On-line film distribution : Its history and global complexion

‘Nobody knows anything’, said William Goldman of studio filmmaking. The rule is ever more apt as we survey the radical changes that digital distribution, along with the digitisation of production and exhibition, is wreaking on global film circulation. Digital Disruption: Cinema Moves On-line helps to make sense of what has happened in the short but turbulent history of on-line distribution. It provides a realistic assessment of the genuine and not-so-promising methods that have been tried to address the disruptions that moving from ‘analogue dollars’ to ‘digital cents’ has provoked in the film industry. Paying close attention to how the Majors have dealt with the challenges – often unsuccessfully – it focuses as much attention on innovations and practices outside the mainstream. Throughout, it is alive to, and showcases, important entrepreneurial innovations such as Mubi, Jaman, Withoutabox and IMDb. Written by leading academic commentators that have followed the fortunes of world cinema closely and passionately, as well as experienced hands close to the fluctuating fortunes of the industry, Digital Disruption: Cinema Moves On-line is an indispensable guide to great changes in film and its audiences.

Are alphabetic language-derived models of L2 reading relevant to L1 logographic background readers?

In this paper, we argue that second language (L2) reading research, which has been informed by studies involving first language (L1) alphabetic English reading, may be less relevant to L2 readers with non-alphabetic reading backgrounds, such as Chinese readers with an L1 logographic (Chinese character) learning history. We provide both neuroanatomical and behavioural evidence from Chinese language reading studies to support our claims. The paper concludes with an argument outlining the need for a universal L2 reading model which can adequately account for readers with diverse L1 orthographic language learning histories.

Teachers’ perceptions of the use of an external change agent in school curriculum change

An external change agent (ECA) was recently employed in three Queensland schools to align the school curriculum with the requirements of the state’s high stakes test known as the Queensland Core Skills test (QCS). This paper reports on the teachers’ perceptions of a change process led by an ECA. With the ever-increasing implementation of high stakes testing in Australian schools, teachers are under mounting pressure to produce ‘results’. Therefore, in order to maximise their students’ success in these tests, schools are altering their curricula to incorporate the test requirements. Rather than the traditional method of managing such curriculum change processes internally, there is a growing trend for principals to source external expertise in the form of ECAs. Although some academics, teachers, and much of the relevant literature, would regard such a practice as problematic, this study found that in fact, teachers were quite open to externally led curriculum change, especially if they perceived the leader to be knowledgeable and creditable in this area.

Alternative primary sources for studying Australian television history : an annotated list of online private collections

It is possible to write many different histories of Australian television, and these different histories draw on different primary sources. The ABC of Drama, for example, draws on the ABC Document Archives (Jacka 1991). Most of the information for Images and Industry: television drama production in Australia is taken from original interviews with television production staff (Moran 1985). Ending the Affair, as well as archival work, draws on ‘over ten years of watching … Australian television current affairs’ (Turner 2005, xiii). Moran’s Guide to Australian TV Series draws exhaustively on extant archives: the ABC Document Archives, material sourced through the ABC Drama department, the Australian Film Commission, the library of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and the Australian Film Institute (Moran 1993, xi)...

Good Practice Report : Curriculum Renewal

This good practice report, commissioned by the ALTC, provides a summative evaluation of useful outcomes and good practices from ALTC projects and fellowships on curriculum renewal. The report contains: -a summative evaluation of the good practices and key outcomes for teaching and learning from completed ALTC projects and fellowships -a literature review of the good practices and key outcomes for teaching and learning from national and international research -the proposed outcomes and resources for teaching and learning which will be produced by current incomplete ALTC projects and fellowships -identifies areas in which further work or development are appropriate.

Documentary as history, memory, dream and film

A century ago, as the Western world embarked on a period of traumatic change, the visual realism of photography and documentary film brought print and radio news to life. The vision that these new mediums threw into stark relief was one of intense social and political upheaval: the birth of modernity fired and tempered in the crucible of the Great War. As millions died in this fiery chamber and the influenza pandemic that followed, lines of empires staggered to their fall, and new geo-political boundaries were scored in the raw, red flesh of Europe. The decade of 1910 to 1919 also heralded a prolific period of artistic experimentation. It marked the beginning of the social and artistic age of modernity and, with it, the nascent beginnings of a new art form: film. We still live in the shadow of this violent, traumatic and fertile age; haunted by the ghosts of Flanders and Gallipoli and its ripples of innovation and creativity. Something happened here, but to understand how and why is not easy; for the documentary images we carry with us in our collective cultural memory have become what Baudrillard refers to as simulacra. Detached from their referents, they have become referents themselves, to underscore other, grand narratives in television and Hollywood films. The personal histories of the individuals they represent so graphically–and their hope, love and loss–are folded into a national story that serves, like war memorials and national holidays, to buttress social myths and values. And, as filmic images cross-pollinate, with each iteration offering a new catharsis, events that must have been terrifying or wondrous are abstracted. In this paper we first discuss this transformation through reference to theories of documentary and memory–this will form a conceptual framework for a subsequent discussion of the short film Anmer. Produced by the first author in 2010, Anmer is a visual essay on documentary, simulacra and the symbolic narratives of history. Its form, structure and aesthetic speak of the confluence of documentary, history, memory and dream. Located in the first decade of the twentieth century, its non-linear narratives of personal tragedy and poetic dreamscapes are an evocative reminder of the distance between intimate experience, grand narratives, and the mythologies of popular films. This transformation of documentary sources not only played out in the processes of the film’s production, but also came to form its theme.

