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The purpose of this study is to compare learner experiences of recorded instructional videos (DVDs) with Machinima.

In this exploratory study, sets of learning sequences in management skills training were delivered to 32 learners using both methods, and learner reactions were gathered using post-event interviews.

Analysis of learner responses showed that participants prefer Machinima as a learning delivery mechanism. Participants also reported being better able to concentrate on the message of the Machinima learning sequences.

The sample was not representative, being a convenience sample derived by open invitation from cohorts of two master’s degree programmes conducted at the School of Business, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare. The age range of the participants was significantly skewed toward a younger age grouping. No learning test was given to assess the teaching efficacy of the methods. Implications for practice include using Machinima to model desirable behaviours to trainees. Future research should extend the research to other settings.

Research should be considered into the potential for Machinima to be considered as a replacement for DVD in management training. Sufficient encouragement arises from this study to suggest that Machinima contains none of the distractions of DVD that are recorded in this study. In addition, many organisations seek to utilise training materials with diverse audiences.

Originality of the study stems from the potential replacement of DVD with Machinima in learning.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Compares learner experiences of recorded instructional videos (DVDs) with Machinima, digital films made in virtual worlds. Analysis of learner responses showed that participants prefer Machinima as a learning delivery mechanism. Participants also reported being better able to concentrate on the message because there were fewer distractions such as the appearance, dress and mannerisms of real actors.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This research case study shares the partnership between librarians and educators to create a live digital literacy experience at The Quest (Camelot Project), a virtual world medieval simulation. The purpose of the partnership was to gain understanding of the learning elements addressed with a group of participants from across the globe, working at various skill levels and interacting with an immersive virtual world simulation.

Using field notes, machinima and interviews (participatory action research), the study identifies learning elements within three contexts: technological, pedagogical and content. Learners cycle toward intended learning outcomes in a virtual-world treasure hunt game from the perspective of both designers and participants.

Findings of the case study illustrate the value of collaboration in a digital game-based learning (DGBL) environment through scaffolding of knowledge and skills in a virtual world. Findings exemplify the experiential learning cycle within a virtual world for constructing learning, and support a proposed new theoretical framework of technology-mediated learning which may help educators in both design and implementation.

As virtual worlds and immersive learning opportunities continue to expand for learners and educators, this study shares the value of experiential learning from the perspective of both the teacher and the learner. Socially constructing knowledge and acquiring skills across distance with a team of librarians and educators are innovative examples of DGBL in an alternative reality setting.

This paper aims to examine unexpected arrivals of adult-oriented digital media in the playful storied environments of Grades 1 and 2 classrooms and the possibilities such unsettling literacies may offer.

Posthuman perspectives provide this study’s theoretical grounding and methodological approach. Actor-network-theory and thinking with theory are used to examine school play with two video games and the literacies entangled in children’s same game machinima productions.

Explorations of transmediascapes animate entangled meaning-making practices across virtual and material childhood spaces. They provide openings for educators to understand their students’ literate world-making and consider how those unsettling literacies might have a place in the classroom as generative rather than to-be-avoided contaminations.

The theoretical and methodological engagements of this paper offer opportunities to re-consider unsettling literacy encounters as generative contaminations rather than noxious intrusions. This paper shows how, in engaging with unsettling literacies, educators may participate with children in meaningful literacy practices responding to both the tantalizing and the troubling aspects of particular transmedia.

With an increasing trend toward the use of participatory culture and networked learning in education, opportunities to explore real examples of participatory culture are invaluable. Interwoven into seemingly simple collaborations are pedagogical, cultural, knowledge management, social, temporal, technical, as well as legal issues. A further layer of complexity is added when considering international networks and collaborations. However, such issues add a level of understanding important to participatory cultures. Enabled by communities of practice, and social constructivist learning, a range of bricoleur skills are developed from technical to higher level cognitive skills amongst students. These skills map many aspects of Jenkins' Participatory Culture, and the skills essential to our 21st century students. In this chapter, we review an empirical study where the 3D technology, the virtual social world Second Life, supported learning for 21st century digital learners and how social networking and scaffolding contributed to international educational collaboration.

The purpose of this paper is to present a design fiction diegetic prototyping methodology and research framework for investigating service innovations that reflect future uses of new and emerging technologies.

Drawing on speculative fiction, the authors propose a methodology that positions service innovations within a six-stage research development framework. The authors begin by reviewing and critiquing designerly approaches that have traditionally been associated with service innovations and futures literature. In presenting their framework, authors provide an example of its application to the Internet of Things (IoT), illustrating the central tenets proposed and key issues identified.

