Designing digital technologies and learning activities for different geometries

This chapter focuses on digital technologies and geometry education, a combination of topics that provides a suitable avenue for analysing closely the issues and challenges involved in designing and utilizing digital technologies for learning mathematics. In revealing these issues and challenges, the chapter examines the design of digital technologies and related forms of learning activities for a range of geometries, including Euclidean and co-ordinate geometries in two and three dimensions, and non-Euclidean geometries such as spherical, hyperbolic and fractal geometry. This analysis reveals the decisions that designers take when designing for different geometries on the flat computer screen. Such decisions are not only about the geometry but also about the learner in terms of supporting their perceptions of what are the key features of geometry

A Single Case Pilot Study Exploring the Maturity of Business Intelligence Systems in the Not-For-Profit Sector

This paper describes a research-in-progress which is a qualitative single case pilot study of the Royal Flying Doctor Service Queensland section exploring the integration of business intelligence and sustainability in the not-for-profit sector in Australia. Preliminary findings suggest a low level of business intelligence maturity but a growing recognition of the value IT governance and a high awareness of sustainability principles

Vulnerability to Depression in Middle Childhood: The Role of Pubertal Development and Cortisol Reactivity in Risk for Depression

Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders with rates so high it has been referred to as the “common cold” of mental disorders (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, Koretz, Merikangas, …Wang, 2003). Although many studies have investigated associations between risk factors and depression in adolescents and adults, middle-to-late childhood has remained a relatively understudied period of development. This dissertation addresses important gaps in the literature on depression risk in a community sample of children (N = 205) over the course of middle-to-late childhood (age 7 to 12 years). In Study 1, I hypothesized that pubertal development strengthens associations between known risks (e.g., parent history of depression, cognitive vulnerability, child temperament, and stressful life events) and future depressive symptoms. Partial support was found for this hypothesis; more advanced pubertal development strengthened associations between maternal depression and stressful life events and children’s depressive symptoms. The purpose of Study 2 was to identify classes of cortisol reactivity to stress and their associations with risk for depression (i.e., parent history of depression, child temperament, genetic variants, parenting quality, and stressful life events), and to determine whether cortisol reactivity mediated associations between risk markers and risk for depressive symptoms. Two reactivity clusters were identified representing normative and impaired reactivity; these were differentially associated with depression risk (i.e., child temperament, genetic variants, parenting quality). I did not find evidence that cortisol mediated associations between early risks and future depressive symptoms. Findings highlight the importance of integrating multiple predictors of depression and cortisol in middle childhood

LONGITUDINAL ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN TEMPERAMENT, SOCIAL COMPETENCE, AND INTERNALIZING DISORDERS RISK IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

While psychopathologists posit that temperament plays a critical role in internalizing disorder (i.e., depression and anxiety) risk, the mediators of this risk are poorly understood. Additionally, no previous studies have examined whether temperament traits interact to predict risk mediators. The current study examined longitudinal associations between temperament and social competence in middle childhood, a likely mediator of temperamental risk for psychopathology, using a multi-method approach. A sample of 205 7-year-old children was assessed for temperament using laboratory and parent-report measures. At age 9, these children completed a stress task that entailed social evaluation,before and after which cortisol samples were collected. Children and their parents also completed self- and parent-report measures of social competence. Associations were found between an array of temperament measures and measures of social competence. Positive emotionality moderated the effects of negative emotionality and behavioural inhibition on several indices of social competence, appearing to both buffer and exacerbate the negative effects of other traits. We found partial support for the hypothesis that social competence mediates temperamental vulnerability to psychopathology. Results of this study highlight the importance of child temperament and social competence in internalizing disorder risk in middle childhood

