Innovation Issues for
Educators within European Education
NOKOBIT 2006 MOLDE
Keynote Speaker: Konrad
Morgan
The topic of digital education is of increasing interest within the fields of education and information and communications technology. The scale of this interest can be judged both by the increase in the number of conferences and publications in the area and in the number of training and educational institutions which are, or are planning to include computer based instruction in their offerings. These new developments can put great pressure on the educators themselves who are now required to adapt their teaching methods and practices to this new technology. Thus they not only have the traditional problem of knowing what sound practice within their particular subject area is but are now also having to cope with learning new methods and systems to convey this knowledge effectively to their students (Tinsley & Patsy, 1997). At the workplace, in the home and within schools, colleges and universities all over the world students and educators are being exposed to computer based teaching. This presentation will review some of the more relevant research in this field that has emerged as part of the EU funded project MASSIVE Modelling Advice and Support Services to Integrate the Virtual Component in Higher Education) in collaboration with the University of Barcelona, Budapest University of Technology, Edinburgh University, Sociedad de Autores y Editores, EUROPACE, Granada University, Tavistock Institute and Scienter this research has as its goal to determine what factors are critical for traditional Universities to successfully implement virtual learning and prepare these findings into a set of guidelines for European Universities. The presentation will examine some of the issues relating specifically to educators within the scope of these new teaching methods.
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Konrad Morgan (b. 1962) PhD(Edin.), MBCS, MBPsS, CITP, is Professor of Human Computer Interaction and Director of the InterMedia research centre on Digital Learning and New Media at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research interests focus on understanding the human and social impact of information and communications technology (ICT). His scientific work includes a number of original contributions: The first empirical evaluations and explanations of why direct manipulation and graphical user interfaces are superior in usability terms; Some of the first explanations of gender differences and attitudes in ICT use; Revealing the role of personality types in computer based behavior and finally, the influence of early parental encouragement in later technology competence and attitudes.
His knowledge of research, administration, and teaching is
based on over two decades of successful experience in the higher
education systems of
Senior author of numerous (>70) papers and articles in
human computer interaction, psychology and human factors he is well known
and respected in his field. He has led, and been involved
with, international research collaborations with universities and
leading international companies in