title: The design and impact of professional development activities in a diverse international education reform context

authors: McChesney, Katrina

abstract: With its aggressive education reform, multinational teaching workforce, and increasing implementation of Western-based approaches, Abu Dhabi provides a rich site for learning more about international policy-borrowing in educational improvement initiatives. This article uses survey and interview data from n = 35 Abu Dhabi public school teachers who participated in a combined total of 297 professional development activities over an academic year. The study examined the design and impact of the professional development activities and the relationships between design and impact in the Abu Dhabi context. The study offers implications for international professional development practice and insights into international policy-borrowing in education.

text: The design and impact of professional development activities in a diverse international education reform context With its aggressive education reform, multinational teaching workforce, and increasing implementation of Western-based approaches, Abu Dhabi provides a rich site for learning more about international policy-borrowing in educational improvement initiatives. This article uses survey and interview data from n = 35 Abu Dhabi public school teachers who participated in a combined total of 297 professional development activities over an academic year. The study examined the design and impact of the professional development activities and the relationships between design and impact in the Abu Dhabi context. The study offers implications for international professional development practice and insights into international policy-borrowing in education.

year: 2022-11

title: Using shared displays to support group design; A study of the use of informal user interface designs when learning to program

authors: Plimmer, Beryl

abstract: Hand-drawn sketches have traditionally been used to depict design ideas because they are quick to draw and can include as much or little detail as is required to convey the essence of the ideas. Computer tools are now an alternative and offer advantages for editing, storing and transmitting designs. However, designers consistently reject using current computer tools because these tools interrupt the creative process. Various studies have supported the designer's position, consistently showing that traditional tools produce more and better design ideas. 

This thesis describes the development and evaluation of a design-friendly computer tool that focuses specifically on the needs of the novice programmer who is designing user interfaces. From an extensive review of the literature on design, learning to programming and previous sketch tools we extracted the specifications for a tool that: compares favourably as a design medium with traditional tools such as the pen, paper and whiteboards, provides the editing and storage support expected of computer tools, helps students to gain a better understanding of programming problems and integrates seamlessly into a program development environment.

Freeform, the tool we have developed to these specifications, has had two iterations of development and usability testing. This tool is unique in that it: is integrated into a commercial program development environment, uses a digital whiteboard for interaction and includes character recognition. Using Freeform, students can both quickly hand-draw user interface designs and interact with the design while it is still rendered as a sketch. When satisfied with the design the student invokes the recognition engine. The sketch is then overlaid with recognition data. Any incorrect interpretations can be altered by the student. The student can then instruct Freeform to create the formal user interface in the program development environment. The translation of sketch glyphs to user interface widgets is achieved by parsing the sketch and recognition data with transformation rules. 

We have conducted two evaluation studies using Freeform. The first study directly compared Freeform to a traditional alternative. We found that, although the design quality was similar, the students believed that when they were using Freeform they both understood the problem better and enjoyed the experience more. We noted during this study that the interactive checking available in Freeform prompted more changes to the designs than the static checking done on a standard whiteboard. In the second study, we asked students to check designs rendered as both sketches in Freeform and as formal diagrams in a user interface builder. The students made significantly more revisions to the Freeform sketches and therefore produced better designs from Freeform. 

The usability tests and evaluation studies we have conducted suggest that computer-based low-fidelity design tools: can compete favourably with traditional tools as a design medium, offer better support for editing and storage, and may have advantages for checking over both traditional sketch mediums and formal interactive computer designs.

text: Using shared displays to support group design; A study of the use of informal user interface designs when learning to program Hand-drawn sketches have traditionally been used to depict design ideas because they are quick to draw and can include as much or little detail as is required to convey the essence of the ideas. Computer tools are now an alternative and offer advantages for editing, storing and transmitting designs. However, designers consistently reject using current computer tools because these tools interrupt the creative process. Various studies have supported the designer's position, consistently showing that traditional tools produce more and better design ideas. 

This thesis describes the development and evaluation of a design-friendly computer tool that focuses specifically on the needs of the novice programmer who is designing user interfaces. From an extensive review of the literature on design, learning to programming and previous sketch tools we extracted the specifications for a tool that: compares favourably as a design medium with traditional tools such as the pen, paper and whiteboards, provides the editing and storage support expected of computer tools, helps students to gain a better understanding of programming problems and integrates seamlessly into a program development environment.

Freeform, the tool we have developed to these specifications, has had two iterations of development and usability testing. This tool is unique in that it: is integrated into a commercial program development environment, uses a digital whiteboard for interaction and includes character recognition. Using Freeform, students can both quickly hand-draw user interface designs and interact with the design while it is still rendered as a sketch. When satisfied with the design the student invokes the recognition engine. The sketch is then overlaid with recognition data. Any incorrect interpretations can be altered by the student. The student can then instruct Freeform to create the formal user interface in the program development environment. The translation of sketch glyphs to user interface widgets is achieved by parsing the sketch and recognition data with transformation rules. 

We have conducted two evaluation studies using Freeform. The first study directly compared Freeform to a traditional alternative. We found that, although the design quality was similar, the students believed that when they were using Freeform they both understood the problem better and enjoyed the experience more. We noted during this study that the interactive checking available in Freeform prompted more changes to the designs than the static checking done on a standard whiteboard. In the second study, we asked students to check designs rendered as both sketches in Freeform and as formal diagrams in a user interface builder. The students made significantly more revisions to the Freeform sketches and therefore produced better designs from Freeform. 

The usability tests and evaluation studies we have conducted suggest that computer-based low-fidelity design tools: can compete favourably with traditional tools as a design medium, offer better support for editing and storage, and may have advantages for checking over both traditional sketch mediums and formal interactive computer designs.

year: 2004

title: Photography within te ao Māori: Decolonising the photographic lens

authors: Hill, Rodrigo

abstract: Ūkaipō: Wānanga, places of origin and photographic representation. 
Ūkaipō recognises the cultural, emotional, and spiritual along with the physical ties a Māori has with their place of origin, even if it is not their place of birth, emphasising grounded forms of connection between people and place and subsequent understandings of places and spaces.  Hence the importance today of people asserting their pēpeha, tohu whenua landmarks with which they most strongly identify, consolidating their ‘birth of place’ or ‘place of birth’.

text: Photography within te ao Māori: Decolonising the photographic lens Ūkaipō: Wānanga, places of origin and photographic representation. 
Ūkaipō recognises the cultural, emotional, and spiritual along with the physical ties a Māori has with their place of origin, even if it is not their place of birth, emphasising grounded forms of connection between people and place and subsequent understandings of places and spaces.  Hence the importance today of people asserting their pēpeha, tohu whenua landmarks with which they most strongly identify, consolidating their ‘birth of place’ or ‘place of birth’.

year: 2024