IMAC@UOW

A tethered Chromebook

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:51:53 -0400

decasia » The fallacy of blaming universities for unemployment

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:56:00 -0400

decasia » The fallacy of blaming universities for unemployment:

For those following up on the ‘future of universities’ topic, this short post outlines a problem with the ‘vocational’ model of higher education.

Music for Deckchairs: Efficency or education?

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 06:48:07 -0400

Music for Deckchairs: Efficency or education?:

From a purely technical point of view, a bureaucracy is capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency, and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of exercising authority ov…

UOW’s own Kate Bowles has a blog with some thought-provoking posts on education and technology, and other intersecting issues. The latest post also considers these in the light of recent media coverage in Australia about proposed cuts to University funding.

BCM310 Emerging Issues in Media and Communication: Steubenville vs. Delhi: A tale of two coverages

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:02:13 -0400

BCM310 Emerging Issues in Media and Communication: Steubenville vs. Delhi: A tale of two coverages:

bcm310:

Why does the U.S. media offer sympathy for Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, but demonize Indian men?

BY JEAN MACKENZIE

The bad news just keeps coming: the gang rape of a medical student in India resulting in her death; the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Pakistan; a Swiss tourist…

Gaming for cooperation, not conflict

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:22:36 -0400

‘The HIVE - Play the game and crack the codes of cooperation’

What if we took all the stuff that makes games fun and turned it to solving real world problems? That’s the question posed in The Hive, a transmedia project profiled in the latest SMART Seminar.

The Hive is a film, a social game and a community website. It is built onto Facebook and aims to tap into the massive number of gamers on the Facebook platform.

Science filmmaker Annamaria Talas said The Hive tackles a profound dilemma we face every day – whether to cooperate for long term gain or abandon ship and reap instant rewards.

Economists call this The Tragedy of The Commons, while for mathematicians it’s The Prisoner’s Dilemma. At its core is a fundamental tension between the short-term benefit of the individual versus the long-term interest of the group. This conflict is at the root of many of our global problems including climate change, pollution, resource depletion and over-population.

None of these issues can be solved with technology alone, they require behavioural change. For civilisation to survive the next century we need to learn to cooperate on a global level. But for most of us it’s hard to put the future ahead of the present.

During the seminar, Ms Talas told the audience that an interest in the emergence of cooperation sparked development of the project.

Click here for more ..

http://smart.uow.edu.au/events/UOW132161.html

Journalistic Balance as Global Warming Bias

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:55:50 -0400

Journalistic Balance as Global Warming Bias:

By Jules Boykoff and Maxwell Boykoff for FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting:

‘A new study has found that when it comes to U.S. media coverage of global warming , superficial balance—telling “both” sides of the story—can actually be a form of informational bias. Despite the consistent assertions of the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that human activities have had a “discernible” influence on the global climate and that global warming is a serious problem that must be addressed immediately, “he said/she said” reporting has allowed a small group of global warming skeptics to have their views greatly amplified.’

Click for more …

Can One TV Show Shift Refugee Policy?

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:53:54 -0400

Can One TV Show Shift Refugee Policy?:

A fascinating discussion of the SBS TV series ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’, from the Crossborder Collective

Hollywood and the war machine

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:51:10 -0400

From Al Jazeera English: ‘War is hell, but for Hollywood it has been a Godsend, providing the perfect dramatic setting against which courageous heroes win the hearts and minds of the movie going public.

The Pentagon recognises the power of these celluloid dreams and encourages Hollywood to create heroic myths; to rewrite history to suit its own strategy and as a recruiting tool to provide a steady flow of willing young patriots for its wars.

What does Hollywood get out of this ‘deal with the devil’? Access to billions of dollars worth of military kit, from helicopters to aircraft carriers, enabling filmmakers to make bigger and more spectacular battle scenes, which in turn generate more box office revenue. Providing they accept the Pentagon’s advice, even toe the party line and show the US military in a positive light.

Empire examines Hollywood, the Pentagon, and war.

So is it a case of art imitating life, or a sinister force using art to influence life and death - and the public perception of both?

Joining us as guests: Oliver Stone, the eight times Academy Award-winning filmmaker; Michael Moore, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker; and Christopher Hedges, an author and the former Middle East bureau chief of the New York Times.’

For more, click here …

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/empire/2010/12/2010121681345363793.html

Go back to where you came from ...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:43:48 -0400

An innovative approach to addressing global issues in the media … the second series of ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’ starts on SBS TV tonight …

http://www.sbs.com.au/goback/

Wolverine and a blockbuster case of tax secrecy

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:35:13 -0400

Greg Jericho in the Drum …

Last Friday a couple rather odd things occurred in the Australian film industry.

The first was the announcementthat the big budget sequel to X Men Origins: Wolverine would be filmed in Sydney. This was unusual because big budget overseas feature films have largely deserted Australia in the past couple of years due to the high value of our dollar.

Read the full piece here …

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3971852.html

Welcome to Wollongong 2012

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:13:14 -0400

WELCOME TO WOLLONGONG

WHEN: Friday 17 August
TIME: 12.00pm – 2.00pm
WHERE: Crown Street Mall Amphitheatre, Wollongong City

The Civic Reception aims to symbolically welcome ALL newcomers to the Illawarra region and we encourage you to invite your newly arrived students, staff and their families to attend this event.

