Welcome to the ePortfolio of Mark Childs.
I am currently a part-time PhD student in the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick. I began this research in October 2005. My aim is to finish the study by the end of the 2009/2010 academic year. I'm currently in the writing-up phase.
These pages contain information about me , my research, and my personal and professional development. If you have a particular interest in me, my work and my plans, you are welcome to contact me for more information at mailto:mark.childs.1@warwick.ac.uk or visit me in my Second Life home at http://slurl.com/secondlife/madhupak/104/170/81/
About My Research
Department: Warwick Institute of Education
Research Group: CeNTRE (Centre for New Technologies Research in Education)
Supervisor: Dr Michael Hammond
Research topic: Learners' Experiences of Mediated Environments in Higher Education: The first part of the research created a framework that enables the learners' experiences of mediated environments to be systematically described and evaluated.This was then used to form the basis of case studies taking place in an immersive virtual world (in this case Second Life). The intention was that this would generate guidance to teachers using these environments, however half-way through the PhD many other studies began to look specifically at this. The new focus became identifying specifically the role presence has in creating an effective learning experience.
Funding: I'm partly supported by funding from Coventry University. Other funders in the earlier part of the PhD included Kaleidoscope, King's College London and the University of Warwick.
Case Studies: Some of the case studies I evaluated as part of the PhD were taken from the Theatron project, which conducted performance, theatre studies and creative writing within theatres built in Second Life (TM). I've created machinima to illustrate these, as well as a presentation showing the various avatars I use inworld. Other case studies came from sessions friends and colleagues delivered in Second Life. You can look at a Prezi presentation that summarises both the Theatron project and my PhD.
Press references include
The Times August 13, 2008 Universities running in Second Life
Publications published from the PhD so far are:
Childs, M. (2009) The role of presence in learning in telematic environments, in M. Childs, L. Schnieders, P. van Parreeren and J. Oomen (eds), DIVERSE Conference Proceedings 2007 & 2008, Haarlem; InHolland University, 73 -85
Childs, M. and Kuksa, I. (2009) “Why are we in the floor?” Learning about theatre design in Second LifeTM, Proceedings of the Edulearn 09 International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Barcelona, Spain, 6th to 8th July 2009, 1134 - 1145
Steventon, G., Grove, P. and Childs, M. (2008) Shared spaces and ‘safe’ urban jungles: juggling pedagogical goals and student needs and expectations in a Second Life virtual community, Proceedings of the ASCILITE Conference 2008, Melbourne, Deakin University, 1st to 3rd December
Chafer, J. and Childs, M. (2008) The impact of the characteristics of a virtual environment on performance: concepts, constraints and complications, Proceedings of the ReLIVE 08 conference, 20th and 21st November, 2008, Open University, forthcoming
Childs, M. (2008) Theatron 3: Real Theatres in a Virtual World, Networks 11, 15 - 17, Anglia Ruskin University
Childs, M. (2008) Using a Mediated Environments Reference Model to evaluate learners’ experiences of Second Life, in Hodgson, V., Jones, C., Kargidis, T., McConnell, D., Retalis, S., Stamatis, D. and Zenios, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Networked Learning, 5th & 6th May, 2008, Halkidiki, Greece., 38 - 45
Childs, M. (2007) Real Learning in Virtual Worlds. Warwick Interactions Journal 30 (2). Available online at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ldc/resource/interactions/current/abchilds/childs
Childs, M. (2007) Learners' experiences in telematic environments, in Jones, I. and Meija-Ramos, J.P. Working papers of the SUMINER group, 3, 19-33, UK; Warwick
Childs, M. (2007) Do Virtual Worlds Count as Narrative Learning Environments?, 1st Online Working Conference on Narrative Learning Environments, September 27-October 2, 2007
Stevens, J, Childs, M., Lint, F. and Eversmann, P. (2007) Streaming Theatres in a Virtual Classroom, 7th International DIVERSE Conference, Lillehammer University College, Norway, 27th to 29th June, 2007
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