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Good luck & Congratulations!

Awarded & submitted bids

Congratulations to Alessandro Inversini (School of Tourism) for securing funding from the EC Lifelong Learning Programme, Mark Dover (Applied Sciences) for securing funding from Dataloft, Phillipa Gillingham (Applied Sciences) for her funding from the Environment Agency, Bronwen Russell and Jonny Monteith (Applied Sciences) for their funding from the East Coker Preservation Trust, Martin Smith (Applied Sciences) for running the Temporary Mortuary short course to cover Mass Graves Cancellation, David Osselton (Applied Sciences) for running the Forensics for Lawyers short course series.

Good luck to Anthea Innes (Health and Social Care) for her application to the TSB KTP, Jonathan Parker (Health and Social Care) for his application to the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Genoveva Esteban (Applied Sciences) for her application to Sempcorp, Roger Herbert (Applied Sciences) for his application to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Best wishes

Matthew

Funding available for tourism services

The EC has funding (€250,000 over 15 months) available for a mapping and performance check of the supply of accessible tourism services available as a tender. You will need to:

•assess the presence and performance of accessible tourism services and facilities along the tourism supply chain;

•assess the effectiveness of existing best practices and tools to foster tourism accessibility;

•analyse the results, propose recommendation and prioritise actions;

•disseminate and validate results.

The closing date is 09.10.12; see the TED website for more details.

Dementia Cupcake Club – research in the community

Throughout July and August 2012 BUDI (on behalf of Bournemouth Borough Council) have been delivering a series of sessions called the Cupcake Club at a local care scheme for people with dementia. For six weeks participants have been taking part in a variety of fun activities such as decorating cupcakes, arts and crafts, gardening and playing the Nintendo Wii. The purpose of the Cupcake Club was to provide a fun and informal environment for people with dementia to be creative and active over the summer period. The Cupcake Club has provided BUDI with a wonderful opportunity to go into the community and meet a group of interesting, funny and charismatic people. The sessions were thoroughly enjoyed by both the participants and the research team and apart from providing a lot of laughter, the sessions have shown that people with dementia are as capable as anyone else and that they are also quite good at Wii bowling!

A second Cupcake Club group has now started and analysis of the evaluation data from both Cupcake Clubs will begin in the Autumn. All findings will be drawn together in an evaluation report for Bournemouth Bourough Council towards the end of the year. In the meantime there is a lot of fun for the BUDI team faciliating these sessions in the community and for the participants.

Transversal funding announced

The EC has announced funding is available under the Transversal Programme. The aim is to promote European cooperation in fields covering two or more sub-programmes, and promote quality and transparency of member states’ education and training systems. The following relevant to BU staff are available and all have a deadline of 28.02.13

•KA1 multilateral networks: which support the creation of transversal networks to promote mutual policy learning and exchange of information on good practices and critical factors for the development and implementation of coherent and comprehensive approaches towards lifelong learning – funding is worth €200,000 per year over two or three years, but overall funding will not exceed €400,000;

•KA2 multilateral projects: which support promotion of language awareness and access to language learning resources – EU funding is worth a maximum of €200,000 per year over three years, but overall funding will not exceed €400,000, plus €25,000 for all third country partners combined;

•KA2 multilateral networks: which support contributions to promoting language learning and linguistic diversity – funding is worth a maximum of €150,000 per year over a maximum of three years, plus €25,000 for all third country partners combined.

•KA2 accompanying measures: which promote the objectives and results of languages projects – funding is worth a maximum of €150,000 over one year.

•KA3 multilateral projects:  which support the development of innovative ICT-based content, services, pedagogies and practices for lifelong learning – EU funding is worth a maximum of €200,000 per year over three years, but overall funding will not exceed €400,000, plus €25,000 for all third country partners combined.

•KA3 multilateral networks: which support the building of partnerships and the networking of learning communities with a view to exchanging ideas and experiences related to ICT for learning – funding is worth a maximum of €150,000 per year over a maximum of three years, plus €25,000 for all third country partners combined.

