 A Guide to Good Practice in Collaborative Working Methods and New Media Tools Creation Chapter 16 - The SMARTshell: Connecting Performance Practice to Tools for Connected Learning
Introduction, by Lizbeth Goodman The unusual grammar of this title [..."connecting practice to tools"... ] has been chosen deliberately to highlight an awkward but also interesting moment of transition in the field of technology: the moment when a practice or process itself becomes a tool. It also emphasises the layers of connectivity that make up performance processes using networked technologies. This is the context for the creation of the SMARTshell: a toolkit (described in detail below) enabling students, artists, and what might be described as "cultural interventionists" to make their own meanings and share their own stories and images with their own selected audiences. The toolkit was developed in order to meet the needs of this core community at a moment when e-learning was becoming a buzzword but few knew what it meant or how to make it work, and when the tools available for making and sharing online courses tended to be limited in terms of their applicability for artists. This limitation was largely because e-learning tools are designed primarily for the PC, with only a few applications equally effective on dual platform, and because they tend not to support effective video and audio facilities, rendering them far less useful for the arts than for the sciences. This short paper offers reflections on the process of making a new tool while using it with Masters of Arts students in performance and PhD students in new media. What makes this tool design process unique is that it includes, and indeed incorporates, ongoing artistic practice. The artists, performers, and technologists worked together over a period of 10 years to create a new set of draft tools, or drafting tools, that would empower makers and students of visual arts, media, theatre, dance and music to create and share their own work online, while simultaneously learning about the medium or the "tools". The various versions of the SMARTshell documented in this chapter are all still available, for free (or for the costs of copying and posting CD-Roms). The package including the newest fully integrated version of the software is now called ViewHear, and can be ordered separately for installation with sessions by team members on using the system for pedagogical and wider social purposes. Background In the early 1990s, my team at the Open University BBC was sharing drama, gender and media studies courses and programmes on BBC TV and radio, and had just begun to work on online and multimedia approaches to the field of e-learning for the arts. We set up a research group and a project, and won grants from the Laurillard Committee (in response to the Dearing Report) and from the Esmee Fairbairn Trust, to experiment with the possible uses of multimedia formats in drama teaching. We made an experimental set of CD-Roms on Shakespeare with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and we collaborated with institutions in North America and across the UK. We released the CD-Roms and analysed the findings, and continued in our private work to make new and better tools for "cut-your-own" drama, allowing students and audiences to see plays and visual art from a wider variety of perspectives, and then enabling them to make and share their own work too. The OU BBC team included Huw Williams and Tony Coe along with a cast of BBC producers, programmers and academics. We presented our findings internationally and then dissolved the team as we all moved on to pastures new. In the late 1990s, then heading up the Institute for New Media Performance Research at the University of Surrey in England, we won further research & development funds from the Fund for Development of Teaching & Learning to make an experimental customised learning toolkit that would empower MA students of gender and performance wishing to share and create their work online. We set up a virtual classroom online and a set of linked classrooms across the UK (in Surrey and London), the USA (in New York and Phoenix) and Canada (in Vancouver and Banff). We ran a course called "The Extended Body", which drew students together for live, synchronous, online discussion and physical improvisation and workshops. Then we analysed the results and assessed greater community need for such toolkits. The primary collaborators on the development of content and methodology of the project ("good practice pedagogy") were Dr Susan Kozel (then of the University of Surrey's Department of Dance Studies, now at Simon Fraser University in Canada) and Katherine Milton (of Arizona State University). In 2001, the SMARTlab was established at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, as the first phase of the new Innovation Centre. There, a new toolkit with bespoke tools was created, informed by years of practice in the field, but made up with new aims, audiences, software and functionality. The SMARTshell was born. With a core team of programmers drawn from industry on a contract basis to work with us at the SMARTlab, we made a new toolkit, and tested it extensively in the UK, North American, Europe and North Africa. It is about to be installed in Ireland and Asia as well. The next iteration of SMARTshell is coming soon to any number of screens near you. In order to describe the SMARTshell, and outline its genealogy, scope and potential, this chapter is divided into three parts. Part One introduces and describes the SMARTshell. Part Two provides details of The Extended Body module, a key research project for the SMARTshell out of which good practice guidelines for an academic context were developed. Part Three provides a glimpse of future SMARTshell applications such as the Global Classmates Initiative and plans for a healing games initiative at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York.
