Keynote Speakers
Peter GOODYEAR
University of Sydney, Australia (C7 – PTP)
Title: “Computers in Education: Reflections on Learning, Technology and Design”
Peter Goodyear is Professor of Education at The University of Sydney – a position he took up in 2003. From 2015 to 2017 he was the founding co-director of the University’s Centre for Research on Learning and Innovation (CRLI). Previously, he set up and co-directed the Centre for Research on Computer-Supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo) and led the Sciences and Technologies of Learning research network
Peter’s research interests include design for learning, networked learning, complex learning spaces, the nature of professional knowledge and professional education. He has published 13 books and 140 journal articles and book chapters.
Vania DIMITROVA
University of Leeds, UK (C1 – Artificial Intelligence in Education)
Title: “Intelligent Mentoring Systems: Tapping into AI to deliver the next generation of digital learning”
Vania’s background is in Mathematics (BS, MSc, Bulgaria) and applied Artificial Intelligence (PhD, Leeds University). She lead research activity on user-aware intelligent systems, focusing on knowledge-enriched user modelling and adaptation, knowledge capture, ontological modelling and information exploration. Vanya chaired the premier international conferences on user modelling (UMAP) and intelligent learning environments (AIED, ECTEL), as well as a series of international workshops on key topics related to user modelling, social systems, intelligent exploration. She was an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (IEEE-TLT) and is currently a member of the editorial boards for the personalisation journal (UMUAI) and the Int. Journal on AI in Education (IJAIED). Vanya is regularly invited as a reviewer for the European Commission ICT programme, and have served on the advisory board for the UK programme in technology-enhanced learning.
Sasha BARAB
Arizona State University, USA (C5 – Educational gamification & game based learning)
Title: “Learning to Thrive: It Takes More than Content and Desire”
Sasha BARAB is an internationally recognized Learning Scientist who researchers, designs, and publishes on the power of immersive games and platform technologies for supporting connected growth. He is a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, and the Executive Director of the Center for Games and Impact at ASU. His research has resulted in numerous grants, over 100 published manuscripts, and multiple game-infused innovations that have been engaged by over 250,000 players to support learning and transformation.
His current work extends the design boundaries from the bits and bytes of the game world to complex real-world ecosystems with the goal of helping all learners thrive in a complex, rapidly changing, digitally connected world. One recent project, ThriveCast, is based on an invite, enable, and release learning methodology and focused on cultivating growth and impact journeys so that more people can realize their potential. Across all work is a sensitivity to factors such as ecosystem integration, stakeholder alignment, enacted agency, and achieving sustainable and scalable outcomes
Lung-Hsiang WONG
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (C4 – Mobile & ubiquitous learning)
Title: “Towards cross-fertilisation between diversified research orientations in technology-enhanced learning: Case studies of mobile learning”
Lung-Hsiang WONG received his PhD (major in Computer Engineering) in 1998 and is now a Senior Research Scientist and the Co-Program Director of “Learning Sciences and Innovations” at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He became a professional researcher in the field of technology-enhanced learning since 2005. Armed with his vast experience
in conducting school-based intervention studies, he developed his niches in both mobile seamless learning and technology-enhanced language learning. He has become one of the key researchers in the mobile seamless learning field by developing the “10 Dimensions of Mobile Seamless Learning” (10D-MSL) framework which is one of the most well-referenced frameworks of the field. He went on to spearhead a series of funded research
studies on mobile and seamless learning including “MyCLOUD”, a 1:1 mobile seamless language learning model which has later been integrated to the formal Chinese curriculum in five schools. He published two books which were touted as the first two scholarly books on mobile seamless learning, namely, “Seamless Learning in the Age of Mobile Connectivity” (as the lead editor) and “Move, Language Learning! – Discovering Seamless and Mobile-Assisted Language Learning” (as the lead author). He was named the APSCE Distinguished Researcher Award in 2015 and has won nine Best/Outstanding Paper Awards at various conferences. He is the immediate Past-President of the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education and a Managing Editor of the SSCI-indexed Asia-Pacific Journal of Education.