Human rights, the law, cyber-security and democracy : after the European Convention

Many commentators have treated the internet as a site of democratic freedom and as a new kind of public sphere. While there are good reasons for optimism, like any social space digital space also has its dark side. Citizens and governments alike have expressed anxiety about cybercrime and cyber-security. In August 2011, the Australian government introduced legislation to give effect to Australia becoming a signatory to the European Convention on Cybercrime (2001). At the time of writing, that legislation is still before the Parliament. In this article, attention is given to how the legal and policy-making process enabling Australia to be compliant with the European Convention on Cybercrime came about. Among the motivations that informed both the development of the Convention in Europe and then the Australian exercise of legislating for compliance with it was a range of legitimate concerns about the impact that cybercrime can have on individuals and communities. This article makes the case that equal attention also needs to be given to ensuring that legislators and policy makers differentiate between legitimate security imperatives and any over-reach evident in the implementation of this legislation that affects rule of law principles, our capacity to engage in democratic practices, and our civic and human rights.

Relationship between emotional climate and the fluency of classroom interactions

This study examined emotional climate in relation to the teaching and learning of grade 7 science. A multi-method and multi-theoretic approach used sociocultural frameworks as a foundation for interpretive research, conversation analysis, prosody analysis, and studies of nonverbal conduct. Emotional climate varied continuously throughout a lesson. Dialogues occurred and afforded learning when interactions between the teacher and students were fluent and included humour and collective effervescence. Emotional climate was negatively valenced when the teacher and/or students endeavoured to establish and maintain power by restricting others’ participation to spectator roles. The teacher’s endeavours to maintain and establish control over students were potentially detrimental to teaching and learning, teachers and learners. This type of teaching gradually evolved into a form we referred to as cranky teaching, whereby the teacher and her students showed signs of frustration and the enacted teaching and learning roles lacked fluency. The methods we pioneered in the present study might be helpful for other teachers who wish to participate in research on their classes to ascertain what works and should be strengthened, and identify practices and rituals that are deleterious and in need of change.

The influence of parental health beliefs on child restraint practices in a regional centre in Queensland

Since March 2010 in Queensland, legislation has specified the type of restraint and seating row for child passengers under 7 years according to age. The following study explored regional parents’ child restraint practices and the influence of their health beliefs over these. A brief intercept interview was verbally administered to a convenience sample of parent-drivers (n = 123) in Toowoomba in February 2010, after the announcement of changes to legislation but prior to enforcement. Parents who agreed to be followed-up were then reinterviewed after the enforcement (May-June 2010). The Health Beliefs Model was used to gauge beliefs about susceptibility to crashing, children being injured in a crash, and likely severity of injuries. Self-efficacy and perceptions about barriers to, and benefits of, using age-appropriate restraints with children, were also assessed. Results: There were very high levels of rear seating reported for children (initial interview 91%; follow-up 100%). Dedicated child restraint use was 96.9% at initial interview, though 11% were deemed inappropriate for the child’s age. Self-reported restraint practices for children under 7 were used to categorise parental practices into ‘Appropriate’ (all children in age-appropriate restraint and rear seat) or ‘Inappropriate’ (≥1 child inappropriately restrained). 94% of parents were aware of the legislation, but only around one third gave accurate descriptions of the requirements. However, 89% of parents were deemed to have ‘Appropriate’ restraint practices. Parents with ‘Inappropriate’ practices were significantly more likely than those with ‘Appropriate’ practices to disagree that child restraints provide better protection for children in a crash than adult seatbelts. For self-efficacy, parents with ‘Appropriate’ practices were more likely than those with ‘Inappropriate’ practices to report being ‘completely confident’ about installing child restraints. The results suggest that efforts to increase the level of appropriate restraint should attempt to better inform them about the superior protection offered by child restraints compared with seat belts for children.

