Theme Of Conference Research Articles

Anticipatory evaluation

Starting with the Australian Evaluation Society 2024 Conference theme of ‘wayfinding’, the article reflects on how evaluators navigate time as well as space, with particular reference to how they incorporate qualitative approaches to ‘futures thinking’ into their evaluative practice. The article takes a reflexive case study approach, drawing on a simple model of evaluative practice to review the role of futures thinking in evaluation of doctoral research projects, impact investments, social assistance, and development studies as an academic field. The article focuses particularly on the role of ‘backcasting’, as well as deliberative processes and the causal mapping of narrative claims linking future possibilities to current thinking and activities.

American Society for Indexing (ASI) Annual Conference 2024: ‘Spread Your Indexing Wings’

The American Society for Indexing (ASI) annual conference was held in June 2024 at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. It was the first in-person conference for many years. The conference theme of ‘Spread Your Indexing Wings’ was reflected in the program, which included a range of sessions for both new and established indexers. Conference attendees enjoyed the collegial atmosphere and the opportunity to connect with other indexers.

Editorial

The editorial for the 16.1&2 Special Issue, ‘6th International Dance and Somatic Practices Conference – Reconnections: Looking back, moving forward, enacting change’, welcomes readers to this issue with some Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices updates and follows with an outline of why and how this Special Issue has been curated, reflecting on the sixth Dance and Somatic Practices Conference held in July 2023. The editorial continues with a summary of each of the contributions to the issue, including papers presented at the conference, additional submissions addressing the conference themes and book reviews.

Revolutions: an introduction to the #AoIR2023 special issue

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the ‘Revolutions’ themed special issue which includes research presented at the 24th annual Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference (2023). The conference theme centered on revolutions, highlighting the connections between digital transformations and social movements across time and space. Focusing on the affordances of digital technologies for mobilization, resistance and achieving social justice, but also their limitations in enabling lasting social change, the conference theme asked participants to reflect on the tradeoffs between empowerment and subordination, and the relationship of digital ‘revolutions’ to racial justice, anticolonial movements, and the rising tide of white supremacist and fascist mobilization. This special issue includes six papers that offer new angles on critically assessing the groundbreaking early ideas underpinning online networked spaces and questioning the revolutionary potential of the internet today. The range of papers includes contexts related to platform power and user agency, online political subcultures and memeification, the balance between visibility and power for content creators revolutionizing live streaming and influencer cultural industries, and perceptions of AI’s revolutionary impact on romantic relationships. The studies in this issue also offer a global view, with geographies stretching from the MENA region and China to subcultures and marginalized groups in Western contexts such as the US and Canada.

AANZCA2023 Conference Special Issue Introductory Article

ABSTRACT We often look to the past to think about how to navigate the future. The 2023 AANZCA conference theme drew on the Māori whakataukī or proverb, ‘Ka mua, ka muri’, which roughly translates to ‘walk backward into the future’. The theme provoked colleagues to reflect on the contextual forces of the recent past to make sense of our unknowable futures. In this editorial, we explain the local organising committee’s reasoning behind the theme, retell the story of the conference as it played out, and introduce the articles that make up this special issue. The articles span a range of topics from crisis communication, media identity, and the changing role of the internet in our social lives and research practices. Across their different contexts and methods, they illustrate the diversity of ways our community is looking to our past to feel our way towards a future.

Shaping global strategy, mobilising for local action: reflections from the World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2023

Drowning is a significant cause of preventable mortality and morbidity and has been described as a serious, preventable and neglected public health challenge. Amid building momentum for drowning prevention, most...

