Last sightseeing

After looking a bit more around Gamla Stan and its neighbouring island with the royal mausoleum church, I took a crowded ferry over to the recreational island of Djurgården.

You tend to go for portrait rather than landscape in Gamla Stan

In the church where most of Sweden's royalty are buried

Looked like a dry run for tomorrow's royal wedding

I'm suffering payment fatigue, so knocked back the option of paying $30 for the ABBA museum, however of course went to the excellent Vasa Museum, where the almost complete early 17th century ship is there in eery glory. The day was warm, getting up to 25 degrees, though the Vasa Museum is kept to about 18 degrees and steady humidity to preserve the wood. The ship was raised pretty much intact, though there were a number of loose bits that they have had to piece together. It must have been an amazing sight in 1961 as it emerged from the water. I spent almost two hours just looking at it from all angles and the accompanying displays, which included facial recreations from the skulls of the people who died on the ship.

The ship had about 1000 carvings and when it was new would have been very brightly painted and gilded.

After another long walk in the sun, including a Split-like ice block, I abandoned half-formed plans for a canal cruise and made my way back to my room for a bit of a rest. I'll venture out tonight to see if I can find the restaurant Michael R recommended and wander a bit more in the Old Town before I come back.

I've sorted my airport bus ticket, checked the pickup spot and hopefully all goes smoothly tomorrow. Only 24 hours of travel till home.

Conference fatigue, onto Stockholm

The conference went very well and there were a number of people interested in my poster, though not so many offering ideas to improve. The train trip went smoothly, running through very pleasant forests, fields and lakes between Gothenburg and Stockholm, travelling coast to coast.

A slight blip in my good feeling as charged $45 for a 15 minute taxi ride (fares are not regulated), however I walked around a bit taking in some sights and found out about the metro. Of course, there is a royal wedding on Saturday as I'm leaving so hoping it won't mess up transport too much.

Poster girl

The Sydneysiders after the conference dinner

Free wifi and a trip update on the Swedish rail

Last room for the trip - in a big art deco-era building looking into the courtyard. The bathroom is a bit quirky with a triangular shower.

A view of Stockholm from in front of the palace

In the old town - I expect the reflective window shutters are to direct morning sun into the rooms.

The lift in the building with the pensionat I'm staying in. It works but it is a bit scary.

Conferencing

The conference (CSCL - computer supported collaborative learning: you can download the full proceedings if interested) is friendly and not overly large. It is interesting to see so many presentations and posters on a similar wavelength, looking at the material conditions for learning. Both major authors of two papers I based my PhD proposal on were chatting with me at the BBQ this evening. I'm presenting my poster tomorrow afternoon.

I'm taking notes and considering how I might do some posts for the Learning and Teaching Centre blog. Here's a first draft of one:

On Monday, I attended a half day workshop on the maker movement. It didn't start off with a definition of what that meant, but worked up to something like one eventually. I think that a lot of workshops are about stimulating an inner monologue around ideas as much as an external dialogue.

I'm not an expert on the maker movement, but I don't think anyone really is. It seems to be an amalgamation of older educational ideas such as those propounded by Papert, linked to a modern ideal of hands-on, self-motivated creativity, where aesthetics are part of the mix. For me, the basic idea is to make something for a purpose other than showing what you have learned. This might be to solve a real world problem or to teach someone else a concept. It is often very personal and has been associated more with informal rather than formal learning. In an online article it has been described as 'hard fun.' Motivation through student agency is a major focus of the maker movement. And motivation is different if you are making something to help someone or achieve a practical goal rather than trying to pass a test or a subject.

How to bring this informal sphere into formal education was the theme of the workshop, though we didn't get many answers. The more you bring constraints or assessment criteria, the more you seem to lose the agency that feeds motivation. The maker movement uses technology in the service of problem solving and embraces iterative design thinking. Central to this is the ability to 'fail fast.' How do you design the ability to fail into formal units of study? When students' time is at a premium, as well as staff's, how do you find the space for tinkering and trial-and-error? And where, within prescribed assessment criteria, is there space for students to follow their interests? No wonder there are no pat answers.

The maker movement is about an open space, not a packaged and well-worn trail to prescribed knowledge. I think it is as much about ways of thinking and processes rather than declarative knowledge. It is still about knowledge insofar as it is an application of it to a practical problem.

An acknowledged weakness was that this type of project did not 'systematize' or 'standardize' knowledge, though I would suggest that there is room for a variety of approaches to learning that cover both declarative knowledge and the more procedural knowledge or ways of thinking supported by working on an open-ended task. The maker movement and its close relative, project-based learning, allow the student to change their identity to that of a 'doer' and insider in their area of study, rather than a passive consumer, outside the experts' circle.

