As part of EATEL’s mission to enable and facilitate TEL Research, EATEL is organising Webinars that seek to communicate baseline knowledge at high level and spark off discussions in the TEL community and beyond.

EATEL Webinars – Series “Transversal topics in Technology-Enhanced Learning”

EATEL seeks to drive community discussion that can help to maintain high standards of research quality and professionalism in the domain of TEL. In this line, EATEL has initiated a Webinar series on “Transversal topics in Technology-Enhanced Learning”, which offers an space to discuss overarching aspects related to TEL research. These overarching aspects will consider important challenges for our field that are derived from its own nature (e.g. interdisciplinarity) and from key issues in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). These RRI issues go from gender and diversity equality and inclusion, to public engagement, sustainability, ethics, and open science.

Webinar 4 “What do we mean with Learning Engineering & Technology-Enhanced Learning?”

July 9th, 2020, at 2pm CET  

Dialog between Jim Goodell and Mikhail Fominykh,
moderated by Davinia Hernández-Leo and Christian Glahn


The fourth edition of the Webinar series is entitled “What do we mean with Learning Engineering & Technology-Enhanced Learning?”. An intersection of disciplines from educational/social sciences and technology/engineering domains has led to an interdisciplinary field of research and professional practice. Different names are being used to refer to this field, from educational and learning technologies to technology-enhanced learning and, more recently, learning engineering. 

Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) was coined in the context of working groups initiated by the European Commission in 2000. The term is now broadly used to designate “a field of research aiming at improving learning by integrating current technologies and designing innovative ones” (Bourdeau & Balacheff, 2013) and has been adopted by the European Association in the field (EATEL), the well-established European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL), or by the JTEL Summer School (JTELSS). 

According to (Blake-Plock, 2018) “the term Learning Engineer dates back to at least 1966 when it was used by Herbert Simon, professor of computer science and psychology at the Carnegie Institute of Technology to describe a class of professionals who would be experts in designing learning experiences.” However, the term has recently gained more attention given the initiative starting in late 2017 by the IEEE IC Industry Consortium on Learning Engineering (ICICLE) to develop a profession within the field of engineering focused on the application of technology and learning science.

In the first part of the dialog, Jim Goodle (ICICLE) will elaborate on the term “Learning Engineering” and the current efforts by ICICLE towards a definition of the profession. Mikhail Fominykh (EATEL) will explain what we mean by TEL and the current efforts in Europe towards the training of future TEL researchers and practitioners. The second part of the dialog will consist of a ‘questions & answers debate’ by the two speakers, with participation of the audience. The dialog will be moderated by Davinia Hernández-Leo and Christian Glahn, both involved in EATEL and ICICLE. 

 

 Jim Goodell is a member of the ICICLE steering committee. He is co-author of Student-Centered Learning: Functional Requirements for Integrated Systems to Optimize Learning. He is a nationally recognized expert on education data standards and leader of standards development for the Common Education Data Standards (ceds.ed.gov). His work has led to greater coordination among key national and international data standards organizations. He works with leaders at state and local education agencies, education service providers, post-secondary institutions, and federal program staff on data standards, next generation learning models, strategic planning, organizational development, policy development, process improvement, data systems architecture/policies, and technology implementation. He is a nationally recognized speaker and author on education data for personalized learning and formative assessment processes. 

Mikhail Fominykh is the member of the EATEL board and the general chair of the EATEL Summer School on Technology-Enhanced Learning. Mikhail is also the coordinator of the Doctoral Education for Technology-Enhanced Learning DE-TEL project that aims to build a reference model for doctoral education in TEL. Mikhail holds a research position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and an associate professor position at the Molde University College, Norway.

 

Bourdeau, J., & Balacheff, N. (2013). Technology-Enhanced Learning: From thesaurus and dictionary to ontology. In Jovanović, J., & Chiong, R. (Eds.). Technological and Social Environments for Interactive Learning. Informing Science Press, pp. 1-34. 

