Supporting community, culture and collaboration with emerging e-Learning technologies

This thesis examined whether wikis, online lectures and Drupal could be used to support community, culture and collaboration in an e-Learning environment. A series of information technology usability studies informed the iterative development of the technologies, culminating in a framework for implementing e-Learning technologies to support community, culture and collaboration.

Culture and trade

This investigation emphasises the significant role socio-cultural considerations play in Australia's education sector initiatives in the Middle East, and the direct impact this has on wider Australian-Middle Eastern trade and strategic relations. In order to enhance these relations, there is an urgent need for Australia to develop a more sophisticated policy of engagement that moves away from historical and contemporary misconceptions.

Hybrid perspectives : defining the relativity of culture and identity through migration experiences

This paper examines how culture and identity can be relatively defined through hybrid perspectives in relation to migration experiences. Addressing and portraying definitions of culture and identity is crucial in understanding how notions of such issues connect and initiate the migrant subject through new experiences, perspectives and ways of being. In enunciating the transitions from home to a new place, and elaborating on the rupture of an inherited culture and grounded identity, I refer to them through self-reflexive perspectives. The search for meaning through appraisals of cultural lineage and linguistic capital through a Diaspora, a post colonial history and lived life experiences from my home country, pre-empts the ambivalent and hybrid status in defining culture(s) and identit(ies). It is crucial to recognise how challenges for adaptation to new culture, language, societal norms, and differences in class, nationality, race and gender play specific roles in the migrant experience. My current experiences of migration to Australia are narrations of encountered difficulties, fears, inhibitions, new aspirations, perceptions and perspectives, which map an ‘identity crisis.’ From this narrative structure, I investigate through my ongoing PhD study, how my artistic expression and representations progress towards experiences, and themes that metaphorically reflect, inspire and enact the hybrid structures of culture(s) and identit(ies). Explored reflexively my representations suggest how the ‘liminal space’ or the ‘third space,’ (Bhabha, 1990) express transitions about the ‘self’ and my artistic expression, which enable further reflection and positions to emerge and extend to metaphorical expressions.

Language, culture and health

This chapter provides an overview of the impact language and culture background can have on individuals' experience of illness and conceptualization of health. it also discusses cultural competency for health care personnel in the onctext of increasing diverse communities with specific reference to Australia and New Zealand.

Whose culture, where and why? – Identity, culture and artistic expression

This research addresses how the visual and artistic expression represents my cultures and gendered identities. My journey mapped cultural inheritances, ancestry and postcolonial influences from home country, my childhood memories, life experiences and migration transitions to Australia. A series of my artworks represent cultural markers, a sense of belonging, nostalgia and challenges of relocation. Findings support how art expression can forge ‘affective links’ and develop pedagogies for intercultural understanding through Art Education.

Culture and sex education : the acquisition of sexual knowledge for a group of Vietnamese Australian young women

This paper explores how a group of Vietnamese Australian young women acquire knowledge of sexual issues, and the impact the traditional Vietnamese culture has on the acquisition of this knowledge. It is based on a qualitative study that examined the factors which shape the sexual behaviour of Vietnamese Australian young women living in Australia. A Grounded Theory methodology was employed in this investigation, and involved in-depth interviews with 15 Vietnamese Australian young women aged 18-25 years, who reside in Victoria, Australia. The findings illustrated three key elements involved in the acquisition of knowledge of sexual issues: 'Accepting parental silence', 'Exploring sources of knowledge' and 'Needing culturally targeted information'. The young women desired discussion about sexual issues but accepted that cultural 'barriers' were formidable. Their desire conflicted with the traditional familial norm of 'silence' regarding sexual matters. Consequently, knowledge was sought outside the home, specifically from peers and the media. The importance of culturally appropriate and adequate sexual discussions for Vietnamese Australian young people was stressed, so that informed decisions could be made about their sexual lives. It is imperative for young people to have adequate and appropriate sexual education so that informed and safe sexual choices can be made. For young people from diverse cultural backgrounds, this education must be culturally appropriate and accessible, taking into consideration cultural mores regarding gender and sexual matters, as well as current beliefs in the 'mainstream' youth culture.

