Education paths for documentary distribution: DAF, ATOM and the study guides that bind them

An expanding education market targeted through ‘bridging material’ enabling cineliteracies has the potential to offer Australian producers with increased distribution opportunities, educators with targeted teaching aids and students with enhanced learning outcomes. For Australian documentary producers, the key to unlocking the potential of the education sector is engaging with its curriculum-based requirements at the earliest stages of pre-production. Two key mechanisms can lead to effective educational engagement; the established area of study guides produced in association with the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) and the emerging area of philanthropic funding coordinated by the Documentary Australia Foundation (DAF). DAF has acted as a key financial and cultural philanthropic bridge between individuals, foundations, corporations and the Australian documentary sector for over 14 years. DAF does not make or commission films but through management and receipt of grants and donations provides ‘expertise, information, guidance and resources to help each sector work together to achieve their goals’. The DAF application process also requires film-makers to detail their ‘Education and Outreach Strategy’ for each film with 582 films registered and 39 completed as of June 2014. These education strategies that can range from detailed to cursory efforts offer valuable insights into the Australian documentary sector's historical and current expectations of education as a receptive and dynamic audience for quality factual content. A recurring film-maker education strategy found in the DAF data is an engagement with ATOM to create a study guide for their film. This study guide then acts as a ‘bridging material’ between content and education audience. The frequency of this effort suggests these study guides enable greater educator engagement with content and increased interest and distribution of the film to educators. The paper Education paths for documentary distribution: DAF, ATOM and the study guides that bind them will address issues arising out of the changing needs of the education sector and the impact targeting ‘cineliteracy’ outcomes may have for Australian documentary distribution.

Widening participation creatively: Creative arts education for social inclusion

University participation among students from low socio-economic backgrounds in Australia is low and nationwide strategies are in place to help bridge the gap. This article presents a preliminary evaluation of a creative arts-based outreach program to raise awareness and aspiration for university study among students from low-income backgrounds. The program is part of a national Australian federally funded initiative, the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program. It reviews an outreach advertising program facilitated by a Brisbane university. We argue that arts education has a particular role in provoking attitudinal change, due to the self-reflective, meaning-making and expressive characteristics of arts-based disciplines. In evaluating the advertising program, the value of creativity and trust as techniques of student engagement is considered. Evaluation occurred in two outer suburban high schools in Brisbane (a State capital city), using surveys and ethnographic fieldwork. The findings support an engagement model that employs creativity and uses student facilitators (undergraduate and postgraduate) to deliver the program, to meet the program's aims.

The Link Between Medicaid and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Recent History and Current Issues

[From Summary] As a condition of accepting funds under IDEA, public schools must provide special education and related services necessary for children with disabilities to benefit from a public education. Generally, states can finance only a portion of these costs with federal IDEA funds. Medicaid, the federal-state program that finances medical and health services for the poor, can cover IDEA required health-related services for enrolled children as well as related administrative activities (e.g., outreach for Medicaid enrollment purposes, medical care coordination/monitoring). However, the link between IDEA and Medicaid has not been seamless. Despite written federal guidance, schools have a difficult time meeting the myriad complex reimbursement rules applicable to all Medicaid participating providers. According to federal investigations and congressional hearings, Medicaid payments to schools have sometimes been improper. The President’s FY2007 budget proposal would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for IDEA-related school-based administration and transportation costs. This report will be updated.

