The project will involve action-based research to understand the impact of technology on the quality of lives of older Australians, identify the problems associated with using various services, and recommend some strategies or solution approaches to resolve the issues. The study will use and operationalise a conceptual framework developed earlier to test and validate the model on a particular marginalised community of the older generation. The project will also explore the disparities in the use of technology among older Australians of culturally diverse backgrounds. In addition to testing various socio-demographic and institutional factors, the study will also compare the group residing in their Home and those in institutional care (retirement homes). The project will also help develop a novel technology solution for Home-based age Care for diverse ethnic communities to upskill their IT skill and to be able to stay connected.
The project aims to promote e-Safety of Indigenous children through effective parental interventions facilitated by a framework incorporating information technology appropriate to the socio-cultural context of Indigenous communities.
Our prior work revealed that parents of marginalised communities have inadequate understanding of the various cyber-threats faced by children. Moreover, current practices do not adequately account for cross-cultural and demographic-related factors such as those in Indigenous cultures where children are more vulnerable. This situation has created a need for sensitising Indigenous parents with actionable knowledge, skills, and tools to combat online risks to Indigenous children.
Project management literature primarily focuses on process, frameworks, risk, quality and stakeholder engagement. Issues around project team composition and the impact this has on the overall outcomes are not well developed in this literature. This project will consider these issues from a digital inequality perspective, initially with an exploratory study into student project teams and then extending into industry-based projects.
The emerging digitally excluded social groups in both developed and emerging communities or beneficial outcomes like increasing social participation of historically marginalised groups (women, young people, ATSI, etc.) whose voices are increasingly being heard through digital communication technologies. Some media/sociology theories such as technology affordance, domestication of technology, and media as the practice might be useful to investigate different ways of technology adoption including the digital divide and ethics, and the outcomes/impacts (social capital, etc).
With the increasing number of videos and images posted nowadays on social media networks, there is necessary to detect and, if possible, prevent social racism in this footage. In this project, we develop an AI system to detect racism from the video footage based on which intervention programs can be developed to mitigate these acts.
The research project will focus on the impact digital media has on West Papuan tribal life, particularly with regard to women. For example, the emergence of sugar dating matching via social media platforms has the potential to disrupt tribal norms. This unique pilot study has the potential to garner interest from other Melanesian regions (PNG, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands).
Geoff Hartwig Funded Project
Personalised Learning for enhanced student engagement and agency is a key priority of the ACT Government’s Future of Education Strategy (2018). Personalised learning involves the designing of learning in response to students’ needs, strengths, interests, and identities. However, how this is achieved across the diversity of school settings is complex. The AL4PL project aimed to develop a collaborative professional learning model for teachers, following the processes of Action Learning. The intention was to engage in professional learning to enhance and enact personalised learning.
The project was structured into three distinct stages to achieve its purpose. Firstly, baseline data was gathered from two ACT Education Directorate schools. Secondly, professional learning using the action learning cycle was delivered. And finally, a model of professional learning to share learnings from the action learning cycles was delivered to one whole school community.
Research Cluster for Digital Inequality and Social Change
Faculty of Science and Technology
University of Canberra ACT 2617
