Digital Commons Network^™

Model United Nations And Deep Learning: Theoretical And Professional Learning, Susan Engel, Josh Pallas, Sarah Lambert

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article demonstrates that the purposeful subject design, incorporating a Model United Nations (MUN), facilitated deep learning and professional skills attainment in the field of International Relations. Deep learning was promoted in subject design by linking learning objectives to Anderson and Krathwohl's (2001) four levels of knowledge or cognition: factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. Students demonstrated improvement in all four areas; however, this article focuses on outcomes in the conceptual and metacognitive realms as these were where students showed the most growth. In the conceptual realm, the subject aimed to increase students' capacity to apply international relations theories. Students tended …

Learning From Delusions, Brian Martin

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Once or twice a year, I receive a call or email from someone claiming to be under intensive targeted surveillance by the government. They contact me because there's a lot of material on my website about whistleblowing, and some about surveillance. I know governments carry out massive surveillance operations, for example collecting all sorts of electronic communications. However, these callers believe they have been specially selected as surveillance targets, and sometimes for electronic or chemical bombardment too.

Learning Skills In Journalistic Skepticism While Recognising Whistleblowers, David Blackall

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper explains a didactic program of blending provocative teaching method with experiential learning - at third year of the Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies - University of Wollongong, Australia. There are pedagogical imperatives today for developing the professional ‘self’ in respect to citizenship, journalistic values and practice. The challenge is to acknowledge ethics and principles of human rights, while simultaneously embracing the transforming online, open-source Internet technologies. This can be achieved through a learning combination that exposes students to ‘provocative’ counter news, often whistleblower generated, while setting experiential learning assignments to engage volunteer journalism …

Motivations, Learning Activities And Challenges: Learning Mandarin Chinese In Australia, Xiaoping Gao

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Mandarin Chinese is ane of the priority languages in the Australian Government's {2012} 'Australia in the Asian Century' White Paper. However the number of Australian learners of Mandarin remains the smallest among six commonly taught foreign languages in Australia. What are Australian learners' motivations and preferred learning activities for learning Mandarin Chinese? What challenges do teachers face when promoting this language? To answer these questions, this study conducted surveys with 149 school students and with 18 principals and language teachers in New South Wales. Results show that the Australian students' study of Mandarin was primarily driven by extrinsic motivation although …

Back To The Classroom: Language Educators Learning A Language, Lidia Bilbatua, Laetitia Vedrenne, Rowena G. Ward

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

As part of our preparation for this presentation, we undertook research into the field of teachers as students etc but there is virtually none irrespective of language or other. Research on the motivation of students and teachers and the differences between teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom practice is ample but there is virtually nothing on teachers as students and the impact that being a student had on their teaching practise etc. In some ways, it seems that once you are a language teacher, you are expected to remember what it is like to study a language – from our …

Teachers' Attitudes Towards Computer-Assisted Language Learning In Australia And Spain, Lidia Bilbatua, Alfredo Herrero De Haro

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

A review of the existing literature shows that when it comes to studying attitudes towards CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), researchers have traditionally focused on students’ perspectives and ignored teachers’ views. This study focuses on teachers’ attitudes towards CALL in order to gain a better understanding of what issues, advantages, and disadvantages teachers come across when incorporating CALL into their teaching. Furthermore, a group of teachers from Australia and Spain has been interviewed to compare how views on CALL vary across professionals in these two countries. As some authors have previously proved, the more IT literate teachers are, the more likely …

Reporting Refugees: A Case Study In Interdisciplinary Research-Led Experiential Learning, Julie N. Posetti, Jonathan Powles

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Inflammatory Australian media coverage of refugees and asylum seekers – an utterly marginalised subset of those from culturally and linguistically diverse communities portrayed as "mad, bad, sad or other" (Phillips & Tapsall 2007a, 2007b; Phillips 2009; Phillips 2011) - is frequently blamed for entrenched bigotry against these groups (Posetti 2007, 2009, 2010; Ewart & Posetti 2010; McKay, Thomas & Blood 2011).

How should journalism educators respond to this problem? And how should they respond in the context of an increasingly converged and social media-engaged industry, with a research objective?

At the University of Canberra (where the lead author taught broadcast …

Learning To Love Rejection, Brian Martin

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In my career, I've published a great many articles and books. What most of my colleagues don't know is that I've had lots of rejections too - hundreds of them.

Rejections are a dirty secret among academics. Publication successes are cause for celebration, or at least a proud listing on CVs and departmental lists. Failures - rejected papers and unsuccessful grant and promotion applications - are usually hidden and sometimes a source of shame. The result is that many scholars, especially junior ones, have unrealistic expectations. For this reason Donald Hall, in his book The Academic Self, recommends that experienced …

Language Literacy And Diversity @ 21st Century: A New Basics For Designing Global Learning, Koo Yew Lie, Peter Kell, Wong Fook Fei

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Editorial: This volume examines learning and the learner as situated in a range of social and institutional contexts in Australia and Malaysia. This is the second volume in a special themed collection of two volumes on language, literacy and education in changing times. This volume explores the intersections between ICT, globalisation and institutional change with the issue of multilingualism and literacy (ways of reading, writing, speaking, listening and communicating in two or more languages) in environments of complex multiple and intersecting agendas of change.