This research explores issues encountered by academic staff in their adoption of technology within the teaching and learning environment. The context of this research is set within a global environment; where technology is seen as both underpinning and enabling the current period of rapid change. Both the literature and University documents purport that the use of technology is instrumental in the delivery of positive economic, educational and social change. The researcher identified a dissonance between administrative policy and practices, and academic practice in relation to the use of technology. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of academic staff in their adoption of technology within the teaching and learning environment. The literature review generated following research questions: 1. Why do academic staff use information communication technology (ICT)? 2. How do academic staff use ICT? 3. What are the barriers to the use of ICT that have been identified by academic staff? 4. How do academic leaders promote the use of ICT in teaching and learning? As the adoption of technology is essentially a social process, the epistemological position of constructivism, using an interpretative perspective, was adopted for this research. The methodology of case study is utilised as it allowed detailed exploration of self-perceptions and lived experiences of the participants in relation to their use of technology within their professional practice. 21 participants were initially selected for this study. From this group of participants Rogers’ Theory of Diffusion was used to select those participants who could provide the most useful insights; resulting in the seven case studies documented in this thesis. Participants within the case studies ranged from those who were highly innovative, to those who were late technology adopters.This research concluded that for the academic mainstream, the deployment and availability of technology had reached a stage where hardware, software, internet connectivity and projection capability were no longer seen as impediments to their use of technology. All participants, ranging from the highly innovative to the late technology adopters, used technology for email, the world wide web (WWW), administrative tasks, and the preparation and presentation of their lectures. While the use of various technologies was universal among the participants, the predominant use of technology was to support the transmission mode of instruction. The research concluded that a constructivist educational approach was not closely linked to early technology adoption, but to the participants’ individual educational beliefs. The educational beliefs of the participants were in conflict with their experience of the University’s practices, which reflected a lack of instructional leadership in relation to the use of technology

As the discourses of the “technological imperative” and student-centred learning have gained momentum in university teaching and learning, one way for the lecturer to signal excellence has been to adopt the flexible, student-centred practices of online teaching. This thesis investigates academics’ insights and experiences about their changing teacher identities in the context of being, or becoming, a facilitator of online student learning. This was an empirical research project, a collective case study that explored the teaching experiences of twelve university lecturers in two Australian universities who taught online, or were making the move online. Primary research data were drawn from semi-structured conversations with the lecturers, online teaching artefacts and email communications. The interpretative analysis was organised according to three overlapping lecturer identities: the teaching metaphors of performance, care and creative direction. From the perspective of each metaphor position, the move to becoming a facilitator of blended learning was uneasy. The performer/carer/director lecturer struggled to entertain, care and intervene in familiar ways in asynchronous, computer-mediated communication. Online, the performing/caring/directing lecturer was ignored by students, and became instead a helpless and highly reflexive bystander to students’ learning. The findings suggest that the teaching values and practices of the performing/caring/directing lecturer, in particular lecturer-student responsiveness and reciprocity, do not adapt to online pedagogies. Indeed, blended learning establishes the conditions for a new moral order in university education, with the move to online facilitation best understood as a move to management-centred regulation of teaching and student learning. And so, overlooked in higher education policy and research, and ignored by her students online, the performing/caring/directing lecturer is under erasure, at the same time as the work of the facilitator is being archived.

As the discourses of the “technological imperative” and student-centred learning have gained momentum in university teaching and learning, one way for the lecturer to signal excellence has been to adopt the flexible, student-centred practices of online teaching. This thesis investigates academics’ insights and experiences about their changing teacher identities in the context of being, or becoming, a facilitator of online student learning. This was an empirical research project, a collective case study that explored the teaching experiences of twelve university lecturers in two Australian universities who taught online, or were making the move online. Primary research data were drawn from semi-structured conversations with the lecturers, online teaching artefacts and email communications. The interpretative analysis was organised according to three overlapping lecturer identities: the teaching metaphors of performance, care and creative direction. From the perspective of each metaphor position, the move to becoming a facilitator of blended learning was uneasy. The performer/carer/director lecturer struggled to entertain, care and intervene in familiar ways in asynchronous, computer-mediated communication. Online, the performing/caring/directing lecturer was ignored by students, and became instead a helpless and highly reflexive bystander to students’ learning. The findings suggest that the teaching values and practices of the performing/caring/directing lecturer, in particular lecturer-student responsiveness and reciprocity, do not adapt to online pedagogies. Indeed, blended learning establishes the conditions for a new moral order in university education, with the move to online facilitation best understood as a move to management-centred regulation of teaching and student learning. And so, overlooked in higher education policy and research, and ignored by her students online, the performing/caring/directing lecturer is under erasure, at the same time as the work of the facilitator is being archived.

