Narrative structure analysis with education and training videos for e-learning

This paper deals with the problem ofstructuralizing education and training videos for high-level semantics extraction and nonlinear media presentation in e-learning applications. Drawing guidance from production knowledge in instructional media, we propose six main narrative structures employed in education and training videos for both motivation and demonstration during learning and practical training. We devise a powerful audiovisual feature set, accompanied by a hierarchical decision tree-based classification system to determine and discriminate between these structures. Based on a two-liered hierarchical model, we demonstrate that we can achieve an accuracy of 84.7% on a comprehensive set of education and training video data.

The role of Australia's public broadcasters in development and democracy

In this article I investigate the ways in which the ABC and SBS use the internet. I predominantly focus on how the public broadcasters’ promote an informed citizenry though participation online. Such online participation further develops a second vital role of public broadcasting which is to develop a sense of nationhood—through Australian content (which can include information and communication in languages other than English) and which provides for local and international communities in rural and metropolitan areas to engage with each other. In order to understand the capacity for the public broadcasters to enhance online public communication and democratic participation, I firstly examine general internet theory and evaluate how liberating the internet has been for those living in countries where the state and political alliances control traditional broadcast and print media. For this analysis, the key aspects of virtual communication and cyber-democracy are explored as they are relevant to the services the public broadcasters could provide. Furthermore, case examples of current practical work undertaken in these areas are examined. The framework of the ‘virtual agora’ is considered because it represents the ideals of a public sphere in cyberspace where people are currently able to discuss and debate key issues. The theory is then related to activities undertaken through the ‘vortals’ of the ABC and SBS. Finally, the extent of political intervention and commercial influence is evaluated.

Family-centred practice : empowerment, self-efficacy, and challenges for practitioners in early childhood education and care

Family-centred practice has been included in the Victoria, Australia Early Years Learning and Development Framework as a key practice principle for professionals working across all early years programs in that state. While this model of partnership for engaging and collaborating with families has long been used in the early intervention sector, the efficacy of adopting this model more widely across the wider early childhood education and care sector has not been explored. This article presents a discussion on family-centred practice as a model for engaging with families in the care and education of their children. Through an analysis of the underlying philosophy and an examination of the core principles and characteristics, the article explores family-centred practice as it sits within a broader theory of partnership. This analysis identifies that while there are essential principles and characteristics that position the model within a partnership framework, it is the notion of empowerment, an underpinning philosophy guiding the model, that adds another dimension to the way practitioners in early childhood education and care settings collaborate with families. In examining the broader early childhood context, the capacity of many early childhood practitioners to effectively implement empowering behaviours is challenged.

Partnerships in early childhood education and care : empowering parents or empowering practitioners

Research acknowledges that outcomes for young children are enhanced when effective partnerships are developed between educators and families. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework provides direction for the professional practice of early childhood educators by acknowledging the importance of educators working in partnership with families. In the Victorian state-based early years framework, family-centred practice has been included as the practice model. Family-centred practice has as its core a philosophy of professionals supporting the empowerment of parents as active decision makers for their child. The early childhood education and care sector in Australia, however, is made up of a workforce which is largely perceived as being undervalued as a profession. This raises questions as to the capacity of these educators to support the empowerment of parents when they themselves are coming from a position of disempowerment due to their professional status. This article reports on findings from a small-scale study of childhood educators working in a long day-care setting which aimed to identify perceptions of the partnerships that exist between themselves and parents. In the course of the investigation, it became evident that some of educators felt disempowered in the relationships that exist with some families.

Semiotic, rhetoric and democracy

This paper unites Deely’s call for a better understanding of semiotics with Jaeger’s insight into the sophists and the cultural history of the Ancient Greeks. The two bodies of knowledge are brought together to try to better understand the importance of rhetorical processes to political forms such as democracy. Jaeger explains how cultural expression, particularly poetry, changed through the archaic and classical eras to deliver, or at least to be commensurate with contemporary politics and ideologies. He explains how Plato (429-347 BCE) struggled against certain poetry and prose manifestations in his ambition to create a ‘perfect man’ – a humanity which would think in a way which would enable the ideal Republic to flourish. Deely’s approach based on Poinsot and Peirce presents a theoretical framework by means of which we can think of the struggle to influence individual and communal conceptualisation as a struggle within semiotics. This is a struggle over the ways reality is signified by signs. Signs are physical and mental indications which, in the semiotic tradition, are taken to produce human subjectivity – human ‘being’. Deely’s extensive body of work is about how these signs are the building blocks of realist constructions of understanding. This paper is concerned with the deliberate use of oral and written signs in rhetorical activity which has been deliberately crafted to change subjectivity. We discuss: (1) what thought and culture is in terms of semiotics and (2) Jaeger’s depiction of Ancient Greece as an illustration of the conjunction between culture and subjectivity. These two fields are brought together in order to make the argument that rhetoric can be theorised as the deliberate harnessing of semiotic affects. The implication is that the same semiotic, subjectivity-changing potency holds for 21st century rhetoric. However fourth century BCE Athens is the best setting for a preliminary discussion of rhetoric as deliberate semiotic practice because this was when rhetoric was most clearly understood for what it is. By contrast a discussion concentrating on modern rhetoric: public relations; advertising; lobbying; and public affairs would open wider controversies requiring considerably more complex explanation.

