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Convergence, Feb 24, 2022
How does a game charm? What is the work of making a game charming? And if we understand charm as ... more How does a game charm? What is the work of making a game charming? And if we understand charm as seductive, how can the ethics and aesthetics of a charming game be understood as gendered? These questions arose for me because the word 'charming' appeared regularly on my visits to KPER's London studio in 2018. After meeting one of its employees at a Women in Games event, I spent several weeks in its office, with a view to describing the culture of its workplace. Incorporated in 2014, KPER employed by 2018 about 20 people, approximately ten women and men (depending on when and who one counted as an employee), with a management team consisting of two women and two men. This made it an outlier in the games sector, whose workforce is predominantly male (Bulut 2020; Kerr, 2017). One of the questions I had in mind when visiting the studio was how this organisational profile was relevant to the kinds of games it made and how it made them. And the word charming was used by employees to describe both of these aspects. For example, at a meeting convened to describe drafts of a new company logo, Daisy, the brand manager, showed the following slide to describe KPER's brand values: The central word identifies a look and a way of being: an aesthetic and a subjectivity. It tethers a grammar. We might compare this to more common uses of the term such as, for instance, a charming man, a charming woman, or a charming scene, formulations which conjure up somewhat different qualities in respect of each of the nouns they circumscribe. Fun In the slide, the word charming qualifies KPER as a company, its employees, its games and their conditions of production. In this regard, it operates in a way reminiscent to me of Susan Sontag's (1982) description of a 'sensibility'. In her 'Notes on Camp', Sontag evokes a sensibility as a taste and a badge of identity which is applied to a wide range of phenomena, from people to moods, scenes and things. A sensibility, she states, is a kind of private code, whose meaning is decipherable to those who use the term, and which expresses a kind of attraction to that which it qualifies. It is subjective, not so much an idea, a behaviour or more generally a set of objective attributes, so much as a kind of love which interthreads people and objects, sentiments and styles. It qualifies an attraction to a way of seeing and being. Charming has very different associations, as a word, to camp. But it seems to work, in the slide, in some of the same ways as her evocation of a sensibility. It characterises people and things as well as a sensual response to them, through association rather than systematic definition. And like camp, its use as a term works as a gesture of self-legitimation by the group that promotes the sensibility's ethos. In Sontag's essay, this ethos is described as a minority's endeavour to dissolve a morality by which it is condemned, a move which establishes an association between camp and 'homosexuals'. In the slide, the move is oriented to assuming an identity within games culture and a games marketplace, on the basis of a specific kind of work, worker and working conditions. Another, more contemporary writer who might help to consider how the word charming operates at KPER is Sianne Ngai (2010, 2012), who explores more contemporary sensibilities. These have emerged, she argues, in the wake of the huge growth in design and advertising, and the way these have made aesthetic experience an everyday occurrenceby contrast, for instance, to the more rarefied conditions underpinning camp's 'posh taste' (Sontag, 1982). Ngai explores three such sensibilities: cute, zany and interesting. In talking about the cute, for instance, she says that it appears as an aspect of mass culture and the consolidation of the middle class home as a female space dedicated to consumption, reflective of a "desire for an ever more intimate, ever more sensuous relation to objects already regarded as familiar and unthreatening, [and which evokes] tenderness for small things, but also, sometimes, a desire to belittle and diminish them further" (2012: 11). Like Sontag, Ngai attends to the gendered associations of sensibilities, and also like Sontag, figures aesthetic experiences as expressive of possibilities for social action (2012: 11): "the zany, the cute and the interesting thus call forth not only specific subjective capacities for feeling and acting but also specific ways of relating to other subjects and the larger social arrangements these ways of relating presuppose". Ngai's argument here is suggestive of how Daisy's word cloud might be interpreted: it provides a vocabulary to describe how customers (should) feel about KPER as a company and what capacities its games (should) sustain; how employees (should) feel and act towards each other, as well as their players. And whilst the sensibility Daisy articulates might be read to have gendered associations, these are not straightforward, and might be said to arise as a site of differentiation, between charming and its equivalents and unarticulated alternatives. Taking Sontag and Ngai as inspiration, then, charming might be explored as a distinct sensibility associated with games. Whereas both of these authors talk about objects, my aim
The issue of gender reoccurs in debates about the introduction of computer games into formal lear... more The issue of gender reoccurs in debates about the introduction of computer games into formal learning contexts. There is a fear that girls will be alienated rather than engaged by games in the classroom. There is also concern over sexist imagery, and thus about representational aspects of computer games. In this chapter, particular aspects of these issues are addressed in turn. The authors explore the issue of gender and gendered game preferences, in relation to the cultural framing of the gaming audience. Attention is then directed at the issue of representation, with a consideration of the tensions between representation, meaning, and playability. These issues are considered primarily through perspectives drawn from media studies, and with reference to recent work from the emerging field of computer game studies.
