Investigation of educator adoption of knowledge media

Human development has occurred against a timeline that has seen the creation of and diffusion of one innovation after another. These innovations range from language to complex computing and information technologies. The latter are assisting with the distribution of information, and extend to the distribution of the human species beyond the planet Earth. From early times, information has been published and mostly for a fee to the publisher. The absorption and use of information has had a high priority in most societies from early times, and has become institutionalised in universities and institutes of technical learning. For most in Western societies, education is now a matter of ‘lifelong learning’. Today, we see higher education institutions, worldwide, adapting their organisational structures and operating procedures and forming strategic alliances with communications content providers and carriers as well as with information technology companies. Modern educational institutes seek productivity and efficiency. Many also seek to differentiate themselves from competitors. Technological convergence is often seen by management to be a saviour in many educational organisations. It is hoped that lower capital and recurrent costs can be achieved, and that competitors in an increasingly globalised industry can be held at bay by strategic use of knowledge media (Eisenstadt, 1995) commonly associated with distance education in the campus setting. Knowledge media set up costs, intellectual property costs and training costs for staff and students are often so high as to make their use not viable for Australian institutes of higher education. Against this backdrop, one might expect greater educator and student use of publisher produced textbooks and digital enhancements to the textbook, particularly those involved in distance education. A major issue is whether or not the timing of instructor adoption of converging information technology and communications technologies aligns with the wishes of both higher education management and government, and with those who seek commercial gain from the diffusion and adoption of such technologies. Also at issue is whether or not it is possible to explain variance in stated intentions to recommend adoption of new learning technologies in higher education and implementation. Will there occur educator recommendation for adoption of individual knowledge media such as World Wide Web access to study materials by students? And what will be the form of this tool and others used in higher education? This thesis reports on more recent changes in the technological environment and seeks to contribute to an understanding of the factors that lead to a willingness, or unwillingness, on the part of higher education instructors, as influencers and content providers, to utilise these technologies. As such, it is a diffusion study which seeks to fill a gap in the literature. Diffusion studies typically focus on predicting adoption based on characteristics of the potential adopter. Few studies examine the relationship between characteristics of the innovation and adoption. Nearly all diffusion studies involve what is termed discontinuous innovation (Robertson, 1971). That is, the innovation involves adoptees in a major departure from previous practice. This study seeks to examine the relationship between previous experience of related technologies and adoption or rejection of dynamically continuous innovation. Continuous and dynamically continuous innovations are the most numerous in the real world, yet they are numerically the least scrutinised by way of academic research. Moreover, the three-year longitudinal study of educators in Australian and New Zealand meets important criteria laid down by researchers Tornatzky and Klein (1982) and Rogers (1995), that are often not met by similar studies. In particular the study examines diffusion as it is unfolding, rather than selectively examining a single innovation and after the fact, thus avoiding a possible pro-innovation bias. The study examines the situation for both ‘all educators’ and ‘marketing / management educators’ alone in seeking to meet the following aim: Establish if intended adopters of specific knowledge media have had more experience of other computer-based technologies than have those not intending to adopt said knowledge media. The analytical phase entails use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis to conclude that it is possible to discriminate adopters of selected knowledge media based on previous use of related technologies. The study does not find any generalised factor that enables such discrimination among educators. Thus the study supports the literature in part, but fails to find generalised factors that enable unambiguous prediction of knowledge media adoption or otherwise among each grouping of educators examined. The implications are that even in the case of related products and services (continuous or dynamically continuous innovation), there is not statistical certainty that prior usage of related products or technologies is related to intentions to use knowledge media in the future. In this regard, the present study might be said to confirm the view that Rogers and Shoemaker's (1971) conceptualisation of perceived innovation characteristics may only apply to discontinuous innovations (Stratton, Lumpkin & Vitell, 1997). The implications for stakeholders such as higher education management is that when seeking to appoint new educators or existing staff to knowledge media project teams, there is some support for the notion that those who already use World Wide Web based technologies are likely to take these technologies into teaching situations. The same claim cannot be made for computer software use in general, nor Internet use in general.

