Action research and new media: Concepts, methods and cases

Action research is now a well-documented and well-accepted research methodology. Moreover, it is especially appropriate in new media research, where innovation and change are continual, and where processes and outcomes are usually not predictable and often involve fuzzy and subjective human elements. This book offers a systematic, in-depth academic overview of the application of action research methods to the field of new media. In this space, it is the first publication of its kind in what is a new but rapidly growing field. This book is divided into three sections. Introducing the two key concepts, namely, new media and action research, the first section describes the underlying principles, processes, questions, methods and tools that are relevant to an action research approach to new media inquiry. This is followed by a deeper exploration of three advanced, innovative approaches to action research and new media: ethnographic, network, and anticipatory action research. The third and final section presents four case studies and their individual applications of action research in different new media contexts

What counts as accountability? : Towards an accountability framework for the pre-primary

Accountability in the pre-primary year has become a focus for attention as schools develop corporate school plans. Pre-primary teachers can no longer work in isolation and are required to implement the school development plan in order to account for their portion of the school\u27s work. This study aimed to find out how pre-primary teachers accounted for their educational programs and what factors influenced their accountability notions and practices. The study conducted in Western Australia used an ecological theoretical framework. Data was collected using multi-modal techniques and analysed using an interpretive-constructivist approach. Three case studies, a questionnaire and focus groups of pre-primary teachers were the main methods used for data collection. The study revealed that implementation of the school development plan by pre-primary teachers was not uniform. Along a continuum of pre-primary teacher accountability, three main patterns of variation were revealed in a typology of the accountability landscape. At one end of the continuum was the group of teachers who felt threatened by the school development plan and so did not engage with the plan. In the middle were a group of teachers who were isolated from the school and uncertain about engaging with the plan. At the other end of the continuum were the pre-primary teachers who were fully engaged with the school development plan. The accountability framework designed in this study may assist pre-primary teachers by supporting them to interact with the accountability processes in the primary school setting

My Father’s Loaves and Fishes

In his soft throaty voice he speaks of rice— washing and rinsing hard kernels, how hands knock them on the side of a pot until water runs clear. How it will ris

Achievement Data for K-12 Schools

With the advent of No Child Left Behind legislation, K-12 schools are required to demonstrate a certain percentage of students can reach levels of proficiency, called Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). In South Dakota, the Dakota STEP test is administered in the spring to determine these levels of proficiency. Schools receive feedback from the state on certain aspects of proficiency, but many important pieces are missing for schools to develop effective strategies and to make good decisions. This project utilizes raw Dakota STEP data to focus on 3 basic problems concerning achievement data: 1) provide better tools to help schools improve AYP, 2) provide better tools to help schools improve in areas beyond AYP, and 3) mine data for insights on student achievement trends that may help the education community in general

Digital Geographic Tools in the World Literature Course

Even as the resources for teaching and learning geography have become increasingly more sophisticated and user-friendly, geography has a decreasing role in general education K-12 and post-secondary courses despite school mission statements that emphasize cross-cultural awareness, global mindedness, engaging in the world, or solving the world’s problems. This presentation explores the value and application of digital geography tools (e.g. Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Trends) in world literature or foreign language literature courses

Read to Me I Love It! Evaluation of the Better Beginnings program for Remote Aboriginal Communities

Better Beginnings for remote Aboriginal communities started in 2010 with the aim of bringing literacy resources to families with children up to five years of age in remote communities. It was developed as part of the Better Beginnings program which is a universal program for children and their families that aims to develop literacy skills through fostering a love of books and language. A finding in the larger evaluation of this project (Barrat-Pugh, Rohl & Statkus, 2010) found that there was a need for targeted strategies and resources to better support Aboriginal families and hence Better Beginnings for remote Aboriginal communities was devised. This program is an initiative of the State Library of Western Australia (SLWA) supported by the Department for Regional Development and Lands, Rio Tinto and Royalties for Regions. The program aims to assist in the facilitation of local Aboriginal community councils to empower local Aboriginal people to form a network of distributors who may work in schools, health centres or other services in communities. In this way the community has responsibility for the delivery of the program, which is a central tenant of the Better Beginnings initiative for supporting the development of children\u27s literacy learning in remote communities. The resources which are specifically designed and chosen to reflect Aboriginal history, culture and everyday life come in the form of quality books, stories and rhymes, DVDs and posters. The program aims to stimulate children, family and carers\u27 literacy practices in a fun, easy, relevant and meaningful way and compensate for a lack of reading material in remote communities. Resources include T-shirts for children, alphabet and number posters, an Aboriginal newspaper for adults and a pamphlet on the importance of reading to children. The program also aims to get more children and families to use their local library

The continuity of literacy development: Kindergarten to year 1

The purpose of this study was to investigate the continuity of strategies and provisions that teachers use to develop children\u27s literacy in kindergarten and Year 1. In two metropolitan Ministry of Education districts, 27 kindergarten and 25 Year 1 teachers completed a questionnaire concerning issues relating to literacy development in these two educational settings. From this population four teachers were interviewed to investigate areas of interest that arose from the questionnaire. The results showed that kindergarten and Year 1 teachers differed in the selection of strategies and provisions to promote literacy in young children. There was a clear delineation between the Year 1 and kindergarten teachers when ranking the importance of play as a literacy strategy in early childhood settings. The differences found in surveyed teachers\u27 practices between kindergarten and Year 1 may lead to discontinuous literacy experiences for children moving from one year level to the other. Further research could pinpoint the areas of discontinuity by participant observation of literacy experiences in these two settings