Constructivist learning: understanding and experience in IT tertiary education

This paper firstly introduces the concept of constructivist learning which advocates that students actively construct knowledge themselves with teachers’ assistance. Based on the six important elements of constructivist learning and teaching planning approach, detailed examples of designing the six constructivist elements of situation, groupings, bridge, questions, exhibit, and reflections for two units offered at school of Information Technology, Deakin University are provided. A conclusion emphasizing the learners' difference to be paid attention to while educators designing curriculum on CloudDeakin platform is made at the end of this paper.

The teaching of cost planning using the building cost information service on-line system

This paper describes teaching and learning in building design cost management for undergraduate construction economics, construction management and architecture students using the WorldWideWeb based Building Cost Information Service. The paper also discusses the benefits of using such an authentic learning strategy to achieve specified learning outcomes which are considered by t he a uthors to be of considerable benefit in the teaching of this important subject area. Although there are a number of limitations in the application of building design cost management, as considered in this paper, some of which are discussed below, to date no satisfactory alternative has been developed, and therefore, a clear understanding of what the process is and how it is applied, is essential.

Development of an internet supportive platform for online teaching and learning of construction planning and scheduling

Construction Planning and Scheduling is taught for the fIrst time ill Semester 2, 2004 in the School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University. During the unit development process and the implementation of teaching activities, several issues arose in relation to implementing computer-aided construction scheduling and unit delivery in a unitary environment. Although various types of construction planning and scheduling software have been developed and applied, none of them can be run inside an online teaching software package, which provides powerful functions in administration. This research aims to explore the strategies to connect a project planning and scheduling software package and an online ~aching and learning software package by a Web-based support platform so that both the lecturer and students can draw up and communicate a construction plan or schedule with tables and fIgures. The key techniques of this supportive platfonn are idt;nlifies and they include a web-based graphically user-interfaced, dynamic and distributed multimedia data acquisition mechanism, which accepts users' drawings and retrieval information from canvas and stores the multimedia data ona server for further usage. This paper demonstrates the techniques and principals needed to construct such a multimedia data acquisition tool. This. research will fill the gap.in the literature in respect to an online pedagogical solution to an existing problem.

Do what we do: a multimodal approach to planning and teaching

Quality teaching and learning in teacher education can be enriched across campuses for both the academics and the student bodies when focus is given to the development of dynamic ICT rich learning experiences. This paper focuses on the learning journey of two academics and their preservice teacher education students located on two regional campuses, 200km apart, and how planning, communicating, implementing, presenting, evaluating, and reflecting took place within a framework of collegiality. The unit, entitled, ‘The Literacy Teacher, the Profession and the Community’ was a final year unit within the undergraduate Bachelor of Education program. Specifically this paper discusses how a multimodal teaching and learning environment using a range of new communication technologies enhanced the both the teaching and the learning experience for our pre-service teacher education students.

Planning and teaching mathematics lessons as a dynamic, interactive process

We are researching actions that teachers can take to improve mathematics learning for all students, with particular attention to specific groups of students who might experience difficulty. After identifying possible barriers to learning, we offered teachers mathematics lessons structured in a particular way. Teachers’ use of the model outlined in this paper seemed productive and their resulting planning and teaching proved to be dynamic and interactive. This paper uses excerpts from a conversation between two teachers to illustrate specific aspects of the model.

So what do customer value propositions and strategic planning have to do with teaching and learning?

Within most universities there are central areas that assist with teaching and learning and, in the case of universities offering programs through distance education or flexible learning, there are also units that develop and or manufacture course material. As budget constraints squeeze universities and, with a plethora of choices in online and integrated learning, the usefulness of centralised learning resource units can be called into question. To ensure these units remain vital and can justify their budgets to their parent organisations they need to demonstrate delivery of customer value. What do faculty staff value from a central unit? What irritates students about their course materials? What are the most important services from the point of view of a head of school? This paper outlines the process followed by Learning Services at Deakin University to discover its customers’ value model. Customer value propositions and the removal of what irritates the customer are then used to drive strategic planning, service offerings and continuous process improvement.

