Data rich digital architectural environments

The development of data rich digital environments for the construction industry has been problematic despite the initial optimism when their application to design and construction was first considered. This paper reviews the current state of the art research into the application of information technology in design and construction and identifies the more critical issues in its adoption. In conclusion the paper then proposes a preliminary theoretical model being developed as a research tool for investigation into highly detailed information flows in a case study building renovation project. This investigation aims to track the detailed information flows and knowledge system used by the stakeholders in the building project.

Innovating from the inside: teacher influence and the 'promisingness' of digital learning environments

In line with global trends, Australian educational policy emphatically recognises the need for contemporary learners to be digitally literate, with provision of 'one-to-one' devices to individual learners in schools a major implementation strategy. However, without teacher commitment, the benefits of such investment in one-to-one programs are undermined and the devices themselves are under-utilised. Too often, the focus on hardware is not accompanied by insight into the organisational learning and change required in pedagogical practices. In the knowledge that curriculum and pedagogical renewal rests squarely with teachers and leaders rather than with technological hardware and software per se, this article draws on outcomes/findings from a school/university ethnographic collaboration which closely explored the introduction of a school-funded, one-to-one netbook program in a school excluded from a state-wide initiative. It seeks to make visible the often overlooked work of teachers as members of learning organisations through a narrative of change. The narrative focuses on teacher agency and capacity to mobilise a school community to commit to a vision of; no-blame risk taking; collective professional learning; the power of purpose and passion; leadership in the face of government practice which disempowered teachers and disadvantaged students; and the development of an innovation 'from the inside'.

Strangely familiar: teacher-researchers rethinking literacy pedagogies in digital environments

This article reports on a collaborative project between middle school teachers and university researchers exploring the impact of a one to one netbook program on literacy teaching and learning at one Australian primary school. Following the traditions of ethnographic classroom research and practitioner research in literacy, we describe and analyse the evolution of teacher knowledge and understandings informing the processes of reshaping print based literacy pedagogies and practices within digital learning environments. The study sought to explore the possibilities of one-to-one computing through an investigation of the affordances of digital literacy pedagogies within an open plan learning environment. We focus on the richness of ethnographic tools, in particular visual ethnographic methods, for "making the familiar strange" and identify contexts supporting the emergence of innovative digital literacy pedagogies and powerful professional learning in primary classrooms. Drawing on surveys, interviews and conversations with teachers and students and classroom observations, we suggest that dialogues between teachers and researchers provide a forum for co-construction of insights into innovative digital literacy pedagogies and offer rich learning opportunities for students, teachers and researchers.

Multimodal literacy, digital games and curriculum

Digital games offer enormous potential for learning and engagement in mathematics ideas and processes. This volume offers multidisciplinary perspectives—of educators, cognitive scientists, psychologists and sociologists—on how digital games influence the social activities and mathematical ideas of learners/gamers. Contributing authors identify opportunities for broadening current understandings of how mathematical ideas are fostered (and embedded) within digital game environments. In particular, the volume advocates for new and different ways of thinking about mathematics in our digital age—proposing that these mathematical ideas and numeracy practices are distinct from new literacies or multiliteracies. The authors acknowledge that the promise of digital games has not always been realised/fulfilled. There is emerging, and considerable, evidence to suggest that traditional discipline boundaries restrict opportunities for mathematical learning. Throughout the book, what constitutes mathematics learnings and pedagogy is contested. Multidisciplinary viewpoints are used to describe and understand the potential of digital games for learning mathematics and identify current tensions within the field.Mathematics learning is defined as being about problem solving; engagement in mathematical ideas and processes; and social engagement. The artefact, which is the game, shapes the ways in which the gamers engage with the social activity of gaming. In parallel, the book (as a textual artefact) will be supported by Springer’s online platform—allowing for video and digital communication (including links to relevant websites) to be used as supplementary material and establish a dynamic communication space.

Environmental management system and electronic communication : Is it the need of the hour?