Conference tourism is a young and vibrant industry, which is growing and developing at a prompt rate (Rogers, 2013). The rapid growth of conference tourism and its importance (e.g. economic benefits for destinations) caused a significant academic interest in this topic in 1990's (Yoo & Weber, 2005). Witt et al (1995) argued that the concrete conference theme and the conference destination are likely to make an impact on an individual’s decision, but it is still not clear if a destination or a conference per se attracts people the most. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate variables that are the most and the least important for attendees of conferences from Sweden when they decide which conference they will attend. Moreover, it will focus particularly on the leisure motivations of conference participants, for instance, destination choice, and their importance for conference attendees.  The empirical study of Yoo and Chon (2008) about the measurement scale of factors affecting convention participation decision-making proved that the ‘destination stimuli’ factor is the first among conference participants from the US, the UK and Australia. This study will partly replicate the study of Yoo and Chon (2008), but at the same time, makes its own contribution to the field of the conference participation decision making process. Firstly, it broadens the geographical scope of the studies within the conference participation decision making process, as have been suggested by Yoo and Weber (2005). Moreover, Yi and Park (2003) argued that culture difference might have impact on decision making process, so it is worth to test if there are any difference between Scandinavian and British, American and Australian conference participants.  The study has been conducted using the quantitative method, particularly, survey method, which have been sent out using the Internet Survey Monkey tool in order to increase the response. Overall, we received 143 valid replies that helped us to make a conclusion that for academics from Umeå University in Sweden the ’educational opportunities’ are the most important factor, while ‘destination stimuli’ one does not affect their decision to go to some conference at all. So, it is worth to test if the difference in the results between Yoo and Chon (2008) study and the current one are caused by the cultural difference or by any other feature. Moreover, it is recommend to extend the geographical scope of the studies within the conference participation decision making process.

Past research has shown classroom lessons incorporating physical activity (10-15 minutes in duration) to improve on-task behavior in children (Mahar, 2006; Grieco, Bartholomew & Jowers, 2009). However, no study to date has examined the levels of physical activity required to elicit this response. As such, the present study was designed to assess the effects of physically active, academic lessons of varying intensity, set in game-type format, on academic engagement of preadolescent children in the classroom setting. Time spent on-task (measured through direct observation) served as the primary outcome variable and assessed by means of a two (time: pre-, post-lesson) x four [condition: inactive lesson (physical activity control); sedentary academic game (interest control); low-to-moderate intensity physically active academic game; moderate-to-vigorous intensity physically active academic game] repeated measures design. Participants were third, fourth and fifth grade children from two elementary schools in central Texas (7 to 11 years of age). Physical activity was measured using Actigraph GT1M accelerometers (Fort Walton Beach, FL). Demographic data were collected for each participant on gender, age, ethnicity, height and weight (BMI calculated). Results indicated that the students’ TOT decreased significantly after a traditional seated control lesson. TOT did not change following the inactive control game. Thus, the competitive, seated game was sufficient to prevent the reduction in TOT that followed the traditional, seated control. In contrast, both physically active games were sufficient to increase TOT. Both had a significant increase in TOT relative to each control condition. In addition, the effect of the MVPA game was nearly three times the effect of the LMPA game. / text

Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often experience significant academic underachievement. Written expression abilities in this population have not been extensively studied but existing prevalence estimates suggest that rates of comorbid writing underachievement may be substantially higher than comorbid reading and mathematics underachievement. The current study examined written expression abilities in a school-based sample of 326 adolescents with ADHD. The prevalence of written expression impairment, the associations between written expression and academic outcomes, and specific patterns of written expression were investigated. Results indicate that students with ADHD experience written expression impairment at a similar rate to reading and mathematics disabilities. Students’ written expression abilities were significantly associated with school grades and parent ratings of academic functioning, above and beyond reading achievement and intelligence. Analyses suggest that students with ADHD exhibit global impairment in writing, as opposed to having specific deficits in certain aspects of writing.

