Files of more than about 10MB are too big to send via email. Some email systems will even block attachments smaller than that, so how do you send someone a really big file?

There is an answer.

Monash staff have access to a file transfer system called Cloudstor which allows you to send files up to 1.95GB.

The steps to use the system are as follows:

• Go to the link above
• Click Logon
• Choose Monash University from the list of institutions
• Log in with your authcate
• Enter the email address of the person you want to send the files to, upload your files and hit send.

The recipient receives an email from Cloudstor with a link to download the file which is active for 20 days.

Help is available on the Cloudstor website.

A Monash Moodle Symposium, titled ‘Moving Forward with Moodle’ will be held on 6 and 7 December 2012 with the founder and CEO of Moodle, Martin Dougiamas, as the keynote speaker.

It will be held at the Monash Caulfield campus and, in addition to presentations from Monash staff, Mr Dougiamas will discuss the opportunities presented by the newest release of Moodle, version 2.3, which Monash has plans to implement in late November 2012.

The symposium aims to engage academic staff of all levels and experience with Moodle and participants will have the opportunity to develop and deepen their knowledge and discuss how Moodle has provided new opportunities to enhance learning and teaching.

The program committee is now seeking interested Monash staff to deliver a 20 minute presentation, demonstration or lead a guided discussion as part of the symposium. Potential presenters can submit an abstract of up to 250 words describing their presentation, demonstration or discussion.

Submissions should be contributed online to Moodle by Monday 15 October.

For more information please visit the Monash VLE page.

Bernadette Cranswick joined the primary school students for a discussion on the skeleton.

Students at the small and scenic Jindivick Primary School enjoyed a lesson on the human body and how it works from three Monash University medical students.

The trip to Jindivick, north of Warragul, was also an eye opener for the medical students, Heidi Zoumboulakis, Bronia Lewis and Bernadette Cranswick, who are all undertaking their Year 4C medical education through the Gippsland Regional Clinical School’s Warragul campus.

The medical students were impressed by the rural primary school and also the wonderful views at Jindivick as they provided year three, four, five and six students with a session on the human body and health.

The trio presented to a mix of 17 students and enjoyed the opportunity to interact with different age groups. As well as fielding all sorts of questions and running an activity on healthy eating, the medical students used a demonstration skeleton to show how the body operates.

The School was also impressed, with Jindivick Primary School Principal Wendy Arnott saying the medical students were “an absolute credit to Monash University.”

“The children thoroughly enjoyed the very informative and ‘hands-on’ session run by your students. Bronia, Bernadette and Heidi were very organised, professional and displayed beautiful personal/communication skills with the children,” Ms Arnott said.

Primary school visits such as the one to Jindivick are one of the ways the medical students use local opportunities to enhance their learning. The visits make the medical students think about how they need to communicate with a young age group, while also encouraging the primary school students to think about how the body works and how to keep it running smoothly.

A number of similar sessions are being held in other primary schools in Gippsland and as well as providing great experience for individual students, also raises the profile of the Gippsland Regional Clinical School in the community.

From left Heidi Zoumboulakis, Bronia Lewis and Bernadette Cranswick enjoyed their chance to teach students about the human body

The teddies benefited from some high tech help, even if this primary student found it a bit confusing.

Another group of disgruntled and off-colour teddy bears, along with their owners, popped into the Gippsland Regional Clinical School to see if they could get some help to fix their ailments.

Luckily for the teddies and their carers from St Paul’s Traralgon primary school, a group of Monash University Year 3B medical students who are undertaking their studies locally this year, were on hand to provide medical aid.

The visit by the 36 grade preps was part of the Teddy Bear Hospital visits that have proved so successful. The program has been running at Monash for the past four years and aims to alleviate ‘white coat anxiety’ in children which they can associate with going to the doctor or hospital.

As usual, the students –primary and medical – learned a lot from the session and many a teddy went home feeling much better too!

Year 4C East Gippsland student Kate Wilson has recently returned from an exchange to New Zealand, where she enjoyed a range of different experiences including a chance to join the Mobile Surgical Bus.

Here is Kate’s record of a chilly but diverse program.

The swap I was lucky enough to take part in was my placement in Lakes Entrance for two weeks in rural New Zealand. I was placed in Balclutha, a farming town with about 5000 inhabitants, located an hour south of Dunedin.

I stayed with two of the local University of Otago students, Neal and Sally, who did a wonderful job of looking after me and making sure that their rather soft Australian exchange student didn’t freeze! Coming from a rather mild Victorian winter, it was definitely a shock to suddenly find myself in sub-zero temperatures. I began the placement by being late to clinic my first morning due to uncertainty as to what to do when my car froze over!