Local solutions to local problems: A stormwater education collaborative

Currently completing its fifth year, the Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium (CWSEC) helps northeastern South Carolina communities meet National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II permit requirements for Minimum Control Measure 1 - Public Education and Outreach - and Minimum Control Measure 2 - Public Involvement. Coordinated by Coastal Carolina University, six regional organizations serve as core education providers to eight coastal localities including six towns and cities and two large counties. CWSEC recently finished a needs assessment to begin the process of strategizing for the second NPDES Phase II 5-year permit cycle in order to continue to develop and implement effective, results-oriented stormwater education and outreach programs to meet federal requirements and satisfy local environmental and economic needs. From its conception in May 2004, CWSEC set out to fulfill new federal Clean Water Act requirements associated with the NPDES Phase II Stormwater Program. Six small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) located within the Myrtle Beach Urbanized Area endorsed a coordinated approach to regional stormwater education, and participated in a needs assessment resulting in a Regional Stormwater Education Strategy and a Phased Education Work Plan. In 2005, CWSEC was formally established and the CWSEC’s Coordinator was hired. The Coordinator, who is also the Environmental Educator at Coastal Carolina University’s Waccamaw Watershed Academy, organizes six regional agencies who serve as core education providers for eight coastal communities. The six regional agencies working as core education providers to the member MS4s include Clemson Public Service and Carolina Clear Program, Coastal Carolina University’s Waccamaw Watershed Academy, Murrells Inlet 2020, North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve’s Coastal Training and Public Education Programs, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, and Winyah Rivers Foundation’s Waccamaw Riverkeeper®. CWSEC’s organizational structure results in a synergy among the education providers, achieving greater productivity than if each provider worked separately. The member small MS4s include City of Conway, City of North Myrtle Beach, City of Myrtle Beach, Georgetown County, Horry County, Town of Atlantic Beach, Town of Briarcliffe Acres, and Town of Surfside Beach. Each MS4 contributes a modest annual fee toward the salary of the Coordinator and operational costs. (PDF contains 3 pages)

Design and Evaluation of a "Pharmacists in Schools" Community Outreach Programme: A Pilot Study.

Aims: To design, evaluate and pilot a novel programme that would allow school children to become “pharmacists for the day”,encouraging them to recognise the importance of science, to contribute to the Department of Health‟s Building the Community Partnership strategy and University Outreach to the community and to provide undergraduate pharmacy students with teaching experience and an opportunity to build their CV.

Methods: Concept and formulation development, branding work,schools visits,questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.

Results: Suitable formulations were developed and prepared by school children on visits to their schools. The children seemed to enjoy the experience and their teachers gave both positive and constructive feedback. Pharmacy undergraduate students felt they had gained valuable experience that will benefit their future careers.

Conclusion: The Pharmacists in Schools outreach programme has now been successfully piloted and launched and will now be fully implemented in 20 schools in the local community.

SPHERE: Stormont Parliamentary Hansards: Embedded in Research and Education

SPHERE (Stormont Parliamentary Hansards: Embedded in Research and Education) was a JISC-funded project based at King’s College, London and Queen’s University, Belfast, working in Partnership with the Northern Ireland Assembly Library, and the NIA Official Report (Hansard). Its purpose was to assess the use, value and impact of The Stormont Papers digital resource, and to use the results of this assessment to make recommendations for a series of practical approaches to embed the resource within teaching, learning and research among the wider user community. The project began in November 2010 and was concluded in April 2010.

A series of formal reports on the project are published by JISC online at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/impactembedding/sphere.aspx

SPHERE Impact analysis summary
Portable Document Format
SPHERE interviews report
SPHERE Outreach use case
SPHERE research use case
SPHERE teaching use_case
SPHERE web survey report
SPHERE web analysis

Impact of cataract screening outreach in rural China.

PURPOSE: To examine differences between patients with cataract detected during screening and presenting to clinic in rural China. METHODS: Subjects were recruited from 27 screenings and an eye clinic in the same town. All had pinhole-corrected vision < or =6/18 in > or =1 eye due to ophthalmologist-diagnosed cataract. Subjects were administered a previously validated questionnaire on barriers to surgery in four areas: knowledge (K), perceptions of quality (Q), transportation (T), and cost (C). RESULTS: Screening group (SG; n = 120) and clinic group (CG; n = 120) participants did not differ from eligible, examined screening and clinic patients respectively in age, gender, or vision. SG participants were significantly more likely to be female (P = 0.002) and had a smaller housing area and less education (P < 0.001 for both) than those in the CG. Those in the CG were more likely to be blind (habitual VA < or = 6/60) in the better-seeing eye (P = 0.05) and more willing to undergo and pay for cataract surgery (P < 0.001 for both) than SG. In logistic regression models, SG subjects had significantly lower quality scores (P < 0.001) and better habitual vision (P = 0.02) than did CG participants, and SG subjects who agreed to cataract surgery (78.3%) had significantly higher knowledge scores (P < 0.001) than those who refused. DISCUSSION: Screening outreach has the potential to ameliorate disparities in access to cataract surgery in rural China, as it appears more likely to detect patients with cataract with gender-related, economic, educational, and attitudinal barriers to surgery. However, education may be needed to convince screening subjects to undergo surgery.