Shifting shadows in postmodern communities

Postmodern society frequently presents new technologies and ways of doing things. The definition of community has been reshaped by the impact of globalisation. Distances have been reduced by people’s ability to access various types of technology. Many nations foster Lifelong Learning because education is believed to be ‘one of the principal means available to foster a deeper and more harmonious form of human development’ (Delors 1996: un). Networking among communities and/or stakeholders links social and educational resources. In Victoria, initiatives such as the Local Learning and Employment Network (LLEN) have resulted in networks of local stakeholders to scaffold the school to work transition. Schools, Adult Community Education (ACE) providers and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) providers have networked to provide alternative pathways to further education or work for young people in years 11 and 12. However, despite the intent of lifelong learning to overcome exclusion and increase social capital, Bauman (1998) indicates that the freedoms of postmodernity may result in feelings of powerlessness, as previously secure spaces become destabilised. This paper, drawing on the theories of Bauman, discusses some consequences that the shifting of local and global boundaries has on communities and asks if lifelong learning meets the challenges of postmodernity.

Does microfinance fight social exclusion and poverty? : Bangladesh evidence

This study focuses beyond the traditional role of microfinance in addressing poverty to examine also its effect on social exclusion and human development. It proposes and tests a model of the relationships between these three concepts using data from Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement (ASA)'s participants in Bangladesh compared to a control group.

Well-being achievement in Pacific Asia

The world has undergone rapid and tremendous change in recent decades. While many nations have achieved ever-higher per capita incomes, and higher well-being according to traditional measures, they have also experienced profound internal change. This change has lead to widespread concerns regarding social exclusion, human security, levels of personal satisfaction and happiness. Other countries have faired much less well, as according to many well-being measures they are worse off than they were 10 or 20 years ago. Life expectancies, for example, have fallen dramatically in many countries and are likely to fall substantially in others. The incidence of income poverty is higher today in many countries than it was ten years ago. Worldwide, more than a billion people currently live on less than one dollar per day. Social science research on living standards, human well-being and quality of life has come a long way over recent years, altering in response to changing global conditions, new research priorities, new conceptualisations and improved data resources. Twenty five years ago, national well-being achievement comparisons relied very heavily, and in some circles exclusively, on measures of income per capita. The same exercise would today be based a range of indicators, including summary measures of human well-being such as the well-known Human Development Index (UNDP, 2005). This is consistent with the commonly accepted view that human well-being is best treated as a multidimensional concept along the lines advocated by Sen (1985, 1993), Stewart (1985), Doyal & Gough (1991), Ramsay (1992), Cummins (1996), Narayan et al. (2000) or Nussbaum (2000) and others, as summarised in Alkire (2002). This view tends not to reject the relevance of income based or economic measures per se, simply positing that there is more to well-being achievement than simply increasing incomes. The widespread acceptance that well-being is multidimensional has more recently been accompanied by another important recognition. This relates not so much to current levels of well-being, but to the likelihood of declines in future levels. This recognition has spawned a rapidly growing literature on what is now termed as ‘vulnerability’. The vulnerability literature has primarily been concerned with the likelihood of individuals falling below the poverty line, be it defined in terms of income, consumption or health. Among the influential early vulnerability studies are Ravallion (1998), Jalan & Ravallion (1998) and Dercon & Krishnan (1999), each of which distinguished between transient and chronic poverty.

Non-economic well-being achievement in Pacific Asia

It is well known that income per capita and most widely reported non-economic well-being achievement measures are highly correlated among countries. Yet many countries exhibit higher achievement in the latter than predicted by the former. The reverse is true for many other countries. This paper commences by extracting the inter-country variation in a composite of three widely reported educational and health status indicators not accounted for by variations in income per capita. This extraction is interpreted inter alia as a measure of non-economic well-being. Using data for a sample of Pacific Asian countries, the paper then looks at correlations between this extraction and a number of new or less widely-used well-being measures, in an attempt to find the measure that best captures these achievements.

