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CreateWorld 2011 Proceedings [PDF]
Creating and Designing an Audio Journey in Student Assessment Feedback
Zofia Pawlaczek, Institute of Teaching & Learning, Deakin University
This composition charts the journey of student assessment feedback that was given to a group of health education students, studying teacher education programs, in both on and off-campus modes of study. Telling students about their learning performance, via audio recordings bounced as MP3s and then emailed to them, provided an opportunity for more nuanced and effective feedback. Writing – “this is a borderline pass” always conveyed a bluntness that students mistook as detachment. Saying it on the other hand, with a deliberate inflection that conveyed concern and support resulted in students’ having faith in my judgments on assessment. Using the original tutor feedback that was recorded directly into Logic pro using a Rode podcaster, the composition has been embellished with voice-over comments that came from unsolicited student feedback expressing appreciation and genuine surprise at the form used for feedback. In addition the feedback is located within all original – podcast recordings, audio from documentaries, sound design and music that was used in the design of learning activities pertaining to the unit of study, which builds the context and therefore, narrative for this audio journey; all of which was recorded, edited and bounced using Logic Studio 9.
This presentation is being delivered as a “progressive engagement” through an elive session and so, those interested in participating will need to register their interest by emailing me – <zofiap@deakin.edu.au>
- You will receive a link to an elive session that will be “live” throughout the duration of the conference.
- You will receive a link to download the audio presentation that can be listened to on a mobile platform (two formats available MP3 and WAV).
- I will also post my audio presentation in elive and on SoundCloud for those preferring alternative methods of receiving the audio presentation.
- I will be available asynchronously, for discussion posts, on elive, throughout the duration of the conference.
- I will be available in ‘real-time” on Tuesday 29th 10:00-11:00 for anyone wanting to discuss the presentation (this can change to any time that best suits the conference organizers).
- I am available to meet in person to discuss this work – just email me and we can catch up over a coffee.
“City Story Machine” – Framing Contemporary Arts Creation Using iOS and Web Technologies
Sarah Vardy, The University of Queensland
Street art and graffiti present an extremely accessible medium for minds of all ages to start creating and engaging with contemporary art. The “City Story Machine” presents users with an interactive suite of tools to create their own contemporary masterpieces using iOS devices and web technologies. This presentation will outline how the City Story Machine iOS app and website work together to provide users with a portable “art” machine that allows users to create their own stories based around elected locations in cities which are in turn exhibited in an online, mediated, public art environment.
Assessing live performance with the iPad2: Touch matters
Dr Alistair Campbell, Edith Cowan University
Future generations will look back at current assessment practices and wonder why it took so long to replace pen and paper assessment with quality digital forms of assessment. Digitization of the assessment process, from student work to the recording of marks, is already occurring. However, the process is haphazard and is often only a replication of the paper assessment process.
Assessing live performances, be they individual or group, is one of the most challenging tasks teachers face, because the nature of performance is in the moment. This session will showcase a number of innovative examples that bring together the unique features of the iPad2 and best practices in assessment. This session will demonstrate that touch does matter as the app eliminates all the busy unproductive activities involved in marking, such as writing student names and adding up marks, while the rubric provides educative feedback. In addition, the cognitive load is reduced as the app interface mirrors what the markers have been accustomed to in the paper world. The session will conclude with a discussion on how these types of apps might augment and enhance the assessment process through ways not achievable by traditional marking methods.
Define “Pedagogy”: The use of digital research environments in undergraduate teaching
Kerry Kilner, The University of Queensland
The Research Methods course in the school of English, Media Studies and Art History at The University of Queensland is a cross-school final year course that has recently been redesigned to incorporate a high level of digital resource use with assessment tasks that include the creation of digital objects using software developed through a grant funded project, and Wikipedia entries. In recognition of the fact that digital literacies are increasingly required in contemporary scholarship (and more generally) we believe it is important to give students on the cusp of entering post graduate studies (or employment) the skills to deploy digital era research strategies alongside knowledge of traditional research methodologies.