PART ONE: The SMARTshell The SMARTlab Centre of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, at the London Institute, has for the past two years worked with collaborators to support the development and distribution of an interactive hub for online learning, called the SMARTshell. The creation of the SMARTlab at CSM/LINST was indeed intended in part to provide a central London base for further development of the existing SMARTshell, including prototype testing of the shell for connected and integrated live and mediated learning packages in art and design. The SMARTshell consisted until 2003 as a set of four linked software packages, which were beta-tested in an innovative MA-level performance course called The Extended Body (2000-2001) and which have since been put through an iterative series of betatests, programme revisions, and distribution projects leading to the forthcoming widespread release of a new package, planned for late 2003. The four software packages together provide a set of synchronous and asynchronous learning tools that support non-hierarchical, many-to-many, supported learning in fields (such as performance, theatre, dance, gender studies, communications, media theory and practice) that place a high priority on visual and audio input and output. In this sense, the SMARTshell supports a range of disciplines and communicative forms not fully supported by standard (PC-based, text-driven) off-the-shelf applications (e.g. Learning Space, First Class, et al). The SMARTshell has the potential to become a market leader for dual-platform, web-supported, interactive learning using video and audio as well as text and discussion board applications. It is a distributed system for the delivery of educational, artistic and communicative content. The components of the SMARTshell create an integrated platform for the presentation of text, imagery, video, and sound, as well as a cohesive and geographically independent forum for both real-time and asynchronous exchange. The SMARTshell is designed as a flexible, content-independent tool that can be used in a variety of disciplines. The goal is to provide scholars, artists, and cultural workers with a unified package that can change and grow with their needs, as well as to facilitate open access to their content. Movie files, videoconferencing, asynchronous discussions, synchronous chat, journal articles, and graphics, are all housed in a complementary and connected environment. This environment provides content developers with a furtive zone from which to organise their educational experience. "Furtive" in this context evokes the sense of creative unpredictability inherent to tools that work together but are relatively unstructured regarding the sort of exchanges and creation they foster. This "distance education hub" is a practical tool in the growing field of online education delivery, and supports the concepts of connected learning and connected learning spaces. The term "connected learning space" moves the consideration of distance education from being electronically, or even distally centred, to being temporally centred and electronically mediated. In this consideration, the learner and the learning are placed at the centre point of consideration, transforming distance into electronic proximity. The student "connects" with their own personal and intimate learning process, "connects" with the learning process of other learners, and also "connects" electronically in order to transfer their thoughts and visually mediated presence to a shared and connected folder. Their visual presence via webcam can be mediated through use of costumes, visual effects, or indeed the live feed can be replaced with an image or constructed avatar, thus offering a range of identity options should this be desirable. The "where" of the learning space and the learner merge, and make possible a passionate engagement that results in personally meaningful learning. Distance falls away in this consideration, as intimacy in the learning process is made explicit and central. Specifically, the SMARTshell integrates an array of technologies for interconnectivity between institutions, artists, and the public. The interactive tools contained in this hub of technologies are primarily accessed via a website front-end. Using a standard html editor, or by contracting a website designer, a website front-end can created, tailored, and customised to best showcase the specific intent, and priorities of the course author. The SMARTshell becomes the nest for content, graphics, and media; and the hub for interactive exchanges. Components of the SMARTshell The components housed within the SMARTshell are pioneering applications, primarily offered as freeware or shareware, which have been proven to be stable and reliable across a variety of computer platforms. The SMARTshell (version 2002) is comprised of: 1.Website front end 1. The website front end The interactive tools contained in the SMARTshell are primarily accessed via a website front end. Using a standard html editor, or by contracting a website designer, your website front end can be tailored and customised to best showcase your specific tastes and priorities. The SMARTshell then becomes the nest for your content, media, and the hub for your interactive exchanges. 