Engaging robots: innovative outreach for attracting cybernetics students

Cybernetics is a broad subject, encompassing many aspects of electrical, electronic, and computer engineering, which suffers from a lack of understanding on the part of potential applicants and teachers when recruiting students. However, once the engineering values, fascinating science, and pathways to rewarding, diverse careers are communicated, appropriate students can be very interested in enrolling. At the University of Reading, Reading, U.K., a key route for outreach to prospective students has been achieved through the use of robots in interactive talks at schools, competitions (often funded by Public Understanding of Science projects), a collectable fortnightly magazine, exhibitions in museums, open days at the University, and appearances in the media. This paper identifies the interactive engagement, anthropomorphic acceptability, and inspirational nature of robots as being key to their successful use in outreach activities. The statistical results presented show that the continued popularity of degrees at Reading in cybernetics, electronic engineering, and robotics over the last 20 years is in part due to the outreach activities to schools and the general public.

Typology of companies networks for competitive assessment: an application in higher education institutions

Taking into account the changes in the market scenario by virtue of globalization, Institutes of Higher Education (IES) as well as other organizations seek their competitive stability. For that reason, it is up to organizations to adopt innovative models of management for their operations aimed at improving results. Company networks consist of a model that is perfect for uniting efforts through cooperation among partners in a given business, which can involve ties of different natures. This paper shows the development and the application of an auxiliary technique to analyze the intensity, nature and importance of internal and external relations in the formation of results for a company network. For such, a multiple case study was conducted at two IES in the State of São Paulo and their networks of partners and employees in order to observe their specificities and organizational strategies. The study demonstrated the existence of specific performance criteria (pillars) for each IES and its network, resulting from its competitive reality. It reveals evidence that the education pillar is strengthened in both cases, and the research pillar is growing, although it is the weakest. The outreach pillar is the most robust in the public IES and the financial sustainability pillar is relevant for the private IES, and it was only detected in this IES.

Promoting Higher Education: The Latino Achievement Mentoring Program (LAMP)

Statistics suggest that Latino youths are at risk for academic underachievement and withdrawal. Culturally sensitive approaches to supporting school achievement based on the needs of Latino youth and their families must be developed. In response to these needs, the Latino Research Initiative (LRI), a collaborative group with members from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the Hispanic Community Center (HCC) created the Latino Achievement Mentoring Program (LAMP). LAMP is a culturally appropriate mentoring program designed to promote school success and post-secondary opportunities for Latino youths. This program provides Latino youths with positive role models and information and guidance about academic life and future school success. Finally, because of the cultural significance of family members among many Latinos, LAMP activities are developed and implemented such that the mentees' family members are involved. This presentation will report the first-year activities of the initial mentor and men tee pairs, with particular emphasis on educational outreach and academic development of the program. Evaluation data will be presented for the first cohort of mentees, including academic information, teacher reports and self-measure findings. LAMP activities aimed at promoting academic success will also be presented. Finally, the experiences of the mentors will briefly be reported.

HEALTH EDUCATION IN THE CARE TO CLIENTS OF THE BLOOD GLUCOSE SELF-MONITORING PROGRAM

This article reports, in a systemized and analytical way, the experience of an Outreach Program in the period between 2010 and 2011. The study focused on health education interventions as strategies to improve the adherence of individuals with insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), clients of a blood glucose self-Monitoring program. In addition, we intended to contribute to the reorganization of the program's working processes in the unit. Health education strategies were used in both educational groups and home visits, thus permitting the provision of care that was more individualized. Data regarding the clients were organized on a spreadsheet and in files for the Family Health teams, which made it easier to identify the patients, including those who were absent, helping to decentralize the care. By using health education strategies, we intended to contribute to a more comprehensive and emancipatory care of the clients, aimed at a continuous reflection of the workers regarding their practices.