Implementation and certification of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) is a reality for many businesses. Communication with an organisation’s stakeholders is a required element of any EMS. In the last five years companies have steadily moved towards integrating their different management systems, such as quality, environmental, and occupational health and safety, in an attempt to reduce their costs and increase efficiency. Legislation requires extensive reporting in each of these areas, so compliance is another important driver. During this period, communication by digital technology, or electronic communication, has gained prominence and acceptance amongst all groups of people including businesses primarily as a means to disseminate crucial EMS information to geographically diverse employees in a cost effective and instantaneous manner. Some perspectives have emerged to suggest that change processes in organisations may be hindered or helped in various ways through the application of digital technology in EMS. There are, however, gaps in the literature that document the impact and effectiveness of electronic communication amongst EMS stakeholders. In this paper we will discuss employees as one of the major stakeholders and whether the move to electronic communication has been assisting or hindering transformations in awareness and understanding of issues amongst employees. We highlight opportunities and challenges presented by an increased use of electronic communication in light of the environmental and climate change debates, which underpin EMS.

Delivering categorized news items using RSS feeds and web services

In the past decade the massive growth of the Internet brought huge changes in the way humans live their daily life; however, the biggest concern with rapid growth of digital information is how to efficiently manage and filter unwanted data. In this paper, we propose a method for managing RSS feeds from various news websites. A Web service was developed to provide filtered news items extracted from RSS feeds and these were categorized based on classical text categorization algorithms. A client application consuming this Web service retrieves and displays such filtered information. A prototype was implemented using Rapidminer 4.3 as a data mining tool and SVM as a classification algorithm. Experimental results suggest that the proposed method is effective and saves a significant amount of user processing time.

Empirical investigation of critical success factors for implementing business intelligence systems in multiple engineering asset management organisations

Engineering asset management organisations (EAMOs) are increasingly motivated to implement business intelligence (BI) systems in response to dispersed information environments and compliance requirements. However, the implementation of a business intelligence (BI) system is a complex undertaking requiring considerable resources. Yet, so far, there are few defined critical success factors (CSFs) to which management can refer. Drawing on the CSFs framework derived from a previous Delphi study, a multiple-case design was used to examine how these CSFs could be implemented by five EAMOs. The case studies substantiate the construct and applicability of the CSFs framework. These CSFs are: committed management support and sponsorship, a clear vision and well-established business case, business-centric championship and balanced team composition, a business-driven and iterative develop ment approach, user-oriented change management, a business-driven, scalable and flexible technical framework, and sustainable data quality and integrity. More significantly, the study further reveals that those organisations which address the CSFs from a business orientation approach will be more likely to achieve better results.

Novel applications and research problems for sensor-clouds

Recent developments in sensor networks and cloud computing saw the emergence of a new platform called sensor-clouds. While the proposition of such a platform is to virtualise the management of physical sensor devices, we foresee novel applications being created based on a new class of social sensors. Social sensors are effectively a human-device combination that sends torrents of data as a result of social interactions. The data generated appear in different formats such as photographs, videos, or short texts, etc. Unlike other sensor devices, social sensors operate on the control of individuals via their mobile devices like smart phones, tablets or laptops. Further, they do not generate data at a constant rate or format like other sensors do. Instead, data from social sensors are spurious and varied, often in response to social events, or a news announcement of interests to the public. This collective presence of social data creates opportunities for novel applications never experienced before. This paper discusses three such applications utilising social sensors within a sensor-cloud environment. Consequently, the associated research problems are also presented.

Embedded library services : beyond chance encounters for students from low SES backgrounds

This paper reports research that examined how the embedding of library services through the learning management system contributed to the experience of students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. To evaluate the embedded practice, the researchers used a mixed-method approach involving surveys with students and interviews with library and academic staff. Survey results showed gains in students' awareness of library resources and in their confidence and satisfaction using them. Staff participants reported benefits to students from the improved visibility of the library and involvement of students in conversations about information literacy. The teacher derived personal benefits in learning more about digital information resources while library staff benefitted from the research-driven nature of the practice which strengthened their collaborative partnership with academic staff. Based on the evaluation, an embedded approach has been adopted at the university in additional courses which have similar student profiles. The outcomes are relevant more widely in demonstrating both the potential benefits of embedded practice for supporting diverse student populations and how libraries can target their activities more effectively to national and university agendas for improving student outcomes.

