Web usability guidelines for smartphones : a synergic approach

The mobile phones that we carry with us all the time have started becoming increasingly sophisticated and consequently are referred to as “Smartphones”. Smartphones today are extremely powerful and, in addition to making phone calls, are capable of performing a variety of other functions. One very important function is the ability to access the Internet for a wide number of purposes. An obstacle that these users face is that access to the Internet is through a tiny interface, which is in sharp contrast to the typically large, flat-screen monitor. Unfortunately, many websites are neither designed for nor suitable to be accessed from these small devices. With relatively little effort, however, the developers of the websites can make the web interfaces more appropriate for Smartphones and hence accessible to a much larger audience. In this paper, we focus on “web usability”, a term essentially concerned with the ease of accessing and entering information on websites. We compile and synergize several different guidelines with the intent of increasing the web usability of Smartphones.

Linking student evaluations to institutional goals : a change story

For the past 30 years, beginning with the seminal work of Herbert Marsh in Australia and New Zealand, institutions of higher education have developed internal practices and procedures to collect and analyse student evaluations of teaching and learning. However, the question remains: has this development resulted in the achievement of institutional goals that maximise learning across all teaching contexts? As is the case in many other countries, a recent review of Australian national student evaluation data failed to conclude that student evaluations have improved overall teaching. However, these data have made student perceptions of teaching and learning more salient in the minds of tertiary educators. Certainly, teaching staff are aware of the impacts of student evaluations on informed decision-making, such as the continuation or discontinuation of courses, and on their promotion processes. This paper will review student evaluation practices according to criteria used in change theories, such as the transtheoretical change model (TTM). TTM construes organisational change as a process involving progress through a series of five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. This paper will focus on organisational and behavioural outcomes that can be linked to the use of student data. It will recommend strategies for better aligning evaluation results to the stages of change.

Gyration

European Renaissance and Romantic landscape appeared in vistas. The conditions of the industrial revolution and, according to Patrick Maynard and Jonathon Crary, the film camera especially, led to a Modernist re-vision vividly recorded in Xavier Herbert’s contrary Modernist vision, prompted by seeing the Australian bush, its ‘... stunted trees, the mulga and the wilga and the gimlet gum, doing a kind of dance, spinning past, seeming to swing away from the train to the horizon and race ahead, to come back...the same set of trees in endless gyration’.

Placing space/time through photography’s old and new technologies

The discovery that an impressively strong 3-dimensional effect in a 2-dimensional photographic representation of natural outdoor scenes occurs when a single camera is directed around one point in the scene, thus drawing into relief the subject of attention and blurring the surrounding space, has important implications for understanding basic processes in 3-dimensional vision. For the development of new ways for generating 3D effects in motion and static representations of scenes we might well learn from photography’s old technologies, as well as digital technologies of the static print, which have yet to release the full impact of their potential in the representation of motion and space.

An investigation of middle secondary students' mathematical conceptions of rate

This study identified four educationally critical aspects of ‘rate’ through analysis of phenomenographic, video-recorded interviews with Year 10 students. Further analysis indicated understandings in one representation or context were not necessarily transferable.

What is rate? Does context or representation matter?

Rate is an important, but difficult, mathematical concept. Despite more than 20 years of research, especially with calculus students, difficulties are reported with this concept. This paper reports the results from analysis of data from 20 Australian Grade 10 students. Interviews targeted students’ conceptions of rate, focussing on the influence of representation and context on their expression of their understanding of rate. This analysis shows that different representations of functions provide varying levels of rate-related information for individual students. Understandings of rate in one representation or context are not necessarily transferred to another representation or context. Rate is an important, but commonly misunderstood, mathematical concept with many everyday applications (Swedosh, Dowsey, Caruso, Flynn, & Tynan, 2007). It is a complicated concept comprising many interwoven ideas such as the ratio of two numeric, measurable quantities but in a context where both quantities are changing. In mathematics classes, this is commonly expressed as change in the dependent variable resulting from a unit change in the independent variable, and variously described as constant or variable rate; average or instantaneous rate. In addition, rate may be seen as a purely abstract mathematical notion or embedded in the understanding of real-world applications. This paper explores the research question: Are students’ expressions of their conceptions of rate affected by either context or mathematical representation? This question was part of a larger study (Herbert, 2010) conducted with Grade 10 students from the Australian state of Victoria.

