Enabling collective creativity in schools using Minecraft: serious play

Situated in complexity theory this thesis covers the broad area of creativity re-conceptualise creativity within Australian mainstream education, as being something that continually emerges from collective process. In doing so, many of the key characteristics of the Australian education system, were analysed for the role they played in enabling or hindering creativity within a school. M inecraft was a key pedagogical tool used to filter this aspects through to reimagine them. The findings of this study included: 1. Situating pedagogies framed in complexity have limited scope in the current discourse around mainstream Australian education. 2. There is a role for pedagogies that arise out of new and conflicting discourses (e.g., complexity theory). Its place and role are one of continual ‘deterritorialization and reterritorialization’ (Deleuze & Guattari 1987; Roy 2003). Despite existing only on the edge of the discourse, their mere existence is evidence of the potential for change. 3. Digital games based on complexity, such as the MMO game Minecraft, have a place in education and are enablers of systemic creativity. 4. The students in the study were developing new and previously unnamed multithreaded identities through their complex game design and play. I have labelled this new form of identity Vellooming

The making and placing of The Escalators

The band The Escalators together with the music uniquely composed for it and a subsequent CD and DVDs was the work that emerged from my period of research. The areas of interest that were investigated were sampling, minimalism, stasis, the work of David Lynch, as well as a desire to produce new and innovative music. The above concepts defined the bands composition and makeup. While each may be regarded as a discreet concept with its own boundaries in my work they seamlessly intermingle resulting in that which is unique to The Escalators sound. The research methodology used for this work was practice led research

Emergent Collective Creativity

The world is not made of atoms it is made of stories - we could make a rocket from lava and lollies. Creativity has long been framed in the context of the individual, seen as traits or something one might possess. Kynan brings a new understanding of creativity as something that emerges from the complex collective; it is a shared practice. In education, this is a radical concept challenging commonly held understandings of learning, creativity, and knowledge. Kynan draws from lessons learned from his Ph.D. studies, will tell stories from his work with NoTosh, helping schools innovate, create and change and from his life as a professional musician - we might even hear some trombone

The NoTosh Curriculum Kitchen PART B (Continuation Featured Workshop)

This is a two-hour workshop, very hands on, and participants should count on participating in Parts A and B, and not one part or the other. Creativity and Curriculum rarely seem to go together as a happy couple, but NoTosh have pioneered a creative way for educators and research to approach building learning experiences that \u27cover\u27 the curriculum in hand, but achieve so much more of those things we want to see: fluency in thinking skills, learning put to action, normally tawdry concepts learnable in novel ways. The NoTosh Curriculum Kitchen uses the metaphor of a busy kitchen to help busy educators work together effectively, and become more judicious in the ingredients they consider in their own curriculum design. Information on Part A of this session can be found here

From Kindergarten to Industrial Engineering: a story of thinking from the past two years

The idea of ‘designing your thinking’ is still novel for many schools, and nascent in large-scale industrial engineering. Where innovations used to take years and billions of dollars, thinking skills we use with Kindergartners have helped transform the pace of invention in new contexts, particularly in the world of industrial and automotive engineering. Ewan McIntosh shares intriguing stories from the frontline of his team’s work, showing how learning in schools influences industrial invention

The NoTosh Curriculum Kitchen PART A

This is a two-hour workshop, very hands on, and participants should count on participating in Parts A and B, and not one part or the other. Creativity and Curriculum rarely seem to go together as a happy couple, but NoTosh have pioneered a creative way for educators and research to approach building learning experiences that \u27cover\u27 the curriculum in hand, but achieve so much more of those things we want to see: fluency in thinking skills, learning put to action, normally tawdry concepts learnable in novel ways. The NoTosh Curriculum Kitchen uses the metaphor of a busy kitchen to help busy educators work together effectively, and become more judicious in the ingredients they consider in their own curriculum design. Information on Part B of this workshop can be found here

