Journal articles – Learning & Growing Together

Hidden disabilities

abaho Journal articles February 23, 2023Disabilities, Diversity 0 Comment

Globally 1 in 7 people have a disability. 80% of those are hidden/ invisible (Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, 2022).

Hidden disabilities are illness, conditions, impairments etc. that are not immediately apparent or obvious that significantly impair normal activities of daily living. This includes autoimmune disorders, chronic illness, neurological, and visual and auditory disabilities.

Many people choose to stay silent, not disclosing their disabilities. This is due to hidden disabilities are difficult to recognise, understand and acknowledge. Hidden disabilities also may not present physically, leading to people with disabilities to be unfairly judged.

The first article is Erika England’s story. Erika suffers from Chronic pain which fluctuates every day, from being able to do physically demanding tasks (e.g. clean the house by herself) one day to needing help doing basic tasks (e.g. dressing herself) the next day. Erika’s condition is not isolated to pain either, as the pain can cause sensory and cognitive problems. As all her conditions are hidden, she, like many others are negatively judged due to their age and ‘healthy’ physical appearance and get labelled as ‘lazy’ or ‘faking’. Erika describes it as “being stuck between able and disabled” (England, 2020).

Her story and many more can be found on ABC News – ABC partnered with International Day of People with Disability to celebrate the 4.4 million Australians with disability.

We need to become more accommodating to the needs of people with a disability. In the workplace, we talk about inclusivity and diversity, however these talks tend to focus on gender, religion, and caring roles, and tend to exclude disabilities. According to the second article, Abney et al. (2022), many people cannot name a co-worker who is disabled. In our discussion, some members had actually shared their disability, something that was a surprise to some.

When disabilities are talked in the workplace, it tends to be narrow, focusing on the extreme end, or in the study centre focused on course design course design, accessibility of information, and specific paces. We forget the smaller or simpler accommodations that can be made available for individuals or the wider workforce. These include:

Specialised/ alternative workspaces/ desks
Adjustable working hours/ alternative schedules – These are already available for people in caring roles, so expanding it to include people who have anxiety attacks etc
Ergonomic keyboards and mice – These are helpful for people with arm and wrist disabilities. It can also prevent typing related injuries for other employees
Providing padding on the floor – To help alleviate back stress
Filters for computers, etc. – to help sufferers of migraines
Earplugs – to help those who are noise sensitive
Installing voice, text-to-speech and/ or speech-to-text software
Making meeting recordings available
Include closed captions/ transcripts

(Abney et al., 2022)

By making these accommodations available we could create a positive and accepting environment for everyone including people with disability, hidden or not.

Programs/ campaigns

Sydney Trains Hidden Disabilities poster There are many programs/ campaigns that are raising awareness and advocating for people with disabilities/ hidden disabilities.

The “Hidden Disabilities Sunflower”, for example, uses the sunflower to raise awareness for those with hidden disabilities by discretely identifying themselves to people including staff, colleagues, and health professionals as someone who may need support, assistance or a little more time without having to disclose their invisible disability. This organisation operates in UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland and is recognised in over 50 countries world-wide. Many organisations have become part of the hidden disabilities network including airports, museums, shopping centres, councils, and as of 1 December, Sydney Trains.

References:

Abney, A., Denison, V., Tanguay, C., & Ganz, M. (2022). Understanding the unseen: Invisible disabilities in the workplace. The American Archivist, 85(1), 88-103. https://doi.org/10.17723/2327-9702-85.1.88

England, E. (2020). ‘Am I disabled today?’ How Erika finds strength and compassion by embracing her disabilities. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-26/what-it-means-to-have-fluctuating-disability/12871698

Hidden Disabilities Sunflower. (2022). Invisible disabilities. https://hiddendisabilitiesshop.com.au/au/insights/category/invisible-disabilities

Resources:

Artificial Intelligence in higher education

abaho Journal articles October 8, 2021October 11, 2021Education, Technology 0 Comment

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing becoming part of our everyday lives.

AI is defined as “computing systems that are able to engage in human-like processes such as learning, adapting, synthesizing, self-correction and use if data for complex processing tasks” (Popenici & Kerr, 2017). Basically, computing systems that can learn from their own experiences.

Examples of current AI include email spam filters, chatbots, voice assistants, plagiarism checkers (Turnitin), predictive search, recommendations, filtering algorithms (Google, Facebook), and facial recognition.

