Fay Sudweeks

One of the common barriers of resettlement among refugees in Australia is the lack of English language proficiency. Even though there are policies and strategies in place to support resettlement, women refugees are not able to overcome this barrier as quickly as refugee men, due to sociocultural factors and family responsibility, This paper presents the initial data collection stage of a work-in-progress longitudinal case study that investigates how mobile assisted language learning (MALL) can be utilized for vocabulary acquisition of refugee women. First, it discusses the significance of vocabulary acquisition and non-formal learning for these women, and the significance of MALL in this non-formal learning setting. This is then followed by a discussion of the research context: the non-MALL stage is the control group and the MALL stage is where tablets are used as a teaching and learning tool. The MALL stage includes the system that is used to rate participants’ proficiency levels. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the MALL integrated vocabulary lessons are designed, and the potential outcome of the research.

Acquiring and learning English as a new language is a challenge faced by non-English speaking migrant and refugee women when they arrive to settle in Australia. This paper reviews the literature to explore the feasibility of using mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) to enrich and develop these women's language skills. The findings from the literature review indicate that some women prefer non-formal rather than formal learning even though support for language learning is available. This is due to personal and sociocultural factors that affect these women. The literature also indicates that vocabulary skill is a significant branch of language learning in developing proficiency among non-English speakers. MALL suggests potential benefits when applied and supports different areas of language skills development and learning. The literature review also indicates that no research has been undertaken in the context of integrating MALL into migrant and refugee women's language learning within a nonformal learning setting. A research project is proposed to be undertaken in collaboration with a local community centre to explore and answer four research questions that were generated from this literature review.

Earlier studies have found the effectiveness of hypermedia systems as learning tools heavily depend on their compatibility with the cognitive processes by which students perceive, understand and learn from complex information sources. Hence, a learner’s cognitive style plays a significant role in determining how much is learned from a hypermedia learning system. A longitudinal study of Australian and Malaysian students was conducted over two semesters in 2008. Five types of predictor variables were investigated with cognitive style: (i) learning dimensions (nonlinear learning, learner control, multiple tools); (ii) culture dimensions (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long/short term orientation); (iii) evaluation of units; (iv) student demographics; and (v) country in which students studied. This study uses both multiple linear regression and linear mixed effects to model the relationships among the variables. The results from this study support the findings of a cross-sectional study conducted by Lee et al. (2010); in particular, the predictor variables are significant to determine students’ cognitive style.

Recent research (Jonas-Dwyer & Sudweeks, 2007) indicated that when virtual microscopes were introduced to third year health science students as part of their histology and pathology laboratory work, no detrimental effects were found. To investigate the use of virtual microscopes further, an extended study was undertaken with both second and third year health sciences students. In this paper, we report the results of students’ learning approaches and compare the outcomes to identify and evaluate changes in students’ learning approaches when using virtual microscopes rather than optical microscopes.

Recent developments in learning technologies such as hypermedia are becoming widespread and offer significant contributions to improving the delivery of learning and teaching materials. A key factor in the development of hypermedia learning systems is cognitive style (CS) as it relates to users‟ information processing habits, representing individual users‟ typical modes of perceiving, thinking, remembering and problem solving. A total of 97 students from Australian (45) and Malaysian (52) universities participated in a survey. Five types of predictor variables were investigated with the CS: (i) three learning dimensions; (ii) five culture dimensions; (iii) evaluation of units; (iv) demographics of students; and (v) country in which students studied. Both multiple regression models and tree-based regression were used to analyse the direct effect of the five types of predictor variables, and the interactions within each type of predictor variable. When comparing both models, tree-based regression outperformed the generalized linear model in this study. The research findings indicate that unit evaluation is the primary variable to determine students‟ CS. A secondary variable is learning dimension and, among the three dimensions, only nonlinear learning and learner control dimensions have an effect on students‟ CS. The last variable is culture and, among the five culture dimensions, only power distance, long term orientation, and individualism have effects on students‟ CS. Neither demographics nor country have an effect on students‟ CS. These overall findings suggest that traditional unit evaluation, students‟ preference for learning dimensions (such as linear vs non-linear), level of learner control and culture orientation must be taken into consideration in order to enrich students‟ quality of education. This enrichment includes motivating students to acquire subject matter through individualized instruction when designing, developing and delivering educational resources.

Rural women in Bangladesh have limited access to resources and public spheres due to socio-cultural restrictions. Women suffer from severe discrimination, due partly to a lack of access to information. Information and communication and technologies (ICT) are tools that potentially can reach rural women and address their knowledge and information needs. Considering this scenario, the aim of this paper is to examine the situation of rural women using ICT tools provided by non-government and government organizations, and investigate whether access to ICT has changed their lives in terms of socio-economic development. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from women in villages where two different ICT projects have been introduced. The change in women's awareness, skills and knowledge of the wider environment on various issues (including health, education, legal rights) is described. These cognitive changes were compared in women with ICT intervention and women who did not use ICT. The overall cognitive awareness of the women indicates more changes among women with ICT intervention than without. Therefore, ICT intervention in rural villages in Bangladesh is leading to empowerment.

Rural women in Bangladesh have limited access to resources and public spheres due to socio-cultural restrictions. Women suffer from severe discrimination, and it is thought this is heightened due to a lack of access to information. Information communication and technology (ICT) is a potential tool that can reach rural women and enrich their knowledge. This paper discusses women‟s empowerment in terms of perceptual change in rural villages in Bangladesh after ICT intervention has been introduced by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Since empowerment is a complex phenomenon to measure because of its multidimensional aspects and its relationship with time as a process, the methodology used in this research was an integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from women in two different villages where ICT projects have been introduced. The change in women‟s perception after using ICT was compared with changes in women who did not use ICT. The results indicate that ICT intervention changed women‟s perception in a positive direction in one village but it did not change in the other village.

This paper reports on an explorative study investigating study investigating the impacts of culture on web site design and usability, in terms of localisation and internationalisation. The study considers cultural differences among people in terms of race, language, and religion. Localisation/internationalisation of web sites addresses issues concerning the development of effective web sites for specific cultural groups or for a general population of users. This paper describes the methodology adopted in the project to study these issues and reports on the results of a pilot study phase.