There were some interesting examples of projects in this area by participants in the workshop: a 'dev camp' of five days in which students work to a brief to create a solution together. Another participant talked about how her students in a traditionally African-American female university are scaffolded in an introductory algorithms class by collecting, sharing and cooking family recipes as an 'in' to the way of thinking about constructing algorithms. This was an example of how lived experience of students, what a participant called 'the funds of knowledge,' can be introduced to activities. The workshop leaders were working with teachers who are collaborating with their students to create curriculum for maths class using video-based content, replacing static textbooks. At the core is often a physicality, activation of existing knowledge and empowerment of learners to build a new identity.

There was some short discussion of how a 'maker' approach may privilege some students over others, be they high achievers or male students who may have a preference for construction over abstract ideas. My response is an 'it depends.' I think there are as many approaches to bringing the 'maker' into formal education that allows it to mould to your needs - and the level of scaffolding or student support can also be adjusted - though how that can be adjusted for a range of abilities and knowledge levels in a large class is a challenge.

Sunday - Walking the seafront, antiquing, art, design

Today started out cloudy and windy, so the 14 degrees was considerably wind-chilled. I made my intrepid way to the waterfront, past the opera house, the maritime museum and the fish market, which was closed. It is called the 'Fish Church' (Feskekörka) because of the episcopalian nature of its construction.

The Opera House

Maritime museum, along the water front

The fish church

I made my way to Haga, which is the hip part of town (and there have been several classic hipster sightings in both Denmark and Sweden) as the sun was coming out. There I introduced the concept of a 'mocha' and was happy with the barista's efforts. I also made my major souvenir purchase - a light fitting that is sort of on the border of between decorative and functional art deco. The man in the shop said it was a Gothenburg design. Hopefully it will transport OK - I'll have the glass lamps in my hand luggage.

The mocha and sweet treats, overlooking Nygata in Haga

The Gothenburg Art Museum is very good. It has the Hasselblad Photographic Gallery where there was an exhibition on framing the human form. Another special exhibition was by a contemporary Swedish artist, Hannaleena Heiska, who had a neon series based on Bladerunner. However, the main attraction is its collection of Nordic artists together with a nice smattering of big names from elsewhere. I liked the approach the curators have taken in mixing some contemporary pieces that have a similar aesthetic in with the older works. It was a fresh perspective on both the old and new. I liked it so much I bought the book of the collection. It is rather hefty and I hope it doesn't result in an overweight luggage fine.

Statue of Poseidon in the fountain in front of the museum - one of the iconic images of Gothenburg

Gothenburg Art Museum

After that, it was off to the Röhsska design museum. I hadn't realised that the ticket I'd bought at the art museum was good (till the end of the year) for five museums including this one. All for the princely sum of just over $6. That has to be the best value for the whole trip. And even though, again, half the design museum was under redevelopment, the remaining exhibits were excellent.

Leafy street - and gotta love a city with trams

Saturday - wandering, modern art, good meals, moving on

Saturday was a slower tempo than most, with a wander around Malmö, which ended up a bit more wandering than planned as I missed the modern art museum by that much and ended up on a circuit of very boring apartment buildings. Finally my data connection came on again and it was Google to the rescue. I had been relying on a printed tourist map that had an illustration of the museum so big it obscured exactly which street it was on. It wouldn't hurt them to put up a few signs either.

Some early 17th century half-timbered buildings in Malmö

From outside David's Patisserie, 18th century church steeple on left

It was Swedish National Day, with carriage rides in the main square and a concert, which included folk singing and some girls in blue and yellow waving scarves in the air.

An early 2oth century Swedish painter and a few video installations later, I found my way to a great patisserie, 'David's,' at which I had a smoked salmon baguette sandwich, but pretty much the most perfect fruit tart I have ever had, with plump, flawless mulberries, crisp shell and a dash of meringue.

Considerably cheered by this repast, I wandered a bit more and then caught the train to Göteborg (Gothenburg.) For an extra $4 or so I could travel 1st class and have free tea or coffee, fruit or little packaged chocolate brownie. Apart from mildly scalding my arm on the tea - the water was super-heated and the cup a bit flimsy, the trip went well as the phlegmy gentleman was drowned out by my noise-cancelling headphones playing YoYo Ma.

The hotel room is very nice, tucked up under the roof again. The amplified bands playing on the street half a block away stopped after I fell asleep and I have hopes of a nice quiet stay from now on.