Apart from a fairly low level use of Blackboard (a university requirement) this course eschews closed commercial teaching and learning systems, utilizing instead research environments and datasets that have been developed through real scholarly research projects. The assumption that students are savvy web users is questionable when it comes to scholarly resource use and creation. The Research Methods course introduces students to the way digital era scholarship is undertaken in the humanities by working with and in scholar-created resources and environments from the fields of literary and film studies, cultural studies, media studies and digital humanities. Students are also given guidance on becoming discerning users of web-based resources while guest lectures from active researchers in both digital and traditional scholarship expand their thinking further.
A key component of this course is working with original archival and manuscript material held in UQ Library’s rich Australian collection. Students learn about preservation issues, copyright, digitisation, methods of presenting and analysing historical material in digital environments, and where archival material fits in research practice. From this hands-on engagement with material objects, which often represent the remainders of lives and careers, students produce digital artefacts that are assessed against a range of criteria. By contributing a group-derived Wikipedia article, with high level scholarship demands, and the students’ work has a lasting value beyond the duration of their undergraduate education.
This paper will discuss and demonstrate the ways that students have engaged with these creative learning methods over the past two years, presenting the results of student surveys of the course, the assessment items produced, and our own growing understanding of what is and isn’t working in a course that blends contemporary Digital Humanities research practice with traditional humanities practice.
Challenge, Collaborate, Create. A pilot project using iPads as Convergence Tools for Professional Learning.
Jenny Lane, Edith Cowan University
In this project iPads are used as convergence tools to deliver professional learning for teachers and pre-service teachers. The paper describes how traditional models of delivery are replaced with a student-centred inquiry approach integrated into a challenge-based learning model as presented in the ACOT2 (2008) report (Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow–Today). This project is in the context of Teacher Professional Learning yet the findings of the project are relevant in all sectors of formal and informal education. The research uses the TPACK framework to bring together the technical knowledge, content (disciplinary) knowledge and pedagogy (teaching skills) needed to develop effective teaching and learning activities (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
iPads have been chosen as the technology because they serve as multi-modal ‘convergence’ tools that bring together the possibilities for researching, producing and communicating teaching and learning. The iPad applications selected by the participants are described and critiqued. Sessions including reflective “video diaries” are filmed by participants using the built in video cameras on the iPads. Advanced digital video analysis software is used to tag and code the video as part of the research methodology (Lane & Fetherston, 2008). The project addresses an area needed by industry, to have students emerging from our institutions with high levels of creativity ready to challenge existing paradigms and able to use technology to aggregate and synthesise information demonstrating their learning in new ways (Lane, 2009).
Countdown to the Long Count: Virtual Native Lands and the Development of Maya Island
Keith Kirkwood, Victoria University
Virtual World development for educational purposes hit a roadblock in 2010 when Linden Labs announced it would no longer be subsidizing the rental of virtual land for educational and non-profit institutions. Nevertheless, virtual platforms for immersive 3D learning experiences (3DLEs) still hold great potential – and not only for formal education. They are also powerful platforms for community engagement. Enter Virtual Native Lands, a non-profit organisation in the US dedicated to the promotion of researched and authentic virtual world environments for the education and engagement of indigenous culture in the Americas.
Keith Kirkwood of Victoria University (Melbourne) is working with Virtual Native Lands in its second phase development. This phase includes working across three virtual world platforms, Second Life, Reaction Grid and Jibe. Keith has also been instrumental in developing Maya Island – a 3DLE island created earlier this year by students of the University of Washington’s Certificate in Virtual Worlds course and that covers aspects of Maya civilization, culture and mythology through a variety of immersive, role-play and gaming experiences.
Keith’s presentation will include an introduction to the Virtual Native Lands project, and then a live walkthrough of Maya Island, with the globally-dispersed developers of the island as well as the Executive Director of Virtual Native Lands available inworld during the presentation as guides and to answer questions about the projects. On December 21, 2011 Maya Island will be staging a Countdown to the Long Count event, as this will mark the one-year date to the end of the Maya calendar Long Count on December 21, 2012.
Using the iPad for real-time music collaboration and performance
Jamie Gabriel, Macquarie University
Computing has long had a rich relationship to music, providing immensely suitable tools to explore sound synthesis, develop and manage the composition process, undertake music analysis, and work with generative music algorithms. But traditional desktop and laptop computers were certainly never meant to function as musical instruments in their own right. And as such, things get tricky when we try and use computers to facilitate real-time collaboration between musicians.
