Heather M Gaunt | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)
Papers by Heather M Gaunt
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2017
Indoor tracking of smartphones adds context to smartphone applications, enabling a range of smart... more Indoor tracking of smartphones adds context to smartphone applications, enabling a range of smarter behaviours. The predicted use cases are many and varied, and include navigation, planning, advertising and communication. Potentially, indoor tracking could become as ubiquitous as GPS - however, all of these possibilities depend on being able to produce a reasonably accurate, reliable system which does not require specialised infrastructure. While professional systems using custom devices are able to achieve very high levels of accuracy (<;1 cm), consumer no-infrastructure systems struggle to achieve reliable room-level tracking. This paper focuses on the use of WiFi received signal strength indicator (RSSI) fingerprinting, a machine learning approach which currently seems to be the most promising option for consumer smartphones. We have undertaken experimentation and optimisation in a real-world, noisy environment - the Ian Potter Museum of Art - where we developed and deployed a no-infrastructure, indoor visitor tracking application. Data was collected in a trial involving several dozen users over a few weeks, who used the system extensively. This data was analysed with a range of current WiFi RSSI fingerprinting techniques and algorithms (WASP, Redpin (kNN), SSD, SVM, Gaussian Naive Bayes and Random Forests), and their efficacy was compared and improved where possible. Known challenges such as device heterogeneity are explored, and the consistency of signal levels, including magnetic fields, are examined. Large Random Forests (200 trees) were found to have the best performance, which was further improved by calibrating for average differences in RSSI between phone models, to achieve an average of 90% correct classification of exhibits within the top five hits.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2017
Abstract onlyC Galletly, S Gill, P Clarke, T Paterson, L Hah
A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to n... more A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to not only know about the ethical principles guiding their practice, but to also autonomously recognize when and how these principles might apply and assist these future practitioners in providing care for patients and families. This article aims to contribute to discussions about ethics education pedagogy and teaching, by presenting and evaluating the use of the visual arts as an educational approach designed to facilitate students' moral imagination and independent critical thinking about ethics in clinical practice. We describe a sequence of ethics education strategies over a 3 year Doctor of Physiotherapy program, focusing on the final year professional ethics assessment task, which involved the use of visual arts to stimulate the exploration of ethics in healthcare. The data (in the form of student essays about their chosen artwork) were analyzed using both thematic and content ana...
Optometry and Vision Science
SIGNIFICANCE No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativity and ... more SIGNIFICANCE No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativity and object-based learning to cultivate “soft skills” exists. The design and outcomes of this study will contribute to the body of optometric education, and future research will assess the applicability of these findings to other allied health disciplines. PURPOSE Optometrists, like all health care professionals, need to be proficient in soft skills such as effective communication and interpersonal skills. Rather than assuming these soft skills can be developed “on the job,” we implemented a teaching intervention for students to develop their communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills. METHODS Students from optometry, arts management, and animation attended an autobiographical museum in interdisciplinary groups and examined an artifact relating to aspects of professionalism mentioned previously. We evaluated whether and how students experienced this activity as enhancing their creativity and other soft skills via survey results and thematic analysis of their reflective essays. RESULTS Our findings showed that this group work has augmented their professional development, with approximately 90% of the students reporting that it had helped in critical self-reflection and future improvement of communication and interpersonal skills. Eighty percent of the students stated that this group work was beneficial and enjoyable and recommended object-based and interdisciplinary learning to be embedded in future group work. Themes generated from the essays were the following: (a) perceptions of object-based learning in a museum and (b) insights into group work experiences. CONCLUSIONS This is the first pilot study that investigates group work across optometry and nonclinical disciplines in a post-graduate curriculum using museum objects. Our findings, based on students' perceptions, imply that students emerged from the program with the intent to transfer their learning to their future practice. We propose that this purposefully designed-based and creative group work may support the development of professional attributes essential for optometric students.
Australian Literary Studies, 2012
The Australian Library Journal, 2007
The Tasmaniana Library of the State Library of Tasmania has been developed on the foundation of a... more The Tasmaniana Library of the State Library of Tasmania has been developed on the foundation of a large and important donation of books from the private collection of William Walker. Walker's collection was presented to the Tasmanian Public Library in two discrete gifts in 1923-24 and in 1933, the year of his death. The many thousands of volumes presented by Walker represented an enormous enrichment of the impoverished library's collections, particularly in the field of Australiana and Tasmaniana. The donations received considerable attention in the local press and were actively promoted by library staff. However, the importance of Walker's philanthropy was largely forgotten in the decades after his death. The reasons for this effacement are complex, evolving from the difficult financial circumstances of the Tasmanian Public Library during that period, and the character of the donor himself. Developments in the library since the 1940s, including most significantly the major philanthropy of William Crowther and Henry Allport in the 1960s, also furthered the eclipse of Walker's earlier benefaction.
Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association, Jan 5, 2017
Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiolo... more Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiology textbooks have focused on the cognitive (i.e., the clinical aspects of radiographic interpretation) rather than the features of visual observation that improve identification of abnormalities. As a result, the skill of visual observation is underemphasized and thus often underdeveloped by trainees. The study of the arts in medical education has been used to train and improve visual observation and empathy. The use of the arts to improve visual observation skills in Veterinary Science has not been previously described. Objectives of this pilot study were to adapt the existing Visual Arts in Health Education Program for medical and dental students at the University of Melbourne, Australia to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students and evaluate their perceptions regarding the program's effects on visual observation skills and confidence with respect to radiographic interpre...
Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association, Jan 5, 2017
Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiolo... more Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiology textbooks have focused on the cognitive (i.e., the clinical aspects of radiographic interpretation) rather than the features of visual observation that improve identification of abnormalities. As a result, the skill of visual observation is underemphasized and thus often underdeveloped by trainees. The study of the arts in medical education has been used to train and improve visual observation and empathy. The use of the arts to improve visual observation skills in Veterinary Science has not been previously described. Objectives of this pilot study were to adapt the existing Visual Arts in Health Education Program for medical and dental students at the University of Melbourne, Australia to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students and evaluate their perceptions regarding the program's effects on visual observation skills and confidence with respect to radiographic interpre...
Optometry and Vision Science: November 2020 - Volume 97 - Issue 11 - p 962-969, 2020
Abstract SIGNIFICANCE No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativit... more Abstract
SIGNIFICANCE
No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativity and object-based learning to cultivate “soft skills” exists. The design and outcomes of this study will contribute to the body of optometric education, and future research will assess the applicability of these findings to other allied health disciplines.
PURPOSE
Optometrists, like all health care professionals, need to be proficient in soft skills such as effective communication and interpersonal skills. Rather than assuming these soft skills can be developed “on the job,” we implemented a teaching intervention for students to develop their communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills.
METHODS
Students from optometry, arts management, and animation attended an autobiographical museum in interdisciplinary groups and examined an artifact relating to aspects of professionalism mentioned previously. We evaluated whether and how students experienced this activity as enhancing their creativity and other soft skills via survey results and thematic analysis of their reflective essays.
RESULTS
Our findings showed that this group work has augmented their professional development, with approximately 90% of the students reporting that it had helped in critical self-reflection and future improvement of communication and interpersonal skills. Eighty percent of the students stated that this group work was beneficial and enjoyable and recommended object-based and interdisciplinary learning to be embedded in future group work. Themes generated from the essays were the following: (a) perceptions of object-based learning in a museum and (b) insights into group work experiences.
CONCLUSIONS
This is the first pilot study that investigates group work across optometry and nonclinical disciplines in a post-graduate curriculum using museum objects. Our findings, based on students' perceptions, imply that students emerged from the program with the intent to transfer their learning to their future practice. We propose that this purposefully designed-based and creative group work may support the development of professional attributes essential for optometric students.
University of Melbourne Collections Magazine, 2017
In this article I report on my recent experience in three interlocking areas of interest: cultura... more In this article I report on my recent experience in three interlocking areas of interest: cultural objects and museums, health humanities and narrative medicine, and older people as museum visitors and healthcare recipients. I explore some pedagogical and research opportunities that have arisen at this nexus, in the specific context of the University of Melbourne’s cultural collections.
The first area of interest is the incorporation of the university’s art collections, using object-based learning strategies, into three subjects in the university’s new, fully online, Master of Ageing program. Course materials were created over a period of 18 months through 2015–16, and are now delivered to online cohorts. The second involves a multi-disciplinary research project that emerged from these pedagogical contexts and from a growing interest in the opportunities for museums to become involved in questions of ageing. This project—The Role of Cultural Institutions in Facilitating an Age-Integrated Society—seed-funded through the university’s Hallmark Ageing Research Initiative (HARI), examines how far museums around the world have come in working with older populations and attracting them as visitors—whether through programming, physical settings, co-creation, active participation or research—and proposes some specific steps towards better harnessing the opportunities of cultural institutions to help meet the challenges posed by ageing populations. The third of the interlocking areas of interest is the experiences of older people in the art museum, which we explored by interviewing older visitors to some of the cultural collections of the University of Melbourne, Shepparton Art Museum in regional Victoria, and Melbourne Museum.
Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound, American College of Veterinary Radiology, 2017
Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiolo... more Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiology textbooks have focused on the cognitive (i.e. the clinical aspects of radiographic interpretation) rather than the features of visual observation that improve identification of abnormalities. As a result, the skill of visual observation is underemphasized and thus often underdeveloped by trainees. The study of the arts in medical education has been used to train and improve visual observation and empathy. The use of the arts to improve visual observation skills in Veterinary Science has not been previously described. Objectives of this pilot study were to adapt the existing Visual Arts in Health Education Program for medical and dental students at the University of Melbourne, Australia to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students and evaluate their perceptions regarding the program’s effects on visual observation skills and confidence with respect to radiographic interpretation. This adaptation took the form of a single seminar given to third year DVM students. Following the seminar, students reported an improved approach to radiographic interpretation and felt they had gained skills which would assist them throughout their career. In the year following the seminar, written reports of the students who attended the seminar were compared with reports from a matched cohort of students who did not attend the seminar. This demonstrated increased identification of abnormalities and greater description of the abnormalities identified. Findings indicated that explicit training in visual observation may be a valuable adjunct to the radiology training of DVM students.
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 2018
A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to n... more A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to not only know about the ethical principles guiding their practice, but also to autonomously recognise when and how they might apply and assist them in the care they provide for patients and families. This paper aims to contribute to discussions about ethics education pedagogy and teaching, by presenting and evaluating the use of the visual arts as an education approach designed to facilitate students’ moral imagination and independent critical thinking about ethics in clinical practice. We describe a sequence of ethics education strategies over a 3 year Doctor of Physiotherapy program, focusing on the final year professional ethics assessment task which involved the use of visual arts to stimulate exploration of ethics in healthcare. The data (in the form of student essays about their chosen artwork) was analysed using both thematic and content analysis. Two key themes centred on emotional responses and lateral thinking. The use of artworks appeared to facilitate imaginative, emotional and conceptual thinking about ethics and clinical experience (both past and future). This study provides some evidence to support the effectiveness of the use of the visual-arts in promoting student recognition of ethical dimensions within their clinical experience and reflection on their emerging professional identity. As one student noted, she left the museum ‘somewhat changed’.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2017
Indoor tracking of smartphones adds context to smartphone applications, enabling a range of smart... more Indoor tracking of smartphones adds context to smartphone applications, enabling a range of smarter behaviours. The predicted use cases are many and varied, and include navigation, planning, advertising and communication. Potentially, indoor tracking could become as ubiquitous as GPS - however, all of these possibilities depend on being able to produce a reasonably accurate, reliable system which does not require specialised infrastructure. While professional systems using custom devices are able to achieve very high levels of accuracy (<;1 cm), consumer no-infrastructure systems struggle to achieve reliable room-level tracking. This paper focuses on the use of WiFi received signal strength indicator (RSSI) fingerprinting, a machine learning approach which currently seems to be the most promising option for consumer smartphones. We have undertaken experimentation and optimisation in a real-world, noisy environment - the Ian Potter Museum of Art - where we developed and deployed a no-infrastructure, indoor visitor tracking application. Data was collected in a trial involving several dozen users over a few weeks, who used the system extensively. This data was analysed with a range of current WiFi RSSI fingerprinting techniques and algorithms (WASP, Redpin (kNN), SSD, SVM, Gaussian Naive Bayes and Random Forests), and their efficacy was compared and improved where possible. Known challenges such as device heterogeneity are explored, and the consistency of signal levels, including magnetic fields, are examined. Large Random Forests (200 trees) were found to have the best performance, which was further improved by calibrating for average differences in RSSI between phone models, to achieve an average of 90% correct classification of exhibits within the top five hits.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2017
Abstract onlyC Galletly, S Gill, P Clarke, T Paterson, L Hah
A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to n... more A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to not only know about the ethical principles guiding their practice, but to also autonomously recognize when and how these principles might apply and assist these future practitioners in providing care for patients and families. This article aims to contribute to discussions about ethics education pedagogy and teaching, by presenting and evaluating the use of the visual arts as an educational approach designed to facilitate students' moral imagination and independent critical thinking about ethics in clinical practice. We describe a sequence of ethics education strategies over a 3 year Doctor of Physiotherapy program, focusing on the final year professional ethics assessment task, which involved the use of visual arts to stimulate the exploration of ethics in healthcare. The data (in the form of student essays about their chosen artwork) were analyzed using both thematic and content ana...
