Global classrooms : from telling the world to showing the world

Web 2.0 and online participatory media are becoming valuable resources for educators as we become more aware of the flexible and creative nature of such tools. This is opening up further opportunities for collaboration across classes, schools and countries where a global perspective on learning can support students in becoming active participants in the learning process. The purpose of this research study was to explore how social and participatory media could be used safely in the classroom to support a more global approach to learning. The objective was to design a framework for learning that provided students with opportunities to interact and to learn through formal projects, but also informally through online social interaction. This framework valued students’ funds of knowledge (Comber & Kamler, 2005; González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) and encouraged them to be active participants in their own learning and that of their peers. This article will focus on the global nature of the learning that took place while looking at instructional design and assessment processes. It will also highlight:
• Developing students into responsible global citizens;
• Increasing global awareness and perspectives;
• Building knowledge and understandings of those different to themselves;
• Valuing others and developing key critical skills and processes including empathy, fairness and cooperation.
This research provides a framework that integrates all of these aspects into the day-to-day classroom program within a wide range of curriculum content.

Islam's Modern Day Ibn Battutas: Gülen teachers journeying towards the divine

There is a longstanding debate on whether Muslims can be modern. Some argue that they can only be so if they forsake their traditions and embrace rationalism. In this article I argue that the Gülen Movement, a transnational Turkish Muslim educational activist network has found a middle ground by blending religious traditions with modern day realities. Drawing on interviews from the movement's teachers and graduates of its schools, from Turkey, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, I explore, through the prism of al-riḥla fī ṭalab al-ʿilm (travel in search of knowledge), their maintenance of the longstanding Islamic ritual of travel as a means of excelling both professionally and religiously. In turn, I demonstrate how the movement, on a number of levels, effectively reconciles the spiritual and the everyday through updating Islamic practices to better integrate themselves and other Muslims into a globalised world.

Within-and between-day associations between children's sitting and physical activity time

Background: The objective of this study was to examine whether increased levels of sitting time and physical activity in one period (within-day) or on one day (between-day) were predictive of lower levels in these behaviours in the following period or day among children. Methods: Children aged 8-11 years from 8 primary schools located in Melbourne, Australia, wore an activPAL for 7 consecutive days (n = 235; 53 % boys). Sitting, standing and stepping time were derived for each day and for specific periods on weekdays and weekend days. Multilevel analyses were conducted using generalised linear latent and mixed models to estimate associations between temporally adjacent values (i.e. pairs of days; pairs of periods within-days) between the outcome variables. Results: Significant associations were observed between temporally adjacent days and periods of the day. On any given day, an additional 10 min of stepping was associated with fewer minutes of stepping (~9 min; 95 % CI: -11.5 to -6.2 min) and standing (15 min; 95 % CI: -18.8 to -11.1 min) the following day. Greater time spent sitting during one period, regardless of being a weekday or weekend day, was associated with less time sitting and more time standing and stepping in the following period. Conclusions: The direction of the results suggest that children appeared to compensate for increased sitting, standing, and stepping time both within- and between-days. The implications of such associations for the design and delivery of interventions require consideration.

Extraordinary television time travel and the wonderful end to the working day

In this article I will present two arguments. First, the argument that the time travel television series historically provided viewers with a spectacular temporal and spatial alternative to the routine of everyday life, the regulation of television scheduling, and the small-world confines of domestic subjectivity. Taking the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, predominantly in a UK viewing environment, I will suggest that the special effect rendering of the time travel sequence expanded the viewer’s material universe, and affectively wrenched the television set free from the strictures of scheduling and realist programming. Further, the time travel series readily and regularly took the domestic space, the ordinary day and the everyman/ person into awesome environments and situations that suggested alternative lifestyles and behaviours, with a different existential tempo and rhythm. At a narrative, thematic, meta- textual, and aesthetically spectacular level, television time travel saw to the wonderful end of the working day. Case studies include Sapphire and Steal, Dr Who, and Quantum Leap. Second, the article will argue that rather than the contemporary time travel television series being an extraordinary alternative to ordinary life, they instead articulate convergence culture, deregulation, multiple channel viewing, and time-shift culture where there is no such thing as an ordinary working day or domestic viewing context.

Program outcomes in youth justice outcomes: the PLUS+ program review

This report provides a methodology to assess the outcomes of rehabilitation programs that are delivered to young offenders in South Australia. A method of assessing change is described that can be applied across a number of different programs, but is illustrated in relation to one particular program, the PLUS+ program. PLUS+ is a group-based cognitive skills program which employs cognitive-behavioural methods of problem-solving, skills-training, and self-management to rehabilitate young offenders. It is one of the most intensive and best established programs to have been implemented in South Australia. Based on a review of this program a number of recommendations are made to enhance the future delivery and evaluation of PLUS+.

A multimedia mobile phone-based youth smoking cessation intervention: findings from content development and piloting studies

BACKGROUND: While most young people who smoke want to quit, few access cessation support services. Mobile phone-based cessation programs are ideal for young people: mobile phones are the most common means of peer communication, and messages can be delivered in an anonymous manner, anywhere, anytime. Following the success of our text messaging smoking cessation program, we developed an innovative multimedia mobile phone smoking cessation intervention.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to develop and pilot test a youth-oriented multimedia smoking cessation intervention delivered solely by mobile phone.

METHODS: Development included creating content and building the technology platform. Content development was overseen by an expert group who advised on youth development principles, observational learning (from social cognitive theory), effective smoking cessation interventions, and social marketing. Young people participated in three content development phases (consultation via focus groups and an online survey, content pre-testing, and selection of role models). Video and text messages were then developed, incorporating the findings from this research. Information technology systems were established to support the delivery of the multimedia messages by mobile phone. A pilot study using an abbreviated 4-week program of video and text content tested the reliability of the systems and the acceptability of the intervention.

RESULTS: Approximately 180 young people participated in the consultation phase. There was a high priority placed on music for relaxation (75%) and an interest in interacting with others in the program (40% would read messages, 36% would read a blog). Findings from the pre-testing phase (n = 41) included the importance of selecting "real" and "honest" role models with believable stories, and an interest in animations (37%). Of the 15 participants who took part in the pilot study, 13 (87%) were available for follow-up interviews at 4 weeks: 12 participants liked the program or liked it most of the time and found the role model to be believable; 7 liked the role model video messages (5 were unsure); 8 used the extra assistance for cravings; and 9 were happy with two messages per day. Nine participants (60%) stopped smoking during the program. Some technical challenges were encountered during the pilot study.

CONCLUSIONS: A multimedia mobile phone smoking cessation program is technically feasible, and the content developed is appropriate for this medium and is acceptable to our target population. These results have informed the design of a 6-month intervention currently being evaluated for its effectiveness in increasing smoking cessation rates in young people.