QUIBILS AND QUIRKS:
(the original text as serialized in The Cariboo Observer)

Dan Lukiv, M.Ed.
English and Creative Writing
McNaughton Centre, Quesnel, BC, Canada
E-mail: lukivdan@shaw.ca

 CHAPTER 1: THE END OF PORKSVILLE—
OR PROFESSOR HAMBURGER ARRIVES AT A WAR
           
“Chop off their heads!” hollered King Quibil—a five-foot tall fur ball, with two arms and legs, who was waving a sword. “Chop off everybody’s head! Teach them a lesson they’ll never forget!”
            Armed quibils filled the south end of Main Street in Porksville. “Off with their heads!” many roared, and the more they roared, the more enraged they became.
            Battle cries mixed with gasps and screams. The king, his belly full of peppermint tea, yelled, “Charge!” People ran north along Main Street.
            The bald butcher wanted to grab his meat cleaver and storm the quibils. The baker wanted to use his fish net to capture the king. He’d have held the king as a ransom for peace. But each man had two broken legs. Both squirmed in wheelchairs, rattling along Main Street as their horrified wives pushed.
            They sped by a row of birch trees that “joined” the bakery to the grocery store. Behind the trees, in a clearing, Professor Hamburger, in his time machine, landed.
            This invention—aside from the control center—resembled a 4x4 car, without fenders, boasting many red, yellow, and blue flashing lights. As it landed, it banged and banged, as loudly as a Winchester firing, and wavered like a mirage.
            Then the banging and wavering stopped.
            Professor Hamburger, inside the time machine, heard screaming and yelling.
           

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Blending Video and Online Learning in Distance Education

Lucy G. Kamanja
Instructional Designer
University of South Africa
E-mail: kamanlg@unisa.ac.za

Introduction:

The University of South Africa (UNISA) is a distance education institution with an enrollment of over 200,000 students. The average distance education student in UNISA is an adult who is highly motivated but is also isolated in the learning environment, combining study with busy schedules at work and at home. These students rarely interact with their instructors or their colleagues, making it difficult for the instructor to monitor how the students interact with the study materials. The students, therefore, lack a forum in which to discuss their experience with their studies or express other issues of concern.

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