A new educational technology for media and communication studies : mapping media in Australia and Sweden

This chapter reports on Australian and Swedish experiences in the iterative design, development, and ongoing use of interactive educational systems we call ‘Media Maps.’ Like maps in general, Media Maps are usefully understood as complex cultural technologies; that is, they are not only physical objects, tools and artefacts, but also information creation and distribution technologies, the use and development of which are embedded in systems of knowledge and social meaning. Drawing upon Australian and Swedish experiences with one Media Map technology, this paper illustrates this three-layered approach to the development of media mapping. It shows how media mapping is being used to create authentic learning experiences for students preparing for work in the rapidly evolving media and communication industries. We also contextualise media mapping as a response to various challenges for curriculum and learning design in Media and Communication Studies that arise from shifts in tertiary education policy in a global knowledge economy.

Libr@ries : changing information space and practice

This volume examines the social, cultural, and political implications of the shift from traditional forms of print-based libraries to the delivery of online information in educational contexts. Despite the central role of libraries in literacy and learning, research of them has, in the main, remained isolated within the disciplinary boundaries of information and library science. By contrast, this book problematizes and thereby mainstreams the field. It brings together scholars from a wide range of academic fields to explore the dislodging of library discourse from its longstanding apolitical, modernist paradigm. Collectively, the authors interrogate the presuppositions of current library practice and examine how library as place and library as space blend together in ways that may be both complementary and contradictory. Seeking a suitable term to designate this rapidly evolving and much contested development, the editors devised the word “libr@ary,” and use the term arobase to signify the conditions of formation of new libraries within contexts of space, knowledge, and capital.

Semantic oscillations : encoding context and structure in complex valued holographic vectors

In computational linguistics, information retrieval and applied cognition, words and concepts are often represented as vectors in high dimensional spaces computed from a corpus of text. These high dimensional spaces are often referred to as Semantic Spaces. We describe a novel and efficient approach to computing these semantic spaces via the use of complex valued vector representations. We report on the practical implementation of the proposed method and some associated experiments. We also briefly discuss how the proposed system relates to previous theoretical work in Information Retrieval and Quantum Mechanics and how the notions of probability, logic and geometry are integrated within a single Hilbert space representation. In this sense the proposed system has more general application and gives rise to a variety of opportunities for future research.

Down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass: A conception of information seeking and searching through a diary study.

Information behaviour (IB) is an area within Library and Information Science that studies the totality of human behaviour in relation to information, both active and passive, along with the explicit and the tacit mental states related to information. This study reports on a recently completed dissertation research that integrates the different models of information behaviours using a diary study where 34 participants maintained a daily journal for two weeks through a web log or paper diary. This resulted in thick descriptions of IB, which were manually analysed using the Grounded Theory method of inquiry, and then cross-referenced through both text-analysis and statistical analysis programs. Among the many key findings of this study, one is the focus this paper: how participants express their feelings of the information seeking process and their mental and affective states related specifically to the sense-making component which co-occurs with almost every other aspect of information behaviour. The paper title – Down the Rabbit Hole and Through the Looking Glass – refers to an observation that some of the participants made in their journals when they searched for, or avoided information, and wrote that they felt like they have fallen into a rabbit hole where nothing made sense, and reported both positive feelings of surprise and amazement, and negative feelings of confusion, puzzlement, apprehensiveness, frustration, stress, ambiguity, and fatigue. The study situates this sense-making aspects of IB within an overarching model of information behaviour that includes IB concepts like monitoring information, encountering information, information seeking and searching, flow, multitasking, information grounds, information horizons, and more, and proposes an integrated model of information behaviour illuminating how these different concepts are interleaved and inter-connected with each other, along with it's implications for information services.

An observational study of how objects support engineering design thinking and communication : implications for the design of tangible media

There has been an increasing interest in objects within the HCI field particularly with a view to designing tangible interfaces. However, little is known about how people make sense of objects and how objects support thinking. This paper presents a study of groups of engineers using physical objects to prototype designs, and articulates the roles that physical objects play in supporting their design thinking and communications. The study finds that design thinking is heavily dependent upon physical objects, that designers are active and opportunistic in seeking out physical props and that the interpretation and use of an object depends heavily on the activity. The paper discusses the trade-offs that designers make between speed and accuracy of models, and specificity and generality in choice of representations. Implications for design of tangible interfaces are discussed.