2. iVisit for real-time interactivity For real-time interaction independent of geographic location, the SMARTshell includes Eyematic's power tool iVisit for desktop video conferencing. Institutions such as universities, schools or cybercafés participating in any SMARTshell demo, test or course will be required to have at least one web camera to facilitate videoconference exchange. iVisit is a platform for low-bandwidth, internet-based, synchronous video, chat and audio exchange. It is downloadable for free and runs on both Apple Mac and PC. See http://www.ivisit.com. Avoiding the general public rooms ensures safe and private communication. Simply enter the Education Folder off the main iVisit menu, then go to SMARTspaces and find the SMARTroom. Password for entry is available from the SMARTlab upon request and with proof of identity for all participants of a SMARTshell programme. 3. A discussion board for asynchronous messaging and debate The SMARTshell is linked to an online discussion forum to facilitate on-demand, threaded text messages. The discussion can be archived to preserve the intellectual processes and to record the deeper conceptual exchange of the participants to a SMARTshell-mediated programme. This asynchronous discussion complements the synchronous chat that occurs through iVisit during real-time seminars or social gatherings. The synchronous chat tends to be the hotbed for new ideas and is characterised by a certain buzz of excitement at having people from several locations virtually "present" in a shared networked space. The asynchronous discussion board is a useful place to develop and sustain ideas that emerge through the initial exchange. It is also a forum for the posting of essays (should this be required), for reflection on readings, or for notes and observations from rehearsal practices. It can act as a multi-purpose, multimedia, archived scrapbook of thought and process. This discussion board is built and maintained by the SMARTshell centre and is designed to offer automatic European language translation. 4. TK3 for electronic, and online publishing Electronic, and online publishing has become dynamic in the digital age. The integration of graphic imagery, and even movies to text-based information, is doing much to enhance the comprehension of conceptual information. The SMARTshell includes the Nightkitchen's TK3 authoring tool (http://www.nightkitchen.com), which integrates presentation capabilities, with a word processor, and desktop publishing functionality in an aesthetically driven mode. TK3 provides for active annotations of material, allowing content experts to visually layer related concepts, thereby enhancing and extending the learner's understanding of complex connections. As a possible future of the book, TK3 offers SMARTshell participants the scope to disseminate their creativity at will, by posting it to the web, sending it as an email attachment, or burning it to CD-Rom and distributing via more conventional publishing avenues. 5. ViewHear for rich media capabilities and drag & drop video composition The SMARTshell provides the user-friendly interface created in ViewHear for easy and flexible video file editing, arranging, and playback. A CD-Rom of this application will be available to each SMARTshell site. ViewHear, available only from the SMARTlab, was created by Dr Lizbeth Goodman with Huw Williams of Broadcast Solutions, and benefited from input in early phases of development from Tony Coe. The simplest form of the program functions as a multimedia storyboarding tool, allowing users with little or no knowledge of computers or video editing to make movies and tell stories together across time and space, putting text, image and sound together in their own personalised way. As an "on-the-fly" video editing package, ViewHear allows for dynamic and flexible reorganisation of stills, audio and video so that users can create their own storyboards, editing packages, and "cuts" of performance and film. The ViewHear package automatically converts any still image, so that no experience in using digital image conversion tools is necessary for easy use of the product. ViewHear technology is also dual-platform and scaleable, easily customisable for particular course, artistic or cultural needs. Practical testing in schools has demonstrated ViewHear to be user-friendly, and effective in developing students' critical awareness of the role that words, pictures and sounds have in creating meaning. Each of the three core software packages remains owned by the development teams, while the SMARTshell linked pedagogy and connected learning package is a product of the intellectual developers, now linked to the SMARTlab London. The SMARTshell is in beta-test use by the developers (Dr Goodman, Dr Susan Kozel, Katherine Milton - the three academic inventors of the concept - with software developers Bob Stein of the Night Kitchen, Huw Williams of Broadcast Solutions, Tim Dorcey of Eyematic, et al) in London, New York, Phoenix, Banff and Vancouver (Canada), with links to Amsterdam and throughout the UK. Further test sites have already been identified. In a wider international context, the SMARTshell is being tested for low-bandwidth, highly accessible intercultural communication and collaborative learning in many cultures where high bandwidth is still only a pipe dream. The SMARTshell is an example of how any widely adopted learning shell must be capable of running in scaleable form: for example, higher-spec applications occur at British Council centres, new universities, and broadcast companies, while very low-end forms of the SMARTshell thrive in the average cybercafe, most schools, universities and homes.