Optometry and Vision Science
SIGNIFICANCE No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativity and ... more SIGNIFICANCE No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativity and object-based learning to cultivate “soft skills” exists. The design and outcomes of this study will contribute to the body of optometric education, and future research will assess the applicability of these findings to other allied health disciplines. PURPOSE Optometrists, like all health care professionals, need to be proficient in soft skills such as effective communication and interpersonal skills. Rather than assuming these soft skills can be developed “on the job,” we implemented a teaching intervention for students to develop their communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills. METHODS Students from optometry, arts management, and animation attended an autobiographical museum in interdisciplinary groups and examined an artifact relating to aspects of professionalism mentioned previously. We evaluated whether and how students experienced this activity as enhancing their creativity and other soft skills via survey results and thematic analysis of their reflective essays. RESULTS Our findings showed that this group work has augmented their professional development, with approximately 90% of the students reporting that it had helped in critical self-reflection and future improvement of communication and interpersonal skills. Eighty percent of the students stated that this group work was beneficial and enjoyable and recommended object-based and interdisciplinary learning to be embedded in future group work. Themes generated from the essays were the following: (a) perceptions of object-based learning in a museum and (b) insights into group work experiences. CONCLUSIONS This is the first pilot study that investigates group work across optometry and nonclinical disciplines in a post-graduate curriculum using museum objects. Our findings, based on students' perceptions, imply that students emerged from the program with the intent to transfer their learning to their future practice. We propose that this purposefully designed-based and creative group work may support the development of professional attributes essential for optometric students.
Australian Literary Studies, 2012
The Australian Library Journal, 2007
The Tasmaniana Library of the State Library of Tasmania has been developed on the foundation of a... more The Tasmaniana Library of the State Library of Tasmania has been developed on the foundation of a large and important donation of books from the private collection of William Walker. Walker's collection was presented to the Tasmanian Public Library in two discrete gifts in 1923-24 and in 1933, the year of his death. The many thousands of volumes presented by Walker represented an enormous enrichment of the impoverished library's collections, particularly in the field of Australiana and Tasmaniana. The donations received considerable attention in the local press and were actively promoted by library staff. However, the importance of Walker's philanthropy was largely forgotten in the decades after his death. The reasons for this effacement are complex, evolving from the difficult financial circumstances of the Tasmanian Public Library during that period, and the character of the donor himself. Developments in the library since the 1940s, including most significantly the major philanthropy of William Crowther and Henry Allport in the 1960s, also furthered the eclipse of Walker's earlier benefaction.
Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association, Jan 5, 2017
Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiolo... more Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiology textbooks have focused on the cognitive (i.e., the clinical aspects of radiographic interpretation) rather than the features of visual observation that improve identification of abnormalities. As a result, the skill of visual observation is underemphasized and thus often underdeveloped by trainees. The study of the arts in medical education has been used to train and improve visual observation and empathy. The use of the arts to improve visual observation skills in Veterinary Science has not been previously described. Objectives of this pilot study were to adapt the existing Visual Arts in Health Education Program for medical and dental students at the University of Melbourne, Australia to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students and evaluate their perceptions regarding the program's effects on visual observation skills and confidence with respect to radiographic interpre...
Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association, Jan 5, 2017
Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiolo... more Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiology textbooks have focused on the cognitive (i.e., the clinical aspects of radiographic interpretation) rather than the features of visual observation that improve identification of abnormalities. As a result, the skill of visual observation is underemphasized and thus often underdeveloped by trainees. The study of the arts in medical education has been used to train and improve visual observation and empathy. The use of the arts to improve visual observation skills in Veterinary Science has not been previously described. Objectives of this pilot study were to adapt the existing Visual Arts in Health Education Program for medical and dental students at the University of Melbourne, Australia to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students and evaluate their perceptions regarding the program's effects on visual observation skills and confidence with respect to radiographic interpre...
Optometry and Vision Science: November 2020 - Volume 97 - Issue 11 - p 962-969, 2020
Abstract SIGNIFICANCE No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativit... more Abstract
SIGNIFICANCE
No research in optometric education that uses Moore's concept of creativity and object-based learning to cultivate “soft skills” exists. The design and outcomes of this study will contribute to the body of optometric education, and future research will assess the applicability of these findings to other allied health disciplines.
PURPOSE
Optometrists, like all health care professionals, need to be proficient in soft skills such as effective communication and interpersonal skills. Rather than assuming these soft skills can be developed “on the job,” we implemented a teaching intervention for students to develop their communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills.
METHODS
Students from optometry, arts management, and animation attended an autobiographical museum in interdisciplinary groups and examined an artifact relating to aspects of professionalism mentioned previously. We evaluated whether and how students experienced this activity as enhancing their creativity and other soft skills via survey results and thematic analysis of their reflective essays.
RESULTS
Our findings showed that this group work has augmented their professional development, with approximately 90% of the students reporting that it had helped in critical self-reflection and future improvement of communication and interpersonal skills. Eighty percent of the students stated that this group work was beneficial and enjoyable and recommended object-based and interdisciplinary learning to be embedded in future group work. Themes generated from the essays were the following: (a) perceptions of object-based learning in a museum and (b) insights into group work experiences.
CONCLUSIONS
This is the first pilot study that investigates group work across optometry and nonclinical disciplines in a post-graduate curriculum using museum objects. Our findings, based on students' perceptions, imply that students emerged from the program with the intent to transfer their learning to their future practice. We propose that this purposefully designed-based and creative group work may support the development of professional attributes essential for optometric students.