Göteborg's Garden Society park is beautiful - the azaleas were out

The palm house at Garden Society of Göteborg, modelled on London's Crystal Palace, albeit on a smaller scale.

Friday - Lund

After a tasty breakfast, off on the train to Lund after both buying a ticket and finding the train without assistance. There is generally a lack of tourism-related signage, but generally one finds one's way eventually, though I have been hampered by a lack of connectivity today and hence no Google Maps. 

Instead of advertising, a silent film of Malmö from the water is projected on the wall facing the platform with the effect of continuous movement along the length. It is an art installation in itself. The blaring advertising walls in Sydney are an embarrassing contrast.

 The town and university are pleasant and old. The cathedral is mostly undecorated, but with a lot of interesting bits, including a fifteenth century astronomical clock and figures carved as if holding onto the 11th century pillars in the crypt, one supposedly the giant Finn who tried to knock the cathedral down after not being paid, shrunk and turned to stone. 

The clock tells the time, the phase of the moon and the full date. It was restored in 1923 and the years section of the clock will need to be changed in 2123. At noon, a set of magi figures travelled around Mary and Jesus as the clock played an old Christmas carol.

Unsure if the giant is a Finn or named Finn

I spent a few hours at the 'Kulturen' open air museum. It was founded in 1892 and has been added to over the years as the institution bought up houses in the immediate area or transported buildings to the site. It was well laid out and a good combination of exhibitions of craftwork, Lund history, ceramics and house interiors.

My view at lunch

A poor person's house, with short walls to save on wood

Inside the poor person's house. This shot is taken standing. A guy smacked his head exiting just before I came in.

I have managed to arrive during high school graduation - 'studenten'. Students here hire and decorate a truck or a trailer hauled by a tractor, play loud music and make as much noise as they can, with shouting, whistles, vuvuzelas and car horns. The white caps are the Swedish version of graduation caps. The street my hotel is on seems popular as the trucks are going by pretty constantly. At first it was charming, but now I'm sitting with both earplugs and  earphones on. I hope they all bugger off soon.

According to Google Translate, the sign at the back reads 'We have iPads, but no training'

Thursday - Cycling, Christiania, The Bridge, Malmö

I set myself the challenge of riding in the city of bicycles. After the touchpad set up of an account I was ready to go on one of the 'City Bikes.' I would not recommend them as they are quite heavy and hard to push. This was probably made worse by my failure to understand how to turn on the electric helper, so was under my own steam - literally, as I got a little warm. Anyway, managed to get underway and navigated myself to Christiania, which was a lot less 'community' than I was expecting, looking rather neglected. It looks like I came upon just a small part of the whole, some of which I managed to see from the canal boat tour, but oh well, you see some things and miss others when you travel.

 

Gateway out of Christiania

Back to Magasin du Nord where I picked up a little something for Mum (and something for me too.) A short winding trip to a bike drop off point and I was gratefully back walking. 

The new luggage glided along as I walked from the hotel to the station. The next train was imminent, so I missed getting a shot of the high wooden vaulted ceiling - however someone will have put good photos online. The Oresund Bridge is more impressive looking at it than when you are on it.

The Bridge as seen from Malmö, with the bathing pavilion in front

Malmö station is large and slick. There's a lot less advertising around than Australia. The hotel is close to the station and my small but perfectly formed room looks out over it. The hotel chain calls it 'Lean Luxe.'

I have little judgement about when to stop and rest. I went off to the Malmö Museum, partly housed in the remains of their Renaissance era castle. It has some so-so exhibits and an atmospheric 'dungeon' section with moody sounds to evoke the time it was a prison. It did have a special exhibition on the time the museum was used to house thousands of refugees from concentration camps. It was a series of videos of people who came through Malmö in 1945. The Swedes had filmed the arrivals at the time. The video project was to put names to the faces and interviewed people who recognized themselves in the film and recounted their feelings at the time. One lady remembered that she was very happy, but upset that the coat that she had traded bread for in the camp had to be burned. It was precious as it had meant she survived.

The white buses transported refugees in Sweden in 1945

A long walk through a park to the beach and the bathing pavilion in the Sound with a great view of the bridge. Another long walk back through parklands, the old city squares, a bag of hot chips, apple and chocolate and sleep, sweet sleep.

Fishing boats and fish shops near the waterfront

Malmö's 'twisted torso' building

The bathing pavilion. It has a sauna and massage etc as well as a cold dip in the sea. I didn't indulge, but had a chocolate ball and a cup of tea before heading back.

The castle moat. I'm almost in the picture.

The old square from the late 16th century