• Meet our Lord Mayor and a traditional indigenous elder
• Enjoy an Indigenous performance by Thulli Dancers, performances by Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts, UOW African Students Association and UOW Student Wenting Zhang
• Meet students and their families who are new to the region
• Learn what services and opportunities are available to you here in the City of Wollongong
• Explore the Crown Street Mall Market Day for lunch, local produce, arts and crafts

More information on all Student Life events:
http://www.uow.edu.au/student/life

Paralympic stars in a race for equal treatment

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 04:53:42 -0400

Stella Young reports … Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes agrees. “I think it is pretty disappointing that Swimming Australia would view the efforts of swimmers with disability as so much less important than athletes without disability. I bet our paralympians will bring back more gold.”

Read the full story here on ABC Ramp Up …

http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/articles/2012/08/09/3564305.htm

Why Didn't The Sikh Shooting Rate?

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:43:53 -0400

Two mass murders, two very different responses. Why didn’t the murder of six Sikh-Americans by a white supremacist receive the same coverage in the Australian media as the Aurora killings? asks Suvendrini Perera

Read the full piece here …

http://newmatilda.com/2012/08/10/why-didnt-sikh-shooting-rate#share-article

Paralympians relegated to ad breaks

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 03:53:04 -0400

Concern has grown among the support group for all swimmers - Parents, Pals and Partners Of Our Swimmers (POOS) - that Swimming Australia has poorly represented and promoted its swimmers with disabilities.

In Australia, swimmers with disabilities like Matt Cowdrey - the country’s most successful international swimmer with eight world records - are virtually unknown.

That may be in part because at the televised Olympic trials this year, swimmers with disabilities were asked to race during ad breaks.

Read the full report here … you’ll need to scroll down the page …

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-07/athletes2c-supporters-in-bitter-battle-with-swimming-australia/4183402

Damien Hooper, the Aboriginal flag and the right to freedom of speech

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 03:49:54 -0400

From The Conversation …

There are many people who would like us to believe that sport and politics should never mix. The reason for this is sport is seen as the pure and noble practice where champions arrive after hard work and application and chancers and cheats are found out.

Politics is seen as grubby and cynical, where body blows become part of the national discussion and big decisions come with small movements of the policy makers pen.

But sport and politics have always been entangled. To take one from the other would be like taking a mother out of motherhood. Impossible and implausible.

This is something Indigenous Australian boxer and Olympian Damien Hooper found out when he chose to wear an Indigenous flag t-shirt into the ring.

To read the full piece, click here

http://theconversation.edu.au/damien-hooper-the-aboriginal-flag-and-the-right-to-freedom-of-speech-8577

UOW Global Communicators Program

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 01:54:26 -0400

Did you know that the students at UOW represent over 140 of the world’s countries? Global Communicators is a fun and informal way to meet other students, to have interesting conversations in English, to share your culture and to build international friendships and networks.

Each Global Communicators Program (GCP) session is coordinated by two domestic students who are passionate about the importance of forming intercultural friendships and being global citizens.

To find out more …

http://www.uow.edu.au/student/services/gcp/index.html

FAQ #1. I am a domestic student, what benefits will I receive by attending a Global Communicators session?

The Global Communicators Program provides an opportunity for UOW domestic students to learn about different cultures and gain the experience of interacting with students from across the globe in a fun and informal environment. You may be an experienced traveller wanting to share stories, or be planning an adventure into the world.

Strong cross-cultural skills and the experience of working with people from different cultures are highly valuable skills and can provide you with a competitive edge once you have graduated. Each student that has attended 6 or more Global Communicators sessions will receive a certificate of participation in the program that can be used on their CV or resume.

NBC criticised over Olympics Opening Ceremony coverage

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:37:00 -0400

US TV network NBC has been criticised for its coverage of the Opening Ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Criticisms include:

- NBC delayed the live broadcast in order to maximise ratings

- NBC edited out crucial sections of the ceremony

- NBC anchors appeared not to recognise Tim Berners Lee, widely known as the founder of the World Wide Web ….

http://boingboing.net/2012/07/28/olympics-ceremony-honors-tim-b.html

NBC Hit For Editing Opening Ceremony Segment Seen As 'Victims Tribute'

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:31:01 -0400

Twitter has been buzzing with debate about how NBC in the USA edited out a section of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony widely seen as a tribute to victims of the London Bombings … is this an example of a US monopolisation of victimhood? Insensitivity?

REad more in the Huffington Post and the Guardian …

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/nbc-victims-tribute_n_1713527.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/london-2012-nbc-opening-ceremony?newsfeed=true%3Cbr%20/%3E

Another provocative Olympics-related image from Beware of...

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:26:46 -0400

Another provocative Olympics-related image from Beware of Images.

This sequence of images are from Ahmer Rahman’s Facebook...

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:19:00 -0400

This sequence of images are from Ahmer Rahman’s Facebook page and could spark some discussion …

His caption for it reads:

“The Olympics are so awesome. A tournament where an Aboriginal man has to promise not to wear the flag of his people, while competing for the colony that killed his ancestors, in the heart of the empire that stole his country. Gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling”.