But does the iPad offer a new paradigm to explore this problem? The highly manipulatable screen real estate and touch control make the iPad feasible as a tool that could substitute for a traditional instrument: its interface potentially allows us to have the the entire note range of a many instruments under our fingertips, as well as high level of dynamics and responsiveness, making it feasible to perform a large body of musical works using the screen.
This presentation will explore how the iPad can challenge real-time music collaboration and traditional views of what a musical instrument is. It will present the iPad as a device that allows us to move away from game-based music collaboration models (such as Guitar Hero, Wii Music) toward new possibilities in real-time music collaboration between professional musicians. It will explore the idea of ensemble performances no longer being location dependent and also the possibility that teaching the craft of playing a musical instrument may involve getting learners to practice on an iPad.
Introduction of iPad into an MBA Programme
Brett Fordyce, Waikato University
Society is becoming increasingly digitalised. The Internet is more accessible via wireless connections in mobile devices including smart phones and tablets. The increasing portability of such devices has enhanced access to not only web content and multimedia but has also increased the potential for sharing and accessing organisational documentation. Academics and businesses are seeking ways to take advantage of this portable technology, like the iPad, to improve their business process and delivery of information to their clients. The University of Waikato Business School have recently introduced iPads to their Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programme during the first semester of 2011. Two MBA programs and one corporate education program were involved in this initial study. All students received an iPad, which required the necessary course materials to be downloaded in place of printed binders. This study is one of three being conducted within Australasia.
The purpose of this study is to understand how course material can be delivered into the iPad simply and effectively. The objectives of this study were to identify technical and logistical issues in e-delivery of course material via the iPad; determine how to distribute the iPads and have the students ready for class; and determine how students accept this technology as a learning tool. There were three study hypotheses; 1) perceived usefulness will have a strong positive effect on behavioural intention; 2) perceived ease of use has a positive effect on perceived usefulness on the iPad; and 3), perceived usefulness of the iPad has a significant positive effect on Behavioural Intention of use.
This study used a Model Building Action Research Methodology based on Davies Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). It involved an online survey to all current MBA students who had received an iPad as part of the course. There were 33 respondents out of a total of 51 possible students (n=33, 51 total, 64.7% response rate).
Key findings include E-delivery of course material via the iPad was problematic. It required multiple steps through at least 3 different iPad applications (Apps). Enrolled students needed to receive their iPad several weeks prior to class to become familiar with its functions. Two of the 3 hypotheses were supported in this model. Perceived usefulness has a strong positive effect on behavioural intention and perceived ease of use has a positive effect on perceived usefulness on the iPad.
This study has identified several future research opportunities as tablets are integrated into the current education environment. This research will provided a useful, initial model for introducing the tablet devices into universities and businesses. The acceptance and use of these technologies will impact the overall efficiencies of business and organisation processes and work flow.
Gamifying relatedness… an iPad app-in-progress
Catherine Styles, National Museum of Australia
Sembl is an iPad ‘board’game about relatedness; the challenge is to consider an object’s attributes — composition, shape, colour, use, provenance or anything else — in order to find something it shares with
another object. Visitors to the National Museum will play in teams, collaborating to propose a connection and then competing with other teams for a place on the board. The more interesting the juxtaposition,
the more successful the team.
Based on a simple idea with a distinct lineage and far-reaching implications, Sembl provides a structured forum for thinking in new ways about objects, culture and history.
In this presentation I’ll zoom in from a big picture perspective on the game to some of its close-up features; and Paris Buttfield-Addison, Sembl developer, will (I hope!) chime in with insights on game mechanics and interaction design.
Creating ePub files for iBooks
Matt Gray, Australian National University
Learn how easy it is to create simple ePub files that are used in iBooks and other readers such as the Amazon Kindle. The ePub technology is basically just HTML and XML files, and you will learn how to create flowing and fixed format books. We will look at more advanced books and features, such as how to add audio and video to your books, and how to use the new ‘Read-aloud’ functionality to have your book read out in sync with the words on each page. Come along if you want to know how to make your own iBooks.
