save to DISC: Documenting Innovation in Music Learning

The paper discusses an approach to determining the worth and value of innovation in music education and measuring it’s capacity for meaning and engagement. It also aims to identify new examples of innovation across a broad range of music learning contexts and establish a rigorous digital process for documenting, evaluating and distributing innovative cases and resources for present and future contexts. It discusses specifically a pilot project that seeks to document innovation in sound curriculum (DISC). save to DISC is an exploratory study in an Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID) project that proposes to establish flexible and effective procedures for the sourcing, evaluating, refereeing, editing, producing, validating, storing, publishing, and distributing of a wide range of media and content types. It involves documenting innovative and successful practice in music education, creating and evaluating programs in difficult/challenging school contexts and commissioning and encouraging the production of resource materials for 21 st century contexts

Collecting and Using Information to Strengthen Citywide Out-of-School Time Systems

Looks at the kinds of data U.S. cities are gathering and analyzing in their efforts to build citywide systems that make high-quality after-school programs more available to children, how they collect it, and how they put it to use

Youth Media's Impact on Audience and Channels of Distribution

In partnership with the Open Society Institute, the Surdna Foundation supported a research and capacity building initiative focused on youth media's impact on audience. Social Policy Research Associates (http://www.spra.com), based out of the Bay Area, was hired to conduct a literature review of existing media evaluation models, develop a theory of youth media impact on audience, and create a toolkit, which was used to build the evaluation capacity of a regional group of youth media organizations

Defining the Social Dimension of Triple Bottom Line for the Australian Dairy Industry: Challenges, Priorities and Opportunities

Understanding the social impact the dairy industry has on employees and local communities is part of Dairy Australia’s commitment to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework, which emphasises that businesses have social, environmental and economic impacts and responsibilities. This social impact assessment project, currently underway, aims to identify and quantify the social value of the dairy industry, whilst proactively identifying areas for improvements. Through an online survey for employees and a random postal survey of 15,000 dairy community residents, the project investigates how Australians perceive the Dairy Industry, as well as their wellbeing, quality of life, community involvement and work experiences. This paper provides an overview of the study, outlining why developing quantifiable indicators for the social dimension of TBL that are designed to be as rigorous as current financial reporting is a business priority. Examples of how the findings will contribute to the identification and management of issues, measures of industry sustainability and future strategy are discussed

The Strengths and Challenges of Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy: What the Research Says

Outlines the advantages of community organizing as a reform strategy, such as its ability to address power relationships and build political will for broad reform; evidence of impact; effective strategies, including working via alliances; and challenges

Developing modular product family using GeMoCURE within an SME

Companies adopt the strategy of producing variety of products to be competitive and responsive to market. Product variation is becoming an important factor in companies' ability to accurately meet customer requirements. Ever increasing consumer options mean that customers have more choices than ever before which put commercial pressures on companies to continue to diversify. This can be a particular problem within Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who do not always have the level of resources to meet these requirements. As such, methods are required that provide means for companies to be able to produce a wide range of products at the lowest cost and shortest time. This paper details a new modular product design methodology that provides a focus on developing modular product families. The methodology's function is described and a case study detailed of how it was used within an SME to define the company's product portfolio and create a new Generic Product Function Structure from which a new family of product variants can be developed. The methodology lends itself to modular re-use which has the potential to support rapid development and configuration of product variants

Pathway to Successful Young Adulthood

The Pathway to Successful Young Adulthood assembles a wealth of findings from research, practice, theory, and policy about what it takes to improve the lives of children, youth and families, particularly those living in tough neighborhoods. By laying out a comprehensive, coherent array of actions, the Pathway informs efforts to improve community conditions within supportive policy and funding contexts. The Pathways framework does not promote a single formula or program. Rather, our emphasis is on acting strategically across disciplines, systems, and jurisdictions to increase the number of young people who make a successful transition to young adulthood. The Pathway provides a starting point to guide choices made by community coalitions, services providers, researchers, funders, and policymakers to achieve desired outcomes for young people and their families

Creation of a Decision Support Tool for Expectant Parents Facing Threatened Periviable Delivery: Application of a User-Centered Design Approach

Background Shared decision-making (SDM) is optimal in the context of periviable delivery, where the decision to pursue life-support measures or palliation is both preference sensitive and value laden. We sought to develop a decision support tool (DST) prototype to facilitate SDM by utilizing a user-centered design research approach. Methods We convened four patient and provider advisory boards with women and their partners who had experienced a surviving or non-surviving periviable delivery, pregnant women who had not experienced a prior preterm birth, and obstetric providers. Each 2-h session involved design research activities to generate ideas and facilitate sharing of values, goals, and attitudes. Participant feedback shaped the design of three prototypes (a tablet application, family story videos, and a virtual reality experience) to be tested in a final session. Results Ninety-five individuals (48 mothers/partners; 47 providers) from two hospitals participated. Most participants agreed that the prototypes should include factual, unbiased outcomes and probabilities. Mothers and support partners also desired comprehensive explanations of delivery and care options, while providers wanted a tool to ease communication, help elicit values, and share patient experiences. Participants ultimately favored the tablet application and suggested that it include family testimonial videos. Conclusion Our results suggest that a DST that combines unbiased information and understandable outcomes with family testimonials would be meaningful for periviable SDM. User-centered design was found to be a useful method for creating a DST prototype that may lead to improved effectiveness, usability, uptake, and dissemination in the future, by leveraging the expertise of a wide range of stakeholders