Enhancing the content and experience of Interactive Childrens Television. Interactive television (iTV) as a participatory, on-demand communication provides a unique opportunity to significantly engage, entertain and educate preschool children. Through considerable industry partner collaboration and participation, this project will evaluate three distinct interactive options produced from selected children's television programs with proven success in Australia. Usability studies employing a vari ....Enhancing the content and experience of Interactive Childrens Television. Interactive television (iTV) as a participatory, on-demand communication provides a unique opportunity to significantly engage, entertain and educate preschool children. Through considerable industry partner collaboration and participation, this project will evaluate three distinct interactive options produced from selected children's television programs with proven success in Australia. Usability studies employing a variety of surveillance techniques will evaluate content design and user response. Children's viewing habits will be evaluated within a social context (the home) and a mobile lab setting using qualitative and quantitative assessment. The results will identify effective ways to produce meaningful interactivity and will encourage future industry based research.Read moreRead less
Production Challenges in the On-Line Learning Environment. The shift of responsibility from teacher-centred learning to learner-centred learning has raised important questions of access for diverse groups in Australia and overseas. The project seeks to investigate new delivery mechanisms that respond to worldwide trends in virtual communities and self-directed learning. This research will explore the relationship between content pedagogy, use of technology, and work-related issues and expectatio ....Production Challenges in the On-Line Learning Environment. The shift of responsibility from teacher-centred learning to learner-centred learning has raised important questions of access for diverse groups in Australia and overseas. The project seeks to investigate new delivery mechanisms that respond to worldwide trends in virtual communities and self-directed learning. This research will explore the relationship between content pedagogy, use of technology, and work-related issues and expectations. It will adopt a qualitative and quantitative research methodology in identifying opportunities, producing a learning prototype, testing and trialing that prototype and applying research outcomes in the context of emergent new educational models that draw upon convergent media.Read moreRead less
Rethinking timelines: a new methodology for describing and communicating history. The project will lead to better ways of understanding historical events in context through active engagement of learners in the construction of timeline visualisations. It will contribute to the development of better strategies for collaborative content creation and quality control in web-based community resources, and facilitate creation of significant online collaborative databases by communities of interest, wit ....Rethinking timelines: a new methodology for describing and communicating history. The project will lead to better ways of understanding historical events in context through active engagement of learners in the construction of timeline visualisations. It will contribute to the development of better strategies for collaborative content creation and quality control in web-based community resources, and facilitate creation of significant online collaborative databases by communities of interest, without the technical requirements and costs of one-off programming. It will add value to Australian online resources such as MacquarieNet, contribute to new methods of information visualisation in Australian museums and visitor centres, and generate national and international consultancies for the project partners.Read moreRead less
Designing for Mobile Learning in a Technology Museum. The main objective is to investigate which pedagogical models are most appropriate for informal (museum) learning and how these models can be aligned with ICT-mediated learning tools. In collaboration with The Powerhouse Museum, we will develop a pedagogical model of informal learning, create activities supported by a mobile learning and 'collaboratory' technical infrastructure to nurture experiential learning and informal discovery, and inve ....Designing for Mobile Learning in a Technology Museum. The main objective is to investigate which pedagogical models are most appropriate for informal (museum) learning and how these models can be aligned with ICT-mediated learning tools. In collaboration with The Powerhouse Museum, we will develop a pedagogical model of informal learning, create activities supported by a mobile learning and 'collaboratory' technical infrastructure to nurture experiential learning and informal discovery, and investigate informal learner experiences within this ICT-mediated informal learning environment. The project will create a reference implementation of an informal learning environment, document its development process, and evaluate its effect on museum visitors.Read moreRead less