 

Benefits of research-led learning on the student experience and NSS scores

Guidance

The results of the 2012 National Student Survey are due to be made public shortly and we will be able to see how BU compared to other institutions and the sector average. The NSS data is based on the opinions of final year undergraduates on a number of issues such as how the students rate the universities’ learning resources, quality of personal development support and how intellectually stimulating their courses are.

Traditionally Russell Group universities have had lower response rates but scored more highly (85% satisfaction rate compared to a sector average of 81%). Often these higher scores are attributed to these institutions having a culture of research-led learning where enquiry-based, independent learning in a world-class research environment is at the heart of the student experience. Students report finding research-led learning exciting, and they also help produce graduates who are highly sought-after by employers.

The University of Cambridge’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) enables students to work with academics on live research projects as fully participating members of the project team. UCL is increasing opportunities for undergraduate students to take an active part in research-led learning. There are a number of ways in which undergraduate students can be exposed to research including:

  • Learning about others’ research (research-informed learning)
  • Learning to do research (research skills and methods)
  • Learning in a research mode such as enquiry-based learning

There is a growing body of evidence showing that research-led learning offers significant benefits to the student experience and student development, including:

  • the motivation and development of students as a consequence of exposure to expert subject matter
  • promoting the value of enquiry and deep approaches to learning
  • helping to develop transferable skills through engagement in research tools and processes

Many universities are now taking steps to ensure that all students are taught by research-active academics throughout their studies. There are numerous benefits of being taught of research-active academics including:

  • academics are at the cutting-edge of their field
  • they teach more relevant and up-to-date material
  • they gain enthusiasm for their subject from being research-active
  • they teach from their immediate research experience
  • they offer students a unique experience

Rather than seeing teaching and research as separate activities there are huge benefits to students of combining the two to ensure that teaching and learning are research-led and research-informed. Research-led learning lies at the heart of BU’s concept of Fusion which underpins the BU2018 strategy. If you are already research-active then be creative with your teaching! Encourage students to be involved in your live research projects and use examples from your research findings and experience in your lessons and teaching materials. If you’d like to be research-active then consider joining the University’s Grants Academy which will enable you to develop the skills and knowledge required to embark on a research career.

For more ideas and examples on research-led learning see this report – Research-led learning: the heart of the Russell Group university experience

Rufus Stone scoops 2 awards at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival!

Rufus Stone  has just scooped two awards at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival in the USA, the only short to win in two categories at the festival:  the Grand prize in the Alternative Spirit category and the Youth Jury Award for best GLBT film at the festival.

The Rhode Island International Film Festival consisted of six days and nights of screenings, meetings and greetings featured more than 200 films selected from more than 4,000 entrants.

The Youth Jury is a programme that introduces youth to the world of independent film. The youth attend multiple screenings during the Festival, Q&A’s, and festival events. Their goal is to deliberate, and choose a Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Best Short to receive the Youth Jury award.

Just few reactions to Rufus Stone from audience members at earlier screeings:

“Critically the authenticity of the film shone through – the characters were real and genuine”.

  •   “emotionally gripping”
  •   “technically innovative and striking”
  •   “a brilliant way to portray research”
  •   “beautiful and very intense”
  •   “a quite remarkable film”
  •   “a brilliant film, beautifully crafted and full of empathy”

“Rarely does one get the chance of seeing a love affair between two men portrayed on screen credibly and realistically, not to say very movingly”.

“A kind of ‘ To Kill a Mocking Bird’ type film that makes you really think about your morals”.

Bournemouth University’s Kip Jones (The Media School &; HSC) said, “Winning at prestigious film festivals such as RIIFF is important in getting the film seen by a wide audience. This is the kind of impact that we imagined from the outset of the research project itself”. 

“I am particularly pleased for our director, Josh Appignanesi, who took on board the concept of fusion of research and a professional film and visually brought it to life through Rufus Stone.”