An International Professional Development Collaboration in Literacy Education

An International Professional Development Collaboration in Literacy Education is a report of an international professional development project in Guatemala designed to improve literacy instructional practices and thereby raise student achievement in reading and writing. The opportunity for coaching Guatemalan teachers in teaching literacy strategies and skills provides data for this participatory action research study. This research is intended to contribute to cross-cultural understanding by graduate and undergraduate students in literacy, improved pedagogical techniques, international outreach in developing countries, and student academic success worldwide.

Outreach Testing of Ancient Astronomy

This work is an outreach approach to an ubiquitous recent problem in secondary-school education: how to face back the decreasing interest in natural sciences shown by students under ‘pressure’ of convenient resources in digital devices/applications. The approach rests on two features. First, empowering of teen-age students to understand regular natural events around, as very few educated people they meet could do. Secondly, an understanding that rests on personal capability to test and verify experimental results from the oldest science, astronomy, with simple instruments as used from antiquity down to the Renaissance (a capability restricted to just solar and lunar motions). Because lengths in astronomy and daily life are so disparate, astronomy basically involved observing and registering values of angles (along with times), measurements being of two types, of angles on the ground and of angles in space, from the ground. First, the gnomon, a simple vertical stick introduced in Babylonia and Egypt, and then in Greece, is used to understand solar motion. The gnomon shadow turns around during any given day, varying in length and thus angle between solar ray and vertical as it turns, going through a minimum (noon time, at a meridian direction) while sweeping some angular range from sunrise to sunset. Further, the shadow minimum length varies through the year, with times when shortest and sun closest to vertical, at summer solstice, and times when longest, at winter solstice six months later. The extreme directions at sunset and sunrise correspond to the solstices, swept angular range greatest at summer, over 180 degrees, and the opposite at winter, with less daytime hours; in between, spring and fall equinoxes occur, marked by collinear shadow directions at sunrise and sunset. The gnomon allows students to determine, in addition to latitude (about 40.4° North at Madrid, say), the inclination of earth equator to plane of its orbit around the sun (ecliptic), this fundamental quantity being given by half the difference between solar distances to vertical at winter and summer solstices, with value about 23.5°. Day and year periods greatly differing by about 2 ½ orders of magnitude, 1 day against 365 days, helps students to correctly visualize and interpret the experimental measurements. Since the gnomon serves to observe at night the moon shadow too, students can also determine the inclination of the lunar orbital plane, as about 5 degrees away from the ecliptic, thus explaining why eclipses are infrequent. Independently, earth taking longer between spring and fall equinoxes than from fall to spring (the solar anomaly), as again verified by the students, was explained in ancient Greek science, which posited orbits universally as circles or their combination, by introducing the eccentric circle, with earth placed some distance away from the orbital centre when considering the relative motion of the sun, which would be closer to the earth in winter. In a sense, this can be seen as hint and approximation of the elliptic orbit proposed by Kepler many centuries later.

Library outreach: addressing Utah's “Digital Divide”

A “Digital Divide” in information and technological literacy exists in Utah between small hospitals and clinics in rural areas and the larger health care institutions in the major urban area of the state. The goals of the outreach program of the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library at the University of Utah address solutions to this disparity in partnership with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine—Midcontinental Region, the Utah Department of Health, and the Utah Area Health Education Centers. In a circuit-rider approach, an outreach librarian offers classes and demonstrations throughout the state that teach information-access skills to health professionals. Provision of traditional library services to unaffiliated health professionals is integrated into the library's daily workload as a component of the outreach program. The paper describes the history, methodology, administration, funding, impact, and results of the program.