Search results
11 – 20 of 236Shaw Tearle, Sam S. and Rachel R. Holt
There is a need to evaluate an adapted Equipping Youth to help One Another (EQUIP) programme for people with intellectual disabilities and forensic needs. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a need to evaluate an adapted Equipping Youth to help One Another (EQUIP) programme for people with intellectual disabilities and forensic needs. The purpose of this paper is to explore a service user’s experience of completing the intervention as part of their transition into the community.
Design/methodology/approach
A collaborative case report was used. Following hospital discharge and completion of the adapted EQUIP programme, one service user with mild intellectual disability was supported to share their treatment experiences using participatory action research.
Findings
Findings suggest that while the adapted community EQUIP group can support skills acquisition (e.g. problem-solving), discharge processes and community reintegration, professionals need to maintain a person-centred approach mindful of participants’ complex emotional journeys.
Research limitations/implications
The design allows for tentative conclusions to be made about the service user’s journey and is not necessarily generalisable.
Practical implications
There is a pressing need to develop the evidence base for interventions offered in the community to people with intellectual disabilities and a history of offending. This report provides some evidence that EQUIP can be adapted to support this population.
Originality/value
This is the first coproduced publication exploring the experience of a service user with intellectual disability who completed an adapted EQUIP programme.
Details
Keywords
As the internet has evolved through the emergence of social media, so too have the communicative practices of The Archers listeners. Many of them now use Twitter to comment…
Abstract
As the internet has evolved through the emergence of social media, so too have the communicative practices of The Archers listeners. Many of them now use Twitter to comment, discuss the show or participate in the omnibus episode ‘tweetalong’. Primarily, this chapter recognises the hundred-plus Twitter accounts which have been created by listeners to authentically roleplay characters, organisations, animals and even objects from the show. I frame these practices and ground the chapter in academic discourses of ‘fan fiction’. Reflecting on my own activity as @borsetpolice, I look at the role and place of this fan fiction from the individual practitioner’s perspective but also the wider listener base. In this chapter, I develop an argument that these practices contribute towards the community of listeners online, as well as the show itself. I explore the types of activities and accounts involved, where they often focus around major storylines, and then reflect in detail on the individual’s motivations and practice. I situate this in terms of an opportunity to become involved in an online community that aspires towards everyday rural ideals, and how this can be understood as a significant affective experience for listeners. This need for escapism into ‘banal’ worlds, the desire to participate, and the sense that fan fiction is a game that we take part in are also drawn out as significant.
Details
Keywords
Emerson Taylor and Chern Li Liew
Researchers in information studies have examined fictional depictions of libraries in various mediums because these images can reflect and influence real-life experiences and…
Abstract
Purpose
Researchers in information studies have examined fictional depictions of libraries in various mediums because these images can reflect and influence real-life experiences and attitudes. Video games, despite being relatively overlooked, are increasingly culturally relevant and can indicate library users' real needs and desires. This study investigates the ways in which video games depict characters using libraries to seek and use information.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative content analysis approach incorporating methods from information studies and game studies was applied. Tancheva's (2005) semiotic analysis of fictional libraries and Carr's (2019) textual approach provided the framing for the unique aspects of video games and their meanings. Carroll (2021)'s character analysis and Chatman (1996)'s theory on insiders–outsiders dynamic underpinned the data collection and analysis. The purposive sample included 15 video games released since 2010.
Findings
Video games depict game characters visiting libraries to solve short-term problems, to gain knowledge to improve themselves or to bond with others. Protagonists are often depicted as adventurers or outsiders who must adapt to unfamiliar places and situations to achieve their wider objectives. In these games, libraries provide useful documents, spaces or helpful guides and intellectuals who assist the protagonists. As outsiders, the protagonists seek information in libraries to help them learn about their environments and to immerse themselves in the local histories and cultures in their worlds. Overall, these depictions highlight both short- and long-term benefits of library use.
Originality/value
As with existing studies, the ways in which fictional library use appear in video games can suggest real needs and desires among library users. The findings from this study emphasise the importance of library services and spaces that help users both address short-term problems and immerse themselves in local concerns, with longer-term goals. Applying different research methods or lenses to analysing video games could deepen our understanding of what library users think and feel when they seek and use information in libraries.
Details
Keywords
Jennifer C. Stone, Jathan Day, Brianna Dym, Katie O'Regan Kahlenbeck, Zebadiah R. Kraft, September V. Reynaga, LaVon Shearer-Ihrig, Elizabeth Waetjen and Shanna Allen
This paper aims to describe the World of Warcraft (WoW) experience, where students in a graduate English seminar played WoW to ground their learning about digital literacies…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the World of Warcraft (WoW) experience, where students in a graduate English seminar played WoW to ground their learning about digital literacies. Through the experience, students developed their own digital literacies and learned to enter academic discourse about games and digital literacies.
Design/methodology/approach
In the paper, the instructor and eight students describe the purpose, design and outcomes of the experience. Over the course of a month, the group coordinated logistics and roles, each person created a character, each character reached the threshold level for low-level dungeons, the whole class played several dungeons together and the class engaged in metaconversation about the experience.
Findings
The instructor reflects on the problem of practice that the WoW experience addressed and the instructional organization of the experience. The students, who came into the WoW experience with a range of prior knowledge about games and Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, reflect on what challenges they faced while learning to play and develop their own digital literacies, how they assembled resources to overcome challenges, how their views of digital literacies and games shifted from the experience and how the experience helped them rethink teaching first-year composition.
Originality/value
As the WoW experience illustrates, finding ways to connect games to advanced graduate courses can create fun, frustration and powerful learning experiences for students as they maneuver complex content.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the genre of tabletop fantasy role‐playing games and provide guidance in building an initial collection.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the genre of tabletop fantasy role‐playing games and provide guidance in building an initial collection.
