Under the auspices of its ‘Education Revolution’, the Federal Labor Government is currently imple... more Under the auspices of its ‘Education Revolution’, the Federal Labor Government is currently implementing a national curriculum for schools. Representing an important intervention into educational practice and governance, the Australian Curriculum offers a unique research opportunity, providing substantial scope for the examination of the changing systems and school-level practices entailed in large-scale curriculum reform. Research into the Australian Curriculum also presents a valuable opportunity to develop educational research methodologies that attend to the complex and multifaceted processes of curriculum reform, from systems to classrooms. Taking two of the disciplinary towers of modern curricula (English and mathematics) and Australia’s two largest jurisdictions (New South Wales and Victoria) as the focus, this article draws on a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project to outline an approach to researching major curriculum reform.
This essay addresses the question of change as it is expressed in debates on the introduction and... more This essay addresses the question of change as it is expressed in debates on the introduction and use of new digital technologies in contemporary education. It sets out some of the terms of this debate, concerning MOOCs in particular, and puts into question the very conception of change they presume. The essay advocates a distinction between education, which marks the subjective capacity of all for thought, and pedagogy, which, the essay argues, teaches subjective incapacity for all. The case is made that without a formal conception of change MOOCs will only strengthen the contemporary pedagogical project of difference as repetition. In conclusion, the essay attempts to sketch a conception of real change such that a new orientation to the debate is proposed.
The internet is an increasingly popular among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) i... more The internet is an increasingly popular among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in China for finding sexual partners. Gay men and other MSM who meet online are at high risk for HIV infection, but less likely to visit 'traditional' venues where they can receive interpersonal HIV prevention interventions. New virtual models are needed to provide HIV prevention messages and services to these gay men and other MSM. FHI 360 and Guangzhou Tongzhi (GZTZ) piloted separate, but complementary, approaches to using information and communications technology to promote uptake of HIV counselling and testing (HCT) among gay men and other MSM in three Chinese provinces (Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangzhou). These approaches included dedicated websites featuring online risk assessment and appointment making, crowd-sourced service promotion messages and dissemination via participants' microblog accounts and social media profiles. Reach was measured using Web analytics and traditional monitoring and evaluation tools, and government partners provided data on HCT uptake. The FHI 360 and GZTZ interventions reached 7,000 and 2.3 million unique visitors, respectively, and contributed to increases in HCT uptake of 26% and 66% as well as to higher rates of HIV case finding. Internet-based interventions like those conducted by FHI 360 and GZTZ represent a promising channel for engaging otherwise difficult-to-reach gay men and other MSM in China.
Most countries in Central America have HIV epidemics concentrated among men who have sex with men... more Most countries in Central America have HIV epidemics concentrated among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TW) with prevalence in these populations ranging from 8% in Nicaragua to 26% in El Salvador. High levels of stigma and discrimination coupled with this heavy HIV burden create a major challenge for efforts to reach these populations and combat the epidemic. The Pan-American Social Marketing Organization (PASMO) developed a combination prevention intervention in Central America that delivers HIV prevention behaviour change communication (BCC) messages products services and referrals to promote improved condom and condom-compatible lubricant use HIV testing violence reporting and the use of complementary services. As part of this program an online “cyber-educator” intervention for MSM consisting of virtual one-on-one BCC and HIV counseling and testing referrals was launched through existing chat-rooms and websites. Participants were tracked using a confidential unique identifier code (UIC). In 2013 7219 MSM UICs were recorded. Created as a response to social media evolution this intervention successfully illustrates how innovative HIV prevention education can reach populations most-at-risk for HIV.
