title: A Comparison of Children’s Books: Picture books versus physically and intellectually adaptive interactive children’s books

authors: Wright, Kristy

subjects: Children's Books

abstract: Children’s book design has a great impact on shared reading practices, interaction and engagement. This study aimed to analyse a comparison of children’s picture books versus children’s interactive, adaptive picture books, in order to discover how physical and intellectual enhancements change the level and types of interaction within a shared reading environment. In turn, the study aimed to provide design solutions for designing effective children’s books in the future. 

The study was undertaken by designing a picture book with an age appropriate narrative and illustrations. The same storyline and design assets were then teamed with physical and intellectual enhancements to create the interactive, adaptive version of the book. The books were designed using a combination of currently accepted frameworks of a ‘successful children’s book’, as well as educational practices that align with the New Zealand Curriculum. Seven families with children aged 4-6 were observed utilising these books in three shared reading sessions over a number of weeks, and their interactions were analysed and compared. 

The results were compared to findings from numerous other researchers whose work centers around effective children’s books, shared reading, and adaption of children’s books.  In addition, by comparing the findings to a background study, many comparisons and common themes could be found between the interactive, adaptive book designed for the study, and interactive books currently on the market. 

Conclusions drawn from the study show that the basic principles of an effective children’s book need to be implemented by all designers in order to ensure engagement and interaction. These include standards of illustration, appropriate text and storyline, moral of story and relation to the child and the real world. In turn, the inclusion of physical and intellectual enhancements within the book promote a greater level of interaction and engagement from the parent and child. However, this is only the case if the enhancements provide meaningful interaction, and have a relevance to the story.  The inclusion of adaptive features within a children’s book - particularly the addition of a ‘goal’ - provides the highest level of interaction from children, prompting higher engagement levels and hence allowing the shared reading session to be more successful and educationally beneficial. 

This thesis provides designers with frameworks to enable the successful design of interactive, adaptive children’s books.

text: A Comparison of Children’s Books: Picture books versus physically and intellectually adaptive interactive children’s books Children’s book design has a great impact on shared reading practices, interaction and engagement. This study aimed to analyse a comparison of children’s picture books versus children’s interactive, adaptive picture books, in order to discover how physical and intellectual enhancements change the level and types of interaction within a shared reading environment. In turn, the study aimed to provide design solutions for designing effective children’s books in the future. 

The study was undertaken by designing a picture book with an age appropriate narrative and illustrations. The same storyline and design assets were then teamed with physical and intellectual enhancements to create the interactive, adaptive version of the book. The books were designed using a combination of currently accepted frameworks of a ‘successful children’s book’, as well as educational practices that align with the New Zealand Curriculum. Seven families with children aged 4-6 were observed utilising these books in three shared reading sessions over a number of weeks, and their interactions were analysed and compared. 

The results were compared to findings from numerous other researchers whose work centers around effective children’s books, shared reading, and adaption of children’s books.  In addition, by comparing the findings to a background study, many comparisons and common themes could be found between the interactive, adaptive book designed for the study, and interactive books currently on the market. 

Conclusions drawn from the study show that the basic principles of an effective children’s book need to be implemented by all designers in order to ensure engagement and interaction. These include standards of illustration, appropriate text and storyline, moral of story and relation to the child and the real world. In turn, the inclusion of physical and intellectual enhancements within the book promote a greater level of interaction and engagement from the parent and child. However, this is only the case if the enhancements provide meaningful interaction, and have a relevance to the story.  The inclusion of adaptive features within a children’s book - particularly the addition of a ‘goal’ - provides the highest level of interaction from children, prompting higher engagement levels and hence allowing the shared reading session to be more successful and educationally beneficial. 

This thesis provides designers with frameworks to enable the successful design of interactive, adaptive children’s books.

year: 2015

title: Variations to the Groundwater Seepage Face on Meso-tidal Dissipative Beaches

