Research & On-line components

Sue Davis

What & Why? Digital technologies provide us with more

tools and opportunities for creating and sharing drama

We need to explore the potentials and research the process and outcomes

My Research Creative agents for creative futures:

exploring engagement and creativity through pedagogy and practice

Focus still on drama – learning and creating drama in a digital age

What is drama in a digital age? What do we/can we do to support young

people’s creative practice?

Ethical clearance Provisional clearance from QUT and Education

Queensland (need to forward letters from Principals etc)

Concern over on-line components Need to ensure only images go up of those

participants whose parents have agreed to web-based publication

Concern over identification of individuals with specific school groups

Two lots of consent forms…… Drama Queensland Research

Keep track of who has done what (sheet provided)

Send all to Katrina – who will pass things on

Survey as well (you can complete this electronically if you choose)

Why use cyberspaces? Encourage participation and collaboration Build a community of creative practice Create and build the drama Talk about and reflect on the drama

My interest Using ‘pervasive’ technologies The ones most of us have access to Using them in combination (e.g. website,

wiki, email, sms texting etc) Using them to supplement and stimulate

‘live’ interactions

Interesting research – Henry JenkinsParticipatory internet culture guru

The new literacies all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking

These skills include:

Play Performance Simulation Appropriation Multitasking Distributed Cognition

Collective intelligence Judgment Transmedia

Navigation Networking Negotiation

Which of these are relevant to drama?

Relevant to the XLD3 process?

Creativity models – Czikszentmihalyi Confluence/systems model

This system is comprised of: the individual, the domain in which they work and the field which recognises their work.

Creative Engagement – the kind of engagement

that underpins creative work – including intense focus on the task the intent to create, the ability to take risks and try out different possibilities

Figure 2: A Model of Creativity for the Digital Age

Creativity in a digital age

Creative Practice – the focus of the

learning and action, including skills and

knowledges in different domains,

working within ‘flexible constraints’

Context and features of the digital age …

Communities of Creative

Practice – collaborators,

audiences, those who support,

refine and critique the work

Creativity model I’m exploring

Therefore I’m looking at How do we create the state of ‘creative

enagagement’ so that individuals and groups are able to create and make?

What are the skills and knowledges that are required and how do young people acquire them?

What are the communities of practice that we create and can facilitate to support creative practice?

How it works Website created as a ‘portal’ for this project and

others www.cyberdrama.org This can be easily edited and updated regularly Links to wiki spaces – spaces especially suitable

for collaborative work These are protected spaces Only members can edit pages or add material

Need to talk to school IT people about access…. Or access and work on this material outside of

school. Incidentally Jenkins believes this kind of blocking

of Internet access and activities at schools serves to increase the digital divide – and that schools should be involved in teaching students how to work responsibly in these spaces and equipping them with strategies to deal with any ‘unwanted encounters’. He adds that the majority of people who are abused are abused by someone they know (not met on-line).

What people see when they reach the teacher’s site

We need to enroll each student Collect their email addresses and forward

them to sue epraysue@bigpond.net.au OR You can invite them to join through Manage

Spaces page (but still forward email addresses for other pre-text info to be sent)

How this can work? Teachers have own space – can share and

collaborate there – nobody else can see this or post to it

Each cluster has own space, own page within that. You can use this page like a home page itself. Create other pages and link them

You can create links to other blogs and wikis for those students who might like to create their own (you can have secure wikis and blogs that nobody else can post to, but others can see which are still free)

Getting the drama going I’ve created a pre-text to help encourage

responses and get the process started Can continue this using emails, photos,

video clips etc Will weave in material that is emailed or

posted on wikis We can post selected team material to the

website e.g. weekly

You and your students can contribute Character profiles Writing in role msn conversations in role Scripts Photos (best to resize in photo

editing software first to size to be used before uploading)

Flash animations Short video clips made in

easily accessible software (movie maker, photo story 3) keep them short (1-3 mins) and save as smallish files (1-3 Mb)

Documentation of workshops Description of creative

processes Reflections on work being

created and the process News and information – about

when you’re meeting, what you’ve achieved etc

Encouragement for each other!

Whatever else you find helpful!!!