Selected papers of internet research, Oct 5, 2020
Digital Games Research Association Conference, May 27, 2005
The relationship between games and learning has, predominantly, either treated games as potential... more The relationship between games and learning has, predominantly, either treated games as potential educational content or only considered the social contexts of learning from games at a general level. A methodology has been developed that permits the detailed analysis of how people learn from particular instances of game play. This is used to study two approaches to playing Deus Ex, one involving the training level and one neglecting this. The study reveals what players learnt, the playing strategies they developed, the way in which these strategies evolved and also how previous experience was transferred to this new context. Conclusions are drawn about the value of training levels and the importance of designing games in a way that recognizes previous gaming experience. The study also has implications for defining game genres, for decisions about the inclusion of design features such as quick saves and for the design of AI scripts.
After an e-learning benchmarking exercise carried out during the summer of 2006, the Institute of... more After an e-learning benchmarking exercise carried out during the summer of 2006, the Institute of Education set up its Pathfinder Project-PREEL-with the aim of connecting the Institute's elearning research with its e-learning practice. The project implemented three strategies to support academic staff in the redesign of their courses: a scoping review of e-learning research being carried out in the IoE and its local partner institutions, staff development activities and the provision of personalised support to course teams. Based on interviews with participants, this article reports on the evaluation of the PREEL project, paying specific regard to the link between research and practice and the ways that practitioners accounted for this relationship, and discusses the implications of the project for research-based practice. The results indicate that the research-practice link was not always established in the ways planned, but that links were established, sometimes in ways not foreseen by the project team.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 1, 2010
This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge t... more This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge to identify what, if anything, people are learning by playing games.(http://books. google. com/books? id= 4_20BAuN0lgC&printsec= frontcover&hl= en# v= onepage&q= &f ...
This report is a commentary on the process and outcome of the bibliographic search commissioned b... more This report is a commentary on the process and outcome of the bibliographic search commissioned by UKCOSA from Professor Diana Leonard and Dr Louise Morley at the Institute of Education, London. The search was designed to compile an annotated bibliography of unpublished research on the experiences of international students in UK higher education. This report presents the methods by which this bibliography was compiled as well as an analysis of the literature reviewed.
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, 2007
"In this cutting-edge anthology, contributors examine the diverse ways in which girls and yo... more "In this cutting-edge anthology, contributors examine the diverse ways in which girls and young women across a variety of ethnic, socio-economic, and national backgounds use digital technology in their everyday lives. They explore identity development, how young women interact with technology, and how race, class, and identity influence game play." Publisher-provided summary
Visual Communication, 2005
In Wendy S. Hesford's article “Staging Terror” [TDR 50, 3:29–41 (T191)], adding fig. 2, from... more In Wendy S. Hesford's article “Staging Terror” [TDR 50, 3:29–41 (T191)], adding fig. 2, from the 2004 Inconvenient Evidence exhibit at the International Center for Photography, was an editorial decision. Also, we inadvertently misattributed the opening epigraph: It was Anthony ...