The Future of Feedback

Research shows that feedback practices significantly impact key student outcomes, including performance, engagement, and satisfaction (Esmaeeli, Shandiz, Shojaei, Fazli & Ahmadi 2023). Feedback is a crucial component of learning in Higher Education (HE) and plays a vital role in developing critical thinking, improving retention, and enhancing student engagement. The importance of timely dialogic feedback in enhancing student engagement and potentially improving retention is well understood (Advance HE 2020). However, academic staff are increasingly time-poor, with reduced opportunities to provide regular in-depth quality feedback outside of that given for summative assessment (Henderson, Ryan & Phillips 2019). Early experimentations with using Generative AI (GenAI) such as ChatGPT to provide feedback for formative assessment recognises that students will learn and work in an AI-enabled world beyond their university studies (Bowditch 2023). GenAI can be leveraged inside and outside the classroom to achieve positive student engagement and improved skill development thereby affording them the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed (Hooda et al. 2022). Engaging with GenAI for feedback purposes offers an opportunity to increase equitable access to feedback across the student cohort, to support and further develop their critical skills and learning outcomes. As Verhoeven and Rana (2023) note, “AI disruption may present an opportunity to shift the focus from assessment of learning to assessment for learning”. Utilising GenAI for feedback purposes can provide rapid, personalised learning support, and aid with planning, drafting, and revising student work. However, this adoption of GenAI for feedback must be driven and developed by the educator, keeping the human in the loop to ensure quality (Atchley, Pannell, Wofford, Hopkins & Atchley). Our project draws on the principles of feedback literacy, current research on using AI as learning tool (Verhoeven & Rana 2023b; Tubino & Adachi 2022) and emphasises student-centred learning through dialogic feedback practices. The project draws on scholarship from Mollick and Mollick’s seven approaches to student use of AI (2023), Perkins, Furze, Roe and MacVaugh’s framework for ethical integration of AI in assessment (2024), and emerging work from Liu, Brightman, and Miller on GenAI and feedback (2023). This presentation addresses the conference theme of Technology, providing an overview and reflection on staff development and adoption of GenAI for feedback processes for the benefit of student learning. We will showcase four use cases of the use of GenAI to design and implement feedback creation for undergraduate formative assessment across the three Colleges at the University of Newcastle. All cases engage innovation in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) practice in developing GenAI tools to support student learning via feedback. The presentation addresses the benefits and challenges of each approach. Recognising the value of feedback in student learning, this PechaKucha is aimed at a diverse audience in HE. Our presentation will demonstrate applicability and adaptability to a range of disciplines as we explore the impact new and emerging GenAI technologies can have on HE. We will introduce the possibilities of using GenAI for feedback purposes, and encourage staff to consider experimenting with and adopting their own innovative TEL practices.

Authentic feedback

Authentic assessment calls for authentic feedback (Dawson et al., 2021). Authentic feedback promotes the development of capabilities that transfer effectively from university to the workplace. I showcase an innovative process to improve the feedback on an assessment task that simulates a real-life scenario to undergraduate finance students at the University of Sydney. Authentic feedback inspires students to engage in higher-order thinking, decision-making and problem-solving to resolve the feedback comments (Molloy et al., 2020). I schedule a series of pre-submission classes that are dedicated to debating the assessment task and required standards with students. Feedback can motivate students to evaluate their own work and incorporate the insights for better quality performance. I focus on developing students’ understanding of the criteria that concern practitioners. The impact of the process to deliver authentic feedback is reflected in students’ perceptions of the extent to which they were guided by helpful feedback on their learning. The context is an undergraduate third-year elective unit, Bank Financial Management, which the University of Sydney Business School offers to students as part of its Bachelor of Commerce program. The objective of the unit is to expose students to the management of financial risks in banks. The unit’s assessment includes a group assignment on cybersecurity preparedness. The assignment is based on a case prepared by Korinek and Allayannis (2022). The case is framed from the perspective of the chief information officer of a mid-sized financial institution that has experienced a massive and unprecedented cyberattack in which $450 million of customer funds were stolen. The objectives of the assignment are for students to recognise the frequency and tremendous costs of cyberattacks, devise an incident response plan to cyberattacks and understand the cyber regulatory regime in which corporations operate. The unit attracts more than 500 enrolments per year. I deploy strategies for students to engage productively in the kinds of feedback practices that take place in the workplace. The grading rubric describes qualities sought by employers. The pre-submission classes provide opportunities for students to debate the issues with their instructors and peers and to develop practical solutions. The instructions require students to write a business-style report and to treat a bank’s managers as their target audience for the report. The process relies upon the Canvas learning management system. The feedback is delivered through a series of discussions between students and educators. The feedback process has contributed to improvements in students’ impressions of the assessment task and the quality of the feedback itself. This poster fits within the conference theme of technology enhanced learning (TEL) pedagogies. To deliver authentic feedback, the instructors augment face-to-face teaching with TEL including through video recordings, video conferencing and online discussion forums. I outline the opportunities and threats to educational quality posed by using TEL applications to generate authentic feedback. By presenting and analysing an example from university teaching in finance, I demonstrate implications and issues arising from Dawson et al.’s (2021) framework for authentic feedback. Dawson et al.’s framework contains the five elements of realism, cognitive challenge, affective challenge, evaluative judgement and enactment. I apply the framework to a feedback process as a way of identifying its authenticity and guiding its adjustment in a more authentic direction.

