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EdTech Winter School 2018

RETHINKING EDUCATION IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

CENTER FOR RESEARCH – CEIBAL FOUNDATION

Promoting research in in Education and Technology

The Center for Research – Ceibal Foundation was created in January 2014 by Ceibal Center; the institution in charge of the first nationwide digital inclusion programme based on the One Laptop per Child model in Uruguay, namely Plan Ceibal. The center was established as an independent institution in relation to Ceibal Center with the aim of promoting excellence in research, capacity-building, knowledge transfer and international cooperation in the field of education and technology. Since 2014, the foundation has actively promoted multidisciplinary and international projects and programs with research centres, ministries of education, public and private educational institutions in Latin and North America, Europe and Asia.

SUMMARY

After the success of the 1st EdTech Winter School in 2017 “Emerging trends and new horizons in the study of education and technology”, the Center for Research – Ceibal Foundation in partnership with ANII (Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación), will soon open the call for applications to this year’s edition.

The theme for the 2018 edition will be “Rethinking education in the age of digital technology”. It aims to gather leading keynote speakers from diverse fields at the intersection of education and technology, such as Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining, Teacher training and development, digital and media literacy, skills among others.

The EdTech Winter School aims to offer a stimulating learning environment for participants to present their work or research in the field of EdTech to an international community; to discuss key challenges and opportunities, research trends and policies with leading international experts. Additionally, Winter School participants will have the opportunity of creating joint research proposals and apply to the Education Sector Fund: Digital Inclusion: Education with New Horizons, created by the foundation and ANII.

This year edition “Rethinking education in the age of digital technology” aims to assess, analyze and explore the diverse challenges and opportunities that educational systems face in the 21st century, in particular related to the fast-paced change and advancement of digital technologies.

The past decade has witnessed multiple changes across the economy and society brought or influenced by the gradual integration of information and communication technologies across every sector. ICT have reshaped every aspect of human life, creating new forms of communication and collaboration, enhancing and favouring human rights, creating new economic models, fostering innovation and disruption just to name a few.

While education has and is still being influenced by digital technologies in a moderate way, it is necessary to address how its future might be shaped by ICT-related advancements -such as the Internet of Things or Artificial Intelligence-, and which changes those may bring to society. As other policies, education needs to be able to provide suitable answers to societal needs and challenges, therefore also encompassing changes.

This 2018 edition of the EdTech Winter School will focus on rethinking education with a current but also future perspective in light with the changes that digital technologies are generating across the globe, addressing some of these key questions:

Which is the current landscape of digital education across the world?

Which are the challenges and complexities affecting education and which actions are been taken to address the first?

Are education systems responsive to societal needs and technological change?

Which is the role of digital technologies in education; including institutional and policy frameworks,teachers development, practices and pedagogical methods; teacher and students role in the teaching-learning equation, students’ learning practices and skills acquisition; students performance, evaluation and assessment among others?

Have digital technologies generated or enhanced changes in teaching and learning practices and if so, which is the potential of these changes to translate into long-term learning improvements and outcomes across the world?

Are digital technologies fostering disruption or innovation in pedagogical models or teaching practices?

Is education preparing students for the future of work and which is the role of digital technologies in that field?

How are we assessing and evaluating education in the age of digital technology?

OBJECTIVES

The Winter School will offer an exciting opportunity for postgraduate students and early career faculties to analyze and discuss cross-cutting topics at the intersection of Educational and ICT research and policy with leading international experts in the fields; to present their work in the area fostering the creation of networks, exchange experiences and expertise, and creating synergies for future collaboration and work.

Specific objectives:

To create a collaborative environment of discussion and analysis involving keynote speakers from a diversity of international universities and research centers, along with early career scholars and students. This will be an opportunity for learning about novel research methodologies and scientific perspectives enabling capacity-building and knowledge transfer in areas of common interest.
To present and exchange national and international research-based case studies across the five lines for research of the Winter school: Social uses of ICT and Digital Culture; Resources and Platforms; New Ways of Knowing, Learning, Teaching and Evaluate; Extended learning achievements and Educators in the Digital Age.
To create a long-term international academic network of excellence in education and technology (EdTech) based on multidisciplinary studies with different methodological perspectives. The academic network aims to enable international capacity building in the fields of EdTech, innovation and inclusion. This community will be also of great value for promoting and implementing international research projects, seminars and initiatives in the field.

