OPEN CELEBRATORY PANEL
• “Ten years of ASLERD: supporting the development of smart learning ecosystems and smart societies while looking to the future”.
June 12th – h: 14:00 – 16:00 CET
(open conference room)
Panelists
Mihai Dascalu – ASLERD & University Politehnica of Bucharest
is a full professor at University Politehnica and a former Senior Fulbrighter at Arizona State University. Mihai holds a double PhD with the highest distinctions in Computer Science and Educational Sciences, with his thesis published as book in Springer, Studies in Computational Intelligence. He has extensive experience in national and international research projects with more than 200 published papers, including 20+ articles at top-tier conferences (AAAI, CogSci, AIED, ITS, CSCL), 55 papers indexed ISI at renowned international conferences (ICALT, EC-TEL, ICWL, ISPDC, AIMSA), and 10 Q1 journal papers.
Raffaele Di Fuccio – Pegaso University
is Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Special Education (PAED-02/A) at the Pegaso Telematic University. He is a biomedical engineer with a PhD in Human Mind and Gender Studies centred in Educational Psychology from the University of Naples – Federico II. His research interests focus on improving learning through the application of innovative technologies, in particular in the use of a multisensory approach to teaching, enhanced by digital tools, exploiting the potential of Mixed Reality systems and, in particular, the Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) paradigm. Another area of research concerns the application and evaluation of serious games in education and training.
Blaženka Divjak – SoLAR & University of Zagreb
PhD, is a Full Professor of Mathematics and Scientific Advisor in Information Science at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and Informatics. She leads the Laboratory for Learning Analytics and Academic Analytics. Her research interests, besides mathematics, include learning analytics, learning design, e-learning, assessment, AI in education, and strategic decision-making in higher education. She has participated in more than 40 national and international projects, and currently coordinates the Erasmus+ project Innovating Learning Design in Higher Education and the Croatian Science Foundation project Trustworthy Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Meaningful Learning Design. She led the development of the BDP concept and tool (see: learning-design.eu). Professor Divjak served as Vice-Rector of the University of Zagreb (2010–2014) and as the Croatian Minister of Science and Education (2017–2020). During Croatia’s 2020 EU Council Presidency, she chaired the Council of Ministers for Education, Research, and Space. She is currently Vice-President of the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR). She has authored eight books and over 150 scientific and professional publications and is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences.
Carlo Giovannella – ASLERD & University of Roma Tor Vergata
graduated in Physics, he worked long time in solid state physics as an expert of complex systems. Nowadays can be considered a ‘Designer for the experience’: expert in the technology-enhanced learning, interaction design, computer-mediated communication, design and management of processes, process and product innovation. He is the Scientific Editor of IXD&A Journal (https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-000). For more than 20 years it has been the chair of the ISIM_garage (Interfaces and Multimodal Interactive Systems Lab) at the the Univ. of Rome Tor Vergata; Between the 2013 and 2016 he has been the Scientific Director of the Creative Industries Area at the Consorzio Roma Ricerche.
Seiji Isotani – AIED & University of Sao Paulo
Professor of Computer Science and Learning Technology at the University of Sao Paulo, where he leads the Applied Computing in Education Laboratory. Since 2022, he holds the position of Visiting Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
His scientific and social mission involves transforming research findings into social impact through the conception of educational practices, AI technologies, and policies. These aim to accelerate the benefits, adoption, and impact of evidence-based approaches on education, particularly in resource-constrained environments typically found in low- and middle-income communities.
To accomplish that, he focuses on advancing the science concerning how people learn with interactive/intelligent educational technologies and on untangling potential mechanisms for ensuring that every student receives the personalized support that they need to engage in fulfilling and meaningful educational experiences.
Patrizia Marti – ASLERD & University of Siena
is Associate Professor at the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Science, University of Siena where she teaches Human-Computer Interaction, Experience Design, and Design Thinking. She is Rector’s delegate and director of Santa Chiara Fab Lab of the University of Siena, a laboratory of design and innovation particularly focused on inclusion, health, food and cultural heritage. From 2013 until 2017 she was appointed part time Full Professor at the Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology. From 2017 until 2021 she was Visiting Professor at the same university. In August 2013, she received an honorary professorship at the Seogang College University, Seoul, Korea. She has an interdisciplinary background in philosophy, design and computing and a Ph.D. in Aesthetics of Interaction. In 2014 and 2015, she was Visiting Professor at the Advanced PhD “The Center for Advanced Studies – the development of interdisciplinary doctoral studies” at the Gdansk University of Technology (Poland) in the key areas of the Europe 2020 Strategy. Her research interests range over a broad range of topics including tangible and embodied interaction, experience design and societal impacts of new technologies. She has been a Principal Investigator on numerous EU funded projects. She has been expert advisor to many EU and international bodies, including EU Commission. She is a Member of the Italian SigCHI chapter and ACM. She has served Scientific and Organizing Committees in various areas of HCI, ID and Information Systems, including ACM CHI, ACM DIS, ACM IDC, ACM DIS, IEEE ICRA, IEEE IROS, IEEE ICORR, ECCE, EACE, SLERD.