Medical Education, Jul 9, 2014
Any conversation about the use of meta-analytic techniques in judging sufficiency should also con... more Any conversation about the use of meta-analytic techniques in judging sufficiency should also consider the challenges of interpreting cumulative findings from quasi-experimental education studies. A non-randomised study may suffer from serious confounding, such as selection bias, which accounts for the findings more convincingly than the nominal intervention. Moreover, a study that starts out randomised may become confounded by participant attrition. Given the difficulties inherent in conducting medical education research, a narrative review should probably always accompany a meta-analysis, and should play an important role in the drawing of conclusions from the results.
The MIT Press eBooks, Sep 19, 2008
International Journal of Learning and Media, Feb 1, 2009
Lawrence Erlbaum eBooks, Jul 1, 2006
This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge t... more This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge to identify what, if anything, people are learning by playing games.(http://books. google. com/books? id= 4_20BAuN0lgC&printsec= frontcover&hl= en# v= onepage&q= &f ...
Learning, Media and Technology, Dec 1, 2006
Convergence, Feb 24, 2022
How does a game charm? What is the work of making a game charming? And if we understand charm as ... more How does a game charm? What is the work of making a game charming? And if we understand charm as seductive, how can the ethics and aesthetics of a charming game be understood as gendered? These questions arose for me because the word 'charming' appeared regularly on my visits to KPER's London studio in 2018. After meeting one of its employees at a Women in Games event, I spent several weeks in its office, with a view to describing the culture of its workplace. Incorporated in 2014, KPER employed by 2018 about 20 people, approximately ten women and men (depending on when and who one counted as an employee), with a management team consisting of two women and two men. This made it an outlier in the games sector, whose workforce is predominantly male (Bulut 2020; Kerr, 2017). One of the questions I had in mind when visiting the studio was how this organisational profile was relevant to the kinds of games it made and how it made them. And the word charming was used by employees to describe both of these aspects. For example, at a meeting convened to describe drafts of a new company logo, Daisy, the brand manager, showed the following slide to describe KPER's brand values: The central word identifies a look and a way of being: an aesthetic and a subjectivity. It tethers a grammar. We might compare this to more common uses of the term such as, for instance, a charming man, a charming woman, or a charming scene, formulations which conjure up somewhat different qualities in respect of each of the nouns they circumscribe. Fun In the slide, the word charming qualifies KPER as a company, its employees, its games and their conditions of production. In this regard, it operates in a way reminiscent to me of Susan Sontag's (1982) description of a 'sensibility'. In her 'Notes on Camp', Sontag evokes a sensibility as a taste and a badge of identity which is applied to a wide range of phenomena, from people to moods, scenes and things. A sensibility, she states, is a kind of private code, whose meaning is decipherable to those who use the term, and which expresses a kind of attraction to that which it qualifies. It is subjective, not so much an idea, a behaviour or more generally a set of objective attributes, so much as a kind of love which interthreads people and objects, sentiments and styles. It qualifies an attraction to a way of seeing and being. Charming has very different associations, as a word, to camp. But it seems to work, in the slide, in some of the same ways as her evocation of a sensibility. It characterises people and things as well as a sensual response to them, through association rather than systematic definition. And like camp, its use as a term works as a gesture of self-legitimation by the group that promotes the sensibility's ethos. In Sontag's essay, this ethos is described as a minority's endeavour to dissolve a morality by which it is condemned, a move which establishes an association between camp and 'homosexuals'. In the slide, the move is oriented to assuming an identity within games culture and a games marketplace, on the basis of a specific kind of work, worker and working conditions. Another, more contemporary writer who might help to consider how the word charming operates at KPER is Sianne Ngai (2010, 2012), who explores more contemporary sensibilities. These have emerged, she argues, in the wake of the huge growth in design and advertising, and the way these have made aesthetic experience an everyday occurrenceby contrast, for instance, to the more rarefied conditions underpinning camp's 'posh taste' (Sontag, 1982). Ngai explores three such sensibilities: cute, zany and interesting. In talking about the cute, for instance, she says that it appears as an aspect of mass culture and the consolidation of the middle class home as a female space dedicated to consumption, reflective of a "desire for an ever more intimate, ever more sensuous relation to objects already regarded as familiar and unthreatening, [and which