Formal Learning in an Informal Setting – The First Semester Student Learning Experience Outside the Classroom.

During a visit to the Centre for Active Learning at the University of Gloucestershire by members of the Information and Learning Service staff, a common interest in the student learning experience outside the formal classroom setting was identified. Both universities were undertaking extensive work on their provision of informal learning environments and it was felt a joint project to investigate the students’ learning experience and preferences would be useful to inform these developments with a specific focus on e-learning and active learning

Has Feminism failed the British Animation Industry?

The paper was written to present at a conference which was run by the PCA/ACA, a group of scholars and enthusiasts, who study the popular culture--writing, sharing, and publishing in the field. Every year the PCA/ACA offers a venue to come together and share ideas and interests about the field or about a particular subject within the field. This year it takes place in St Louis, USA. The four-day schedule includes special topics presentations, area-specific invited speakers, social receptions, tours, film presentations, and area get-togethers. The presentation of the paper takes twenty minutes and is offered to the press and publishers that are present for publishing. My paper will analyse past, and present roles women have within the British animation industry and elucidate significant differences between these past and present roles. I have worked as a women in the animation industry for over twenty years in a variety of positions including writer, animation director, executive producer, voice artist, script advisor and judge for the British Animation Awards. I have also won various awards including Best Newcomer, Best Animation and the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco so the fact that there has been a recent demise of women in these jobs is significant. In the early to mid eighties, women mainly worked as trace and painters or production assistants rather than producers. Occasionally they worked as animation assistants. During the late eighties and nineties commissioning of animation changed in the UK and became dominated by two main sources, the BBC and Channel 4. Both were keen to commission new talent and many women were commissioned during this time including myself. Suddenly there was a glut of new women animation directors and creators, many of them making autobiographical or observational work that explored socialization and identity developing new discourses and models for women. The commissions were low budget and these directors were given a lot of creative freedom enabling them to explore and comment on social and sexual hegemony. During this time the UK was generally seen as a leader in the world of animation and many of the films including Silence, Death and The Mother, Bob’s Birthday, Crapston Villas, Pond Life, and Black Dog went on to win a variety of awards including Oscars, Baftas, various British Animation and international awards. After the millennium, changes to the heads of broadcasters at both Channel 4 and BBC, as well as the loss of financial support from ITV for Channel 4 meant the decline of the animation department. Channel 4’s original remit had been to commission innovation and with the aid of ITV’s funding they could take more risks than most broadcasters. This all changed and the animation departments at both channels have now degenerated to nothing. At the same time animated films which explore the voices of women have diminished, as well as women working in the key roles of producer or director in the commercial industry. This paper investigates the roles of women in the UK animation industry in the past and looks at the expectations women have when entering the industry in today. My practical research usually takes the form of scripts and films but an examination of the roles of women today is something I feel is relevant to not just my own practice but my teaching

Selective mutism in children

This thesis focuses on selective mutism, a rare childhood disorder in which the child refuses to speak in many situations and there are no underlying medical or speech disabilities that explains their behavior. The research of the paper focuses on the many different factors that can have a role in the development of selective mutism, including parent child relationship as well as the development of anxiety. Also discussed are the impacts this disorder can have on a child’s development, two main areas being academics and social relationships. Many teachers and parents do not have a full understanding of selective mutism, which may hinder the support that is made available to the child as the age of onset often occurs around the child’s entrance to school. This makes selective mutism an important topic because there is a need for educating caregivers. Part of this project will be surveying teachers in order to gain an understanding of their knowledge of selective mutism and what can be done to bring more awareness to the disorder. This thesis will also discuss the positive outlook for selective mutism as there are many different types of treatments and approaches available for helping the child overcome their intense fear of speaking. (Author abstract)Kennedy, S. (2014). Selective mutism in children. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.ed

“Where’s home, Ulysses?” Judith Wright in Europe 1937

When Judith Wright travelled to Europe in the “loaded spring” of February 1937, the 22-year-old poet found herself witness to “a break in the consciousness of Europe”. This article argues that Wright’s experience of being an outsider in Europe at this crucial historical moment had profound implications for her poetics, in the form of a compound and productive series of displacements. Her peripatetic encounters with European cultures-in-crisis caused Wright to despair of Europe as a source of political and creative renewal, and exposed fault lines in her own cultural orientation. Sundered from her Anglophile cultural inheritance, and able to reflect on home with the distance and imaginative ambivalence of an outsider, Wright invoked Ulysses — that archetypal poetic wanderer — whose experience of archipelagic journeying came to express for her the contingencies and hauntedness of Australia’s palimpsestic identity. This essay positions the shifting perspectives and excursive patterns of Wright’s developing poetics in relation to concepts of outsideness and embodiment, drawing on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and phenomenological philosophies of mind. This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Sage Publications via http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002198941558983

The development of a functional food breakfast and its effects on gluco-regulation, cognitive performance, mood and satiety in adolescents