Intelligent computing and sensing for active safety on construction sites

On obstacle-cluttered construction sites where heavy equipment is in use, safety issues are of major concern. The main objective of this paper is to develop a framework with algorithms for obstacle avoidance and path planning based on real-time three-dimensional job site models to improve safety during equipment operation. These algorithms have the potential to prevent collisions between heavy equipment vehicles and other on-site objects. In this study, algorithms were developed for image data acquisition, real-time 3D spatial modeling, obstacle avoidance, and shortest path finding and were all integrated to construct a comprehensive collision-free path. Preliminary research results show that the proposed approach is feasible and has the potential to be used as an active safety feature for heavy equipment.

The internetalisation of information, knowledge and interaction components of the firm’s internationalisation process

Transcending traditional national borders, the Internet is an evolving technology that has opened up many new international market opportunities. However, ambiguity remains, with limited research and understanding of how the Internet influences the firm’s internationalisation process components. As a consequence, there has been a call for further investigation of the phenomenon. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the Internet’s impact on the internationalisation process components, specifically, information availability, information usage, interactive communication and international market growth. Analysis was undertaken using structural equation modelling. Findings highlight the mediating impact of the Internet on information and knowledge transference in the internationalisation process. Contributions of the study test conceptualisations and give statistical validation of interrelationships, while illuminating the Internet’s impact on firm internationalisation.

Scalability of encryption techniques for electronic health record (EHR) retrieval

Electronic Health Record (EHR) retrieval processes are complex demanding Information Technology (IT) resources exponentially in particular memory usage. Database-as-a-service (DAS) model approach is proposed to meet the scalability factor of EHR retrieval processes. A simulation study using ranged of EHR records with DAS model was presented. The bucket-indexing model incorporated partitioning fields and bloom filters in a Singleton design pattern were used to implement custom database encryption system. It effectively provided faster responses in the range query compared to different types of queries used such as aggregation queries among the DAS, built-in encryption and the plain-text DBMS. The study also presented with constraints around the approach should consider for other practical applications.

Democracy, Crime and Justice. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences

As a growing number of nations embark on a path to democracy, criminologists have become increasingly interested and engaged in the challenges, concerns, and questions connecting democracy with both crime and criminal justice. Rising levels of violence and street crime, white collar crime and corruption both in countries where democracy is securely in place and where it is struggling, have fuelled a deepening skepticism as to the capacity of democracy to deliver on its promise of security and justice for all citizens. What role does crime and criminal justice play in the future of democracy and for democratic political development on a global level? The editors of this special volume of The Annals realized the importance of collecting research from a broad spectrum of countries and covering a range of problems that affect citizens, politicians, and criminal justice officials. The articles here represent a solid balance between mature democracies like the U.S. and U.K. as well as emerging democracies around the globe – specifically in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. They are based on large and small cross-national samples, regional comparisons, and case studies. Each contribution addresses a seminal question for the future of democratic political development across the globe. What is the role of criminal justice in the process of building democracy and instilling confidence in its institutions? Is there a role for unions in democratizing police forces? What is the impact of widespread disenfranchisement of felons on democratic citizenship and the life of democratic institutions? Under what circumstances do mature democracies adopt punitive sentencing regimes? Addressing sensitive topics such as relations between police and the Muslim communities of Western Europe in the wake of terrorist attacks, this volume also sheds light on the effects of terrorism on mature democracies under increasing pressure to provide security for their citizens. By taking a broad vantage point, this collection of research delves into complex topics such as the relationship between the process of democratization and violent crime waves; the impact of rising crime rates on newly established as well as secure democracies; how crime may endanger the transition to democracy; and how existing practices of criminal justice in mature democracies affect their core values and institutions. The collection of these insightful articles not only begins to fill a gap in criminological research but also addresses issues of critical interest to political scientists as well as other social and behavioral scientists and scholars. Taking a fresh approach to the intersection of crime, criminal justice, and democracy, this volume of The Annals is a must-read for criminologists and political scientists and provides a solid foundation for further interdisciplinary research.