evokes] tenderness for small things, but also, sometimes, a desire to belittle and diminish them further" (2012: 11). Like Sontag, Ngai attends to the gendered associations of sensibilities, and also like Sontag, figures aesthetic experiences as expressive of possibilities for social action (2012: 11): "the zany, the cute and the interesting thus call forth not only specific subjective capacities for feeling and acting but also specific ways of relating to other subjects and the larger social arrangements these ways of relating presuppose". Ngai's argument here is suggestive of how Daisy's word cloud might be interpreted: it provides a vocabulary to describe how customers (should) feel about KPER as a company and what capacities its games (should) sustain; how employees (should) feel and act towards each other, as well as their players. And whilst the sensibility Daisy articulates might be read to have gendered associations, these are not straightforward, and might be said to arise as a site of differentiation, between charming and its equivalents and unarticulated alternatives. Taking Sontag and Ngai as inspiration, then, charming might be explored as a distinct sensibility associated with games. Whereas both of these authors talk about objects, my aim
The issue of gender reoccurs in debates about the introduction of computer games into formal lear... more The issue of gender reoccurs in debates about the introduction of computer games into formal learning contexts. There is a fear that girls will be alienated rather than engaged by games in the classroom. There is also concern over sexist imagery, and thus about representational aspects of computer games. In this chapter, particular aspects of these issues are addressed in turn. The authors explore the issue of gender and gendered game preferences, in relation to the cultural framing of the gaming audience. Attention is then directed at the issue of representation, with a consideration of the tensions between representation, meaning, and playability. These issues are considered primarily through perspectives drawn from media studies, and with reference to recent work from the emerging field of computer game studies.
Selected papers of internet research, Oct 5, 2020
Digital Games Research Association Conference, May 27, 2005
The relationship between games and learning has, predominantly, either treated games as potential... more The relationship between games and learning has, predominantly, either treated games as potential educational content or only considered the social contexts of learning from games at a general level. A methodology has been developed that permits the detailed analysis of how people learn from particular instances of game play. This is used to study two approaches to playing Deus Ex, one involving the training level and one neglecting this. The study reveals what players learnt, the playing strategies they developed, the way in which these strategies evolved and also how previous experience was transferred to this new context. Conclusions are drawn about the value of training levels and the importance of designing games in a way that recognizes previous gaming experience. The study also has implications for defining game genres, for decisions about the inclusion of design features such as quick saves and for the design of AI scripts.
After an e-learning benchmarking exercise carried out during the summer of 2006, the Institute of... more After an e-learning benchmarking exercise carried out during the summer of 2006, the Institute of Education set up its Pathfinder Project-PREEL-with the aim of connecting the Institute's elearning research with its e-learning practice. The project implemented three strategies to support academic staff in the redesign of their courses: a scoping review of e-learning research being carried out in the IoE and its local partner institutions, staff development activities and the provision of personalised support to course teams. Based on interviews with participants, this article reports on the evaluation of the PREEL project, paying specific regard to the link between research and practice and the ways that practitioners accounted for this relationship, and discusses the implications of the project for research-based practice. The results indicate that the research-practice link was not always established in the ways planned, but that links were established, sometimes in ways not foreseen by the project team.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 1, 2010
This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge t... more This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge to identify what, if anything, people are learning by playing games.(http://books. google. com/books? id= 4_20BAuN0lgC&printsec= frontcover&hl= en# v= onepage&q= &f ...
This report is a commentary on the process and outcome of the bibliographic search commissioned b... more This report is a commentary on the process and outcome of the bibliographic search commissioned by UKCOSA from Professor Diana Leonard and Dr Louise Morley at the Institute of Education, London. The search was designed to compile an annotated bibliography of unpublished research on the experiences of international students in UK higher education. This report presents the methods by which this bibliography was compiled as well as an analysis of the literature reviewed.
