The changing focus of early childhood education, cyber bullying and the impact of advertising on children’s health are some of the topics to be discussed at a conference on Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Dubbo Campus next week. Ms Tracey Simpson, Head of the School of Teacher Education at CSU’s Dubbo Campus, said that the conference is one way that the University maintains its links with the broader education community and offers teacher education students authentic learning experiences. A range of presenters, including Ms Pam Cahir, CEO of Early Childhood Australia, Ms Simpson and fourth year honours and third year early childhood and primary education students, will also discuss the effects of advertising on children’s health, quality teaching and gender stereotyping in education. The conference is jointly sponsored by CSU and the Central Far West Regional Group of Early Childhood Australia.

Explorations of body language in children with autism, surviving car accidents with traumatic brain injuries and working in rural schools and in Vietnam are among the topics in a Charles Sturt University (CSU) conference on the latest in speech pathology, to be held on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 November in Albury. The two day conference, titled Searching for Treasure, the hunt for evidence and experience in rural Australia, is hosted by 35 final year speech pathology students from CSU who will present workshops on various topics relating to current practices in speech pathology. Guests include Dr Shani Dettman, who will present an overview of research on speech and language development in young children with Cochlear implants, and the group “Wild Choir”, young performers who show that having a disability is no limit to your singing ability. Searching for Treasure will be held in the Nowik lecture theatres on CSU’s Albury city site, Guinea St, Albury, starting at 3pm on 7 November.

Doctoral and masters students and early-career researchers from universities, government agencies and private institutes involved in environmental and resource economic research are expected to attend a two day forum next week at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Associate Professor Mark Morrison, from CSU’s School of Marketing and Management, said that the Early-Career Researcher Workshop, known as E-CReW, aims to provide a forum for early-career researchers to get feedback on their research in a supportive and non-threatening environment. “Researchers can interact with and get advice from more experienced academics, as well as meet with other researchers at a similar stage of their careers. It also provides a forum for employers to meet new graduates or those who are soon to graduate, and for research agencies to discuss current research needs,” he said. E-CReW 2007 is hosted by the University’s Institute for Land Water and Society (ILWS) at the University’s Bathurst Campus on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 November. Approximately 70 participants from six countries are expected to attend.

Works by the late art lecturer at the Mitchell College of Advanced Education (MCAE, Bathurst), Ms Jo Ross will be auctioned on Friday 9 November to raise funds for environmental projects in the Bathurst area. Ms Ross lectured at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) predecessor institution, MCAE, in the 1970s and 80s. According to former Bathurst mayor Peta Gurdon-Meara, Ms Ross “enjoyed watching the University grow in stature, reputation and enrolments”. She later served as a councillor on Bathurst City Council for four years from 1992. Her sons, Ben and Steve Ross, have requested that their mother’s art legacy be used to benefit specific environmental projects carried out by the organisation Greening Bathurst.

The Dean of the Faculty of Education at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Australia, Professor Toni Downes will deliver the occasional address at a ceremony in Hong Kong this Sunday 28 October 2007. Almost 130 graduates will be eligible to receive their awards from CSU during the ceremony in the Langham Place Hotel, Mong Kok, Hong Kong from 10.30am. Many of the graduating students have completed their studies under an international collaboration between CSU and The University of Hong Kong - SPACE. Also attending the ceremony will  be the Chancellor of CSU, Mr Lawrence Willett AO, who will present the awards to the graduates.The courses range from accountancy, human resource management, information  technology ,library and information management, teacher librarianship, nursing and pathology.

Classroom discipline will be the focus of the latest public forum in the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Edversation series. The media tell us that students are changing and that the old ways of developing classroom discipline are no longer useful or effective. The forum, led by a team of CSU educators, will consider the questions: are students in classes really different today? do we need new ways of working with student and what works best? and what are the roles of teachers, parents and students in contemporary classrooms? The CSU academics will be joined by primary and secondary school teachers as well as senior secondary school students. The forum will have time for comment, questions and discussion from the floor. The forum will be held from 6pm on Tuesday 30 October in the council meeting room, Wagga Wagga Civic Centre, Baylis St, Wagga Wagga.

Complaints can be a positive management tool, providing very good feedback about areas in need of improvement within an organisation, according to Charles Sturt University (CSU) Ombudsman Miriam Dayhew. The CSU Ombudsman will deliver a public lecture on complaints management on Wednesday 31 October in Tumut to discuss the current complaints system used by the University, with examples of how it has been used as a positive management tool. Ms Dayhew says staff, students and others have a right to voice critical comments and it is essential to have an effective complaints system in place to deal with issues as they arise. “By dealing with complaints at the outset, an organisation is more able to resolve them, thereby preventing them from escalating, costing time and resources, and can use the experience to identify faults and improve processes,” said Ms Dayhew. Ms Dayhew is responsible for developing and maintaining CSU’s complaint management systems.

During World War 2, the Japanese temporarily captured Kiska Island in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and established a major military base. The move was seen as a threat to control Alaska. Cultural heritage manager and archaeologist with Charles Sturt University's (CSU) Institute for Land, Water and Society, Associate Professor Dirk Spennemann will present a richly illustrated talk on Thursday 25 October on his recent work on the uninhabited, remote and wind-swept island. Professor Spennemann visited the island at the request of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to research the big guns and military relics left on the island after it was abandoned by the Japanese in 1943. This free public lecture will be held from 6pm in conjunction with the Australian Army Museum in the Army Museum Theatrette, Murray Valley Highway, Bandiana, four kilometres east of Wodonga.

The Canadian High Commissioner for Australia, Mr Michael Leir, will visit Albury this week to launch a new Canadian publication, Advancing an occupational therapy vision for health, well-being and justice through occupation. The importance of the ground breaking publication, edited by Canadian academics Drs Elizabeth Townsend and Helene Polatajko, will be explained by speakers from Charles Sturt University's (CSU) School of Community Health to occupational therapists from NSW and Victoria. The book launch, starting at 10.30am on Thursday 25 October, will be followed by a seminar for local professionals. CSU academics will take the professionals through the latest thinking on the practice of occupational therapy, concentrating on the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance. The launch and seminar will be held in the Gordon Beavan building boardroom, CSU Albury Wodonga Campus, off Old Sydney Road, Thurgoona.