This week, many Australian universities will be sending academics the results of the first semester student evaluation surveys. For some this will be a worrying and unpleasant time. The comments university students make anonymously in their teaching evaluations can leave academics feeling fearful, distressed and demoralised. And with good reason. As a 2021 survey of Australian academics and their experiences of […] … learn more→

The ABC recently apologised to staff for racism and cultural insensitivity in its newsrooms. This came after Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse ABC staff told an internal group they felt unwelcome in their workplace, their ideas were not being listened to and they received online abuse from the public. Unfortunately these issues are not unique to […] … learn more→

There is a growing interest across Canada in outdoor education that is formally integrated into school. This trend has increased since COVID-19, particularly because open-air environments significantly reduced the risks of disease transmission. Outdoor education is an umbrella term that includes many approaches and settings. Practitioners of outdoor education may be involved in what they see […] … learn more→

Climate change is exacerbating pressures on every Australian ecosystem and Australia now has more foreign plant species than native, according to the highly anticipated State of the Environment Report released today. The report also found the number of listed threatened species rose 8% since 2016 and more extinctions are expected in the next decades. The […] … learn more→

Blake Lemoine could have been the hero of a science fiction film. Employed at Google, his mission was to ensure that LaMDA , a robot created to converse with humans (or chat bot), did not present biased comments to users and avoid sexist or racist comments, for example. But, over the course of his exchanges with artificial intelligence, the engineer […] … learn more→

In 2009, the newspaper El Norte de Castilla published an interview with the recently deceased Fernando García de Cortázar , in which he presented his book Little history of the world , aimed at children. In it, the historian affirmed: “The disinterest in history exists because it has been told badly.” The Bilbao historian was right: history is told (and taught) badly because, traditionally, […] … learn more→

Apple products are already a central part of our lives in so many ways. We use them to work, socialise, monitor our heart rates, pay for things and watch TV. But did you know they are also involved in teaching school teachers? The shift to online learning following COVID-19 is not only for students. Teachers now also […] … learn more→

We know young people are “angry, frustrated and scared” about climate change. And they want to do more to stop it. However, the school system is not set up to help them address their concerns and learn the information they seek. There are no explicit mentions of climate change in the Australian primary school curriculum […] … learn more→

Gossip gets a bad rap – from tabloids full of salacious celebrity gossip, to the badly-behaved teens of television programmes like Gossip Girl. But while it might get dismissed or reported as unsubstantiated rumour, gossip is a key part of politics and the way the world works. Gossipy women are over represented in popular images of gossip. […] … learn more→

Work has become an around-the-clock activity, courtesy of the pandemic and technology that makes us reachable anytime, anywhere. Throw in expectations to deliver fast and create faster and it becomes hard to take a step back. Not surprisingly, many of us are feeling burned out. Burnout — which often affects women more than men — happens everywhere. Particularly challenged […] … learn more→