“Gay and Pleasant Land? -a study about positioning, ageing and gay life in rural South West England and Wales” was  funded by Research Councils UK.The Rufus Stone microsite gives more information about the film, and the research that inspired it.

Be part of the UK-Taiwan Academic-Industry & Technology Transfer Collaboration Forum

The UK-Taiwan Academic-Industry & Technology Transfer Collaboration Forum, organised by the Science and Innovation Network Taipei and the British Council Taipei, will take place on 14 September 2012 at the Royal Society of Chemistry in London.    The Forum is designed for:

  •     Researchers interested in building academic-industry links with top HEIs from Taiwan.
  •     Academics operating in technology transfer wishing to access manufacturers in Taiwan.
  •     Practitioners involved in university-business collaborations looking to expand networks in greater China.
  •     Administrators experienced in facilitating academics working with commercial sectors willing to exchange views with Taiwanese counterparts.

With support from the National Science Council in Taiwan, the forum provides an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience of academic-industry cooperation and technology transfer, to generate ideas and forge partnerships. It also aims to identify opportunities for university-business collaborations, develop potential working models and schemes, and explore possible strategies for collaboration in technology transfer between the UK and Taiwan.

Confirmed participants from Taiwan include approximately 20 representatives from the Taiwan Top Universities Alliance, Academia Sinica, Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI), National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) and the National Science Council (NSC).

To participate, read over the Indicative Programme and send the UK-TW Forum Reply Form to Ms Amy Chung at  by 4 September 2012.

Luisa Cescutti-Butler’s Purrrrr-fect PhD

‘Miniature’ cat and my PhD

Luisa Cescutti-Butler, Senior Midwifery Lecturer, Part-time PhD student, School of Health and Social Care

I have two cats but only one of them is the subject of this blog. It is ‘Mini Cat’ who takes centre stage and she is a black moggy. Despite myths and folklore surrounding black cats, Mini is nothing but a delight. She is a voracious killer of birds (I don’t like that characteristic), will eat anything and everything and is very friendly and loving towards her human parents. Why am I blogging about her you may ask, and what has she got to do with my doctoral studies?

I recently had time out from work to catch up on important elements of my research (such as transcribing interviews and getting to grips with NVivo) and would spend all day at my laptop in my study. The photos show Mini sitting beside me whilst I am trying to input data onto NVivo, a computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). Ah ‘cute’ you might be thinking! Not so cute when she walks over the keys trying to gain your attention as it’s now ‘three o’ clock human mommy’ and ‘I want feeding’ – “purr purr”. If I ignore her because I’m in the middle of coding and am concentrating and don’t want to lose momentum, she will find other ways of attracting my attention. Her next tactic is to jump up onto the window-sill which is directly behind the laptop and start knocking things off it!  If that doesn’t work, she will jump down and start walking over the laptop again– “purr”, and eventually sit and look at me with her big green eyes and give a little meow! It’s no good now; I give up, go downstairs and feed her and Nutmeg, cat no 1.

On the other hand when Mini’s stomach is full she will often come up to the study, find a comfortable spot and sleep. She keeps me company and I find myself talking aloud to her, there’s nobody else I can share my thoughts with. I am not a sad and mad ‘cat woman’ but my other half is out at work as well. It is said that cats can help with studies, I would love Mini to stop murdering all the delightful birds and instead put those hunting skills to good use, such as helping me to find those elusive themes from all the data I have thus collected, but unfortunately her talents do not extend that far.

She is a nuisance sometimes, demanding my attention either for feeding or stroking but I wouldn’t have it any other way. People always say that cats are aloof but until you have one as a pet you will discover that is not true, they like to be with their owners even if their human mommy is battling with the intricacies of NVivo. However if any other PhD researcher knows of a cat with ‘transcribing skills’ give me a call!!!! I have to end this blog because Mini is hungry, ‘meow, meow’!!!

The Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management explain UK copyright law through animated videos

If somebody creates a parody or spoof based on a popular original work, does the spoof infringe the copyright of the original artist?

These videos explain the current status of expressions such as parody under UK copyright law.  Parodies use elements of an original work to create a new, humorous or critical expression.  Some countries, such as the USA, Australia and France, already allow the creation of parody without the need to obtain permission from the original copyright owner.

Currently, the UK government is considering making some changes to the existing Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA 1988). These videos explore those proposals and the arguments on both sides of the debate.

In 2011, the government initiated an independent review of intellectual property, carried out by Professor Ian Hargreaves: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/hargreaves.htm
The report recommended adding an exception to copyright for the purposes of parody, which would allow users to create and share parodies without infringing copyright in certain circumstances.

A Bournemouth University report on the proposed copyright exception for Parody, authored by Dr Kris Erickson, Dr Dinusha Mendis, and Professor Martin Kretschmer, will be available in September 2012:
http://www.cippm.org.uk/publications.html

It is hoped that these videos will be helpful to all users of copyright:  teachers, librarians, artists, producers, journalists and members of the public.

The videos were created by research assistant Bartolomeo Meletti, with support from the Department of Law at Bournemouth University. 

Animation and editing by Marco Bagni – http://www.lostconversation.com
Filming, voice over and animation sound design by Nathan Revill @ Creative http://www.dorsetcreative.co.uk
Illustration by Danilo Rečević – http://www.danilor.it/
Music: Progressive — IB Audio
Interviewee: Dr Kris Erickson
Contributors: Professor Martin Kretschmer; Dr Kris Erickson; Dr Dinusha Mendis; Professor Ruth Towse.

Start your EU career with a Leonardo grant!

Funding is available under the Lifelong Learning Programme for Leonardo da Vinci transfer of innovation multilateral projects. The aim of this funding is to improve the quality and attractiveness of vocational education and training in participating countries by transferring existing innovations to new legal, systemic, sector, linguistic, socio-cultural and geographic environments through working with transnational partners. Funding is worth a maximum of €150,000 per year for one to two years, and the closing date is 31.01.13.

Don’t forget from my blogpost last week, that there is an info day in November which will cover the Lifelong Learning Programme and that we also have a successful Leonardo award holder here at BU, who is a great fan of the scheme; read Christos Gatzidis’ first Leonardoblogpost  and second Leonardo blogpost for inspiration!

Stepping stones to the north: ‘citizen science’ reveals that protected areas allow wildlife to spread in response to climate change

Pippa Gillingham from the School of Applied Sciences has co-authored a new study, led by scientists at the University of York, which has shown how birds, butterflies, other insects and spiders have colonised nature reserves and areas protected for wildlife, as they move north in response to climate change and other environmental changes.

Adonis blues can only colonise new sites which already contain horse-shoe vetch, the plant species that their caterpillars eat. These plants are restricted to grassland on chalk and limestone, most of which have been converted into agricultural crops; by S. J. Marshall (http://www.flickr.com/photos/16155010@N04/)

The study of over 250 species is published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS). The conclusions were based on the analysis of millions of records of wildlife species sent in predominantly by members of the public.

The work represents a major new discovery involving collaborators in universities, research institutes, conservation charities, and regional and national government but – crucially – fuelled by ‘citizen science’.

Many species need to spread towards the poles where conditions remain cool enough for them to survive climate warming. But doing this is complicated because many landscapes across the world are dominated by human agriculture and development, which form barriers to the movement of species.  The mainstay of traditional conservation has been to establish protected areas and nature reserves to provide refuges against the loss of habitats and other threats in the surrounding countryside. 

But this method of nature conservation has been questioned in recent years, partly because of continuing degradation of habitats in reserves in some parts of the world.  Increasingly, however, the value of protected areas is being question because climate change is taking place – wildlife sites stay where they are while animal species move in response to changing conditions.

