Technical support and professional development : using remote desktops to address bottlenecks in music technology

This paper presents research findings about the use of remote desktop applications to teach music sequencing software. It highlights the successes, shortcomings and interactive issues encountered during a pilot project with a theoretical focus on a specific interactive bottleneck. The paper proposes a new delivery and partnership model to widen this bottleneck, which currently hinders interactions between the technical support, education and professional development communities in music technology.

Experience of problem-based learning (PBL) in virtual space : a phenomenographical study

This thesis reports the outcomes of an investigation into students’ experience of Problem-based learning (PBL) in virtual space. PBL is increasingly being used in many fields including engineering education. At the same time many engineering education providers are turning to online distance education. Unfortunately there is a dearth of research into what constitutes an effective learning experience for adult learners who undertake PBL instruction through online distance education. Research was therefore focussed on discovering the qualitatively different ways that students experience PBL in virtual space. Data was collected in an electronic environment from a course, which adopted the PBL strategy and was delivered entirely in virtual space. Students in this course were asked to respond to open-ended questions designed to elicit their learning experience in the course. Data was analysed using the phenomenographical approach. This interpretative research method concentrated on mapping the qualitative differences in students’ interpretations of their experience in the course. Five qualitatively different ways of experiencing were discovered: Conception 1: ‘A necessary evil for program progression’; Conception 2: ‘Developing skills to understand, evaluate, and solve technical Engineering and Surveying problems’; Conception 3: ‘Developing skills to work effectively in teams in virtual space’; Conception 4: ‘A unique approach to learning how to learn’; Conception 5: ‘Enhancing personal growth’. Each conception reveals variation in how students attend to learning by PBL in virtual space. Results indicate that the design of students’ online learning experience was responsible for making students aware of deeper ways of experiencing PBL in virtual space. Results also suggest that the quality and quantity of interaction with the team facilitator may have a significant impact on the student experience in virtual PBL courses. The outcomes imply pedagogical strategies can be devised for shifting students’ focus as they engage in the virtual PBL experience to effectively manage the student learning experience and thereby ensure that they gain maximum benefit. The results from this research hold important ramifications for graduates with respect to their ease of transition into professional work as well as their later professional competence in terms of problem solving, ability to transfer basic knowledge to real-life engineering scenarios, ability to adapt to changes and apply knowledge in unusual situations, ability to think critically and creatively, and a commitment to continuous life-long learning and self-improvement.

Being ethical : how process drama assists pre-service drama teachers to reflect on professional ethics

This research thesis focuses on the experiences of pre-service drama teachers and considers how process drama may assist them to reflect on key aspects of professional ethics such as mandatory codes or standards, principled moral reasoning, moral character, moral agency, and moral literacy. Research from higher education provides evidence that current pedagogical approaches used to prepare pre –professionals for practice in medicine, engineering, accountancy, business, psychology, counselling, nursing and education, rarely address the more holistic or affective dimensions of professional ethics such as moral character. Process drama, a form of educational drama, is a complex improvisational group experience that invites participants to create and assume roles, and select and manage symbols in order to create a fictional world exploring human experience. Many practitioners claim that process drama offers an aesthetic space to develop a deeper understanding of self and situations, expanding the participant’s consciousness and ways of knowing. However, little research has been conducted into the potential efficacy of process drama in professional ethics education for pre-professionals. This study utilizes practitioner research and case study to explore how process drama may contribute to the development of professional ethics education and pedagogy.

Teacher induction in Australia : a sample of what’s really happening

Retention rates and stress levels of beginning teachers are of concern. Well-planned induction programs can assist beginning teachers to make the transition successfully into the profession, which may increase retention rates. This qualitative, year-long study aims to explore and describe the induction experiences of eight beginning teachers as they negotiated their first year of teaching. Data gathered through interviews and emails indicated that these teachers required further development on: catering for individual differences, assessing in terms of outcomes, relating to parents, relating to the wider community, and understanding school policies; however, relating to students and understanding legal responsibilities and duty of care were not issues. At the conclusion of their first year only one beginning teacher was assisted by a mentor (veteran teacher) on whole-school programming, and planning for improving teaching with opportunities to visit other classrooms. This was also the only beginning teacher who received a reduced workload in order to meet with the mentor to discuss pedagogical developments. The inadequate support provided to beginning teachers in this study highlights the need for principals and school staff to reassess induction processes, which includes providing time, funding, mentoring support and clear guidelines for a quality induction program.