The two weeks I spent on placement were very varied, and I was privileged to experience the wide range of health services available in Balclutha. It was interesting to see how a small rural hospital with an attached GP clinic functioned. I spent time consulting with several of the Balclutha GPs, and also fitted in a day at a GP clinic in the nearby town of Milton.

I found the role of a rural GP in Balclutha significantly different to that of a GP in rural Australia. With the major city Dunedin so close, it was much easier to refer patients to specialist services than it is in rural Australia, where much greater travel distances are often involved.

I was also surprised to learn that New Zealand does not have GP obstetricians, anaesthetists, or surgeons. Instead, all uncomplicated rural obstetrics is performed by midwives, with less straightforward cases being referred to obstetricians in larger centres.

A particularly interesting aspect of my visit was the chance to assist with surgery on the Mobile Surgical Bus. Due to the lack of GP anaesthetists, surgery is no longer performed in rural New Zealand hospitals.

The New Zealand Surgical bus.

The surgical bus is a fully equipped, mobile operating theatre that travels between rural hospitals, thereby providing rural communities with access to minor surgery. The bus itself was very spacious inside, and, at times I almost forgot that I was not in a normal operating theatre!

I also spent time in various other areas of Clutha Health First, including a few days on the inpatient ward, an afternoon with the physiotherapists, and an afternoon in an adolescent sexual health clinic.

But of course it wasn’t all work and no play! A highlight of my time in New Zealand was a weekend trip to beautiful Queenstown with the Balclutha medical students. We spent an eventful weekend night-skiing, trying the famous Queenstown burgers, and walking a section of the stunning Routeburn Track.

Overall, I gained a great deal from my experiences in New Zealand. It was excellent to experience a different health system and a different model of medical education, while having the opportunity to form friendships with medical students in another country. Thank you again to the staff in both New Zealand and Australia who made this possible, and to the New Zealand students who looked after me and made sure that I had such an enjoyable time.

–        Kate Wilson, Year 4C EGRCS student, Bairnsdale campus

The Mobile Surgical Services web site has more information about the service.

Pictured with Olympian Richard Hamilton, left, and Paralympian Stuart Tripp, third from left, are Terence Ting, Dr Paul Brougham, Bernadette Cranswick and Tiro Ottiomile.

Gippsland students were able to wind down after their recent practice OSCEs with some food and a couple of excellent guest speakers.

Australian Stuart Tripp, who has just returned from the London Paralympics, was joined by Richard Hamilton who was in Great Britain’s men’s rowing 8 at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Both told the students about their experiences and journey to being an elite athlete and the dedication required to get there.

Stuart’s story is particularly inspiring. In 1994, as a 24-year-old, he was involved in a car accident and after weeks in a coma, woke to discover his right leg had been amputated and had also suffered head trauma and his kidney damage.

On what was at times an emotional physical journey of recovery, Stuart took up hand-cycling and channeled all of his positive energy into the sport. He managed this so successfully that he finished in the top ten in both of his events at the London Games early last month.

For the students, the stories told by both men put in perspective some of their anxieties about undertaking the practice OSCEs!

East Gippsland students warm up for their tilt at the Pat Farry Cup

One evening recently the students gathered, one group sitting in East Gippsland and the other a couple of thousand kilometres away in New Zealand, to lock horns in the annual Trans Tasman Challenge and the right to take home the Pat Farry Memorial Trophy Cup.

The videoconference link up with Otago University Medical School students provided teams the opportunity to observe, and to pick up any added advantages (aka study, also aka as cheating) during the 25 questions quiz.

The challenge opened with the New Zealand students, in a change from the traditional Haka, singing something resembling their National Anthem! East Gippsland students followed with a rendition of a clever variation of the Australian National Anthem written by David Campbell.

Scores ran evenly throughout the first two rounds with the third round of  “beat the buzzer” seeing some rather questionable tactics! In the end an amiable draw was agreed upon thus ensuring the Cup remains in Australia for another year.

The Trans Tasman Challenge is an important event on the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School calendar and has become a tradition which continues to foster the friendly rivalry between ANZAC nations.

Angelo d’Amore and Eleanor Mitchell are two of a number of scientists who are part of the CSIRO Scientists in Schools Program. It is a national program that creates and supports long-term partnerships between teachers and scientists and is run under the auspices of the CSIRO. It is hoped that through these partnerships students will gain exposure to science role models and learn heaps more about science.

This is a report from Eleanor on their involvement so far.

Angelo d’Amore and Eleanor Mitchell work their magic at the Tambo Upper Primary School.