University of Melbourne Collections Magazine, 2017
In this article I report on my recent experience in three interlocking areas of interest: cultura... more In this article I report on my recent experience in three interlocking areas of interest: cultural objects and museums, health humanities and narrative medicine, and older people as museum visitors and healthcare recipients. I explore some pedagogical and research opportunities that have arisen at this nexus, in the specific context of the University of Melbourne’s cultural collections.
The first area of interest is the incorporation of the university’s art collections, using object-based learning strategies, into three subjects in the university’s new, fully online, Master of Ageing program. Course materials were created over a period of 18 months through 2015–16, and are now delivered to online cohorts. The second involves a multi-disciplinary research project that emerged from these pedagogical contexts and from a growing interest in the opportunities for museums to become involved in questions of ageing. This project—The Role of Cultural Institutions in Facilitating an Age-Integrated Society—seed-funded through the university’s Hallmark Ageing Research Initiative (HARI), examines how far museums around the world have come in working with older populations and attracting them as visitors—whether through programming, physical settings, co-creation, active participation or research—and proposes some specific steps towards better harnessing the opportunities of cultural institutions to help meet the challenges posed by ageing populations. The third of the interlocking areas of interest is the experiences of older people in the art museum, which we explored by interviewing older visitors to some of the cultural collections of the University of Melbourne, Shepparton Art Museum in regional Victoria, and Melbourne Museum.
Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound, American College of Veterinary Radiology, 2017
Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiolo... more Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core veterinary radiology textbooks have focused on the cognitive (i.e. the clinical aspects of radiographic interpretation) rather than the features of visual observation that improve identification of abnormalities. As a result, the skill of visual observation is underemphasized and thus often underdeveloped by trainees. The study of the arts in medical education has been used to train and improve visual observation and empathy. The use of the arts to improve visual observation skills in Veterinary Science has not been previously described. Objectives of this pilot study were to adapt the existing Visual Arts in Health Education Program for medical and dental students at the University of Melbourne, Australia to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students and evaluate their perceptions regarding the program’s effects on visual observation skills and confidence with respect to radiographic interpretation. This adaptation took the form of a single seminar given to third year DVM students. Following the seminar, students reported an improved approach to radiographic interpretation and felt they had gained skills which would assist them throughout their career. In the year following the seminar, written reports of the students who attended the seminar were compared with reports from a matched cohort of students who did not attend the seminar. This demonstrated increased identification of abnormalities and greater description of the abnormalities identified. Findings indicated that explicit training in visual observation may be a valuable adjunct to the radiology training of DVM students.
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 2018
A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to n... more A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to not only know about the ethical principles guiding their practice, but also to autonomously recognise when and how they might apply and assist them in the care they provide for patients and families. This paper aims to contribute to discussions about ethics education pedagogy and teaching, by presenting and evaluating the use of the visual arts as an education approach designed to facilitate students’ moral imagination and independent critical thinking about ethics in clinical practice. We describe a sequence of ethics education strategies over a 3 year Doctor of Physiotherapy program, focusing on the final year professional ethics assessment task which involved the use of visual arts to stimulate exploration of ethics in healthcare. The data (in the form of student essays about their chosen artwork) was analysed using both thematic and content analysis. Two key themes centred on emotional responses and lateral thinking. The use of artworks appeared to facilitate imaginative, emotional and conceptual thinking about ethics and clinical experience (both past and future). This study provides some evidence to support the effectiveness of the use of the visual-arts in promoting student recognition of ethical dimensions within their clinical experience and reflection on their emerging professional identity. As one student noted, she left the museum ‘somewhat changed’.
in T. Kador and H. Chatterjee (eds.), Material connections: exploring the role of objects in learning and wellbeing, Routledge, 2020
Object-Based Learning and Well-Being provides the first explicit analysis of the combined learnin... more Object-Based Learning and Well-Being provides the first explicit analysis of the combined learning and well-being benefits of working with material culture and curated collections.
Following on from the widely acclaimed Engaging the Senses, this volume explicitly explores the connection between the value of material culture for both learning and well-being. Bringing together experts and practitioners from eight countries on four continents, the book analyses the significance of curated collections for structured cultural interventions that may bring both educational and well-being benefits. Topics covered include the role of material culture in relation to mental health; sensory impairments; and general student and teacher well-being. Contributors also consider how collections can be employed to positively address questions of identity and belonging relating to marginalisation, colonialism and forced displacement.
Object-Based Learning and Well-Being should be a key first point of reference for academics and students who are engaged in the study of object-based learning, museums, heritage, health and well-being. The book will be of particular interest to practitioners working in higher education, or those working in the cultural, heritage, museums and health sectors.
Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) conference, Canberra, 2019
A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to n... more A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become health practitioners to not only know about the ethical principles guiding their practice, but also to autonomously recognise when and how they might apply and assist them in the care they provide for patients and families. This paper aims to contribute to discussions about ethics education pedagogy and teaching, by presenting and evaluating the use of the visual arts as an education approach designed to facilitate students’ moral imagination and independent critical thinking about ethics in clinical practice. We describe a sequence of ethics education strategies over a 3 year Doctor of Physiotherapy program, focusing on the final year professional ethics assessment task which involved the use of visual arts to stimulate exploration of ethics in healthcare. The data (in the form of student essays about their chosen artwork) was analysed using both thematic and content analysis. Two key themes centred on emotional responses and lateral thinking. The use of artworks appeared to facilitate imaginative, emotional and conceptual thinking about ethics and clinical experience (both past and future). This study provides some evidence to support the effectiveness of the use of the visual-arts in promoting student recognition of ethical dimensions within their clinical experience and reflection on their emerging professional identity. As one student noted, she left the museum ‘somewhat changed’.
Higher education in professional areas such as Information Technology (IT) or Engineering is ofte... more Higher education in professional areas such as Information Technology (IT) or Engineering is often criticised for not preparing graduates adequately for their respective industries. Usually, these criticisms focus on a lack of soft (or transferable) skills like communication, presentation, and collaboration. Responding to this need, international postgraduate IT students at the University of Melbourne develop soft skills through workshops in drama/movement, and enquiry-based exploration of Australian indigenous and non-indigenous art. Students are both culturally and disciplinarily ‘out of their comfort zones’, in situations that demand metacognitive alertness. Positive outcomes over three successive cohorts include increased confidence in presentation, ability to engage intellectually and emotionally with ambiguous material, and increased knowledge of local culture, all of which have direct applicability to career success. This paper explores this example of cross-disciplinary enquiry-based learning in depth, and overviews related applications of the pedagogy across other curricula, including science, geography, population and allied health.
This presentation explores the authors’ recent experiences in presenting creative (?) engaging pe... more This presentation explores the authors’ recent experiences in presenting creative (?) engaging pedagogical content for subjects in the new online Master of Ageing degree at UoM, utilising University of Melbourne cultural collections in a fully digital environment. The Master of Ageing is an innovative course that brings together leading experts from multiple disciplines, schools and faculties for a holistic and proactive approach to the economic, social and political dimensions of ageing. It was officially launched early in 2016, as one of the first fully online graduate courses at the University of Melbourne. It has been designed to produce leaders and creative thinkers in the field of ageing able to develop new approaches and policies that move towards a more positive and holistic view of ageing. The authors’ creation of digital content for a number of subjects in the Master of Ageing encompassed three interlocking areas of knowledge and experience to expand students’ understanding of the subject areas. These areas included digital engagement with cultural objects and museums, gerontology and theories of ageing, and older people as users of cultural heritage and cultural institutions and as healthcare recipients. These online course materials were created over a period of 18 months through 2015-16, and are now delivered to online cohorts of postgraduate students.
One of the key challenges and opportunities afforded by the Ageing subjects was the format of delivery: a shift to a fully online format from a face-to-face engagement, physically utilising the museum environment, which has been a standard Object-based-learning approach. This presentation will explore the opportunities, as well as the challenges that were encountered, and offer some suggestions into future digital literacy engagements utilising material culture and cultural institutions for pedagogical purposes.
A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become professionals to not only... more A common goal of ethics education is to equip students who later become professionals to not only know about the ethical principles guiding their practice, but also to independently recognise when and how they might apply in workplace situations. Educators need an understanding of ethics education approaches, underpinning pedagogy and practical goals to enable them to purposefully design ethics curricula to equip students for the multidisciplinary and ethically-complex environments they will encounter as professionals. There is increasing interest in teaching methods which assist students to move beyond normative ethical principles and professional rules towards the capacity to recognise ethical dimensions of their work within different workplace contexts. The requires students to develop sufficient moral imagination and courage to apply ethical principles in imaginative, creative, responsible and accountable ways. The Visual Arts have been increasingly used in professional education to promote observation skills and to foster a deeper understanding of and compassion for self and others.
This workshop will introduce an innovative pedagogical approach using the visual arts, to foster students’ moral imagination, empathy and independent critical thinking about ethics for their future professional practice. We will present two examples from health disciplines (medicine and physiotherapy) of how visual arts was used to facilitate imaginative, emotional and conceptual thinking about ethics and professional experience.
Participants will have the opportunity to discuss their own disciplinary ethical norms and goals of education and to apply the visual arts pedagogy and methods to design a learning activity for their specific professional disciplinary practice.