authors: Emami, Amir

subjects: Seepage face

abstract: Groundwater seeping from the beachface can induce erosion and so may play a role in controlling the development of beach morphology. This research answers some fundamental questions about the processes that control the groundwater seepage line position on a dissipative beach. For instance: What is the relationship between the observed groundwater seepage line and the intertidal beachface volume? What is the best statistical model, which can describe the importance of the groundwater seepage line and surfzone morphology in changing the beachface volume? How well can video images be used for extracting groundwater seepage lines and shorelines at a dissipative meso-tidal beach? How does the groundwater seepage line on a dissipative meso-tidal beach change over the tidal cycle? What are the main parameters controlling the groundwater seepage line on a dissipative, meso-tidal beach and which driver is the most important in explaining changes to the seepage line? Can numerical models (both linear and non-linear) accurately predict the tidal groundwater changes across the beachface and determine the position of the groundwater exit point?
     The processes that are explored are rip currents, characterized by the observed variations in the surfzone morphology, as well as beach slope, hydraulic conductivity, wave set-up, tidal variations and water table variations. Specifically, changes to the alongshore variation and decoupling of the seepage line from the shoreline are studied along two gently-sloping beaches in the west cost of New Zealand using video images, field measurements and a 2D non-linear Boussinesq model. Finally the advantages and disadvantages of applying the linear versus the non-linear Boussinesq equations to beach groundwater modelling are discussed. The thesis also demonstrates the accuracy of using video images for extracting the seepage line and shoreline.
     The statistical study conducted using video imagery and surveys of the seepage line at Muriwai Beach showed that the variation of the beach volume can be related to the seepage line and surfzone morphology, (which was measured using the pixel intensity extracted from the time-averaged video images). My results showed that in most regions of the beach, there is a clear correlation between the beachface volume and the seepage line, with an elevated seepage line causing a reduction of volume. This inverse correlation occurred in all datasets. The seasonal analysis showed that the seepage line in winter is more correlated with volume than summer. The field results also indicated that the beachface volume is more correlated with the seepage line at low tide rather than high tide. Hence, the seepage line has a greater effect lower on the beach, and beachface volume reduction is more influenced by the low tide seepage line. This study also showed that the seepage line was less clearly related to changes in the surfzone morphology.
     One of the shortcomings of the study at Muriwai Beach was the lack of survey data and the inability to use the video imagery more effectively because of the lack of ground truthing. Therefore images collected at Ngarunui Beach, where cameras were still operating, were used to study the application of the time-averaged images in extracting the seepage line and variance images in detecting the shoreline. The comparison between the extracted shoreline and beach survey data showed that the difference between the surveyed data and video based data in upper intertidal beach is much lower than lower part of the beach indicating that the video extracting algorithm works better at the high tide rather than the low tide. On the other hand, both seepage line and shoreline showed the decoupling process very well in both incoming and outgoing tides. During the rising tide, the infiltration from the tidal wave causes the water table rise, although beach groundwater level increases much more quickly than rising tide. An hourly comparison of the decoupling process showed that the seepage line decouples from the shoreline more quickly on the lower part (less steep intertidal beachface) rather than the steeper upper part of the beach profile. This decoupling process showed that Ngarunui Beach fills more rapidly than the tide rises, and drains more slowly than tide falls. This finding was tested using my field data collected using Solinst piezometers -Solinst is the brand name of the piezometers which were used at Ngarunui Beach- and manual water detectors at the beach. The decoupling between the seepage line and the shoreline extracted from video images also showed that the seepage face width is much greater in north and middle of the beach rather than south part. The rip current in south of the beach may have an effect on lowering the groundwater exit point elevation and shortening the seepage face width. Although according to the data from the current meters deployed in the beach, it seems that the rips may have a small effect on changing the groundwater seepage line rather than sediment properties and beach topography.
     Modelling using a 2D non-linear Boussinesq model, which I developed during the research, showed that the seepage line calculated by my model is compatible with the surveyed seepage line. The non-linearity effect of the hydraulic conductivity and the groundwater depth may play an important role in accuracy of the results. The non-linear model also showed the same pattern of the decoupling between the seepage line and the shoreline as the video images showed. Similar to the result of my 1D numerical model at Muriwai beach, the numerical model results at Ngarunui beach also showed that the seepage line elevation decreases with increasing the hydraulic conductivity and intertidal beachface slope. The model successfully replicated the wider seepage face in middle and north of the beach rather the south (also shown in the video image analysis).

