Turning histories into futures : assessment for learning as a field of exchange

Standardised testing does not recognise the creativity and skills of marginalised youth. Young people who come to the Edmund Rice Education Australia Flexible Learning Centre Network (EREAFLCN) in Australia arrive with forms of cultural capital that are not valued in the field of education and employment. This is not to say that young people‟s different modes of cultural capital have no value, but rather that such funds of knowledge, repertoires and cultural capital are not valued by the powerful agents in educational and employment fields. The forms of cultural capital which are valued by these institutions are measurable in certain structured formats which are largely inaccessible for what is seen in Australia to be a growing segment of the community. How then can the inherent value of traditionally unorthodox - yet often intricate, adroit, ingenious, and astute - versions of cultural capital evident in the habitus of many young people be made to count, be recognised, be valuated? Can a process of educational assessment be used as a marketplace, a field of capital exchange? This paper reports on the development of an innovative approach to assessment in an alternative education institution designed for the re-engagement of „at risk‟ youth who have left formal schooling. In order to capture the broad range of students‟ cultural and social capital, an electronic portfolio system (EPS) is under trial. The model draws on categories from sociological models of capital and reconceptualises the eportfolio as a sociocultural zone of learning and development. Initial results from the trial show a general tendency towards engagement with the EPS and potential for the attainment of socially valued cultural capital in the form of school credentials

Towards general capabilities through technology : assessment for learning as a field of exchange

The introduction of the Australian curriculum, the use of standardised testing (e.g. NAPLAN) and the My School website have stimulated and in some cases renewed a range of boundaries for young people in Australian Education. Standardised testing has accentuated social reproduction in education with an increase in the numbers of students disengaging from mainstream education and applying for enrolment at the Edmund Rice Education Australia Flexible Learning Centre Network (EREAFLCN). Many young people are denied access to credentials and certification as they become excluded from standardised education and testing. The creativity and skills of marginalised youth are often evidence of general capabilities and yet do not appear to be recognised in mainstream educational institutions when standardised approaches are adopted. Young people who participate at the EREAFLCN arrive with a variety of forms of cultural capital, frequently utilising general capabilities, which are not able to be valued in current education and employment fields. This is not to say that these young people‟s different forms of cultural capital have no value, but rather that such funds of knowledge, repertoires and cultural capital are not valued by the majority of powerful agents in educational and employment fields. How then can the inherent value of traditionally unorthodox - yet often intricate, ingenious, and astute-versions of cultural capital evident in the habitus of many young people be made to count, be recognised, be valuated?Can a process of educational assessment be a field of capital exchange and a space which crosses boundaries through a valuating process? This paper reports on the development of an innovative approach to assessment in an alternative education institution designed for the re engagement of „at risk‟ youth who have left formal schooling. A case study approach has been used to document the engagement of six young people, with an educational approach described as assessment for learning as a field of exchange across two sites in the EREAFLCN. In order to capture the broad range of students‟ cultural and social capital, an electronic portfolio system (EPS) is under trial. The model draws on categories from sociological models of capital and reconceptualises the eportfolio as a sociocultural zone of learning and development. Results from the trial show a general tendency towards engagement with the EPS and potential for the attainment of socially valued cultural capital in the form of school credentials. In this way restrictive boundaries can be breached and a more equitable outcome achieved for many young Australians

Breaching the standardised assessment boundary: Assessment for learning as a field of exchange