“Playtime” – Student animation work at Otago – a screening and discussion.
Thomas Verbeek, The University of Otago
Playtime is a 3D short film about two children playing at home in their backyard, and a curious alien cube that comes to visit. The children explore their curiosity and investigate the cube by playing music and making sounds. Watch an adventure unfold as the cube plays along!
This animation was created using Blender 3D, harnessing the computing power of a grid of iMacs for development and rendering. It was originally started as an Honours project by 4 computer science students in 2009. After submitting the year’s work for their degree, the project was abandoned. Work on the animation was resumed in March 2010 by one member. All 3D models and animations were overhauled and re-done from scratch. The final product is the fully completed remake as envisioned by the storyboard of the original Honours project.
Work on the film was done by students that study Computer Science at the University of Otago. None of these students have had any prior training with art, 3D modeling or animation; their niche lies solely in programming and principles of computer graphics.
Graphic Design Students and App design
Grant Ellmers, University of Wollongong
This year 3rd year Graphic Design students at the University of Wollongong engaged with iPhone app design. They received some support funding through the AUC.
The students, working in teams, were asked to develop an iPhone app concept and then design the front-end views. The supporting lecture series engaged with the principles of UI (User interface) and the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Framing the approach was the notion of the Design Entrepreneur (Heller & Talarico 2008) which particularly suits iPhone app design. This is the notion the designer is not just a service provider, but can be the creator or author as well. This presents the opportunity for the Graphic Designer to have greater engagement to not only be the conceiver of ideas, but also take the concept through to market.
This presentation will outline my experience developing the program, including how I went about it, the project briefs, outline of lecture content, and show some student outcomes.
Evolving tools, teaching and methods in technology enabled learning. The student perspective from a multi-disciplinary ‘Creative Technologies’ degree
Judit Klein, AUT University
Education is a big part of our lives and is the fundamental factor of how we come to define ourselves.
I am part of the generation that has had this education experience molded by the emergence and integration of the computer. The face of learning and teaching has evolved around the exponential rate at which technology is developing. In particular, there is the need for universities to tailor their degrees for these changes that now unfold over a very short period of time. They need to prepare students for careers that don’t even exist yet with technologies that are still being imagined. In another interesting shift, what comes to this generation as intuition must be learned by the older generations.
This talk looks at how learning spaces, tools and methods are adapting to the dynamic nature of technological change. It also includes discussion around the shifting roles of the student and the teacher – where does learning start and where does it end?
How can iPhone/iPad technology be used by visitors to New Zealand’s National parks. Using xCode storyboarding with students of interaction design.
Grant Baxter, The University of Otago
Over the course of two semesters, design students enrolled in an interaction design paper were asked to respond to the question: How could iPhone/iPad technology be used by visitors to New Zealand’s National parks. In the first half of the paper, the students proposed and storyboarded their ideas/concepts. These ideas were then filtered out, based on merit and achievability. In the second half of the paper, the students worked in groups to produce working prototypes.
It’s important to note that very few of the students had any programming knowledge going into this course, and programming was not taught (with the exception of a few workshops on how to use the xCode interface builder app).
This presentation will start with a general discussion of iPhone development process, and will then show some of the actual concepts generated, will talk about the process of ideation, will share the experiences and insights gained from incorporating iOS development into a design course, and will (hopefully) demonstrate some of the prototyped applications to come out of the course.
Together Red DIScoveringABILITY: The Promise and Possibilities of Arts, Digital Media and Well-being.
Steve Dillon, Queensland University of Technology
This is a workshop demonstration session showing how digital technologies with agency
can be used in Music Therapy. This session shows how Down Syndrome
Association of Queensland electronic ensemble and choir Together Red expand their creative interaction using generative technologies.
iPad Apps for Film Production and Film Education
Luke Monsour, Griffith University
Film production is a many faceted business, and the teaching of it introduces a whole range of new levels. The recent introduction of ‘smart’ mobile devices has already shown how much of the production process can be re-addressed more effectively and efficiently.
