as promised, i'm posting an update about the Royal Geographical Society's annual international conference :-)
the programme is now out.
and what a packed an exciting programme it is, too :-)
my first presentation - entitled 'Terra Incognita: Design Considerations for a Field Studies Centre in Second Life' - is on Wednesday 31st August, from approximately 1000 hrs to 1030 hrs. here's the abstract of my presentation:
"This paper explores the constraints and possibilities faced in the design of geographically-authentic environments within virtual worlds, especially those with the explicit intent of affording opportunities for learning geographic concepts in situ, through the learner¹s in-world operations as avatar. Using the specific case study of the Raymaker Field Studies Centre at Bowness in Second Life, the paper will outline the rationale for the Centre and introduce the considerations underlying its design in terms of self-paced exploration and discovery within the immersive environment. The Centre is built on a depiction of a tectonically-active landscape, terraformed as an island in a high-wave energy environment. As such, the Centre affords opportunities for experiencing an authentic rocky-shore littoral zone. One of the primary motivations of developing the Centre was its potential affordance with regards helping adolescents in urbanized Singapore experience vicariously a coastal environment very different from their everyday understandings of the interface between land and sea. Among other learning stations, the Centre also allows for a side-by-side comparison of weather scenarios, either on-demand or based on Real Life meteorological states in-real-time an affordance which is of course unique to highly manipulable virtual environments and fictive worlds such as Second Life. With the increased accessibility of adolescents into Second Life associated with the relaxation of governance policies in 2011, it is hoped that the lessons learned from the design of this Field Studies Centre would serve to inspire and inform similar non-formal learning environments across a range of disciplines in the not-too-distant future."
it's part of a larger session organised by Jennifer Hill and Mark McGuinness, namely 'Great Escapes: Encouraging the Geographical Imagination in Informal Settings'. this larger session runs from 0900 hrs to 1250 hrs, and falls under the auspices of the Society's Biogeography Research Group, Higher Education Research Group and Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group.
the session will be held at the Skempton Building Room 060a. its abstract reads:
"Fieldwork has long been regarded as an essential component of the Geographic undergraduate curricula and can even be dated back to Saur’s presidential address in 1956 to the American Association of Geographers when he advocated “the principal training of geographers should come, wherever possible, by doing fieldwork.” The perceived benefits of fieldwork to the student learning experience are through real world activities, social interaction and skills development, which can benefit future employment opportunities. However, what determines whether the student has a quality fieldwork experience and how can we maximise the potential offered by fieldwork to foster student learning? This session aims to encourage a reflexive and critical examination of fieldwork practice, offering best practice examples of fieldwork development, execution, and assessment strategies, using numerous field site locations."
my second presentation - entitled 'The Love Boat Rebooted: the Seafaring Community aboard the SS Galaxy in Second Life' - is on Thursday 1st September, from approximately 0900 hrs to 0925 hrs. here's the abstract of my presentation:
"This paper will describe the SS Galaxy in Second Life, and use the community which has grown around it as a case-study of participatory engagement in massively multi-player online worlds. As the largest full-scale, full-service cruise-liner in Second Life, the SS Galaxy potentially suggests itself as an ideal place to study a range of themes and issues of interest to researchers in New Media environments, such as: the structuring for, and nurturing, of Communities of Interest; representations of touristic activities and places; the nature of space and place, and of site and situation; the nature of the Real, as manifested through such socio-participatory behavior; Occidental and Oriental representations of shared space and common place(s); and the interplay between social-networking platforms and social-engagement in immersive worlds. The paper will provide brief, illustrative examples to suggest the scope for research into each of the preceding themes."
it's part of a larger session organized by Ladan Cockshut, namely '"Getting Lost on the Way to Farmville". Virtual, Mobile and Online Spaces of Interaction: Exploring the Emerging Geography and Culture of New Media Technologies'. this larger session runs from 0900 hrs to 1040 hrs, and falls under the auspices of the Society's Social and Cultural Geography Research Group.
the session will be held at the Skempton Building Room 163. its abstract reads:
"Drawing on work from a range of geographical approaches to ICT, consumption and production of media, digital urbanity, digital (sub)culture alongside geographies of play, leisure and youth, this session will explore research into virtual, mobile and online spaces and their the emerging and hybridising modes of interaction, considering the question of what impacts these events may be having on the present and future of society and culture."