First-line selective internal radiotherapy plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer (FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global): a combined analysis of three multicentre, randomised, phase 3 trials

Background Data suggest selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT) in third-line or subsequent therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer has clinical benefit in patients with colorectal liver metastases with liver-dominant disease after chemotherapy. The FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global randomised studies evaluated the efficacy of combining first-line chemotherapy with SIRT using yttrium-90 resin microspheres in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer with liver metastases. The studies were designed for combined analysis of overall survival. Methods FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global were randomised, phase 3 trials done in hospitals and specialist liver centres in 14 countries worldwide (Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, South Korea, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA). Chemotherapy-naive patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (WHO performance status 0 or 1) with liver metastases not suitable for curative resection or ablation were randomly assigned (1:1) to either oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy (FOLFOX: leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin) or FOLFOX plus single treatment SIRT concurrent with cycle 1 or 2 of chemotherapy. In FOXFIRE, FOLFOX chemotherapy was OxMdG (oxaliplatin modified de Gramont chemotherapy; 85 mg/m2oxaliplatin infusion over 2 h, L-leucovorin 175 mg or D,L-leucovorin 350 mg infusion over 2 h, and 400 mg/m2bolus fluorouracil followed by a 2400 mg/m2continuous fluorouracil infusion over 46 h). In SIRFLOX and FOXFIRE-Global, FOLFOX chemotherapy was modified FOLFOX6 (85 mg/m2oxaliplatin infusion over 2 h, 200 mg leucovorin, and 400 mg/m2bolus fluorouracil followed by a 2400 mg/m2continuous fluorouracil infusion over 46 h). Randomisation was done by central minimisation with four factors: presence of extrahepatic metastases, tumour involvement of the liver, planned use of a biological agent, and investigational centre. Participants and investigators were not masked to treatment. The primary endpoint was overall survival, analysed in the intention-to-treat population, using a two-stage meta-analysis of pooled individual patient data. All three trials have completed 2 years of follow-up. FOXFIRE is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN83867919. SIRFLOX and FOXFIRE-Global are registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, numbers NCT00724503 (SIRFLOX) and NCT01721954 (FOXFIRE-Global). Findings Between Oct 11, 2006, and Dec 23, 2014, 549 patients were randomly assigned to FOLFOX alone and 554 patients were assigned FOLFOX plus SIRT. Median follow-up was 43·3 months (IQR 31·6â\u80\u9358·4). There were 411 (75%) deaths in 549 patients in the FOLFOX alone group and 433 (78%) deaths in 554 patients in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group. There was no difference in overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1·04, 95% CI 0·90â\u80\u931·19; p=0·61). The median survival time in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group was 22·6 months (95% CI 21·0â\u80\u9324·5) compared with 23·3 months (21·8â\u80\u9324·7) in the FOLFOX alone group. In the safety population containing patients who received at least one dose of study treatment, as treated, the most common grade 3â\u80\u934 adverse event was neutropenia (137 [24%] of 571 patients receiving FOLFOX alone vs 186 (37%) of 507 patients receiving FOLFOX plus SIRT). Serious adverse events of any grade occurred in 244 (43%) of 571 patients receiving FOLFOX alone and 274 (54%) of 507 patients receiving FOLFOX plus SIRT. 10 patients in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group and 11 patients in the FOLFOX alone group died due to an adverse event; eight treatment-related deaths occurred in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group and three treatment-related deaths occurred in the FOLFOX alone group. Interpretation Addition of SIRT to first-line FOLFOX chemotherapy for patients with liver-only and liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer did not improve overall survival compared with that for FOLFOX alone. Therefore, early use of SIRT in combination with chemotherapy in unselected patients with metastatic colorectal cancer cannot be recommended. To further define the role of SIRT in metastatic colorectal cancer, careful patient selection and studies investigating the role of SIRT as consolidation therapy after chemotherapy are needed. Funding Bobby Moore Fund of Cancer Research UK, Sirtex Medical