Games for change and transformative learning : an ethnographic case study

This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of how serious games/games for change function as learning frameworks for transformative learning in an educational setting. This study illustrates how the meaning-making processes and learning with and through computer gameplay are highly contingent, and are significantly influenced by the uncertainties of the situational context. The study focuses on SCAPE, a simulation game that addresses urban planning and sustainability. SCAPE is based on the real-world scenario of Kelvin Grove Urban Village, an inner city redevelopment area in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The game is embedded within an educational program, and I thus account for the various gameplay experiences of different school classes participating in this program. The networks emerging from the interactions between students/players, educators, facilitators, the technology, the researcher, as well as the setting, result in unanticipated, controversial, and sometimes unintended gameplay experiences and outcomes. To unpack play, transformative learning and games, this study adopts an ecological approach that considers the magic circle of gameplay in its wider context. Using Actor-Network Theory as the ontological lens for inquiry, the methods for investigation include an extensive literature review, ethnographic participant observation of SCAPE, as well as student and teacher questionnaires, finishing with interviews with the designers and facilitators of SCAPE. Altogether, these methods address my research aim to better understand how the heterogeneous actors engage in the relationships in and around gameplay, and illustrate how their conflicting understandings enable, shape or constrain the (transformative) learning experience. To disentangle these complexities, my focus continuously shifts between the following modes of inquiry into the aims „h To describe and analyse the game as a designed artefact. „h To examine the gameplay experiences of players/students and account for how these experiences are constituted in the relationships of the network. „h To trace the meaning-making processes emerging from the various relations of players/students, facilitators, teachers, designers, technology, researcher, and setting, and consider how the boundaries of the respective ecology are configured and negotiated. „h To draw out the implications for the wider research area of game-based learning by using the simulation game SCAPE as an example for introducing gameplay to educational settings. Accounting in detail for five school classes, these accounts represent, each in its own right, distinct and sometimes controversial forms of engagement in gameplay. The practices and negotiations of all the assembled human and non-human actors highlight the contingent nature of gameplay and learning. In their sum, they offer distinct but by no means exhaustive examples of the various relationships that emerge from the different assemblages of human and non-human actors. This thesis, hence, illustrates that game-based learning in an educational setting is accompanied by considerable unpredictability and uncertainty. As ordinary life spills and leaks into gameplay experiences, group dynamics and the negotiations of technology, I argue that overly deterministic assertions of the game¡¦s intention, as well as a too narrowly defined understanding of the transformative learning outcome, can constrain our inquiries and hinder efforts to further elucidate and understand the evolving uncertainties around game-based learning. Instead, this thesis posits that playing and transformative learning are relational effects of the respective ecology, where all actors are networked in their (partial) enrolment in the process of translation. This study thus attempts to foreground the rich opportunities for exploring how game-based learning is assembled as a network of practices.

Mentoring as professional development: ‘growth for both’ mentor and mentee

Teachers need professional development to keep current with teaching practices, although costs for extensive professional development can be prohibitive across an education system. Mentoring provides one way for embedding cost-effective professional development. This mixed-method study includes surveying mentor teachers (n = 101) on a five-part Likert scale and interviews with experienced mentors (n = 10) to investigate professional development for mentors as a result of the mentoring process. Quantitative data were analysed through a pedagogical knowledge framework and qualitative data were collated into themes. Survey data showed that although mentoring of pedagogical knowledge was variable, mentoring pedagogical knowledge practices occurs with the majority of mentors, which requires mentors to evaluate and articulate teaching practices. Qualitative data showed that mentoring acted as professional development and led towards enhancing communication skills, developing leadership roles (problem-solving and building capacity) and advancing pedagogical knowledge. Providing professional development to teachers on mentoring can help to build capacity in two ways: quality mentoring of preservice teachers through explicit mentoring practices, and reflecting and deconstructing teaching practices for mentors’ own pedagogical advancements.

Commercial vehicle pre-clearance programs : current issues and recommendations for potential implementation

The regulation of overweight trucks is of increasing importance. Quickly growing heavy vehicle volumes over-proportionally contribute to roadway damage. Raising maintenance costs and compromised road safety are also becoming a major concern to managing agencies. Minimizing pavement wear is done by regulating overloaded trucks on major highways at weigh stations. However, due to lengthy inspections and insufficient capacities, weigh stations tend to be inefficient. New practices, using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponders and weigh-in-motion technologies, called preclearance programs, have been set up in a number of countries. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the current issues with regard to the implementation and operation of the preclearance program. The State of Queensland, Australia, is used as a case study. The investigation focuses on three aspects; the first emphasizes on identifying the need for improvement of the current regulation programs in Queensland. Second, the operators of existing preclearance programs are interviewed for their lessons-learned and the marketing strategies used for promoting their programs. The trucking companies in Queensland are interviewed for their experiences with the current weighing practices and attitudes toward the potential preclearance system. Finally, the estimated benefit of the preclearance program deployment in Queensland is analyzed. The penultimate part brings the former four parts together and provides the study findings and recommendations. The framework and study findings could be valuable inputs for other roadway agencies considering a similar preclearance program or looking to promote their existing ones.