The British Council Morocco SMARTshell project Morocco has been the first major test site in the developing nations. Dr Goodman and her team began installing the SMARTshell in cybercafés and learning centres throughout Morocco (2001-2002). This distributed test site,which is still expanding both in terms of user community and in terms of functionality, supports the work of university educators, k-12 teachers, cultural workers, and artists, offering a framework to house educative content, and a platform for connecting geographically dispersed learners. In the first iteration of the project, selected cybercafés throughout Morocco were provided with a set of CD-Roms containing the SMARTshell suite of applications for connected learning. These technologies were also installed on the computers of the selected cybercafés. The cybercafés enjoy the privilege of being featured as British Council SMARTshell participants on the newly developed British Council website for connected learning, adding to their visibility in a broader academic community. The choice of housing these technologies in cybercafés was made to allow for more open access to these learning and development tools. Content providers are, in this context, able to link their materials by way of a website menu/database. Students are able to access this course content from any of the participating cybercafés. Participants are not limited by university access issues, and the participating cybercafés have the potential to become intellectual hubs in their educational and cultural communities. Interested university professors, cultural workers, and others have been invited to participate in focused, hands-on workshops in which they will learn about the application suites, as well as how to structure and deliver diverse content to an online audience. The workshops began in the cybercafés and British Council centres, and continued online, as a living development lab for online educative experiences. These workshops are typically held over a three-week period, and link cybercafé learning communities to their sister communities and co-participants across Morocco. In each workshop phase, a three-day hands-on workshop within the cybercafé system is immediately followed by a two-week online development lab experience. As new cybercafés complete their three-day intensive workshop, they are introduced to regional co-participants actively engaged in the online development lab aspect. This connection provides an opportunity for the cybercafé workshop participants to build a community of practice amongst those interested in online learning and delivery structures across Morocco. The British Council Morocco SMARTshell project was installed and made fully operational in 2002. A new simplified and redesigned version of the system will be installed in 2003/4, with workshops scheduled to take place thereafter. Additional information about this project, or questions about how to participate, can be directed to the project co-ordinators, Dr Lizbeth Goodman and Katherine Milton at the SMARTlab Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, the University of the Arts, London, UK. See www.smartlabcentre.com
SMARTshell Objectives and Target Audience Connecting people Building bridges Reaching out Expanding literacy Main target audiences
PART TWO: The Extended Body
Introducing the module This module was offered in 2001 by the INMPR and the Department of Dance Studies of the University of Surrey (UK) as a pilot research project exploring the creation of an online educative environment integrating live and mediated performance within the theoretical framework of gender and performance. The module format has been designed to allow for a flexible workshop structure with potential to include contributions from lecturers and researchers visiting INMPR at Surrey and elsewhere. The term module is used by the University of Surrey, where some universities may be more familiar with the term course. It was offered at Masters level and is relevant to students of theatre, dance, performance, and media arts. The platform for The Extended Body was a combination of newly written software, a website and a CD-Rom. Together they constituted the beta version of the SMARTshell. An off-the-shelf distance learning package would not have worked for this module. Our goal was to facilitate discussion and studio experimentation in both live and mediated formats. The success of the module required that it fluidly combine several modes and software packages. Synchronous sessions Using iVisit, these scheduled seminar sessions linked participants from diverse geographical locations through basic text, audio and visual videoconferencing. These sessions were guided by a moderator, and the required reading & viewing was found on a CD-Rom distributed to all before the start of the module. Some sessions were reserved for textual exchange, while others include limited audio and visuals. This provided a highly structured backbone to the module, prevented students from feeling lost and avoided the feeling of engaging in distant, independent study. Participants and moderators continued the discussion within a discussion forum run by Boardpower. Postings were made at any hour, and discussion developed a timeless and ongoing nature. Physical spaces The physical was intimately entwined with the digital. Each location required a room, preferably a studio space, where any sort of