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, 2007
"In this cutting-edge anthology, contributors examine the diverse ways in which girls and yo... more "In this cutting-edge anthology, contributors examine the diverse ways in which girls and young women across a variety of ethnic, socio-economic, and national backgounds use digital technology in their everyday lives. They explore identity development, how young women interact with technology, and how race, class, and identity influence game play." Publisher-provided summary
Visual Communication, 2005
In Wendy S. Hesford's article “Staging Terror” [TDR 50, 3:29–41 (T191)], adding fig. 2, from... more In Wendy S. Hesford's article “Staging Terror” [TDR 50, 3:29–41 (T191)], adding fig. 2, from the 2004 Inconvenient Evidence exhibit at the International Center for Photography, was an editorial decision. Also, we inadvertently misattributed the opening epigraph: It was Anthony ...
Medical Education, Jul 9, 2014
Any conversation about the use of meta-analytic techniques in judging sufficiency should also con... more Any conversation about the use of meta-analytic techniques in judging sufficiency should also consider the challenges of interpreting cumulative findings from quasi-experimental education studies. A non-randomised study may suffer from serious confounding, such as selection bias, which accounts for the findings more convincingly than the nominal intervention. Moreover, a study that starts out randomised may become confounded by participant attrition. Given the difficulties inherent in conducting medical education research, a narrative review should probably always accompany a meta-analysis, and should play an important role in the drawing of conclusions from the results.
The MIT Press eBooks, Sep 19, 2008
International Journal of Learning and Media, Feb 1, 2009
Lawrence Erlbaum eBooks, Jul 1, 2006
This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge t... more This text outlines the development of a methodology that could credibly answer Squire challenge to identify what, if anything, people are learning by playing games.(http://books. google. com/books? id= 4_20BAuN0lgC&printsec= frontcover&hl= en# v= onepage&q= &f ...
Learning, Media and Technology, Dec 1, 2006
Visual Communication, 2005
Cambridge Journal of Education, 2006
book tackles a question which has become central to sociology: how to frame research on contempor... more book tackles a question which has become central to sociology: how to frame research on contemporary modes of communication and processes of subject formation which does not view technology as either, on the one hand, subservient to sociological theories and categories of analysis, or, on the other hand, as deterministic in relation to social and cultural change. The spread of new media such as the internet is transforming social relations, creating new ways of understanding the world and ourselves. In this context, it seems insufficient to view technology as a simple outcome of social developments. However, the literature dedicated to new media has tended to be technologically deterministic, as seen, for example, in the hopes pinned on the internet to bring about global democracy. In laying out the state of the field in communication theory, Holmes takes us back to the traditional sociological conundrum-how to account for a state of affairs which combines a series of distinct but related elements-but in its contemporary form. What is the relationship between communication and communicational technologies? The book provides a comprehensive guide to theories of communication over the last 40 years, locating them in relation to associated disciplines such as media studies and computer-mediated communication. One of Holmes's principle aims is to critique the 'second media age' thesis, which proposes that new media enable social relations which are radically different and more progressive than those found in the older age of broadcast. The problem with this notion is that it overlooks continuities, defines convergence in terms of technical capabilities rather than economic interest, and is technologically deterministic, aligning technological forms (feedback mechanisms) with structures of communication (interactivity). Holmes maintains that different media environments can be examined separately but that they should be seen as mutually constitutive rather than ontologically distinct, and that emphasis should be placed on the social relations they put into practice rather than singlehandedly bring about.
Information Design Journal, 2008
European Journal of Women’s Studies, 2010
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2012
Report for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2009
The key findings of the literature review can be summarised as follows: The benefits of play ... more The key findings of the literature review can be summarised as follows:
The benefits of play
There is general consensus that play contributes to the well-being and health of children in different ways. Key benefits arising from play include the following:
• Happiness – plenty of time for play in childhood is linked to happiness in adulthood
• Physical activity – active play facilitates infants’ development of spatial abilities and an understanding of the world
• Cognitive skills – there is a close link between play and cognitive development
• Social and emotional learning – make-believe play is related to better overall emotional health and social functioning.