What does this mean for education?
AI tools have a place and use in education. Turnitin, for example, is a tool used to detect plagiarism in student’s assignments. Through machine learning, it also can learn student’s writing style to detect contract cheating. In PowerPoint, the “Designer” tool can help students create dynamic slideshows while the “Rehearse with coach” tool can help students prepare and practice their presentations by identifying certain oral factors.

However, issues can rise as AI tools become “smarter” or more advanced. AI writing tools have been developed that can potentially write a whole assignment. The potential ramifications of the widespread use can be enormous.

Other issues discussed that may arise include:

Validity of sources
Authorship
Confirmation bias
Monopoly and influence by the “tech-lords”
Misinformation and disinformation

What can we do?
Suggestions that were discussed include:

Changing how we teach students – focus on the fundamentals before using/ introducing the AI tool
Be flexible or use other methods to evaluate skills and core competencies – move away from essay writing to reflection tasks, presentations, or other oral tasks.

Article: Popenici, S. & Kerr, S. (2017). Exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching and learning in higher education. Research and practice in technology enhanced learning, 12(22). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-017-0062-8.

Extra article: Emerj. (2020). Everyday examples of artificial intelligence and machine learning. https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/everyday-examples-of-ai/

Recording 1st October 2021

Enhancing student’s professional information literacy

Luke Everson Journal articles August 13, 2021August 13, 2021 1 Comment

I chose the article Enhancing student’s professional information literacy for discussion in our learning and growing session for a number of reasons. I felt it highlights an often overlooked aspect of the way we approach information literacy (IL) instruction; offers a unique perspective on evaluating information sources; and also provides a concrete example of how this oversight can be addressed using a collaborative approach.

Some of the key takeaways that stood out to me were:

IL skills are recognised as a key competency for most jobs in business and finance but workplaces rarely have formalised IL training programmes.
Information literacy skills development in the tertiary sector is often focused on helping students find and use academic sources and resources which they will lose access to once they graduate.
By embedding an IL module into a larger discipline course, the authors were able to offer a discipline specific programme, which engaged students by offering the opportunity for hands-on practice and reflection.

Rethinking “international students”

abaho Journal articles June 2, 2021June 8, 2021Charles Sturt University, Domestic students, International students, Learning and Growing, Study Group Australia 0 Comment

On May 28th, Study Support and the Library discussed the concept of ‘international students’, and the comparison to domestic students in terms of experience and needs, as per article: Jones, E. (2017). Problematising and reimagining the notion of ‘international student experience.’ Studies in Higher Education, 42(5), 933–943.

The article suggests that the over-generalisation and assumptions of international students is problematic as we focus on the student’s shortcomings and ignoring any positive contributions. This, in turn, may reinforce negative stereotyping, and racial behaviour.

These assumptions also “fail to recognize the commonalities between international and domestic students” (Jones 2017, p935). Jones (2017) has categorised a wide range of range of factors, tabulated on pages 937-939, that contribute to the experiences of international students and except a handful, are shared by domestic students.

There is no basis in dividing international students from domestic students. Domestic students come from diverse cultural backgrounds, regardless of whether they were born in Australia or not, as well as various educational background. This does not translate to academic success. If fact, domestic students may struggle more in university as it is assumed they know academic writing and other academic skills, and thus have limited support in these areas.

Charles Sturt Study Centre deals with international students only, so these tensions and comparisons tend to be limited. Support, services, and programs are created with the mindset of ‘everyone is equal’, regardless of origins and educational background, which in turn creates a safe learning environment.

However, there seems to be a disconnect, at times, between the Study Centre and Charles Sturt University (main campus), as their main focus, like many universities, is on domestic students. This has resulted in:

Inappropriate/ irrelevant messaging
Emphasis on certain topics, such as Academic Integrity, and not extending/ further developing it to cover the skills
Some materials not translating very well with our students.

Recording of the discussion

Wiki Use That Increases Communication and Collaboration

Luke Everson Journal articles April 7, 2021Communication, Journal articles, Learning and Growing, Student engagement 1 Comment

The author of this article, Robyn Davidson, is responsible for teaching a postgraduate financial accounting course at the University of Adelaide. The majority of the student cohort is made up of international students who have English as their second language. The article discusses the use of the in-built wiki functionality within the Blackboard platform, which was used to facilitate a group project for students.