In Sweden, sex workers are often viewed as 'victims in denial' by public health authorities. As a... more In Sweden, sex workers are often viewed as 'victims in denial' by public health authorities. As a result, Swedish sexual health interventions have traditionally focused on women and utilised face-to-face interventions and exit strategies. Unmistakably, interventions targeting male and/or transgender sex workers that utilise harm reduction approaches or low threshold on-line interventions remain marginalised or non-existent. This stands in opposition to recent Swedish research on the sexual health of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people (TG). This research stresses the need for targeted community-based sexual health services. Recent Swedish research also highlights the success of innovative on-line approaches that help male sex workers and TG understand personal risk to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), their legal rights and how to access community-based health services. Responding to the research and not viewing sex workers as victims, this paper outlines the design of Sweden's first bespoke online platform targeting male and transgender sex workers. We outline our unique approach and the steps we undertook to design the Röda Paraplyet webpage (http://www.rodaparaplyet.org 1) in collaboration with male sex workers and Rose Alliance, a leading sex worker organisation. We argue the voices of sex workers are essential to shifting the Swedish discourse around sex work from one of victimisation that limits sex workers access to Sweden's extensive evidence-based health care to one that is empowering and increases the safety of sex work, explores how to negotiate condom use and educates sex workers about their rights. In conclusion we illustrate how a broad coalition between organised and non-organised sex workers, LGBTQ organisations, academics and the health care system is essential for creating a sustainable platform of multidisciplinary knowledge to improve the sexual health and legal rights of sex workers in Sweden and globally.
The current study investigates the phenomenon of museum communication through online video hostin... more The current study investigates the phenomenon of museum communication through online video hostings, either by using YouTube or a customized platform. The videos uploaded by museums present a combination of educational and entertaining content depending on their objectives, attracting users to watch art content online. While the literature on uses and gratification is highly represented in media studies, few studies exist about the specific user motivations and gratifications of new media platforms in a museum context. Three types of users were identified in this study. The first type-artoriented users-display extrinsic motivation towards art exploration and seek for videos with educational content. The second type and the most widespread on these spaces-entertainment-oriented users-are intrinsically motivated and concentrate on the entertaining content of museum videos. Users of the last type are averse to exploring art content online, unless they are defined as non-art related. Overall, this paper argues that as art becomes a cultural product to be consumed online, popular video portals such as YouTube serve as an important platform to facilitate this democratizing effect, with varied implications for the art world.
Empirical evidence underlines the importance of ICT-based innovations in education for at least t... more Empirical evidence underlines the importance of ICT-based innovations in education for at least two reasons: They prepare for a future workplace in a knowledge society increasingly dependent on ICT and furthermore, they support student-centered learning processes. However, adoption of ICT in educational organizations in general as well as of specific ICT-based innovations varies broadly across nations as there are many different influencing factors with strong interdependencies. In order to better understand the dynamics of innovations in education, in this article we expose to discussion an integrative model based on a combination of models of individual and organizational adoption processes and their interplay with a socio-economic environment. The authors propose this concept of an "educational innovation system" to analyze differences in the diffusion of ICT-based innovations across countries and to better understand educational policies and their impact on classroom p...
Recent Australian government targets for higher education participation have produced a flurry of... more Recent Australian government targets for higher education participation have produced a flurry of activity focused on raising the aspirations of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. In this paper we test two key assumptions underpinning much of this activity: that students from low-SES backgrounds hold lower career aspirations; and that outreach activities appropriately target secondary school students, given that younger students' aspirations are relatively underdeveloped. Drawing on a sample of 3,504 students, we map the intersection of the career aspirations of students in Years 4, 6, 8, and 10 with SES and other demographic variables in order to contribute to the evidence base for academic, educational, and political work on access to higher education and the policies, practices, and outcomes that might ensue. Aspirations are assessed in terms of occupational certainty, occupational choice, occupational prestige, and occupational justification. We found fewer differences by year level and by SES than expected. Our analyses demonstrate both the complexity of students' career aspirations and some of the challenges associated with undertaking this kind of research, thus signalling the need for caution in the development of policy and interventions in this field.
This paper extends Emmanuel Levinas' articulation of "the face to face" encounter (1969, p. 79-81... more This paper extends Emmanuel Levinas' articulation of "the face to face" encounter (1969, p. 79-81) to suggest that students and teachers can be brought into an ethical proximity created by the media they share and discuss online in Facebook. In Levinas' terms, a 'face' is not simply a physical face. Instead, the Levinasian face encapsulates all the ways that one person is able to reveal aspects of their personality to another. Interactions in Facebook remain "bounded by the impossibility of ever knowing the Other," as does all communication according to Levinas (Zembylas and Vrasidas, 2005, p. 72). However, while a profile picture may or may not disclose much information about a person, the content posted and shared online (in the form of text, images, videos, likes, etc) reveals aspects of an individual's personality in a way that encourages responses from others. Facebook can therefore bring people unable to meet in the same physical and temporal location into a proximity created by their online disclosure. In addition, the asymmetry between students and teachers, emphasised in spaces such as lecture theatres, is destabilised in Facebook to provide students and teachers the opportunity to learn from one another's shared ideas, experiences and understandings.