The entanglement of learning spaces, pedagogies, and technologies with the global polycrisis

This concise paper emphasises and amplifies the themes of this year’s ASCILITE Conference by elaborating on their importance contributing to higher education’s vital agenda of advancing human rights, democracy, justice and sustainability. We address the conference themes —learning spaces, pedagogies, and technologies— from a macro perspective, considering a range of urgent global issues with which higher education is entangled. These issues shape the possibilities and risks of higher education everywhere, as well as technology enhanced learning in particular. In the paper, we consider a range of challenges posed by the current global polycrisis, present a framework for confronting these challenges within higher education, and offer a set of questions for collective consideration in order to strengthen the higher education community’s ability to cope with a threatening and unstable future.

Interrogating Hierarchies to Build a Humanitarian Literacy Research Architecture: Multiple Perspectives

This year's conference theme was a collective invitation to face how we, as a literacy research collective, may have played a role in marginalization and disenfranchisement and the further promotion and perpetuation of conceptual and linguistic hierarchies. The conference theme also became an invitation to propose ways to counter these existing hierarchies and how we use research as part of that solution. That was the spirit behind this year's Integrative Research Review Panel. This panel brought together five scholars, encompassing four perspectives, to tackle this year's conference theme of “Interrogating Hierarchies.” The four papers approached the conversation about hierarchies from research on Black writing, English as a global affair, the science of reading, and social design-based experiments, not only outlining the pressing issues but also proposing solutions that our research community can embrace. As we read the four papers comprising this panel, it is worth pointing out how, despite the divergent departure points that each panelist's work represents, the four papers organically lay out a series of agreements about the need to rethink how we conceive English to avoid disenfranchisement, the importance of valuing minoritized and marginalized voices to rethink literacy, and the challenges to align our research with advocacy efforts.

6.H. Round table: Harnessing Patient-Reported Data for Health Innovation: Insights from the OECD PaRIS Initiative

Abstract Summary This round table will disseminate knowledge and foster discussions on data reported by patients with a chronic disease in primary care settings in 20 countries for enhancing health system responsiveness and effectiveness. By delving into the OECD’s Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS) survey’s development, adaptation, and analytical strategies, participants will leave with a richer understanding of how patient-reported data can inform and transform health policy and practice in Europe and beyond. Rationale The round table aligns with the Conference theme by focusing on the transformative potential of patient-reported data in health systems. OECD PaRIS provide a unique lens through which to examine patient-centered care, showcasing innovative methods to capture and utilize data across diverse health system contexts. This round table will explore the development, adaptation, and analysis of this flagship survey, revealing its critical role in shaping health policies and practices that are attuned to patient needs and experiences. Objectives 1. Understanding Development and Testing Processes: To gain insights into the systematic approaches used in developing patient-reported instruments that are both robust and sensitive across multiple healthcare settings; 2. Exploring Co-development and Adaptation: To discuss the challenges and strategies involved in adapting health surveys to various national contexts while ensuring stakeholder engagement and data relevancy; 3. Analyzing Data for Policy Making: To comprehend the analytical frameworks used in processing patient-reported data for crafting effective health policies and identifying factors that influence patient outcomes. Key messages • Patient reported data on experiences and outcomes provide essential information for health systems performance. • Unique insights into the systematic collection of such information can be gathered through the proposed discussion on the experience of designing and implementing the PaRIS Survey.