Personalised information gathering and recommender systems : techniques and trends

With the explosive growth of resources available through the Internet, information mismatching and overload have become a severe concern to users. Web users are commonly overwhelmed by huge volume of information and are faced with the challenge of finding the most relevant and reliable information in a timely manner. Personalised information gathering and recommender systems represent state-of-the-art tools for efficient selection of the most relevant and reliable information resources, and the interest in such systems has increased dramatically over the last few years. However, web personalization has not yet been well-exploited; difficulties arise while selecting resources through recommender systems from a technological and social perspective. Aiming to promote high quality research in order to overcome these challenges, this paper provides a comprehensive survey on the recent work and achievements in the areas of personalised web information gathering and recommender systems. The report covers concept-based techniques exploited in personalised information gathering and recommender systems.

Conflict and communication among engineers

The trend of cultural diversity is increasing in all organizations, especially engineering ones, due to globalization, mergers, joint ventures and the movement of the workforce. The collaborative nature of projects in engineering industries requires long-term teamwork between local and international engineers. Research confirms a specific culture among engineering companies that isassumed to have a negative effect on collaboration and communication among co-workers. Multicultural workplaces have been reported as challenging environments in the engineering work culture, which calls for more research among engineering organizations. An everyday challenge for co-workers, especially in culturally diverse contexts, is handling interpersonal conflict. This perceived conflict among individuals can happen because of actual differences in tasks or relationships. Research demonstrates that task conflict at the group level has some positive effects on decision-making and innovation, while it has negative effects on employees’ work attitude and performance. However, relationship conflict at the individual level has only negative effects including frustration, tension, low job satisfaction, high employee turnover and low productivity. Outcomes of both task and relationship conflict at individual level can have long-term negative consequences like damaged organizational commitment. One of the most important sources of differences between individuals, which results in conflict, is their cultural backgrounds. First, this thesis suggests that in culturally diverse workplaces, people perceive more relationship conflict than task conflict. Second, this thesis examines interpersonal communication in culturally diverse work places. Communicating effectively in culturally diverse workplaces is crucial for today’s business. Culture has a large effect on the ways that people communicate with each other. Ineffective communication can escalate interpersonal conflict and cause frustration in the long term. Communication satisfaction, defined as enjoying the communication and feeling that the communication was appropriate and effective, has a positive effect on individuals’ psychological wellbeing. In a culturally diverse workplace, it is assumed that individuals feel less satisfied with their interpersonal communications because of their lack of knowledge about other cultures’ communication norms. To manage interpersonal interactions, many authors suggest that individuals need a specific capability, i.e., cultural intelligence (some studies use cultural competence, global intelligence or intercultural competence interchangeably). Some authors argue that cultures are synergic and convergent and the postmodernist definition of culture is just our dominant beliefs. However, other authors suggest that cultural intelligence is the strongest and most comprehensive competency for managing cross-cultural interactions, because various cultures differ so greatly at the micro level. This thesis argues that individuals with a high level of cultural intelligence perceive less interpersonal conflict and more satisfaction with their interpersonal communication. Third, this thesis also looks at individuals' perception of cultural diversity. It is suggested that level of cultural diversity plays a moderating role on all of the proposed relationships (effect of cultural intelligence on perception of relationship conflict/ communication satisfaction) This thesis examines the relationship among cultural diversity, cultural intelligence, interpersonal conflict and communication by surveying eleven companies in the oil and gas industry. The multicultural nature of companies within the oil and gas industry and the characteristics of engineering culture call for more in-depth research on interpersonal interactions. A total of 286 invitation emails were sent and 118 respondents replied to the survey, giving a 41.26 per cent response rate. All the respondents were engineers, engineering managers or practical technicians. The average age of the participants was 36.93 years and 58.82 per cent were male. Overall, 47.6 per cent of the respondents had at least a master’s degree. Totally, 42.85 per cent of the respondents were working in a country that was not their country of birth. The overall findings reveal that cultural diversity and cultural intelligence significantly influence interpersonal conflict and communication satisfaction. Further, this thesis also finds that cultural intelligence is an effective competency for dealing with the perception of interpersonal relationship conflict and communication satisfaction when the level of cultural diversity is moderate to high. This thesis suggests that cultural intelligence training is necessary to increase the level of this competency among employees in order to help them to have better understanding of other cultures. Human resource management can design these training courses with consideration for the level of cultural diversity within the organization.