This article examines the public YouTube profile of AnonyGirl1, the pseudonym used by a teenaged ... more This article examines the public YouTube profile of AnonyGirl1, the pseudonym used by a teenaged girl who takes to YouTube to narrate various aspects of her life. Using AnonyGirl1’s case as an object of analysis, the article considers the new narrative flexibilities that are shaping young people’s online explorations of self. On YouTube, where narrative linearity and fixity often come undone, AnonyGirl1 creates herself as a chimera of disappearing and reappearing video fragments that comprise an unstable, constantly changing entirety. In making and unmaking herself in fragments, AnonyGirl1 calls into question the presumed coherences of predominant youth narratives, negotiates her views about being young, and articulates processes of interior self-making through a mode of social expression that gives new form to its fluidities. Although the surfeit of narrative choices that AnonyGirl1 has at her disposal on YouTube come with a series of pleasures, the possibilities for self-construction that these choices provoke also come with debilitating pressures and confusions that she scrambles to negotiate. Amidst these pleasures and confusions, AnonyGirl1’s narrative offers a venue through which educators can think through the emerging complexities of young people’s online self-making practices.
This study explores how new users of mobile tablet devices experience and learn to adapt to an en... more This study explores how new users of mobile tablet devices experience and learn to adapt to an environment in which there is a ubiquitous internet connection. A mixed methods study combining netnography and online surveys was conducted among 35 university students in Australia. The portable and mobile nature of tablets enabled participants to be engaged in continuous internet access throughout the day, expanding the situations in which they could engage in multiple tasks. This study focused on the way users prioritise tasks, particularly within the context of studying. Over the course of one year, participants developed their own methods of dealing with the new challenges they encountered. Most participants managed demands on their time and attention by switching between productive and distractive multitasking. Self-regulation strategies were developed through the process of managing the distraction, the main strategies being physical disconnection from the device and mental planning.
HIV-positive gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) experience sexual stigma, HIVrelat... more HIV-positive gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) experience sexual stigma, HIVrelated stigma and isolation that can function as barriers to accessing information related to HIV. Little is known about how these men utilise and use technology to overcome these barriers. This study sought to explore technology use and identify key technological concerns of this population through a survey among 119 HIV-positive MSM. This survey was part of a formative assessment undertaken at the initial stage of the development an information and communications technology (ICT) resource and peer-support web-app for HIV-positive MSM in Southeast Asia. In this assessment, we found that HIV-positive MSM lack access to HIV-related support and resources. In particular, we observed that younger MSM (<30) and those diagnosed with HIV within the last year were less likely to report having friends living with HIV compared to older MSM and those without a recent HIV-diagnosis, respectively. These men expressed a need for ICT services that afford opportunities for social connection and resource sharing as well as information related to legal and health care resources. These findings illustrate the capability deprivations experienced by HIV-positive men. Using Amartya Sen's capability approach we argue that developing an ICT resource can begin to address the deprivations and information deficiencies of HIV-positive MSM by enhancing peer support and increasing access to HIV-related information and resources.
ACON is Australia’s largest LGBTI health organisation with a primary focus on the prevention of H... more ACON is Australia’s largest LGBTI health organisation with a primary focus on the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as health promotion with gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This is the group most affected by HIV in New South Wales (NSW), making up around 80% of all new infections annually (NSW Health, 2013). ACON is a community-based organisation, running a number of programs tailored to gay men’s sexual subcultures, practices, ethnicities and ages. In February 2013, ACON launched Ending HIV, the first large-scale campaign designed to meet the new targets set out in the NSW HIV Strategy 2012-15: A New Era (NSW Health, 2011). This strategy set the ambitious targets of reducing the transmission of HIV between gay and other homosexually active men in NSW by 60% by 2015, and 80% by 2020. Ending HIV was designed to mobilise the gay community to reach these targets. Ending HIV is an interactive social marketing campaign based on peer-education principles that incorporates communication, campaign and community mobilistaion initiatives to reach this goal. Ending HIV has been rolled out nationally and has received a high level of international attention, including winning the 2013 and 2014 Sydney Design Award, Australian Creative Best of the Best, Communication Arts Award of Excellence and the 2014 Graphis Annual Design Award. This article explores the genesis of ACON’s innovative engagement platform, which now drives all of ACON’s HIV and STI prevention work, and discusses the approach’s growing promise for prevention for diverse contexts.