text: Variations to the Groundwater Seepage Face on Meso-tidal Dissipative Beaches Groundwater seeping from the beachface can induce erosion and so may play a role in controlling the development of beach morphology. This research answers some fundamental questions about the processes that control the groundwater seepage line position on a dissipative beach. For instance: What is the relationship between the observed groundwater seepage line and the intertidal beachface volume? What is the best statistical model, which can describe the importance of the groundwater seepage line and surfzone morphology in changing the beachface volume? How well can video images be used for extracting groundwater seepage lines and shorelines at a dissipative meso-tidal beach? How does the groundwater seepage line on a dissipative meso-tidal beach change over the tidal cycle? What are the main parameters controlling the groundwater seepage line on a dissipative, meso-tidal beach and which driver is the most important in explaining changes to the seepage line? Can numerical models (both linear and non-linear) accurately predict the tidal groundwater changes across the beachface and determine the position of the groundwater exit point?
     The processes that are explored are rip currents, characterized by the observed variations in the surfzone morphology, as well as beach slope, hydraulic conductivity, wave set-up, tidal variations and water table variations. Specifically, changes to the alongshore variation and decoupling of the seepage line from the shoreline are studied along two gently-sloping beaches in the west cost of New Zealand using video images, field measurements and a 2D non-linear Boussinesq model. Finally the advantages and disadvantages of applying the linear versus the non-linear Boussinesq equations to beach groundwater modelling are discussed. The thesis also demonstrates the accuracy of using video images for extracting the seepage line and shoreline.
     The statistical study conducted using video imagery and surveys of the seepage line at Muriwai Beach showed that the variation of the beach volume can be related to the seepage line and surfzone morphology, (which was measured using the pixel intensity extracted from the time-averaged video images). My results showed that in most regions of the beach, there is a clear correlation between the beachface volume and the seepage line, with an elevated seepage line causing a reduction of volume. This inverse correlation occurred in all datasets. The seasonal analysis showed that the seepage line in winter is more correlated with volume than summer. The field results also indicated that the beachface volume is more correlated with the seepage line at low tide rather than high tide. Hence, the seepage line has a greater effect lower on the beach, and beachface volume reduction is more influenced by the low tide seepage line. This study also showed that the seepage line was less clearly related to changes in the surfzone morphology.
     One of the shortcomings of the study at Muriwai Beach was the lack of survey data and the inability to use the video imagery more effectively because of the lack of ground truthing. Therefore images collected at Ngarunui Beach, where cameras were still operating, were used to study the application of the time-averaged images in extracting the seepage line and variance images in detecting the shoreline. The comparison between the extracted shoreline and beach survey data showed that the difference between the surveyed data and video based data in upper intertidal beach is much lower than lower part of the beach indicating that the video extracting algorithm works better at the high tide rather than the low tide. On the other hand, both seepage line and shoreline showed the decoupling process very well in both incoming and outgoing tides. During the rising tide, the infiltration from the tidal wave causes the water table rise, although beach groundwater level increases much more quickly than rising tide. An hourly comparison of the decoupling process showed that the seepage line decouples from the shoreline more quickly on the lower part (less steep intertidal beachface) rather than the steeper upper part of the beach profile. This decoupling process showed that Ngarunui Beach fills more rapidly than the tide rises, and drains more slowly than tide falls. This finding was tested using my field data collected using Solinst piezometers -Solinst is the brand name of the piezometers which were used at Ngarunui Beach- and manual water detectors at the beach. The decoupling between the seepage line and the shoreline extracted from video images also showed that the seepage face width is much greater in north and middle of the beach rather than south part. The rip current in south of the beach may have an effect on lowering the groundwater exit point elevation and shortening the seepage face width. Although according to the data from the current meters deployed in the beach, it seems that the rips may have a small effect on changing the groundwater seepage line rather than sediment properties and beach topography.
     Modelling using a 2D non-linear Boussinesq model, which I developed during the research, showed that the seepage line calculated by my model is compatible with the surveyed seepage line. The non-linearity effect of the hydraulic conductivity and the groundwater depth may play an important role in accuracy of the results. The non-linear model also showed the same pattern of the decoupling between the seepage line and the shoreline as the video images showed. Similar to the result of my 1D numerical model at Muriwai beach, the numerical model results at Ngarunui beach also showed that the seepage line elevation decreases with increasing the hydraulic conductivity and intertidal beachface slope. The model successfully replicated the wider seepage face in middle and north of the beach rather the south (also shown in the video image analysis).

year: 2016

title: Contextualising social enterprise in New Zealand

authors: Grant, Suzanne Lisa Parker

subjects: business enterprise

abstract: Purpose – Social enterprise in New Zealand is still in its infancy, with no recognised framework to inform knowledge of current or future developments. In this exploratory paper, the aim is to consider four influences which are shaping the development of social enterprise in New Zealand.

Design/methodology/approach – A critical-appreciative lens utilising Habermas' concepts of the lifeworld and system informs the consideration of these influences.

Findings – Four distinct cultural and historical influences are proposed as contributing to the scope and “flavour” of social enterprise developing in New Zealand: socio-cultural norms, e.g. “Kiwi ingenuity”; the neoliberal reforms initiated by successive governments during the 1980s; Crown settlements in relation to breaches of the principles of 1840 Treaty of Waitangi; New Zealanders' as international citizens.

Originality/value – The paper shows how feedback and dialogue across the sectors, at local, national and international levels, is now required to determine how other scholars, practitioners and policy makers perceive this proposed initial framework.

text: Contextualising social enterprise in New Zealand Purpose – Social enterprise in New Zealand is still in its infancy, with no recognised framework to inform knowledge of current or future developments. In this exploratory paper, the aim is to consider four influences which are shaping the development of social enterprise in New Zealand.

Design/methodology/approach – A critical-appreciative lens utilising Habermas' concepts of the lifeworld and system informs the consideration of these influences.

Findings – Four distinct cultural and historical influences are proposed as contributing to the scope and “flavour” of social enterprise developing in New Zealand: socio-cultural norms, e.g. “Kiwi ingenuity”; the neoliberal reforms initiated by successive governments during the 1980s; Crown settlements in relation to breaches of the principles of 1840 Treaty of Waitangi; New Zealanders' as international citizens.

Originality/value – The paper shows how feedback and dialogue across the sectors, at local, national and international levels, is now required to determine how other scholars, practitioners and policy makers perceive this proposed initial framework.

year: 2008