Where do we go from here? Possibilities in a convergent future

Soon after the French Revolution started in 1789, the great English poet William Wordsworth penned these memorable words: "Bliss was it at that time to be alive, but to be young was very heaven." He captured the excitement of a watershed period of human endeavors for his audience} but noted that the future belonged to the young. That is the message of this final chapter: that the future is bright for college graduates who are prepared to work hard. Fortune favors the prepared mind. The future is bright for journalists and journalism, and that future offers multiple possibilities for people who are prepared. It helps, though, to pause briefly to look at the past and to see what we can learn from it. As former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once noted, the person who ignores history is condemned to repeat its mistakes.

Schools, health literacy and public health: possibilities and challenges

Health literacy is a concept that can be widely embraced by schools. Schools throughout the world contribute to the achievement of public health goals in conjunction with their educational commitments. In this paper, the interface between a school's core business of education and public health goals is identified, and examples provided in the area of nutrition demonstrating how these links can operate at school level. The structure and function of the health promoting school is described and the author proposes that there is a very close connection between the health promoting school and the enabling factors necessary in achieving health literacy. Major findings in the literature that provide evidence of good practices in school health education and promotion initiatives are described. Also, those factors that make schools effective and which facilitate learning for students are identified. There is a substantial overlap between the successful components of a health promoting school and effective schools. This enables schools to potentially achieve all three levels of health literacy, including level 3—critical health literacy. However, there are three challenges that must be addressed to enable schools to achieve this level: the traditional structure and function of schools, teachers practices and skills, and time and resources. Strategies are proposed to address all three areas and to reduce the impediments to achieving the goals of health literacy and public health using the school as a setting.

Stakeholder engagement strategies : possibilities for the Internet?

The Internet offers companies new opportunities for engaging with stakeholders. This research examines the extent to which companies in Australia, Germany and the UK make use of their web sites to communicate both to and with their stakeholders. Particular attention is paid to the communication of ethical, social and environmental information on corporate web sites. Through a postal questionnaire and interviews, the research examines the drivers for web based reporting, the importance attached to stakeholder communication, complementary means of reporting to stakeholders and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the web as a communication medium. Despite the technological capabilities of web sites as communication media, we found the main purpose of developing corporate web sites was to raise corporate awareness and improve corporate image and that this is a negative force in the further development of corporate web sites for reporting ethical, social and environmental issues and using web technologies to engage with a broad range of stakeholders.

From the comforts of print to the possibilities of digital media: leading the way in teaching political leadership in a faculty of arts

Since it inception, Deakin University has been committed to the delivery of innovative, high quality course materials to its off campus students. Until recently these packages were predominantly print based, although augmented with audio-visual materials delivered in cassette format. Ironically, with the advent of information and communications technologies (ICT), and some select computer assisted learning and multimedia packages, there was an overall decline in the use of audio and video as important means of enhancing learning. Like many other universities, Deakin has moved to a strong, centralised approach to the provision of its digital and online corporate technology environment. With investment in these technologies has come a renewed interest in the ways in which text and audio-visual materials in digital form can enhance students' learning experiences. Moreover, the ways in which a variety of digital media supported by online developments can create new models and approaches to teaching/learning has figured prominently. This paper presents a case study of how this challenge has been taken up in a unit, Political Leadership, in the Faculty of Arts. The academic teacher's intentions in moving to a completely digital approach are examined along with students' experiences of learning in the subject. Issues are considered from the experience.

Innovation chains: possibilities and constraints for critical perspectives on computers, difference and educational innovation

While declarations of ‘innovativeness’ are easily found in most educational contexts, it is significantly more difficult to locate detailed definitions of what educational innovation actually means. In this paper we are interested in identifying the extent to which mainstream takes on ‘innovation’ (as played out in contemporary technology and equity debates) reflect or respond to what we will define as the more innovative dimensions of innovation literature itself. Our aim throughout this paper, then, is to begin the complex process of developing a means for distinguishing between projects that are ‘badged’ as innovative and projects that are more demonstrably (and sustainably) innovative. In this process we will distinguish between what Shiv Visvanathn describes as “innovation chains”— dynamic, rhizomatic, transformative responses to the contemporary world that lead to fundamentally new ways of conceptualising technology, culture and difference—and the constraints—or chains—provided by dominant understandings of innovation: chains which anchor us to existing, hegemonic and limiting understandings of student
diversity and educational technology.