This paper addresses some questions which have arisen around the separation between study and soc... more This paper addresses some questions which have arisen around the separation between study and social life in the author's use of Facebook as a first-year teaching and learning tool. A frequent comment made by students who participated in the use of Facebook as a course learning tool is that contributions they made to study forums which appear on their own page's wall can be "embarrassing" or "awkward" when read by friends who are not also students in the same course. The comment raises questions as to how the semi-public site of Facebook operating in teaching and learning modes has implications for privacy and anonymity. Students' questions about such comments expressed a desire for their work to remain "private" (unseen by those other than the examiner or moderator), although were choosing a career in media production, publication, journalism or other writing. What is it about Facebook in particular that evokes questions of privacy? As a teaching and learning tool, Facebook provides an environment in which anonymity and the separation of different elements of one's learning, study and social or personal lives are made more complex. What does the breakdown of context and distinction do for processes of learning? Theorising the relationship between privacy and the use of Facebook and other social networking sites as teaching and learning tools, this article presents a summary of its use in media and communications teaching, the mechanisms by which privacy questions are invoked in this context, the ways in which its use opens new and unexpected ways of thinking about pedagogy in relation to the everyday, and the factors that invoke questions as to how online social networking identity is managed by students using Facebook as a prescribed learning tool.
Innovative programmatic approaches to HIV prevention and care services for gay men, other men who... more Innovative programmatic approaches to HIV prevention and care services for gay men, other men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender persons using information and communication technology (ICT)
This paper relates a crucial aspect of a two-year professional development innovation/research pr... more This paper relates a crucial aspect of a two-year professional development innovation/research project proposed to improve Singapore"s poorest performing grade 7 and 8 students" learning in English language, mathematics, and science as a consequence of their teachers" developing capacity to plan and teach. The instrument and process particularly designed as a pre and post innovation moderation exercise to find "articulations of understanding", which served as evidence of change in pedagogy and learning is described. Its set of dimensions of understanding can be used to plan and assess for cognitive depth and engaged learning.
Under the auspices of its ‘Education Revolution’, the Federal Labor Government is currently imple... more Under the auspices of its ‘Education Revolution’, the Federal Labor Government is currently implementing a national curriculum for schools. Representing an important intervention into educational practice and governance, the Australian Curriculum offers a unique research opportunity, providing substantial scope for the examination of the changing systems and school-level practices entailed in large-scale curriculum reform. Research into the Australian Curriculum also presents a valuable opportunity to develop educational research methodologies that attend to the complex and multifaceted processes of curriculum reform, from systems to classrooms. Taking two of the disciplinary towers of modern curricula (English and mathematics) and Australia’s two largest jurisdictions (New South Wales and Victoria) as the focus, this article draws on a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project to outline an approach to researching major curriculum reform.
This essay addresses the question of change as it is expressed in debates on the introduction and... more This essay addresses the question of change as it is expressed in debates on the introduction and use of new digital technologies in contemporary education. It sets out some of the terms of this debate, concerning MOOCs in particular, and puts into question the very conception of change they presume. The essay advocates a distinction between education, which marks the subjective capacity of all for thought, and pedagogy, which, the essay argues, teaches subjective incapacity for all. The case is made that without a formal conception of change MOOCs will only strengthen the contemporary pedagogical project of difference as repetition. In conclusion, the essay attempts to sketch a conception of real change such that a new orientation to the debate is proposed.
The internet is an increasingly popular among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) i... more The internet is an increasingly popular among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in China for finding sexual partners. Gay men and other MSM who meet online are at high risk for HIV infection, but less likely to visit 'traditional' venues where they can receive interpersonal HIV prevention interventions. New virtual models are needed to provide HIV prevention messages and services to these gay men and other MSM. FHI 360 and Guangzhou Tongzhi (GZTZ) piloted separate, but complementary, approaches to using information and communications technology to promote uptake of HIV counselling and testing (HCT) among gay men and other MSM in three Chinese provinces (Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangzhou). These approaches included dedicated websites featuring online risk assessment and appointment making, crowd-sourced service promotion messages and dissemination via participants' microblog accounts and social media profiles. Reach was measured using Web analytics and traditional monitoring and evaluation tools, and government partners provided data on HCT uptake. The FHI 360 and GZTZ interventions reached 7,000 and 2.3 million unique visitors, respectively, and contributed to increases in HCT uptake of 26% and 66% as well as to higher rates of HIV case finding. Internet-based interventions like those conducted by FHI 360 and GZTZ represent a promising channel for engaging otherwise difficult-to-reach gay men and other MSM in China.
