The design of new hospital inpatient rooms is moving towards private (single occupancy) rooms. These rooms are generally preferred by patients and they may improve patient care, but they are more expensive to build and to staff than semi-private rooms. The question of their societal worth is important because hospitals are expensive, long-term investments and, once built, are prohibitively expensive to change. This paper presents a benefit-cost analysis of private rooms versus semi-private rooms in a proposed new hospital. We estimate that the net social benefit of a bed in a private room is about $70,000 more than a bed in a semi-private room.

This paper reports on a case study of an online pre-service teacher education course in a New Zealand university aimed at exploring the potential of student-generated podcasts as a form of interactive formative assessment at a distance. The study was part of a wider two-year funded project with the overall goal of documenting, developing, and disseminating effective and innovative e-learning practice. Findings from lecturer and tutor interviews, student focus group discussion and course evaluations indicated that the podcasting task provided opportunities for the course lecturer, tutors and students to learn and share ideas with one another. The experience empowered students to develop the skills and confidence to initiate more independent inquiry into technologies to support their pedagogical purposes. The study contributes to a better understanding of the skills, dispositions and knowledge needed to prepare teacher candidates for teaching-learning contexts where ICTs are increasingly pivotal.

In a teacher education context, this study considers the use of social media for building a professional online presence and learning network. This article provides an overview of uses of social media in teacher education, presents a case study of key processes in relation to professional online presence and learning networks, and highlights issues and challenges for wider consideration. Specific practical illustrations are provided, relating experiences when starting out with social media, integrating coursework challenges for student teachers, and considering feedback and future planning. Social media is used in teacher education for sharing content, discussing, and collaborating. There are challenges and risks with social media in an academic context. Students require differentiated scaffolding depending on their expertise and confidence.In terms of social implications, professionals are warned to safeguard online reputation, while making proactive use of social media to enhance learning networks.

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Podcasting in higher education most often takes the form of lecture capture or "coursecasting" as instructors record and disseminate lectures (King & Gura, 2007, p. 181). Studies published within the past five years continue to prioritise podcasting of lectures for the student audience, and to test the effectiveness of such podcasts via traditional pencil and paper assessments covering the material delivered via podcast (Hodges, Stackpole-Hodges, & Cox, 2008). A premise of this article is that in order to enhance learning outcomes via podcasting, it is necessary to move beyond coursecasting, toward podcasting with and by students, and to value key competencies and dispositions as learning outcomes. This article reports on a pilot study undertaken with teacher education students in an online ICT class, where students investigated podcasting and created reflective podcasts. The pilot study aimed to engage students actively in generating podcasts, incorporating a wider view of assessment and learning outcomes. Student-generated podcasts were self-assessed, and shared online in order to invite formative feedback from peers. A range of positive outcomes are reported, whereby students learned about and through podcasting, engaging in reflection, problem solving and interactive formative assessment.