However, the new research shows that protected areas are the places that most animal species colonise as they spread into new regions. “Protected areas are like stepping stones across the landscape, allowing species to set up a succession of new breeding populations as they move northwards,” said lead author Professor Chris Thomas, of the University of York.

Co-author Dr Phillipa Gillingham, now a Lecturer in the School of Applied Sciences at Bournemouth University, calculated that species are on average around four times more likely to colonise nature reserves than might be expected.  “For the seven focal species of birds and butterflies that we studied in greatest detail, 40% of new colonisations occurred in the mere 8.4 per cent of the land that was protected,” she said.  “Similar patterns were observed among more than 250 invertebrate species.”

But the study showed that species vary greatly in how much they need reserves.

“Some species, such as the Dartford Warbler and Silver-Spotted Skipper butterfly, are largely confined to nature reserves,” said Dr David Roy, of the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. “Whereas others like the Nightjar and Stone Curlew are less dependent on these sites.” 

Dr Richard Bradbury, of the RSPB, said: “Sites of importance for wildlife stand out like beacons in otherwise impoverished landscapes. This study shows that the hugely important role they play now will continue undiminished in the future. Protecting these arks, as well as restoring and re-creating new ones where we can, will provide the vital network enabling more species to survive the spectre of climate change.”

 “This study is a great example of how volunteer recorders and national monitoring schemes together provide the information to answer key conservation questions of global importance, such as how we can help wildlife cope with climate change,” said James Pearce-Higgins of the British Trust for Ornithology. “Only through the dedicated effort of so many people can we undertake the scale of long-term monitoring required.”

Assisted Living Innovation Platform (ALIP)

Funding opportunities

Promoting physical activity in older age

Invitation for proposals: The cross-Research Council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme wishes to support research into the physiological effects and behaviours associated with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the older population.

This nine funding partner call is issued under the auspices of the cross-Research Council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme and is led by the Medical Research Council on behalf of the BBSRC, the ESRC, the EPSRC and the UK health departments: Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates, NIHR, Health and Social Care Research and Development Office, Northern Ireland and the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research, Wales.

Despite wide spread recognition of the physical and mental health benefits of physical activity at all ages, activity levels commonly decline in older age, whilst the prevalence of sedentary behaviour increases. The cross-Research Council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme wishes to support research into the  physiological effects and behaviours associated with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the older population, which will inform the future development of effective interventions to motivate and sustain activity in this target population.  Approximately £5M is available to support research arising from this call. Applicants may apply for up to £1 million (80% fEC) for a maximum period of three years.

Key dates

   
Call open for applications in Je-S Monday 17th September 2012
Deadline for full proposals 4pm, Thursday18th October 2012
Potential triage of proposals November 2012
Commissioning Panel meeting March 2013
Decisions to applicants By end March 2013

Contact

In addition to this document, applicants should read the MRC Applicant Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions for this call.

Dr Katie Finch

MRC programme Manager for Lifelong Health and Wellbeing, E-mail: llhw@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk, Tel: 01793 416350

 The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

Launch of the National Coastal Tourism Academy

On Tuesday 13 August Eric Pickles, MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced the allocation of a Coastal Communities Fund grant to the National Coastal Tourism Academy. The grant of £2 million will create the world’s only specialist coastal tourism academy, with the aim to turn local expertise into knowledge to share with towns across the country and internationally.

Bournemouth was chosen due to its unique position in the tourism industry. Eric Pickles said: “We want Bournemouth to be a catalyst in development. The town already has the infrastructure and resources like Bournemouth University specialising in tourism for this to be a success and to be able to communicate to struggling towns.”

