Learning
Jane Rolph, Headteacher at Chapel Break Infant School, Norfolk said; “It has created another dimension for children's experiences and learning, bringing ideas and imagination to life. The impact on our childrens' writing, speaking and listening has been immense."
Bridget O'Brien, Head of Drama at Caister High School, Specialist Performing Arts College, Norfolk said; "The students have thoroughly enjoyed being able to see themselves appear immediately in another environment and explore the ways they can interact with the scene in the moment."
Bridget O'Brien, Head of Drama at Caister High School, Specialist Performing Arts College, Norfolk said; "The students have thoroughly enjoyed being able to see themselves appear immediately in another environment and explore the ways they can interact with the scene in the moment."
Experiential Learning Environments
The Xenodu platform is being used for training and education as an immersive media-driven learning tool to support personal and social development by various organisations, ranging from schools, colleges and universities to the BBC and the NHS (National Health Service, UK).
By providing an audio-visual resource of experiential learning environments, our platform has proven effective in engaging participants with a fun and interactive approach to personal and social skills development with noticeable improvements particularly in participants’ confidence and self-esteem.
Positive, measurable effects on learning outcomes have consistently been achieved using our platform, as well as providing support for other subjects within educational programmes.
Outcomes for Learners
• Developing confidence and self-esteem by working with and in front of peers.
• Gives every participant a chance to shine.
• Highlights and celebrates personal goals and achievements.
• Offers participants the opportunity to put forward their own point of view.
By providing an audio-visual resource of experiential learning environments, our platform has proven effective in engaging participants with a fun and interactive approach to personal and social skills development with noticeable improvements particularly in participants’ confidence and self-esteem.
Positive, measurable effects on learning outcomes have consistently been achieved using our platform, as well as providing support for other subjects within educational programmes.
Outcomes for Learners
• Developing confidence and self-esteem by working with and in front of peers.
• Gives every participant a chance to shine.
• Highlights and celebrates personal goals and achievements.
• Offers participants the opportunity to put forward their own point of view.
BBC Virtual Newsreading
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The Xenodu platform has been toured extensively to regional events throughout the UK with partners such as the BBC to engage members of the public with various custom-designed interactive virtual experiences.
Virtual Newsreading experiences created exclusively for BBC East, BBC Suffolk and BBC Northern Ireland have toured to a wide range of public events and spaces including the annual Royal Norfolk Show and Suffolk Show. |
BBC Suffolk - Virtual Newsreading
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Members of the public and local school pupils were given the opportunity to present the news alongside BBC news presenters or present the BBC weather forecast.
Other events projects have included social marketing campaigns for NHS (National Health Service, UK) as well as various national heritage and culture projects.
Other events projects have included social marketing campaigns for NHS (National Health Service, UK) as well as various national heritage and culture projects.
A teacher at Heacham Junior School, King's Lynn, Norfolk said; "It was great for the children to use the technology as it was an experience we would not have been able to provide for ourselves."
Flynn, Age 10 Pupil at Heacham Junior School, King's Lynn, Norfolk said; "I really liked working with the technology - it was amazing what you could do!"
Flynn, Age 10 Pupil at Heacham Junior School, King's Lynn, Norfolk said; "I really liked working with the technology - it was amazing what you could do!"
Personal & Social Skills Learning in Education
Schools, colleges, local education authorities and universities have have used our platform for students' personal and social development with a particular focus on self-awareness, self-control and interpersonal skills on a range of innovative projects.
Virtual Olympics
The 'Just Imagine' project which was developed in partnership with Norfolk County Council Children's Services department and was awarded the prestigious London 2012 Education Inspire Mark celebrated the power of the imagination to support achievement and aspiration by giving Norfolk school students and their teachers a chance to imagine they were participating in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Whilst running along a virtual track, students made their personal pledge for 2012, which were based along the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games – which included courage, respect and determination.
The resulting material was featured publicly on the Norwich BBC Big Screen and published on a series of DVDs containing more than 1,600 pledges made by students and teachers from schools throughout Norfolk.