Blake-Plock, S. (2018). (Learning Engineering: Merging Science and Data to Design Powerful Learning Experiences,  https://www.gettingsmart.com/2018/01/learning-engineering-merging-science-and-data-to-design-powerful-learning/

Webinar 3 “European educational policy reactions for technology-enhanced learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic”, April 17th, 2020, at 5pm CET

Panel with Davinia Hernández-Leo,Viktoria Pammer-Schindler, Allison Littlejohn, Monica Divitini, Lucia Panese, moderated by Marco Kalz

Many countries worldwide had to close parts of their educational system recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools have been locked down and ad-hoc digital technologies have been used to support learning at a distance. At the same time, many higher education institutions have shifted the semester start and are currently busy with preparing a (full) online-semester. This situation has led to the fact that technology-enhanced learning has in a very short time become the mainstream with regard to learning and teaching practices. In the seminar, panelist will report about policy reactions from their country and implications for the field of technology-enhanced learning will be discussed. https://ea-tel.eu/panel/

Davinia Hernández-Leo is a Full Professor at the Department of Information and Communications Technologies Department (DTIC) at UPF, the coordinator of the Interactive and Distributed Technologies for Education group (TIDE), Vice-Dean of the UPF Engineering School and the Head of its Unit for Teaching Quality and Innovation. She obtained a degree and a Ph.D on Telecommunication Engineering at University of Valladolid, Spain, and has been visiting researcher at Open University of the Netherlands, Fulbright Scholar at Virginia Tech and visiting academic at the University of Sydney. She has (co-)authored over 100 scientific publications and received several awards, including best paper awards and the European award for excellence in the field of CSCL technology. She has also received Teaching Awards (Vicens Vives) and the ICREA Academia Award from the Catalan Government in 2019. Currently, she is the Vice-President of the European Association for Technology-Enhanced Learning, a member of the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions of Learning Technologies and the Steering Committee of the European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning.

Viktoria Pammer-Schindler is an associate professor at Graz University of Technology and a research area manager at the Know-Center. She is a researcher in Technology-Enhanced Learning and Human-Computer Interaction, with a focus on workplace learning and knowledge work as domains of design, and adaptive prompts and user guidance as technology focus. From this, her research spreads out to designing for learning in other educational contexts, for knowledge management, and to designing for innovation and other strategic activities related to digitalization.

Professor Allison Littlejohn is the Director of UCL Knowledge Lab. She a learning scientist, specializing in professional and digital learning. Her expertise is in applying educational theory and evidence to developing and evaluating complex interventions for professional learning which capitalize on the use of digital technologies. Her work has made contributions to the understanding of how people learn for work in diverse contexts and cultures across the Energy, Finance, Health, Education and International Development sectors. Allison has held research Chairs at five UK universities and have experience of strategic leadership in education. She has been awarded over 40 research grants funded by a range of funding bodies including research councils and industry. Her current research focuses on the role of professional learning in resolving global challenges. She is Academic Director for ‘Ways of Working and Learning in AMR surveillance systems in LMICs’, funded by the UK Department for Health and Social Care’s Fleming Fund; She also researches ‘Approaches in Complex and Challenging Environments for Sustainable Sexual & Reproductive Health’ (ACCESS), funded by the UK Department for International Development. She serves on the editorial board of a number of influential journals, including The Internet and Higher Education and Vocations & Learning.

Monica Divitini is a professor of Cooperation Technologies at NTNU and a member of the management team of the Norwegian Center for Excellence in IT education, with responsibility for cooperation with schools. She holds a Master in Information Science from Milano University, Italy and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Aalborg University, Denmark. She has more than 20 years of active experience in research with a focus on cooperation technology, mobile and ubiquitous computing, user-centered design approaches, and technology-enhanced learning. She is currently investigating innovative learning methods enhanced by technology and the use of innovative technologies for promoting IT education in secondary schools, promoting creativity, design thinking and gender balance. More information is available at https://teseolab.org/.

Lucia Pannese graduated in Applied Mathematics, has more than 20 years of managing experience in innovation & research projects with a special focus on digital interactive technologies to deliver user experiences. In Feb 2004 funding partner of imaginary, where she covers the role of CEO and research director, she is heavily involved in European research around enabling technologies, specifically Serious Games, gamification and digital interactive technologies for learning, training and behavioral change across several sectors, particularly health & care and training. With numerous publications, she is often involved in international conferences and organizing local as well as international events.

