Dr Denise Wood is a senior lecturer and researcher in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia. Her research focuses on the use of new media technologies such as Web 2.0 and 3D virtual learning environments to enhance the participation of young people with disabilities, as well as exploring the pedagogical potential of these environments to engage learners in the higher education context. This research has involved engagement with several community organisations including Novita Children’s Services, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, the Lyell McEwin Hospital, as well as several virtual disability support groups.
Denise is principal investigator an ALTC funded project ($203,000 grant), which involves the design and development of an open source accessible 3D virtual learning environment. The project received national recognition through the award of the Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell prize for Telecommunications and Disabilities. The award included $20,000 in funding to undertake further research in this area. Telstra has recently committed a further $10,000 to fund the development of accessibility applications for mobile devices.
Dr Wood is a UniSA project leader for a Cooperative Research Centre funded by Australian Government focusing Young People, Technology and Wellbeing and led by the Inspire Foundation. This research involves collaboration with Novita Children’s Services, Autism SA and Brain Injury Australia on projects that aim to increase the social participation of young people with disabilities through social networking and virtual worlds technologies. She is also undertaking collaborative research in South Africa with the Gauteng Province Education Department with additional funding support provided by the University of South Australia and the South African Zakah fund. This research aims to explore the use of 3D virtual learning environments to enhance student learning and increase student retention in rural and semi-rural schools.
Denise’s research also addresses the benefits of service learning for undergraduate students and the community sector, and she is project leader of the ‘Sustainable Online Community Engagement’ (SOCE) project, which receives $50,000 in recurrent funding each year from the Government of South Australia, Office for Volunteers ($100,000 to date). This project was honoured with the Premier’s Public Sector Award for Building Communities in 2009. She is also undertaking collaborative research with the Lyell McEwin Hospital (LMH) and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. This project involves developing and trialling simulations as preoperative preparation for young children undergoing elective surgery.
Denise is Associate Editor of the Higher Education Research and Development Journal and a peer reviewer for several high ranked journals. She receives regular invitations to present the findings of her research undertaken with community organisations at national and international conferences. She was an invited speaker at the Australian Rehabilitation & Assistive Technology Association Conference in 2008, and a plenary speaker at the National Disability Services Accommodation and Social Participation Conference in Queensland in May 2010. She was also an invited international plenary speaker at the Second International Conference of e-Learning and Distance Learning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 21 to 23 February, 2011 and she is now undertaking collaborative research with the Vice-President of the Women’s Section of the National Centre for e-Learning in Saudi Arabia, Shatha Makki, focusing on the potential of e-learning technologies for improving learning outcomes for Muslim women students.
Denise’s research has resulted in five book chapters (two in press and two under review), 16 journal papers (two of which are A ranked) and 26 peer reviewed conference papers (one of which received the ASCILITE outstanding paper award in December 2008) over the last three years, in addition to the development of the accessible 3D virtual learning platform, which received national recognition through the Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell award in May 2010. Her research has also received widespread media coverage including interviews on local and international news (Channel 7 news and SBS World News), radio interviews (ABC, Radio Adelaide and Radio 5RPH) and in excess of twenty press releases, news reports, articles in magazines.