By 2030 Australia will have a shortfall of 19,000 mental health nurses (MHNs). Retention of MHNs ... more By 2030 Australia will have a shortfall of 19,000 mental health nurses (MHNs). Retention of MHNs is an immediate and critical issue. This paper presents data from an initiative aiming to enhance MHN identity and skills through a teaching collaboration between the University of Melbourne’s Department of Nursing and The Ian Potter Museum of Art. Positive early results including video feedback will be shown.
Learning healthcare ethics is more than knowing about biomedical ethical principles. Health care... more Learning healthcare ethics is more than knowing about biomedical ethical principles. Health care students need opportunities develop moral agency, moral imagination and moral courage to recognise and then respond to ethical dilemmas and issues in clinical practice.
In this talk we present an example of a teaching approach which used visual arts at the university art museum as a trigger for final year Physiotherapy students’ reflections and analysis of ethical issues in clinical practice. As well as describing the teaching example and providing evidence of students’ responses, the talk discusses the underlying pedagogy for this approach, so as to explicitly link pedagogy and practice in ethics education.
We hypothesise that using artworks necessitated a personal and emotionally engaged response from the students, which we consider gave access in turn to a more nuanced and engaged understanding of the ethics as integral although not always visible in everyday practice. The talk will summarize our key findings, which were that utilising the visual arts seemed to foster and legitimise feelings, not just intellectual understanding of ethical principals; to encourage students to engage in more lateral and exploratory thinking around ethics in healthcare; and to provide an opportunity for students to integrate a rich and wide range of relevant sources.
Learning healthcare ethics is more than knowing about biomedical ethical principles. Health care... more Learning healthcare ethics is more than knowing about biomedical ethical principles. Health care students need opportunities develop moral agency, moral imagination and courage to create more constructive practices in their health care discipline. We compare and contrast two methods for teaching ethics to final year physiotherapy students. The first; using a narrative trigger to analyse ethical issues and the second; object-based learning in the form of artwork self-selected by students from a campus art museum. We highlight different processes of ethical reasoning and engagement between the two groups. We also discuss the particular value of object-based learning utilising visual arts for health science students to “make meaning through deploying and extending their existing interpretative strategies and repertoires”, and to enhance their moral agency.
The Visual Arts in Health Education (VAHE) program, developed at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Un... more The Visual Arts in Health Education (VAHE) program, developed at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne over the past three years, delivers ‘curated’ educational experiences for graduate students in the areas of medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, nursing, biomedicine, and veterinary science. Collaboratively shaped and integrated into the differing curriculum needs over these different disciplines, the sessions variously target objectivity and rationality in observation, through to evoking reflection and emotional self-awareness in students. But while the visual arts do seem to offer an almost infinite resource for teaching and reflection in these spheres, can we really have it both ways? Can exploration of the rational and emotional productively co-exist in this highly specific teaching context? The paper explores these ideas through the lens of the brief history of the VAHE program at UoM, and an exploration of future directions for the program.
In this presentation, I will argue for the value of utilising the visual arts in a museum context... more In this presentation, I will argue for the value of utilising the visual arts in a museum context in specific aspects of medical and health sciences education. I will argue that the great value of the visual arts relates to a cluster of attributes that can be leveraged to promote desirable skills and ways of thinking in students. These attributes range from those concerning the materiality of the artworks, which provide opportunities to practice skills in close inspection; the visual content of the images, which provide opportunities to engage in abstract and creative thinking; through to the cultural and social contexts of production, explorations of which encourage ethical and empathetic thinking. In addition, I will argue that the unique environment of the art museum acts to level professional hierarchies, and to encourage group participation as well as personal responsiveness. I will illustrate these interconnected attributes by focusing upon a small selection of artworks that I have utilised recently, ranging from Renaissance prints through to contemporary Australian art, within specific teaching contexts at the University of Melbourne, including Medicine, Dentistry, Physiotherapy and Veterinary Science.
Health humanities taught in an art museum environment offers exciting opportunities for education... more Health humanities taught in an art museum environment offers exciting opportunities for education into broad areas of medicine, dentistry and health sciences, including physical examination, empathy, cultural competency, communication and ethics. While the success of this type of program is very evident in the proliferation of programs in the USA and increasingly the UK, the underpinning platform can go unremarked: that is, in order to utilise art museum environments, there must be a very high quality collaborative relationship forged between the professionals in the health fields, and professionals in the art museum sector. A high quality relationship relies upon the matching of the expertise, research and teaching skills across the disciplines, engendering the essential trust that allows time-poor and highly-skilled health professionals to devote teaching and research hours with their students in humanities contexts. In order to forge and manage programs that move beyond one-off ‘pilot’ sessions, the art museum professional must maintain and constantly enrich his or her knowledge of key areas of clinical teaching practice, and the ‘stress-points’ in that practice that can be usefully reflected upon within a humanities contexts, in areas such as ethics, effective communication in difficult contexts with patients and colleagues, managing ambiguity in data and situations, empathy for the patient, and thinking in both critical and creative ways. This paper explores the concept of nexus in humanities and health training, and offers experiences and ideas around collaborative processes in this exciting and expanding domain based on the author’s experiences at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne.
