REFLECTIONS ON RUNNING A FREE ONLINE CONFERENCE: ASERA CONFERENCE ONLINE 2020

The Australasian Science Education Research Association’s (ASERA) annual conference, like most other large (or small) gatherings around the world, was not able to take place this year in a face-to-face manner in a physical location due to COVID-19. The online conference format was a first for ASERA, and in fact, is a relatively new idea in science education, and science, more broadly (Reshef et al., 2020). Thus, the aim of this paper is to share reflections from the organising committee of this year’s ASERA conference, comprising of the first and second authors and the president of the ASERA Board, the third author. The reflections focus on the initial decision to go online, the justification for the design of the online conference (including the decision to run it at no/little expense) and how it went on the day. These reflections will contribute to our understanding of running large online research-related events, an occurrence which might be more frequent or likely as we adapt to the ‘new norm’ post-pandemic. REFERENCE Reshef, O., Aharonovich, I., Armani, A. M., Gigan, S., Grange, R., Kats, M. A., and Sapienza, R. (2020). How to organize an online conference. Nature Reviews Material 5(4) 253-6

Digital explanation as assessment in university science

Assessments in tertiary science subjects typically assess content knowledge, and there is current need to both develop and assess different forms of knowledge and skills, such as communications and digital literacies. A digital explanation is a multimodal artefact created by students to explain science to a specified audience, which is an alternate form of assessment that has potential to develop and assess these other important forms of knowledge and skills. This research draws from perspectives in multimodality, educational semiotics and science education to gain a better understanding of digital explanation as a form of assessment in university science. Data sources include digital artefacts (n = 42), task descriptions and rubrics and pre-/post-interviews (n = 21) with students who created them as a task in a university science subject. Analysis involved identifying the range of media resources used across the data set, seeking patterns in how multiple resources were used and exploring students’ perspectives on the task, including their design decisions. A more detailed look at artefacts from three different science learning contexts illustrates that students base their design decisions on the content knowledge being represented, their technical capabilities to generate them and how to engage the audience. Students enjoy this form of assessment and feel that the tasks allowed them to demonstrate different sorts of capabilities than are normally assessed in their subjects. Recommendations for instructors provide guidance for considering this sort of task in tertiary science contexts

Vold i parforhold. Hva kjennetegner vold i parforhold, og hvordan kan en anerkjennende praksis være et virksomt element for sosialarbeidere i møte med voldsutsatte kvinner og menn?

Denne litteraturstudien presenterer og drøfter noen sentrale kjennetegn ved vold i parforhold, samt utforsker hvordan en anerkjennende praksis kan være et virksomt element for sosialarbeidere i møte med voldsutsatte. Oppgaven er kvalitativt orientert, med det siktemål å bidra til økt forståelse. Vold i parforhold anses som et komplekst og sammensatt problem, og rammer på tvers av kjønn og seksualitet. I møte med voldsutsatte mennesker blir anerkjennelse sentralt, da kontakten med hjelpeapparat kan assosieres med tap av verdighet og kontroll. Anerkjennelse forstås med utgangspunkt i Honneths anerkjennelsesteori, som tydeliggjør hvordan mennesket er avhengig av anerkjennelse for å utvikle et godt selvbilde. En annenkjennende praksis kan være virksomt på flere måter i møte med voldsutsatte, blant annet for utvikling av en god relasjon, samt for å styrke voldsutsattes selvtillit, selvrespekt og selvverdsetting

Built during construction of a multimodal product

BACKGROUND Recent research has revealed that new forms of assessment, including multimodal assessment, may be able to develop conceptual understanding more holistically than existing or traditional forms of assessment, however, there is minimal information detailing how or why this learning might occur. AIMS In this study, we aimed to explore how students built their scientific understanding during the construction of a multimedia product like those given as university assessments. DESCRIPTION OF INTERVENTION The study was exploratory in order to capture and describe the construction of scientific knowledge that took place. DESIGN AND METHODS We utilized a multiple case study design where data was collected in the form of: the products that the two participants created, video recording of the construction process, pre- and post- interviews and a collection of artefacts of interest, such as images of the creation process/set up. RESULTS Analysis of the knowledge represented across the various data sources for the two cases show that they differ in degrees of coherence and abstraction profiles for the scientific concept represented: transparency. CONCLUSIONS The results show that learning is variable in the construction of such tasks and that the use of appropriate descriptive frameworks such as the one used in this study are necessary if these forms of assessment are to be more widely used to successfully assess learning

A maturing manifesto: The constitutionalisation of children’s rights in South African jurisprudence 2007-2012

This article represents the next in a series of five-year overviews of children’s rights in the courts in South Africa. Using the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Welfare of Children as a point of departure, the study suggests that it is in the public sphere that children’s rights have had their most impact in the period under review. The article highlights eight areas of distinction in this five-year period: these include judicial approval of resource mobilisation for the fulfilment of children’s rights, emphasis on the quality of and standards in education; the development of innovative remedies to deal with unreasonable state measures affecting children, and an increasing focus on the right to dignity of the child. The authors conclude that the scope of the cases cited points to the growing insertion of children’s rights considerations in increasingly diverse areas of legal interaction. Furthermore, the authors posit that the CRC and ACRWC – together with non-binding sources of international law – have substantively informed and enriched the jurisprudence of South African courts

Aligning Concerns in Telecare:Three Concepts to Guide the Design of Patient-Centred E-Health

The design of patient-centred e-health services embodies an inherent tension between the concerns of clinicians and those of patients. Clinicians’ concerns are related to professional issues to do with diagnosing and curing disease in accordance with accepted medical standards. In contrast, patients’ concerns typically relate to personal experience and quality of life issues. It is about their identity, their hopes, their fears and their need to maintain a meaningful life. This divergence of concerns presents a fundamental challenge for designers of patient-centred e-health services. We explore this challenge in the context of chronic illness and telecare. Based on insights from medical phenomenology as well as our own experience with designing an e-health service for patients with chronic heart disease, we emphasise the importance – and difficulty – of aligning the concerns of patients and clinicians. To deal with this, we propose a set of concepts for analysing concerns related to the design of e-health services: A concern is (1) meaningful if it is relevant and makes sense to both patients and clinicians, (2) actionable if clinicians or patients – at least in principle – are able to take appropriate action to deal with it, and (3) feasible if it is easy and convenient to do so within the organisational and social context. We conclude with a call for a more participatory and iterative approach to the design of patient-centred e-health services