In the mouth of the imagination : positioning children as co-researchers and co-artists to create a professional children's theatre production

In recent decades a number of Australian artists and teacher/artists have given serious attention to the creation of performance forms and performance engagement models that respect children’s intelligence, engage with themes of relevance, avoid the cliche´s of children’s theatre whilst connecting both sincerely and playfully with current understandings of the way in which young children develop and engage with the world. Historically a majority of performing arts companies touring Australian schools or companies seeking schools to view a performance in a dedicated performance venue engage with their audiences in what can be called a ‘drop-in drop-out’ model. A six-month practice-led research project (The Tashi Project) which challenged the tenets of the ‘drop-in drop-out’ model has been recently undertaken by Sandra Gattenhof and Mark Radvan in conjunction with early childhood students from three Brisbane primary school classrooms who were positioned as co-researchers and co-artists. The children, researchers and performers worked in a complimentary relationship in both the artistic process and the development of product.

Full-time is a given here : part-time versus full-time job quality

This study explores full-time workers' understanding of and assumptions about part-time work against six job quality components identified in recent literature. Forty interviews were conducted with employees in a public sector agency in Australia, a study context where part-time work is ostensibly 'good quality' and is typically long term, voluntary, involving secure contracts (i.e. permanent rather than casual) and having predictable hours distributed evenly over the week and year. Despite strong collective bargaining arrangements as well as substantial legal and industrial obligations, the findings revealed some serious concerns for part-time job quality. These concerns included reduced responsibilities and lesser access to high status roles and projects, a lack of access to promotion opportunities, increased work intensity and poor workplace support. The highly gendered, part-time labour market also means that it is women who disproportionately experience this disadvantage. To foster equity, greater attention needs to focus on monitoring and enhancing job quality, regardless of hours worked.

Social justice and high-quality human services : visioning the place of a contemporary professional association

The current world situation is plagued by “wicked problems” and a widespread sense of “things are going to get worse”. We confront the almost imponderable consequences of global habitat destruction and climate change, as well as the meltdown of the financial markets with their largely yet to be seen damage to the “real economy”. These things will have considerable negative impacts on the social system and people's lives, particularly the disadvantaged and socially excluded, and require innovative policy and program responses delivered by caring, intelligent, and committed practitioners. These gargantuan issues put into perspective the difficulties that confront social, welfare, and community work today. Yet, in times of trouble, social work and human services tend to do well. For example, although Australian Social Workers and Welfare and Community Workers have experienced phenomenal job growth over the past 5 years, they also have good prospects for future growth and above average salaries in the seventh and sixth deciles, respectively (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008). I aim to examine the host of reasons why the pursuit of social justice and high-quality human services is difficult to attain in today's world and then consider how the broadly defined profession of social welfare practitioners may collectively take action to (a) respond in ways that reassert our role in compassionately assisting the downtrodden and (b) reclaim the capacity to be a significant body of professional expertise driving social policy and programs. For too long social work has responded to the wider factors it confronts through a combination of ignoring them, critiquing from a distance, and concentrating on the job at hand and our day-to-day responsibilities. Unfortunately, “holding the line” has proved futile and, little by little, the broad social mandate and role of social welfare has altered until, currently, most social programs entail significant social surveillance of troublesome or dangerous groups, rather than assistance. At times it almost seems like the word “help” has been lost in the political and managerial lexicon, replaced by “manage” and “control”. Our values, beliefs, and ethics are under real threat as guiding principles for social programs.

Space-time variation of malaria incidence in Yunnan province, China

Abstract Background Understanding spatio-temporal variation in malaria incidence provides a basis for effective disease control planning and monitoring. Methods Monthly surveillance data between 1991 and 2006 for Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum malaria across 128 counties were assembled for Yunnan, a province of China with one of the highest burdens of malaria. County-level Bayesian Poisson regression models of incidence were constructed, with effects for rainfall, maximum temperature and temporal trend. The model also allowed for spatial variation in county-level incidence and temporal trend, and dependence between incidence in June–September and the preceding January–February. Results Models revealed strong associations between malaria incidence and both rainfall and maximum temperature. There was a significant association between incidence in June–September and the preceding January–February. Raw standardised morbidity ratios showed a high incidence in some counties bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, and counties in the Red River valley. Clusters of counties in south-western and northern Yunnan were identified that had high incidence not explained by climate. The overall trend in incidence decreased, but there was significant variation between counties. Conclusion Dependence between incidence in summer and the preceding January–February suggests a role of intrinsic host-pathogen dynamics. Incidence during the summer peak might be predictable based on incidence in January–February, facilitating malaria control planning, scaled months in advance to the magnitude of the summer malaria burden. Heterogeneities in county-level temporal trends suggest that reductions in the burden of malaria have been unevenly distributed throughout the province.