Is there an app for that? Looking at possibilities and challenges of digital tools for literacy education

 Portable electronic devices such as the iPad are increasingly taking a place in contemporary childhood experiences including those of schooling (O'Mara & Laidlaw, 2011). As digital media theorists suggest, such new tools invite both "hope and fear" (Gee and Hayes, 2011, p.4), consistent with literacy innovations across history. In both Canada and Australia, educational stakeholders are looking to touch screen devices as having much promise, particularly within literacy education. This paper presentation examines the possibilities as well as the challenges and imagines the future of such digital tools within literacy education, looking at experiences and perspectives in Canada and Australia.
We take a qualitative ecological mode of inquiry approach to our data collection and analysis, drawing on complexity thinking (Davis & Sumara, 2006) to bring our multiple points of view together as diversely positioned educators. Within our individual sites, each author has collected data as a part of longer-term research projects. In this paper presentation we compare and contrast these data sets, attending to significant intersections and juxtaposing issues of culture and globalization. Within this mode of inquiry we value the particularity of the individual contexts, and locate them alongside one another in a larger bricolage (Johnson, 2010).
We examined observational data, documents and artifacts using Freebody and Luke's (1990) four resources model and the further adaptions of this model (see e.g. Luke & Freebody, 1999) to understand how touch screen devices are being used and positioned as literacy tools. We have engaged in collaborative data analysis, often working 'together' using digital tools ourselves to enable collective conversations. For example, we have used Facetime on iPads and laptops, Skype and email to facilitate collective analyses. We applied iterative and recursive analyses to uncover reoccurring themes both within and across sites and artifacts.
As our paper will elaborate, mobile touch screen devices such as iPads are widely being taken up in educational settings, and regarded as having the possibility to shift teaching and learning in new directions, as "paradigm breakers" (p. 4, Gov't of AB, 2011). As personal, mobile devices, these tools present challenges that require educators to think differently about learning and teaching. Our paper also addresses the opportunities and affordances that iPads might offer to learners, as having the potential for students to engage in playful exploration, and in the role of designers, creators, and producers, rather than as passive recipients.

Organisational culture and cultural change: a network perspective

Organisational culture is a complex and heavily contested concept. Not only is it difficult to define what organisational culture is, but it is also very difficult to analyse how it guides and constrains behaviour, and whether and how organisational cultures change. The central argument of this article is that organisational networks can effect cultural change and that the terms ‘structural’ and ‘relational’, which are commonly used to conceptualise the properties of networks, may also provide a useful conceptual framework for understanding cultural change. While there has been some attention directed to the effects of organisational culture for networks, there has been very little attention placed on the potential for networks to shape organisational culture. Based on a detailed qualitative study of networks in the field of ‘high’ policing in Australia, the article draws on interviews with senior members of police and security agencies to explore organisational culture and cultural change. The article puts forward a network perspective on cultural change and aims to advance our knowledge of how security nodes can experience cultural change as they work together in and through networks.

Detection of Candida spp. in the vagina of a cohort of nulliparous pregnant women by culture and molecular methods: is there an association between maternal vaginal and infant oral colonisation?

BACKGROUND: Most studies describing vaginal Candida spp. in pregnancy focus on symptomatic vaginitis, rather than asymptomatic colonisation, and solely utilise microbiological culture. The extent to which asymptomatic vaginal carriage may represent a reservoir for infant oral colonisation has been highly debated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study formed part of the Candida and Staphylococcus Transmission Longitudinal Evaluation (CASTLE) study, in Melbourne, Australia, from 2009 to 2011 and used culture and molecular methods to examine vaginal swabs collected late in the third trimester of pregnancy for Candida spp. Oral swabs from infants were also examined using culture methods. RESULTS: Overall, 80 of 356 (22%) women were positive for Candida spp; the majority being Candida albicans (83%). Candida glabrata and other Candida spp. were also identified, but in much lower numbers. Molecular analysis identified numerous positive samples not detected by culture, including 13 cases of C. albicans. In addition, some positive samples only recorded to genus level by culture were accurately identified as either C. albicans or C. glabrata following molecular analyses. Eighteen infants recorded positive Candida spp. cultures, predominantly C. albicans. However, there were only four (25%) mother/infant dyads where C. albicans was detected. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides valuable data on asymptomatic colonisation rates of Candida spp. within an asymptomatic population of women late in pregnancy. The utilisation of molecular methods improved the rate of detection and provided a more accurate means for identification of non-albicans Candida spp. The low mother/infant colonisation rate suggests that non-maternal sources are likely involved in determining infant oral colonisation status.

Avoiding the subject media, culture and the object

"This is a collection of inter-related essays on the postmillennial mediascape. Focusing on the neglected significance of the object within today's discourse networks, Avoiding the Subject extends the formal possibilities of cultural criticism by highlighting feedback loops between philosophy, technology, and politics. Students and teachers of visual culture, critical theory, cultural studies, film theory, and new media will find a wealth of ideas and insights in this fresh approach to the electronic environment."--BOOK JACKET.