Embedding graphic organisers in the teaching and learning of family and consumer sciences (home economics) in Kuwait

Educational reforms currently being enacted in Kuwaiti Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) in response to contemporary demands for increased student-centred teaching and learning are challenging for FCS teachers due to their limited experience with student-centred learning tools such as Graphic Organisers (GOs). To adopt these reforms, Kuwaiti teachers require a better understanding of and competency in promoting cognitive learning processes that will maximise student-centred learning approaches. This study followed the experiences of four Grade 6 FCS Kuwaiti teachers as they undertook a Professional Development (PD) program specifically designed to advance their understanding of the use of GOs and then as they implemented what they had learned in their Grade 6 FCS classroom. The PD program developed for this study was informed by Nasseh.s competency PD model as well as Piaget and Ausubel.s cognitive theories. This model enabled an assessment and evaluation of the development of the teachers. competencies as an outcome of the PD program in terms of the adoption of GOs, in particular, and their capacity to use GOs to engage students in personalised, in-depth, learning through critical thinking and understanding. The research revealed that the PD program was influential in reforming the teachers. learning, understanding of and competency in, cognitive and visual theories of learning, so that they facilitated student-centred teaching and learning processes that enabled students to adopt and adapt GOs in constructivist learning. The implementation of five GOs - Flow Chart, Concept Maps, K-W-L Chart, Fishbone Diagram and Venn Diagram - as learning tools in classrooms was investigated to find if changes in pedagogical approach for supporting conceptual learning through cognitive information processing would reduce the cognitive work load of students and produce better learning approaches. The study as evidenced by the participant teachers. responses and classroom observations, showed a marked increase in student interest, participation, critical thought, problem solving skills, as a result of using GOs, compared to using traditional teaching and learning methods. A theoretical model was developed from the study based on the premise that teachers. knowledge of the subject, pedagogy and student learning precede the implementation of student-centred learning reform, that it plays an important role in the implementation of student-centred learning and that it brings about a change in teaching practice. The model affirmed that observed change in teaching-practice included aspects of teachers. beliefs, as well as confidence and effect on workplace and on student learning, including engagement, understanding, critical thinking and problem solving. The model assumed that change in teaching practice is inseparable from teachers. lifelong PD needs related to knowledge, understanding, skills and competency. These findings produced a set of preliminary guidelines for establishing student-centred constructivist strategies in Kuwaiti education while retaining Kuwait.s cultural uniqueness.

Monitoring policy and actions on food environments : rationale and outline of the INFORMAS policy engagement and communication strategies

The International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) proposes to collect performance indicators on food policies, actions and environments related to obesity and non-communicable diseases. This paper reviews existing communications strategies used for performance indicators and proposes the approach to be taken for INFORMAS. Twenty-seven scoring and rating tools were identified in various fields of public health including alcohol, tobacco, physical activity, infant feeding and food environments. These were compared based on the types of indicators used and how they were quantified, scoring methods, presentation and the communication and reporting strategies used. There are several implications of these analyses for INFORMAS: the ratings/benchmarking approach is very commonly used, presumably because it is an effective way to communicate progress and stimulate action, although this has not been formally evaluated; the tools used must be trustworthy, pragmatic and policy-relevant; multiple channels of communication will be needed; communications need to be tailored and targeted to decision-makers; data and methods should be freely accessible. The proposed communications strategy for INFORMAS has been built around these lessons to ensure that INFORMAS's outputs have the greatest chance of being used to improve food environments.

Health information literacy and ageing Australians : applications for practice

This practice framework is designed for health practitioners and allied health care workers. The framework provides empirically-based descriptions of ageing Australians’ experiences of health information literacy and suggests how these may provide a foundation for helping ageing Australians enhance their health information literacy. Health information literacy is understood here to be people’s use of relevant information to learn about health.