Indoor tracking of smartphones adds context to smartphone applications, enabling a range of smart... more Indoor tracking of smartphones adds context to smartphone applications, enabling a range of smarter behaviours. The predicted use cases are many and varied, and include navigation, planning, advertising and communication. Potentially, indoor tracking could become as ubiquitous as GPS - however, all of these possibilities depend on being able to produce a reasonably accurate, reliable system which does not require specialised infrastructure. While professional systems using custom devices are able to achieve very high levels of accuracy (<1 cm) using ultrasound or top-quality accelerometers and are suitable for emergency situations or high-value asset tracking, consumer no-infrastructure systems struggle to achieve reliable room-level tracking. While many techniques are being explored that leverage fundamentally different technologies, this paper focuses on the use of WiFi received signal strength indicator (RSSI) fingerprinting, a machine learning approach which currently seems to be the most promising option for consumer smartphones. We have undertaken experimentation and optimisation in a real-world, noisy environment - the Ian Potter Museum of Art - where we collaborated with museum staff to deploy a no-infrastructure indoor tracking application that enabled visitors to post their thoughts about artworks. Data was collected in a trial involving several dozen users over a few weeks, who used the system extensively. This data was analysed with a range of current WiFi RSSI fingerprinting techniques and algorithms (WASP, Redpin (kNN), SSD, SVM, Gaussian Naive Bayes and Random Forests), and their efficacy is compared and improved where possible. Known challenges such as device heterogeneity are explored, and the consistency of signal levels, including magnetic fields, are examined. Large Random Forests (200 trees) were found to have the best performance, which was further improved by calibrating for average differences in RSSI between phone models, to achieve an average of 90% correct classification of exhibits within the top five hits. We collected over 6000 WiFi scan fingerprints in total, including 4796 at the gallery, and mapped 86 different exhibits. We found that the best method for fingerprint data is to use a large random forest (in this case, 200 trees worked well) and include compass data in the fingerprint. Magnetic field data, and in particular, compass orientation, did prove to be one of the features selected strongly by the random forest. While the SVM and Naive Bayes algorithms were unable to utilise it effectively, the random forest gained slightly in accuracy when that data was available. We were also able to improve the designed-for-wifi Wasp algorithm's accuracy and find its optimum set of parameters, however it never attained accuracy as great as the large random forest (though it did easily beat SVMs and Naive Bayes). By calibrating our readings through adding a constant based on the historical data from the device making the recording, we were able to improve our accuracy for both algorithms on both the smaller and larger dataset. In order to utilise the accuracy of the random forest, a live location server must be able to use an offline-learner as standard random forests require off-line training (however, random forests as on-line learners are an active area of research). The location server created in our work implements such a system.
"Health humanities at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne".
Health care students at the University of Melbourne are developing their empathy, moral insight a... more Health care students at the University of Melbourne are developing their empathy, moral insight and cultural awareness through a program that helps them look at art.
Humanities, arts and social science researchers each get three minutes to pitch their work to a p... more Humanities, arts and social science researchers each get three minutes to pitch their work to a panel of judges explaining clearly and concisely what they do and why it’s interesting and important. Highlights of Speed dating for HASS researchers, The Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) national forum. Melbourne October 2015
Op Ed by Julie Hare, Australian Higher Education Supplement
Description of the panel and demonstration session on the Visual Arts in Health Education and Vet... more Description of the panel and demonstration session on the Visual Arts in Health Education and Veterinary Science program at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, part of Melbourne Knowledge Week 2014.
INSITE Magazine, Museums Australia Victoria, Jan 1, 2014
Melbourne University Magazine, Aug 1, 2013
The Age National, (also Voice, University of Melbourne), Jul 8, 2013
What is the value of the art museum to the health sciences? What are the key factors in successfu... more What is the value of the art museum to the health sciences? What are the key factors in successful programming in this innovative, multi-disciplinary area that serves different needs across the health education sector, produces research data that leads to new teaching practices, engages students, and draws on our cultural resources?
Dr Gaunt’s conversation presents case studies from the Ian Potter Museum of Art’s Visual Arts in Health Education program, which engages students across Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne in curated educational experiences in the art museum. It seeks to share new knowledge developed over years of collaboration and interdisciplinary programs, and to prompt a discussion about the explicit value of teaching and learning in the art museum for health students, addressing challenges that arise and innovating for the future.