Pedagogies for eLearning: A Critical Analysis of Strategies for Effective Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Teaching and Learning. This project will assess the potential benefits and weaknesses of 'elearning' in different subject areas and across a range of social settings (including socio-economic, gender and other critical aspects of learner diversity). It will trace the microdynamics of traditional classroom as contrasted with elearning, and develop models which most prod ....Pedagogies for eLearning: A Critical Analysis of Strategies for Effective Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Teaching and Learning. This project will assess the potential benefits and weaknesses of 'elearning' in different subject areas and across a range of social settings (including socio-economic, gender and other critical aspects of learner diversity). It will trace the microdynamics of traditional classroom as contrasted with elearning, and develop models which most productively exploit the educational potentials of elearning. No such direct comparisons of teaching and learning has been made before. The results will inform the development of learning environments which most effectively contribute to the formation of fully enabled members of the emerging 'knowledge society'.Read moreRead less
Becoming numerate with information technologies in early childhood education. This project will create a detailed model of teaching and learning in numeracy using information technologies (IT) that will act as springboards for action for Australian teachers. It will investigate and document the ways in which numeracy can be learned through IT to produce students who are more technologically aware. Resulting data will inform the research and educational community about the cognitive and social as ....Becoming numerate with information technologies in early childhood education. This project will create a detailed model of teaching and learning in numeracy using information technologies (IT) that will act as springboards for action for Australian teachers. It will investigate and document the ways in which numeracy can be learned through IT to produce students who are more technologically aware. Resulting data will inform the research and educational community about the cognitive and social aspects of young children learning numeracy using IT. In this way the findings will be of strategic importance for planning education opportunities to produce citizens of the 21st century.Read moreRead less
Literacy Teaching in the Changing Communications Environment: Reading and Writing Multimodal and Digital Texts. This project will make a contribution to the updating of literacy pedagogy to meet the needs of learners in a communications environment where digital and multimodal texts are of ever greater significance. It will attempt to develop a 'metalanguage', or educationally accessible way of talking about contemporary texts in the classroom context, which supplements and extends traditional g ....Literacy Teaching in the Changing Communications Environment: Reading and Writing Multimodal and Digital Texts. This project will make a contribution to the updating of literacy pedagogy to meet the needs of learners in a communications environment where digital and multimodal texts are of ever greater significance. It will attempt to develop a 'metalanguage', or educationally accessible way of talking about contemporary texts in the classroom context, which supplements and extends traditional grammatical and literary understandings of the written word. The purpose of this research will be to create a model of literacy teaching which is more relevant to the contemporary communications environment and which students find more engaging.Read moreRead less
Living and Learning in a Knowledge Society: The implications of young adults' knowledge-creating practices for higher education. As society moves into a new era, knowledge creation has become vital to Australia's participation in global society. Knowledge creation fuels innovation and economic prosperity, and fosters social cohesion through new forms of community engagement. Young adults play an important role in our society as the next generation of knowledge workers, with many already active k ....Living and Learning in a Knowledge Society: The implications of young adults' knowledge-creating practices for higher education. As society moves into a new era, knowledge creation has become vital to Australia's participation in global society. Knowledge creation fuels innovation and economic prosperity, and fosters social cohesion through new forms of community engagement. Young adults play an important role in our society as the next generation of knowledge workers, with many already active knowledge creators in their everyday and academic lives. By investigating how young adults create knowledge across these diverse contexts, this research will provide important practical insights for educators and policy-makers who are trying to determine the role of higher education in a knowledge society.Read moreRead less
Evaluating the effectiveness of scientific visualisations in physics and chemistry education. Scientific visualisations are believed to have significant potential to improve students' learning of science concepts, potentially improving students' access to and outcomes in university science programs. This project will evaluate that potential to see whether it is realised in students' understanding of scientific concepts. The software, hardware, development and teaching skills required to use scie ....Evaluating the effectiveness of scientific visualisations in physics and chemistry education. Scientific visualisations are believed to have significant potential to improve students' learning of science concepts, potentially improving students' access to and outcomes in university science programs. This project will evaluate that potential to see whether it is realised in students' understanding of scientific concepts. The software, hardware, development and teaching skills required to use scientific visualisations in science teaching represent a significant investment of money and time on the part of the community. The results from this project will help in analysing the educational benefits of visualisations, providing important information for cost-benefit analyses.Read moreRead less
