & Stewart. Breland, H., Lee, Y.W., & Muraki, E.(2005). Comparability of TOEFL CBT essay ...

I've done a rough and ready literature]search which reveals quite a lot of American work on this very point, so, if I'm going to continue with this I'm going to have to refine it somewhat, and in particular give it a CEF perspective.

Let's go to work. The general idea, which I need now to boil down into a relatively simple question, is to examine the advantages and disadvantages candidates would face when, in a test of writing, they are obliged to use pen-and-paper rather than a keyboard, and vice versa. The point arose when I was at the standardization meetings recently. We had been discussing the inauthentic nature of writing questions which ask students to write an email, using pen and paper. This conversation had been preceded by a discussion of the move to online testing. The two gelled in my mind, together with the notion that most (?) people are nowadays happier with keyboards than pen and paper, though there will be no doubt demographic variables. The meeting's chair, a professor and Big Cheese Language Tester said I would need two groups, and cross them over. Frankly, I didn't get his full meaning at first but later puzzled it out and then confirmed it with him: two groups, A and B. Two ...

Don't get me started...!

Voila! What I've learned is: you can get bokeh at f4.5. the flash works best at f4.5 and 1/100th. the shutter speed has unexpected results on flash photos; that is, the exposure doesn't increase in proportion to the slowness of the shutter - though you can see an effect in the background ambient lighting. There are two anomalous exposures, at f11 1/50th and at f4.5 1/10th . I just can't explain what happened with those two, how they're so overexposed. Next, a roll at f4.5 and 1/100th, with flash, to check out its consistency, and how it works with different compositions. And I need to look at getting higher contrast when dev'ing.

This person has gathered together information in tables by reference to the model numbers . Jolly decent of them, eh?

To look at later.

The camera's on eBay now, and I'm probably going to get less than I paid for it because there seems to be some shutter (or winder?) problem, which of course I had to be up front about. Or maybe it was just that I'd misloaded the film? Which is the last straw for me, Leica, and 35mm generally. To get the bugger professionally serviced would probably cost more than the price of a really good Medium Format folder. Bollocks to that. Anyway, I really love using MF - 12 nice big negs to work with. And twelve is just the right number of exposures to use in one go. And if I can get, as a matter of routine, between 2 and 4 printable exposures per roll, voila. So I'm not sorry to see the Leica go. It's a lovely camera, but not as awe inspiring as the hype would have it. And Leica owners, well...

One usually sees it online cropped like this . However, here's what looks more like, perhaps, the original . (I found the image from this site here - at the very bottom of the page , where someone's got the craic on the circs. Or something). So, the next thing is to chase up the technology: large format? Flashbulb?

I got this from Ilford's factsheet . I'm trying to memorize it.

It wasn't really a test roll because I was just playing around, and didn't make more than a mental note of the settings I was using: more a sort of fiddle-with-the-knobs-and-see-what-happens roll. And I was very slapdash with the developing. Next roll, which I've already started, I'll be a bit more methodical. Apart from the not-shutting front door, it's great. The adjustments are a lot like that Kodak's, so I've got a head start. Best of all, the flash synchs. The flash I'm using is a National PE-120M. Single setting, so that should make it easy to get used to how it works with the rest of the ambient light/f-stop/film/shutter fandango.

Whilst in London I had a couple of pints with the Flickr pals, including the splendid Martino . I was telling him about my ideas about obvious use of flash, and he told me about Bruce Gilden , (though, actually, we both forgot and had to nudge one anothers's memories by Flickrmail just now to recall the conversation). Anyway, he's given me this link to a youtube video of Gilden working . Brilliant. I don't know if that would be a viable technique in Glasgow, mind. But the flash-in-the-face idea IS a good idea, even when photographing inside the "tribe", per Goldin . (Gilden/Goldin = good shorthand for photographing out/inside your social group).