Angelo and I have both been teamed with Tambo Upper Primary School since March 2012. The school has 81 kids spread across four classes. This primary is situated in East Gippsland 306 kms from Melbourne just off the Great Alpine Road, Bruthen.

To date we have been working with all the kids ranging from Prep to Grade 6. We attend the School every fortnight and engage the kids in fun, hands-on science experiments. The science is tailored to the age group and with the older classes we have looked at acids and bases. The students were taught the basics about pH and how to go about doing an experiment.

In each class the students create aims and hypothesise what will happen before conducting the experiments and writing up their results. In the acid and base class, the students were able to test the pH of different substances using litmus paper and red cabbage juice. The students tested the pH of lemon juice, detergent, river water and the soil from the school’s vegetable garden.

According to the Principal, Wes Vague, when the students were asked their thoughts about the Scientist in Schools program, their reply was unanimous: “It really stinks!” This response was most likely due to the fact that the red cabbage juice did not have a very nice smell and that the students had the opportunity to test the pH of many other substances such as cow and chicken manure!

Since then, we have also examined many different chemical reactions with the older classes, including exothermic and endothermic reactions, and of course some experiments, like adding mint-flavoured mentos to Diet Coke, just had to be done! The raucous reaction from the Grades 2, 3 and 4 students during the latter experiment brought the Principal from his office to investigate why the noise from the playground sounded like a football match!

With the younger classes we have looked at how plants absorb nutrients or pollutants. Each student added food dye to a carnation or celery stick. We had many different combinations of red, blue, purple, and split coloured plants on our return a week later. The younger classes have also been more recently looking at each of their five senses. So far we have looked at how our ears hear, how our sense of smell affects the taste of food, and why we have two eyes not one. In this class, we were fortunate to borrow many anatomical models to complement our experiments!

The photo attached was taken from our most recent visit to the Grade 2, 3 and 4 class. The photo is Angelo demonstrating how much carbon dioxide is produced when you mix small amounts of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. The students were really engaged as they commonly use bicarbonate of soda in their cooking classes to “make their cakes rise.”

For more information or if you would like to join the ‘Scientists in Schools’ program visit: www.scientistsinschools.edu.au/index.htm

–                  By Eleanor Mitchell

Dr Maria Power has joined East Gippsland Regional Clinical School as lecturer with the East Gippsland School for Aboriginal Health Professionals.

She has provided the following snapshot of her professional journey that has taken her from Central Gippsland to the United States, the Northern Territory and back to Gippsland.

Maria Power has joined the East Gippsland School of Aboriginal Health Professionals.

Recently I have moved from being based in Darwin for over two years to East Gippsland. Though born in Melbourne, I grew up at Erica (on the way to Walhalla). My immediate family members moved further east and I welcome being able to now be so much closer to many of them.

Via a partnership between East Gippsland Regional Clinical School (EGRCS), School of Rural Health, Monash University and East Gippsland School of Aboriginal Health Professionals (EGSAHP), Centre of Excellence for Aboriginal Health in East Gippsland, I have just recently been appointed as a researcher based at Bairnsdale.

EGSAPH is the Steering Committee for the research with which I am involved and will provide cultural mentoring and support. My appointment has been made possible after the proposed research project received Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee approval earlier this year.

The data collection involved is designed to gauge the interest of local Indigenous youth in tertiary health qualifications, assist them in pursuing such aspirations and hopefully return to the East Gippsland region to work in either Aboriginal community controlled or mainstream health services.

I come to this project poised to contribute from a wealth of engagement including more than 20 years’ experience in Indigenous education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Previously I have participated in delivery of workplace as well as classroom training, development of training resources, training needs analyses and significantly contributed to industry training best practice models.

My work during the past 13 years has facilitated the achievement of success in Higher Education, Vocational Education and Training and Leadership Development by adults in remote Australian Indigenous communities. A team member and I, for example, trained 23 apprentices from the Tiwi Islands on-site until 21 graduated.

Further study has personally enriched me and I value the opportunity it gives for growth in skills and knowledge. Completing my doctorate involved an academic year in Chicago where I engaged with survivors of torture and human rights abuse and also did a placement among the Ojibwe Native American people.

Later I finished the International Trauma Studies Program at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University in New York. In both locations, being part of a cohort of post-graduate international students proved most instructive. With my love of lifelong learning, I look forward to initiatives being developed that support EGSAHP’s and EGRCS’s aspirations.

Kathy Brothchie

Kathy Brotchie’s abstract for the 10^th Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference (APMEC) being held in Singapore next January, has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Abstract for Poster Presentation’.  Good luck to Kathy, who is Clinical Skills Coordinator at Gippsland Medical School.