Fuzzy well-being in Pacific Asia

This paper develops a framework that uses fuzzy-set theory to measure human well-being. Fuzzy sets allow for gradual transition from one state to another while also allowing one to incorporate rules and goals, and hence are more appropriate for measuring outcomes that are ambiguous. Such ambiguity is an inherent characteristic of cross-country achieved well-being assessments. This framework is used to provide a fuzzy representation of the well known Human Development Index (HDI) and its three components. Fuzzy HDI estimates for 14 Pacific Asian countries are provided and compared with non-fuzzy estimates. Quite large differences in rankings emerge. The paper concludes by suggesting that fuzzy measures should be used more widely to measure achieved well-being outcomes.

Global inequality in well-being dimensions

This paper contributes to the literature on global inequality in multidimensional well-being by examining inter-country disparities in the longevity, knowledge and standard of material living components of the well-known and widely-used Human Development Index for the years 1992-2004. It differs from previous studies by examining global inequality in each of the components of this index alongside that of the index as a whole, thus side-stepping ambiguities over weighting that are inherent to multidimensional well-being indices. The Gini coefficient, both population and non-population weighted, is used to measure the extent of inequality. Results indicate that the different components often provide very different information to the index as a whole, especially with respect to changes in global inequality over time. Most component variables show declines in global inequality, whereas the longevity component exhibits increased inequality since 1992.

Transient teachers : mixed messages of schooling in regional Australia

This article explores the transience and mobility of teachers working in an isolated community: a secondary school in regional Australia. Drawing on parent, student, and teacher interviews, we ask: how should we understand these teacher commitments to schooling and how does this influence parents’ and students’ commitments and understandings of the “outside” value of their community? Responses to these questions are theorized utilizing the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu. Drawing on this work we argue that, even though teachers in this context are the bearers of highly prized capitals, they act more as gatekeepers than as their distributors and/or challengers. While we conclude that teachers may need to address their mobility and the messages this conveys in order to make a difference in such schools and communities, we also acknowledge that there are complexities related to staff residing in the community given its treatment of outsiders.

Promoting "critical awareness" and critiquing "cultural competence" : towards disrupting received professional knowledges

There is a compelling argument that universities should be committed to advancing the Indigenous agenda. With respect to social work, as well as to nursing, psychology, and allied health, this commitment is often translated into a single goal: that graduates should be ‘‘culturally competent’’. While acknowledging that there can be tactical advantages in pursuing this goal the current paper develops a practical critique of the expectation that cultural competence is an unproblematic ‘‘add on’’ to professional education. Using a single case study as an example*how the subject ‘‘individual development’’ is transmitted as a monocultural and unproblematic formation*we argue that it is impossible to learn to work cross-culturally without developing a capacity for reflective self-scrutiny. Less likely to be a flag of convenience than ‘‘cultural competence’’, an allegiance to ‘‘critical awareness’’ prompts the interrogation of received knowledge, for example how human development and personhood is understood, as well stimulating an engagement in the lifelong process of reflecting on one’s own ideological and cultural location.

Composite indices: rank robustness, statistical association, and redundancy

This article evaluates the robustness of rankings obtained from composite indices that combine information from two or more components via a weighted sum. It examines the empirical prevalence of robust comparisons using the method proposed by Foster et al. (2010). Indices examined are the Human Development Index (HDI), the Index of Economic Freedom (IEF), and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). Key theoretical results demonstrate links between the prevalence of robust comparisons, Kendall’s tau rank correlation coefficient, and statistical association across components. Implications for redundancy among index components are also examined.

Experiences of migration and the determinants of obesity among recent Iranian immigrants in Victoria, Australia

Objectives. There is evidence to suggest that immigrant groups from low- or medium-human development index countries show a significant adoption of obesogenic behaviors and experience weight gain following migration to Australia. The objective of this study is to understand the changes that Iranian immigrants experience in relation to the determinants of obesity after migration to Victoria, Australia.

