Julia Gillen is a member of the Schome Community - see www.schome.ac.uk - exploring new models of education to meet the needs of society and individuals in the twenty-first century. Our main focus is currently on the use of virtual worlds (specifically Teen Second Life and Second Life) to give people a lived experience of radically different models of education. Julia Gillen has been participating and researching in Schome Park: our project with teenagers on a virtual island.

See http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/Main_Page.

The project, directed by Peter Twining at the Open University, involves children from 13 - 17 from the UK and USA working together through avatars. The project has benefited from sponsors including Becta and the Innovations Unit; many of the young students were members of the GOAL cohort (from socially disadvantaged sectors) of the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth. Schome Park closed (perhaps temporarily) in July 2008; Julia Gillen is now engaged in analysis and dissemination.

Presentations and publications on Schome Park involving Julia Gillen include:

Gillen, J. (2009) Literacy practices in Schome Park: a virtual literacy ethnography. Journal of Research in Reading 32 (1) 57-74

Gillen, J. (2008) http://www.schome.ac.uk/downloads/gillen_sheffield_keynote08.pdf Schome Park: exploring digital literacy practices in a Teen Second Life project. Keynote presentation at Digital Readings: new Literacies for the classroom. UKLA regional conference. University of Sheffield November 8.

Gillen. J. (2008) http://www.schome.ac.uk/downloads/schomeposterISCARsmaller.gif Schome Park: my avatar Rowan learning with teenagers on a virtual archipelago in Second Life. Poster presented at Ecologies of Diversities: the developmental and historical interarticulation of human mediational forms: meeting of the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research, San Diego,USA. September 8-13

Peachey, A., Gillen, J. & Ferguson, R. (2008) http://www.schome.ac.uk/downloads/Fluid_Leadership_Peachey_Gillen_Ferguson.pdf Fluid leadership in a multi-user virtual environment educational project with teenagers: Schome ParkPaper presented at Ecologies of Diversities: the developmental and historical interarticulation of human mediational forms: meeting of the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research, San Diego,USASeptember 8-13.

Gillen, J. & the Schome Community (2008) Literacies in Schome Park: a 'Second Life' virtual worlds project for teenagers.Paper presented at 'Identities, cultures and literacies' 44th International Conference of the UK Literacy Association, Liverpool Hope University 11-13 July.

Pollmuller, B., Clough, G. & Gillen, J. (2008) Animation in Education: its impact on learning, literacy and creativity - understanding teenagers' creativity through making machinima in a 3D virtual world known as Schome Park. Networks 11, July. 3-4.

Gillen. J. (2007) The discourses of a virtual island: the Schome-NAGTY 'Teen Second Life' project. Presentation to the Literacy Research Discussion Group, Lancaster University. 16 October.

Gillen, J. & the Schome Community (2007) A virtual island: clashes of discourses around a 'Teen Second Life' online project. Paper presented at Language Ideologies and Media Discourse: Texts, Practices, Policies, University of Leeds 3rd - 5th September, 2007