The Agfa Isolette (called JSOLETTE, rather charmingly, on the front of the camera), arrived on Wednesday morning, just as we were setting off for two days and nights in London. So it went into the bag, and I passed the train journey playing around with it. The biggest problem is that the door doesn't latch shut. I've holding it together with elastic bands just now - I think that the solder on the holding catch has come away, and probably can't be mended. So I need to look out for a "spares or repair" Jsolette on eBay. The flash is firing, but I won't know if it's been synching, of course, until I dev the test roll tonight. It feels very good in the hand. It's very similar in design to the Kodak 66, but feels slightly more compact and lighter. And a stupid thing I was doing: I noticed that changing the shutter speeds had the mechanism making the sound old clockworks make when you're turning them the wrong way... And then I noticed that they do...

"Arrested for Bribing Basketball Players"

Here's a link to the manual . And this is a brilliant, (and UK) site with all kinds of stuff about servicing and repair.

bastards , originally uploaded by gagilas . Further comment would be superfluous.

Camera Cafe , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . This cafe's just a few yards from the British Museum. The windows full of cameras. They didn't have any HP5+, but they gave me a roll of Tmax. And they had a bookcase full of books on phonetics, to read whilst having your coffee. Lovely atmos. One of those places makes me wish I lived in London. This is a bit over exposed, because I was pushing some other exposures on the same roll. I'm kind of getting the hang of this, now, putting the negs into their sleeves as soon as they're dry to cut down on the dust; and keeping them under a book overnight before I scan them to flatten them and make putting them into the holder less of an occasion for swearing. One of these, I really like . I can't expect to get many printable negs out of the Sporti - one or two a roll would be really good going. But that's one. And that's the plan: master the Sporti so as to get some printable exposures, and then ...

I've won an Isolette with an Apotar lens, which is, apparently, middle-of-the-range. Probably an Isolette II. The seller wasn't knowledgeable about cameras, so it couldn't get all the craic, but it was less than £12 with the postage, so, I can live with an element of risk as to the condition, (which could consist of leaky bellows or solidified lens lubrication, apparently ). We shall see. Filters will be the next thing: 30mm push ons, aka A30. Not plentiful.

It would be a good idea if it didn't take a week to upload something.

I still don't know how I feel about this photo . It's one of those works of art, one minute one thinks it's brilliant, the next it's shite. It's a photo of Gillian Wearing , based on a family snapshot of her brother. She had to have an assistant to take the photo, and wear a load of silicone to resemble her brother, and she had to work hard to copy the flash lighting and background ambience. On the one hand, one's thinking, why bother? On the other hand, it's almost an epitomie of postmodernism, to use a lot of energy to replicate something which was done in a moment, originally. I saw it for the first time in here in The Guardian , when I was travelling home on Maundy Thursday. And, here I am on Easter Sunday morning taking time out to blog about it. So it's certainly got the keep-coming-back-to-it quality of a great photo. And I agree with her entirely about her dream subject: "I would like to time-travel a few decades back and tak...

Thanks to Simon for this particularly brilliant contribution to this thread in DMU . I'm very envious of the photoshopping skills on display there. You'd need to have been around DMU for a while to get any of the jokes, I suppose.

Advertise, advise, apprise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disenfranchise, enfranchise, enterprise, excise, exercise, improvise, incise, premise, revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise. All of those verbs, being etymologically unrelated to the Greek verb ending -izo, should properly take the -ise form, to distinguish them from those verbs which are descended from Greek, and which should take the -ize form. (Gowers, 184). Gowers, E., 1965, Fowler's Modern English Usage , Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Being busy I missed an Isolette on eBay which went for the price of a couple of pints, ffs. It's my birthday next week, and, fuck it, I'm treating myself to a medium format folder. Another Isolette on eBay went way beyond my budget: it seems that a Solinar lens will attract determined bidding. The Franka Solida is interesting, especially as some of them have a rather fast f2.8 lens . The most detailed information on this camera I've found is here .

Putting together links to help with Testing Theory and Item Writing. The British National Corpus .

About 30-60 will do it, I'm told. Not 250 . Would need access to PCs. Voila.