Additionally, Winter School participants’ will be invited to:

Collaborate in a special publication that will be prepared, where attendees will disseminate the results of their work during the workshops
Explore future collaborations in areas of common interest;
Become a Ceibal Foundation’s affiliate and participate in collective books publications,
Dissemination of academic works in the Institutional Repository of Ceibal Foundation, among other scientific initiatives.

PROGRAM (4 days +1 open day)

From June 4 to June 7, 2018. Open day – June 8, 2018. The School took place at the Hotel del Lago (Punta del Este, Uruguay).

During a week of academic activities, the participants acquired valuable knowledge, skills and significant perspectives in the fields of EdTech, educational innovation and social inclusion. The official language of the event was in English, so the participants had to have a good command of the language.
The program combined lectures, training, workshops, based on joint project-based learning.
International academics and renowned experts were invited to discuss their latest studies and work together with the participants during the workshops.
The participants also organized themselves into teams to design research projects or an impact assessment study of a national EdTech policy. This multidisciplinary work was presented as a poster at the end of the Winter School with the assistants and other communities.
Several social activities were included in the program.

Learn about the working groups and the presentations made during the school

The “open day” (public event) was an additional opportunity where speakers and participants shared their research with teachers and students of elementary and secondary schools and lyceums. The objective of this last day was to exchange knowledge and good practices in education and technology. Learn more about the characteristics of the day [in spanish] HERE.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PARTICIPANTS

The Winter School has three target audiences:

National and international postgraduate students enrolled in a doctorate, a master’s degree or a specialized course at the time of application;
Researchers and national and international teachers;
Makers of national and international policies involved and / or interested in education and technology.

A total of 102 applications were received. The review stage was extended from April 2 to April 16.

The organizing institutions provided full scholarships for the candidates who had the best profiles. In the 2017 edition, a total of 20 scholarships were awarded, while in the second edition a total of 23 full scholarships were awarded. On the other hand, different institutions financed the participation of national and foreign candidates. Centro Ceibal financed the participation of five national participants, and the Education Training Council financed the participation of four national participants. For its part, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Sadozky Foundation, Deakin University (Australia), @Aprende Mx and the Ministries of Peru and Jamaica provided scholarships to a total of 7 foreign participants.

The candidates must have been able to demonstrate academic knowledge or professional skills and experience in the fields related to education and technology, ICT and innovation, and social inclusion. The participation of young candidates, who were beginning their academic or professional career, was positively valued.

The selected candidates were 35, (17 from Uruguay, and 18 from abroad). Among the participating countries, apart from Uruguay, the following stand out: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Paraguay, the United Kingdom and Serbia. The majority of the participants were women (60%), in line with the 2017 edition in which 63% of the participants were women).

The following image shows the presence of participants by country for both editions of the Winter School (thumbtacks in white), as well as the participation of speakers according to the country (thumbtacks in black). In addition to Uruguay, Central America and Argentina stand out as the region and the country with the highest level of participation in the School. United States corresponds to the most important place of origin for the case of international speakers.

Image 1. Participants and speakers according to the country

Image 2 shows the characteristics of the participants for both Winter School editions. Regarding the academic training of the participants, image 2 shows the district for both editions. During the second edition of the school (2018), there is a greater participation of PhD or PhD candidates (7% more). The participation of teachers and candidates for doctors and M.A. is also higher in 2018.

Image 2. Participants academic formation

SPEAKERS

Shulamit Kotzer, PhD. Dr. Kotzer earned her bachelor degree in Life Science from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. She has graduated with honors in Human Biology, and earned a PhD in Computational Biology from Bar Ilan University Israel. She is also a coordinator of Science and technology program, Medical Sciences program, and teaches in the Science and Arts School in Hadera. In 2010 Shulamit joined the Davidson Institute of Science Education, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, as a developer of online curricular science programs for students and as an instructor of E- learning platform – Moodle. She also lectures in other science educational projects at the Davidson Institute and teacher training courses. Shulamit’s work in digital learning has been presented at conferences and published in refereed journals.

