Using mobile phones as placed resources for literacy learning in a remote Indigenous community in Australia

Despite massive funding from the Australian government, the literacy achievement of Australian Indigenous children remains significantly lower than for non-Indigenous. With the aim of identifying innovative ways to improve Indigenous children's literacy achievement, this study explored the social practices surrounding everyday mobile phone use by Indigenous people in a remote Australian community. Informed by the notion of ‘placed resources’, which highlights the understanding that digital literacies are best considered as resources situated by social practices that have local effect, the study surveyed 95 people living in a remote Indigenous community about their mobile phone practices. The study also examined a video of a literacy event between a mother and her child around the use of a mobile phone. The findings revealed the strong relational aspects of phone use in remote communities. Integral to the concept of placed resources is a respect for the practices communities find important as they adopt artefacts for their everyday communication.

Assessing health literacy : a new domain for collaboration between language testers and health professionals

Health literacy, defined as an individual's capacity to process health information in order to make appropriate health decisions, is the focus of increasing attention in medical fields due to growing awareness that suboptimal health literacy is associated with poorer health outcomes. To explore this issue, a number of instruments, reported to have high internal consistency and strong correlations with general literacy tests, have been developed. However, their validity as measures of the target construct is seldom explored using multiple sources of evidence. The current study, involving collaboration between health professionals and language specialists, set out to assess the validity of the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), which describes itself as a “reading recognition” test that measures ability to pronounce common medical and lay terms. Drawing on a sample of 310 respondents, including both native and non-native speakers of English, investigations were undertaken to probe the REALM's validity as a measure of understanding the selected terms and to consider associations between scores on this widely used test and those derived from other recognized health literacy tests. Results suggest that the REALM is underrepresenting the health literacy construct and that the test may also be biased against non-native speakers of English. The study points to an expanded role for language testers, working in collaboration with experts from medical disciplines, in developing and evaluating health literacy tools.

Emerging technologies : Deakin's experience with mobile devices

Powerpoint presentation presenting an overview of the ebook readers trial based at Deakin University.

Im/mobile

Im/mobile develops imagery of train passengers photographed using a technique that 'dissolves' the vehicle and reveals the temporary human interactions in the state of transit. It is site-specific in the context of White Street Projects which is in the Frankston Station precinct. In terms of public Melbourne commuter transport particularly for the Metro passengers on the Frankston line. It is a window into the demographic and the social relations of suburban Frankston.

A model for enhancing empowerment in farmers using mobile based information system

Farmers living in rural villages of Sri Lanka do not have proper access to information to make informed decisions about their livelihoods and as a result they face constant hardships in their lives. They use mobile phones to communicate but these are not currently connected to the Internet. We are investigating how to provide personalized information to farmers with the aim of empowering them to make informed decisions and take appropriate actions. In this paper we propose an empowerment model that has been designed to achieve their goals which have been identified using a scenario-based approach. The model examines several empowerment processes and supporting tools that would help them to achieve their goals with the hope that they would have an increased sense of control, self-efficacy, knowledge and competency. This empowerment model is applied to the development of a mobile based information system that is being developed by an international collaborative research group to address the issues of the farmers.

The moderating influence of device characteristics and usage on user acceptance of Smart Mobile Devices

This study seeks to develop a comprehensive model of consumer acceptance in the context of Smart Mobile Device (SMDs). This paper proposes an adaptation of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model that can be employed to explain and predict the acceptance of SMDs. Also included in the model are a number of external and new moderating variables that can be used to explain user intentions and subsequent usage behaviour. The model holds that Activity-based Usage and Device Characteristics are posited to moderate the impact of the constructs empirically validated in the UTAUT2 model. Through an important cluster of antecedents the proposed model aims to enhance our understanding of consumer motivations for using SMDs and aid efforts to promote the adoption and diffusion of these devices.

Methods of usability evaluations of mobile devices

The usability of applications designed and developed for mobile devices integral user experience, particularly for current touch-screen mobile devices. This conceptual paper provides a profile of the ways in which mobile device usability evaluation methods are being adapted to better reflect technological. With an increasing capacity for greater user interactivity through a range of tasks and in a variety of contexts, the importance and impact of mobile device context-of-use components is of particular interest to researchers. This requires a need for a shift in evaluation method paradigms with a particular focus on methods involving the user, as part of the overall development process. Having a better understanding of the context-of-use may contribute to improvements in mobile device usability and the overall user experience.

Community perception of mobile payment in e-Government services

Mobile payment and e-Government are emerging topics in the research area of Information Systems. This research addresses the preferred e-Government services for mobile payment, the suitable payment methods of mobile payment, and adoption factors of e-Government services. The research derives the notion of technology adoption and related constructs, however, as no particular Information Systems adoption theory was adequate to study emerging systems of electronic payment, the research did not utilise any specific theory. Rather, the research uses the characteristics of mobile payment as revealed in the contemporary research to develop an adoption model based on user perceptions regarding mobile payments in the context of e-Government services. A survey study on the use of mobile devices to pay for e-Government services was conducted in Western Australia. The findings of this research contribute conceptually and practically by recommending suitable services and mobile payment methods. This paper also addresses the positive and negative factors impacting the adoption of mobile payment for e-Government services.