DF and 3DVWs short papers

DEBUT -HEA Pathfinder (DF)
Sue Westerman, Canterbury Christchurch
Staff dev - personalised approach
Existing fragmented models of staff dev not sustainable as impact on individuals was fuzzy/lost.
DEBUT changed staff dev methods to look at developing Digital Literacy as a whole rather than specific skillls. (This connects to the paper Liz, Kay and myself did.)
Staff asked to rank themselves at the beginning and end against certain criteria (see below).
Staff asked to pick 6 tools to explore (including podcasting, Flickr, wiki, etc)
Inspired by Alan Martin - definition 4 DL - not very encompassing: about tech and confidence (awareness, confident, evaluated use of tools they use), reflection, adaptability.
She says being adaptable is most important as tech moves on.
Noted rapid increase in self-assessed literacy amongst participants especially those who were relatively illiterate at the beginning.
Many were integrating new skills/confidence into practice and this was unexpected.
They liked being the people who chose the tools. Well-established with academics. They liked f2f and the opportunity 2 share practice. Participants preferred group sessions, followed by brief homework, then group reporting and sharing of experience.
Issues: Mixed ability groups, how to encourage independence, time available, easy access to appropriate technologies.
It worked - but labour-intensive.
At start a mass intro to tools followed by mentoring (mentoring was not so useful)
No/nextw:
• annual staff dev prog.
• Embedding with current work
• extension/add-on work for the more confident
• keeping cohort 1 connected
Plenty of applications to programme join from academics
PowerPoint was most popular and Refworks (mmmm disappointing to me!)
Wikipedia wasn't of interest (it should be - surely!)

www.canterbury.ac.uk/lteu
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From swords to hairstyles: bridging the divide between massively multiplayer game design and SL
Dave White -TALI, Open Habit
Compares WoW and SL
Social capital important to both - indication of player's commitment to tool.
Swords and hairstyles strong indicators!
(DW models media intervention to fill-in understanding with speech is not the best channel)
(Inverted whiteboard table appeared in video - must nick this creativity tool)
Subject groups: UGcontent (A&D - Ian Truelove, Leeds Met) or Soc presence (philosophy, Oxford)
WoW locked diown or SL editable environments
SL a blank canvas/ WoW offers a fixed narrative
ie notebook/novel
Do you need to understand about 'buttons' before you can play (with VLEs)? DW says no.
Used Open Sim (locally installed version of SL). Lack of subtle gestures that are useful for educational use - they're thinking about generating ed gestures.
How to orientate studs? - drop in deep end with people on hand with one to one support. Very few skills needed to get started.
see: http://media.conted.px.ac.uk/res02