Teaching undergraduate students community nursing : using action research to increase engagement and learning

Nurses play a pivotal role in responding to the changing needs of community health care. Therefore, nursing education must be relevant, responsive, and evidence based. We report a case study of curriculum development in a community nursing unit embedded within an undergraduate nursing degree. We used action research to develop, deliver, evaluate, and redesign the curriculum. Feedback was obtained through self-reflection, expert opinion from community stakeholders, formal student evaluation, and critical review. Changes made, especially in curriculum delivery, led to improved learner focus and more clearly linked theory and practice. The redesigned unit improved performance, measured with the university's student evaluation of feedback instrument (increased from 0.3 to 0.5 points below to 0.1 to 0.5 points above faculty mean in all domains), and was well received by teaching staff. The process confirmed that improved pedagogy can increase student engagement with content and perception of a unit as relevant to future practice.

Toward non-invasive detection of concealed energetic materials in-field under ambient-light conditions

Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is demonstrated for the non-contact detection of energetic materials concealed within non-transparent, diffusely scattering containers. A modified design of an inverse SORS probe has been developed and tested. The SORS probe has been successfully used for the detection of various energetic substances inside different types of plastic containers. The tests have been successfully conducted under incandescent and fluorescent background lights as well as under daylight conditions, using a non-contact working distance of 6 cm. The interrogation times for the detection of the substances were less than 1 minute in each case, highlighting the suitability of the device for near real-time detection of concealed hazards in the field. The device has potential applications in forensic analysis and homeland security investigations.

The impact of the GST on the community services sector in Queensland

The impact of the GST has on nonprofit organisations has been largely ignored in the compliance cost literature. Most studies to date, both in Australia and overseas, have focused exclusively on measuring the nature and extent of GST compliance costs of businesses in the for-profit sector (particularly the impact on small businesses). This paper examines the impact of The New Tax System, and in particular, the GST on Queensland community sector organisations. The results are extracted from a QCOSS report entitled “Taxing Goodwill: The Impact of GST on Community Services” released in October 2001.

Beyond broadcasting: customer service, community and information experience in the Twittersphere

What opportunities does a channel like Twitter offer to libraries, beyond the realm of marketing? We would like to highlight three roles for Twitter in the academic library environment: Twitter as a service delivery and service recovery channel; Twitter as a community builder; Twitter as a site for information experience.

Creating successful cultural Brokers : the pros and cons of a community of practice approach in arts management education

Arts managers play a critical role in creating a strong, sustainable arts and cultural sector. They operate as brokers, creating programs, and, more critically, coordinating the relationships between artists, audiences, communities, governments and sponsors required to make these programs a success. Based on study of model developed for a subject in the Master of Creative Industries (Creative Production & Arts Management) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), this paper examines the pros and cons of a “community of practice” approach in training arts management students to act as cultural brokers. It provides data on the effectiveness of a range of activities – including Position Papers, Case Studies, Masterclasses, and offline and online conversations – that can be used facilitate the peer-to-peer engagement by which students work together to build their cultural brokering skills in a community of practice. The data demonstrates that, whilst students appreciate this approach, educators must provide enough access to voices of authority – that is, to arts professionals – to establish a well-functioning community of practice, and ensure that more expert students do not become frustrated when they are unwittingly and unwillingly thrust into this role by less expert classmates. This is especially important in arts management, where classes are always diverse, due to the fact that most dedicated programs in Australia, as in the US, UK and Europe, are taught via small-scale programs at graduate level which accept applicants from a wide variety of arts and non-arts backgrounds.

OpenFABMAP : an open source toolbox for appearance-based loop closure detection

Appearance-based loop closure techniques, which leverage the high information content of visual images and can be used independently of pose, are now widely used in robotic applications. The current state-of-the-art in the field is Fast Appearance-Based Mapping (FAB-MAP) having been demonstrated in several seminal robotic mapping experiments. In this paper, we describe OpenFABMAP, a fully open source implementation of the original FAB-MAP algorithm. Beyond the benefits of full user access to the source code, OpenFABMAP provides a number of configurable options including rapid codebook training and interest point feature tuning. We demonstrate the performance of OpenFABMAP on a number of published datasets and demonstrate the advantages of quick algorithm customisation. We present results from OpenFABMAP’s application in a highly varied range of robotics research scenarios.

Reconciling community and commerce? Collaboration between produsage communities and commercial operators

Collaborative user-led content creation by online communities, or produsage (Bruns 2008), has generated a variety of useful and important resources and other valuable outcomes, from open source software through the Wikipedia to a variety of smaller-scale, specialist projects. These are often seen as standing in an inherent opposition to commercial interests, and attempts to develop collaborations between community content creators and commercial partners have had mixed success rates to date. However, such tension between community and commerce is not inevitable, and there is substantial potential for more fruitful exchanges and collaboration. This article contributes to the development of this understanding by outlining the key underlying principles of such participatory community processes and exploring the potential tensions which could arise between these communities and their potential external partners. It also sketches out potential approaches to resolving them.

Mathematics funds of knowledge : sotmaute and sermaute fish in a Torres Strait Islander community

The purpose of this article is to describe a project with one Torres Strait Islander Community. It provides some insights into parents’ funds of knowledge that are mathematical in nature, such as sorting shells and giving fish. The idea of funds of knowledge is based on the premise that people are competent and have knowledge that has been historically and culturally accumulated into a body of knowledge and skills essential for their functioning and well-being. This knowledge is then practised throughout their lives and passed onto the next generation of children. Through adopting a community research approach, funds of knowledge that can be used to validate the community’s identities as knowledgeable people, can also be used as foundations for future learnings for teachers, parents and children in the early years of school. They can be the bridge that joins a community’s funds of knowledge with schools validating that knowledge.