Building capacity in sexuality education : The Northern Bay College experience : Report of the first phase of the sexuality education and community support (SECS) project

The Sexuality Education and Community Support (SECS) project aims to introduce a P-12 approach to sexuality education at Northern Bay P-12 College (NBC) through a collaborative partnership process between the schools within the College and local, regional, and state health and education agencies and has set out to change current sexual health education practice in the College and assist other schools in the region to do the same. The Project’s goal is a ‘sustainable, responsive, whole school, regionally consistent, best practice sexuality education’. During this first or establishment phase of the SECS project strategies have been implemented to begin the process of building capacity in sexuality education at NBC. These strategies are aimed at developing a sustainable approach during the next three and a half years.

Chronic disease and impairment among Alaska native elders : the Alaska Education and Research Towards Health (EARTH) study

Background: Chronic diseases and impairments are prevalent among older Americans. However, prevalence data for Alaska Native (AN) elders are limited, with estimates usually extrapolated from national studies in which AN elders may not be well-represented. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of selected chronic diseases, impairments, and measured medical risk factors among a large community sample of AN elders.

Methods: Design, setting, and participants. A community-based cross-sectional study of baseline information from 656 AN elders aged 55 years or over who participated in the Alaska Education and Research Towards Health (EARTH) Study, March 2004 to August 2006. Measurements. Self-reported lifetime prevalence of 17 doctor-diagnosed chronic diseases, and point prevalence of vision, hearing, oral, and general health impairment were estimated from data collected using audio computer-assisted self-administered questionnaires. In addition, height, weight, blood pressure, fasting blood lipids, and fasting blood glucose levels were measured.

Results: The four most prevalent chronic diseases among AN elders were high blood pressure (55%), arthritis (49%), high cholesterol (42%), and adult bone fracture/break (35%). The median number of chronic diseases reported was three (inter-quartile range, 2 to 5). The prevalence of self-reported vision impairment was 15%, hearing impairment 18%, and having had all natural teeth removed 25%. Almost 50% were obese. High blood pressure (systolic ≥ 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic ≥ 90 mm Hg) was measured in 23%, high low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (≥ 130 mg/dL) in 39%, and high fasting plasma glucose (> 125 mg/dL) in 9%. Obesity was more prevalent among women than men. There were also significant regional differences in rates of obesity and high LDL cholesterol.

Conclusion: These data may be useful in public health programs and health services planning.

Constructions of education and resistance within popular feminist commentary on girls and sexualisation

We are currently witnessing a renewed vigour to ongoing concerns about the sexualisation of young women and girls in western popular culture. This paper takes up Angela McRobbie’s concerns that the commercial sphere has become a primary site for talking about, and educating, girls and young women (McRobbie, 2008). I first explore the growth in ‘expert’ commentary, on girls and sexualisation, drawing on the work of a number of commentators and authors from the USA, the UK and Australia, who have become ubiquitous media commentators on issues facing girls, including sexualisation. I then draw on feminist and education theory to explore the possible limitations of how education is conceived within this cultural site, particularly with respect to constructions of girls’ resistance. In the final part of the paper I show how girls’ resistance is complicated in postfeminist, neoliberal societies and I propose that education scholarship and practice must confront the ways in which girls’ resistance is bound up in their developing classed and raced identities.

Bilingual education and the language of news

This paper presents evidence that shows for the first time that news media influence was a significant factor in the decision to dismantle the Northern Territory’s bilingual education policy in 2008. It identifies and discusses five media-related overlays that have affected public discussion and policymaking during the life of the policy. They include the media’s role in informing public understanding of the policy; media representation of Indigenous peoples and issues; the relationship between policymaking and journalism in general; neo-liberal discourses about education, especially literacy; and the reporting practices of journalists who have covered the issue. It draws on relevant literature, the history of the policy and interviews conducted for the Australian News Media and Indigenous Policymaking 1988-2008 ARC Discovery Project to interpret some of the connections and disconnections between these overlays and bilingual education policy. This analysis suggests that the news media exerted a complex and uneven range of influences on the 2008 decision to dismantle Australia’s first and most enduring policy of Indigenous self-determination.