Design/methodology/approach
The first part of the paper is designed to present the development of tabletop fantasy role‐playing games in a historiographic model, tracing the history of these games from the 1970s to 2006. The second portion is a bibliographic essay and critique of several noteworthy fantasy role‐playing games, including analysis of the settings and systems of each game.
Findings
The paper provides a history of the development of fantasy role‐playing games and provides guidance on how to start a collection. The study recognizes a lack of academic research on the topic and seeks to provide a brief introduction.
Practical implications
The paper provides a clear concise history of role‐playing game development and balanced advice for librarians who wish to begin collecting role‐playing games.
Originality/value
This paper begins to fill the need for academic study of the subject and provides practical advice for collection development librarians.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to provide libraries with collections advice regarding fantasy role‐playing games.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide libraries with collections advice regarding fantasy role‐playing games.
Design/methodology/approach
Current and emerging publication and sales models of pencil and paper, tabletop fantasy role‐playing games are explored. Details of print, print‐on‐demand, free and purchasable downloads, and subscription‐based options for major fantasy role‐playing games and alternatives are provided.
Findings
Many options are available to libraries wishing to provide support for fantasy role‐playing game programming. While an overwhelming quantity of publications are often available for purchase, usually only a bare minimum is required to run a role‐playing game. Free or modestly priced options are available for libraries on a shoestring budget. Libraries interested in supporting fantasy role‐playing game programming with collections need not spend much. Spending less on collections requires a greater amount of imagination, socializing, creativity, collaboration and literacy on the part of program participants.
Originality/value
Many libraries are interested in supporting fantasy role‐playing games with collections, but do not know where to start. While much is being written about gaming in libraries, little has been written to help libraries navigate current role‐playing game book publication and sales models.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to address the problems that diversity, by its nature, throws up for training professionals, and to highlight the various ways in which drama, as a learning tool…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the problems that diversity, by its nature, throws up for training professionals, and to highlight the various ways in which drama, as a learning tool, offers solutions to those problems.
Design/methodology/approach
The theory of experiential learning forms the back‐bone of the arguments proposed by the paper, and has many applications in the development and assessment of groups and individuals. While it focuses on a technique called “forum theatre”, all forms of drama‐based learning are founded on the theory of “learning by doing”.
Findings
The findings of the paper focus on the benefits of illustrating learning points through drama; encouraging creative thinking, risk‐taking, empathy and the use of conflict in a simulated environment to examine issues from all points of view.
Practical implications
These findings point to a need for an artistic and non‐directive approach to diversity training, one that is responsive to the sensitive and emotive nature of the subject. It also calls for organisations to encourage the embracing of differences within their workforces.
Originality/value
The learning points discussed offer a fresh perspective to diversity trainers. It suggests opportunities to address the root causes of prejudice without the risks that traditional training methods necessarily bring with them, and it is relevant to anyone involved in the design and delivery of diversity training.
Details
Keywords
Richard Tunstall, Lenita Nieminen, Lin Jing and Rasmus Hjorth
Educators are increasingly required to develop creativity and entrepreneurial capabilities amongst students, yet within the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation these are…
Abstract
Purpose
Educators are increasingly required to develop creativity and entrepreneurial capabilities amongst students, yet within the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation these are presented as separate processes. We explore the theoretical and conceptual similarities and differences between these processes, and relate this to a range of experiential and digitally enhanced learning activities in formal education settings.
Methodology/approach
We present a conceptual model of the iterative nature of creativity and entrepreneurship as separate cognitive and social processes leading to aesthetic or sense-making outcomes. This leads to a discussion of how these processes may be experienced by students within an educational setting.
Findings
We propose a framework of learning activities which support the development of creativity through teaching entrepreneurially, at primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels. A range of different approaches is critically evaluated according to their relevance, including business planning, simulations, roleplay, co-creation, and flashmobs. Flashmobs are proposed to be most suitable and an outline learning activity design is mapped in detail against creative and entrepreneurial processes.
Research and Practical implications
This chapter supports educational practice and research on learning through entrepreneurship in allowing educators and researchers to evaluate how learning activities may directly contribute to students’ learning through experience and the development of their creative and entrepreneurial mind-set.
Originality/value
This chapter is of value to educators as it explains how creative and entrepreneurial processes may be experienced by students through different forms of learning activity. It is of further value to research on entrepreneurial learning in considering how the creative process may inform entrepreneurial action.
Details
Keywords
Irfan Hameed, Mirza A. Haq, Najmonnisa Khan and Bibi Zainab
Social media has shown a substantial influence on the daily lives of students, mainly due to the overuse of smartphones. Students use social media both for academic and…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media has shown a substantial influence on the daily lives of students, mainly due to the overuse of smartphones. Students use social media both for academic and non-academic purposes. Due to an increase in the usage of social media, academicians are now confronting pedagogical issues, and the question arises as to whether the use of social media affects students’ performance or not. Considering this, this study aims to examine the role of social media usage on students’ academic performance in the light of cognitive load theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a quantitative research approach, 220 valid responses were received through an e-survey administered to university students. The proposed claims were tested through structural equation modeling using AMOS version 24.
Findings
Findings revealed that social media usage for non-academic purposes harmed students’ academic performance. Additionally, social media usage for academic purposes and social media multitasking did not affect students’ academic performance. Most importantly, social media self-control failure moderates the relationship between “social media usage for non-academic purposes” and students’ academic performance.
Practical implications
The findings of the study can be used by the academic policymakers of institutions and regulatory bodies.
Originality/value
The study suggests that teachers not only rely on using social media as a learning tool but also concentrate on improving student self-control over the use of social media through various traditional and non-traditional activities, such as online readings, group discussions, roleplays and classroom presentations.
Details