2.F. Scientific session: Challenges in healthcare architectures

Abstract The Workshop titled “Challenges in healthcare architectures” - proposed and developed by the three EUPHA Section: Urban Public Health (URB), Public Mental Health (MEN) and Environmental Health (ENV) - is aimed to foster the dialogue between designers (architects and urban planners), Public Health experts (operators, professionals and epidemiologists), general/sanitary Directors of healthcare facilities and medical staff, to establish a multidisciplinary approach for understanding together how to create and manage the healthcare facilities of the future. According to the main Conference topic “Sailing the waves of European public health: exploring a sea of innovation”, the workshop mainly addresses both the “Health care services and systems” and the “Health workforce, practice and training” EPH24 conference topics. The Workshops purpose is to explore the concept for the hospital of the future, that should be resilient to changes and capable of protecting different users’ health and tackle the transforming social, economic, environmental and epidemiological needs of the context in which they are located. As in many other spheres and economic activities, the pandemic accelerated the processes of innovation and digitization that had somehow already been activated. The healthcare issue, the use of smart devices for a dialogue between the healthcare professionals and the pervasive use of apps to monitor certain health parameters, are just some of the megatrends that were being observed and which have now necessarily entered into everyday life. In the same way, the hospital, which in the face of this gradual process of dematerialization and relocation of ‘softer’ clinical-diagnostic activities, reaffirms itself as a center of the highest specialty for the treatment and care of acute patients, for high-level clinical and experimental re-search, for diagnostics and more complex operations. At the same time, and finally, the hospital is inserted in a territorial healthcare facilities network, that should be planned, designed, and managed. The workshop program includes inputs which they argue current experiences, emerging practices and scientific outcomes related to the hospital design, planning and management sphere, coming from four different European countries. From designing to managing practices, in “Hospital Design and planning in the line of Foresight of Health Needs” and in “Sustainability in the Next Generation Hospital”. From digitalization in national resilience experiences, in “Digital Health Spaces in the City of Lisbon. The Role of Digitalization in linking Boundaryless Hospitals and Smart Health Cities” to novel approaches for specific disease, in “Building bridges: mobile mental health care units in four European countries”. Key messages • Explore the “hospital of the future” concept, resilient to changes, capable of protecting users’ health, and to tackle the transforming social, economic, environmental and epidemiological needs. • Establish a multidisciplinary and territorial approach, for understanding together how to create and manage the healthcare network of the future.

8.F. Scientific session: Promoting Public Health with healthy smart buildings

Abstract The Workshop titled “Promoting Public Health with healthy smart buildings” - proposed and developed by the three EUPHA Section: Urban Public Health (URB), Public Mental Health (MEN) and Environmental Health (ENV) - is aimed to foster the dialogue between designers (architects and urban planners), Public Health experts (operators, professionals and epidemiologists), policy/decision makers and buildings’ users, to establish a multidisciplinary approach for understanding together how to create and manage healthy living indoor environments (both housing and complex constructions/public buildings). According to the main Conference topic “Sailing the waves of European public health: exploring a sea of innovation”, the workshop mainly addresses both the “Climate emergency/Environment and health/Urban health” and the “Mental health” EPH24 conference topics. The workshop purpose is to explore the effects of the housing conditions, according to “umbrella” exposure of the quality of the buildings, stressing topics like emissions, qualities, functional features, accessibility, supportive, Indoor Environmental Quality, Indoor Air Quality, and health implications on users’ well-being. In fact, time spent at home and in the indoor environment increased due to the COVID-19 experience, and social-sanitary emergencies are expected to grow due to the urbanization phenomenon. Thus, the role of the physical environment in which we live, study, and work, has become of crucial importance, as the literature has recently highlighted. The workshop program includes inputs which they argue current experiences, emerging practices and scientific outcomes related to the healthy Buildings, coming from four different European countries. From Sustainable Development Goals, in “Healthy air for healthy minds”, to Indoor Environmental Quality implications, in “How to promote health in indoor living and working spaces: quali-quantitative analysis to evaluate the indoor air quality through users’ perception and low-cost sensors”. From experience-based works related to specific functions, in “Leveraging digital platforms to improve Public Health in hospital smart buildings”, to other specific public buildings’ experiences, in “Novi Sad cultural stations as healthy buildings for wellbeing concept”. Key messages • explore the relationship between housing conditions, Indoor Environmental Quality, and the implications on users’ well-being, like “umbrella” exposure of the quality of the buildings. • establish a multidisciplinary approach for understanding together how to create and manage healthy living indoor environments, at private and public scale.

10.C. Scientific session: Shifting the focus of health and economic policies: Investing in sustainable health and well-being

Abstract The main theme of the 18th European Public Health Conference, to be held in Helsinki in 2025, is ‘Investing for sustainable health and well-being.’ The theme emphasizes the concept that improving population health and well-being is an investment rather than an expenditure, benefiting society as a whole and contributing to a more sustainable economy. This workshop will introduce the thematic areas of the 2025 European Public Health Conference through three presentations. First, we will highlight the approach of public health policy drawing on the economy of well-being and its application in wider societal policymaking. Second, we will explore how EU policies can contribute towards a Wellbeing Economy and how to ensure health and wellbeing remain on policy-making agendas. Third, we will present an economic case for investing in health and health systems and highlight the co-benefits it brings to other policy areas and sustainable development goals. Finally, we will discuss the future expectations for European public health policy. The workshop will conclude with a general discussion, providing the audience with an opportunity to propose topics for inclusion in the programme of the European Public Health Conference in 2025. Key messages • Improving population health and well-being is an investment rather than an expenditure. • Investing in the population’s health and well-being brings co-benefits to other public policy areas.

