Reference Group Meeting 18th August

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting our latest Reference Group meeting. There was a great diversity of attendees at this term's meeting: Panasonic, Electroboard, Keepad Interactive, RM Asia-Pacific, MQ Dept of Computing (Faculty of Science), MQ Dept of Education (Faculty of Human Sciences), MQ Macquarie E-Learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE), AECG, DET Connected Classrooms Program and DET Northern Sydney Region.
I spoke about the latest news and big ideas but the most informative part of the agenda was to follow with Professor James Dalziel from MELCOE and Sam Doust, Creative Director of ABC's Innovation division.
James spoke about all the layers of support provided through AICTEC. As a committee member, James was able to describe the functions and responsibilites of the various divisions, committees and advisory groups under AICTEC and how they dovetail to advise, support and guide the educational community. The discussions were particularly informative around copyright, intellectual property and funding programs for ICT in education.
Sam Doust introduced the audience to Bluebird AR. This alternate reality game was designed by Sam and his team and played by over 200 000 players across the globe in April-May this year for 7 weeks. There were 723 super players who engaged in this game for an average of 2.5 hours per day. Two-thirds of them were girls! It will be interesting to see how this game can influence some of the decisions we make at MacICT about our future projects.
Watch and see! There will be some synergies, I think.