A cross-cultural approach towards designing digital noticeboards with a remote aboriginal community

This working paper reflects upon the opportunities and challenges of designing a form of digital noticeboard system with a remote Aboriginal community that supports their aspirations for both internal and external communication. The project itself has evolved from a relationship built through ecological work between scientists and the local community on the Groote Eylandt archipelago to study native populations of animal species over the long term. In the course of this work the aspiration has emerged to explore how digital noticeboards might support communication on the island and externally. This paper introduces the community, the context and the history of the project. We then reflect upon the science project, its outcomes and a framework empowering the Aboriginal viewpoint, in order to draw lessons for extending what we see as a pragmatic and relationship based approach towards cross-cultural design.

Towards designing digital noticeboards with a remote indigenous community

This position paper reflects upon the opportunities and challenges of designing a digital noticeboard system with a remote indigenous community that supports their aspirations for both internal and external communication. The project itself has evolved from a relationship built through ecological work between scientists and the local community on the Groote Eylandt archipelago to study native populations of animal species over the long term. In the course of this work the aspiration has emerged to explore how digital noticeboards might promote and communicate aspects of work and life on the island through both the web and touchscreen noticeboards. This paper introduces the community, the context and the history of the project. We then reflect upon the science project and its outcomes, in order to draw lessons for extending what we see as a pragmatic and relationship based approach towards design.

Diesel knock combustion and its detection using acoustic emission

This paper presents an experimental investigation into the detection of excessive Diesel knock using acoustic emission signals. Three different dual-fuel Diesel engine operating regimes were induced into a compression ignition (Diesel) engine operating on both straight Diesel fuel and two different mixtures of fumigated ethanol and Diesel. The experimentally induced engine operating regimes were; normal, or Diesel only operation, acceptable dual-fuel operation and dual-fuel operation with excessive Diesel knock. During the excessive Diesel knock operating regime, high rates of ethanol substitution induced potentially damaging levels of Diesel knock. Acoustic emission data was captured along with cylinder pressure, crank-angle encoder, and top-dead centre signals for the different engine operating regimes. Using these signals, it was found that acoustic emission signals clearly distinguished between the two acceptable operating regimes and the operating regime experiencing excessive Diesel knock. It was also found that acoustic emission sensor position is critical. The acoustic emission sensor positioned on the block of the engine clearly related information concerning the level of Diesel knock occurring in the engine whist the sensor positioned on the head of the engine gave no indication concerning Diesel knock severity levels.

Training the public to collect oral histories of our community : the OHAA Queensland Chapter’s model

In a digital age, the skills required to undertake an oral history project have changed dramatically. For community groups, this shift can be new and exciting, but can also invoke feelings of anxiety when there is a gap in the skill set. Addressing this gap is one of Oral History Association of Australia, Queensland (OHAA Qld) main activities. This paper reports on the OHAA Qld chapter’s oral history workshop program, which was radically altered in 2011.

Best practice business community partnerships

In the last two years or so, the Prime Minister has made the development of a social coalition, involving business partnerships with the community, central to his Government’s vision of a fair and just Australian society. This is clearly a new and exciting era in thinking for government, business and community partnerships. However, there has been a tendency, particularly in the media reporting of these initiatives, especially the Prime Minister's Business Community Partnership awards held in 1999 and in July this year, to concentrate the agenda more on philanthropy and corporate donations, than on some of the many other ways that partnerships can develop...

Valuing diversity : a multiliteracies project in a remote Indigenous community

This chapter draws attention to the complex nature of teachers’ work when working with linguistically and culturally diverse students and their communities in an era of new literacies. One multiliteracies project undertaken within a remote Indigenous community in the Torres Straits, Far North Queensland, Australia, is presented. The discussion considers understandings of student diversity as articulated in the Australian Curriculum documents, designs of meaning for written and visual text and the various components of pedagogy introduced into a multiliteracies project. The chapter concludes by highlighting the usefulness of the ‘wide, but not vague’ multiliteracies approach and the importance of an explicit grammar for written and visual text, for meeting the literacy learning needs of one group of 21st century learners.

Shattered dreams : a community project

The research field was community empowerment through education and skill-building. The context was the high rates of domestic violence in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and the dearth of culturally-appropriate resource materials to stimulate and encourage community engagement with the issue. The research question concerned the use of a specific media project – the creation of a 7-minute 48-second DVD on the causes and impacts of domestic violence – as a focus for community empowerment, education and skills development. The research represented an innovative partnership between the university research team, a non-government organisation, and various expert content-providers. The project generated new knowledge regarding best practice, in such areas as the culturally appropriate use of the voices of elders, focusing on the responsibilities of both men and women in relation to family and domestic violence, and the protection of Aboriginal and Islander children. The project has created an excellent tool for workshops on related issues including familiarity with the legal system. The film has been distributed to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander domestic violence services throughout the State, and has generated interstate interest, indicating a significant gap in available culturally-appropriate domestic violence resources. A support package for educational workers within Indigenous community groups wishing to use the resource has also been produced. In 2010, the DVD was nominated for a Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Award. Other non-government organisations have expressed interest in using the model created through this community-based project.