I’m a Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University, mainly teaching in Digital and Social Media (DSM) major in the Bachelor of Arts, and the Bachelor of Communication. My educational approach has been recognised with teaching awards from the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and, in 2012, an Australian Awards for University Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities and Arts from the national Office of Learning and Teaching.

Since 2016 I have returned to running my upper level unit Web Media. The unit  explores the changing nature of the media landscape in light of convergence and digitisation. The first half of the unit explores the evolving nature of existing industries and media forms (television, film, music, photography and videogames) while the second half of the unit focuses on media forms which have emerged due to opportunities afforded by networked digital culture, including apps, online video, and spreadable media more broadly. Examples of the final Reflective Web Media projects completed by students in past versions of this unit are available online. The unit runs annually and is also available twice a year online via Open Universities Australia.

I regularly taught Web Communications which is the flagship unit for the DSM major from 2009-2014, and sporadically thereafter; it is taught in three parts, the first introduces the Internet and World Wide Web, the second looks at the emergence of “Web 2.0” (looking at blogs, wikis, Twitter, social networks and content sharing) and culminates in a critical examination of social media and individuals and/as information. A version of the unit is also available at the graduate level and available online via Open Universities Australia running in all four study periods annually.

In 2015 I wrote and ran Web Play: Online Games and Gamification, which explores the impact of videogames and game mechanics of various forms throughout contemporary society. This unit has since undergone various changes and is now taught as Online Games, Play and Gamification.

I am available for graduate research supervision. Recently completed HDR projects I’ve supervised include:

• Dr Kahlia McCausland, “Keep Calm, it’s just Vapour”: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Online E-Cigarette Discourse and User Perspectives in Western Australia, PhD 2021 (associate supervisor).
• Miriam Gichomo, How do News Consumers in Western Australia Perceive the Credibility of News?, Masters by Research, 2021 (Primary Supervisor).
• Dr Shanshan Liu, Visual Social Media and Vernacular Responses to Environmental Issues in China, PhD 2020 (primary supervisor).
• Dr Alkim Ozaygen, Analysing the Usage Data of Open Access Scholarly Books: What Can Data Tell Us?, PhD 2019 (co-supervisor).
• Dr Karen Lowry, Metalepsis in Digital Poetry: Representing Australian Suburbia through the Convergence of the Verse Novel and Electronic Literature and Chamberlain Street, PhD 2016 (co-supervisor).
• Dr Erin Stark, “Re-placing the networked self: Place, identity, and the experience of being online” PhD 2015 (co-supervisor).
• Dr Salim Said Ali Al Kindi,”Online Tools in Teaching and Learning and the Problem of ‘Web 2.0’: A Case Study of an Information Studies Department, Oman“, PhD 2014 (primary supervisor).
• Dr Paul McLaughlan, “Beyond the Ebook: Digital Ecologies and the Future of the Author-Publisher Relationship, and Bibliotek: A Novel”, PhD 2014 (co-supervisor).
• Dr Deepti Ruth Azariah, “Mapping the Travel Blog: A Study of the Online Travel Narrative”, PhD, 2012, (co-supervisor).

Teaching History

I was previously located at the University of Western Australia (UWA) where I wrote, taught and coordinated the following units:

• 2008: iGeneration: Digital Communication and Participatory Culture (Honours level) / (Masters level)
• 2008: Creative Selves: Reflection, Practice and Presence (Honours level)
• 2008: Digital Media (Comm2203) (Student News projects; Digital Media projects) *
• 2005: iGeneration: Digital Communication and Participatory Culture (Honours Level)
• 2004: Self.Net: Communicating Identity in the Digital Age *

During my time at UWA I also participated in a number of other units, including:

• 2008: Cultures, New Media and Communication (tutor, guest lecturer)
• 2008: Communications Project unit (tutor)
• 2008: Designing Virtual Play (guest lecturer)
• 2007/8: Human Technology: Debating Communication  (tutor, guest lectures)
• 2007/8: Ecotexts: Nature/Writing/Technology (guest lecturer)
• 2006/7: Foundations of University Teaching and Learning (Coordinator)
• 2006/7: Postgraduate Teaching Internship Scheme (Coordinator)
• 2006/7: Introduction to University Teaching (Coordinator)
• 2004: SmArts Program (tutor)
• 2003: Reading Texts, Mediating Culture (tutor)
• 2002: Reading Theory (tutor)
• 2002/4/5: Sex, Bodies, Spaces: Gender in Popular Culture (tutor, guest lecturer) *

* Asterisked units were also taught offshore as part of the Communication Studies program at the Hong Kong University’s Centre for Degree Programmes).