Stephen Heppell has led a vast portfolio of effective large scale projects over three decades, which have established him internationally as a widely and fondly recognised leader in the fields of learning, new media and technology. Stephen has recently completed a research project funded by Nominet on the use of Facebook, mobile phones, Twitter, YouTube and more - in the classroom. The starting point for many Schools is blocking by default. But just saying "open them up" obviously isn't enough - schools need policy guidance, the confidence that others have already tried with success, an evolutionary model, and authentic advice by teachers for teachers, by school for schools, that they might build from, with trust. Thus the aim of the "cloudlearn" research project was (and is) to source, collate, reflect on and publish proven effective practice from experienced classroom teachers and practitioners - building forward from what worked for them, in their cultural and educational context, to offer a portfolio of general and proven approaches. For more information see www.cloudlearn.net

Kris Erickson is researching online user behaviour in a variety of contexts (political communication, marketing, remix culture).  In 2011 he collaborated with Darren Lilleker in BU Media School on a project to track and analyse visitors to the Ed Balls Labour campaign website.  The goal of the research was to determine how successfully the web and social media platforms attracted new supporters to the Balls campaign, and whether they were able to grow the candidate’s support base. The results of that study were published in 2011 in Parliamentary Affairs.  Kris is currently lead investigator on a project funded by the Intellectual Property Office to study the economic impact of parody content production on copyright holders.   The study, which will inform UK government policy following the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property, is focused on the UK music industry.   A comparison of audiences for user generated parody videos and official licensed music videos on YouTube will provide insight on the presence of substitution, dilution or viral effects that mat be present.

On-going doctoral research by Ashley Woodfall explores children’s needs within cross-platform media environments. Ashley has presented his work at conferences in the UK and has been published on audience and cross-platform media. He is currently writing a chapter on education and cross-media for the forthcoming Crossmedia Innovations: Texts, Markets, Institutions, Education (2012).