Civil society and global governance : the possibilities for global citizenship

In this article we reassert the role of governance as well as of civil society in the analysis of citizenship. We argue that to analyse global civil society and global citizenship it is necessary to focus on global governance. Just as states may facilitate or obstruct the emergence and development of national civil society, so too global governance institutions may facilitate or obstruct an emerging global civil society. Our key contention is that civil society at the global level thrives through its interaction with strong facilitating institutions of global governance. We start with a discussion of civil society and citizenship within the nation-state, and from there develop a model of global civil society and citizenship. Through analysing the impacts of various modes of global governance, we identify strategically appropriate forms of political and social engagement that best advance the prospects for global citizenship.

Towards a new policy environment for indigenous people, culture and knowledge in Australian higher education: an examination of issues and possibilities for institutional and government policy

The purpose of this discussion paper is to stimulate an examination of critical issues in Indigenous higher education and encourage new possibilities to be explored. It invites a wide sharing of views. The paper
does not attempt to trace the full history of the policies for Indigenous higher education and the successes and failures. The focus instead is on the major contemporary issues and the key questions that might be considered by the conference participants.

Ethnic identity and subjective wellbeing: connections and possibilities

The benefits of multicultural societies, and the contributions made by immigrant populations to daily life in their adopted countries, have been discussed in the literature for many years. In some countries like Australia, first and second generation immigrants comprise a large proportion of the population, suggesting that ongoing research on issues of cultural diversity and psychological wellbeing in these countries are likely to benefit our understanding of multicultural societies in general. Recent developments in the understanding of subjective wellbeing encourages the use of this variable to inform the potential of ethnic identity to influence an individual’s sense of personal wellbeing. Using the homeostatic model of subjective wellbeing as a foundation, this theory-based paper discusses relationships between ethnic identity and the homeostatic model, outlines some of the complexities involved in measuring these constructs, and suggests a way ahead for future research.

Possibilities to include in numerical simulation stochastic and discontinuous phenomena occurring in material

Simulation of materials processing has to face new difficulties regarding proper description of various discontinuous and stochastic phenomena occurring in materials. Commonly used rheological models based on differential equations treat material as continuum and are unable to describe properly several important phenomena. That is the reason for ongoing search for alternative models, which can account for non-continuous structure of the materials and for the fact, that various phenomena in the materials occur in different scales from nano to mezo. Accounting for the stochastic character of some phenomena is an additional challenge. One of the solutions may be the coupled Cellular Automata (CA) – Finite Element (FE) multi scale model. A detailed discussion about the advantages given by the developed multi scale CAFE model for strain localization phenomena in contrast to capabilities provided by the conventional FE approaches is a subject of this work. Results obtained from the CAFE model are supported by the experimental observations showing influence of many discontinuities existing in the real material on macroscopic response. An immense capabilities of the CAFE approach in comparison to limitations of the FE method for modeling of real material behavior is are shown this work as well.

Health promotion and health education in schools : trends, effectiveness and possibilities

This report involved an extensive literature review as well as discussions with ten leading school health and traffic safety education researchers and practitioners. The findings of the report show that despite health promotion and health education activities occurring in all Victorian schools, school health related initiatives could be improved by focusing on cognitive outcomes and involving appropriate components of Health Promoting School (HPS) framework. Providing teachers with professional development and utilising interactive resources that complement the curriculum is also important. The report recommendations outline ways to improve the Health Promotion and Health Education and provide a potential framework for delivering TSE provision in schools.

Children, Australian sign language and the web; the possibilities

This paper examines the advantages of using the World Wide Web (Web) as a resource to teach hearing primary aged children Australian Sign Language (Auslan). There is a trend towards educating signing deaf children in mainstream schools, therefore it is important to teach the hearing children sign language to enable meaningful communication and the formation of social relationships between hearing and deaf students. The authors will compare various methods of teaching sign language with the Web and further describe a selection of the available instructional material. Considerations for designing appropriate sign language teaching material for the Web are discussed particularly in the context of designing content that engages the primary school aged audience.

Engaging men in men's violence prevention : exploring the tensions, dilemmas and possibilities

The aim of this discussion paper is to raise some questions and to encourage debate about the impact on gender equality of increasing men's involvement in campaigns to end men's violence against women. To address this issue, I have conducted a critical review of the literature on working with men as partners in violence prevention projects. I have also located this literature within theoretical debates about men's privilege, men's interests and men's resistance to change.