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archived events & seminars | |
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QCAL Annual State ConferenceMeasuring ProgressABSTRACTS 3 & 4 June 2005 ABSTRACTS FOR PRESENTATIONS TITLE: Positioning the Reader: Multiliteracies, hypertext and interactivity in digital fiction Over the past decade a range of new forms of narrative have emerged in digital spaces. Many of these forms have integrated the modalities of text, image and sound. Some include hypertext, requiring the reader to navigate through a fictional world. Others require a new degree of reader choice and interactivity, whereby the reader becomes a character of that fictional world. This aim of this paper is to explore the affordances of digital fiction - multiliteracies, hypertext and interactivity – and suggest how they position readers in ways which are at the same time similar to, yet different from, print-based fiction. Using theories of multiliteracies (Cope and Kalantzis, 2002; Unsworth, 2003) and narratology (Eagleton,1983, Abbott, 2002; Cobley, 2001) these similarities and differences are mapped out in general terms. A corpus of sample texts are then analysed semiotically (Martin, 2003; Halliday,1995; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996) to illuminate those features which are unique to digital fiction and which therefore position the reader in new and different ways from the past. TITLE: LLN and VET What’s the relationship??? This workshop will explore the evolving relationship between VET (Vocational Education and Training) and LLN (Language Literacy and Numeracy) and the implications for the learner, the trainer/assessor and the training manager? It will address the questions: TITLE: Dreams or reality? Writing adult literacy into the future. Internationally, as in Australia, adult literacy policy and practice is experiencing the impacts of broader changes to the social, economic and educational environment. This presentation will explore some of these influences and the opportunities and threats they present to adult literacy as we know it in Australia. Imagining a future can provide a certain clarity about questions to ask and changes to be made to prepare the adult literacy field engage with and take up some of these opportunities. ‘Writing the future’ in this kind of way provides a backdrop for having a look at some new directions in federal government policy and at suggestions for the future emerging from NCVER research and the work of the Australian Council for Adult Literacy. I will end with a vision for future imbued, I hope, with enough reality for it to be more than just a dream. TITLE: Telling Tales: what’s all the fuss about Digital Storytelling? It’s likely that by now you’ve had someone rave to you about Digital Storytelling. Perhaps they’ve built their own or have seen one that brought tears to your eyes. If you haven’t been exposed, then it’s time that you were! Digital stories are constructed by combining a narrated text with digital images or video clips, and sound/music into a short ‘mini-movie’. The most effective stories are based around personal events, emotions. The resulting file can be shared via computer, as a DVD or uploaded to the web. Digital Storytelling (DST) is a growing international ‘movement’. Although traditionally it has been used primarily as a community development tool using high end software and with a focus on the final product, in Australia it is finding its feet as an accessible adult education methodology that is easy for anyone to master using low end software. TITLE: CONVERSATION ON THE INTERNET: WHERE ELECTRONIC DISCOURSES DIVERGE FROM EVERYDAY PRACTICE. Research on Internet communication, in the form of chat, email, bulletin boards and other media, have tended to concentrate on its disorderliness and ill-formedness. There are, however, important regularities: of playfulness (ludicity), of aggression and antagonism, of provocativeness, creativity and wilfulness. These patterns show systematic regularities, as well as important properties which distinguish them from regular face/face interactions. This paper pays particular attention to the interactive maintenance of conversation and backchanneling, a feature whereby listeners indicate a readiness for the conversation to continue. A distinguishing feature of everyday conversation is positive backchanneling; but on Internet chat positive backchanneling is rare. Such features set different canons for conversation, with accompanying differences of the demands on participants if they are to become accepted and competent conversational participants. This special literacy is a partial new genre; but it can also complement non-electronic literacy. TITLE: Engaging the low-literate learner through MLearning. This paper introduces the emerging mobile technologies of mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) and their application as learning resources. The application of such technologies in engaging discouraged learners, especially people with intellectual disability, is explored. Numerous examples of the training and assessment strategies of an RTO specializing in the vocational training across five industries of people with high support needs are provided. The relevance of Short Message Service (SMS) as a form of literacy is argued also. TITLE: The Eight C’s of Literacy. CARE COMPREHEND CONSIDER CLASSIFY CONNECT COMPOSE CRITIQUE CELEBRATE. Participants in this workshop will be involved in a variety of practical strategies which have proved successful with a large range of students from Indigenous students in remote communities to urban adults and groups of gifted and talented students.. The strategies presented are a combination of the use of thinking skills and sound grammatical practices. They will leave surprised at their own creativity, they will have fun and most important they will take with them something they can use with their students in their next class TITLE: How and why read the past, write the future or measure change: Engaging in reflective practice and research. Being a practitioner today means trying to do the best for your students while keeping up to date with assessment, evaluation and record keeping. Often there is little time to think about ‘how’ and ‘why’ we teach in a particular way, how curriculum may relate to certain policies, or what will be the literacies of the future. Each of these questions may be viewed from a number of perspectives which include philosophical, ethical and moral dimensions. In this session, some of these issues will be addressed briefly in order to provide some background for the main topic which will focus on how research can contribute meaningfully to professional practice. It is proposed to draw on data from nationally funded research studies both in Australia and overseas for examples of this nexus, as well as to explore the potential of conducting small action learning projects. The aims will be firstly, to show the relationships among policy, practice and research, and secondly, to encourage practitioners to participate in social research either within their communities or through critical reflection on the practices in their classrooms.
Title: Everyday Literacy. This presentation will discuss the ‘Literacy for Everyday ‘ group and the way they measure progress. The aim of this group is to enhance the lives of people with learning difficulties, and as such, progress is measured through changes in quality of life, rather than a focus on achievement of set goals. This presentation will present the following learning from the Literacy for
Everyday group: This presentation will include insights presented by one of our students, who will discuss the work they have done in the group and the life changes that have resulted from it.
1 Title: Making Math Fun · Adding/ Subtracting · Multiplication (different approaches) · Measurement (including measurement, area and volume) · And if time permits (linkage between decimals, fractions & percentages).
You can browse through our archive of meeting, seminar and workshop notices to see the range of activities QCAL organises. |
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