Education in the news

From the Education Age: Peter Craven on Australia’s great out-of-print novels: a terrible shame; coverage of a study into the state of primary schooling in Schools buckle under demands; Stuart Macintyre and others on the PM’s history agenda in Howard faces judgement of history; an article on cyberbullying in Trouble in cyberia; an article on the new ABC school mockumentary in How we scaled Summer Heights.

From the Education SMH: coverage of the Australian Principal’s Association report in Principals agree: cut out social subjects; research into the impact of Workchoices on TAFE students in Full time at TAFE, working four jobs; a study finds More study time in religion than science; charge that Unis offer a study in cronyism; charges of ministerial interference in ARC process in Academics say nelson vetoes were censorship.

From the The Australian Higher Education: gaps within early childhood education in Early learning gap lashed; the remodeling of teacher education programs at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne masters a US model; accusations that the NSW Government is running a political fear campagin in the classroom in Coalition sees red over HSC question; Carrick Institute proposals to improve university teaching in Clusters the key to better teaching; RMIT in the news with Fast degrees to solve crisis; an outsider’s perspective on the technical colleges program in PM’s tech dream not embraced; Qld moves away from critical literacy in Lessons for today: grammar is back.

Accessing the education databases

I thought I would remind people (especially those new to RMIT) of how to review and access the full range of database resources in the education area. The Library’s Search It module provides a gateway through to these resources (as well as a means fo searching those resources — more on searching in a future entry).

From the Library homepage select the link to Search It, and then click on Databases A-Z. The Library has a guide for negotiating your way through a couple of the main functions of Search It, but perhaps it would be useful to focus specifically on the education area.

RMIT Bookshop, textbooks and the Library

The RMIT Bookshop recently sent out a memo to staff about submitting their lists of textbooks for 2008. Please remember that these lists also form the basis for Library purchase of textbooks. When lists are submitted to the bookshop books are purchased automatically for the Library; we purchase multiple copies according to the number of students expected in each course. Hopefully this provides another good reason to submit your lists to the bookshop as soon as you are able.

 Of course, you can also send any requests for the Library to purchase items directly to me or via the request form.

Online reference books

There was a recent update to the 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary with words and phrases between ‘proter’ and ‘purposive’ being added. Examples include ‘psycho-educational’, ‘public domain’, ‘puh-leeze’ and ‘punditocracy.’

You don’t need to come down to the library to consult the 20 volumes, however, because the OED is one of an expanding range of online reference items that the Library has subscribed to in recent years. There are links both via the listing of reference items (click on the ‘General dictionaries’ tab for the OED) and from the findit link in the catalogue entry for individual items.

Anyway, see the OED website for an explanation the inclusion of the several of the words, including ‘puh-leeze’:

Respelling is often used to convey qualities, such as emphasis or accent, which are easily distinguished in speech but difficult to express in written form. In this case, the respelling of ‘please’ to indicate an emphatic or sarcastic pronunciation has become sufficiently well established to warrant inclusion in the OED as a separate entry.

Informit TV news database on trial

The Library currently has a trial of a unique resource of interest to educators. Informit’s TVNews indexes and provides video footage of Australian television news and current affairs items from free-to air television. It also contains some documentary material from programs like Australian Story and The Cutting Edge. Each entry contains subject headings and a brief synopsis. The database is updated daily and each evening’s broadcasts are usually available the next morning.

The Future of Schooling in Australia

As reported in the news, The Council for the Australian Federation has now released its report, The Future of Schooling in Australia. I will arrange an entry and link from the library catalogue.

As they say on the website, the report

includes a new statement on the future of schooling in Australia, and a twelve point action plan to which all states and Territories have agreed. The report proposes a national framework for schooling, based on the principle that the quality and performance of teachers, schools and jurisdictions are central to the life prospects of every student and to national properity.

New library books on LibraryThing

The Library moved to a new catalogue this year and hopes to eventually allow users to access a new titles list. In the meantime, I have created a “widget” on this blog (on the right hand side, scroll down) that features new education books coming into the Library.

Endnote sessions for the School of Education

I have scheduled Endnote sessions for staff and postgraduates next week at the Bundoora and Swanston campuses. These sessions cover Endnote from the very basics to more advanced features. By the end of the session participants should be able to:

• Create Endnote libraries and manually enter references
• Insert those references into word documents as APA citations
• Use Endnote to search library catalogues and retain references located
• Import and export saved searches from library databases

Picture Australia

 

Picture Australia have recently announced that their new site is up and running. This site allows you to search for both contemporary and historical pictures and includes photographs, objects and works of art. It draws together images from CSIRO to the Australian War Memorial, from the National Portrait Gallery to the National Library.

There is information on the site with regards to copyright, using the pictures and requesting copies. There seems to be good scope to use them for educational and research purposes, but you can also usually contact the relevant owning institution directly if you have any queries.

A new ‘research tips’ page provides information for teachers and students on activities that build research and observational skills. They also mention that you can  develop illustration lists using Endnote.