Young People, Technology, and Wellbeing Research Facility. Large numbers of initiatives now mobilise technology to support the wellbeing of young Australians. However, amongst communities undertaking this work, there is currently significant duplication and insufficient sharing of research and best practice models. A Research Facility that consolidates existing research, and guides new research and initiatives will improve service delivery to young Australians by: reducing duplication between or ....Young People, Technology, and Wellbeing Research Facility. Large numbers of initiatives now mobilise technology to support the wellbeing of young Australians. However, amongst communities undertaking this work, there is currently significant duplication and insufficient sharing of research and best practice models. A Research Facility that consolidates existing research, and guides new research and initiatives will improve service delivery to young Australians by: reducing duplication between organizations working with young people; providing an accessible interface with research that can help address the community’s concerns about the role of technology in young people’s lives, and inform future policy and programs; and model effective cross-sector knowledge brokering to Australian industry. Read moreRead less
Online Money and Fantasy Games - an applied ethnographic study into the new entrepreneurial communities and their underlying designs. Modern social and fantasy games using online money are multi-billion dollar business, but little is known about them, their developers, or impacts on privacy, identity and monetisation of relationships. This is the first study to investigate these concerns and to relate fieldwork results to the simultaneous building of a social gaming platform.
Enhancing the content and experience of Interactive Childrens Television. Interactive television (iTV) as a participatory, on-demand communication provides a unique opportunity to significantly engage, entertain and educate preschool children. Through considerable industry partner collaboration and participation, this project will evaluate three distinct interactive options produced from selected children's television programs with proven success in Australia. Usability studies employing a vari ....Enhancing the content and experience of Interactive Childrens Television. Interactive television (iTV) as a participatory, on-demand communication provides a unique opportunity to significantly engage, entertain and educate preschool children. Through considerable industry partner collaboration and participation, this project will evaluate three distinct interactive options produced from selected children's television programs with proven success in Australia. Usability studies employing a variety of surveillance techniques will evaluate content design and user response. Children's viewing habits will be evaluated within a social context (the home) and a mobile lab setting using qualitative and quantitative assessment. The results will identify effective ways to produce meaningful interactivity and will encourage future industry based research.Read moreRead less
Digital storytelling and co-creative media: the role of community arts and media in propagating and coordinating population-wide creative practice. Community arts, community broadcasting and Indigenous media producers all face the challenge of digital media and user-led innovation. This project brings these systems together to test how existing infrastructure and new media affordances can be combined to stimulate broad-based innovation through creative participation.
Young Australians and the promotion of alcohol on social media. This project aims to determine how young people engage with alcohol and nightlife marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Companies now leverage the power of social media to create advertisements that are made and shared by young people, targeted to them in particular times, places and contexts, and are thus difficult to monitor and regulate. The project will use computational, big social data app ....Young Australians and the promotion of alcohol on social media. This project aims to determine how young people engage with alcohol and nightlife marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Companies now leverage the power of social media to create advertisements that are made and shared by young people, targeted to them in particular times, places and contexts, and are thus difficult to monitor and regulate. The project will use computational, big social data approaches and youth informants to assess the pervasiveness of branding on social media and how it shapes youth cultures. This work will extend media and cultural studies and support the development of effective monitoring and regulation of online marketing in general, with a particular focus on alcohol.Read moreRead less
An ethnographic investigation into the everyday work and communication cultures of public transport transit guards: reducing risk and injury. This research improves the safety of public transport for workers and passengers with flow-on benefits at local and national levels. The main health and safety risk transit guards face is attacks upon them, or injury incurred while intervening in assaults they witness. Conventional initiatives have not impacted greatly on injury rates but culture and commu ....An ethnographic investigation into the everyday work and communication cultures of public transport transit guards: reducing risk and injury. This research improves the safety of public transport for workers and passengers with flow-on benefits at local and national levels. The main health and safety risk transit guards face is attacks upon them, or injury incurred while intervening in assaults they witness. Conventional initiatives have not impacted greatly on injury rates but culture and communication change strategies offer potential ways forward. Strategies that reduce incidents confer clear community benefits and competitive advantage. Effective management of such challenges assists with the recruitment and retention of appropriate staff, improving profitability. Benefits include reduced costs of public transport, increased passenger load, and positive environmental impacts.Read moreRead less