Design. We conducted five focus group discussions with 33 recent Iranian immigrants. This study took an interpretive qualitative approach to data analysis using the constant comparative method.

Results. Participants discussed individual level acculturation (e.g., in diet, body size, attitudes), as well as environmental level changes (e.g., physical/structural and sociocultural) that occurred after immigration. Stress during the initial immigration transition, which affected diet and physical activity habits, was a common experience among participants. Gender and the effect of political/religious changes were also important factors. Participants' discourse largely focused on their ability and willingness to adopt positive health behaviors after migration.

Conclusion. This study provides insight into the effect of migration on the determinants of obesity among Iranian immigrants in Victoria, Australia, and offers a contrast with the existing evidence by considering the experience of a group that is generally well educated, often emigrates for reasons related to personal freedom as opposed to material deprivation, and has rates of obesity similar to high-income countries.

Thermal performance analysis of earth pipe cooling system for subtropical climate

Energy crisis is one of the major obstacles for human development. There are on-going researches to overcome this for a sustainable environment and economy. Passive air cooling system of earth pipe cooling is seen as a viable energy efficient technology for hot and humid subtropical climates. It can be an attractive economical alternative to conventional cooling since there are no compressors or any habitual mechanical unit. It utilizes earth’s near constant underground temperature to cool air for residential, agricultural or industrial uses. This paper reports the thermal performance of earth pipe cooling technology for a hot and humid subtropical climatic zone in Queensland, Australia. A series of pipes buried underground were used in order to increase the cooling performance of the system. To measure the thermal performance, a thermal model was developed for the earth pipe cooling system and simulated using ANSYS Fluent. Data were collected from two modelled rooms built from shipping containers and installed at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia. The impact of air temperature and velocity on room cooling performance has also been assessed. A significant temperature reduction is seen in this study, which will save energy cost for thermal cooling in buildings.

Hydraulic economy and logographic writing in ancient China: factor of topography

Chinese civilisation is characterised by two distinctive features – a strong centralised administration and the system of logographic writing. This paper investigates nature’s powerful impacts on human development, in terms of organisation and communication in ancient China. It argues that ancient China’s topography played a crucial role in the formation of ancient Chinese civilisation and its hydraulic economy pushed the state stronger than society, hence a strong centralised government emerged.

Acidentes de trânsito fatais e sua associação com indicadores sociais e adolescência