Under the Bournemouth and Poole Joint Tourism Management Board, the Academy will be a combined project involving Bournemouth University, Bournemouth Borough Council and members of the Poole and Bournemouth Tourism industry. In addition to the economic benefits, Dr Keith Wilkes, Dean of the School of Tourism at Bournemouth University has been celebrating the opportunities the project will bring: “Bournemouth will be host to the first specialist Coastal Tourism Academy anywhere in the world – reflecting Bournemouth’s status as a major coastal tourism destination and the School of Tourism’s national and international reputation as a centre of research excellence and major provider of tourism, hospitality and event management undergraduate and postgraduate education”.

The National Coastal Tourism Academy is a ground breaking knowledge transfer institution, designed to accelerate tourism growth. The project shall be split into three growth initiatives: a Coastal Activity Park, a resort wide visitor experience programme and coastal tourism product research and development programme. Within the next few years, the National Coastal Tourism Academy will provide world-class educational and professional training to coastal tourism businesses, as well as producing a central sharing database and communications link for teams and individuals looking to expand their knowledge or businesses.

Dr Bruce Grant-Braham, member of the Dorset Local Economic Partnership (LEP) and Senior Lecturer in the School of Tourism, said that tourism is the backbone of Bournemouth’s economy, and that there is plenty of potential for development across Britain that coincides with the surge of ‘staycations’ and interest in the UK tourism industry, so now is the right time to be investing in expanding and creating sustainable coastal tourism opportunities with real local significance.

Bournemouth is a lively and modern coastal resort, but the introduction of this unique and innovative academy could raise its status to one of global significance. “Like all good ideas” concluded Eric Pickles, “I’m astonished it hadn’t been thought of before.”

Read the article on the Guardian website here: Bournemouth wins £2m to set up first coastal tourism academy in Europe

Latest journal impact factors

Research assessment

Following the release of the latest Journal Citation Reports® on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge database, we have compiled a list of the top ranking journals in various fields related to BU research. BU staff can access these lists by going to the designated folder on the I-drive (copy and paste the following path into Windows Explorer and press return): I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\Journal Impact Factors 2012.

If there are any additional subject areas that you would like to see included, please leave a comment to this post, below.

Related blog posts that may be of interest:

Fusion Investment Funding/Fund

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

Within the new Fusion Funding prospect here at Bournemouth University, I have just had success for a project examining  teaching practice and the use of media in the classroom.  The specific focus relates bullying, and name calling in school, and how media may be used to educate young learners.  I am very excited about this project, as it extends my foundational research in media representation and sexual diversity, allowing me to consider how teachers might relate issues of minority social identity.  Its very early days, as the project does not officially start until the 1st of October, and to be honest I have never done a blog before, and I (deliberately) have no presence on Facebook, Twitter etc, so the purpose of the blog is to reflect back on my progress for myself, as much as anything else, and if anyone reading this finds some interest, that’s great!

With this in mind, I thought I might share the background for the project.  A few years back in the late 198os, a secondary school teacher friend of mine often told me of instances when he used to play educational dramas about gay and lesbian youth identity issues.  I remember one time, he told me that he had played the television drama ‘The Two of  Us’ (Roger Tongue, 1988), which features a ‘kind of’ teen romance. This was quite daring, as at the time there was the backdrop of Clause 28, and the prohibition of educating school audiences about gay and lesbian identity.  Wind forward, many years later, and referencing an entirely different country, the work of Debra Chasnoff and her production company Groundspark, offered great insight.  Educational documentaries such as ‘Thats a Family’ (2000), and ‘Straighlaced’ (2009) produced by Groundspark offered insight into the diversity of families (adopted, single parent, same sex parents, diverse ethnicity etc) and the problem of stereotyping gender norms for teens.  Also Groundspark produced ‘Lets Get Real’ talking about issues of name calling in school.  At Bournemouth I had discussed the merits of these documentaries to students in the year 2 Media and Diversity option that I held.  I was inspired how students engaged with the subject area, and how they related these issues to their own productions.