Most countries in Central America have HIV epidemics concentrated among men who have sex with men... more Most countries in Central America have HIV epidemics concentrated among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TW) with prevalence in these populations ranging from 8% in Nicaragua to 26% in El Salvador. High levels of stigma and discrimination coupled with this heavy HIV burden create a major challenge for efforts to reach these populations and combat the epidemic. The Pan-American Social Marketing Organization (PASMO) developed a combination prevention intervention in Central America that delivers HIV prevention behaviour change communication (BCC) messages products services and referrals to promote improved condom and condom-compatible lubricant use HIV testing violence reporting and the use of complementary services. As part of this program an online “cyber-educator” intervention for MSM consisting of virtual one-on-one BCC and HIV counseling and testing referrals was launched through existing chat-rooms and websites. Participants were tracked using a confidential unique identifier code (UIC). In 2013 7219 MSM UICs were recorded. Created as a response to social media evolution this intervention successfully illustrates how innovative HIV prevention education can reach populations most-at-risk for HIV.
In Sweden, sex workers are often viewed as 'victims in denial' by public health authorities. As a... more In Sweden, sex workers are often viewed as 'victims in denial' by public health authorities. As a result, Swedish sexual health interventions have traditionally focused on women and utilised face-to-face interventions and exit strategies. Unmistakably, interventions targeting male and/or transgender sex workers that utilise harm reduction approaches or low threshold on-line interventions remain marginalised or non-existent. This stands in opposition to recent Swedish research on the sexual health of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people (TG). This research stresses the need for targeted community-based sexual health services. Recent Swedish research also highlights the success of innovative on-line approaches that help male sex workers and TG understand personal risk to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), their legal rights and how to access community-based health services. Responding to the research and not viewing sex workers as victims, this paper outlines the design of Sweden's first bespoke online platform targeting male and transgender sex workers. We outline our unique approach and the steps we undertook to design the Röda Paraplyet webpage (http://www.rodaparaplyet.org 1) in collaboration with male sex workers and Rose Alliance, a leading sex worker organisation. We argue the voices of sex workers are essential to shifting the Swedish discourse around sex work from one of victimisation that limits sex workers access to Sweden's extensive evidence-based health care to one that is empowering and increases the safety of sex work, explores how to negotiate condom use and educates sex workers about their rights. In conclusion we illustrate how a broad coalition between organised and non-organised sex workers, LGBTQ organisations, academics and the health care system is essential for creating a sustainable platform of multidisciplinary knowledge to improve the sexual health and legal rights of sex workers in Sweden and globally.
The current study investigates the phenomenon of museum communication through online video hostin... more The current study investigates the phenomenon of museum communication through online video hostings, either by using YouTube or a customized platform. The videos uploaded by museums present a combination of educational and entertaining content depending on their objectives, attracting users to watch art content online. While the literature on uses and gratification is highly represented in media studies, few studies exist about the specific user motivations and gratifications of new media platforms in a museum context. Three types of users were identified in this study. The first type-artoriented users-display extrinsic motivation towards art exploration and seek for videos with educational content. The second type and the most widespread on these spaces-entertainment-oriented users-are intrinsically motivated and concentrate on the entertaining content of museum videos. Users of the last type are averse to exploring art content online, unless they are defined as non-art related. Overall, this paper argues that as art becomes a cultural product to be consumed online, popular video portals such as YouTube serve as an important platform to facilitate this democratizing effect, with varied implications for the art world.
Empirical evidence underlines the importance of ICT-based innovations in education for at least t... more Empirical evidence underlines the importance of ICT-based innovations in education for at least two reasons: They prepare for a future workplace in a knowledge society increasingly dependent on ICT and furthermore, they support student-centered learning processes. However, adoption of ICT in educational organizations in general as well as of specific ICT-based innovations varies broadly across nations as there are many different influencing factors with strong interdependencies. In order to better understand the dynamics of innovations in education, in this article we expose to discussion an integrative model based on a combination of models of individual and organizational adoption processes and their interplay with a socio-economic environment. The authors propose this concept of an "educational innovation system" to analyze differences in the diffusion of ICT-based innovations across countries and to better understand educational policies and their impact on classroom p...
