Author: aucadmin

Zac Fitz-Walter, Queensland University of Technology Part of CW12

Adding game elements to an application to motivate use and enhance the user experience is a growing trend known as gamification. This presentation discusses the use of game achievements when applied to a mobile application designed to help new students at university. I discuss Orientation Passport, a personalised orientation event application for smart phones which utilises game achievements to present orientation information in an engaging way and to encourage use of the application. The system is explained, the findings of two studies are discussed with recommendations made those who want to create similar apps. The presentation covers the intersection of education, motivation and video games.

Jimmy Ti, Queensland University of Technology Part of CW12

Scene Kit is a 3D-rendering Objective-C framework that combines a high-performance rendering engine with a high-level, descriptive API. Scene Kit supports the import, manipulation, and rendering of 3D assets without requiring the exact steps to render a scene the way OpenGL does.

Because Scene Kit integrates with Image Kit and Core Animation, you do not need advanced 3D graphical programming skills. For example, you can embed a 3D scene into a layer and then use Core Animation compositing capabilities to add overlays and backgrounds. You can also use Core Animation layers as textures for your 3D objects in 3D scenes.

– Introduction to SceneKit
– Key Features of SceneKit
– Demo of SceneKit

Sue and Brent Gregory, University of New England Part of CW12

The presentation will cover 3D virtual worlds, demonstrating ways in which to impart knowledge in interactive, engaging and authentic means. If students can learn in an authentic setting and become engaged in interactive mediums, they will remember content better. This presentation will demonstrate how students can learn in authentic 3D settings with their peers or by themselves.

Oleksander Motyka, University of Sydney Part of CW12

A case study on the inception, development and promotion of the University of Sydney app. The case study will cover:

• Understanding our audience and it’s needs
• Deciding how to implement the app (in house, off the shelf, contractors etc) and what platforms to support (iOS, Android, web)
• The implementation, it’s hurdles (we had to create many new web services to expose data to the app) and the resources required (over 15 staff work on various aspects)
• Marketing the app (the University undertook a large campaign) and user adoption
• Reflection and lessons learnt

I believe that many Universities would be interested in the process my University undertook to deliver a mobile app in particular why we chose the particular path we did.

The presentation will not require any technical knowledge.

Pamela Weatherill, Edith Cowan University Part of CW12

Interpersonal communication as a central workplace skill is well established. The skills required to effectively create and maintain these relationships shift however, when the communication takes place via computers (including tablets, laptops and smart phones). Workplaces often struggle with issues around digital communication technology, simply due to a lack of reflective skills building in areas such as evaluation of messages, paralinguistic text construction, reading non-linear messages and more simply developing an effective online voice. In many workplaces relationships are created and maintained with staff, virtual teams, customers, management and suppliers almost solely with text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC). While the use of SMS, chat software, email, discussion boards, wikis and social media are common place for relationship building in both personal and professional settings, there has been little reflection regarding the micro skills required to do this effectively in the workplace. This presentation focuses particularly on the skills sets and micro skills of interpersonal CMC required of tertiary graduates when they enter the workforce.

As part of a larger research project, this presentation focuses on feedback from employers of tertiary graduates across the 17 ANZSIC industry codes, and a review of relevant literature, to establish a model outlining the skills, and micro skills required for effective interpersonal CMC. With the intention being for use by online curriculum developers, the research has culminated in a comprehensive review of the generic graduate employability skills, and parallel skills required by graduate students – or indeed any professional in the workplace.

Douglas Heriot, University of Wollongong Part of CW12

Live events and installations these days can require many different systems for control.

Individually things like MIDI and DMX are pretty simple, but if you want to integrate these separate systems things start getting more complicated.

In this presentation I’ll talk about some common protocols used for control of different systems (MIDI, OSC, DMX, Art-Net), and how we can work with them on our Macs.
Quartz Composer is a great simple solution to quickly process this data without having to do any programming! It can synchronise & control these systems to do whatever you can imagine, and render live 3D graphics too.

I’ll show how to build some fun demos where MIDI and audio can control lighting and video systems, possibly even with audience involvement through web sockets in modern mobile browsers.

David Reid, Charles Sturt University Part of CW12

With the internet evolving rapidly from web 2.0 to web 3.0 academics face a battle integrating technology in the classroom. A significant number of Universities, Charles Sturt University included, are still attempting to address the impact of Web 2.0.

This presentation outlines an experiment in mutli platform teaching and digital integrated student engagement in a first year communications subject, Digital Media, at Charles Sturt University. It will present some provisional findings on the adoption and use of Apple mobile devices and Social Media platforms in T&L. This presentation will look reflectively at the highs and lows of this innovative approach, briefly demonstrating some of the tools and applications utilised in session. It will conclude with responses collected from students prior to their completion of the subject. It will highlight that the approach has been somewhat successful but also problematic in a number of areas.

Jessica Lethbridge, University of Tasmania Part of CW12

Designed as a gateway into electronics the LilyPad allows you to create anything from practical purposed wearable electronics to wearable art and high fashion. The LilyPad is a platform that allows for the creation of wearable electronics in a way that is easy to use for beginners but still powerful enough for the creation of elaborate, professional projects.

This presentation will provide a background to the LilyPad’s creation, aims and capabilities, then demonstrate how to set up and use the LilyPad using your MacBook or iMac. This will be followed by live demonstrations of what is possible within the realm of wearable art using the LilyPad and MacOSX.

Pritika Lal, Auckland University of Technology Part of CW12

This presentation expands on my current Masters post graduate research and introduces the audience to techniques and approaches in practice-led research.

This practice based research project explores meaning through making during the artists creative process. Through a series of experiments using Mac OSX and Xbox Kinect I explore the relationship between the physical of the artists hands and a virtual material created using depth mapping and projection.
This project draws on theories of the hybrid or cyborg as found in the writing of Donna Haraway, examples of body tracings from Ana Mendieta’s Silueta Series and concepts of cyber bodies initially found in William Gibsons Neuromancer and Verner Vinge’s True Names.

The presentation will include examples of experiments as video documentation, a technical description of digital material i.e Mac OSX, Xbox Kinect, MaxMSP, projection.
A demonstration of the creative outcomes and discuss related concepts and theories and a future use for the research.

Danny Munnerley, University of Canberra Part of CW12

As a relatively new and rapidly developing technology, applications for mobile devices, web cameras and now glasses that augment reality with digital objects are being taken up as potential educational tools.
There is a danger of educational applications being driven by what is technically possible, and by the interests and agendas of the early adopters, rather than what is pedagogically desirable, or empirically defensible. The risk of such a fragmented approach to augmented reality (AR) implementation may be to make it harder for academics and teachers to incorporate augmentation into their learning and teaching practices, and it may even alienate the less technically-minded, with AR left seeming as yet another flash-in-the-pan, short-lived technological toy, accessible only to those with technical know-how and high levels of IT literacy and competence.

In this presentation, we discuss how multi-modal, sensorial augmentation of reality links to existing theories of education and learning, focusing on ideas of cognitive dissonance and the confrontation of new realities implied by exposure to new and varied perspectives.

We stress that augmented realities, unlike virtual realities, are not substitutions for physical reality; not approximations to reality; but the layering of perspectives and experiences to augment and enrich reality. We discuss what opportunities AR opens up, and how those opportunities might be exploited within a given (constructivist) approach to learning and teaching. Finally, we consider existing applications of AR, trends in AR research and possibilities for uses of this technology in education.