This presentation provides an overview of currently available apps suitable for student based film and video productions, looking at the benefits of utilising an iPad in all phases of production from pre to post. Also discussed will be future applications of the mobile technology within a film education context, looking at potential ways to better connect students and teachers to the production work and the assessment outcomes.
Spatializing Music at the Academy
Malcolm Riddoch, Edith Cowan University
This paper outlines the technical, historical and aesthetic approaches to the electronic and electroacoustic production of spatial music currently utilized in teaching and learning at WAAPA Composition and Music Technology, Edith Cowan University. A distinction is drawn between 5.1 and other surround sound industry standards for DVD Video production and the compositional concept of spatial music as it has developed in electronic music over the 20th century. The entertainment industry notion of surround sound is generally targeted toward multichannel soundtrack production for cinema and home entertainment audiovisual systems, along with a growing market for the multichannel music and gaming DVD. Spatialized music composition on the other hand has developed from acoustic and multichannel electroacoustic performance as well as sound art installation. The modern composer must creatively negotiate the aesthetic and practical differences between these entertainment industry and new music approaches in an increasingly multichannel world. With this creative innovation in mind, several multichannel models will be examined that extend the notion of the stereo field of perception as it applies to contemporary music practice.
Analysis of the Structure of Popular Music Videos
Julia Stefan, Griffith University
Music videos are almost as prevalent as the music songs themselves, yet while there is quite some detailed musicological analysis of songwriting form and structure, there is relatively little attention to the structure and patterns of music videos. This presentation will present the finding of an analysis of 50 videos from the most recent ‘Hottest 100’ list songs compiled by Tripple-J. The presentation will show how these videos can be broadly categorised by their adherence or not to narrative structures, will examine in what ways and with what variance they the video structure deviates from the musical structure and will report on ways in which these patterns of video structure can be algorithmically described with a view to potential application for computational video generation.
Understanding Serious Games: Beyond Games and Fun
Tim Marsh, James Cook University
While interaction design, new media and creative arts the world over have incorporated video games design in the curriculum, interest in the emerging area of serious games has been moderate. At the same time, while there is huge demand for literature, TV programming, film and on-line content beyond fun, it can be argued that there is a distinct lack of widely available and successful interactive serious gaming-related content and titles for personal and home use.
This paper argues that our inability to understand and frame serious gaming (what they are, what they can be in the future) and the experience they provide, is largely responsible for the slow take-up and development of serious games.
Much of the problem, it is argued, is the reliance on, and acceptance of, characteristics largely associated with video games (e.g. challenge, objective, conflict, play and fun) and key to understanding what serious games encapsulate is to look beyond these characteristics. Presented is a continuum and definition to frame all technologies, applications and environments of what all players (academics, researchers, educators, practitioners, developers, etc.) would identify as serious games; providing examples of past, present and future serious games, and identifying related characteristics and experiences they provide. The aim of the continuum is to:
• To establish a shared understanding and arena for current and emerging serious games
• Frame and connect currently fragmented groups into a cohesive serious games movement / community
• Connect interdisciplinary approaches/groups and encourage cooperation and collaboration in research and development
• Encourage investigation of entertainment in its various forms in serious games (e.g. stimulating, thought provoking, pleasurable, etc.)
• Facilitate the development of suitable academic and design programs
Radio IMERSD
Matt Hitchcock, Griffith University
This paper presents a report on the creation of an online publication and dissemination project titled Radio IMERSD at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Radio IMERSD, supported by a 2007 AUC Development grant, is an ongoing experiment in web distribution of rich media via multiple forms, including podcasting, streaming, audio and video content-on-demand, text and image with a central goal being to reflect professional communities where the responsibility for knowledge creation is shared or socially constructed among the members rather than ‘delivered’ to students by a lecturer. I report on the experimental system configuration, as well as problems and findings. Issues and solutions include managing copyright demands in a tertiary education context, content creation, data management, and the blend of open source and proprietary software. I look at how some of these challenges have been met and how they may be taken forward in the future.
ISHQ: A collaborative film and music project – art music and image as an installation, joint art as boundary crossing.