experimentation with text, images, video, props, costumes, movement, dialogue and monologue could be undertaken as a sort of improvised laboratory with local participants. This material was videoed, if equipment was available, and posted to the website. Material from the website was also downloadable for use by other participants, thereby permitting the recycling and sharing of work. Web space The Extended Body website was the front end to the module with hotlinks from the CD-Rom and hotlinks to the discussion forum. It contained all current announcements and additions to weekly preparation. It had to be consulted regularly by all participants. It had a have a media room where all participants and moderators could upload and download images, audio, video, writing, poetry, etc. Customised software Two pieces of newly written software were used by Extended Body participants. TK3, the electronic publishing software created by Bob Stein and the NightKitchen team, was the platform for the module handbook; distributed by CD-Rom to all participants and moderators, it contained visual and textual material for each session. Further, TK3 was the software used by participants for creating the multimedia essay for assessment. ViewHear (created by Huw Williams and Lizbeth Goodman) introduced interactivity into existing video sequences of live performances and was applied to visual content from the module. CD-Rom When The Extended Body was launched in January 2001 it had 20-30 participants (including moderators). It required commitment on the part of all, for participants did not just study the material on offer and combine it with their own creative practices, but fed into the shaping of the overall educative experience and the development of the SMARTshell. The standard relationship between student and lecturer/professor was transformed through this module, as is the case with a lot of online education. The aim was to generate a flatter, less hierarchical structure. The module co-directors were Drs Lizbeth Goodman and Susan Kozel. Nine internationally based academics, researchers and artists led module sessions; rather than referring to them as tutors or leaders we used the term moderators to emphasise the group dynamic integral to the educative process. We refered to students as participants, in recognition of the wide range of experience and backgrounds of those following the module, and also to encourage active participation in the discussion and dissemination of material. Aims, Learning Outcomes and Content Aims of The Extended Body module 1. To emphasise the politics of new media performance: gender politics, body politics, and the politics around transforming artistic practices. 2. To progress an awareness of how the theatrical and physical vocabularies of performance using digital technologies progress at the same time as the critical and theoretical vocabularies. 3. To introduce the concepts of the extended body and kinaesthetic space within cyborg theory and current performance practices. 4. To introduce an online component to the study of media performance, thereby integrating core methodologies into the content of the course. 5. To facilitate the integration of theoretical work with practical, studio-based exploration of the core course themes of gender and identity in transdisciplinary performance studies. Learning outcomes of The Extended Body module 1. Achievement of understanding of the politics of new media performance: gender politics, body politics, and the politics around transforming artistic practices. 2. Development and awareness of how the theatrical and physical vocabularies of performance using digital technologies develop at the same time as the critical and theoretical vocabularies. 3. Understanding of debates around the extended body and kinaesthetic space within cyborg theory and current performance practices. 4. Familiarity with basic online discussion and communication software. 5. Practical experience of applied theory and of new strategies for integrating theories of gender and identity to and in the practice of transdisciplinary performance studies. Content of The Extended Body module The content of the module centred on the theory and practice of integrated digital and media technologies in performance. This included an exploration of theories of gender identity and feminist theory as applied to performance practice, corporeality, kinaesthetic space, cyborg theory, gender politics, combined with hands-on training in creating digital performance and live integrated performance environments. Equal emphasis was given in this module to theory and practice. Its content was also the creation of an online educational environment. The educational framework as well as the material presented within it constituted the content. This module required the use of selected computer and camera skills in the context of performance. Equally, it required that participants learn its bundled software packages (TK3 and ViewHear) but was not designed to train participants in the use of existing software packages (such as Adobe Photoshop and Premiere). Use of new media served the theoretical and performance aims of the course, but camera skills and expertise with software packages themselves were not the subject of assessed study. Note: this module was designed so that it would not be necessary for students to have completed high-level computing study in order to participate.