The introduction of the Australian curriculum, the use of standardised testing (e.g. NAPLAN) and the My School website are couched in a context of accountability. This circumstance has stimulated and in some cases renewed a range of boundaries in Australian Education. The consequences that arise from standardised testing have accentuated the boundaries produced by social reproduction in education which has led to an increase in the numbers of students disengaging from mainstream education and applying for enrolment at the Edmund Rice Education Australia Flexible Learning Centre Network (EREAFLCN). Boundaries are created for many young people who are denied access to credentials and certification as a result of being excluded from or in some way disengaging from standardised education and testing. Young people who participate at the EREAFLCN arrive with a variety of forms of cultural capital that are not valued in current education and employment fields. This is not to say that these young people’s different forms of cultural capital have no value, but rather that such funds of knowledge, repertoires and cultural capital are not valued by the majority of powerful agents in educational and employment fields. How then can the qualitative value of traditionally unorthodox - yet often intricate, ingenious, and astute - versions of cultural capital evident in the habitus of many young people be made to count, be recognised, be valuated? Can a process of educational assessment be a field of capital exchange and a space which breaches boundaries through a valuating process? This paper reports on the development of an innovative approach to assessment in an alternative education institution designed for the re-engagement of ‘at risk’ youth who have left formal schooling. A case study approach has been used to document the engagement of six young people, with an educational approach described as assessment for learning as a field of exchange across two sites in the EREAFLCN. In order to capture the broad range of students’ cultural and social capital, an electronic portfolio system (EPS) is under trial. The model draws on categories from sociological models of capital and reconceptualises the eportfolio as a sociocultural zone of learning and development. Results from the trial show a general tendency towards engagement with the EPS and potential for the attainment of socially valued cultural capital in the form of school credentials. In this way restrictive boundaries can be breached and a more equitable outcome achieved for many young Australians

Machine Space

Informed by frequent visits to the city of Detroit, Machine Space is a 24 minute film and cinematic translation of a landscape as an artifact of past and present socio-spatial relations; or, in this case, a built environment as a sedimentation of racial inequality. The film-as-research needed to be sensitive and give voice to the extreme past and present social inequalities of the site. It presents innovative methods of depicting the landscape of a city and space as a relational property in an urban context. Distributed by LUX, Artists Moving Image, London

A comparative study of simulated and experimental results for an extruding elastomeric component

With ever advancing simulation techniques and algorithms being introduced to commercial software, the importance of validation remains a priority. An experimental rig was designed to study the effects of rubber extrusion consisting of a compression testing system and a transparent extrusion barrel, of similar geometry to that used in a forming process. Through visual and numerical comparison, the experimental results would be compared to those obtained through Finite Element Analysis (FEA). To remedy the convergence difficulties of the complexity of the simulation, due to large deformations, a recent Nonlinear Adaptive Remeshing boundary condition was applied to the model

Spatial Cinema

This Blu-ray/DVD collects many years of artists film practice (2002 –18) and consolidates it as a Spatial Cinema. The potential on this disc media platform for paratexts was explored by commissioning contributions from other researchers responding to the work as commentaries and an included 4000 word essay

Learning progression in secondary students' digital video production

Assessing learning progression in Media Education is an area of study which has been largely\ud neglected in the history of the subject, with very few longitudinal studies of how children\ud learn to become "media literate" over an extended period of time. This thesis is an analysis of\ud data over three years (constituted by the production of digital video work by a small group of\ud secondary school students) which attempts to offer a more extended account of this learning.\ud The thesis views the data through three concepts (or "lenses") which have been key to the\ud development of media education in the UK and abroad. These are Culture, Criticality and\ud Creativity, and the theoretical perspectives that the thesis should be viewed in the light of\ud include the work of Bourdieu, Vygotsky, Heidegger and Hegel.\ud The examination of the student production work carried out in the light of these three lenses\ud suggests that learning progression comes about because of a relationship between all three,\ud the key metaphorical idea put forward by the thesis that describes that relationship is the\ud dialectic of familiarity. This suggests that for media education at least, the learning process is\ud a dialectic one, in which students move from cultural and critical knowledge and experiences\ud that are familiar -or thetic - to ones that are unfamiliar, and hence antithetical. Over time this\ud antithetical knowledge becomes familiar and students synthesise together their popular\ud cultural and critical experiences with the critical experiences that they have in the media\ud classroom. This synthesis is driven by the creative act of production work, which brings\ud together the cultural and the critical, the familiar and unfamiliar.\ud It is this key metaphor then, that offers an account of learning progression in media\ud production, and the relationship of that process to creativity, criticality and popular culture