Compare test candidates using handwritten and electronic media. You'd need two groups, divided into two each, and cross reference the task. So one group would do a handwritten "email", another would complete the form sitting at a PC. I'll need a sample of 250 overall. Important Exam Board may go for this, provide the sample and help me collect the data, because they are thinking, long term, of moving over to online testing. I've got some experience with this, because the Mod 3 assignment was on asynchronous thread discourse and cohesion.

Something else I need to check out when there's time.

It's been brought to my notice, by someone who knows this shit, that CDA and Critical Pedagogy are very competitive fields. Testing is an altogether less populated discipline. This is useful: I'm entering academia at a relatively advanced age, and don't want to climb any professional mountains at this stage in my career. Indeed, all I want is a PhD, for now. And the MA dissertation I need to start work on very soon will probably lay the foundations. And so. "Calibrating Placement Tests and the CEFR"? It sounds a bit tame, I know, but maybe I should leave the barricades to daring young Critical Pedagogues? There is something strangely satisfying about designing a test, trialing the fucker, and then crunching the numbers...

As someone commented in this thread in DIYB&W . One could reply, "Risk it because risks make you know you're still alive". FFS. I've virtually learned how to do developing from the people in that group, but there is a danger that it's being swamped by fuckwits. As Herself reminded me this morning, I keep telling people the story I'm about to blog. A few years ago, no teaching in sight, I took a job on the recycling vans. One of the blokes I worked with, thirty-something, an apparently normal Geordie, told me that he'd go mad at his wife if the tomato sauce off his beans touched his fried egg on his full English. He said it with a straight face, clearly unaware that this particular bit of social inadequacy had been satirized by Steve Coogan in Alan Partridge . Anyway, I'm often reminded of him when I encounter these numpties on Flickr with their insistence on doing things as they are told to do them. I've had a cavalier attitude towards dev...

The day I took this photo at the British Museum, (on the original Ilford Sporti), I'd called into a cafe which appeared to be staffed entirely by Chinese people - which was the theme that day because I was visiting the Museum with 56 Chinese students. It was a remarkable cafe, they had a second hand camera shop in the front, and the cafe was out the back with wi-fi and a bookcase full of phonetics and phonology books. I went in because I was running short on film. They didn't have any HP5+, but the man gave me a roll of Tmax 100; he wouldn't take any money, and said something about it coming from China, (he had a strong accent, and I was so taken aback by getting a free roll of film, in London , that I wasn't really listening. Anyway, when I got the Ilford Sporti 6, I put the Tmax through it. I dev'd it this afternoon and there seems to be some problem with the shutter; and it hasn't synched with the flash, which is why I got it. I got the original Sp...

This is by far the most useful link I've gotten so far on this camera. Thanks to Hans Kerensky for that.

I wish sometimes it was possible to buy the Guardian with the Telegraph's sports bit inserted, (and avoid the tender prose of that malignant cunt, Taylor). This is a clear-eyed analysis of the task ahead.

The Bookies are interesting about our prospects. I can't help but feel optimistic. But as one often says, it's not the disappointments that hurt - you get used to them. It's the hope that does for you.

So here's the plan: I'm flogging the Leica, and all of the lenses and filters on eBay. It was a bit like, say, having an affair with a rich elegant German woman. Loads of sophisticated fun whilst it lasted, but one always knew it couldn't last. And I'm going 100% Medium Format - I'm even going to sell the half dozen rolls of 35mm I've got about the place. What I love about 120 is the actual film: the roll is just long enough to handle easily in the dark. And 12 exposures is just right to shoot on one occassion - 36 end up spending weeks in the camera. I liked using that Kodak 66 Model III, but of course had to let it go for political reasons. So I'm going for another folder. Without really knowing consciously what I was doing, I've been looking around on Flickr and eBay for a while, for an alternative, and it's the Agfa Isolette. I think we're talking about £30 quid on eBay. So the Leica will cover that and some. In fact, it will leave ...

British Museum 8 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . I took this with the Ilford Sporti on an excursion with students to the British Museum. Here's the other ten from that roll. (One was severely underexposed: two students surprised me and asked to have their photo taken: I was a bit flummoxed and went into dslr-mode, not thinking about the light or anything). These are getting close to the look I'm after, with the images floating up out of darkness.