Older people's adaptation to new modes of communication

The advances in Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the past three decades have served to improve the lives of older persons globally. While this evolution of ICT has in large measure benefited older Canadians, it has also resulted in their alienation from many activities in mainstream society. This alienation has been attributed to the rapid advance of ICT, and the slow rate at which older Canadians are adopting and using mainstream computers, new mobile communication devices and Internet services. Therefore, this thesis sought to explore how older persons in Canada are adopting and adapting to using these different technologies, in formal and informal settings. This study utilized a qualitative descriptive methodology as the strategy of enquiry. Using inclusion criteria and purposive sampling, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to collect descriptive data from ten participants in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The ages of the participants ranged between 67 to 81 years. Participants were selected from varying backgrounds, with different experiences using and interacting with ICTs. The interview data was transcribed and coded into distinctive themes, and analyzed using conventional content analysis. These themes were used as the basis for presenting and discussing the findings. While some negative emotions could be attributed to the adoption behavior of a few participants, generally the findings suggest that Canadians 65 years and older in this study are adopting and using mainstream, computers, new mobile communication devices and the Internet on a regular basis

Guidance Counselors\u27 Enactment of Educational Equity Policies: A Cross-Case Analysis of Ontario and Trinidad and Tobago

This dissertation examined the experiences of guidance counselors in enacting educational equity policies in one district school board and eight secondary schools in Ontario; and three school districts and eight secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). In Ontario, the enactment of educational equity policy in local district school boards is influenced by broader issues of neoliberal globalization and their impact on education equity, causing a shift in focus on reducing student gaps and increasing student achievement towards the marketization and commodification of education. Likewise in T&T, the issues in education and policy enactment are centred around the lingering effects of colonialism operating within a differentiated and segregated school system that is perceived as elitist and based on meritocratic ideologies. In this dissertation, postcolonial, policy sociology, and policy enactment theories serve as conceptual frameworks to understand the actions/positions and roles of guidance counselors in equity policy work. Using a qualitative, cross-case policy enactment approach, interviews were conducted with eight guidance counselors in Ontario, and eight guidance counselors in T&T to investigate their work on enacting educational equity policies at secondary schools. Primary data were collected from semi-structured interviews, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis and coding strategies for inductive studies. Secondary data were collected from governments\u27 Ministry of Education policies in Ontario and T&T. The findings revealed that postcolonial antecedents and neoliberal globalization influence education and equity work in Ontario and T&T secondary schools. In Ontario and Trinidad and Tobago educational equity policy enactment work exists within contextual dimensions impacting the different roles and positions guidance counselors assumed in their policy enactment work at secondary schools. The analysis of policy documents and interview data for Ontario and Trinidad and Tobago revealed the symbolic nature of educational equity policies. Keywords: equity policy; educational policy; guidance counselor; policy enactment; Ontario; Trinidad and Tobago; postcolonial theory, policy sociology, cross-case analysis, context

Training manual for teaching working with Pacific students: engaging Pacific learners

The Centre’s vision is to “Embrace Pacific Cultures to enhance student experience through improvement of student engagement and achievement so that students become valued leaders and contributors to Pacific communities and New Zealand society”. The main function of the centre revolves firstly, around providing academic and pastoral support for Pacific students. Secondly, through the provision of advise and support for academic lecturers. Finally, through engagement and working closely with Pacific families and communities. The Nakuita, which is Fijian for octopus was developed by the Pacific Centre’s Director, Linda Aumua in 2008, to inform the work of the centre. The octopus has one central body which metaphorically refers to the centre and its tentacles as the Pacific support provided through the learning development lecturers infiltrating the departments and services. The concept started out with the centre employing learning development lecturers. The learning development lecturers are nurtured at the centre before they are placed in the departments, usually in the staff member’s area of expertise. The idea is that the staff member will be able to provide content support and learning development support for Pacific students. The flexibility of the octopus framework enabled the centre to collaborate with departments to co-employ the learning development lecturers with the aim of the departments picking up full employment of the Pacific staff. The success of the Nakuita has extended into the area of staff support. This include providing professional development workshops on understanding Pacific learners; engaging Pacific learners; providing input into curriculum development around embedding Pacific dimensions into the curricula and collaborating with staff on Pacific research. Through collaboration with the two lecturers in the Graduate Diploma in Not-For-Profit Management, Sandy Thompson and Fraser McDonald we are also able to produce this training resource. This collaboration started with the centre providing support for the Pacific students on their programme. This has extended to a co-employment of a Pacific staff member to provide focus support for students in this programme. This manual is divided into five sections. Section 1 is the introduction and includes a triangulation of a literature review on engagement of Pacific learners, students’ evaluation and tutors learning experiences. Section 2 draws on the experiences of the above Unitec staff and looks at meaningful ways to engage Pacific learners in classroom discussions and class content. Section 3 provides some example of teaching plans and Section 4 consist of a list of references used in this work. Finally, Section 5 is a resource/information section that will provide additional information and resources to support the work of teachers

A Six-Planet System Around the Star HD 34445

We present a new precision radial velocity dataset that reveals a multi-planet system orbiting the G0V star HD 34445. Our 18-year span consists of 333 precision radial velocity observations, 56 of which were previously published, and 277 which are new data from Keck Observatory, Magellan at Las Campanas Observatory, and the Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory. These data indicate the presence of six planet candidates in Keplerian motion about the host star with periods of 1057, 215, 118, 49, 677, and 5700 days, and minimum masses of 0.63, 0.17, 0.1, 0.05, 0.12 and 0.38 Jupiter masses respectively. The HD 34445 planetary system, with its high degree of multiplicity, its long orbital periods, and its induced stellar radial velocity half-amplitudes in the range $2 \,{\rm m\, s^{-1}} \lesssim K \lesssim 5\,{\rm m\, s^{-1}}$ is fundamentally unlike either our own solar system (in which only Jupiter and Saturn induce significant reflex velocities for the Sun), or the Kepler multiple-transiting systems (which tend to have much more compact orbital configurations)Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Evaluating a streamlined clinical tool and educational outreach intervention for health care workers in Malawi: the PALM PLUS case study

The success of PALM PLUS (Practical Approach to Lung Health and HIV/AIDS in Malawi) suggests this intervention is adaptable for use in other resource-limited settings. The PALM PLUS intervention simplifies and integrates existing Malawian national guidelines into a single user-friendly guideline for mid-level health care workers. Training utilizes a peer-to-peer educational outreach approach. The research measures effects of the intervention on staff satisfaction and retention, quality of patient care, and costs. This initiative is an example of South-South knowledge translation between South Africa and Malawi, mediated by a Canadian academic-NGO hybrid. The integration of guidelines requires intensive collaboration