Teaching general practitioners and doctors-in-training to discuss advance care planning : evaluation of a brief multimodality education programme

To develop and evaluate an interactive advance care planning (ACP) educational programme for general practitioners and doctors-in-training.

Enhancing quality in online learning : scaffolding planning and design through proactive evaluation

A major issue confronting educators is the extent to which they wish to conform to so-called paradigm shifts in teaching and learning. In the contemporary world of tertiary education these shifts embrace both pedagogy (from instructivist to constructivist) and technology (from classroom to online). As teachers and learners are faced with the potential of these new learning environments, the extent to which learning outcomes are achieved remains a high priority and subject to a wide range of evaluation strategies. Conventionally, evaluation has been positioned at the end of the instructional development cycle, to assess first whether or not the creative effort achieved the original product goals and second whether or not the desired learning outcomes were realized. In the context of online teaching and learning environments, however, the level of understanding teachers, learners and developers have of the medium can impact the ultimate effectiveness of the product. This paper articulates an additional dimension to post-development evaluation processes in proposing proactive evaluation, a framework that identifies critical online learning factors and influences that will better inform the planning, design and development of learning resources. This notion of proactive evaluation advocates resource development being undertaken where all planning activities are assessed against the evaluation criteria that would normally be applied during formative assessment. By performing these evaluation checks proactively, online learning resources will, in principle, work first time as all relevant factors and issues will have been considered and resolved. More importantly, for those participants who are new to online environments, proactive evaluation will perform a scaffolding and professional development role by enhancing online teaching or learning competencies.

Information technology applications for planning in deconstruction

In recent years, there has been obvious emphasis on the shift from design and construction of new facilities to maintenance, refurbishment, and demolition management of existing facilities. Demolition technology has gradually changed from conventional destruction to the recently developed deconstruction. Demolition management, particularly deconstruction management, is becoming a novel, but a fertile teaching and research discipline. This paper focuses on an important issue of deconstruction management, how to work out a deconstruction plan using information technologies.

The impact of enterprise resource planning systems on management accounting : an Australian study

Information technology is significantly changing the operating practices of an increasing number of companies globally. These developments have important implications for the accounting profession and in particular accounting practices in the twenty-first century. This study examines the development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a means of illustrating how changes in information technology allows all systems in a company to be linked to manage operations holistically.

The study investigates the change in accounting systems using a sample of Australian companies with emphasis on the adoption of ERP systems including the potential impact of ERP on capital budgeting processes. The results show that ERP systems are changing management accounting practices, although at this stage, the impact on capital budgeting techniques appears to be limited. The findings contribute to the emerging body of literature on the development of ERP systems and its impact on management accounting teaching and research.

Teaching values

Teaching Values has been designed to support teachers to introduce the Nine Values for Australian Schooling (Australian Government 2005) to their students and to build on the work that they and their schools do in the name of values education. It does not set out to be the definitive text rather it contributes to the current and historical discourse in this area by providing a unique approach to this complex area of the school curriculum. Using a range of texts sourced from collections held by the National Museum of Australia the book uses textual analysis as an approach to teaching values.

Teaching Chinese, teaching in Chinese, and teaching the Chinese

This article examines specific issues encountered in various areas of Chinese teaching in Australia. These issues are linked to the spheres of language planning as acquisition and as recovery and language planning as retention (Lo Bianco, 10.1007/s10993-006-9042-3). Specifically relevant to Chinese in Australia is its current prominence in formally declared national language policy, its changing status over time and its similarities and differences with Chinese in the United States (Wang, 10.1007/s10993-006-9043-2). The internationalization of education, and its commodification, has in recent years led to a major expansion in the range of offerings in Chinese in Australia, now catering to growing, and in some institutions to numerically dominant, groupings of native speakers with radically different language and academic needs from the traditional clientele of tertiary and school Chinese programs.