research – The Specs

The Connected BCM Classroom – INTRO

This digital story starts here

“Spatial media are more and more mediating how space is understood and the interactions occurring within them. Geographic spaces are evermore complemented with various kinds of georeferenced and real-time data – pictures, thoughts, statistics, reviews, historical documents, routes – that can be accessed through a plethora of augmented and location-aware maps and interactive displays that have multiple points of view.”

(Kinchin, Lauriault & Wilson 2017, p. 9) Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – INTRO”

The Connected BCM Classroom – TUTORIAL ROOM

A visit to a BCM tutorial

The spatial design of the classroom hasn’t changed much from the past, and it is making teaching and learning more problematic. For example, large classrooms that are built for traditional ways of teaching become physically and visually distracting to students, and they eventually get lost in their own devices.

(a teacher, when interviewed)

Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – TUTORIAL ROOM”

The Connected BCM Classroom – OUTRO

The story doesn’t end just yet

Here we are, four weeks since this project started, and it has – against my most wistful expectations – opened up even more questions than it could actually answer.

I will close this story off with some memorable moments from my interview with a lecturer/tutor. Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – OUTRO”

The Connected BCM Classroom – HOME

Now let’s head home for some self-study

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I don’t even bother trying,

is many’s honest reply to the question in the focus group of whether they had ever tried anything to keep themselves focused during classes or when self-studying. Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – HOME”

The Connected BCM Classroom – LECTURE THEATRE

A visit to the BCM lecture

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In any BCM lecture theatre, it is relatively reasonable to remark that the number of devices is likely higher than the number of people in that same space. Although the positive influence of media use is undeniable, the practice still raises several issues, especially the shrinkage of students’ attention span.

They seemingly drift off to another world … I’ve found myself approached by students after class, asking me questions about matters that have been covered but somehow they missed, and this is getting more and more common.

Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – LECTURE THEATRE”

Media-Apparition and The Connected BCM Classroom – a Small Research

A research proposal on how Communication and Media students at UOW use their media in class (lecture & tutorial)

Note: for ‘media-apparition’, see my previous post.

Let me take you to…

A lecture theatre. The lighting is dimmed so that the only source of light is the projected screen. Ah, no, I was wrong. The only sourceS of light are the large projector screen, and about thirty laptop screens plus about ten or twenty smartphone screens.

w 20170821 bcm241 lectheater — *A typical BCM lecture seen from the back row* (artwork by me)

Continue reading “Media-Apparition and The Connected BCM Classroom – a Small Research”

[BCM212] Reflection – The Rigorous Research

At last, my BCM212 research on language barriers and Vietnamese international undergraduates at UOW has officially been finished. The progress has engraved in my mind the values of good research and good researchers – particularly critical judgement, social responsibility, and flexibility – as well as brushing up on my communications strategy planning skills. Continue reading “[BCM212] Reflection – The Rigorous Research”

[BCM212] Interview – Ideas from an Expert

An engaging conversation satisfied my curiosity about language learning and teaching in Vietnam as a cause of language barriers.

After a week analysing results from the survey and focus group, I have finalised my interview scheduled and met up with Q.N., a Vietnamese Ph.D. student in education at UOW.

Back in Vietname, Q.N. is also an English teacher, having his own English centre while lecturing at a university. He has been abroad for years, in between periods of teaching in our home country, having studied in Europe and now Australia. Altogether, these things build up his solid combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, which was evident in the way he answered my questions. Continue reading “[BCM212] Interview – Ideas from an Expert”

[BCM212] Ready to Roll

And the real battle starts tomorrow

Quick update: the link to my survey is HERE

Hi,

It’s me again, updating on how far I’ve gotten in answering the question: How do language barriers influence the academic and social life of Vietnamese international undergraduate students at UOW?.

For easier approach, I’ve broken that huge question down to several smaller ones, e.g.

What aspects/skills of (Australian) English are the most challenging for students?
What challenges students in learning in English at uni?
What challenges students in conversing and building social relationships in English in their daily life?

Of course, these are broken even further down into survey, focus group and interview questions. Continue reading “[BCM212] Ready to Roll”

Audience 2.0 in the Wikipedia-UGC Era

From Consumer/User to Producer to both

In one year, from January 1^st 2016 to January 1^st 2017, the English site of Wikipedia has gotten 93,322,823,874 hits from a body of more than 30,604,028 users worldwide, living up to its reputation as the fifth most visited website globally.

What is so significant about Wikipedia is that, in terms of media audience research, it makes an excellent example of what I would like to call the (Media) Audience 2.0, or the audience as “produser[s]” – a term coined by Brun in 2005 (cited in Bird 2011, p. 502), a combination of two words: producer and user. This new “generation” of users was given rise to by the emergence of digital media, particularly Web 2.0 (Bird 2011, p. 502), which introduced, for the first time, user-generated content (UGC). Continue reading “Audience 2.0 in the Wikipedia-UGC Era”