Constructionism and the space of reasons

Constructionism, best known as the framework for action underpinning Seymour Papert’s work with Logo, has stressed the importance of engaging students in creating their own products. Noss and Hoyles have argued that such activity enables students to participate increasingly in a web of connections to further their activity. Ainley and Pratt have elaborated that learning is best facilitated when the student is engaged in a purposeful activity that leads to appreciation of the power of mathematical ideas. Constructionism gives prominence to how the learner’s logical reasoning and emotion-driven reasons for engagement are inseparable. We argue that the dependence of constructionism upon the orienting framework of constructivism fails to provide sufficient theoretical underpinning for these ideas. We therefore propose an alternative orienting framework, in which learning takes place through initiation into the space of reasons, such that a person’s thoughts, actions and feelings are increasingly open to critique and justification. We argue that knowing as responsiveness to reasons encompasses not only the powerful ideas of mathematics and disciplinary knowledge of modes of enquiry but also the extralogical, such as in feelings of the aesthetic, control, excitement, elegance and efficiency. We discuss the implication that mathematics educators deeply consider the learner’s reasons for purposeful activity and design settings in which these reasons can be made public and open to critique

How Fluffy is the Cloud?: Cloud Intelligence for a Not-for-profit Organisation

Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming more accessible and less expensive with fewer risks through various deployment options available in the Cloud. Cloud computing facilitates the acquisition of custom solutions for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations at affordable and scalable costs on a flexible pay-as-you-go basis. In this paper, we explore the key technical and organisational aspects of BI in the Cloud (Cloud Intelligence) deployment in an Australian NFP whose BI maturity is rising although still low. This organisation aspires to Cloud Intelligence for improved managerial decision making yet the issues surrounding the adoption of Cloud Intelligence are complex, especially where corporate and Cloud governance is concerned. From the findings of the case study, a conceptual framework has been developed and presented which offers a view of how governance could be deployed so that NFPs gain maximum leverage through their adoption of the Cloud

Structuration Theory in Information Systems Research: Relevance and Rigour from a Pluralist Research Approach

This paper reflects on the theoretical aspects of an earlier ontological study. The study was a single case which explored the use of an agricultural decision support system by women cotton growers in the Australian cotton industry and the effect of its use on their farm management roles on family cotton farms. The study was informed through a multi-paradigmatic conceptual framework with structuration theory as a meta-theory, and diffusion theory and gender relations theory as lower level theories. This pluralistic research approach employed both theory and data triangulation. In this paper, the justification for a multi-paradigmatic framework is discussed as well as the relevance and rigour of the study

The Skills Framework for the Information Age as a Means for Investigating Work-Integrated Learning

This paper reports on a pilot study using the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) as a means for examining interns’ roles in the workplace, the skills they utilise or lack, and their levels of preparedness and capability. Data was collected and analysed in two ways. Firstly, interns responded to a survey where their experiences were classified using SFIA. Secondly, the interns’ journals and reports which contain reflective content were analysed qualitatively in order to delve more deeply into aspects of the study identified from the survey. The findings suggest that interns are generally placed in areas suited to their university experience; nevertheless, there are gaps between what the interns learn at university and what they require in industry. This study makes a contribution by proposing a method for investigating the alignment between the academic preparation of interns and the expectations of technology intensive organisations

An Evaluation View of an Ensemble Artefact for Decision Support using Action Design Research

This paper investigates the integration of content, context and process (CCP) into the Action Design Research (ADR) framework to account for the interplay of organisational issues in artefact design and development. The investigation is conducted through a case study in which successive ICT student teams incrementally build, over several semesters, a tailored, low cost business intelligence (BI) system as an ensemble artefact for an organisation in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector. During project development, CCP’s human-centred approach to evaluation complements ADR’s more prescribed technology-driven software testing. The integration of CCP into ADR as an evaluation view offers an holistic approach to assessing an ensemble artefact. The resultant conceptual framework is presented as a model with an explication of unexpected design and research outcomes

Not so `Invisible': A qualitative case study exploring gender relations and farm management software

This qualitative case study explored farm management practices by women cotton growers who used computer-based information systems, most particularly the agricultural farm management software, CottonLOGIC, within the Australian cotton industry. This study found that, although gender differences and inequalities persist in rural parts of the region, the agency of women cotton growers ensures not only a sustainable future for themselves and their families, but also for the broader cotton industry as a whole. The use of farm management software by women cotton farmers was informed by Connell’s theoretical framework of gender relations (2002). The findings suggested that, women’s active participation in family farm partnerships and their acquisition of technological skills through the use of farm management software like CottonLOGIC, meant that all cotton growers benefit through the feminizing of specific farm management practices in family farm enterprises. This, therefore, has significant implications for developing the cotton industry into a truly sustainable entity