The research framework advances a methodology for visualizing future experiential service innovations, considering how realism may be integrated into a designerly approach.

Design fiction diegetic prototyping enables researchers to express a range of “what if” or “what can it be” research questions within service innovation contexts. However, the process encompasses degrees of subjectivity and relies on knowledge, judgment and projection.

The paper presents an approach to devising future service scenarios incorporating new and emergent technologies in service contexts. The proposed framework may be used as part of a range of research designs, including qualitative, quantitative and mixed method investigations.

Operationalizing an approach that generates and visualizes service futures from an experiential perspective contributes to the advancement of techniques that enables the exploration of new possibilities for service innovation research.

The paper aims at dealing with the role of users in the creation (or curation) and distribution of digital contents. User generated contents (UGCs) refer to a variety of media such as Wikis, question-answer databases, digital video, blogging, podcasting, forums, review sites, social networking, social media and mobile phone photograph. It attempts assessing their potential role as co-innovators. The paper follows the progressive creation of a new space for users, tracking its specific forms in each subsector of the media and content industries. Each subsector reveals a disruption in the production and circulation of new content.

The paper is based on desk research, a review of literature, review of the technical journals, and analysis of annual reports. The paper is part of an on-going research project on media and content industries.

The paper argued that since 2007 (release of iPhone and Kindle) the landscape went through a dramatic change, scaling up. It illustrates how the entire value chain of content (production/distribution/consumption) has opened up. The amount of UGC produced triggered a qualitative jump, ushering in new modes of interaction between the customers and creators, without necessarily turning the consumer into a full-fledge producer. The UGC model adds another source of production, thereby increasing diversity, ushering in new ways for talent scouting. It reveals various forms of co-creation and the role of a community model while also showing its limits.

This paper concentrates on digital media and does not deal with any other aspect such as knowledge sharing (Wikis). The paper does not cover the reactions of traditional industry players to UGC (some elements are given for newspaper), neither possible policy and regulatory responses The paper relies mostly on reports from news agencies, consultancies or annual reports from companies so as to delineate the main trends.

It shows that the role of customers did change within this context. The new channels offer novel ways to produce, curate and disseminate contents. It offers a range of examples from different industries.

The paper documents the participation of consumers in the production of content. it hints at the evolution of labour, alludes to the issue of diversity and of creativity, but does not address other societal issues.

Some reports were devoted to UGC in 2007 (OECD) and 2008 (Idate-IVIR-TNO) but in spite of the major changes that took place over the past decade, the research has been scarce, or has concentrated on a specific segment of the media industry. The paper is trying to offer a comprehensive overview of the various segments. Each sub-segment of the media industry illustrates a specific dimension.

Second Life, as a three-dimensional social medium, provides an unparalleled opportunity for people to interact with each other and their surroundings in unfamiliar and innovative ways. After a brief introduction to the discipline of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland (UQ), this chapter will examine some of the key characteristics of MUVEs in general and of Second Life in particular, with a view to assessing its suitability as an environment for learning based on andragogical and constructivist methodologies. Further, it will explore the original conception and development of the UQ Religion Bazaar project within Second Life.

The UQ Religion Bazaar project was originally conceived in 2007 and developed through 2008. It consists of a Second Life island situated in the New Media Consortium educational precinct and boasts a number of religious builds including a church, a mosque, a synagogue, an ancient Greek temple, a Freemasons' lodge, a Zen Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple to Ganesha. The island was used in two large first-year classes and for supervising distance postgraduate research students.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current impact of virtual worlds on librarianship and identify significant gains in a new mode of information delivery and immersive learning.

Through exploratory research and observation, the prospective study addresses a very new trend in information delivery and technology within library services.

Provides evidence of global collaboration among information scientists, significant contributions to library collections, and potential for educational opportunities through immersive learning environments.

A small number of librarians are participating in virtual world librarianship in relation to the profession, due to the mode being a very new one. Future research should include studying the needs of library patrons and information seeking behaviors in virtual worlds along with accessibility, security and sustainability.

The study implies many educational opportunities and potential for information organization, information delivery, multimedia, and immersive learning on a global scale.

This study presents significant evidence that virtual worlds have provided a new medium of information delivery and educational opportunities that librarians are currently embracing and sharing with other fields, including medicine, art, science, and education.