This study investigates how academics are managing and being managed by the demands of their everyday work. Specifically, it sets out to examine how a small cohort of academics located in a former college of advanced education (CAE), now integrated as a Faculty in a traditional Australian university, negotiate the dominant discourses and power relations in this setting. It considers the role played by government policy directives in shaping this particular workplace and its inhabitants. It also explores the tactics and strategies academics employ to manoeuvre the complexities of their day-today work life, and how these practices of the everyday fashion academics in this setting. To date, few studies have explored the changing nature and intensification of contemporary academic work from the perspective of academics working in a former CAE. In taking up this focus, observing the historical and cultural legacy of the institution, the study provides a situated perspective about academic work: one located in a particular workplace, at a particular point in its history. It illustrates how the academic self is fashioned through and within the disciplinary technologies and power relations operating within the workplace setting: how different types of academic performances are taken up and/or valued in this context, and how these performances are then implicated in the production of academic subjects. The research data comprised historical and institutional documentation, as well as semi-structured conversations with academics. A range of related theoretical ideas and positions are used to analyse three specific perspectives about being an academic: work(ing) policies, work(ing) narratives, work(ing) practices. Personal writing about experiences as an insider/outsider in this research study further informs the discussion, with insights about doing academic work in this (and other) workplace settings, and the role of the doctoral process in the subjectification of the academic self highlighted. The thesis puts forward the argument that managing everyday work is a complex and (self) productive process: one situated in, and shaped by, the institutional spaces – textual, discursive and operational – within which work performances are enacted. It depicts how academics take up, negotiate and/or self-regulate their work practices within these institutional spaces. The process of managing academic work is thus represented as an interactive yet bounded practice, subject to and subjectified through the specificities of the workplace setting and its inhabitants, and the power relations and disciplinary forces operating on and within the institution. The thesis also demonstrates the fashioning of the academic self involves a set of practices of managing and making do. These practices of the self, which are shaped by the aspirations and positioning (personally, professionally and institutionally) of academics, and the past and current circumstances of the workplace setting, highlight the mutually constitutive nature of discipline and desire in shaping academic work in an institutional context.

This study investigates how academics are managing and being managed by the demands of their everyday work. Specifically, it sets out to examine how a small cohort of academics located in a former college of advanced education (CAE), now integrated as a Faculty in a traditional Australian university, negotiate the dominant discourses and power relations in this setting. It considers the role played by government policy directives in shaping this particular workplace and its inhabitants. It also explores the tactics and strategies academics employ to manoeuvre the complexities of their day-today work life, and how these practices of the everyday fashion academics in this setting. To date, few studies have explored the changing nature and intensification of contemporary academic work from the perspective of academics working in a former CAE. In taking up this focus, observing the historical and cultural legacy of the institution, the study provides a situated perspective about academic work: one located in a particular workplace, at a particular point in its history. It illustrates how the academic self is fashioned through and within the disciplinary technologies and power relations operating within the workplace setting: how different types of academic performances are taken up and/or valued in this context, and how these performances are then implicated in the production of academic subjects. The research data comprised historical and institutional documentation, as well as semi-structured conversations with academics. A range of related theoretical ideas and positions are used to analyse three specific perspectives about being an academic: work(ing) policies, work(ing) narratives, work(ing) practices. Personal writing about experiences as an insider/outsider in this research study further informs the discussion, with insights about doing academic work in this (and other) workplace settings, and the role of the doctoral process in the subjectification of the academic self highlighted. The thesis puts forward the argument that managing everyday work is a complex and (self) productive process: one situated in, and shaped by, the institutional spaces – textual, discursive and operational – within which work performances are enacted. It depicts how academics take up, negotiate and/or self-regulate their work practices within these institutional spaces. The process of managing academic work is thus represented as an interactive yet bounded practice, subject to and subjectified through the specificities of the workplace setting and its inhabitants, and the power relations and disciplinary forces operating on and within the institution. The thesis also demonstrates the fashioning of the academic self involves a set of practices of managing and making do. These practices of the self, which are shaped by the aspirations and positioning (personally, professionally and institutionally) of academics, and the past and current circumstances of the workplace setting, highlight the mutually constitutive nature of discipline and desire in shaping academic work in an institutional context.

Female student-athletes are a growing population on most college campuses. While incorporated into a historically male model, their experiences and outcomes are unique. This report guides potential female student-athletes in the process of deciding to participate by providing information about the female student-athlete experience. Issues to be explored include decision-making, academics, health, and stress. Sports can be a rewarding experience despite the challenge of balancing academics with athletic commitments. / text

Animation, visual effects, and video game studios have to manage complex and highly iterative productions. The processes, tools, and data flow that carry a production from initial idea to finished state is called a ’pipeline.’ Students in academic programs, even ones focused on educating for digital production, often do not have a well- defined pipeline and spend unnecessary time on technical details rather than creative work. Through interviews with industry professionals, analysis of published works on pipeline and digital production, and study of current academic pipelines, this thesis presents general principles for pipelines as well as suggestions for applying these principles in academic environments. Implementing these suggestions could provide a foundation for a robust academic pipeline that lets students spend more time creating and collaborating and prepares them for employment in the digital production industry.