A theory of change for student-led academic integrity

Breaches in academic integrity are a pervasive and enduring international concern to the overall quality of higher education. Despite students being the group most affected by academic integrity policies, organisational culture is such that students tend to be passive recipients of change initiatives, rather than the drivers. To deliver a paradigm change, a theory of change framework was designed, implemented and applied to explore the viability of a student-led academic integrity society. To achieve this, a national research project involving three stages of data collection (surveys, interviews and focus groups) was conducted to obtain the perspectives of students and student representatives. The key outcome of the project has been the recent launch of an academic integrity student society, a novel initiative outside the United States of America. The theory of change framework presented here seeks to offer guidance to other institutions contemplating the viability of student-led change to academic integrity and the establishment of academic integrity student societies, in particular.     

The common first year programme: some lessons from a construction science course

In 2005, the School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University, Melbourne, introduced a new curriculum format for all first year students. All students enrolling in one of the four undergraduate degrees offered by the school commenced a common first year programme. This new curriculum was adopted to provide students with a broader depth of knowledge and experience across all study areas and to provide greater skill enhancement for graduates. The common first year university experience allows students to build a multidisciplinary degree based upon their interests and skills. But the common first year has created a number of challenges for the lecturing staff: extremely large classes, space and resourcing issues, assessment and administration problems; greater strains upon technology; and increase in the impersonal nature of the learning environment. This paper examines how one of these large first year classes (construction science) was conducted to address some of the learning issues arising from a common first year. It describes how students were encouraged over the semester to electronically build and create a classroom resource of e-reference material on construction science topics, which was the basis for classroom discussion, interaction and assessment. The result was an electronic reference folder on CD that provided students with both a starting point for assignments, class interaction and assessment, and the development of vital information technology literacy skills.     

Understanding mobile digital worlds: how do Australian adolescents relate to mobile technology?

ABSTRACT

Various responses to the ideas of a digital disconnect between home and school include the call for a more thoughtful exploration of the relationship between formal and informal uses of technologies. Studies have indicated the complex and interacting influences on patterns of technology use at home and at school, including patterns of Web 2.0 use that do not align with common assumptions about the characteristics of current students. Together, these studies indicate that we need more nuanced insights into how today’s students relate to available digital technologies if we are to build appropriately on their experiences in education. The current research investigates quantitatively mobile digital practices and literacy as well as attitudes in over 1140 school students in the first years (7–10) of secondary education in Australia in order to enrich insights into these students as learners in contemporary classrooms. The implications of the research for teaching are discussed.     

History of Broadcasting

BBC TV PRESENTS A FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION by Nicholas Moss (London: BBC, 1986—about $8.00, paper)

THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION FROM EARLY DAYS TO THE PRESENT (same address as Burn's book on previous page—$50.00, Paper)

TELEVISION: THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS by Keith Geddes & Gordon Bussey (National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television, Prince's View, Bradford, West rorkshire BD5 0TR—also available at the Science Museum in London $3.00, paper)

HERTZ AND THE MAXWELL IANS by J.G. Q'Hara and W. Pricha (same publisher as Burns on previous page—$48.00)

THE EARLY DAYS OF RADIO BROADCASTING by George H. Douglas (McFariand Publishing, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640—$25.95)

THE RADIO COLLECTOR'S DIRECTORY AND PRICE GUIDE by Robert E. Grinder and George H. Fathauer (Ironwood Publishing, P.O. Box 8464, Scottsdale, AZ 85252—$15.95, paper)

NIXON AND THE POLITICS OF PUBLIC TELEVISION by David M. Stone (New York: Garland Publishing, 1985—$35.00)

VOICES OF THE GAME: THE FIRST FULL-SCALE OVERVIEW OF BASEBALL BROADCASTING, 1921 TO THE PRESENT by Curt Smith (Diamond Communications, P.O. Box 88, South Bend, IN. 46624—$22.95)     

‘RUSSIA WINS SPACE RACE’

This article traces the development of the British press narrative from the launching of Sputnik in October 1957 to the Soviets' second satellite, containing a dog, in early November. It argues that there was an initial outpouring of surprise, combined with celebration of humankind's achievement. There was also a sense of loss of national prestige, due to Britain's lack of an equivalent space programme and the decline of her empire. The launch of the dog prompted widespread condemnation, mixed with frivolous popular coverage. The article provides an insight into how this moment impacted on British society and understanding of national identity in the 1950s with imperial superiority, religion and perceived decline being recurring themes.     

Critical Explorations of Human Rights: Recent and Selected Works

Abstract

The author provides an overview of recent critical works on human rights that constitute important contributions to the literature and ties together key threads from the discourse. Monographs, edited collections, and select articles on human rights are examined that draw primarily on critical legal theory and feminist approaches, among others, such as radical democracy and radical cause lawyering. Also explored are intersections between the critical human rights scholarship surveyed and recent works on ecological feminism and environmental human rights. The author argues that such collected works are invaluable contributions for those seeking transformative approaches to law and social change through the critical human rights lens.     

An Exploratory Study of Undergraduates’ Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action Policies for Asian Americans in College

This exploratory study examined white undergraduate students’ (a) racial attitudes towards Asian Americans, (b) principled policy attitudes toward affirmative action, and (c) self-interest in relation to their support for college-based affirmative action policies for Asian Americans at a Midwestern university. A sample (n = 264, 28% male, 72% female) of white undergraduate students from a mid-sized public university in the Midwest was surveyed. The findings indicate that white undergraduate women have significantly more favorable principled policy attitudes toward affirmative action in general and for an affirmative action college policy for Asians, in particular, than do undergraduate males. Implications for issues of equity and social justice are shared.     

The era of incremental change in the technology innovation life cycle: An analysis of the automotive emission control industry

According to the life cycle model of technological evolution, after the emergence of a dominant design, technological product industries undergo an “era of incremental change.” This era of incremental change is not well understood in the existing literature. Although the period is typically characterized in terms of stability and minimal innovation, we find that the era of incremental change can be actually quite dynamic. Through our research into the period of time following the emergence of a dominant design in automotive emission control systems, we find that the overall product innovation in the industry did not decline immediately following the dominant design, and increased throughout the era of incremental change. Further, we find that firms maintain their attention on the same core components that they innovated upon before the dominant design, but that these components make up less of the overall proportion of total innovation throughout the era of incremental change. Finally, we found that the concentration of innovating firms in the industry increases immediately following the dominant design, and this concentration decreases over time throughout the era of incremental change. Findings imply a pattern of contraction and expansion in the era of incremental change that extends previous work on the technological product life cycles and helps to characterize the era of incremental change in a novel way.     

An Aesthetic for Deliberating Online: Thinking Through “Universal Pragmatics” and “Dialogism” with Reference to Wikipedia

In this article we examine contributions to Wikipedia through the prism of two divergent critical theorists: Jürgen Habermas and Mikhail Bakhtin. We show that, in slightly dissimilar ways, these theorists came to consider an “aesthetic for democracy” (Hirschkop 1999) or template for deliberative relationships that privileges relatively free and unconstrained dialogue to which every speaker has equal access and without authoritative closure. We employ Habermas's theory of “universal pragmatics” and Bakhtin's “dialogism” for analyses of contributions on Wikipedia for its entry on stem cells and transhumanism and show that the decision to embrace either unified or pluralistic forms of deliberation is an empirical matter to be judged in sociohistorical context, as opposed to what normative theories insist on. We conclude by stressing the need to be attuned to the complexity and ambiguity of deliberative relations online.