title: Re-designing Greenstone for Seniors

authors: Bennett, Erin Kay

subjects: Greenstone

abstract: The golden generation have a wealth of experience and knowledge from throughout
their lifetimes that younger generations wish to retain. In our technology filled world
an obvious means of collecting this information is electronically. Digital library col-
lections are increasingly used by libraries and large institutions to record their large
amounts of information but they can also be used for personal collections.
Seniors are often willing and keen to impart their years of experience upon people
of the younger generation but time is not always on their side as they grow older.
Throughout a lifetime a person could collect large amounts of papers, diaries, pho-
tos and media but the time it takes to organise these documents can be long and
exhausting and the person's health is not always at its best in old age.
Greenstone is a suite of software for creating digital libraries, which are organised
collections of documents. Greenstone has the ability to distribute collections either
using a server or CD-ROM, and provides advanced searching and organization tools.
While Greenstone is a versatile and useful tool in creating digital collections, its in-
terface is not designed for senior users. Seniors are commonly perceived to have
more physical and mental disadvantages as they get older. These disadvantages can
dramatically affect how usable seniors find a piece of software.
The aim of this thesis is to investigate how usable the current Greenstone interface
is for use by seniors and to re-design the interface so that Greenstone may be more
easily used by senior users. This thesis focuses upon what types of documents and
descriptive data seniors would like to include in a collection about their life. This is
to ascertain exactly what parts of the interface must be improved when it comes to
metadata and classifiers. The results of this investigation also helped in the creation
of a customised metadata set for senior users use.

text: Re-designing Greenstone for Seniors The golden generation have a wealth of experience and knowledge from throughout
their lifetimes that younger generations wish to retain. In our technology filled world
an obvious means of collecting this information is electronically. Digital library col-
lections are increasingly used by libraries and large institutions to record their large
amounts of information but they can also be used for personal collections.
Seniors are often willing and keen to impart their years of experience upon people
of the younger generation but time is not always on their side as they grow older.
Throughout a lifetime a person could collect large amounts of papers, diaries, pho-
tos and media but the time it takes to organise these documents can be long and
exhausting and the person's health is not always at its best in old age.
Greenstone is a suite of software for creating digital libraries, which are organised
collections of documents. Greenstone has the ability to distribute collections either
using a server or CD-ROM, and provides advanced searching and organization tools.
While Greenstone is a versatile and useful tool in creating digital collections, its in-
terface is not designed for senior users. Seniors are commonly perceived to have
more physical and mental disadvantages as they get older. These disadvantages can
dramatically affect how usable seniors find a piece of software.
The aim of this thesis is to investigate how usable the current Greenstone interface
is for use by seniors and to re-design the interface so that Greenstone may be more
easily used by senior users. This thesis focuses upon what types of documents and
descriptive data seniors would like to include in a collection about their life. This is
to ascertain exactly what parts of the interface must be improved when it comes to
metadata and classifiers. The results of this investigation also helped in the creation
of a customised metadata set for senior users use.

year: 2008

title: Row-column block designs: Efficiency and structure

authors: Nie, Xiao

subjects: Latin Squares

abstract: A row-column design is any rearrangement of the blocks of a combinatorial design into a rectangular array. A row-column block design is a row-column design in which the blocks form a balanced incomplete block design; that is, each pair of elements occurs in a constant number of blocks. In this thesis we study the efficiency and structure of row-column block designs. In particular, we use solutions to Heffter’s difference problem to give construct row-column block designs with 3 elements per cell with optimal regularity in rows and columns.
In Section 1 we review definitions and theorems related to Latin squares. We introduce related concepts of balanced incomplete block designs and incidence matrix and concurrence matrix of designs. In Section 2 we give our main results of row-column block designs with block size 3. In Section 3 we use Heffter’s difference problem to give some solutions. In Section 4 we explain efficiency measures for block designs. In Section 5 we introduce Trojan semi-Latin squares. We give efficiency measures for Trojan semi-Latin squares. In Section 6 we show the applications to experimental design. Original results are given in the following theorems: Theorem 2.9, Theorem 3.1, Theorem 3.3, Theorem 3.4, Theorem 4.2, Theorem 5.2, Theorem 5.12.
Results from Section 2 and Section 3 have been submitted as a manuscript for publication [17] (Xiao Nie, Row-column block designs with blocks of size three, Ars Combinatoria, submitted).

text: Row-column block designs: Efficiency and structure A row-column design is any rearrangement of the blocks of a combinatorial design into a rectangular array. A row-column block design is a row-column design in which the blocks form a balanced incomplete block design; that is, each pair of elements occurs in a constant number of blocks. In this thesis we study the efficiency and structure of row-column block designs. In particular, we use solutions to Heffter’s difference problem to give construct row-column block designs with 3 elements per cell with optimal regularity in rows and columns.
In Section 1 we review definitions and theorems related to Latin squares. We introduce related concepts of balanced incomplete block designs and incidence matrix and concurrence matrix of designs. In Section 2 we give our main results of row-column block designs with block size 3. In Section 3 we use Heffter’s difference problem to give some solutions. In Section 4 we explain efficiency measures for block designs. In Section 5 we introduce Trojan semi-Latin squares. We give efficiency measures for Trojan semi-Latin squares. In Section 6 we show the applications to experimental design. Original results are given in the following theorems: Theorem 2.9, Theorem 3.1, Theorem 3.3, Theorem 3.4, Theorem 4.2, Theorem 5.2, Theorem 5.12.
Results from Section 2 and Section 3 have been submitted as a manuscript for publication [17] (Xiao Nie, Row-column block designs with blocks of size three, Ars Combinatoria, submitted).

year: 2024-09-23

title: Viewing restorative approaches to addressing challenging behaviour of minority ethnic students through a community of practice lens

authors: Wearmouth, Janice

subjects: restorative practice

abstract: The disproportionately high rates of school exclusion and lower levels of academic achievement of students from particular minority ethnic groups have been a focus of investigation in educational research across the world for some time. This articles uses a communities of practice framework to examine how restorative practice can draw on family and community values to support students whose behaviour is unacceptable in schools to recognize their own agency in behaving for good or ill and reintegrate them into the school community. At the same time, it acknowledges hurt that may be done to victims of wrong-doing and emphasizes putting things right between all those affected. The examples here are from Aotearoa New Zealand. They relate to practices influenced by traditional Māori cultural values. However, the principles and process associated with restorative practices that aim to restore harmony between the individual, the victim and the collective rather than to punish and exclude may be relevant within other student groups where high rates of exclusion from school are problematic.

text: Viewing restorative approaches to addressing challenging behaviour of minority ethnic students through a community of practice lens The disproportionately high rates of school exclusion and lower levels of academic achievement of students from particular minority ethnic groups have been a focus of investigation in educational research across the world for some time. This articles uses a communities of practice framework to examine how restorative practice can draw on family and community values to support students whose behaviour is unacceptable in schools to recognize their own agency in behaving for good or ill and reintegrate them into the school community. At the same time, it acknowledges hurt that may be done to victims of wrong-doing and emphasizes putting things right between all those affected. The examples here are from Aotearoa New Zealand. They relate to practices influenced by traditional Māori cultural values. However, the principles and process associated with restorative practices that aim to restore harmony between the individual, the victim and the collective rather than to punish and exclude may be relevant within other student groups where high rates of exclusion from school are problematic.

year: 2012