Play, physical activity and health
• Much play amongst children and young people is highly physical, highlighting the importance of provision that allows children to play in physically active ways.
• There is evidence that physical activity acts as a natural preventative to childhood obesity and promotes good health.
• Provision of play spaces and time spent outside are positively associated with levels of physical activity in children and young people.
• However, increasing access to outdoor play space does not necessarily increase activity levels, as not all play is physically active.
Types of play provision
• Establishing exactly which types of play are most beneficial in promoting health and well-being is difficult to ascertain from the available literature.
• However, there is evidence that play in ‘natural environments’ may be particularly beneficial to children’s well-being, with positive effects on mental and physical health.
Measuring outcomes associated with play
• The benefits of play are well documented, however empirical data are scarce as much of the evidence is conceptual or theoretical.
• Children and young people’s self-reporting of their play behaviour are important for understanding how play is associated with particular outcomes.
Executive Summary The nature of supervision of postgraduate medical trainees has changed signifi... more Executive Summary
The nature of supervision of postgraduate medical trainees has changed significantly in recent years mainly in response to the European Working Time Directive (Swanwick, 2009). As part of supporting educational supervisors in dealing with this change, there is an interest in exploring the role technology in supervisory practice. However, investigation of Web 2.0 and mobile technologies has received scant attention.
In December 2011, the Institute of Education was commissioned by the London Deanery to explore current and potential use of Web 2.0 and mobile technologies by educational supervisors in their personal and professional lives. The project involved scoping out the problem, undertaking a brief literature review and interviewing educational supervisors and trainees to identify current and future practice.
This report details the keys issues and findings, identifies current practice and outlines scenarios and associated costs for future use. Recommendations are made about how these can be carried forward so that they address educational supervisors and trainee needs on the ground, in a participatory manner.
Before summarizing our findings, we note that while advancements have been made regarding delineation of the role of the educational supervisors since the Academy of Medical Educators’ 2009 report, practice still varies widely with educational supervisors self-identifying with the role in different ways. Therefore, precisely defining the role of Web 2.0 and mobile technologies in educational supervision is problematic.
Our research indicates that almost all the educational supervisors involved in our study had smartphones but used them in limited ways (e.g. work email). Some used medical apps (e.g. Medscape) but this was exclusively for reference and information retrieval. Web 2.0 as a concept is not well understood and the use of Synapse by educational supervisors and trainees was limited, although there were key exceptions to this. Educational supervisors view trainees as native users of mobile and social networking technologies.
Web 2.0 and mobile technologies are not part of supervisory practice. The main technology used was the e-portfolio. However, it was viewed and used overwhelmingly as an assessment tool rather than a tool to support developmental learning. As evidence in the portfolio emerges from face to face interaction and because it needs to be transportable/generic and comprehensive, it becomes a tick box exercise. On the whole, educational supervisors felt that trainees viewed the e-portfolio negatively, seeing it as something they had to do rather than a tool to support their training and development.
Although there were training opportunities for those new to educational supervision to learn about it, educational supervisors did not have opportunities to reflect on their own supervisory practice and development nor to explore the potential of technology in supervision.
The key recommendations of this report are:
• As the concept of ‘educational supervision’ is still being worked out, practice is currently very fluid. This implies that designing for educational supervision is premature but that designing solutions and interventions with participants is an appropriate next step.
• There was strong interest amongst educational supervisors for exploring the design, implementation and use of Web 2.0 and mobile technologies in supervision. The learning scenarios (see Section 4) are a starting point for engagement in this process.
• For many there remains a clear overlap between educational and clinical supervision. It may be that mobile technologies are best suited to the latter.
• If designed appropriately, Web 2.0 and mobile technologies offer a route to moving away from a snapshot culture of recording trainee practice.
• Trainees at different levels require different types of educational supervision. Therefore, any Web 2.0 or mobile intervention should be developed for specific years (Fx, STx)
• Implementation would require appropriate local training schemes
• Mobile technologies have the potential to be embedded in practice (see the scenarios in Section 4) but the specific details of how these will be developed should only be determined after detailed ethnographic studies of educational supervisory practice have been undertaken.