Year 8 pupil Tristan at Cliff Park High School in Great Yarmouth, said; "Being involved in Just Imagine has changed my life! I am now more independent. I will be 13 in June and I think it is important that I am able to be a normal person, and do things like everyone else. Now I have confidence to conquer my fears. In fact - I have no more fears! I have become stronger and more determined to achieve in my life. I am now getting higher marks for effort in school. I used to give up easily, but now that is a thing of the past."
Family Learning
Norfolk County Council's Family Learning programme have used our platform in First Schools as part of their Family Literacy courses to explore storyboards, characterisation, creative writing and storytelling through creating virtual backdrops and using props such as masks or puppets and costumes to act out different roles.
Learners enrolled on the family learning workshops to engage with literacy, language and numeracy and created a unique record of their work to take home on DVD. The programmes were designed to enhance parental involvement with children’s learning and development.
Daryl Ackroyd, Learning Manager at Norfolk County Council Family Learning said; "Video special effects is a new and very exciting experience and children and adults have enjoyed the brilliant technology."
Sally Wilson-Town, Headteacher at Costessey Infant School, Norwich said; "The green screen sessions were much enjoyed by all. It would be really good to offer it to parents and children as it would fit in brilliantly with our extended schools work."
Helping Children with Social and Communication Difficulties
Collaborating with the University of York and a number of special educational needs schools with children of different ages and levels of intellectual ability, we have developed a range of age-appropriate scenarios specifically for primary school children who experience social and communication difficulties.
The project aims to conduct fundamental research and development on an intervention to improve communication skills, reduce situational anxiety and to explore whether the real-time 'self-observation' effect using the Xenodu platform makes a difference for children’s experiences and outcomes.
The virtual scenarios feature various social and communication cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, awareness of personal space, understanding emotions, rules of conversation, following instructions, adapting language, disclosing personal information appropriately, understanding jokes and sarcasm, differentiating benign from insulting behaviour and understanding nonliteral or ambiguous meanings.
A key research finding from the study has identified that the learning potential of exposing a child who is self-conscious to the 'out-of-body' perspective is of particular interest and requires further study to discover the nature and outcome of this experience.
Virtual Olympics
The 'Just Imagine' project which was developed in partnership with Norfolk County Council Children's Services department and was awarded the prestigious London 2012 Education Inspire Mark celebrated the power of the imagination to support achievement and aspiration by giving Norfolk school students and their teachers a chance to imagine they were participating in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Whilst running along a virtual track, students made their personal pledge for 2012, which were based along the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games – which included courage, respect and determination.
The resulting material was featured publicly on the Norwich BBC Big Screen and published on a series of DVDs containing more than 1,600 pledges made by students and teachers from schools throughout Norfolk.
Year 8 pupil Tristan at Cliff Park High School in Great Yarmouth, said; "Being involved in Just Imagine has changed my life! I am now more independent. I will be 13 in June and I think it is important that I am able to be a normal person, and do things like everyone else. Now I have confidence to conquer my fears. In fact - I have no more fears! I have become stronger and more determined to achieve in my life. I am now getting higher marks for effort in school. I used to give up easily, but now that is a thing of the past."
Family Learning
Norfolk County Council's Family Learning programme have used our platform in First Schools as part of their Family Literacy courses to explore storyboards, characterisation, creative writing and storytelling through creating virtual backdrops and using props such as masks or puppets and costumes to act out different roles.
Learners enrolled on the family learning workshops to engage with literacy, language and numeracy and created a unique record of their work to take home on DVD. The programmes were designed to enhance parental involvement with children’s learning and development.
Daryl Ackroyd, Learning Manager at Norfolk County Council Family Learning said; "Video special effects is a new and very exciting experience and children and adults have enjoyed the brilliant technology."
Sally Wilson-Town, Headteacher at Costessey Infant School, Norwich said; "The green screen sessions were much enjoyed by all. It would be really good to offer it to parents and children as it would fit in brilliantly with our extended schools work."
Helping Children with Social and Communication Difficulties
Collaborating with the University of York and a number of special educational needs schools with children of different ages and levels of intellectual ability, we have developed a range of age-appropriate scenarios specifically for primary school children who experience social and communication difficulties.
