What it means to become a public relations professional: student perceptions of professional identity through real-world learning

Public relations educators need new solutions to prepare students to become tomorrow's practitioner today. Managers and employers in the new creative workforce (McWilliam, 2008) expect graduates to be problem solvers, critical and creative thinkers, reflective, and self reliant (Barrie, 2008; David, 2004). Enabling students to develop these attributes requires a collaborative and creative approach to pedagogy (Jeffrey & Craft, 2001, 2004). A model for the next generation of public relations education was developed to integrate industry partnerships as a way to bridge pedagogy and professional practice. The model suggests (a) that industry partnerships be embedded in learning activities, (b) that assessment items be considered on a continuum and delivered incrementally across a course of study, and (c) that connections between classroom and workplace activities are clearly signposted for students.

Learning object dynamics for smooth tracking of moving lip contours

A new technique is proposed for learning the dynamic characteristics of a deformable object, applied in particular to the problem of lip-tracking. Experimental results are given which demonstrate that the use of dynamic models allows the system to track more robustly under adverse conditions and to correct spurious, poorly tracked frames

Reflections on music therapy with Indigenous families : cultural learning put into practice

This paper will describe the process of learning and development that occurred when the Sing & Grow prevention and early intervention project began to provide services to Indigenous families, a relatively new area or music therapy, particularly in Brisbane. The first attempt at establishing a weekly group music therapy program for Indigenous families was not as successful as anticipated; however through analysis of the contributing factors, guidelines were developed and implemented in the following program, which resulted in a positive learning experience for the families and therapists involved.

Scaffolding techniques : a teacher training for cooperative learning in Thailand primary education

In general, the benefits of using cooperative learning include academic achievement, communication skills, problem-solving, social skills and student motivation. Yet cooperative learning as a Western educational concept may be ineffective in a different learning system. The study aims to investigate scaffolding techniques for cooperative learning in Thailand primary education. The program was designed to foster Thai primary school teachers’ cooperative learning implementation that includes the basic tenets of cooperative learning and socio-cognitive based learning. Two teachers were invited to participate in this experimental teacher training program for one and a half weeks. Then the teachers implemented a cooperative learning in their mathematics class for six weeks. The data from teacher interview and classroom observation indicated that the both teachers are able to utilise questions to scaffold their students’ engagement in cooperative learning. This initiative study showed that difficulty or failure of implementing cooperative learning in Thailand education may not be derived from cultural difference. The paper discussed the techniques the participant teachers applied with proactive scaffolding, reactive scaffolding and scaffolding questions that can be used to facilitate the implementation of cooperative learning in Thai school.

Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education

The importance of reflection in higher education, and across disciplinary fields is widely recognised; it is generally included in university graduate attributes, professional standards and program objectives. Furthermore, reflection is commonly embedded into assessment requirements in higher education subjects, often without necessary scaffolding or clear expectations for students. Despite the rhetoric around the importance of reflection for ongoing learning, there is scant literature on any systematic, developmental approach to teaching reflective learning across higher education programs/courses. Given that professional or academic reflection is not intuitive, and requires specific pedagogic intervention to do well, a program/course-wide approach is essential. This paper draws on current literature to theorise a new, transferable and customisable model for teaching and assessing reflective learning across higher education, which foregrounds and explains the pedagogic field of higher education as a multi-dimensional space. We argue that explicit and strategic pedagogic intervention, supported by dynamic resources, is necessary for successful, broad-scale approaches to reflection in higher education.

Ontology learning from user tagging for recommendation making

Recently, user tagging systems have grown in popularity on the web. The tagging process is quite simple for ordinary users, which contributes to its popularity. However, free vocabulary has lack of standardization and semantic ambiguity. It is possible to capture the semantics from user tagging into some form of ontology, but the application of the resulted ontology for recommendation making has not been that flourishing. In this paper we discuss our approach to learn domain ontology from user tagging information and apply the extracted tag ontology in a pilot tag recommendation experiment. The initial result shows that by using the tag ontology to re-rank the recommended tags, the accuracy of the tag recommendation can be improved.

Application of machine learning in fault diagnostics of mechanical systems

A diagnostic method based on Bayesian Networks (probabilistic graphical models) is presented. Unlike conventional diagnostic approaches, in this method instead of focusing on system residuals at one or a few operating points, diagnosis is done by analyzing system behavior patterns over a window of operation. It is shown how this approach can loosen the dependency of diagnostic methods on precise system modeling while maintaining the desired characteristics of fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) tools (fault isolation, robustness, adaptability, and scalability) at a satisfactory level. As an example, the method is applied to fault diagnosis in HVAC systems, an area with considerable modeling and sensor network constraints.

REGAL : a regularization based algorithm for reinforcement learning in weakly communicating MDPs

We provide an algorithm that achieves the optimal regret rate in an unknown weakly communicating Markov Decision Process (MDP). The algorithm proceeds in episodes where, in each episode, it picks a policy using regularization based on the span of the optimal bias vector. For an MDP with S states and A actions whose optimal bias vector has span bounded by H, we show a regret bound of ~ O(HS p AT ). We also relate the span to various diameter-like quantities associated with the MDP, demonstrating how our results improve on previous regret bounds.

An ecological footprint for an early learning centre : identifying opportunities for early childhood sustainability education through interdisciplinary research

In this study, engineers and educators worked together to adapt and apply the ecological footprint (EF) methodology to an early learning centre in Brisbane, Australia. Results were analysed to determine how environmental impact can be reduced at the study site and more generally across early childhood settings. It was found that food, transport and energy consumption had the largest impact on the centre’s overall footprint. In transport and energy, early childhood centres can reduce their impact through infrastructure and cultural change, in association with changed curriculum strategies. Building design, the type of energy purchased and appliance usage can all be modified to reduce the energy footprint. The transport footprint can be reduced through more families using active and public transport, which can be encouraged by providing information, support and facilities and appropriate siting of new centres. Introducing the concept of ecological footprint in early childhood education may be an effective way to educate children, staff and parents on the links between the food they eat, land usage and environmental impact. This study responds directly to the call in this journal for research focused on early childhood education and for more to be made of interdisciplinary research opportunities.

The differential recognition of children’s cultural practices in middle primary literacy classrooms

This paper argues that teachers’ recognition of children’s cultural practices is an important positive step in helping socio-economically disadvantaged children engage with school literacies. Based on twenty-one longitudinal case studies of children’s literacy development over a three-year period, the authors demonstrate that when children’s knowledges and practices assembled in home and community spheres are treated as valuable material for school learning, children are more likely to invest in the work of acquiring school literacies. However they show also that whilst some children benefit greatly from being allowed to draw on their knowledge of popular culture, sports and the outdoors, other children’s interests may be ignored or excluded. Some differences in teachers’ valuing of home and community cultures appeared to relate to gender dimensions.

Buying, selling and building a home

A contract to buy or sell a home is the most important contract most people will ever make. It is crucial that the purchase or sale is made carefully and correctly. Similarly, maintaining a home and undertaking repairs or renovations can be significant aspects of life. This Chapter will explore these issues under the broad headings: • buying a home; • selling a home; and • building or renovating a home.