Machinima interventions: innovative approaches to immersive virtual world curriculum integration

The educational value of Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) seems to be in their social immersive qualities and as an accessible simulation technology. In contrast to these synchronous applications this paper discusses the use of educational machinima developed in IVW virtual film sets. It also introduces the concept of media intervention, proposing that digital media works best when simply developed for deployment within a blended curriculum to inform learning activity, and where the media are specifically designed to set challenges, seed ideas, or illustrate problems. Machinima, digital films created in IVWs, or digital games offer a rich mechanism for delivering such interventions. Scenes are storyboarded, constructed, shot and edited using techniques similar to professional film production, drawing upon a cast of virtual world avatars controlled through a human–computer interface, rather than showing real‐life actors. The approach enables academics or students to make films using screen capture software and desktop editing tools. In student‐generated production models the learning value may be found in the production process itself. This paper discusses six case studies and several themes from research on ideas for educational machinima including: access to production; creativity in teaching and learning; media intervention methodology; production models; reusability; visualisation and simulation

Considering the Smartphone Learner: developing innovation to investigate the opportunities for students and their interest

Ownership of mobile smartphones amongst the general consumer, professionals and students is growing exponentially. The potential for smartphones in education builds upon experience described in the extensive literature on mobile learning from the previous decade which suggests that the ubiquity, multi-functionality and connectivity of mobile devices offers a new and potentially powerful networked learning environment. This paper reports on a collaborative study conducted by an undergraduate student with the support of two members of academic staff. The research sought to establish the extent to which students are autonomously harnessing smartphone technology to support their learning and the nature of this use. Initial findings were explored through student interviews. The study found that students who own smartphones are largely unaware of their potential to support learning and, in general, do not install smartphone applications for that purpose. They are, however, interested in and open to the potential as they become familiar with the possibilities for a range of purposes. The paper proposes that more consideration needs to be given to smartphones as platforms to support formal, informal and autonomous learner engagement. The study also reflects on its collaborative methodology and the challenges associated with academic innovation

Reconsidering the role of recorded audio as a rich, flexible and engaging learning space

Audio needs to be recognised as an integral medium capable of extending education’s formal and informal, virtual and physical learning spaces. This paper reconsiders the value of educational podcasting through a review of literature and a module case study. It argues that a pedagogical understanding is needed and challenges technology-centred or teacher-centred understandings of podcasting. It considers the diverse methods being used that enhance and redefine podcasting as a medium for student-centred active learning. The case study shows how audio created a rich learning space by meaningfully connecting tutors, students and those beyond the existing formal study space. The approaches used can be categorised as new types of learning activity, extended connected activity, relocated activity, and recorded ‘captured’ activity which promote learner replay and re-engagement. The paper concludes that the educational use of the recorded voice needs to be reconsidered and reconceptualised so that audio is valued as a manageable, immediate, flexible, potent and engaging medium

Egyptian stelae from Malta

In 1829, four Egyptian stelae of Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynasty date were found, surprisingly, on Malta. Based on their far-flung findspot, some have suggested that the stelae were locally made by Egyptian colonists who had settled on the island during the second millennium BC. This contribution argues that the stelae offer no basis for such historical reconstructions. Style, content and petrology demonstrate that all four stelae were made in Egypt and that they originally stood in the necropolis of Abydos in Upper Egypt. Microfossils show that these stelae are made of Egyptian limestones, which are of a different geological age to limestones available on Malta. The examination of polished thin sections of samples from the stelae using scanning electron microscopy suggests that the limestones employed were quarried from four geological formations of different ages in the Nile Valley.peer-reviewe

Ceramic petrography

O objetivo deste artigo é indicar o potencial da petrografía cerámica no fornecimento de informações arqueológicamente úteis sobre a cerâmica antiga. O lado prático da técnica é ressaltado, em especial a necessidade de amostragem destrutiva de fragmentos cerâmicos. São descritos também alguns aspectos históricos do desenvolvimento desta técnica. As possibilidades (e limitações) do método de estudo da tecnologia cerâmica e da determinação de proveniência são discutidas e ilustradas através de estudos de caso já publicados