Kim Cunio and Louise Harvey, Griffith University
This paper is a reflective response to the process of creating a new installation art music partnership at Griffith University in 2011. The key collaborators were Dr Kim Cunio from the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University (QCGU), and Dr Louise Harvey from the Griffith Film School (GFS). Both participants are early career academics and established practitioners in their fields, giving the project currency in both the academy and the creative arts. The paper responds to the aesthetics of working collaboratively on a themed installation as well as defining the significance of new artistic collaborations between the participants and their host institutions, the QCGU and GFS. This project follows on from the AUC Crossing Boundaries paper of 2010 (Hitchcock, Cunio, Harvey, Chircop), which documented student led collaborations, and recommended increasing staff collaboration as between key academics.
Dynamic EEG Mapping as artistic expression
Jason Zagami, Griffith University
Use of encephalographic (EEG) signals of brain activity to generate dynamic representations of emotion and feelings as artwork. Works were produced from emotional stimuli, reaction to existing artworks and forms (images, music, dance and tactile examination), reaction to existing EEG artworks, and recursive reaction to the dynamic representation of the artists own EEG artwork. Amplification of artistic experiences through EEG augmentation, provided a complementary visual experience in which the observers neural reactions to an artwork formed an additional component of the work. Subconscious reactions were made visual and a complex interplay of the observed artwork, reactions to that work, reactions to reactions to that work, and the visual EEG representation itself as an artwork, combined to produce a complex and nuanced artistic experience. The attitude of 68 primary preservice arts education students to arts education was surveyed pre-post using the Teaching With the Arts Survey (TWAS) instrument and compared to an 82 student control group in the same course. Improved responses to the reflective application of the arts and motivation to incorporate arts education into teaching was shown.
Windtraces: Accessible Sonic Art
Aengus Martin, The University of Sydney and Kirsty Beilharz, The University of Technology Sydney
Windtraces is a multi-channel, site specific sound installation which will be exhibited as part of the Sculpture by the Sea exhibit in Sydney in November, 2011. It uses data from meteorological sensors as inputs to algorithmic processes, which generate a dynamic soundscape in real-time. We describe its development from practical, conceptual and artistic perspectives.
Using iPad2 to assess students’ live performances and actively engage students with tutor and peer feedback
Julia Wren, Edith Cowan University
Assessing student live performances can be challenging because markers need to make quick and often complex judgements about the learning. This is further challenged if multiple markers are involved and moderation of marks is required between markers. Maintaining fairness and validity can be a significant issue.
Ensuring a quick turnaround time for feedback to students is difficult because moderation practices usually require the sharing and review of performance videos by each marker. In addition, compiling marks, sorting and distributing marks and feedback to students often delays this process.
Imagine a digital tool that streamlines this assessment process by enabling each marker to review videos of performances online shortly after the performances have finished. In addition, the technology automatically sorts, collates and sends the marks and feedback to individual students freeing up time for the markers to engage with the professional aspects associated with quality assessment.
Literature is abundant with references of digital technology which is used to automate scoring and marks (Clarke-Midura & Dede, 2010), however, use of digital technology in this project does not replace the marker. Instead, it provides the marker with a tool with which to conduct and easily record rich observations of complex learning and it does so in a paperless, highly efficient and engaging way.
This paper describes a two phase, qualitative, action research project that trialled the use of an innovative, digital technology supported, assessment tool designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of assessment and moderation of live performances. The digital assessment tool enabled students to engage with the assessment and feedback from tutors and peers multiple times. The project was initially trialled with 170 Bachelor of Education students (in phase one) and then 200 (in phase two) enrolled in an arts education unit in the third year of their course.
Do virtual worlds have a role in increasing student engagement as measured by their higher academic grades?
Sue Gregory & Brent Gregory, University of New England
Student engagement has become an increasing focus for higher education institutions in the market driven environment. Improved student engagement leads to improved student performance and this also results in higher levels of student retention. Student engagement has often been more challenging for off-campus students but improvements in technology and communications have opened up new possibilities for student engagement. Virtual worlds appear to provide a venue for students to engage with academics, other students and the material they need to master. This article examines the impact of the virtual world Second Life on student engagement
From ‘hands up’ to ‘hands on’: harnessing the kinaesthetic potential of educational gaming
Helen Farley & Adrian Stagg, University of Southern Queensland
Traditional approaches to distance learning and the student learning journey have focused upon closing the gap between the experience of off-campus students and their on-campus peers. Whilst many initiatives have sought to embed a sense of community, create virtual learning environments and even build collaborative spaces for team based assessment and presentations, they are limited by technological innovation in terms of the types of learning styles they support and develop.