Corporate commitment to sustainability : is it all hot air? An Australian review of the linkage between executive pay and sustainable performance

Across time, companies have increasingly made public commitments to sustainable development and to reducing their impacts on climate change. Management remuneration plans (MRPs) are a key mechanism to motivate managers to achieve corporate goals. We review the MRPs negotiated with key management personnel in a sample of large Australian carbon-intensive companies. Our results show that, as in past decades, the companies in our sample have MRPs in place that continue to fixate on financial performance. We argue that this provides evidence of a disconnection, or ‘decoupling’, between the sustainability-related rhetoric of the sample companies, and their ‘real’ organisational practices and priorities.

Creative intersections : supervision, practice and the space between

Supervision in the creative arts is a topic of growing significance since the increase in creative practice PhDs across universities in Australasia. This presentation will provide context of existing discussions in creative practice and supervision. Creative practice – encompassing practice-based or practice-led research – has now a rich history of research surrounding it. Although it is a comparatively new area of knowledge, great advances have been made in terms of how practice can influence, generate, and become research. The practice of supervision is also a topic of interest, perhaps unsurprisingly considering its necessity within the university environment. Many scholars have written much about supervision practices and the importance of the supervisory role, both in academic and more informal forms. However, there is an obvious space in between: there is very little research on supervision practices within creative practice higher degrees, especially at PhD or doctorate level. Despite the existence of creative practice PhD programs, and thus the inherent necessity for successful supervisors, there remain minimal publications and limited resources available. Creative Intersections explores the existing publications and resources, and illustrates that a space for new published knowledge and tools exists.

Translating vision research into policy and practice to improve visibility, and hence safety, of road workers at night

This case study report describes the stages involved in the translation of research on night-time visibility into standards for the safety clothing worn by roadworkers. Vision research demonstrates that when lights are placed on the moveable joints of the body and the person moves in a dark setting, the phenomenon known as “biological motion or biomotion” occurs, enabling rapid and accurate recognition of the human form although only the lights can be seen. QUT was successful in gaining funding from the Australian Research Council for a Linkage grant due to the support of the predecessors of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) to research the biomotion effect in on-road settings using materials that feature in roadworker clothing. Although positive results were gained, the process of translating the research results into policy, practices and standards relied strongly on the supportive efforts of TMR staff engaged in the review and promulgation of national standards. The ultimate result was the incorporation of biomotion marking into AS/NZS 4602.1 2011. The experiences gained in this case provide insights into the processes involved in translating research into practice.

A Summative Evaluation of the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities Project : Vol 1 and Vol 2

This is a summative evaluation of the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities (SSLC) project that examines whether and how the SSLC project had an impact on Australian state schools which adopted its models and approaches. Drawing from qualitative and quantitative data sets, it also presents the largest scale and most comprehensive analysis of Indigenous education practices and outcomes to date. It includes empirical findings on: success in changing school ethos and community engagement; challenges in progress at closure of the 'gap' in conventionally measured achievement and performance; schools' and principals' choices in curriculum and instruction; profiles of teachers' and principals' training and views on teacher education; and a strong emphasis on community and school Indigenoous voices and views on Indigenous education.

Re-framing fashion : from original and copy to adaptation

Partington notes that clothing produced by individual consumers through adaptation of patterns is contextualised as a watered down version of original couture. In its most reductive form, this notion characterises fashion as commercial and exploitative. Descriptors such as appropriation, imitation, copy and so forth have restricted the opportunity to understand fashion as a major global cultural form and institution. Therefore exploring and understanding the concept of adaptation will shift the attention from a superficial assessment of original versus imitation or copy to adaptation as a practice that provides a better framework for the understanding of designers’ and couturiers’ innovative practices and creativity, describing also the active engagement of consumers with fashion at the micro level. Adaptation can also provide a way to understand different historical shifts in the fashion system, from individual creative agency with home dressmaking and re-making to the explosion of the mass market and the consequent abandonment of such practices. Home dressmaking has been replaced by fashion remix of mass produced garments, a practice that thrives in our environment of globalised fast fashion. Thus this chapter suggests the need for a contextual requalification of concepts such as original, copy, imitation and copyright, and argues that these categories have been played against each other, but they are in fact interdependent. Today, big labels and conglomerates try to control knowledge and innovation through copyright, but, fashion escapes copyright because, in fashion, creativity is contextual. The institutionalisation of couture from 1868 served as a way to control knowledge about production processes in fashion; on the other hand, adaptation practices, often subversive, have been fundamental to the democratisation of fashion.

