Multi-level order, friction and contradiction : the evolution of Australian film industry policy

Cultural policy studies have previously highlighted the importance of multiple logics, friction and contradiction in cultural policy. Recent developments in institutional theory provide a framework for analysing change in cultural policy which explores movement between these multiple and sometimes contradictory logics. This paper analyses the role of friction in the evolution of Australian film industry policy and in particular the tension between competing logics regarding nationalism, commercialism and the state. The paper is suggestive of the relevance of institutional theory as a framework for understanding cultural policy evolution.

Science education policy-making : eleven emerging issues

The Perth Declaration on Science and Technology Education of 2007 expresses strong concern about the state of science and technology education worldwide and calls on governments to respond to a number of suggestions for establishing the structural conditions for their improved practice. The quality of school education in science and technology has never before been of such critical importance to governments. There are three imperatives for its critical importance. The first relates to the traditional role of science in schooling, namely the identification, motivation and initial preparation of those students who will go on to further studies for careers in all those professional fi elds that directly involve science and technology. A suffi cient supply of these professionals is vital to the economy of all countries and to the health of their citizens. In the 21st century they are recognised everywhere as key players in ensuring that industrial and economic development occurs in a socially and environmentally sustainable way. In many countries this supply is now falling seriously short and urgently needs to be addressed. The second imperative is that sustainable technological development and many other possible societal applications of science require the support of scientifically and technologically informed citizens. Without the support and understanding of citizens, technological development can all too easily serve short term and sectional interests. The longer term progress of the whole society is overlooked, citizens will be confused about what should, and what should not be supported, and reactive and the environment will continue to be destroyed rather than sustained. Sustainable development, and the potential that science and technology increasingly offers, involves societies in ways that can often interact strongly, with traditional values, and hence, making decisions about them involve major moral decisions. All students need to be prepared through their science and technology education to be able to participate actively as persons and as responsible citizens in these essential and exciting possibilities. This goal is far from being generally achieved at present, but pathways to it are now more clearly understood. The third imperative derives from the changes that are resulting from the application of digital technologies that are the most rapid, the most widespread, and probably the most pervasive influence that science has ever had on human society. We all, wherever we live, are part of a global communication society. Information exchange and access to it that have been hitherto the realm of the few, are now literally in the hands of individuals. This is leading to profound changes in the World of Work and in what is known as the Knowledge Society. Schooling is now being challenged to contribute to the development in students of an active repertoire of generic and subject-based competencies. This contrasts very strongly with existing priorities, in subjects like the sciences that have seen the size of a student’s a store of established knowledge as the key measure of success. Science and technology education needs to be a key component in developing these competencies. When you add to these imperatives, the possibility that a more effective education in science and technology will enable more and more citizens to delight in, and feel a share in the great human enterprise we call Science, the case for new policy decisions is compellingly urgent. What follows are the recommendations (and some supplementary notes) for policy makers to consider about more operational aspects for improving science and technology education. They are listed under headings that point to the issues within each of these aspects. In the full document, a background is provided to each set of issues, including the commonly current state of science and technology education. Associated with each recommendation for consideration are the positive Prospects that could follow from such decision making, and the necessary Prerequisites, if such bold policy decisions are to fl ow, as intended, into practice in science and technology classrooms.

Dynamic Lock Synchronisation for collaborative 3D applications

In a typical collaborative application, users contends for common resources by mutual exclusion. The introduction of multi-modal environment, however, introduced problems such as frequent dropping of connection or limited connectivity speed of mobile users. This paper target 3D resources which require additional considerations such as dependency of users' manipulation command. This paper introduces Dynamic Locking Synchronisation technique to enable seamless and collaborative environment for large number of user, by combining the contention-free concepts of locking mechanism and the seamless nature of lockless design.

