Cyberbullying - when does a school authority\u27s liability in tort end?

Cyberbullying in schools is increasing on an alarming rate. The development of the Internet and smartphone technology have increased the potential scope of a school authority’s duty of care for its students. A question frequently asked by educators is “Where does a school authority’s duty of care end in the interconnected, 24/7 world of the Internet?” This paper argues that a duty of care will be owed where the school is in a school/student relationship with its students. That relationship can exist outside the school gates and outside of school hours. There are no decisions of senior appellate courts that deal with a school authority’s liability for cyberbullying. The authors, therefore, analyse the nature of the relationship to identify the key features that must be present to establish the existence of a duty of care. Three features are identified as critical to the existence of the duty of care outside of the normal school hours. They are the extent to which the school authority controls or ought to control a given situation, the extent to which it has encouraged students to participate in a particular activity and the extent to which a school authority is aware or ought to be aware of risks associated with the relevant activity of its students

Development of the New Academic: The Case for Blended Delivery

This case study reports the design, implementation and evaluation of an academic induction program, delivered using a blend of in campus and online environments at Macquarie University

HREC members\u27 personal values influence decision making in contentious cases

This article identifies 14 contentious issues faced by Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs). The authors argue that HREC members will respond variably to these issues based on their own fundamental values and worldview. In particular, we propose that personal interpretations of current ethics regulations and HREC members’ attitudes to consequentialism, Kantianism, and utilitarianism in some cases affect their responses to contentious research issues. We seek to promote understanding of how personal and professional back­grounds of HREC reviewers influence their approaches to value-laden issues embedded in ethics applications. Taking the form of a literature review, our con­tribution highlights the need for further exploration of how HREC members make decisions, and what factors influence the outcomes of ethics applications

La Cultura Hispano Árabe en Latino América

El autor nos expone la influencia de la cultura Hispano-árabe en la cultura Latinoamericana, y se propone describir esta influencia desde el punto de vista del lenguaje, y el desarrollo de las humanidades, artes y ciencias. Su planteamiento es que los ochocientos años de invasión árabe en España y los cuatrocientos años de invasión española en América constituyeron los elementos a través de los cuales un cuasi-global fenómeno de transculturización tuvo lugar.L’auteur nous expose l’influence de la culture Hispano-arabe dans la culture latino-américaine, et propose de décrire cette influence du point de vu du langage, et du développement des sciences humaines, des arts et des sciences. Sa démonstration consiste à affirmer que les huit cents ans d’invasion arabe en Espagne et les quatre cents ans d’invasion espagnole en Amérique constituèrent les éléments à travers lesquels un phénomène presque global de transculturisation a eut lieu.The author describes the influence of Hispanic-Arab culture in Latin American culture, and aims to describe this influence from the point of view of language and the development of the humanities, arts and sciences. His approach is that the eight hundred years of Arab invasion in Spain and the Spanish invasion of four years in America were the elements through which a quasi-global phenomenon of acculturation took place

Academics adopting mobile devices: The zone of free movement.

This exploratory research characterised the degree of adoption of mobile learning (ML) devices among academic staff at an Australian university. It also sought to evaluate the impact of academics’ perceptions about possibilities and constraints in the adoption of these technologies. A zone of free movement (ZFM) scale was developed and validated to quantify the magnitude and direction of those perceptions. Results showed that academic staff are characteristically at the third of the Russell’s (1995) six developmental stages of technological adoption. Lack of time to integrate ML into courses, limited availability of mobile devices, little familiarity with the tools, as well as the perception that students cannot use them as a word- processor, act as inhibitors to the adoption of the technology. In turn, the perception that mobile tools enhance student-lecturer communication outside class was found to be a positive predictor of adoption

La Cultura Hispano Árabe en Latino América

El autor nos expone la influencia de la cultura Hispano-árabe en la cultura Latinoamericana, y se propone describir esta influencia desde el punto de vista del lenguaje, y el desarrollo de las humanidades, artes y ciencias. Su planteamiento es que los ochocientos años de invasión árabe en España y los cuatrocientos años de invasión española en América constituyeron los elementos a través de los cuales un cuasi-global fenómeno de transculturización tuvo lugar.L’auteur nous expose l’influence de la culture Hispano-arabe dans la culture latino-américaine, et propose de décrire cette influence du point de vu du langage, et du développement des sciences humaines, des arts et des sciences. Sa démonstration consiste à affirmer que les huit cents ans d’invasion arabe en Espagne et les quatre cents ans d’invasion espagnole en Amérique constituèrent les éléments à travers lesquels un phénomène presque global de transculturisation a eut lieu.The author describes the influence of Hispanic-Arab culture in Latin American culture, and aims to describe this influence from the point of view of language and the development of the humanities, arts and sciences. His approach is that the eight hundred years of Arab invasion in Spain and the Spanish invasion of four years in America were the elements through which a quasi-global phenomenon of acculturation took place

Bullying prevention and mediation: the role of Values Education

The growing incidence of bullying in schools calls for alternative prevention and mediation approaches in which values are integrated into current practices. This study explores educators’ and parents’ beliefs about the explicit application of a values-based approach to bullying intervention and mediation in Catholic schools. Individual and focus group interview among teachers, principals and parents were held in three Catholic primary schools in the Sydney Metropolitan area. The study also served to identify current anti-bullying practices employed as well as to examine specific values perceived to be relevant by parents and educator in preventing and solving bullying conflicts. Respondents showed a preference for mediation interventions between bully and victim, drawing simultaneously on element of restorative practice, notions of accountability and imposition of consequences. Likewise, they supported a value-centred approach in dealing with the bully in order to achieve a positive behaviour. Specific professional development in dealing with bullying prevention in the practice of medication and consistency of practice were recommended. The paper also presents implication for professional development and creating an organic anti-bullying culture by incorporating values into the curriculum and examining the roles of students, parents, carers and the school

Characterising the perceived value of mathematics educational apps in preservice teachers

This study validated the semantic items of three related scales aimed at characterising the perceived worth of mathematics-education-related mobile applications (apps). The technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) model was used as the conceptual framework for the analysis. Three hundred and seventy-three preservice students studying primary school education from two public and one private Australian universities participated in the study. The respondents examined three different apps using a purposively designed instrument in regard to either their explorative, productive or instructive instructional role. While construct validity could not be established due to a broad range of variability in responses implying a high degree of subjectivity in respondents’ judgments, the qualitative analysis was effective in establishing content validit

Reflections about grasshoppers and inchworms in the Information and Communication Technologies Era

This article presents a multifaceted reflection on the different prevailing strategies to obtain knowledge in the educational system. In an effort to illustrate this complex process, the paradox of the grasshoppers and caterpillars are brought in their applications to the education system. This paradox has great relevance in the contemporary educational system because it points to a process that will alter the foundations of teaching and learning particularly in this age where ICT have achieved highly sophisticated levels. Grasshoppers’ dispositions — intuitive oriented, non-lineal and proactive—and those from the caterpillars — structured, predictive and reactive — have a profound and permanent impact on the dynamics of the relationship between teacher and student. This brief reflection concludes with recommendations as pointing out strategies to stimulate the academic potential of grasshoppers and caterpillars in the educational system