Komunikasi budaya silang, kompetensi, pengajaran dan pembelajaran : satu analisis

This paper examines several issues related to intercultural communication competence and shared reality or inter-subjectivity when teaching in multicultural classrooms in Australia. Using the research method of personal narratives and autoethnography, it examines the challenges faced by lecturers and students in the classroom such as the use of different vocabulary, slang, idiom and keywords and the prior culture-specific knowledge required of both the lecturers and students. The paper also discusses how these challenges can be identified and addressed and how to prepare for future situations more effectively and in advance. It will be examined within the contexts of culturally responsive teaching, communicaiton competence, the hidden curriculum, instructional scaffolding, understanding and being open to other cultures and acknowledgement of the richness and relevance of multicultural students' varied experiences and social realities, from the point of view of the academic discipline of communication studies.

A Low Cost Controller Board for Teaching Robotics

This paper presents the Smarty Board; a new micro-controller board designed specifically for the robotics teaching needs of Australian schools. The primary motivation for this work was the lack of commercially available and cheap controller boards that would have all their components including interfaces on a single board. Having a single board simplifies the construction of programmable robots that can be used as platforms for teaching and learning robotics. Reducing the cost of the board as much as possible was one of the main design objectives. The target user groups for this device are the secondary and tertiary students, and hobbyists. Previous studies have shown that equipment cost is one of the major obstacles for teaching robotics in Australia. The new controller board was demonstrated at high-school seminars. In these demonstrations the new controller board was used for controlling two robots that we built. These robots are available as kits. Given the strong demand from high-school teachers, new kits will be developed for the next robotic Olympiad to be held in Australia in 2006.