Introdução - Os acidentes de trânsito são um grave problema de saúde pública universal, em países desenvolvidos e subdesenvolvidos, estando entre as primeiras causas de morte em quase todos os países do mundo (DEL CIAMPO & RICCO, 1996). No Brasil, assu-mem grande relevância, especialmente pela alta morbidade e mortalidade, predominância em populações jovens e/ou economicamente ativas, maior perda de anos de vida produtiva e ele-vado custo direto e indireto para a sociedade. Objetivo - Os objetivos deste trabalho foram descrever a magnitude da mortali-dade por acidentes de trânsito, avaliar sua correlação com indicadores sociais e proporção de jovens na população e testar a sua associação com adolescência, sexo masculino e consumo de álcool. Material e Métodos - Foi realizado, inicialmente, um estudo ecológico envolven-do todas as capitais das unidades da federação e Distrito Federal (exceto o município do Rio de Janeiro), com coleta de dados sobre acidentes de trânsito com vítimas no Departamento Nacional de Trânsito. Foram descritos os índices de acidentes de trânsito com vítimas p/ 1.000 veículos (IAT-V) e de feridos p/ 1.000 veículos (IF-V) referentes aos anos de 1995, 1997 e 1998 e o índice de mortos p/ 10.000 veículos (IM-V) referente ao período de 1995 a 1998. Em seguida, avaliou-se a existência de correlação entre o IM-V e taxa de mortalidade infantil (TMI), índice municipal de desenvolvimento humano (IDH-M), índice de condições de vida (ICV), proporção de condutores adolescentes envolvidos em acidentes de trânsito com vítimas (PCJ-ATV) e proporção de residentes jovens (PRJ) nas diferentes capitais. Em um segundo momento, realizou-se um estudo de caso controle, onde foram estudados 863 condu-tores envolvidos em acidentes de trânsito com vítimas atendidos no Departamento Médico Legal de Porto Alegre, no período de 1998 a 1999. Os condutores foram divididos em dois grupos: condutores envolvidos em acidentes de trânsito com vítima fatal (casos) e com vítima não fatal (controles). Os grupos foram comparados com relação a adolescência, sexo mascu-lino e consumo de álcool, através da razão de chances e seu intervalo de confiança, com signi-ficância determinada pelo teste de qui-quadrado. Resultados - No estudo ecológico, observou-se, no Brasil, uma tendência decres-cente quanto aos indicadores de eventos relacionados ao trânsito no período de 1995 a 1998. Nas capitais das unidades da federação e Distrito Federal, apesar da ampla variação apresenta-da, a maioria manteve a mesma tendência decrescente observada para o país como um todo. Na análise das correlações entre o IM-V e os indicadores sociais, observou-se forte correlação positiva com a TMI (r = 0,57; P = 0,002), ou seja, quanto maior a TMI, maior a mortalidade no trânsito, além de correlação negativa com o IDH-M (r = - 0,41; P = 0,038) e com o ICV (r = - 0,58; P = 0,02). Quando se avaliaram o IDH-M e o ICV separados em suas dimensões, a dimensão renda de ambos indicadores foi a única que não demonstrou correlação com o IM- -V. As demais dimensões do IDH-M e ICV demonstraram correlação negativa, sendo que a dimensão infância (r = - 0,62; P = 0,001) apresentou a maior correlação. A análise da asso-ciação entre o IM-V e a PCJ-ATV não demonstrou correlação, mas, quando avaliada a asso-ciação com a PRJ nas capitais, houve forte correlação positiva (r = 0,59; P = 0,002). No estudo de caso controle, quando avaliada a relação entre condutores envolvidos em acidentes com vítima fatal e adolescência, sexo masculino e consumo de álcool, não foi observada asso-ciação importante em nenhum dos fatores em estudo. Conclusões - Apesar de os indicadores de eventos relacionados ao trânsito (IAT- -V, IF-V e IM-V) terem apresentado uma tendência decrescente durante o período de estudo, acidentes de trânsito continuam sendo um grave problema de saúde pública. O estudo ecológico evidenciou a existência de relação entre o IM-V e os indicadores sociais (TMI, IDH-M e ICV), sendo que a dimensão renda não demonstrou correlação e a dimensão infância apresen-tou a correlação negativa de maior valor. Quanto à PCJ-ATV, não foi encontrada associação relevante entre este indicador e o IM-V. Entretanto, observou-se forte associação entre a PRJ e o IM-V. O estudo de caso controle não evidenciou associação entre adolescência e os de-mais fatores estudados e maior risco para acidente de trânsito fatal.

Responsabilidade social da Light e suas contribuições para comunidade: um estudo de caso sobre desenvolvimento humano sustentável, inclusão social e cidadania

Esta dissertação apresenta a responsabilidade social das organizações, mais especificamente as contribuições para a comunidade na qual está inserida, tomando-se como estudo de caso a LIGHT. Elementos concernentes à referida responsabilidade social e ao 'programa de normalização de áreas informais' são analisados por meio da metodologia grounded theory. Desta forma, o objetivo maior do estudo é aumentar o entendimento acerca dos valores substantivos gerados no processo estabelecido entre a organização e a comunidade, na busca pelas dimensões da responsabilidade social e seu relacionamento com desenvolvimento humano sustentável, inclusão social e cidadania