More recently, specifically September 2010, I was invited to speak at the Westminster Media Forum.  The conference subject area was LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) representation in mainstream media.  I was thrilled to present a very brief paper to quite a diverse audience, including media professionals, broadcasters, and government representatives. My paper had been related to a need for more diverse representations.   The day after the conference, I read in the Guardian about the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a first year student at Rutgers university in the US.  He had killed himself, as his roommate had secretly filmed Tytler with a same sex partner.  The alleged shame appeared too much to bear for Tyler.  This high profile case made me investigate this further online.  I then discovered the ‘It Gets better Project’, a web site that was produced to offer support for youth contemplating suicide, due to oppression for sexual diversity.  What I did not know was that in the month of September 2010, a number of other gay male youth committed suicide also, stimulating video contribution to the ‘It Gets better Project’. I have done some papers on this area, considering the use of the site, but increasingly I am interested in how name calling is a real issue for young learners, and how words such as ‘gay’, ‘dyke’, ‘queer’ and ‘faggot’, are often unchallenged within diverse social environments.

So this is the very basic background to my research project.  Some great research has already taken place looking at LGBT identity issues in school, such as the No Outsiders Project (funded by the ESRC) a few years back relative to primary schools, but I am looking to extend these ideas, looking at how media is used in the secondary school classroom.

As a precursor to this project, I recently presented a paper at the Screen Conference in Glasgow, considering how children may read representations.  I was particularly interested in how young learners may read irony, which enables youth to make complex judgments about ‘earnest’ or ‘hyper-real’ representations.

So this is my starting point. I’ll add to this blog, as it all progresses.  Thanks again, supporters of this bid.

Success for a second time under the Leonardo Programme: GameWise

   Following the completion of the EU funded GameiT Leonardo Transfer of Innovation project (which attracted funding of 250,000 Euros in total) which focused on identifying, collecting, testing and distributing good practice in game-based learning thus producing a framework of game-based learning pedagogy targeted at teachers and trainers, running between 2009 and 2011, I was involved in another Leonardo bid this winter led by the same PI from Denmark (CV2).

The new project proposed was titled GameWise and concentrates on the European Commission’s recent acknowledgment of the  need to pay more attention to new ways of unlocking Europe’s potentials of cultural and creative industries (CCIs). For Europe and other parts of the world, the rapid rollout of new technologies and increased globalisation has meant a striking shift away from traditional manufacturing towards services and innovation. Factory floors are progressively being replaced by creative communities, whose raw material is their ability to imagine, create and innovate. In this new digital economy, immaterial value increasingly determines material value, as consumers are looking for new and enriching “experiences”. The ability to create social experiences and networking is now a factor of competitiveness.

The production of video games is central in this relation. These last years, the game industry has been on a fast track to become the world’s leading entertainment business. The majority of the production is, however, placed primarily in North America – and the focus is on games designed only for entertainment purposes. But a new way of doing business is on the rise: games made for other purposes than mere entertainment – e.g. learning, training, recruiting etc. The general term for this category of games is ‘serious games’, although also often referred to as applied gaming or gamification.

This project is then set to attempt to transfer the related to the above results that have been made under individual partners involved to the rest of the partnership and thus, via the exchange of practices amongst the consortium, explore the creation of new jobs in Europe by the transfer and adaptation of a model for closer cooperation between VET (Vocational Education and Training) institutions and the surrounding world of work.

The GameWise project I am happy to inform has now been successful in attracting funding and is set to run from the 1st of September 2012 to the 1st of September 2014. The total funds attracted are 250,000 Euros with 37,900 of that allocated to BU. Partners include institutions from a range of countries such as Spain, the Netherlands and Norway.

I will post updates on GameWise occasionally once the project officially begins; meanwhile, I would definitely recommend colleagues look into the Leonardo calls for next year (the next one is I believe for January 31st 2013), these are part of the Lifelong Learning Programme and squarely focused on vocational education (as you can probably surmise from the GameWise project description above). As vocational teaching has traditionally been a BU strength, schemes such as the Leonardo one are an obvious EU funding avenue which could lead to successful results.