Symposium keynote speakers
Keynote speakers for the symposium are Dr Kevin Burden and Dr Ruurd Taconis
Dr Kevin Burden
Kevin's research and teaching focus on the transformational uses of mobile technologies in both formal, but increasingly, informal public spaces that include schools, colleges, universities, museums, heritage sites and the wider environment.
Kevin leads international collaborative projects in mobile learning with partners including the EU, the British Council and UNESCO.He is a visiting scholar at Hong Kong University and a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Kevin is currently investigating the development and impact of next generation digital eBooks to support learning beyond the classroom.
Keynote title: Mobilising STEM Learning: Citizen Science or Citizen Inquiry?
Abstract
In both the developed and developing countries of the world, STEM education is valorised as fundamental to the economic well-being and future prosperity of the nation. Regardless of its accuracy or truth, this is ‘a potent and established myth or creed’ (Crompton and Traxler, 2016, p.281*) and mobile technologies are seen as the latest means by which this is enacted in practice. This presentation will highlight the dangers of simply porting mobile and other emerging technologies onto existing models of e-learning in order to ‘deliver’ STEM education to learners in classrooms. As students increasingly use their mobile devices to engage in a range of activities that include but are not limited to, commerce, socialising and entertainment, there is an urgent need to consider alternative paradigms for how we engage STEM learners in activities and experiences that are meaningful and authentic. Citizen Inquiry is situated as a good example and the presentation will examine why this, rather than Citizen Science is a better paradigm for mobilising STEM education in the immediate future.
* Crompton, H., and Traxler, J. (2016). Mobile Learning and STEM: case studies in practice, Routledge, New York.
Dr Ruurd Taconis
Dr Ruurd Taconis is an associate professor at Eindhoven School of Education (ESoE) of Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. He also is the educational director of the teacher training department at this institute.He started his careers as a physics teacher and then moved into STEM educational research at the universities of Amsterdam and Utrecht, and at Fontys University of Applied Sciences. His research interests comprise understanding and learning in problem solving and designing. After realizing how demanding these processes are for students, he broadened his interests to include research on STEM-identities. These are a key factor in both appreciating (accessibility) and understanding in STEM education. He has conceptualized and conducted various projects on learning in open learning tasks, for example in the field of ICT-games, design based education and projects associated with the recent so called ‘concept-context’ reform of Dutch secondary education.
Keynote Title: STEM teacher education in open realistic STEM projects
Abstract
In a changing society, STEM education has to change too. In November 2017 PISA reported on its first-ever international assessment on ‘collaborative problem solving’ performance of educational systems. This indicates a significant shift in STEM education. But new developments are already there. We first focus on open collaborative realistic projects as an in-school context for learning. This is still a challenge in educational practice at various levels: primary, secondary and higher education. For teachers in particular. Key challenges on a theoretical level are acquiring (formal) knowledge in such projects and assessment. Next, we take a broader perspective and include possible technological (ICT), societal (network society), and pedagogical developments and we will explore their implications for STEM education. Various opportunities and difficulties are discussed and illustrated by examples, examples from the Dutch situation in particular.