Aligning policy with practice: an evaluation of vocational education and training in the library and information services sector

Vocational education and training for the library and information services (LIS) sector in Australia offers students the career pathway to become library technicians. Library technicians play a valuable role in drawing on sound practical knowledge and skills to support the delivery of library and information services that meet client needs. Over the past forty years, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has monitored the quality of library technician courses. Since 2005, ALIA has run national professional development days for library technician educators with the goal of establishing an alternative model for course recognition focusing on the process of peer review to benchmark good practice and stimulate continuous improvement in library technician education. This initial developmental work has culminated in 2009 with site visits to all library technician courses in Australia. The paper presents a whole-of-industry case study to critically review the work undertaken to date.

Bringing the internet down to earth : emerging spaces of locative media

Web 1.0 referred to the early, read-only internet; Web 2.0 refers to the ‘read-write web’ in which users actively contribute to as well as consume online content; Web 3.0 is now being used to refer to the convergence of mobile and Web 2.0 technologies and applications. One of the most important developments in mobile 3.0 is geography: with many mobile phones now equipped with GPS, mobiles promise to “bring the internet down to earth” through geographically-aware, or locative media. The internet was earlier heralded as “the death of geography” with predictions that with anyone able to access information from anywhere, geography would no longer matter. But mobiles are disproving this. GPS allows the location of the user to be pinpointed, and the mobile internet allows the user to access locally-relevant information, or to upload content which is geotagged to the specific location. It also allows locally-specific content to be sent to the user when the user enters a specific space. Location-based services are one of the fastest-growing segments of the mobile internet market: the 2008 AIMIA report indicates that user access of local maps increased by 347% over the previous 12 months, and restaurant guides/reviews increased by 174%. The central tenet of cultural geography is that places are culturally-constructed, comprised of the physical space itself, culturally-inflected perceptions of that space, and people’s experiences of the space (LeFebvre 1991). This paper takes a cultural geographical approach to locative media, anatomising the various spaces which have emerged through locative media, or “the geoweb” (Lake 2004). The geoweb is such a new concept that to date, critical discourse has treated it as a somewhat homogenous spatial formation. In order to counter this, and in order to demonstrate the dynamic complexity of the emerging spaces of the geoweb, the paper provides a topography of different types of locative media space: including the personal/aesthetic in which individual users geotag specific physical sites with their own content and meanings; the commercial, like the billboards which speak to individuals as they pass in Minority Report; and the social, in which one’s location is defined by the proximity of friends rather than by geography.

Assessment in education : principles, policy and practice

The English examination system provides a market in which a limited number of providers are accredited to offer curriculum-based examinations in many subject areas and at several levels. The most significant are the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the General Certificate of Education, Advanced (A level). Because these examinations are used for high-stakes purposes, including higher education and employment selection for individuals and programme evaluation for institutions, it is desired that scores from various exams be ‘comparable’ in several respects: across syllabuses and examination boards within a subject area, across years, and even across subject areas. Just how to accomplish this goal has been a topic of continual research and debate for over 50 years, through many changes of examination and institutional structures. But ever year, tens of thousands of scores must be reported, and every year, users expect them to ‘be comparable’ and use them as if they are.

Application of Dynamic Hysteresis Band Height Control to Improve Output Voltage Transient in Boost and Positive Buck-Boost Converters

This paper presents dynamic hysteresis band height control to reduce the overshoot and undershoot issue on output voltage caused by load change. The converters in this study are Boost and Positive Buck-Boost (PBB) converters. PBB has been controlled to work in a step up conversion and avoid overshoot when load is changed. Simulation and experimental results have been presented to verify the proposed method.

Effect of inaccuracies in anthropometric data and linked-segment inverse dynamic modeling on kinetics of gait in persons with partial foot amputation

The accuracy of data derived from linked-segment models depends on how well the system has been represented. Previous investigations describing the gait of persons with partial foot amputation did not account for the unique anthropometry of the residuum or the inclusion of a prosthesis and footwear in the model and, as such, are likely to have underestimated the magnitude of the peak joint moments and powers. This investigation determined the effect of inaccuracies in the anthropometric input data on the kinetics of gait. Toward this end, a geometric model was developed and validated to estimate body segment parameters of various intact and partial feet. These data were then incorporated into customized linked-segment models, and the kinetic data were compared with that obtained from conventional models. Results indicate that accurate modeling increased the magnitude of the peak hip and knee joint moments and powers during terminal swing. Conventional inverse dynamic models are sufficiently accurate for research questions relating to stance phase. More accurate models that account for the anthropometry of the residuum, prosthesis, and footwear better reflect the work of the hip extensors and knee flexors to decelerate the limb during terminal swing phase.