Good practices developed through this project Moderators did not lecture, they: guided the discussion and introduced visual and textual material Participants expected their moderators to: have expertise in subject matter What participants could reasonably expect from the host institution (INMPR, University of Surrey) was that it: possessed a technological infrastructure that aimed to provide smooth and continuous access to course materials Moderators expected that participants would: be present' for scheduled sessions in a physical space with participants from your location, or independently logged on
Discussion procedures The good practice guidelines developed for the use of the SMARTshell through the research and development of The Extended Body are not complete without addressing procedures for effective online discussion. In order to create a forum where complex ideas could be presented and commented upon in a coherent manner, certain discussion procedures were promoted. These procedures were particularly important to avoid chaos and confusion during the synchronous chat seminars. The moderators for the given week filtered their ideas through the chat window in iVisit, a few phrases at a time, to allow for reading and assimilation of the content. This was an online version of a lecture and ranged from 10 to 20 minutes in length. Following the presentation, each participant was given a place in a queue and was invited to pose a question or make a comment. A comment could take the form of deciding not to comment at that time. Maintaining control over any synchronous chat forum is in the interests of preserving the coherence, clarity, and depth of the material. In reality, the structure was loosened somewhat. It became clear that part of the appeal of synchronous chat was the excitement of being together, and it proved to be a very fertile ground for the intersection and generation of ideas. A balance needed to be struck between letting the ideas flow and, with them, the social dynamic of a vibrant discussion, and developing the ideas so that valuable ones were not lost. The task of moderation was challenging, not just the due to orchestrating ideas, but due to the importance of the tangible human flow and dynamic of the discussion. This involved a physical sensitivity translated through the visual and chat forum of iVisit. While we originally thought that discussion of a more free-flowing nature would occur through the asynchronous discussion forum, it became clear that the fertile free-flow zone was the live, real-time chat. This was where participants made the strongest links between the material and their lives, and was where they connected with others. The discussion forum was a valuable place for the continuation of ideas and for the required and necessary introduction of depth of concept, including citations and links across sources and web resources. As an additional layer of discussion, participants were encouraged to arrange links with each other on their own time for either discussion or physical improvisation using iVisit (particularly of interest to the dancers and choreographers). As a by-product of this process, collaborative teams from disparate geographies were formed. A detailed outline of The Extended Body module, plus the assessment and assessment criteria, are included as an appendices to this chapter, offering an indication of the theoretical content, the methodologies for instruction and assessment, as well as the use of physical and/or online spaces. The SMARTshell proved to be an effective customisable toolkit. In 2001 and 2002, Susan Kozel moderated two workshops on telematic performance, called "Confronting distance/Crafting proximity", with Masters dance students of De Montfort University and undergraduate theatre students of Warwick University. Funded under the ANNIE project (Accessing and Networking with National and International Expertise) and coordinated by Mark Childs and Paul Rae, these were fairly short learning experiments. They spanned three to four weeks and used the best practice guidelines and the iVisit component of SMARTshell. Susan Kozel moderated these workshops from Canada while all the students remained in the UK. The goal was for students to engage in internet-facilitated research, discussion, and improvisation as a catalyst for reconsidering their corporeality, improvised performance, subjectivity, and engagement with the audience. The resulting level of theoretical engagement was high (particularly for the Masters-level students), and for the final sessions students created small choreographies for presentation to the group through iVisit, demonstrating an ability to understand and creatively work with the connected technologies. These workshops, combined with The Extended Body module, demonstrate that the SMARTshell can indeed be used to reach and engage groups of people who may have felt disenfranchised by other text-based online learning software packages. PART THREE: future SMARTshell projects The Global Classmates Initiative: Collaborative Learning for Global Citizens The SMARTshell is about to be relaunched with new code, new tools, and a new international base linked to the Global Classmates programme, and to a variety of other not-for-profit education and culture projects worldwide. Global Classmates case study - project overview The Global Classmates initiative creates cross-cultural and contextual learning experiences for students in Washington State with fellow students in developing countries. The project takes advantage of the opportunities that new information technologies provide to build bridges between cultures, to develop new curricula for the education of global citizens, and to create new ways of learning and teaching that can effectively serve more of the world's children. Project goal The goal of Global Classmates is to eventually create a self-sustaining global network of learners by using information technology to connect students and teachers from around the world to promote education, global citizenship and increased understanding. www.globalclassmates.org Short-term project elements The World Affairs Council and Digital Partners have matched a school in Baramati, India, with Asa Mercer Middle School in Seattle, and a school in New Delhi, India, with the Environmental Adventure School in Kirkland. Students will use the Internet, a variety of collaborative software applications (e.g. NetMeeting, SharePoint) and email to work on a project together from January to April, when the Indian schools break for summer. The use of videoconferencing, digital cameras, and other multimedia technologies will also be integrated into the projects. Teachers will set a common theme for the project to support their existing curriculum. Short-term objectives Include: 1.Piloting a cross-cultural learning programme that uses information technologies to 2.facilitate and expand cross-cultural interaction and educational opportunities between students around the world through collaborative contextual learning projects. 