• The implementation of Web 2.0 technologies are best suited to augmenting situations where face-to-face supervision and training is limited.
• Imposing technical solutions in a ‘top-down’ mannerwill result in limited take up and wasted resources. Instead, working with educational supervisors and trainees to co-design solutions that address their needs is advocated.
• Learn lessons from the implementation of the e-portfolio. It is used (outside of the GP specialty) primarily for assessment but has much stronger pedagogical potential. However, as it is already embedded in practice as a ‘tick-box’ tool, opportunities to support more developmental training have currently been lost.
• Technical barriers to implementation remain, including weak WiFi and mobile phone coverage in hospitals
• Privacy concerns are paramount and need to be addressed from the outset of any Web 2.0 or mobile technological intervention
This report is a commentary on the process and outcome of the bibliographic search commissioned b... more This report is a commentary on the process and outcome of the bibliographic search commissioned by UKCOSA from Professor Diana Leonard and Dr Louise Morley at the Institute of Education, London. The search was designed to compile an annotated bibliography of unpublished research on the experiences of international students in UK higher education. This report presents the methods by which this bibliography was compiled as well as an analysis of the literature reviewed.
Project Report for BECTA, 2009
Project Report for Becta, 2009
This report presents the findings from a qualitative study of Continuing Professional Development... more This report presents the findings from a qualitative study of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for school teachers in Key Stages 1 --4 in England. The research aimed to identify 'effective' CPD, by collecting accounts from teachers, senior leaders and CPD providers in which they described the key features of ICT CPD which made a difference to teachers' use of technologies in their practice, based on their experiences. The research questions were as follows:
End of award report for ESRC, 2006
This chapter reviews the issues raised by the introduction of a virtual laboratory into UCL's und... more This chapter reviews the issues raised by the introduction of a virtual laboratory into UCL's undergraduate chemistry curriculum. It is a contribution to a book on teaching and learning at UCL which reviews recent pedagogical innovations.
Medical simulation has historically been studied in terms of the delivery of learning outcomes, o... more Medical simulation has historically been studied in terms of the delivery of learning outcomes, or the social construction of knowledge. Consequently, simulation-based medical education has been researched primarily in terms of the transfer of skills, or the reproduction of professional communities of practice. We make a case for studying simulation-based medical education as a cultural practice, situating it within a history of gaming and simulation, and which, by virtue of distinctive aesthetics, does not simply teach skills or reproduce professional practices but rather transforms how medicine can be made sense of. Three concepts from the field of game studies – play, narrative and simulation – are deployed to interpret an ethnographic study of hospital-based simulation centres and describe under-reported phenomena, including the cooperative work involved in maintaining a fictional world, the narrative conventions by which medical intervention are portrayed, and the political consequences of simulating the division of labour.
Medicine is increasingly taught in immersive simulated environments, to supplement the apprentice... more Medicine is increasingly taught in immersive simulated environments, to supplement the apprenticeship model of work-based learning. Clinical research on this educational practice focuses on its realism, defined as a property of simulation technology. We treat realism as a function of subjective but collectively organised perception and imbued with fantasy, which we define by drawing on Lacanian studies of virtual reality and workplace organisation. Data from an observational study of four simulation centres in London teaching hospitals is drawn on to present an account of what was taught and learned about medicine, including medical failure, when medical practice was simulated.
"This report presents the findings from a review of literature related to the current range of co... more "This report presents the findings from a review of literature related to the current range of continuing professional development (CPD) in ICT for school teachers. It sets out to examine and understand the features of effective CPD in ICT, meaning those activities, both formal and informal, within a range of contexts and involving a variety of participants, which
contribute to enhanced teacher understanding and practice involving technologies to support students’ learning. In order to explore this, it has been important to see professional development in ICT within a broader CPD context. The review has acknowledged the importance of understanding the factors which contribute to effective experiences of CPD for teachers generally. This has been fundamental to identifying the features which affect professional development in ICT specifically."