Recent Australian government targets for higher education participation have produced a flurry of... more Recent Australian government targets for higher education participation have produced a flurry of activity focused on raising the aspirations of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. In this paper we test two key assumptions underpinning much of this activity: that students from low-SES backgrounds hold lower career aspirations; and that outreach activities appropriately target secondary school students, given that younger students' aspirations are relatively underdeveloped. Drawing on a sample of 3,504 students, we map the intersection of the career aspirations of students in Years 4, 6, 8, and 10 with SES and other demographic variables in order to contribute to the evidence base for academic, educational, and political work on access to higher education and the policies, practices, and outcomes that might ensue. Aspirations are assessed in terms of occupational certainty, occupational choice, occupational prestige, and occupational justification. We found fewer differences by year level and by SES than expected. Our analyses demonstrate both the complexity of students' career aspirations and some of the challenges associated with undertaking this kind of research, thus signalling the need for caution in the development of policy and interventions in this field.
This paper extends Emmanuel Levinas' articulation of "the face to face" encounter (1969, p. 79-81... more This paper extends Emmanuel Levinas' articulation of "the face to face" encounter (1969, p. 79-81) to suggest that students and teachers can be brought into an ethical proximity created by the media they share and discuss online in Facebook. In Levinas' terms, a 'face' is not simply a physical face. Instead, the Levinasian face encapsulates all the ways that one person is able to reveal aspects of their personality to another. Interactions in Facebook remain "bounded by the impossibility of ever knowing the Other," as does all communication according to Levinas (Zembylas and Vrasidas, 2005, p. 72). However, while a profile picture may or may not disclose much information about a person, the content posted and shared online (in the form of text, images, videos, likes, etc) reveals aspects of an individual's personality in a way that encourages responses from others. Facebook can therefore bring people unable to meet in the same physical and temporal location into a proximity created by their online disclosure. In addition, the asymmetry between students and teachers, emphasised in spaces such as lecture theatres, is destabilised in Facebook to provide students and teachers the opportunity to learn from one another's shared ideas, experiences and understandings.
This article examines the public YouTube profile of AnonyGirl1, the pseudonym used by a teenaged ... more This article examines the public YouTube profile of AnonyGirl1, the pseudonym used by a teenaged girl who takes to YouTube to narrate various aspects of her life. Using AnonyGirl1’s case as an object of analysis, the article considers the new narrative flexibilities that are shaping young people’s online explorations of self. On YouTube, where narrative linearity and fixity often come undone, AnonyGirl1 creates herself as a chimera of disappearing and reappearing video fragments that comprise an unstable, constantly changing entirety. In making and unmaking herself in fragments, AnonyGirl1 calls into question the presumed coherences of predominant youth narratives, negotiates her views about being young, and articulates processes of interior self-making through a mode of social expression that gives new form to its fluidities. Although the surfeit of narrative choices that AnonyGirl1 has at her disposal on YouTube come with a series of pleasures, the possibilities for self-construction that these choices provoke also come with debilitating pressures and confusions that she scrambles to negotiate. Amidst these pleasures and confusions, AnonyGirl1’s narrative offers a venue through which educators can think through the emerging complexities of young people’s online self-making practices.
This study explores how new users of mobile tablet devices experience and learn to adapt to an en... more This study explores how new users of mobile tablet devices experience and learn to adapt to an environment in which there is a ubiquitous internet connection. A mixed methods study combining netnography and online surveys was conducted among 35 university students in Australia. The portable and mobile nature of tablets enabled participants to be engaged in continuous internet access throughout the day, expanding the situations in which they could engage in multiple tasks. This study focused on the way users prioritise tasks, particularly within the context of studying. Over the course of one year, participants developed their own methods of dealing with the new challenges they encountered. Most participants managed demands on their time and attention by switching between productive and distractive multitasking. Self-regulation strategies were developed through the process of managing the distraction, the main strategies being physical disconnection from the device and mental planning.
