Digital literacy in theory, policy and practice: Old concerns, new opportunities

The increasing ubiquity and use of digital technologies across social and cultural life is a key challenge for educators engaged in helping students develop a range of literacies useful for school and beyond. Many young people's experience of communication and participation is now shaped by almost constant engagements with digital technologies and media, as well as with global digital cultures. This increasing access and use has given many young people the opportunity to engage deeply with global media cultures via popular music, television and film franchises, the worldwide computer games industry, or countless other subcultures that connect fans and interested others from around the world via the internet. 'Digital literacy' is often the term associated with the ability to traverse these, and other, online and offline worlds; the notion has long been synonymous with the idea that digital technologies now mediate perhaps a majority of our social interactions. These forms of engagement with the world have important implications for educators and school systems which have historically recognised only a very narrow set of legitimate literacies.

Community uses of co-creative media digital storytelling and co-creative Media: The role of community arts and media in propagating and coordinating population-wide creative practice

How is creative expression and communication extended among whole populations? What is the social and cultural value of this activity? What roles do formal agencies, community-based organisations and content producer networks play? Specifically, how do participatory media and arts projects and networks contribute to building this capacity in the contemporary communications environment? The latest issue of CSJ article in a special issue on “Broadening Digital Storytelling Horizons” edited by Burcu Simsek.

Doing Digital Composition on the Social Web: Knowledge Processes in Literacy Learning

The power to influence others in ever-expanding social networks in the new knowledge economy is tied to capabilities with digital media production. This chapter draws on research in elementary classrooms to examine the repertoires of cross-disciplinary knowledge that literacy learners need to produce innovative digital media via the “social web”. It focuses on the knowledge processes that occurred when elementary students engaged in multimodal text production with new digital media. It draws on Kalantzis and Cope’s (2008) heuristic for theorizing “Knowledge Processes” in the Learning by Design approach to pedagogy. Learners demonstrate eight “Knowledge Processes” across different subject domains, skills areas, and sensibilities. Drawing data from media-based lessons across several classroom and schools, this chapter examines what kinds of knowledge students utilize when they produce digital, multimodal texts in the classroom. The Learning by Design framework is used as an analytic tool to theorize how students learn when they engaged in a specific domain of learning – digital media production.

Amplified stories: Digital technology and representations of lived experiences

New media technologies and the narrative turn in qualitative research has expanded the methods through which we gather data about and share findings of groups who have traditionally been written about by others rather than telling their own stories to reveal the complexities of their experiences. This chapter explores two projects that use storytelling and technology in an effort to change public perceptions about disadvantaged a community or cohort that have specific circumstances but are a result of policies beyond their control.

Constrained Linear Spectral Unmixing Technique for Regional Land Cover Mapping Using MODIS Data

Over the last few decades, there has been a significant land cover (LC) change across the globe due to the increasing demand of the burgeoning population and urban sprawl. In order to take account of the change, there is a need for accurate and up-to-date LC maps. Mapping and monitoring of LC in India is being carried out at national level using multi-temporal IRS AWiFS data. Multispectral data such as IKONOS, Landsat-TM/ETM+, IRS-ICID LISS-III/IV, AWiFS and SPOT-5, etc. have adequate spatial resolution (similar to 1m to 56m) for LC mapping to generate 1:50,000 maps. However, for developing countries and those with large geographical extent, seasonal LC mapping is prohibitive with data from commercial sensors of limited spatial coverage. Superspectral data from the MODIS sensor are freely available, have better temporal (8 day composites) and spectral information. MODIS pixels typically contain a mixture of various LC types (due to coarse spatial resolution of 250, 500 and 1000 in), especially in more fragmented landscapes. In this context, linear spectral unmixing would be useful for mapping patchy land covers, such as those that characterise much of the Indian subcontinent. This work evaluates the existing unmixing technique for LC mapping using MODIS data, using end-members that are extracted through Pixel Purity Index (PPI), Scatter plot and N-dimensional visualisation. The abundance maps were generated for agriculture, built up, forest, plantations, waste land/others and water bodies. The assessment of the results using ground truth and a LISS-III classified map shows 86% overall accuracy, suggesting the potential for broad-scale applicability of the technique with superspectral data for natural resource planning and inventory applications. Index Terms-Remote sensing, digital

Particle field imaging using digital in-line holography

Digital holography is the direct recording of holograms using a CCD camera and is an alternative to the use of a film or a plate. In this communication in-line digital holographic microscopy has been explored for its application in particle imaging in 3D. Holograms of particles of about 10 mu m size have been digitally reconstructed. Digital focusing was done to image the particles in different planes along the depth of focus. Digital holographic particle imaging results were compared with conventional optical microscope imaging. A methodology for dynamic analysis of microparticles in 3D using in-line digital holography has been proposed.