3.Evaluating three elements of the programme: how technology supports learning, content knowledge gained by the students, and how much students develop as global citizens through the course of the project. 4.The three pilot partnerships and the evaluations will inform a refinement of the initiative for wider deployment in India and launching in Latin America and Africa. Project elements will also be expanded to include participation by other universities in partnership with their local k12 schools, a summer visitation programme for teachers and student exchanges. Organisational overview The World Affairs Council (http://www.world-affairs.org) is a Seattle-based, non-partisan organisation with the mission of educating, informing, and involving residents of western Washington in issues of international importance. Digital Partners (http://www.digitalpartners.org) is a Seattle-based non-profit organisation, with offices in New Delhi, India, New York, and Silicon Valley, that brings technology to bear on issues of the education and economic empowerment of the poor around the world. The Daniel J Evans School of Public Affairs (http://www.evans.washington.edu) is the pre-eminent school of public policy and management in the North West. A further testbed is being set up in the Montefiore Children's Hospital in New York, where children with persistent conditions will use the toolkit to communicate with other children worldwide, making and sharing their artwork and playing bespoke "healing games" from their beds. These are, to date, the best practice' and most deserving audiences/actors we have found, and we are delighted to give the toolkit, and our time, to them. The SafetyNET Project (www.safespaces.net) brings these users and technology solutions together and forges a link between Global Classmates, Digital Partners, the TRUST Project for kids in persistent peadiatric care, and for women and children worldwide who seek safe spaces online to escape from situations of domestic violence. Notes 1. These best practice guidelines were informed by Duggleby (2000), and by Katherine Milton's contribution to the material for the first week of the module on participation, procedure and learning objectives. Appendix This appendix contains the Extended Body course outline, a description of the assessment and assessment criteria, and a bibliography for the instructional design of the module. Extended Body Module Introductory week Introduction to the module and to Viewhear plus chatrooms (special four-hour session) 2. explain the structures of interactivity offered by ViewHear and situate these in the context of theatre and performance work. Introduction to TK3, hypermedia and electronic publishing in relation to performance (special four-hour session) Week 2: Interactive live performance (SK and VM) Seminar discussion on interactive live performance and specific readings Studio session with interactive software Week 3: Motion capture, live performance and animation Seminar discussion on virtual and real performers Studio session, plus presentations Week 4: The visceral and the virtual Seminar discussion Studio session Week 5: Live and mediated, theatre and performance Seminar discussion Week 6: Collaboration and Online Education Seminar discussion Seminar discussion Week 7: Histories of the body in virtual/real space Seminar discussion on the history of the body Week 8: From performance to installation, plus examinations and evaluation Seminar discussion on proximities between live performance and installation Studio session for presentation of final projects Assessment and Assessment Criteria Assessment Part 1: Multimedia essay once computer-mediated spaces are integrated into live performance. In what ways have parameters changed from non-computer mediated live performance practices? In what ways have they remained the same? Be controversial, be outrageous if you like, but support your arguments visually or textually. Draw upon textual material from at least two of the required readings. Provide evidence of some additional reading (of books, CD-Roms, websites). Draw upon visual material provided by the contributors (including yourself and fellow students) where relevant. Find an innovative way for this TK3 document to offer scope for some sort of live presentation, thus tying in with Part 2 of your assessment. Part 2: Practical online performance experiment, including process/production journal The performance experiment reflects or extends the content of your multimedia essay. It is to be presented before in the physical space of the studio but needs to involve an online component. How you engage with this online component is up to you. The "presentational", theatrical, performative, dramatic, etc qualities are to be shaped by you to achieve your aims. Your experiment can be critical, ironic, humourous, or earnest. The journal contains reflections upon the process of learning/discovery that constituted this module. It is to be submitted via email to the tutor. You are expected to comment on the use of TK3 and ViewHear for delivery of this module and for online creative practices. This is your chance to contribute to the evolution of the software. Comment also upon the process that led to the development of your multimedia essay and the live performance experiment. Criteria for assessment Participants must have demonstrated commitment to the delivery of the module with all its layers: discussion, physical studio sessions, asynchronous discussion, etc) The multimedia essay, performative component and journal together must demonstrate: - intelligent engagement with theoretical and visual material - continue to CH 17 Adequate Pedagogy: the missing piece in Digital Culture - return to the table of contents |
