Interface: Virtual Environments in Art, Design and Education'A report on a conference exploring VLEs in art and design education

Funded as part of an EU collaboration, under the Socrates/Minerva initiative, the key motivation for the Interface: Virtual Environments in Art, Design and Education Conference was a sense that, while VLEs and the use of ICT tools are a growing facet of third-level education, and indeed play an important role at the cutting edge of contemporary practice in both design and fine art, their relevance to educational practice in `hands-on' or practice-based disciplines such as art and design is less clear. While the range of presentations within the conference sought to excite conversation amongst artists and designers as well as art and design educators, those selected for inclusion here specifically address VLEs and ICT tools in a higher education context. Further, the emphasis accorded to those described here reflects the wider conference objective of engaging with questions arising out of practice-based educational contexts, from art and design to archaeology.