Browsing by Author "McConnon, L."

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    Pop Up Play Final Research Report March 2015
    (N/A, 2015-03-03) Vear, Craig; McConnon, L.
    Pop Up Play is a FREE open source software product that provides creative play for children through its immersive learning environment and mixed reality system. Use the Pop up Play system and your existing hardware to create your own unique content. This could relate to children's books, gallery or museum exhibits, theatrical productions, or curriculum topics and can immerse participants in projected images and worlds for creative play and open-ended learning. The overarching aims of this research project were to understand how Arts and cultural organisations can access digital technology for creative play and learning, and how we can enable children and young people to access meaningful digital realm engagement. In response to this our specific objectives were to create a mixed reality play system and support package that could: Immerse participants in projected images and worlds Enable children to invest in the imaginary dimensions and possibilities of digital play provide a creative learning framework, tools, guides and manuals and an online community Offer open source software, easy to use for artists, learning officers, teachers, librarians, children and young people
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    Pop Up Play: A Digital Creative Play Space
    (Digital Creativity - Taylor and Francis, 2016-06-29) Vear, Craig; McConnon, L.
    This article discusses the research findings from a year-long investigation funded by a Digital R&D for the Arts grant. The overarching aims of this research project were to understand how arts and cultural organisations can access mixed-reality environments and digital technology for creative play and learning, and how they can enable children and young people to access meaningful digital realm engagement. The article starts by introducing the underlying philosophical and cognitive framework built from embodiment philosophy, gaming theory and digital pedagogy that helped the research team determine what was meant by meaningful engagement in mixed reality. This is woven into an analysis of the four action-research case studies, followed by a discussion on the potential future areas for investigation. The conclusion evaluates how the resultant Pop Up Play product (free software download, supporting materials and bespoke digital creative play framework http://thesparkarts.co.uk/popupplay/ ) can be considered an environment for communications skill development, innovative thinking and immersive exploration through experiential play.
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    "Put me back in my skin!" Children's Perceptions of Mixed Reality Play
    (International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2015) McConnon, L.; Vear, Craig
    This article reports on child-focused reflections from research findings of a year-long investigation working with primary school aged children and young people in England exploring mixed reality play. 58 children and young people were engaged in the project and actively participated in 29 focus group interviews over time. Thematic qualitative analysis revealed five broad features of mixed reality play from a child’s perspective: dimensional embodiment, creating worlds, dramatizing and gaming, agentic action and inside and outside spaces. Through the adopted lens of children’s reflective engagement, this article hypothesises that mixed reality presents an environment for digital natives (Prensky, 2001) to play openly and creatively, and puts forth an argument for new technological opportunities and transformations of pedagogic practice.