Re-invent yourself: from London intensive care nursing and the Nigerian oil fields to an an academic library in Brisbane; a career change worth making.

A complete change of career forces a seismic shift in every aspect of your life. From day one, you have to face the loss of long held beliefs, behaviours, the known world of self, and security. We came from professions that themselves are poles apart, and many of the challenges we faced entering the profession were the same: juggling full-time work, part time study, and family commitmemts, taking a pay cut, and loss of social life. But over a short period of time we both transitioned to our new profession successfully. so what make our successful transition possible?

Changing the metaphor : the potential of online communities in teacher professional development

Belonging to an online community offers teachers the opportunity to exchange ideas, make connections with a wider peer group and form collaborative networks. The increasing popularity of teacher professional communities means that we need to understand how they work and determine the role they may play in teacher professional development. This chapter will map data from a doctoral study to a recentlydeveloped model of professional development to offer a new perspective of how online communities can add to a teacher’s personal and professional growth and, in so doing, add to the small number of studies in this field. This chapter will conclude with a call for a revision of the way we approach professional development in the 21st century and suggest that old models and metaphors are hindering the adoption of more effective means of professional development for teachers.

Trust and strong ties in the selection and evaluation of business advisors by small firms

Principal Topic A small firm is unlikely to possess internally the full range of knowledge and skills that it requires or could benefit from for the development of its business. The ability to acquire suitable external expertise - defined as knowledge or competence that is rare in the firm and acquired from the outside - when needed thus becomes a competitive factor in itself. Access to external expertise enables the firm to focus on its core competencies and removes the necessity to internalize every skill and competence. However, research on how small firms access external expertise is still scarce. The present study contributes to this under-developed discussion by analysing the role of trust and strong ties in the small firm's selection and evaluation of sources of external expertise (henceforth referred to as the 'business advisor' or 'advisor'). Granovetter (1973, 1361) defines the strength of a network tie as 'a (probably linear) combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (mutual confiding) and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie'. Strong ties in the context of the present investigation refer to sources of external expertise who are well known to the owner-manager, and who may be either informal (e.g., family, friends) or professional advisors (e.g., consultants, enterprise support officers, accountants or solicitors). Previous research has suggested that strong and weak ties have different fortes and the choice of business advisors could thus be critical to business performance) While previous research results suggest that small businesses favour previously well known business advisors, prior studies have also pointed out that an excessive reliance on a network of well known actors might hamper business development, as the range of expertise available through strong ties is limited. But are owner-managers of small businesses aware of this limitation and does it matter to them? Or does working with a well-known advisor compensate for it? Hence, our research model first examines the impact of the strength of tie on the business advisor's perceived performance. Next, we ask what encourages a small business owner-manager to seek advice from a strong tie. A recent exploratory study by Welter and Kautonen (2005) drew attention to the central role of trust in this context. However, while their study found support for the general proposition that trust plays an important role in the choice of advisors, how trust and its different dimensions actually affect this choice remained ambiguous. The present paper develops this discussion by considering the impact of the different dimensions of perceived trustworthiness, defined as benevolence, integrity and ability, on the strength of tie. Further, we suggest that the dimensions of perceived trustworthiness relevant in the choice of a strong tie vary between professional and informal advisors. Methodology/Key Propositions Our propositions are examined empirically based on survey data comprising 153 Finnish small businesses. The data are analysed utilizing the partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modelling with SmartPLS 2.0. Being non-parametric, the PLS algorithm is particularly well-suited to analysing small datasets with non-normally distributed variables. Results and Implications The path model shows that the stronger the tie, the more positively the advisor's performance is perceived. Hypothesis 1, that strong ties will be associated with higher perceptions of performance is clearly supported. Benevolence is clearly the most significant predictor of the choice of a strong tie for external expertise. While ability also reaches a moderate level of statistical significance, integrity does not have a statistically significant impact on the choice of a strong tie. Hence, we found support for two out of three independent variables included in Hypothesis 2. Path coefficients differed between the professional and informal advisor subsamples. The results of the exploratory group comparison show that Hypothesis 3a regarding ability being associated with strong ties more pronouncedly when choosing a professional advisor was not supported. Hypothesis 3b arguing that benevolence is more strongly associated with strong ties in the context of choosing an informal advisor received some support because the path coefficient in the informal advisor subsample was much larger than in the professional advisor subsample. Hypothesis 3c postulating that integrity would be more strongly associated with strong ties in the choice of a professional advisor was supported. Integrity is the most important dimension of trustworthiness in this context. However, integrity is of no concern, or even negative, when using strong ties to choose an informal advisor. The findings of this study have practical relevance to the enterprise support community. First of all, given that the strength of tie has a significant positive impact on the advisor's perceived performance, this implies that small business owners appreciate working with advisors in long-term relationships. Therefore, advisors are well advised to invest into relationship building and maintenance in their work with small firms. Secondly, the results show that, especially in the context of professional advisors, the advisor's perceived integrity and benevolence weigh more than ability. This again emphasizes the need to invest time and effort into building a personal relationship with the owner-manager, rather than merely maintaining a professional image and credentials. Finally, this study demonstrates that the dimensions of perceived trustworthiness are orthogonal with different effects on the strength of tie and ultimately perceived performance. This means that entrepreneurs and advisors should consider the specific dimensions of ability, benevolence and integrity, rather than rely on general perceptions of trustworthiness in their advice relationships.

