European Day of People with Disabilities Conference

ViPi will attend the European Day of People with Disabilities Conference on 3-4th December 2012 in Brussels. A dedicated booth is planned as well.

ViPi @ Media and Learning conference 2012

We will have a booth at the Media and Learning conference 2012 in Brussels on 14-15 November 2012. Demonstrations will include the desktop and mobile games.

Project representatives in workshop panel on inclusive education.

ViPi at ITAG 2012

Andy Burton presented ViPi at ITAG 2012: “ViPi desktop and mobile games to develop ICT skills for people with disabilities”.

ITAG 2012 presentation

And here the presentation itself:

Next project meeting in Athens, Greece

Our next meeting will take place in Athens on 6-7-8 March 2013, with adjacent workshop at Disability Now.

More news to follow on this.

ViPi Autumn training event in Nottingham, UK

The ViPi Autumn School workshop in Nottingham UK went ahead on Wednesday and Thursday 17-18 October last week at the Oak Field School and Sports College. A lot was learnt about the platform and developed games giving pointers for further iterative developments.
End-user representatives from Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania and the UK attended both days and gave ViPi partners the opportunity to make some further fine-tuning to the various ouctomes. Adjacent to this, a 2-day project meeting also took place.
Pictures of the event can be seen on our Facebook page.

Autumn workshop in Nottingham, UK, 2012

Grundtvig – Training of trainers to provide basic ICT skills’ education to people with disabilities

Which course?

Training of trainers to provide basic ICT skills’ education to people with disabilities, taking on board their specific needs.

Is it good for me?

Target audience:

• Teachers (Pre-school, primary, secondary, vocational, adult, special needs)
• Teacher trainers
• Careers officers, educational guides and counsellors
• Inspectors
• Headteachers/principals/managers of schools/organisations offering adult education
• Other (Paid or voluntary) management staff in the institution/organisation
• Non-teaching administrative staff
• Members of students/teachers councils in adult education
• Representative organizations of persons with disabilities

Hmm…what is it about?

The objectives of the training course are:

• To offer an inclusive approach to teaching, learning and assessment of (accessible) basic ICT skills, aiming at inclusive education (people with disabilities within regular education) and have this inclusive approach also embedded in daily teaching practices;
• To help trainees understand the basic ICT challenges but also competences related to disabilities;
• To help trainees understand and implement the teaching of basic ICT skills to people with disabilities and how to accommodate for them;
• To help trainees understand the cultural and social differences linked to people with disabilities coming from different backgrounds (e.g. migrants, refugees, ethnic communities, people from outside Europe or intra-EU mobility);
• To help trainees experience, through visits to local VET centres, how local organizations for people with disabilities, as well as disabled individuals themselves, address the issues of acquiring basic ICT skills and how this can consequently improve their employability potential;
• To help trainees acquire hands-on experience by role-playing in implementing accessible teaching practices.

What language?

English will be the main teaching language, however, supportive material will be available in Dutch, English, Greek and Lithuanian!

Where?

Four options!

• 1st SESSION: Larnaca, Cyprus, on 11-15 March 2013. Register by 25/02/2013!
• 2nd SESSION: Ypres region, Belgium, on 20-24 May 2013. Register by 16/05/2013!
• 3rd SESSION: Vilnius, Lithuania, on 01-05 July 2013. Register by 17/06/2013!
• 4th SESSION: Nottingham, UK, on 14-18 October 2013. Register by 30/09/2013!

Further information?

You may find all details about the course at the address http://ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase/index.cfm?fuseaction=DisplayCourse&cid=34259 , including the full programme, organizers, fees and sessions’ details.

Do I get any certificate for participation?

Yes, you will receive an attendance certificate based on the Europass Mobility certificate template.

Interesting! How can I register?

1. Please, first book your place and receive a written pre-registration confirmation as soon as possible, by sending a message to the addresses given below. Applicants from outside the session’s host country are treated favourably (due to Grundtvig regulations only 1/3 of the participants can be from the hosting country).

