Creating virtual communities of practice for learning technology in higher education: Issues, challenges and experiences

The need for a Web portal to support the rapidly growing field of learning technology has been well established through a number of national surveys and scoping studies over recent years. The overarching vision has been the provision of a virtual environment to assist in informing and developing professional practice in the use of learning technologies. This paper outlines the issues and challenges in creating such a portal through the experiences of developing the RESULTs Network. In the paper, design and participation issues are considered within the wider context of online and networked approaches to supporting practice and professional development. User participation methodologies and technical developments for RESULTs are described in relation to a review of existing representations of practice and a comprehensive survey amongst the learning technology users’ community. An outline of key achievements and experiences is presented, followed by some conclusions regarding the cultural and political issues in creating a viable and sustainable facility and suggestions for possible future direction in national provision

Determinants Of Unionisation For Part-Time Women Employees In Australian Banks

Against the declining trend of Australian employees to join unions, unionisation of part-time female employees in the banking industry is relatively strong. For the finance and insurance industry in 2001, 30.3% of total part-time female employees were unionised compared to 25% of full-time female employees and 17.2% of full-time male employees. Overall, 22.3% of employees from this industry were members (ABS, 2002). Under freedom of association, what can influence an individual's decision to unionise? A survey was conducted on three major Australian banks in August 2000. We use a binary choice regression model to analyse personal and union-organising characteristics that significantly influence individual's decision to unionise. Previous membership under union preference provisions and earning relatively high wages would lead to a higher probability to join the union. Union's role in enterprise bargaining and whether union did anything to recruit have significant impact on individual decisions. Thus, part-time female employees are not unwilling to join when they recognise the need for job protection.

The experience of counseling the terminally ill and the best counseling practices

As people approach the end of their lives, many experience anxiety throughout the dying experience. This research investigated the death experience of terminally ill patients and the best counseling practices among licensed mental health practitioners. The questions developed by the researcher served as the measure, which was developed specifically for this research. The questions were given to a small purposive sample of counselors (N=10) who work in hospice settings, private practice, and oncology clinics. This research found that counselors focus on the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of dying, and observe patients having less death anxiety when they are comfortable with who they are and what they believe in. The counseling approaches presented in this research help to enhance quality of life, maintain a purpose in life, and manage death anxiety

Letter from Helen [Hunt] Jackson to John Muir, 1885 Jun 20.

H.H. diedBug,12, 1885in S.F.1600 Taylor St.,San Francisco, June 20, 1885.Dear Mr. Muir,If nothing else comes of my camping air castle, I have had at least one pleasure from it -- your kind and delightful letter. I have read it so many times I half know it. I wish Mrs. Carr were here that I might triumph over her. She wrote me that I might as well ask one of the angels of Heaven, as John Muir so entirely out of his line was the thing I proposed to do. I knew better, however, and I was right. You are the only man in California who could tell me just what I needed to know about ranges of climate, dryness, heat, etc., also roads.You have already ruled out my first plan-- i.e. the skirmishing along the middle Sierra foothills. I am drawn towards Truckee and the Lake Tahoe region by what you say, but I fear that altitude. It is of the too little oxygen and the nerve strain of 6000 ft. up in my Colorado home, that I have been breaking down for years, getting ready for this attack.Now, tell me a little more in detail about the Shasta region and the redwood district in the Coast Range. Of the latter I know nothing.For your better convenience I will make a memorandum on a separate sheet of the points I need to know.I am nothing angered or astonished at your sarcastic phrases about my spokes and spooks , and wheels and pans . I only wonder at your gentleness, confronted by an array so repugnant to you. I trust you may never have to be so dependent -- perhaps you do not know that last year I broke my leg? and have not for ten months stepped without crutches -- this in addition to the utter exhaustion of the eighteen weeks\u27 illness, makes me helpless indeed. If you had got to go into the woods, flat on your back on a bed in an ambulance, or not at all, wouldn\u27t you take kindly to spokes ?, and if your life (apparently) depended on strong broths and gruels, wouldn\u27t you take along a good cook and his pans ? If you were to see me you would only wonder that I have courage to even dream of such an expedition. I am not at all sure it is not of the madness which the gods are said to send on those whom they wish to destroy.They tell me Martinez is only twenty miles away. Do you never come into town? The regret I should weakly feel at having you see the remains (ghastly but inimitable word) of me, would, I think, be small in comparison with the pleasure I should feel in seeing you. I am much too weak to see strangers -- but it is long since you were a stranger.Yours sincerely,Helen Jackson.1st -- the redwood region of the Coast Range -- what elevations could I hit there, combined with moisture and forests? How much moisture? waterfalls? streams? How long a range would I have? I want to keep moving; go over as much ground as possible, not over two days or one in any place. Can you suggest places or routes, for this region? Would I have to begin the journey by rail? or could I start from this door on my bed?2nd -- the Shasta region. How many hours from here by rail to Redding? Do they have Pullman sleepers on that road? You say from Redding to Strawberry Valley is an easy grade, some fifty miles . What would that fifty miles be like? hot? dusty? It would mean three days journey for me. The horses will have to walk. And Strawberry Valley (delicious name) - when I reach that am I among forests and streams? The hundred mile orbit around Shasta , is that plains or foothills? I have fancied Shasta arising sharply like a pyramid from a plain.Can you give me a list of points, roads, places in this orbit? , bearing in mind always that what I most need is moisture, what I simply cannot endure is dry heat; dust also is dangerous to me -- a forest, and a dashing stream are my needs.3rd -- The Lake Tahoe region -- why do you call that moist and leafy? I was there at the Tahoe House once, a week -- it was glorious but it was dry and no trees but thin pines as I recollect. The sun blazed like Sahara, every day. We did not explore, only rowed on the lake. It was fourteen years ago. Are there roads all round the lake. Would the prevailing altitude be 6000 ft

A focused mapping review and synthesis of current practice in qualitative end of life research with the bereaved

Background. Nursing research is dedicated to improving care, but research into end of life care can be challenging because of a possible reluctance by researchers to invite bereaved people to take part in studies. Aim. To use a focused mapping approach to explore the recruitment to studies of grieving and bereaved people. Discussion. There is no ‘gold standard’ method of recruitment and no best way to approach participants. The outcome of each method, measured by the percentage of potential participants recruited, appears to be unrelated to the approach used. Conclusion. There is no evidence that participation in research harms those who have recently been bereaved, but there is evidence of benefits from participating. Implications for practice. Researchers should not feel they need to protect the bereaved from participating in research and can invite bereaved individuals to join a study without worrying about causing them harm