Introducing a mobile learning attitude scale for higher education

The Mobile Learning Scale v1 .0 consists of seven Likert items drawn from the key points developed for a paper on mobile learning prospects for informal learning in higher education (Khaddage & Knezek, 2011 ). Many of these points had been initially developed during the 2011 International Summit on ICT in Education (UNESCO, Paris, 2011 ), where the first author was Rapporteur for the working group Co-Chaired by the second author. In order to assess the performance of the instrument, data were gathered from 81 undergraduate and graduate university students during August and September of 2011. Data were assessed for strength of agreement on individual items and for internal consistency reliability of the seven item-scale. Initial indications are that the instrument has good reliability for university students (Alpha = .85) and can be useful for assessing attitudes toward mobile learning technologies and applications within the intended audience of higher education learners. Potential uses and plans for future research are discussed.

A direct insight into victims of cybercrime

With increasing popularity and 1.9 billion cumulative registered accounts, virtual worlds are seeing an increase in a cybercrime named Virtual Property Theft. Currently, there is no data available on victim's perception of reasons for this theft. In this study, the authors aim to identify these reasons, and fill the need for a deeper understanding of VPT. This study used a survey including questions on virtual property ownership, theft, recovery and security. This survey is the first to report the views of victims of theft and remarkably showed although users are aware of offenders and have adequate security knowledge, 23% still become victims. This highlights that cyber criminals have found loopholes in existing security systems. Finally, given the continual growth of virtual worlds, it is essential to develop new policies and effective regulations. In this paper we will discuss the most critical survey results relating to security and provide statistical analysis.

Spoken mathematics as a distinguishing characteristics of mathematics classrooms in different countries

This paper reports research into the occurrence of spoken mathematics in some well-taught classrooms in Australia, China (both Shanghai and Hong Kong), Japan, Korea and the USA. The analysis distinguished one classroom from another on the basis of public “oral interactivity” (the number of utterances in whole class and teacher-student interactions in each lesson) and “mathematical orality” (the frequency of occurrence of key mathematical terms in each lesson). Our concern in this analysis was to document the opportunity provided to students for the oral articulation of the relatively sophisticated mathematical terms that formed the conceptual content of the lesson. Classrooms characterized by high public oral interactivity were not necessarily sites of high mathematical orality. The contribution of student-student conversations also varied significantly. Of particular interest are the different learning theories implicit in the role accorded to spoken mathematics in each classroom.

Using second life to teach about marketing in second life

There are compelling reasons for educators to consider incorporating virtual worlds (VWs) in their marketing curriculum. That said, the ways in which VWs can be implemented into the teaching curriculum are many and varied. This article reports on two studies in which notionally similar graduate classes are taught about marketing in Second Life (SL). The degree of student and instructor immersion is intentionally varied: One class is taught entirely in SL, by a technically expert instructor, while novice/intermediate instructors teach the second class in an interactive tutorial setting. Taken together, these studies offer marketing educators insights into developing “full” and “lite” approaches to teaching in SL, thereby lowering the barrier to uptake of the technology by catering to a broader spectrum of both instructor and student competencies, interests, and abilities.

Thai cyber-actors : evidence of an Islamophobic effect

The long-standing Patani Muslim separatist resistance of Southern Thailand is not one that is well known, and its contemporaneous spill over onto the Internet even less so. The more radical Patani online propaganda is in fact symptomatic of the relocation of the struggle within the sphere of influence of global jihadism, distancing itself from the ethno-nationalism characteristic of a previous generation of fighters. New media propaganda, in particular Jihad 2.0, has opened a new sphere of influence to the Patani neojihadist movement, allowing the militants to expand their propaganda campaign to a wider audience, while reaching out to a younger Melayu public. While Jihad 2.0 has presented the resistance movement with new ways to diffuse its message, in a more innovative and appealing manner, it also has enabled it to engage with its audiences more interactively. Because the message is no longer linear, anyone can contribute to the dialectics of the struggle, which in fine results in the alteration and reshaping of its ideological discourse in unprecedented directions. Arguably the ‘glocalisation’ of Islamophobia within Thai culture has resulted in the alteration of the Thai cultural stereotype of the Muslim khaek ‘Other’, transforming the khaek into an evil violent Muslim, both in real and virtual worlds. This further leads to discriminatory attitudes and behaviours towards Muslims, which causes the hardening of the views of the online Patani community of support towards the Thais and possibly its radicalisation.

Results from Australia's 2014 report card on physical activity for children and youth

Background: 

Vascular access e-learning : the essentials

Objectives
Form a working group of renal vascular access nurses to develop peer reviewed, accessible, evidence based e-leaning modules related to vascular access principles and practice.

Key messages
Vascular access training and guidelines are often unit specific but the core principles of vascular access care are generally transferable. The vascular access e-learning module aims to utilize resources to minimize wasted time developing and keeping multiple individual vascular access training packages up to date.
Vascular access education is delivered from a variety of resources such as educators, senior staff and vascular access nurses. This e-learning module allows renal units the opportunity to provide a national learning package with general consensus on terminology and up to date evidence based practice.
Recently there has been a rise in the use of ultrasound to assess and perform image guided cannulation in vascular access to improve patient outcomes. There is only a small window of opportunity to provide education in ultrasound use. This module will provide education on this and other aspects of vascular access practices and patient care.

Implications for clinical practice
Implications include access to standardized learning packages based on current evidence based practice, eencouraging the utilization of new technology (e.g. Ultrasound observation and interpretation of results), reinforcing the underpinning knowledge of anatomy and physiology of vascular access, standardizing practice benefits to patients and nurses moving between dialysis units, improving accessibility by transitioning learning to smart phones and tablets and providing an opportunity for international collaboration related to vascular access e-learning concepts.

Community factors influencing child and adolescent depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: Depression has been identified as a priority disorder among children and adolescents. While numerous reviews have examined the individual and family factors that contribute to child and adolescent depressive symptoms, less is known about community-level risk and protective factors. The aim of this study was to complete a systematic review to identify community risk and protective factors for depression in school-aged children (4-18 years). METHOD: The review adopted the procedures recommended by the Cochrane Non-Randomised Studies Methods Working Group and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify both observational and intervention study designs in both peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed publications. RESULTS: A total of 21 studies met the inclusion criteria. Seventeen of the 18 community association studies and 2 of the 3 intervention studies reported one or more significant effects. Results indicated that community safety and community minority ethnicity and discrimination act as risk factors for depressive symptoms in school-aged children. Community disadvantage failed to achieve significance in meta-analytic results but findings suggest that the role of disadvantage may be influenced by other factors. Community connectedness was also not directly associated with depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: There is evidence that a number of potentially modifiable community-level risk and protective factors influence child and adolescent depressive symptoms suggesting the importance of continuing research and intervention efforts at the community-level.