Proceedings of the 2024 Australasian Road Safety Conference - Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Proceedings of the 2024 annual Australasian Road Safety Conference held in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The proceedings provide the Extended Abstracts and Posters describing research, educational and policing program implementation and policy and management strategies related to all aspects of road safety and especially related to the conference theme of Target 2030: What's the pathway forward? Almost 600 delegates from 20 countries attended the face-to-face conference. Authors of accepted Extended Abstracts represented international and local institutions from all aspects of their respective communities including research centres, private companies, government agencies and community groups. These Extended Abstracts provide an indication of the important work being done in Australia, New Zealand and internationally as part of the United Nations, One UN Vision for Road Safety to reduce the number of crashes on the road by 50 percent by 2030. Almost 200 Extended Abstract manuscripts were accepted for long, short and poster sessions. Each Extended Abstract was peer-reviewed by two experts with relevant expertise. Authors were also provided the option of submitting a Full Paper. Those authors who chose to submit a Full Paper for consideration in the Journal of Road Safety (JRS) could do so based on the outcome of the peer review of their Extended Abstract. Submitted Full Papers undergo peer-review by three independent experts matched by their sector. The matching pairs academic authors iwth academic reviewers and practitioner authors with practitioner reivewers. Inclusion in the JRS follows acceptance by the peer-reviewers.The conference covered a comprehensive range of topics including speed, infrastructure and road design, cyclist safety, motorcyclist safety, pedestrian safety, road safety education, licensing, vehicle design, impairment due to distraction from mobile phones, alcohol, drugs as well as the impacts of climate change on future transport systems road safety, road safety issues for Indigenous people groups across New Zealand and Australia, integrating road safety into local Government, automated enforcement, gig economy road safety, older drivers, etc.

“What is all the damage the drugs are doing to my body?” A study of the effect of internalized stigma on harm reduction information-seeking behavior of people who use opioids in Kensington

The United States is in the midst of an opioid crisis. The rate of overdose deaths rose 30% from 2019 to 2020, numbers that represent an escalation theorized to have been brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 112,000 people died of drug overdoses, mainly from synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, in 2023 (CDC, 2024). This poster will display the results of a mixed-methods survey conducted with 101 people who use opioids in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia- commonly called the epicenter of the opioid crisis. Participants were asked about their experiences with getting harm reduction information and how those experiences interacted with their own feelings of stigma. They were asked about their harm reduction information needs, experiences looking for this information, and how best to provide it to them. This poster will display current unpublished results to-date. The data analysis has revealed a meaningful impact on information-seeking behavior for participants who have heightened internalized stigma- even to their known detriment. This study is meaningful to stakeholders, including librarians, who may provide public health information to the community of people addicted to opioids. And, to the conference theme, what is more ethical that providing harm-reduction information to the addicted?

Truth & Information? Preparing Information Organization & Retrieval Students for an AI Future

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not a new concept or technology, but has taken the world by storm with the recent advancement of generative AI, such as ChatGPT and Bard. The metadata, cataloging, collections, and retrieval areas of library and information studies (LIS) are already experiencing disruption and soul-searching because of generative AI, but it remains to be seen to what extent the technology can benefit, or even harm, these areas of LIS. The Metadata, Cataloging, & Collections SIG session will include a panel of three educators who will discuss the use of artificial intelligence in information retrieval and cataloging courses, and provide ideas for educators hoping to learn more about the impact of AI and how to incorporate activities and discussions of AI in their courses. Priya Kizhakkethil will report on student perceptions of AI in the LIS curriculum, with a focus on Information Retrieval courses. With the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) tools like ChatGPT, there has been much discussion about its impact on libraries and the work of librarianship. But there is a gap in the literature that addresses how such disruptive technologies should be addressed in the LIS curriculum. This presentation covers a work in progress pilot study seeking to understand LIS student perceptions on the use of generative AI tools as part of their course work. Themes relating to student perceptions on the use of Gen AI tools for an Information Retrieval course will be discussed, which includes the potential ways of using these tools as noted by the students. Vyacheslav (Slava) Zavalin will discuss the critical need for understanding the AI landscape and its application to information organization within LIS. He will demonstrate using Google Gemini, the AI-powered assistant, to create bibliographic examples and then analyze and discuss the accuracy of the records. Karen Snow recently assigned advanced cataloging students an exercise that required them to create a basic MARC/RDA bibliographic record using ChatGPT. The resulting transcripts of their conversations with ChatGPT, and their reflections on the experience, were a fascinating demonstration of the benefits/drawbacks of AI in cataloging work, but also of the importance of educating students on how to effectively use AI. After the presentations, audience members will be encouraged to ask questions and offer their own experiences and ideas concerning this area of LIS education. These presentations align well with the ALISE 2024 conference theme of “The Ethics and Evolution of Truth and Information.”

