The ongoing 'datafication' of contemporary society has a number of implications for schools and schooling. One is the increasing calls for schools to help develop young people's understandings about the role that digital data now plays in their everyday lives -- especially in terms of the 'data economy' and 'surveillance capitalism'. Reporting on…

This discussion paper explores the possibilities and risks that data linkage presents for the vocational education and training (VET) sector. Along with a broad overview of the nature of data linkage, it highlights possible applications for data linkage in the VET sector and examines the key challenges associated with its use. A number of case…

This paper aims to introduce an activity for teachers to assist in meeting learning outcomes as defined in the earth and environmental science units of the Australian Curriculum. The focus of the classroom tasks is on a global ocean feature referred to as El Niño. This phenomenon is part of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, which is largely…

A short series of practical classroom mathematics activities employing the use of a large and publicly accessible scientific data set are presented for use by students in years 9 and 10. The activities introduce and build understanding of integral calculus and trigonometric functions through the presentation of practical problem solving that…

The demand for graduates with exposure in Cloud Computing is on the rise. For many educational institutions, the challenge is to decide on how to incorporate appropriate cloud-based technologies into their curricula. In this paper, we describe our design and experiences of integrating Cloud Computing components into seven third/fourth-year…

This research paper reports the findings from an international survey of fieldwork practitioners on their use of technology to enhance fieldwork teaching and learning. It was found that there was high information technology usage before and after time in the field, but some were also using portable devices such as smartphones and global…

The use of data mining for the analysis of data collected in natural settings is increasingly recognized as a legitimate mode of enquiry. This rule-inductive paradigm is an effective means of discovering relationships within large datasets--especially in research that has limited experimental design--and for the subsequent formulation of…

Academic standards and performance outcomes are a major focus of the current Cycle 2 Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audits. AUQA has clearly stated that universities will need to provide "evidence of setting, maintaining, and reviewing institutional academic standards and outcomes" (2010, p. 27). To do this, universities…

This article presents key steps in the design and analysis of a computer based problem-solving assessment featuring interactive tasks. The purpose of the assessment is to support targeted instruction for students by diagnosing strengths and weaknesses at different stages of problem-solving. The first focus of this article is the task piloting…

This discussion paper seeks to highlight the need for standardization in the development of computer and telecommunications systems in Australian libraries to ensure an inbuilt capacity to interconnect with other systems. It presents a proposal for the establishment of an on-going mechanism responsible for identifying and developing standards…

Currently being developed by the State Library of Queensland, Australia, ORACLE (On-Line Retrieval of Acquisitions, Cataloguing, and Circulation Details for Library Enquiries) is a computerized library system designed to provide rapid processing of library materials in a multi-user environment. It is based on the Australian MARC format and fully…

The first group of papers starts with a tutorial paper which surveys the methods used in data acquisition systems. Other papers in this group describe: (1) some problems involved in the computer acquisition of high-speed randomly-occurring data and the protection of this data from accidental corruption, (2) an input/output bus to allow an IBM…

Computer developments that might concern educational administrators are outlined, including physical size, processing performance, peripheral performance, cost of computation, and software development. Computer development and advances in data processing technology are expected to continue to be as dramatic in the 1980s as they have in the past 25…

The computer is seen as a powerful tool that offers great potential for administrators in tertiary institutions. The impact of the computer on processing data, database concept, computer communication, utilization of operations data for analytical reports, use of management science tools, and evolution in administrative data processing are…

Presents a sample lesson plan (suitable for grades 6-10) and examples of other problems useful in teaching data processing skills. The plan (focusing on planning investigations, data collection, and data processing) is based on the Data Processing Operation Guide, a 10-step model of intellectual operations that can be used in problem solving. (JN)