PRE-REGISTRATIONS FOR UPCOMING SESSIONS:

• 1st SESSION in Cyprus: trainings@eurocyinnovations.com
• 2nd SESSION in Belgium: info@phoenixkm.eu
• 3rd SESSION in Lithuania: vilma@imotec.lt
• 4th SESSION in UK: david.brown@ntu.ac.uk

2. Apply for a grant! Only if you are not from the hosting country, you may apply for funding to cover your travelling, accommodation and meals, as well as, participation fees. Find your National Agency at http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/national_en.htm and follow the procedure to apply for a Grundtvig In-service Training grant! This option is now open for the 1st SESSION. You may check regularly for new calls for applications that will cover the next three sessions. Depending on your eligibility and application evaluation, you can get as much as € 2500 that will cover almost all your participation expenses.

3. As soon as you have secured funding by your Lifelong Learning National Agency or you have made your final decision to participate on your own expenses, please, get back to the hosting organization (same contact details as given above for pre-registrations) and confirm your registration! Make sure to complete the whole procedure before the relevant deadline for each session, given above.

We will be happy to help you at any step of the above procedure. Please, do not hesitate to contact us asking for clarification and help at the contact details given above.

Looking forward to welcoming you to one of our sessions!

ITAG Conference 2012 – booking available

ViPi will participate with a dedicated booth and paper at the Interactive Technologies and Games Conference (ITAG). This event brings together academics and practitioners who work with interactive technologies to explore and innovate within the areas of Education, Health and Disability.

ITAG 2012 registration available now!

The Conference provides an excellent opportunity to showcase practice and to mainstream research ideas and outcomes. It introduces a wider audience to key findings and products and illustrates how practice feeds back into and informs research. The conference creates a forum for two-way communication between the academic and practitioner communities and particularly welcomes user led presentations and workshops.
For full details of papers, please see the conference schedule.

Date: Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 October 2012
Venue: Nottingham Conference Centre, Nottingham
Day 1: 8.30 am – 6.30 pm
Day 2: 9.00 am – 3.30 pm
Conference rate (both days):
Standard – £150.00
Concessions – £75.00
ISVR Members – £125.00
Daily rate:
Standard – £80.00
Concessions – £45.00
ISVR Members – £67.50

Find out how to become an ISVR member.

Book ITAG Conference online.

ViPi @ various events

The ViPi team can be found at following events in the near future:

• 25th May 2012: Mary Kitzinger Trust invited talk.
• June 14th 2012: Demonstrations and tests of desktop ICT games to staff and user group at Oak Field School.
• 17th-18th October2012: UK Workshop (Autumn School) event in collaboration with Oak Field School
• 23rd and 24th October 2012: ITAG (demonstration stand, papers and presentation on games)
• December 2012: European day of People with Disabilities policy event, Brussels, Belgium (demonstration booth)

WSIS 2012 – Sessions on accessibility in education

ViPi is at WSIS 2012, Geneva, Switzerland, and recorded following videos that give a good impression of the work that is done on understanding and providing accessible education worldwide.

The first video features Jutta Treviranus (IDRC) on FLOE and Open Educational Resources at WSIS 2012.

The second video features Axel Leblois (Executive Director G3ict) on Lifelong Learning with Assistive Technologies at WSIS 2012.

These videos clearly illustrate the importance and relevance of the ViPi project.

We hope to publish some more videos in the next few days.

ViPi @ Interactive Technologies and Games: Education, Health and Disability 2012

ViPi will attend the “Interactive Technologies and Games: Education, Health and Disability 2012” conference at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK on 23rd and 24th October 2012. ViPi will contribute with a paper on accessibility and the semantic web, as well as will have a dedicated booth. We hope to welcome you there.

The week before, the ViPi project will also organise its training workshop at Nottingham Trent University premises.

