Issue 40 2008 ISSN 1449-0552
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Topical information and debates of interest to the Australian Higher Education community.
Conferences
and events planning
Media watch
Teaching and learning
New this week
Opportunities
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This is the last issue of the Higher Education Update for 2008. The first issue in 2009 will be published on 5 March 2009.
Conferences and events planning
ACODE 2009 Workshops - ACODE 49, 18-19 March 2009, Melbourne
The theme of the event is: Student expectation/experience using Web 2.0. ACODE 49 conference and business meeting will be
hosted by both Victoria University and The University of Melbourne. There will be joint session(s) for CAUL and CAUDIT participation.
Media watch
ANU, UC, CIT join forces to attract overseas students
Canberra's higher education institutions have agreed to work together to market the ACT as a destination for
overseas students. Education Minister Andrew Barr has met representatives of the Australian National University, the University
of Canberra and CIT to workshop ideas raised in last week's economic stimulus roundtable.
ABC News, 2 December 2008
Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg with 13 partner countries release first World Internet Project Report
The World Internet Project (WIP), a comprehensive first-time global survey on the impact of the Internet, spearheaded by
the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication with 13 partner countries and regions in
North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania, found remarkable similarities and significant differences
in the way users utilise and rely on the Internet.
WIP Press release, 24 November 2008
Focus on broadband rollout challenges
Issues surrounding the widespread rollout of broadband in Australia will be the highlight of an international telecommunications
conference at the University of Adelaide during 7-10 December. Organised by the University of Adelaide and the University
of South Australia, the Australasian Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (ATNAC) is the major national
meeting of researchers in information and communication technology.
The University of Adelaide News, 2 December 2008
New animation: Intellectual Property Rights in the Web 2.0 world
The six-minute animation is accessible and colourful, portraying in a light-hearted way some of the issues involved via three
typical case studies: a researcher, a lecturer and a student. These examples pinpoint areas where confusion exists, or even
where many may not consider IPR to be an issue at all, and signpost back to the online diagnostic tool for further guidance
and information.
JISC, 2 December 2008
Registering with edna has just been made a whole lot easier!
After feedback from our users, a project team has been working on simplifying and refreshing the look and feel of the registration
process. The team has focused on simplifying the number of steps it takes to register as well as the general usability of
registration for a whole range of edna’s free services. To obtain vital feedback on the new process, edna will also be conducting usability testing on the new process this week, and as always, any user wishing to submit their
own feedback may do so by contacting groups@edna.edu.au. The new registration process will not affect the account information of any existing users, nor will it change the core
moodle functionality by which new users enrol themselves into a particular group. All edna users will still have access to our multiple services including Groups, Lists, URL shortener and me.edu.au using the one login.
$10 million a year largely goes to closed-access publishing houses (not just the Elseviers and Macmillans of the world, but also the much-loved not-for-profit societies which publish journals as well). This gives the university students, faculty, and staff access to the literature both on campus and off, via the internet. While this in principle works well, journal subscription costs have been skyrocketing, and university library budgets have not been able to keep up.
Biocurious (blog), 27 November 2008
Teaching and learning
Academia tackles the future
Technology has dramatically changed the way students experience university life, and not just in terms of the number of gadgets
they own. It has affected where and how they study, helped them collaborate with each other and broken down barriers between
students and teachers, social life and study. It has also given students a greater voice in the way they learn.
The Guardian, December 2008
New good practices in AUQA's Good Practice Database
Eleven good practices from Australian higher education providers are now available in the Good Practice Database. These include
entries from Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Newcastle, The College of Law, and the Australian College
of Applied Psychology.
AUQA, December 2008
Professor turns his online course into a role-playing game
David Wiley says that teachers can learn a lot from online video games - the kind where players pretend to be orcs and wizards
and work together in teams to slay dragons. So Mr. Wiley, an associate professor of instructional psychology and technology
at Brigham Young University, has decided to turn an online course he's teaching next semester into an online
role-playing game.
Wired Campus, 1 December 2008
UniSA tackles the racism questions posed by a shrinking world
The nature of racism and educational methods to address the problem will be the subject of an international conference held
at the University of South Australia this Friday, 5 December. Coordinator of the conference, Associate Professor Rob Hattam
at UniSA’s School of Education, said despite many gains, the problem of how to change racist attitudes through
education remains.
UniSA News, 3 December 2008
UQ has teamed up with Moscow State University (MSU), overcoming not only language barriers but crossing oceans through web videoconferencing. The collaboration involved UQ Professor of Applied Language Studies Roly Sussex presenting a lecture via the web to the Australian Studies Group at MSU.
UQ News, 24 November 2008
New this week
These resources were added to the edna repository this week:- Ako Aotearoa - The National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence (New Zealand)
- Access to Information as a Human Right
Opportunities
Book Explorers’ Competition
The Book Explorers’ Competition is a research experiment where you can win prizes by reading books.
The competition is open to anyone over the age of 16. It starts at 10am GMT on 1 December 2008 and closes at midnight GMT
on 15 December 2008.
Study in the digital age
Registration for the distance Master's programme in Digital Library and Information Services (Library and Information Science, 120 ECTS) offered by Swedish School of Library Science at the University of Boras starts
on 1 December 2008 and finishes on 15 January 2009. The programme is targeting library and information professionals
working with digital resources and services. It is conducted in English as a half-time distance programme with one residential
period in Boras each term. To enter the programme a student must have a Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS) in any discipline,
or an equivalent education, and good knowledge of English. The tuition is free of charge for all students, regardless
of their place of residence or nationality. The students have to cover travel and accommodation expenses for residential
periods themselves.
The seventh OII Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) will be conducted and organised by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) in partnership with the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia from 6-17 July 2009. The thematic focus this year will be on 'Creativity, Innovation and the Internet'.
edna is a joint initiative of the Australian Government and all State
and Territory governments through their education departments, and is managed
by Education.au.
edna is partly funded by the Australian Government Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations.