HIV-positive gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) experience sexual stigma, HIVrelat... more HIV-positive gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) experience sexual stigma, HIVrelated stigma and isolation that can function as barriers to accessing information related to HIV. Little is known about how these men utilise and use technology to overcome these barriers. This study sought to explore technology use and identify key technological concerns of this population through a survey among 119 HIV-positive MSM. This survey was part of a formative assessment undertaken at the initial stage of the development an information and communications technology (ICT) resource and peer-support web-app for HIV-positive MSM in Southeast Asia. In this assessment, we found that HIV-positive MSM lack access to HIV-related support and resources. In particular, we observed that younger MSM (<30) and those diagnosed with HIV within the last year were less likely to report having friends living with HIV compared to older MSM and those without a recent HIV-diagnosis, respectively. These men expressed a need for ICT services that afford opportunities for social connection and resource sharing as well as information related to legal and health care resources. These findings illustrate the capability deprivations experienced by HIV-positive men. Using Amartya Sen's capability approach we argue that developing an ICT resource can begin to address the deprivations and information deficiencies of HIV-positive MSM by enhancing peer support and increasing access to HIV-related information and resources.
ACON is Australia’s largest LGBTI health organisation with a primary focus on the prevention of H... more ACON is Australia’s largest LGBTI health organisation with a primary focus on the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as health promotion with gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This is the group most affected by HIV in New South Wales (NSW), making up around 80% of all new infections annually (NSW Health, 2013). ACON is a community-based organisation, running a number of programs tailored to gay men’s sexual subcultures, practices, ethnicities and ages. In February 2013, ACON launched Ending HIV, the first large-scale campaign designed to meet the new targets set out in the NSW HIV Strategy 2012-15: A New Era (NSW Health, 2011). This strategy set the ambitious targets of reducing the transmission of HIV between gay and other homosexually active men in NSW by 60% by 2015, and 80% by 2020. Ending HIV was designed to mobilise the gay community to reach these targets. Ending HIV is an interactive social marketing campaign based on peer-education principles that incorporates communication, campaign and community mobilistaion initiatives to reach this goal. Ending HIV has been rolled out nationally and has received a high level of international attention, including winning the 2013 and 2014 Sydney Design Award, Australian Creative Best of the Best, Communication Arts Award of Excellence and the 2014 Graphis Annual Design Award. This article explores the genesis of ACON’s innovative engagement platform, which now drives all of ACON’s HIV and STI prevention work, and discusses the approach’s growing promise for prevention for diverse contexts.
This paper addresses some questions which have arisen around the separation between study and soc... more This paper addresses some questions which have arisen around the separation between study and social life in the author's use of Facebook as a first-year teaching and learning tool. A frequent comment made by students who participated in the use of Facebook as a course learning tool is that contributions they made to study forums which appear on their own page's wall can be "embarrassing" or "awkward" when read by friends who are not also students in the same course. The comment raises questions as to how the semi-public site of Facebook operating in teaching and learning modes has implications for privacy and anonymity. Students' questions about such comments expressed a desire for their work to remain "private" (unseen by those other than the examiner or moderator), although were choosing a career in media production, publication, journalism or other writing. What is it about Facebook in particular that evokes questions of privacy? As a teaching and learning tool, Facebook provides an environment in which anonymity and the separation of different elements of one's learning, study and social or personal lives are made more complex. What does the breakdown of context and distinction do for processes of learning? Theorising the relationship between privacy and the use of Facebook and other social networking sites as teaching and learning tools, this article presents a summary of its use in media and communications teaching, the mechanisms by which privacy questions are invoked in this context, the ways in which its use opens new and unexpected ways of thinking about pedagogy in relation to the everyday, and the factors that invoke questions as to how online social networking identity is managed by students using Facebook as a prescribed learning tool.
Innovative programmatic approaches to HIV prevention and care services for gay men, other men who... more Innovative programmatic approaches to HIV prevention and care services for gay men, other men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender persons using information and communication technology (ICT)
This paper relates a crucial aspect of a two-year professional development innovation/research pr... more This paper relates a crucial aspect of a two-year professional development innovation/research project proposed to improve Singapore"s poorest performing grade 7 and 8 students" learning in English language, mathematics, and science as a consequence of their teachers" developing capacity to plan and teach. The instrument and process particularly designed as a pre and post innovation moderation exercise to find "articulations of understanding", which served as evidence of change in pedagogy and learning is described. Its set of dimensions of understanding can be used to plan and assess for cognitive depth and engaged learning.
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Papers by James Albright