Marco Kalz is a full professor of technology-enhanced learning at the Heidelberg University of Education. He is also affiliated to the UNESCO chair of open education of the Open University of the Netherlands. His research interest lies on the use of open education, pervasive technologies and formative assessment to support self-directed lifelong learning. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. Marco is a fellow of the Interuniversity Center for Educational Sciences (ICO) and the Dutch research school on information and knowledge systems (SIKS). He is elected president of the European Association of Technology-Enhanced Learning (EA-TEL), director of the study program on E-Learning and Media Education, co-director of the Education for Sustainable Development Center and board member of the International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era. Over the last 5 years he could secure approx. 2 Mil EUR of research funding for his institution. Besides European projects he was and is regularly involved in educational innovation projects with partners inside and outside of his institutions.

Webinar 2 “Interdisciplinarity in Technology-Enhanced Learning”, December 12th, 2018, at 3pm CET

Dialog between Lina Markauskaite and Carolyn Rosé, moderated by Davinia Hernández-Leo and Stian Håklev

The topic chosen for the second edition of the Webinar series is “Interdisciplinarity in TEL”. The TEL field is interdisciplinary by definition. This makes TEL an especially interesting research field. Yet, it also brings complexity at different levels. A challenge for TEL researchers is to properly understand what is  interdisciplinarity in our field, its challenges and implications. In the first part of the dialog, Lina Markauskaite will elaborate on the concept of epistemic fluency as “the capacity to understand, switch between and combine different kinds of knowledge and different ways of knowing about the world” (Markauskaite & Goodyear, 2016)*. Carolyn Rosé will talk about the history of the International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era, why it was important to her to work towards that as the personal objective of her past presidency in ISLS.  She will also talk about interdisciplinarity in her own research bringing learning sciences, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence together. The second part of the dialog will consist of a ‘questions & answers debate’ by the two speakers, with participation of the audience.

Image result for lina markauskaite

Dr. Lina Markauskaite is an Associate Professor of the Learning Sciences and co-director of the Centre for Research on Learning and Innovation, the University of Sydney, Australia. She received a PhD in informatics (computer sciences) from the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (Lithuania), in 2000. Before arriving to Australia in 2004, Lina managed ICT implementation and educational change projects; and was the national coordinator of large-scale national and international studies on ICT in schools in Lithuania. Lina’s current research spans three related areas: 1) students and teachers’ ICT capabilities; 2) professional learning for complex professional knowledge work; and 3) ICT-enhanced interdisciplinary research methods. Lina’s research is integrative – it brings into a single framework research from psychology, neuroscience, design, organisational studies, anthropology, and science and technology studies (STS). 

Image result for Carolyn Rosé Dr. Carolyn Rosé is a Professor of Language Technologies and Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.  Her research program is focused on better understanding the social and pragmatic nature of conversation, and using this understanding to build computational systems that can improve the efficacy of conversation between people, and between people and computers.  She serves as Past President and Inaugural Fellow of the International Society of the Learning Sciences, Senior member of IEEE, Founding Chair of the International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era, Executive Editor of the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, and Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.

 

* Markauskaite, L., & Goodyear, P. (2016). Epistemic fluency and professional education: innovation, knowledgeable action and actionable knowledge. Dordrecht: Springer

 

Webinar 1 “Open Science in Technology-Enhanced Learning”, May 3rd 2018, at 3pm CET

Dialog between Justin Reich and Malte Elson, moderated by Davinia Hernández-Leo and Stian Håklev

 


The topic chosen for the first edition of the Webinar series is “Open Science as it applies to TEL”. Open Science is a critical issue considered by the research community at large. The ongoing phenomenon of Open Science promotes on the one hand, transparent and frequent open-access updates of research progress; and other other hand, reproducible, accurate and verifiable research, bringing benefits for the individual researchers, the research community and the society. Like other fields, TEL research suffers from problems such as challenges to replicate, validity, publication bias, and high costs of access to publications. There are several initiatives that aim to change closed and nontransparent approaches to research. This Webinar will discuss the benefits, challenges, recommendations and best practices of Open Science in TEL.

Malte Elson is an assistant professor and head of the Psychology of Human Technology Interaction group at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany where he studies human learning. His research interests are learning and problem solving processes in IT security, media effects and learning with media, and behavior research methods and meta science. He is a founder member and currently serves as board member of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS).

Justin Reich is an educational researcher interested in the future of learning in a networked world. He is an Assistant Professor in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an instructor in the Scheller Teacher Education Program, a faculty associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and the director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab. The Teaching Systems Lab investigates the complex, technology-rich classrooms of the future and the systems that we need to help educators thrive in those settings.

Related EATEL initiatives: ECTEL2018 Workshop on Open Science in TEL.