edna.edu.au

Boston Accessing the Future Conference

We presented a poster session at the IEEE-IBM sponsored Accessing the Future Conference in Boston from the 20th-21st July. It was one of those terrific mixed media events with the programmer from our project team, Charles Morris, presenting live, and three of us presenting virtually through Second Life and via Skype. We presented on our collaborative project involving Virtual Helping Hands (VHH) and the assistive technologies under development including Max Voice, a text chat to voice application that functions in Second Life and Max the virtual guide dog. We are incorporating these technologies into the open source environment we are developing through the Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant - our focus at present is on adapting an open source viewer so that these features can be used with Second Life or other emerging 3D virtual worlds such as OpenSim. You can learn more about our ALTC funded project from the project site: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/3dvle/ and the Virtual Guide Dog project site: http://www.virtualguidedog.com/

After our presentation we were invited to establish a showcase of the assistive technologies under development on the IEEE island in Second Life. We have claimed our virtual space and will begin development soon. I will be posting more news and images from the showcase in coming weeks.

Tags: second life  accessibility  3d virtual worlds 
Posted at 11:38PM Dec 27, 2009 by Denise Wood |  Comments[0]

Radio interview about experiential learning in Second Life

In my August segment on Radio 5RPH I spoke about the experiential learning our Web design students are undertaking in which they are creating accessible websites for organisations and volunteer groups. I spoke in particular about one of my courses (Accessible Interactive Media) in which the students are creating accessible sites for disability and health related groups in Second Life. Their clients include The Health Support Coalition, Alliance Library (Healthinfo Island) and Virtual Helping Hands. I conduct a virtual tutorial class with the students each week in Second Life during which time we review the progress they are making on their projects and discuss any challenges they have experienced in working with groups in virtual worlds.

I also discussed the work our students are doing with the SA Government Office for Volunteers in a program founded by a colleague, Phil Marriott, called Sustainable Online Engagement.

You can listen to the radio program from this url: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/3dvle/media/rph_ll2_290809.mp3

Tags: experiential learning  second life  3d virtual worlds  service learning 
Posted at 11:32PM Dec 27, 2009 by Denise Wood |  Comments[0]

AARNET virtual worlds workshop

I was invited to present at the AARNeT hosted Virtual Worlds Workshop at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales on the 17th September.

There were 23 attendees at the workshop including representatives from AARNet, AIT Sydney, Audio Visual Services  (UTS), Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, Cisco, Electroboard, Flinders University,  NSW Department of Education and Training (x3), Scientific Acoustics, UoW/Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre, Sony Australia Ltd, University of South Australia, University of Southern Queensland, University of Wollongong  (x2) and Wenona School.

The speakers at the event included Mandy Salomon (Swinburne/SSCRC), Danny Stefanovic & Wes Ward (ExitReality), Farzad Safaei (UoW/SSCRC), Scott Grant (Monash), Denise Wood (UNISA) and our coordinator and speaker Lindy McKeown (USQ).  Brett and Jason (AARNet) did any excellent job with audio/video support.

The talks are available online at
http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/aarnet/AARNet_workshops_2009/

My presentations are available from:
http://prezi.com/1shaozw87x-q/
http://prezi.com/yvzqc_qwn8eu/

Tags: accessibility  3d virtual worlds 
Posted at 11:30PM Dec 27, 2009 by Denise Wood |  Comments[0]

The use of a peer review instrument to scaffold students in peer review and self assessment

I presented at the ERGA 2009 conference on feedback and flexible learning  at Adelaide University on the 24th September. My presentation focused on the adaptation of our ALTC funded peer review instrument for use by students to facilitate reflective thinking through formative feedback and assessment.

Further information about the ERGA Conference 2009: Feedback and Flexible Learning held 24- 25  September: Lower Napier Building, University of Adelaide is available from: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/erga/

I also presented a formal peer reviewed paper on this topic at the ATN Assessment Conference held at RMIT, Melbourne on the 19th and 20th November. The theme of the conference was "Assessment in Different Dimensions": http://emedia.rmit.edu.au/atnassessment09/

Tags: self-assessment  assessment  reflective practice  feedback  peer review 
Posted at 11:26PM Dec 27, 2009 by Denise Wood |  Comments[0]

ASCILITE 2009 presentations

The ASCILITE 2009 conference was held at the University of Auckland from the 6-9th November, 2009. The conference theme  "Same places, different spaces" generated many papers focusing on topics such as blended learning, virtual learning environments, social spaces, mobile and work spaces: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/?m=Programme&s=Themes

I presented a paper based on trials of the use of the 3D virtual world, Second Life, for service learning in which my students undertook projects with disability and health related groups in SecondLife: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/procs/wood.pdf

I also co-presented a co-authored paper with UniSA colleague, Russell Fewster on practice led research in 3D virtual worlds within the performing arts discipline: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/procs/fewster.pdf

Tags: second life  3d virtual worlds  practice led research  service learning  performance 
Posted at 11:21PM Dec 27, 2009 by Denise Wood |  Comments[0]

Ethics of Affect in Virtual Worlds

It was a hectic start to December. From presenting at the ASCILITE conference in Auckland I flew to Sydney to present with colleague, Dr Anna Hickey-Moody from the University of Sydney at the Australian Anthropological Annual Conference held at Macquarie University. The theme of the conference was the "Ethics of and Politics of Engagement" and the paper we presented was titled the"Ethics of Affect in Second Life" based on our ethnographic research with individuals in Second Life who identify as disabled. The details of the conference are here: http://www.anth.mq.edu.au/conf/theme/ and you can download the program complete with abstracts: http://www.anth.mq.edu.au/conf/program/AAS2009_program.pdf

Tags: disability  3d virtual worlds  culture  ethics 
Posted at 11:16PM Dec 27, 2009 by Denise Wood |  Comments[0]