Promoting creativity in education : from policy to practice : an Australian perspective

In the 21st century, our global community is changing to increasingly value creativity and innovation as driving forces in our lives. This paper will investigate how educators need to move beyond the rhetoric to effective practices for teaching and fostering creativity. First, it will describe the nature of creativity at different levels, with a focus on personal and everyday creativity. It will then provide a brief snapshot of creativity in education through the lens of new policies and initiatives in Queensland, Australia. Next it will review two significant areas related to enriching and enhancing students’ creative engagement and production: 1) influential social and environmental factors; and 2) creative self-efficacy. Finally, this paper will propose that to effectively promote student creativity in schools, we need to not only emphasise policy, but also focus on establishing a shared discourse about the nature of creativity, and researching and implementing effective practices for supporting and fostering creativity. This paper has implications for educational policy, practice and teacher training that are applicable internationally.

In Pursuit of Excellence : A Policy Driven Systemic Initiative to Embed Gifted Education

Embedding gifted education practices requires major professional development strategies supported by transparent, credible and enforceable policy. This paper describes an analysis of a state-wide initiative involving the establishment of a series of schools tasked to develop and disseminate gifted education principles. The authors have been involved with this initiative at a number of levels over a ten-year period. Their involvement culminated in a commissioned review of the program. Extensive qualitative data were purposively collected from all stakeholders and the effectiveness of the initiative is examined from a theoretical framework of policy development and excellence. The findings summarised in this proposal, indicate the achievement of excellence at a systemic level was constrained by lack of vision, leadership and commitment to long term achievements of excellence. At a local level evidence exists that excellence can be manifested when there is synchronicity of vision, purpose, decisions, and actions.

An examination of the relationship between workload and fatigue within and across consecutive days of work: Is the relationshiop static or dynamic?

Cognitive-energetical theories of information processing were used to generate predictions regarding the relationship between workload and fatigue within and across consecutive days of work. Repeated measures were taken on board a naval vessel during a non-routine and a routine patrol. Data were analyzed using growth curve modeling. Fatigue demonstrated a non-monotonic relationship within days in both patrols – fatigue was high at midnight, started decreasing until noontime and then increased again. Fatigue increased across days towards the end of the non-routine patrol, but remained stable across days in the routine patrol. The relationship between workload and fatigue changed over consecutive days in the non-routine patrol. At the beginning of the patrol, low workload was associated with fatigue. At the end of the patrol, high workload was associated with fatigue. This relationship could not be tested in the routine patrol, however it demonstrated a non-monotonic relationship between workload and fatigue – low and high workloads were associated with the highest fatigue. These results suggest that the optimal level of workload can change over time and thus have implications for the management of fatigue.

Whither culture? Australian horror films and the limitations of cultural policy

Cultural policy that attempts to foster the Australian film industry’s growth and development in an era of globalisation is coming under increasing pressure. Throughout the 2000s, there has been a substantial boom in Australian horror films led by ‘runaway’ horror film Saw (2004), Wolf Creek (2005), and Undead (2003), achieving varying levels of popularity and commercial success worldwide. However, emerging within a national cinema driven by public subsidy and valuing ‘quality’ and ‘cultural content’ over ‘entertainment’ and ‘commercialism’, horror films have generally been antithetical to these objectives. Consequently, the recent boom in horror films has occurred largely outside the purview and subvention of cultural policy. This paper argues that global forces and emerging production and distribution models are challenging the ‘narrowness’ of cultural policy – a narrowness that mandates a particular film culture, circumscribes certain notions of value and limits the variety of films produced domestically. Despite their low-culture status, horror films have been well suited to the Australian film industry’s financial limitations, they are a growth strategy for producers, and a training ground for emerging filmmakers.