The project aims to conduct fundamental research and development on an intervention to improve communication skills, reduce situational anxiety and to explore whether the real-time 'self-observation' effect using the Xenodu platform makes a difference for children’s experiences and outcomes.
The virtual scenarios feature various social and communication cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, awareness of personal space, understanding emotions, rules of conversation, following instructions, adapting language, disclosing personal information appropriately, understanding jokes and sarcasm, differentiating benign from insulting behaviour and understanding nonliteral or ambiguous meanings.
A key research finding from the study has identified that the learning potential of exposing a child who is self-conscious to the 'out-of-body' perspective is of particular interest and requires further study to discover the nature and outcome of this experience.
Medical Simulation Training
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Our ongoing partnership with Surrey and Borders NHS Trust involves the development of the AVATr (Augmented Virtual-reality Avatar in Training) Virtual Patient simulation system that uses virtual humans to train medical practitioners how to be better communicators with patients and colleagues.
This innovative project aims to promote curiosity driven learning in order to build empathetic practice by giving learners a licence to fail and learn from their mistakes in a safe environment through using simulated high-stakes scenarios. This involves the development of authentic virtual characters with believable personalities, diverse points of view, detailed back-stories, family backgrounds and medical histories, all taken from real-world scenarios. |
AVATr - Augmented Virtual-reality Avatar in Training
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Feedback from the continuously evolving NHS programme run with Foundation Year junior doctors has been highly positive which include the following comments;
“Good scenarios which offered provocative discussions…Very helpful in identifying personal targets. Great use of technology and comparisons between various situations. Worthwhile analytical discussions”.
“Excellent scenarios, very good learning chance”.
“Valued the opportunity to practice dealing with difficult patients and scenarios that are directly relevant to working as a doctor”.
“Really useful topic to cover, and well thought out scenario. Lots of good discussion around consent, and helped build confidence...listening to others share some of their experiences of similar patients and how they managed them”.
“Excellent scenarios, very good learning chance”.
“Valued the opportunity to practice dealing with difficult patients and scenarios that are directly relevant to working as a doctor”.
“Really useful topic to cover, and well thought out scenario. Lots of good discussion around consent, and helped build confidence...listening to others share some of their experiences of similar patients and how they managed them”.
Twitter link to - Simulation for Psychiatry at Surrey and Borders
BMJ link to - Simulation of complex interviewing skills using virtual patients and immersive technology (Redvers A. et al. 2015)
BJPsych link to - Digitalised remote-delivery of AVATr Simulation in Psychiatry: a unique success in Covid-19 pandemic (Mannali V. et al. 2021)
Interactive Pods
BBC Public Outreach
Developed in collaboration with BBC, our specially designed interactive pods have recorded participants' thoughts and feelings on a range of issues and have acquired somewhat of a cult status whilst touring to various public spaces around the UK.
Through the use of motion sensor controllers, these free-standing pods have offered a fully-automated experience, similar to stepping into the diary room of Big Brother, bringing the participants' interactions to life, stimulating intimate and honest exploration of ideas and opinions.
In partnership with BBC, cinema goers visiting Odeon cinemas were invited by one of our pods (which housed the voice of Dave a.k.a. Digital Audio Visual Experience) to talk about films they had seen recently with other surprise appearances including visits to public libraries, exhibitions, events and various schools and colleges.
BBC Northern Ireland has also toured one of our pods to the Ulster Museum in Belfast and other public spaces for key events and issues such as education, policing, sport, culture, politics and community development as well as being used as a sustainable way to gather content for BBC broadcasts.
Student Experiential Learning
Students in schools and colleges have been taking a creative approach to learning through using our pods to share their thoughts whilst immersed in a virtual world.
One of our pods has proven popular with young students at City Academy in Norwich who have been queuing up to engage with poetry through its integrated video screen, special effects visuals and surround-sound audio.
Year 9 student, Ellie Ireland, describes her experience; "Sometimes poetry can be mega-boring but the pod is a fun, modern way to learn, understand and enjoy poetry. Stepping inside the pod of wonder feels like stepping into the diary room of Big Brother. It really does bring poetry to life and allows you to explore poetry in a way you never have before, interpreting feelings and meanings. As soon as you step in, a sensor is activated and a voice starts talking to you. You get asked questions about what you think of the poetry and how you feel about learning new poems. Who would have thought teenagers would be queuing up to learn about poetry?"