Cinematic hooks for Korean studies: using the 'Apache' framework for inspiring students about Korea in and through film

Developing awareness of and maintaining interest in Korea and Korean culture for non-language secondary and tertiary students continues to challenge educators in Australia. A lack of appropriate and accessible creative and cultural materials is a key factor contributing to this challenge. In light of changes made to 'fair use' guidelines for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States in July 2010, and in order to prepare for a time in the near future when Australian copyright regulations might follow suit, this article offers a framework for utilizing film and digital media contents in the classroom. Case studies of the short digital animation film 'Birthday Boy' (2004) and the feature film The Divine Weapon (2008) are presented in order to illustrate new educational approaches to popular Korean films---the cinematic component of the 'Korean Wave' ('Hanryu' or 'Hallyu' in Korean). It is hoped that this work-in-progress will enable teachers to inspire students with limited language skills to learn more about Korean popular culture, history, and tradition as well as media, politics, and genre studies in dynamic ways through the use of films as cultural texts in the classroom.

History of critical criminology in Australia

Those working in the critical criminology tradition have been centrally concerned with the social construction, variability and contingency of the criminal label. The concern is no less salient to a consideration of critical criminology itself and any history of critical criminology (in Australia or elsewhere) should aim itself to be critical in this sense. The point applies with equal force to both of the terms ‘critical’ and ‘criminology’. The want of a stable theoretical object has meant that criminology itself needs to be seen not as a distinct discipline but as a composite intellectual and governmental hybrid, a field of studies that overlaps and intersects many others (sociology, law, psychology, history, anthropology, social work, media studies and youth studies to name only a few). In consequence, much of the most powerful work on subjects of criminological inquiry is undertaken by scholars who do not necessarily define themselves as criminologists first and foremost, or at all. For reasons that should later become obvious this is even more pronounced in the Australian context. Although we may appear at times to be claiming such work for criminology, our purpose is to recognize its impact on and in critical criminology in Australia.

The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography

The ratite moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) were a speciose group of massive graviportal avian herbivores that dominated the New Zealand (NZ) ecosystem until their extinction �600 years ago. The phylogeny and evolutionary history of this morphologically diverse order has remained controversial since their initial description in 1839. We synthesize mitochondrial phylogenetic information from 263 subfossil moa specimens from across NZ with morphological, ecological, and new geological data to create the first comprehensive phylogeny, taxonomy, and evolutionary timeframe for all of the species of an extinct order. We also present an important new geological/paleogeographical model of late Cenozoic NZ, which suggests that terrestrial biota on the North and South Island landmasses were isolated for most of the past 20–30 Ma. The data reveal that the patterns of genetic diversity within and between differentmoaclades reflect a complex history following a major marine transgression in the Oligocene, affected by marine barriers, tectonic activity, and glacial cycles. Surprisingly, the remarkable morphological radiation of moa appears to have occurred much more recently than previous early Miocene (ca. 15 Ma) estimates, and was coincident with the accelerated uplift of the Southern Alps just ca. 5–8.5 Ma. Together with recent fossil evidence, these data suggest that the recent evolutionary history of nearly all of the iconic NZ terrestrial biota occurred principally on just the South Island.

The evolutionary history of cockatoos (Aves: Psittaciformes: Cacatuidae)

Cockatoos are the distinctive family Cacatuidae, a major lineage of the order of parrots (Psittaciformes) and distributed throughout the Australasian region of the world. However, the evolutionary history of cockatoos is not well understood. We investigated the phylogeny of cockatoos based on three mitochondrial and three nuclear DNA genes obtained from 16 of 21 species of Cacatuidae. In addition, five novel mitochondrial genomes were used to estimate time of divergence and our estimates indicate Cacatuidae diverged from Psittacidae approximately 40.7 million years ago (95% CI 51.6–30.3 Ma) during the Eocene. Our data shows Cacatuidae began to diversify approximately 27.9 Ma (95% CI 38.1–18.3 Ma) during the Oligocene. The early to middle Miocene (20–10 Ma) was a significant period in the evolution of modern Australian environments and vegetation, in which a transformation from mainly mesic to xeric habitats (e.g., fire-adapted sclerophyll vegetation and grasslands) occurred. We hypothesize that this environmental transformation was a driving force behind the diversification of cockatoos. A detailed multi-locus molecular phylogeny enabled us to resolve the phylogenetic placements of the Palm Cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus), Galah (Eolophus roseicapillus), Gang-gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum) and Cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus), which have historically been difficult to place within Cacatuidae. When the molecular evidence is analysed in concert with morphology, it is clear that many of the cockatoo species’ diagnostic phenotypic traits such as plumage colour, body size, wing shape and bill morphology have evolved in parallel or convergently across lineages.