Design-driven digital futures: The role of design-led innovation in the creation of online connected communities for new mobility solutions

Online communities have fundamentally changed how humans connected and are now so common they are fundamental to the human experience. As the Internet developed for Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, the functionality of these communities has far exceeded initial expectations. These communities have shifted from simply places to share information to ways to access products and services that bridge the online and offline worlds. This shift has led to the disruption of many industries with the transportation industry being one such sector. Both private transport providers and public transport systems face competition from online communities who are able to link services providers and customers more effectively and innovatively. These types of communities fall under what has been popularised as collaborative consumption or the sharing economy. The aim of this study is to explore the role of Design-led Innovation in the creation of digital futures, specifically online connected communities for successful new mobility solutions. To explore this proposition multiple data collection methods are proposed;Content Analysis, ii) A Comparative Qualitative Study consisting of Qualitative Interviews and Focus Groups / Design Workshops and iii) An Action Research Cycle of Embedded Practice. The multidisciplinary nature of this study grounds this research in a novel position contributing to new knowledge in both the field of design, and also a deeper understanding of the larger fast-growing online community phenomena.

Chronicling the patient journey: Co-creating value with digital health ecosystems

With the introduction of the PCEHR (Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record), the Australian public is being asked to accept greater responsibility for the management of their health information. However, the implementation of the PCEHR has occasioned poor adoption rates underscored by criticism from stakeholders with concerns about transparency, accountability, privacy, confidentiality, governance, and limited capabilities. This study adopts an ethnographic lens to observe how information is created and used during the patient journey and the social factors impacting on the adoption of the PCEHR at the micro-level in order to develop a conceptual model that will encourage the sharing of patient information within the cycle of care. Objective: This study aims to firstly, establish a basic understanding of healthcare professional attitudes toward a national platform for sharing patient summary information in the form of a PCEHR. Secondly, the studies aims to map the flow of patient related information as it traverses a patient’s personal cycle of care. Thus, an ethnographic approach was used to bring a “real world” lens to information flow in a series of case studies in the Australian healthcare system to discover themes and issues that are important from the patient’s perspective. Design: Qualitative study utilising ethnographic case studies. Setting: Case studies were conducted at primary and allied healthcare professionals located in Brisbane Queensland between October 2013 and July 2014. Results: In the first dimension, it was identified that healthcare professionals’ concerns about trust and medico-legal issues related to patient control and information quality, and the lack of clinical value available with the PCEHR emerged as significant barriers to use. The second dimension of the study which attempted to map patient information flow identified information quality issues, clinical workflow inefficiencies and interoperability misconceptions resulting in duplication of effort, unnecessary manual processes, data quality and integrity issues and an over reliance on the understanding and communication skills of the patient. Conclusion: Opportunities for process efficiencies, improved data quality and increased patient safety emerge with the adoption of an appropriate information sharing platform. More importantly, large scale eHealth initiatives must be aligned with the value proposition of individual stakeholders in order to achieve widespread adoption. Leveraging an Australian national eHealth infrastructure and the PCEHR we offer a practical example of a service driven digital ecosystem suitable for co-creating value in healthcare.

FPGA based digital platform for the control of AC drives

This paper presents the new trend of FPGA (Field programmable Gate Array) based digital platform for the control of power electronic systems. There is a rising interest in using digital controllers in power electronic applications as they provide many advantages over their analog counterparts. A board comprising of Cyclone device EP1C12Q240C8 of Altera is used for developing this platform. The details of this board are presented. This developed platform can be used for the controller applications such as UPS, Induction Motor drives and front end converters. A real time simulation of a system can also be done. An open-loop induction motor drive has been implemented using this board and experimental results are presented.