Nigel Youngman, Vice Principal at City Academy Norwich said; "This has been an exciting opportunity for us to look at the power of technology in helping our pupils to explore creativity. Working with new technologies gives our pupils wonderful possibilities and with Digital Technology as our specialism, it is precisely the sort of creative project we should be doing."
Museums Public Consultation
Norwich Castle Museum has used one of our pods as part of their £13m development plan to transform the Castle Keep by featuring the ghost of King Henry I who asked visitors of all ages for their help to restore his castle into the magnificent royal palace it was back in his time.
More than 250 people took part and their responses have helped shape ideas to redesign the whole visitor experience by recognising the Keep as the museum’s most important ‘exhibit’ and the Castle as one of Europe’s most important 12th century buildings.
Angela Riley, Project Officer, Keep Project said; “Using the video booth as a form of consultation was a new experience for Norfolk Museums Service. It proved to be a really effective way to interact with our visitors, particularly our younger ones, to gather ideas for how we can improve the Castle experience through our development project. The booth created quite a buzz during a busy summer holiday period and the responses were just fantastic!”
Developed in collaboration with BBC, our specially designed interactive pods have recorded participants' thoughts and feelings on a range of issues and have acquired somewhat of a cult status whilst touring to various public spaces around the UK.
Through the use of motion sensor controllers, these free-standing pods have offered a fully-automated experience, similar to stepping into the diary room of Big Brother, bringing the participants' interactions to life, stimulating intimate and honest exploration of ideas and opinions.
In partnership with BBC, cinema goers visiting Odeon cinemas were invited by one of our pods (which housed the voice of Dave a.k.a. Digital Audio Visual Experience) to talk about films they had seen recently with other surprise appearances including visits to public libraries, exhibitions, events and various schools and colleges.
BBC Northern Ireland has also toured one of our pods to the Ulster Museum in Belfast and other public spaces for key events and issues such as education, policing, sport, culture, politics and community development as well as being used as a sustainable way to gather content for BBC broadcasts.
Student Experiential Learning
Students in schools and colleges have been taking a creative approach to learning through using our pods to share their thoughts whilst immersed in a virtual world.
One of our pods has proven popular with young students at City Academy in Norwich who have been queuing up to engage with poetry through its integrated video screen, special effects visuals and surround-sound audio.
Year 9 student, Ellie Ireland, describes her experience; "Sometimes poetry can be mega-boring but the pod is a fun, modern way to learn, understand and enjoy poetry. Stepping inside the pod of wonder feels like stepping into the diary room of Big Brother. It really does bring poetry to life and allows you to explore poetry in a way you never have before, interpreting feelings and meanings. As soon as you step in, a sensor is activated and a voice starts talking to you. You get asked questions about what you think of the poetry and how you feel about learning new poems. Who would have thought teenagers would be queuing up to learn about poetry?"
Nigel Youngman, Vice Principal at City Academy Norwich said; "This has been an exciting opportunity for us to look at the power of technology in helping our pupils to explore creativity. Working with new technologies gives our pupils wonderful possibilities and with Digital Technology as our specialism, it is precisely the sort of creative project we should be doing."
Museums Public Consultation
Norwich Castle Museum has used one of our pods as part of their £13m development plan to transform the Castle Keep by featuring the ghost of King Henry I who asked visitors of all ages for their help to restore his castle into the magnificent royal palace it was back in his time.
More than 250 people took part and their responses have helped shape ideas to redesign the whole visitor experience by recognising the Keep as the museum’s most important ‘exhibit’ and the Castle as one of Europe’s most important 12th century buildings.
Angela Riley, Project Officer, Keep Project said; “Using the video booth as a form of consultation was a new experience for Norfolk Museums Service. It proved to be a really effective way to interact with our visitors, particularly our younger ones, to gather ideas for how we can improve the Castle experience through our development project. The booth created quite a buzz during a busy summer holiday period and the responses were just fantastic!”
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