Health professional partnerships and their impact on Aboriginal health : an occupational therapist's and Aboriginal health worker's perspective

Objective: To describe the extent and nature of demonstrated professional partnerships between occupational therapists and Aboriginal health workers in rural and remote communities of North Queensland. The study identifies ways in which professional partnerships improve client services and enhance occupational therapy outcomes through exploring the aspects of communication, collaboration and bridging cultural boundaries.---------- Design: Data collected via in-depth, semistructured telephone interviews. ---------- Setting: Aboriginal and mainstream health and human service organisations in rural and remote North Queensland. Rural and remote areas were identified using the Accessibility and Remoteness Index of Australia codes. ---------- Participants: Seven participants working in rural and remote areas of North Queensland, comprising four occupational therapists and three Aboriginal health workers. All participants were female. ---------- Results: Participants identified five core themes when describing the extent and nature of professional partnerships between occupational therapists and Aboriginal health workers. Themes include: professional interaction; perception of professional roles; benefits to the client; professional interdependence; and significance of Aboriginal culture. According to participants, when partnerships between occupational therapists and Aboriginal health workers were formed, clients received a more culturally appropriate service, were more comfortable in the presence of the occupational therapist, obtained a greater understanding of occupational therapy assessment and intervention, and felt valued in the health care process. ---------- Conclusions: This study substantiates the necessity for the formation of professional partnerships between occupational therapists and Aboriginal health workers. The findings suggest that participation in professional partnerships has positive implications for occupational therapists working with Aboriginal clients and Aboriginal health workers in rural and remote regions of North Queensland.

Why cybersafety tips don’t work for cyberbullying

Research into cyberbullying in Australia has been slow. This is partly because rigorous research takes time, both to conduct, to analyse and to publish. In addition, Australian governments and other decision makers did not realise that cyberbullying was happening until there was greater media attention to the problem in the last few years. This meant that there was no serious research money allocated to cyberbullying research in Australia until about two years ago. In addition, initial research has mainly looked at how many students have been cyberbullied and what were the consequences. As far as I know there is only one large research project which is looking at what programs actually work to prevent and/or intervene in cyberbullying in Australia and that will take time to ascertain. However, our society wants quick fixes and they want a quick fix for cyberbullying.

Classroom management : developing your own approach to managing the classroom

A recent Australian survey of beginning teachers indicates that issue of classroom management continues to be a key concern for early career educators (Australian Education Union, 2007). This finding is supported by the wider literature that identifies managing the classroom, particularly managing behaviour within the classroom, as critical issues for early career teachers (Arends, 2006; Charles, 2004; Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2007). In fact, struggling to manage student behaviour and maintain positive relationships with students are among the top reasons for teachers leaving the teaching profession (Charles, 2004). So, how does a teacher effectively organise and manage up to thirty students learning and behaviour at any one time? The issue of classroom management is a persistent one for all teachers, but is particularly daunting for new teachers. Historically, classrooms were established on strong hierarchical structures that relied heavily on teacher control and authority. However, more recent approaches to managing the classroom are proactive and more collaborative. That is not to say that there exists a single management recipe, far from it. Beginning teachers must view possible approaches to managing the classroom in light of their own beliefs about teaching and learning, their current classroom practice and variables from the context in which they are teaching.