Questions in primary mathematics classrooms

In this paper the types of questions that primary teachers use when teaching mathematics are discussed. Teachers from five primary schools participated in a professional development program designed to improve the quality of questioning in mathematics classrooms. Changes in their practice as they perceived them are presented.

Being 'fat' in today's world : a qualitative study of the lived experiences of people with obesity in Australia

Objective  To develop an in-depth picture of both lived experience of obesity and the impact of socio-cultural factors on people living with obesity.

Design  Qualitative methodology, utilizing in-depth semi-structured interviews with a community sample of obese adults (body mass index ≥30). Community sampling methods were supplemented with purposive sampling techniques to ensure a diverse range of individuals were included.

Results  Seventy-six individuals (aged 16–72) were interviewed. Most had struggled with their weight for most of their lives (n = 45). Almost all had experienced stigma and discrimination in childhood (n = 36), as adolescents (n = 41) or as adults (n = 72). About half stated that they had been humiliated by health professionals because of their weight. Participants felt an individual responsibility to lose weight, and many tried extreme forms of dieting to do so. Participants described an increasing culture of ‘blame’ against people living with obesity perpetuated by media and public health messages. Eighty percent said that they hated or disliked the word obesity and would rather be called fat or overweight.

Discussion and Conclusion  There are four key conclusions: (i) the experiences of obesity are diverse, but there are common themes, (ii) people living with obesity have heard the messages but find it difficult to act upon them, (iii) interventions should be tailored to address both individual and community needs and (iv) we need to rethink how to approach obesity interventions to ensure that avoid recapitulating damaging social stereotypes and exacerbating social inequalities.

Corrigendum : Inbreeding and testicular abnormalities in a bottlenecked population of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus)

The authors wish to alert readers to the following calculation errors, p. 304, first column, second paragraph (corrected text is shown in bold)

Gesture types for functions

This paper reports on the different gesture types employed by twenty-three Year 10 students as they endeavoured to explain their understanding of rate of change associated with the functions resulting from two different computer simulations. These gestures also have application to revealing students’ understanding of functions. However, interpretation of gesture is problematic but classification of gestures assisted in the analysis of the videorecorded interviews probing participants’ conceptions of rate of change. This paper builds on the classifications reported in previous research. Five additional gesture types are presented, which provide insights into students’ thinking about rate of change, and hence functions.

Visionnaire

Visionnaire : A screening of postgraduate and masters films

All I Have Left - Merei, Daniel
The Score - Holland, Thomas,
The Beard Fairy - Morrison, Luke
Retracing the End - Biviano, Shannon, Lee, David, Ooi, Zihui, Joo, James, Partovifar, Hadi, Karantzas, Alexandra
Armed - Francisco, Mia, Weise, Timothy, Benyaminovich, Mark, Medew, Sarah, Barker, Nic, Walker, James E.
The Library Museum - Song, Miru, Larmour-Reid, Ezra, Yii, Emily, Mentzoni, Kristoffer, Janssen, Hans, Yong, King
Children Can Write Poetry - Carolan, Olivia, Wilson, Robert, Sebastian, Justin, Noonan, Sam, Wally, Joe, Huang, Janet
Ill Will - Evans, Sheridan, Thorborg, Oscar, Tofteberg, Lise, Vawdrey, Michael, Moraes, Jamie, Meyer, Nina
The Toothpick Man - Devandran, Yogashree, Arntzen, Kim, Sheah, Ju Er, Kusdina, Karina, Rahim, Amir Abdul
Necare - Thomas, Rohan, Wijananda, Adi, Graham, Alice, Low, Nicholas, Wong, Aaron, Kitchen, Zachary
Glass - Stringer, Blake, Anderson, Robert, Kelada, Matthew, Hafner, Katrina, Warner, Timothy, Vivian-Williams, Olivia
Brick Road - Moore, Kimberley, Cleeve, Guy, Kennedy, Ryan, Terry, James, herbert, Robert, Wilson, Eleanor
Ties - Rondos, Maximo, Gordes, Liam, Ruddy, Dylan, Blakley, Jock, Pitches, Devan, Mitchell, Robert

Primary science specialist learning program – report of delivery

The Primary Science Specialist (PrimSS) Professional Learning Program consisted of a fifteen day program, of which Deakin delivered 5 days of pedagogy and content in science education, followed by 3 days of leading change in schools and developing other teachers' capacities. Delivered in several phases, it was possible to provide teachers with ideas and models for them to trial within their schools and to report back to the group, during the program.