A new geological model of Cenozoic New Zealand suggests a complex phylogeographic history for New Zealand terrestrial taxa

The new model of North Island Cenozoic palaeogeography developed by Kamp et al. has a range of important implications for the evolution of New Zealand terrestrial taxa over the past 30 Ma. Key aspects include the prolonged isolation of the biota on the North Island landmass from the larger and more diverse greater South Island, and the founding of North Island taxa from the potentially unusual ecosystem of a small island around Northland. The prolonged period of isolation is expected to have generated deep phylogenetic splits within taxa present on both islands, and an important current aim should be to identify such signals in surviving endemics to start building a picture of the historical phylogeography, and inferred ecology of both islands through the Cenozoic. Given the potential differences in founding terrestrial species and climatic conditions, it seems likely that the ecology may have been very diferent between the North and South Islands. New genetic data from the 10 or so species of extinct moa suggest that the radiation of moa was much more recent than previously suggested, and reveals a complex pattern that is inferred to result from the interplay of the Cenozoic biogeography, marine barriers, and glacial cycles.

Informed learning in online environments : supporting the higher education curriculum beyond Web 2.0

As boundaries between physical and online learning spaces become increasingly blurred in higher education, how can students gain full benefit of Web 2.0 social media and mobile technologies for learning? How can we, as information professionals and educators, best support the information literacy learning needs of students who are universally mobile and Google-focused? This chapter presents informed learning (Bruce, 2008) as a pedagogical construct with potential to support learning across the higher education curriculum, for Web 2.0 and beyond. After outlining the principles of informed learning and how they may enrich the higher education curriculum, we explain the role of library and information professionals in promoting informed learning for Web 2.0 and beyond. Then, by way of illustration, we describe recent experience at an American university where librarians simultaneously learned about and applied informed learning principles in reshaping the information literacy program.

Optimising meritocratic advantage with the International Baccalaureate Diploma in Australian schools

This paper explores two of the tensions Tarc (2009) identifies in the history of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma: firstly between its design for meritocratic competition and its internationalist vision; and secondly between the IB as a global commodity and its localised interpretations. Using data from three case studies of Australian schools offering both the IB Diploma and the local government curriculum, and student responses to an online survey across 26 such schools, the analysis shows how choices behind the IB’s growing popularity foreground strategies for optimising meritocratic competition. Framed through Bourdieu’s concepts of field and ‘rules of the game’, the analysis shows how students act on their own comparative analyses of each curriculum to optimise their chances to access desirable university pathways within the local rules of the game for university placement. Schools are shown to offer the IB Diploma to recruit and retain academically ambitious students by pooling their relative advantage in different local ecologies. Students are shown to carefully evaluate the benefits and costs of the IB choice. The conclusion reflects on how the choice of the IB Diploma for meritocratic advantage by some might change conditions for others not choosing it.

Artful interviewing: Conducting oral history interviews for practice-led research

Recently, there has been an increased use of oral history as source material and inspiration for creative products, such as new media productions; visual art; theatre and fiction. The rise of the digital story in museum and library settings reflects a new emphasis on publishing oral histories in forms that are accessible and speak to diverse audiences. Visual artists are embracing oral history as a source of emotional, experiential and thematic authenticity (Anderson 2009 and Brown 2009). Rosemary Neill (2010) observes the rise of documentary and verbatim theatre — where the words of real people are reproduced on-stage — in Australia. Authors such as Dave Eggers (2006), M. J. Hyland (2009), Padma Viswanathan (2008) and Terry Whitebeach (2002) all acknowledge that interviews heavily inform their works of fiction. In such contexts, oral histories are not valued so much for their factual content but as sources that are at once dynamic, evolving, emotionally authentic and ambiguous. How can practice-led researchers design interviews that reflect this emphasis? In this paper, I will discuss how I developed an interview methodology for my own practice-led research project, The Artful Life Story: Oral History and Fiction. In my practice, I draw on oral histories to inform a work of fiction. I developed a methodology for eliciting sensory details and stories around place and the urban environment. I will also read an extract from ‘Evelyn on the Verandah,’ a short story based on an oral history interview with a 21 year-old woman who grew up in New Farm, which will be published in the One Book Many Brisbanes short story anthology in June this year (2010).

Teachers’ work in curricular markets : conditions of design and relations between the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the local curriculum

School level strategy enabled by neoliberal choice policies can produce internal curricular markets whereby branded curricula such as the International Baccalaureate are offered alongside the local government curriculum in the same school. This project investigated how such curricular markets operating in Australian schools impacted on teachers’ work. This paper reports on teachers work in three case study schools that offered both the International Baccalaureate Diploma program and the local senior schooling curriculum, then draws on an online survey of 225 teachers in 26 such schools across Australia. The analysis reveals the impact of curricular markets along two dimensions: the curriculum’s internal design; and the relational aspects of how schools manage to deliver tandem offerings within institutional constraints. Teachers working in the IBD Diploma program were shown to relish its design, despite additional demands, while teachers working in just the local curriculum reported more relational issues. The paper argues that these trends suggest that there are winners and losers emerging in the work conditions produced by curricular markets.