Scenario-based evaluation of an ethical framework for the use of digital media in learning and teaching

nterest in educational podcasting, audio feedback and media-enhanced learning, in its various forms, has grown due to the increased access academic staff and students have to new technologies. The benefits have been widely reported in the educational development and disciplinary literature on learning technology, mobile learning, digital age learning, and assessment and feedback. However, such literature focuses more on what can be done, rather than if it should be done. Hargreaves (2008) signals the need to balance ethical risk in the creative curriculum with actions that maximise beneficence, especially within the context of a sector that espouses to develop critical skills in learners. In a world of constantly developing technology, it is not always easy to appraise the implications of a pedagogic innovation. As practitioners concerned with academic development, our aim is to facilitate academics to reflect on their practice from a variety of perspectives, and we felt that an easy–to-use ethical framework could assist academics to identify potential ethical problems. The Media-Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (MELSIG) is a UK network of academics, developers and learning technologists. They identified the need to consider the ethical risk associated with using digital media in response to examples described in recent literature, and ideas generated by its community. It was as a result of discussions at MELSIG that this collaborative work began. The three members of MELSIG were joined by a colleague with an interest in ethics but who was relatively inexperienced with new technologies. When this work began we looked primarily at digital media, but it is considered that such a framework can be used to appraise the use of other new technologies in learning and teaching. This paper will begin by giving a brief explanation of ethics, as a discipline, and the approach to ethics which underpins this framework. We will then discuss the results from a scenario-based evaluation of the framework, undertaken by the four authors. Following this evaluation, the framework is now being evaluated by a wider community of practitioners, on real examples, and continues to develop as it is exposed to wider use. However, it is considered that the initial scenario-based evaluation raised some interim findings that will be of interest to a wider audience

Audio feedback: timely media interventions

Audio feedback involves the use of distributed digital audio to provide formative messages to students helping them to develop knowledge and the way they learn. This paper presents several case studies by drawing upon interviews with academic staff and student focus groups. Ongoing research with these stakeholders identifies why audio feedback models, of which there are many, can be attractive and why they need to be carefully designed and integrated into the curriculum. The paper presents some early findings about the effective design of audio feedback and considers whether the interest in audio feedback may signal greater interest in designing constructivist media interventions

Sticking It to the Man by Standing by Your Man: Social Support as an Act of Resistance

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize literatures on stress, social support, symbolic interaction, and de Certeau as they pertain to the recovery of a homosexually-identified individual from a homophobic interaction. A model of the initial stressful interaction as well as the interaction between a homosexually-identified individual and his socially-supportive network is posited with the consumption of culturally-disseminated roles and the salience of role-identities as the mechanisms by which it works. The model is then considered as a form of resistance in the light of broader gay liberation social movements. The study focuses on white, middle-class, American, homosexually-identified males in order to control for variations that might occur from variables of race, class, nationality, and gender. Queer theoretical, essentialist, and postpositivist realist perspectives on identity are considered. The thesis concludes with possible future directions for an empirical study using the model outlined above

Power Failure: How the Texas Probate Code Leaves a Gap in the Ability to Preserve Estates After Death

Upon a person’s death in Texas, the decedent’s heirs and beneficiaries are left without the legal power to preserve the separate probate estate. Although the Texas Probate Code provides for a temporary administration in the case of an immediate need to preserve an estate, the application and court process are not correspondingly responsive. This Comment focuses on the “gap” left behind by the Texas Probate Code and the statutory inadequacies that come to light in the face of current practical problems. Additionally, this Comment proposes amendments to the statute and describes an interim solution for practitioners with the goal of each to close this “gap” in order to better preserve decedents’ estates

Power Failure: How the Texas Probate Code Leaves a Gap in the Ability to Preserve Estates After Death

Upon a person’s death in Texas, the decedent’s heirs and beneficiaries are left without the legal power to preserve the separate probate estate. Although the Texas Probate Code provides for a temporary administration in the case of an immediate need to preserve an estate, the application and court process are not correspondingly responsive. This Comment focuses on the “gap” left behind by the Texas Probate Code and the statutory inadequacies that come to light in the face of current practical problems. Additionally, this Comment proposes amendments to the statute and describes an interim solution for practitioners with the goal of each to close this “gap” in order to better preserve decedents’ estates