Mainstream gaming development, such as the Xbox Kinect, Wii and PS3 all have a strong element of kinaesthetic learning from early attempts to simulate impact, recoil, velocity and other environmental factors to the more sophisticated movement based games which create a sense of almost total immersion and allow untethered (in a technical sense) interaction with the games’ objective. Likewise, gamification of learning has become a critical focus for the engagement of learners and its commercialisation, especially through products such as the Wii Fit have shown applications for the concept which have a non-gaming focus.
As this technology matures, there are strong opportunities for universities to leverage the use of gaming-like applications to embed levels of kinaesthetic learning into the student experience – a learning style which has been largely under-utilised in the distance education sector.
This paper will show through three main discipline spheres (world religion, education and nursing) the potential impact of these technologies, drawing examples of commercialised gamification and those with a pedagogical base to broadly imagine the possibilities for future innovation in higher education.
The Digital Cinematography Revolution & 35mm Sensors
Dean Chircop, Griffith University
This presentation compares several of the latest professional digital video cameras from a range of manufacturers with a sensor that is similar in size to a standard 35mm film frame. Once, only a handful of companies were making ‘full sensor’ digital cameras that were solely the domain of the high-end filmmaking sector. Since the DSLR revolution of the past few years, the technology is now more readily accessible. This presentation analyses the strengths and weaknesses of a range of the latest high-end to mid-priced cameras, examining their native recording format, image resolution, sensitivity to light and progressive frame recording. Further, it will consider the implications of the availability of such technology on the possibilities of a new wave of low budget ‘credit card’ features and the teaching of screen production in Australian Universities.
Digital Audio Workstations: Master or Slave?
Marshall Heiser, Griffith University
There’s no doubting that the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is here to stay. A variety of platforms have been sufficiently refined, re-priced and re-marketed over the last twenty years to bring about a veritable revolution in how professionals, and novices alike, create their recordings. However, according to sound engineer Mike Stavrou (2003), a good mix depends not so much on the tools available, but moreso one’s frame of mind. The same can be said for all aspects of the record production process. In order to avoid what George Massenburg calls the ‘cookie-cutter’ syndrome (Stewart, 2009); practitioners must constantly challenge their tacit assumptions regarding each stage of this multifaceted, creative process. Brian Eno likewise states that magic only happens “when you’ve abandoned the lifeline of your own history” (Tamm, 1995: 184). So what happens when the tools of the trade become so ‘smart’ and powerful that they impact upon one’s creative frame of mind in ways too subtle to be easily noticeable (that is, to all but the most rigorous of phenomenologists)? This paper will explore relevant aspects of creativity and play theory in order to assist budding DAW enthusiasts to utilise these powerful tools as their master, rather than as an unwitting slave. In particular, a variety of theoretical models proposing the creative benefits of a playful frame of mind will be contrasted and compared (Meares, 2005; Claxton, 1997; Amiable, 1996; Apter, 1991 & Lieberman 1977).
Zoomusicology, Live Performance and DAW
Robert Burrell, Griffith University
The field of practice-led research in music is diverse, encompassing creation, performance, and production. In my case, it forms part of my PhD research at Griffith University, Queensland Conservatorium of Music. This project attempts to bring together traditional notated music composition practice with electro-acoustic techniques. In this project I attempt to create an interaction between the motifs of a particular bird’s call and the responses of a live performer. Recordings collected in the field are applied through various computer programs to create a sound file against which the performer interacts in imitation and polyphony as well as in a metaphysical and abstract metamorphosis. The process contains field recordings, music transcriptions, audio manipulation and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) within a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), new music compositions and a series of works for solo performers and electronics. This project address the notions of composition across multiple media and the effect that technological workflow can have on the compositional process. This paper positions the research and responds reflectively on the progress to date.