It is well documented that eating a regular breakfast is associated with benefits to markers of metabolic health and cognitive performance. The composition of breakfast differentially affects the metabolic response which may also have implications for cognitive performance. To date, much of the research on gluco-regulation is in adults, and no studies have investigated the effects of a functional-food breakfast (FB) on gluco-regulation and cognitive performance, mood and satiety in adolescents. Therefore, this thesis aims to address this research gap through the implementation of a series of five research studies. The primary aim was to investigate the effects of a FB which included ingredients selected for their potential to improve gluco-regulation (blueberries, baobab, cinnamon and oats) on measures of gluco-regulation (glucose response (GR) and insulin response (IR)) compared to a control breakfast (CB), and ready to eat cereal (RTEC) (adults only). Secondary aims were to measure: cognitive performance (using a map recall and delayed word recall task), mood (using the 'Activation–Deactivation Check List’) and satiety (using VAS scales). Measures were collected at timed intervals over a three-hour period after the three breakfasts. The study was first implemented in healthy adults (n=16, 32.0±10.0 years) in a controlled laboratory environment and found that consumption of the FB resulted in a lower glucose peak and a lower IR AUC, compared to the CB and RTEC (p.05). Two preliminary studies (chapter 3 and 4) contributed to aspects of the FB and CB development (chapter 5) and breakfast study design (chapter 6 and 7). In chapter 3, validation of a novel portable indirect calorimeter in adults (n=20, 38.3 ±11.2 years) resulted in the revision of the main hypothesis (chapter 2), where investigations into the effect of the FB on energy expenditure (EE) was discontinued. In chapter 4, the completion of a breakfast-based questionnaire by adolescents (n=434, 13-15 years) informed the choice of ready to eat cereal (RTEC) on which the breakfast conditions were based (chapter 5). Additionally, these studies made individual contributions to the literature reporting the use of indirect calorimetry in schools to collect body composition measures from adolescents (n=30) (chapter 3) and highlighting implications for the design of breakfast interventions in adolescents (chapter 4). Findings from this thesis suggest that the addition of functional food ingredients to breakfast has the potential to improve gluco-regulation in healthy adults and adolescents. The inclusion of functional food ingredients as part of breakfast should be considered alongside the promotion of breakfast

Does the Current British Higher Education system really prepare graduate animation students for a developing and changing industry?

There is a current trend in UK and Europe for animation students to work on group projects during their studies. ‘Creativity is not purely an individual performance. It arises out of our interaction with ideas and achievements of other people. It is a cultural process.’ (Pg 12. Robinson). Gobelins in Paris, was one of the first animation schools to start this trend and the final films were slick and professional with an incredibly long list of credits. Many of the graduates went straight into industry working as technical operators, animation assistants or riggers and many UK animation schools soon followed suit supported by institutions like Skillset (a UK government body set up to link industry with education). The idea has been championed by industry and a trend has started for animation courses to apply for Skillset or other similar accreditation bodies to give their courses a stamp of approval. These accreditation bodies have a say in how the course curriculum is taught and if the courses don’t follow their advice, there is a danger that this stamp of approval will be removed. The question is, does this turn out interesting creatives or factory style technicians specialising in one skill to fit into a large team of people. Robinson also goes on to say, ‘Creativity requires an atmosphere where risk taking and experimentation are encouraged rather than stifled’ (Pg 12. Robinson) . Is this ‘group work training’ a short sighted solution for today’s industry creatives and directors to solve an immediate skills shortage or will this stratégy keep the British animation industry at the cutting edge of creativity and innovation on the worldside stage

Is the Straight role in Comedy essential and why is it usually played by a women in animation?

The straight ‘man’ in stand up comedy or sitcom gives the eccentric character a presence to play against. It has long been accepted as an essential part of the process. “Well the straight guy is never given enough credit ….(Bud) Abbot gets no credit for framing a gag, for the architecture, for the support, for the drive. He does everything except the punchline; he’s amazing.” Mel Brooks. It is thought that if all or both characters were larger than life, they compete rather than compliment. Would scripted comedy work without this element or is it an essential part of the process? For many comedy writers, this element is an essential part, and animation is no exception, but a woman usually plays this role particularly in adult animation. Think Marge Simpson in the Simpsons, or Lois in Family Guy, or even Mummy Pig in Peppa Pig. Why do we find it funny to watch a woman being the voice of reason against an illogical and over emotional man? Or is it in fact the opposite? Is it funny because it is a given that men are organized and in control and women are hysterical so to see this reversed is ridiculous and funny. Is this a reflection of society today or is it in fact a reflection of the hierarchical sexist structure of the animation industry today? Why is it that most animation is still scripted and directed by men and how does this cater for the female experience? Women make up half of the population so where is the female voice in relation to the adult animation industry today? Live action TV comedy and stand up seems to have many larger than life funny female characters. Think Rosanne, French and Saunders, or Debra Digiovanni. Where is the equivalent of these female voices in the animation industry today? This paper looks at the function and importance of the straight character in comedy using examples from a taster for a comedy series staring British Actress Alison Steadman. It analyses why this role is over looked and often unappreciated and then looks at why the straight character in specifically adult animation is predominantly a woman