Visit the conference social media:

http://itag.gamecity.org/
http://www.facebook.com/iTAG.conf
http://twitter.com/#!/ITAG12

Call for papers:

The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and practitioners working with interactive technologies to explore and innovate within the areas of Education, Health and Disability. We have a particular focus on the use of gaming hardware and software to implement accessible solutions, interaction design using new input/output devices and the increasing impact of ubiquitous computing on our everyday well being.
The conference provides an excellent opportunity to showcase practice and to mainstream research ideas and outcomes. It introduces a wider audience to key findings and products from research and illustrates how practice feeds back into and informs research. The conference creates a forum for two-way communication between the academic and practitioner communities and particularly welcomes user led presentations and workshops.
The programme includes presentations of papers, workshops, and an exhibition space for demonstrations and posters. This event is held in partnership with GameCity – the World’s best-loved videogame festival (http://gamecity.org/) and delegates are welcome to attend all GameCity events including the opening drinks reception.

Scope:

As guidance to participants on scope of papers and activities we state that: ‘Education’ includes both compulsory and post-compulsory education; ‘Disability’ includes physical, sensory and cognitive impairment; and the impact of interactive technologies and games on health and well-being is also a focus of this conference. An emphasis is placed on practical applications and guides to where currently available training resources and tools can be found and used. A selection of papers will be published electronically in full, so presentations will be limited to 20 minutes for the key findings, including time for questions from the floor. It is hoped (as in previous years) that the best papers will be published in a special issue of a relevant academic journal.

Previous special issues have included:

• Journal of Assistive Technologies – Volume 3 issue 2 June 2009 (ITAG 2008 selected papers)
• Computers and Education – Volume 56, issue 1 (ITAG 2009 selected papers)
• International Journal of Games Based Learning – in press (ITAG 2010 selected papers)
• Journal of Assistive Technologies – Volume 6 issue 3 in development (ITAG 2011 selected papers)

Themes and topics:

The conference encourages multidisciplinary papers and examples of themes and topics include (but don’t let this restrict you):
Games Based Learning:

• Social and collaborative aspects of games (e.g., educational aspects of Massively Multiplayer Online Games)
• The efficacy of games based learning
• Self authored content and personalisation in games
• Learning theory, pedagogy and instructional design in games
• Motivational aspects of games
• Collaboration between Science and Art for more effective learning
• Games to promote the inclusion (e.g., for offenders and people with disabilities, motivation of female gamers)

Game related Technologies:

• Using contemporary games controllers to create new opportunities in health and rehabilitation applications (e.g., applications for Wii Fit, Kinect. Move).
• Brain control interfaces to games
• Pervasiveness and mobility of games
• Location based services
• Handheld learning in the classroom

Games for Health:

• Serious games for clinical assessment (e.g. after stroke)
• Serious games for rehabilitation and treatment (e.g. of phobias, ADHA, post-traumatic stress disorders, stroke)
• ‘Modding’ for health
• Art and music rehabilitation in 3D multisensory environments
• Games for children in hospital
• Games to increase physical activity in children

Accessibility and Design:

• Open source accessibility
• Participatory design
• Design for all
• Natural user interfaces
• The representation and promotion of gender equality in games
• Alternative input modalities to games for people with disabilities (e.g., brain, haptic and audio interfaces)
• Access to interactive technologies for elderly people

Web based technologies:

• Resources for interactive learning tools and environments, e.g. Flash, podcasts, simulations, mobile games, Web 2.0 tool etc.
• The Internet as a communication medium ( e.g. for people with Asperger Syndrome).
• Browser based games and linking into social media channels Submissions

Those wishing to present papers or hold a workshop should send abstracts, to a maximum of 500 words. For those hoping to exhibit or produce a poster, a 300-word abstract is required. The deadline for submissions is Friday1st June 2012 to be sent to: karen.krelle@ntu.ac.uk

Final copies of accepted papers are required by Friday 14th September 2012.
There is a conference fee of £150 for 2 days, and £80 for 1 day registration. This price includes your invitation to the Game City opening event, lunch, and morning and afternoon refreshments.

Accommodation and Travel Links: https://www.conferencebookings.co.uk/delegate/NCBITAGEHD2010
NottinghamCityTravel Link: http://www.nctx.co.uk/

Prizes Offered:

As in previous years prizes will be awarded!

• Best Paper Award: £250
• Best Student Paper award: £250
• Best Student Poster: £150.