Changing relationships : Re-activating student and staff engagement in the design studio learning environment

QUT Teaching and Learning Support Services 'Revisiting University Teaching’program for mid-career academics. 'Innovations in Teaching at QUT' presentations. Presentations were part of a 2 day program that provides opportunities for experienced academic staff with responsibilities for teaching to review their current teaching practices and explore innovations in teaching that will assist them to enhance student learning and develop their own scholarship of teaching. The presenter responded to the following: 1.What is the innovation you have incorporated into your teaching? - give a brief overview/ description/ demonstration of the innovation 2.What challenges/issues prompted you to make changes in your approach? Were they discipline specific? Operational? Opportunistic? 3.What factors did you need to consider in implementing these changes? Which factors enabled success or hindered? 4.What has this innovation achieved so far? How have learners responded? How have the broader teaching team and academic staff from other units in your course responded? 5.How could this innovation be used by other academics in their teaching? What do you see as the possibilities for further expansion of this innovation? (NB. This question could be answered as part of a final sharing of group discussion). Presenter: Shannon Satherley

Disrupting Preconceptions : Postcolonialism and Education

This is a fine collection of papers, from some leading educational scholars. They argue that the contemporary corporatised policies of education such as international education limit the possibilities of transformative practice. They demonstrate how the local (the national) and the global (the imperial) are interconnected phenomena, acting upon one another to construct indigeneity and racialised identities, and even hybridation, in ways that engender inequalities, restrict human rights, and infridge on the democratic and civil rights of the colonised and the marginalised. At the same time, they point to the possibilities of resistance, conditions that provide pedagogic opportunities for the creation of counter-hegemonic ideas, expressions, practices and structures. This book is highly recommended.Fazal RizviProfessor in Educational Policy Studies,University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign, USA

Social and mobile interaction design to increase the loyalty rates of young blood donors

Young adults represent the largest group of first time donors to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, but they are also the least loyal group and often do not return after their first donation. At the same time, many young people use the internet and various forms of social media on a daily basis. Web and mobile based technological practices and communication patterns change the way that young people interact with one another, with their families, and communities. Combining these two points of departure, this study seeks to identify best practices of employing mobile apps and social media in order to enhance the loyalty rates of young blood donors. The findings reported in this paper are based on a qualitative approach presenting a nuanced understanding of the different factors that motivate young people to donate blood in the first place, as well as the obstacles or issues that prevent them from returning. The paper discusses work in progress with a view to inform the development of interactive prototypes trialling three categories of features: personal services (such as scheduling); social media (such as sharing the donation experience with friends to raise awareness); and data visualisations (such as local blood inventory levels). We discuss our translation of research findings into design implications.

CSG A Greener Tomorrow : Comprehensive Organizational and Socialistic Report

Humans have altered environments and enhanced their wellbeing unlike any other creature on the planet (Hielman & Donda, 2007); this is no different whether the environment is ecological, social or organizational. In recent times, the debate regarding greenhouse effects on the global weather patterns and the sustainment of the earth’s temperature necessary for life support has become quite infamously problematic as society pushes to find new sources of energy both renewable and environmentally sustainable. The feedback received on CSG from both government and companies alike is that the opportunities this industry creates has a lasting range of social and economic benefits worth over fifty (50) billion dollars in projects (Queensland Government, 2013). This however, has been overshadowed by social activist and lobbyist groups as ‘Lock the Gate Alliance’ saying, as one part of their report noted from the National Water Commission, “coal seam gas development could cause significant social impacts by disrupting current land-use practices and the local environment through infrastructure construction and access” (Lock the Gate Alliance, n.d.), and “In recent years both a NSW and Federal Senate inquiry into coal seam gas production were deliberately mislead by an organization that claims to work on behalf of the farming community, This is the battle for the end of the fossil fuel industry. This is the end game..." (Ward, 2013).