Feed aggregator

Abstract: In today's hypermedia landscape, youth and young adults are increasingly using social media platforms, online aggregators and mobile applications for daily information use. Communication educators, armed with a host of free, easy-to-use online tools, have the ability to create dynamic approaches to teaching and learning about information and communication flow online. In this paper we explore the concept of curation as a student- and creation-driven pedagogical tool to enhance digital and media literacy education.

Access to and the use of multiple sources of information by students today is common. For example, when looking for information students will look to Google, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Wikipedia and more online services. Although there is much more information available using the internet than from traditional siloed sources such as newspapers, books and libraries, the reliability of the information from internet sources varies considerably.

Key Takeaways

In just under seven years, Twitter has grown to count nearly 3% of the entire global population among its active users who have sent more than 170 billion 140-character messages. Today the service plays such a significant role in American culture that the Library of Congress has assembled a permanent archive of the site back to its first tweet, updated daily.

In 2011, the respective roles of higher education institutions and students worldwide were brought into question by the rise of the massive open online course (MOOC). MOOCs are defined by signature characteristics that include: lectures formatted as short videos combined with formative quizzes; automated assessment and/or peer and self–assessment and an online forum for peer support and discussion.

The Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) provides that an unlisted number cannot be disclosed except in specified contexts. The Act however is silent on whether a fee can be charged for an unlisted number.

On 28 February 2013 the Senate referred the feasibility of a prohibition on charging fees for an unlisted number service to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee for inquiry and report by 15 May 2013.

1.2 The terms of reference for the inquiry were:

Student disengagement is a growing societal concern and responses to this concern have included a proliferation of re-engagement programs ( REPs) across Australia. Evaluations by the Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL) and anecdotal feedback have suggested that teachers find it extremely difficult to adapt to REP settings and cater for ‘high needs’ students. This prompted a Research and Policy Centre scan of the extent to which teacher training programs prepare teachers to work in more flexible learning environments.

This report finds that teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past, but they are also taking a variety of technical and non-technical steps to manage the privacy of that information.

Despite taking these privacy-protective actions, teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-parties (such as businesses or advertisers) accessing their data; just 9% say they are “very” concerned.

Key findings include:

This section of The Age Online provides infographics and other visualizations of statistics about the news.  In many instances readers can add statistics and contribute stories to add to the cumulative data.

Abstract

Recent years have seen increased interest in the online presence of extreme right groups. Although originally composed of dedicated websites, the online extreme right milieu now spans multiple networks, including popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Ideally therefore, any contemporary analysis of online extreme right activity requires the consideration of multiple data sources, rather than being restricted to a single platform.

This report reviews coverage by major media in Britain, the United States, Turkey and Pakistan of the controversy over the Innocence of Muslims, a short video which came to prominence in September last year when it was uploaded to YouTube with anti-Islamic content.

The film was, by all accounts, a lowbudget and amateurish production yet it was given enormous publicity and was used to reinforce deep divisions between western and Muslim religious cultures.

Abstract

Australia has a big culture of taking a punt. Whether it is on the dogs, horses or the pokies, gambling has moved out of the local TAB and taken on new forms with applications on smartphones and live coverage of betting odds during sporting events. Life Matters spoke to researchers and a number of professed problem gamblers to find out why we do it.

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THE first public mobile phone call was made just over forty years ago, on 3 April 1973. The caller was a Motorola engineer in New York City. The phone was a cream-coloured brick, a prototype of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, which weighed a kilogram and took ten hours to charge.

Over the past few weeks the international media has been throwing a birthday party for what is now a middle-aged technology (if you missed the festivities, try tiny.cc/40phone). The nostalgic photos of flip-phones and classic Nokias remind us how far the technology has come.

Introduction

On behalf of a consortium of state and territory libraries, the Australia Library and Information Association (ALIA) commissioned SGS Economics and Planning Pty Ltd (SGS) to generate estimates of the contributions that public libraries make to Australian community welfare and Australian economic activity.

To do this, SGS applied the same methodological principles that were adopted in recent Victorian and Queensland studies, which were based on two separate measurement frameworks:
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Considerable debate continues about the integration of digital technologies and digital media into school learning programs. Some researchers and commentators contend that there has been insufficient return on technological investments in schools which have not improved their efficiency or student learning outcomes. Although this view is naïve and not consistent with research about the use of technology in education, the view persists, much to the detriment of schools that are implementing change and undergoing transformation.

Social media and social network sites (SNS) are an evolving area for sexual health communication with young people. They present opportunities and challenges for sexual health professionals and young people alike, such as learning through interactivity and addressing concerns about privacy. In this article, we present and discuss the findings from six rural and urban focus groups with young people in Australia about the use of social media and SNS for sexual health communication.

Abstract:

In technology, business and government circles there’s much hype about the potential that may come from harvesting huge amounts of online data. Microsoft researcher and MIT professor Kate Crawford says 2013 looks like becoming the year Big Data boils over.

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In the US we're seeing enormous conferences being hosted on it, we are seeing columns in newspapers, the entire business and science worlds are talking about it all the time.

Television technology is developing at a fast pace and 4K looks set to be common for mainstream TV watching in countries like the US and Japan soon. Unless Australia has a broadband infrastructure plan that can accommodate such technology, we could be left behind.

Last week we saw the stratospheric rise of the broadband comparison site, howfastisthenbn.com.au, but two days later we were reminded on Reddit that it was arguably already out of date.