Antonio Teixeira – Universidade Aberta
is an Associate Professor at Universidade Aberta (UAb), the Portuguese Open University, in which he has taught since 1991,
He is also the Scientific Coordinator of the Laboratory for Distance Learning and E-learning (LE@D), the leading R&D unit in open, distance and digital education in Portugal, and an Associate Researcher at the University of Lisbon. From 2013 to 2016, he was President of EDEN – the European Distance and E-learning Network (2013-16). At UAb, he was Pro-rector for innovation in Distance Learning at UAb (2006-09) and headed the Department of Education and Distance Learning (2016-20). He was also a member of the Portuguese Rectors Council specialized committees on Scientific Research and Knowledge Transfer, and on Evaluation, Quality and Innovation. Currently, he’s a consultant and evaluator for the AQU Cataluña (Spain), the APCUA (Spain) and the A3ES (Portugal) quality assurance agencies. He’s an EDEN Senior Fellow.
Chair: Gabriella Dodero (ASLERD)
till 2017 has been Full Professor in Computer Science at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Faculty of Computer Science, and Vice-Rector for Studies of UniBZ. Her recent research work was devoted to technology enhanced learning for university and schools, with a focus on computer science education.
OPEN DEBATE
• “Educational Technology: past, present and future trajectories”
June 13th – h: 11:30 – 13:30 CET
(open conference room)
Yannis Dimitriadis – Professor of Telematics Engineering, University of Valladolid, Spain.
is Full Professor of Telematics Engineering and ex Dean of the Doctoral School, University of Valladolid, Spain. He is also the coordinator of the GSIC/EMIC research group, an inter-disciplinary group, integrating over 20 researchers and practitioners from the field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and Pedagogy. His most recent research work has focused on human-centered learning analytics and artificial intelligence, ethics in research, alignment of learning design and learning analytics, design for learning, conceptual and technological support to the orchestration of computer-supported collaborative learning processes. He has participated in more than 50 competitive research projects on technology-enhanced learning, co-authored more than 100 journal papers and 215 conference papers (including several papers at LAK), and organized several workshops and symposia, at ECTEL, CSCL, ISLS, etc. He is also a senior member of IEEE, member of ISLS, and spent his most recent sabbatical year (2017-2018) at Berkeley, University of Edinburgh, and EPFL. He has recently delivered keynotes and co-edited the 2024 BJET special section on Human-Centered Learning Analytics, and he has co-organized the corresponding workshops at LAK 2021, LAK 2022, LAK 2023 and ECTEL 2021. He has also recently organized workshops on Teacher Orchestration of Hybrid Learning Spaces at ISLS 2023, teacher Orchestration Load at ISLS 2022, and on Actionable Learning Analytics at LAK 2024.
Allison Littlejohn – Professor of Learning Technology at University College London and Director of University College London’s Knowledge Lab, London, UK
is Professor of Learning and Technology and Pro-Vice Provost for the Data Empowered Societies Grand Challenge at University College London. She was formally the Director of the UCL Knowledge Lab, a transdisciplinary research centre shaping the future human learning with media and technology. She joined UCL in January 2020. Previously she was Dean (Learning & Teaching), in the College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow; Academic Director of Digital Innovation at the Open University (2015-2019); and Founding Director of the Caledonian Academy at Glasgow Caledonian University (2006 – 2014), where she was Senior Researcher for Royal Dutch Shell’s learning innovation division (2008-2010). Her research examines how digital technology is reshaping new ways of knowing in professional contexts. This work has made contributions to the understanding of how people learn for work across the Energy, Finance, Health, Education and International Development sectors. Currently she is funded by the UK Research and Innovation, part of the UK Government, to examine evolving professional development needs in a era of open data. She has led over 40 funded projects and published over 300 articles. Her academic background is diverse, having worked in faculties of Science, Engineering, Education and Social Science. Having the opportunity to work across diverse disciplnes – Physical Science, Bio-medical Science, Engineering and Social Science – has enabled her to appreciate diverse perspectives and ways of thinking about how data and high performance computing affects society.
Carlo Perrotta – Associate Professor of Digital Education at the Faculty of Education, Melbourne University, Australia
is Associate Professor of Digital Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. He is a globally recognised researcher in digital education, with expertise in the sociological study of educational platforms, artificial intelligence, and the broader sociotechnical dynamics shaping contemporary schooling and higher education. His research examines multiple aspects of education, from pedagogy to policy. His work has been featured in several field-leading journals at the intersection of education studies, sociology, and media studies. His research has been funded by large international bodies such as the Australian Research Council, the European Commission, and the UK’s ESRC.
Francesca Pozzi – Director of the Institute for Educational Technology of the National Research Council, Italy
is Director of the Institute for Educational Technology of the National Research Council (ITD- CNR). She received her PhD in Languages, Cultures and Information and Communication Technologies from the University of Genoa and – since 1998 – she has been working as a researcher at ITD-CNR. Her main research interests include: online learning, teacher training, learning design, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, serious games.
Over the years she has coordinated and participated in numerous national and international projects, in which she has dealt with various aspects of Educational Technology. She is author of +180 publications and is co-editor since 2016 of the journal ‘Italian Journal of Educational Technology (IJET)’ (formerly ‘Tecnologie Didattiche’), the first Italian scientific journal dedicated to this topic.
She is also a member of Editorial Boards of several international journals and is annually involved in the scientific committees of +20 international conferences. She is a member of the Teaching Board of the Doctorate in Digital Humanities at the University of Genoa and has been Chair of several scientific events and member of the organising committees of several scientific events.
Chair: Donatella Persico – ASLERD and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche
has been active in the field of educational technology – theory and applications – since 1981. She is “research associate” at the Institute for Educational Technology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ITD) and her major interests include methods and tools for learning design and evaluation, computer-supported collaborative learning, self-regulated learning, game-based learning, gamification and teacher training. She led national and international projects, taught Educational Technology at the university of Genoa and is author of several publications in the field.