Andres Lombana-Bermúdez, PhD. Andres Lombana-Bermudez is a researcher, designer, and digital strategist working at the intersection of digital technology, youth, citizenship, and learning. His approach is transdisciplinary and collaborative, combining ethnographic and quantitative research methods, design-based research, and co-design. He is a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a Research Associate with the Connected Learning Research Network. Andres has worked in the field of digital media and learning for over a decade and collaborated in projects such as the Digital Edge, Berkman’s Youth and Media Lab, the New Media Literacies Project, and Clubes de Ciencia-Colombia. He is particularly interested in researching digital inequalities, citizenship, ICT policy/governance, media ecosystems, and designing for learning, fun and engagement. As a fellow at the the Berkman Center, Andres works with the Youth and Media team. He collaborates with the Digital Literacy Resource Platform, the Youth and Digital Economy, and Coding for All projects, and supports global initiatives such as Digitally Connected, and AI and Inclusion.

Jacob Whitehill, PhD. Worcester Polytechnic Insitute. Assistant professor. His research interests are in machine learning and data science, as well as their applications to effective computing and education. His work is highly interdisciplinary and frequently intersects cognitive science, psychology, and education. Before joining WPI, he was a research scientist at the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning at Harvard University. In 2012, he co-founded Emotient, a San Diego-based startup company for automatic emotion and facial expression recognition. He also love teaching and have lectured, mentored, and tutored students in the USA, South Africa, Rwanda, and Germany.

Luci Pangrazio, PhD. Luci is a Research Fellow in digital literacies/ digital texts at REDI – Research for Educational Impact: Deakin University’s Strategic Research Centre for research in Education. Working with Professor Catherine Beavis, her research focuses on critical digital literacies and the changing nature of digital texts. She is currently studying young people’s practices and understandings of personal data. Her research interests include digital literacies, data literacies, young people’s digital worlds, software studies, platform studies, and creative and critical research methods. Luci’s book ‘Young People’s Literacies in the Digital Age: Continuities, Conflicts and Contradictions in Practice’ will be published in 2018 by Taylor and Francis.

George Siemens, PhD – (Remote participation). George Siemens researches, technology, networks, analytics, and openness in education. Dr. Siemens is Professor and Executive Director of the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Research Lab at University of Texas, Arlington. He co-leads the development of the Center for Change and Complexity in Learning (C3L) at University of South Australia. He has delivered keynote addresses in more than 35 countries on the influence of technology and media on education, organizations, and society. His work has been profiled in provincial, national, and international newspapers (including NY Times), radio, and television. He has served as PI or Co-PI on grants funded by NSF, SSHRC (Canada), Intel, Boeing, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Soros Foundation. He has received numerous awards, including honorary doctorates from Universidad de San Martín de Porres and Fraser Valley University for his pioneering work in learning, technology, and networks. He holds an honorary professorship with University of Edinburgh.

M.S. Vijay Kumar, PhD. Vijay Kumar has been providing leadership for sustainable technology-enabled educational innovation at MIT for the past 21 years. He is currently MIT’s Associate Dean of Digital Learning and the Executive Director of the Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL). In his prior roles at MIT as Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Computing, as well at other institutions, Vijay has been responsible for strategy development and leading units engaged in the effective integration of information technology and media services in education.

Michael Trucano, ICT & Education Specialist – (Remote participation). Michael Trucano is the World Bank’s Senior Education & Technology Policy Specialist and Global Lead for Innovation in Education, working on issues at the intersection of technology use and education in middle- and low-income countries and emerging markets around the world. At a practical working level, Mr. Trucano provides policy advice, research and technical assistance to governments seeking to utilize new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their education systems. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Trucano has been advisor on, evaluator of, and/or working-level participant in, educational technology initiatives in over 50 middle- and low-income countries.