Understanding Information Literacy Instructional Practices: Implications for Preparing Pre-Service Librarians

The role of academic librarians in supporting people to navigate the changing information environment is fundamental to librarianship and is critical in the current information environment. This poster focuses on the implications for educating pre-service librarians about the realities and challenges associated with that role, drawn from a national survey of instructional librarians in the U.S. The project speaks directly to the conference theme, “The Ethics and Evolution of Truth and Information,” as the survey respondents engage directly on the frontline of these issues. Implications for shaping the expectations of future instructional librarians will be revealed from findings of a national online survey currently underway. The survey returns to a series of questions motivating longitudinal surveys of librarians’ instructional practices conducted in other countries, and most recently conducted in the U.S. in 2016 (Julien 1998, 2000, 2005; Julien, Gross, & Latham, 2018; Julien & Leckie, 1997; Julien, Tan, & Merillat, 2013; Polkinghorne & Julien, 2018). These data paint a detailed picture of the daily practices of these professionals and the challenges they face. Despite changing technology, introduction of the ACRL Framework (2015), and the explosion of artificial intelligence use, many of the instructional practices and the pressures associated with the instructional role have remained stable (although the recent pandemic moved instruction online, at least for a time). Developing realistic expectations for the workplace is as relevant as is developing conceptual understanding, skills, and attitudes. Thus, the survey data provide an excellent opportunity to inform the education of master’s students.

A Community Informatics Research Network Vision Statement

Community Informatics (CI) became known in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a response to community needs. Within the field, community advocates and scholars utilize evolving technologies to foster community engagement and empowerment. Ideas for CI have been created, disseminated, and promoted in large part because of the Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN). This paper investigates the evolution of CI and the essential role played by CIRN in shaping the field’s trajectory. Collaborator interaction and complex socio-technical linkages are emphasized throughout the text, which highlights the worldwide, interdisciplinary nature of CI. Further, the paper investigates the accomplishments and shortcomings of the CIRN community and ultimately underscores the need for a comprehensive vision statement as we enter our next 20 years. The development process of this vision statement, along with CIRN values, mission, strategies, key literature, conference themes, and a CI declaration, are outlined. Through examining the historical roots of CI and CIRN, the paper provides insights into the ongoing dedication and development of global, inclusive, ethical, and culturally sensitive practices. The proposed vision and mission reflect the aspirations of the CI community, providing a roadmap for navigating the complexities of society, technology, and global collaboration. The strategic efforts are intended to improve research, practice, teaching, accessibility, and inclusion in the field of CI. This comprehensive vision aims to empower communities globally via the wise use of information and communications technology.

Fostering Community Dialogue through Participatory Methods: A People‐First Approach in Participatory Development Activities

ABSTRACTThis paper introduces innovative participatory methods designed to foster community dialogue and engagement in development initiatives. We present participatory mapping, participatory photography, and two culturally grounded games, “Mayuk” and “Cachiveras,” as tools to facilitate community participation, dialogue, and reflection. Grounded in the theory of participatory action research (PAR) by Orlando Fals Borda, these methods prioritize local knowledge, foster a dialogue of knowledge between communities and researchers, and aim for social transformation through active community participation. By implementing these participatory activities, we not only engage communities in identifying resources, strengths, and opportunities but also promote a playful strategy for adults to deepen analysis and engage in critical dialogue about their culture and communication. This approach aligns with the conference theme of Putting People First, demonstrating responsibility, reflexivity, and care in the creation and evaluation of participatory development activities.