Towards a social theory of semiotic technology: Exploring PowerPoint's design and its use in higher education and corporate settings. PowerPoint has become the dominant technology for designing and delivering presentations in many important settings and skills in the use of PowerPoint have become essential for professional and academic success. This study will investigate the use of PowerPoint in higher education and corporate settings in order to discover what these skills are and how the desig ....Towards a social theory of semiotic technology: Exploring PowerPoint's design and its use in higher education and corporate settings. PowerPoint has become the dominant technology for designing and delivering presentations in many important settings and skills in the use of PowerPoint have become essential for professional and academic success. This study will investigate the use of PowerPoint in higher education and corporate settings in order to discover what these skills are and how the design of PowerPoint supports or hinders the achievement of a range of communicative purposes. The study will provide guidelines for evaluating and improving the design and use of PowerPoint and other, similar presentation software.Read moreRead less
Touching scenes: intelligent haptic guidance for supporting learning with complex graphic displays. Complex visual information is a defining feature of 21st Century life because advances in graphics display technology permeate all aspects of our society. For Australian citizens to prosper in a world reliant on rich informational graphics, they must be able to use these depictions effectively and efficiently. Touch-based approaches, using a haptic tablet, could facilitate processing of key visual ....Touching scenes: intelligent haptic guidance for supporting learning with complex graphic displays. Complex visual information is a defining feature of 21st Century life because advances in graphics display technology permeate all aspects of our society. For Australian citizens to prosper in a world reliant on rich informational graphics, they must be able to use these depictions effectively and efficiently. Touch-based approaches, using a haptic tablet, could facilitate processing of key visual information in challenging circumstances where displays are complex or vision is limited. Improving visually-based performance and learning will benefit education and training, increase productivity and safety across the industrial, professional and service sectors, enhance security monitoring, and broaden community information access.Read moreRead less
Using machine learning and automated document analysis methods to support English composition training. The project has the potential to further strengthen Australia's Higher Education industry by providing scalable solutions for teaching academic writing, a core competence for students in the tertiary sector. It is also a contribution to the E-learning industry in general. Innovating with these respective technologies will have a significant impact on the quality of online training. Australian ....Using machine learning and automated document analysis methods to support English composition training. The project has the potential to further strengthen Australia's Higher Education industry by providing scalable solutions for teaching academic writing, a core competence for students in the tertiary sector. It is also a contribution to the E-learning industry in general. Innovating with these respective technologies will have a significant impact on the quality of online training. Australian organizations will be able to reap the benefits of a well-tested platform, with the exclusive added capabilities that this project will develop. One of the software systems to be used in this project is an open source Learning Management System that is available to every Australian institution without any licensing cost.Read moreRead less
Comprehensive support for collaborative writing: Visualising argument, text and process structures. This project will provide benefits on a national level due to the importance of collaborative writing (CW) in business, government, and research. Most writing in professional contexts is, to some extent, accomplished collaboratively, but writing is taught almost exclusively individually. This research will yield a suite of integrated software tools to support all aspects of the CW team process, an ....Comprehensive support for collaborative writing: Visualising argument, text and process structures. This project will provide benefits on a national level due to the importance of collaborative writing (CW) in business, government, and research. Most writing in professional contexts is, to some extent, accomplished collaboratively, but writing is taught almost exclusively individually. This research will yield a suite of integrated software tools to support all aspects of the CW team process, and the effectiveness of the main innovations will be empirically tested. This has the potential to contribute to the competitiveness of Australia's businesses and to the efficiency of its administrative systems. Further benefits include improved e-learning tools in the secondary and tertiary education sector, such as online team learning.Read moreRead less
Conceptual Understanding and Problem-solving Approaches in the Presence of Graphics Calculators. The objectives of the project are to identify how students conceptualise mathematical relationships and formulate problem solutions, when graphics calculators are utilised. Graphics calculators are now common in schools and research is needed to provide sound bases for teaching and assessment. Investigation will centre on upper-secondary applied mathematics subjects because they are studied by a high ....Conceptual Understanding and Problem-solving Approaches in the Presence of Graphics Calculators. The objectives of the project are to identify how students conceptualise mathematical relationships and formulate problem solutions, when graphics calculators are utilised. Graphics calculators are now common in schools and research is needed to provide sound bases for teaching and assessment. Investigation will centre on upper-secondary applied mathematics subjects because they are studied by a high proportion of students for university entrance, are relevant to a wide range of careers and have received relatively little research attention in relation to calculator use. The project will yield, for school and research communities, new knowledge of mathematics learning with graphics calculators.Read moreRead less