The challenges of Weibo for data-driven digital media research

Data generated via user activity on social media platforms is routinely used for research across a wide range of social sciences and humanities disciplines. The availability of data through the Twitter APIs in particular has afforded new modes of research, including in media and communication studies; however, there are practical and political issues with gaining access to such data, and with the consequences of how that access is controlled. In their paper ‘Easy Data, Hard Data’, Burgess and Bruns (2015) discuss both the practical and political aspects of Twitter data as they relate to academic research, describing how communication research has been enabled, shaped and constrained by Twitter’s “regimes of access” to data, the politics of data use, and emerging economies of data exchange. This conceptual model, including the ‘easy data, hard data’ formulation, can also be applied to Sina Weibo. In this paper, we build on this model to explore the practical and political challenges and opportunities associated with the ‘regimes of access’ to Weibo data, and their consequences for digital media and communication studies. We argue that in the Chinese context, the politics of data access can be even more complicated than in the case of Twitter, which makes scientific research relying on large social data from this platform more challenging in some ways, but potentially richer and more rewarding in others.

Programmable digital signal averager.

A high speed digital signal averager with programmable features for the sampling period, for the number of channels and for the number of sweeps is described. The system implements a stable averaging algorithm (Deadroff and Trimble 1968) to provide a stable, calibrated display. The performance of the instrument has been evaluated for the reduction of random noise and for comb-filter action. Special uses of the instrument as a box-car integrator and as a transient recorder are also indicated.

Conceptualising the challenge of integrating digital technologies in pedagogy

The integration of digital technologies in pedagogy is positioned as an important change in education, but widespread innovative use of digital technologies is yet to be truly realised. The gap between the potential and the reality of digital technology integration is commonly attributed to a range of challenging extrinsic and intrinsic influences. Activity Theory (Engeström, 2009) is used to analyse challenges created by extrinsic influences (Nielsen, Miller, & Hoban, 2012); a complementary theory is needed to conceptualise intrinsic influences. System 1 and System 2 thinking theory (Kahneman, 2011) will be advanced as a conceptual framework for understanding conscious and unconscious aspects of teacher practice, particularly the interaction between innovation and teacher routine, attitudes and beliefs. Transformative Learning Theory (Mezirow, 2009) will be positioned to comprehend the nexus of extrinsic and intrinsic influences. This paper will propose how, when faced with extrinsic and intrinsic influences on innovative practice, educators can use these theories to conceptualise the challenge of integrating digital technologies in pedagogy.

Digital innovation in social marketing: A systematic literature of interventions using digital channels for engagement

Social marketing uses commercial marketing techniques to deliver interventions for social benefit in order to improve quality of life for individuals and communities. Behaviour change is the primary objective of social marketing interventions (Andreasen 2002). The aim of this systematic review is to provide insight into social marketing interventions and their evaluations published in peer-reviewed journals so as to identify the key elements of social marketing employed by these interventions. as well as understand the use of digital channels for engagement.

Reduced complexity two stage vector quantization

We address the issue of complexity for vector quantization (VQ) of wide-band speech LSF (line spectrum frequency) parameters. The recently proposed switched split VQ (SSVQ) method provides better rate-distortion (R/D) performance than the traditional split VQ (SVQ) method, even at the requirement of lower computational complexity. but at the expense of much higher memory. We develop the two stage SVQ (TsSVQ) method, by which we gain both the memory and computational advantages and still retain good R/D performance. The proposed TsSVQ method uses a full dimensional quantizer in its first stage for exploiting all the higher dimensional coding advantages and then, uses an SVQ method for quantizing the residual vector in the second stage so as to reduce the complexity. We also develop a transform domain residual coding method in this two stage architecture such that it further reduces the computational complexity. To design an effective residual codebook in the second stage, variance normalization of Voronoi regions is carried out which leads to the design of two new methods, referred to as normalized two stage SVQ (NTsSVQ) and normalized two stage transform domain SVQ (NTsTrSVQ). These two new methods have complimentary strengths and hence, they are combined in a switched VQ mode which leads to the further improvement in R/D performance, but retaining the low complexity requirement. We evaluate the performances of new methods for wide-band speech LSF parameter quantization and show their advantages over established SVQ and SSVQ methods.