Cloud-linked and campus-linked students’ perceptions of collaborative learning and design based learning in engineering

The aim of this paper is to analyse and present cloud- link as well as campus-linked students’ perceptions of collaborative learning and design based learning in engineering. Project oriented design based learning (PODBL) is a learning and teaching approach, where students learn through design activities while being driven by project(s). PODBL enhances cloud-linked and campus-linked students’ ability to acquire career essential skills that fulfill future industry needs. A paper-based survey is used to recognise a cohort of students' experience of collaborative learning and design based learning in engineering. The paper-based survey was given to 30 students from an engineering discipline. The quantitative analysis of the survey results shows that more than 50% of the students view collaborative learning to have a large benefit in design-based learning.

Surveillance, criminal law and sovereighty

Seeking better understanding of the relationship between criminal law and surveillance demands investigating the evolving nature of sovereignty in an era of transnational digital information flows. While territorial boundaries determine the limits of police investigative and surveillance powers under the criminal law, several recent United States (US) examples demonstrate how new forms of extraterritorial surveillance that enable police to access online communications by foreign citizens and digital information stored in offshore locations are authorized by US courts. This discussion outlines how the processes of mutual legal assistance that ordinarily govern the search, seizure and transfer of digital evidence from one jurisdiction to another are increasingly considered to undermine police efficiency, even though they protect the due process rights afforded to crime suspects under established principles of sovereignty (Palmer and Warren 2013).

The SEC's retail investor 2.0: interactive data and the rise of calculative accountability

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States mandated a new digital reporting system for US companies in late 2008. The new generation of information provision has been dubbed by Chairman Cox, ‘interactive data’ (SEC, 2006a). Despite the promise of its name, we find that in the development of the project retail investors are invoked as calculative actors rather than engaged in dialogue. Similarly, the potential for the underlying technology to be applied in ways to encourage new forms of accountability appears to be forfeited in the interests of enrolling company filers.We theorise the activities of the SEC and in particular its chairman at the time, Christopher Cox, over a three year period, both prior to and following the ‘credit crisis’. We argue that individuals and institutions play a central role in advancing the socio-technical project that is constituted by interactive data. We adopt insights from ANT (Callon, 1986, Latour, 1987 and Latour, 2005b) and governmentality (Miller, 2008 and Miller and Rose, 2008) to show how regulators and the proponents of the technology have acted as spokespersons for the interactive data technology and the retail investor. We examine the way in which calculative accountability has been privileged in the SEC's construction of the retail investor as concerned with atomised, quantitative data (Kamuf, 2007, Roberts, 2009 and Tsoukas, 1997). We find that the possibilities for the democratising effects of digital information on the Internet has not been realised in the interactive data project and that it contains risks for the very investors the SEC claims to seek to protect.

Process model to support data rich digital environments

This paper proposes a theoretical process model and the associated detailed information structure which reflects the complexity of information, stakeholder interaction and intellectual property concerns which are currently seen in the construction industry. This is being developed and tested against a field study renovation project. The field study project identifies information flows and interactions between stakeholders such as designers, project managers, clients, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. The process model which is being established shows very high levels of complexity in dependencies and interdependencies between implicit and explicit information within the project design and construction teams. Without an understanding of these detailed and complex process interactions, proposals for the application of ICT to the construction industry will not reflect the requirements of those for whom they are being developed.

New students, new learning, new environments in higher education : literacies in the digital age

Information literacy is developing new meanings and importance in the online age of teaching and learning in higher education. Information literacy, as a highly prized graduate attribute, is related to the development of lifelong learning capacities. Its strong re-emergence in the form of digital literacy in the context of major online developments at Deakin University is considered through four cases. In each case the reader is asked to consider how the teaching staff members have conceived critical discipline-based information and digital literacies, how these conceptions are related to desired learning outcomes, the types of digital and online environments designed to support the development of these literacies, and how each one contributes to the development of lifelong learning capacities. Information and digital literacy is enlivened through being situated in broader understandings of new generations of learners, new forms of learning and new e-supported learning environments. Educational design, evaluation, research and technology implications of these new types of digital and online-based teaching and learning environments are finally examined.