Using community engagement and enhanced visual information to promote FireWatch satellite communication as a support for collaborative decision-making. Using continuously updated satellite data, FireWatch will repurpose its professional service for use by the wider public, informing community-based decision-making and action. Communication flows and community decision-making will promote informed action at times of fire stress. Complex visual data will be communicated in clear and compelling way ....Using community engagement and enhanced visual information to promote FireWatch satellite communication as a support for collaborative decision-making. Using continuously updated satellite data, FireWatch will repurpose its professional service for use by the wider public, informing community-based decision-making and action. Communication flows and community decision-making will promote informed action at times of fire stress. Complex visual data will be communicated in clear and compelling ways.Read moreRead less
Production Challenges in the On-Line Learning Environment. The shift of responsibility from teacher-centred learning to learner-centred learning has raised important questions of access for diverse groups in Australia and overseas. The project seeks to investigate new delivery mechanisms that respond to worldwide trends in virtual communities and self-directed learning. This research will explore the relationship between content pedagogy, use of technology, and work-related issues and expectatio ....Production Challenges in the On-Line Learning Environment. The shift of responsibility from teacher-centred learning to learner-centred learning has raised important questions of access for diverse groups in Australia and overseas. The project seeks to investigate new delivery mechanisms that respond to worldwide trends in virtual communities and self-directed learning. This research will explore the relationship between content pedagogy, use of technology, and work-related issues and expectations. It will adopt a qualitative and quantitative research methodology in identifying opportunities, producing a learning prototype, testing and trialing that prototype and applying research outcomes in the context of emergent new educational models that draw upon convergent media.Read moreRead less
Improved communication with heart patients in the context of the gift economy. Coronary Heart Disease is Australia's biggest killer and a patient's diagnosis is a traumatic event. A majority of patients resists the implications of their disease and fails to follow medical recommendations fully. Humanities research enables increased understanding of, and better communication with, heart patients yet has not been extensively used to understand how patients make sense of their new status. HeartNET, ....Improved communication with heart patients in the context of the gift economy. Coronary Heart Disease is Australia's biggest killer and a patient's diagnosis is a traumatic event. A majority of patients resists the implications of their disease and fails to follow medical recommendations fully. Humanities research enables increased understanding of, and better communication with, heart patients yet has not been extensively used to understand how patients make sense of their new status. HeartNET, a therapeutic website, is used to investigate construction of the self as a heart patient and the research also applies gift economy theory to online interactions which help both self and others. Benefits include patient support and improved health outcomes, reducing human and financial costs to the community and Australia.Read moreRead less
Evaluating the effectiveness of online support in building community, promoting healthy behaviours and supporting philanthropy. The Heart Foundation (WA) provides quality support services and communications for patients in rural, remote and regional WA but they find that distance creates problems. They also seek to cultivate active donor engagement.
Audience research and cultural studies tools are used to investigate two different communications environments in terms of whether these have an ....Evaluating the effectiveness of online support in building community, promoting healthy behaviours and supporting philanthropy. The Heart Foundation (WA) provides quality support services and communications for patients in rural, remote and regional WA but they find that distance creates problems. They also seek to cultivate active donor engagement.
Audience research and cultural studies tools are used to investigate two different communications environments in terms of whether these have an effect on patient/donor participation rates (and attitudes and behaviours linked to participation). A web site will be developed to support online Heart Foundation communities and these audiences will be compared with current communication practice. Findings will inform future charitable and health promotion initiatives.
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