Keynote Speakers
 | Leon M. Lederman Nobel Prize in Physics (1988) Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Illinois Pritzker Professor of Science at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago and founder of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy e-mail: lederman@fnal.gov |
Speech Title: "The Importance of Science and Education"
 | Jimmy Lee Professor and Graduate Division Head Department of Computer Science and Engineering Co-Director Center for the Advancement of IT in Education The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong e-mail: jlee@cse.cuhk.edu.hk |
Biography
Jimmy Lee read both his BMath (Hons) and MMath degrees at the University of Waterloo during 1983 to 1988, and completed his doctoral studies at the University of Victoria in 1992. Upon graduation, he joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he is now Professor and Graduate Division Head in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. On the Computer Science side, his research focuses on the theory and practice of constraint satisfaction and optimization with applications in scheduling, resource allocation, and combinatorial problems. In recent years, Jimmy has also been conducting research on novel Web-based learning platforms and the accompanying pedagogies, particularly in the development of educational games. He is currently the Co-Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Information Technology in Education under the Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research, CUHK. Jimmy is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Discrete Algorithms, the CONTRAINTS journal, and the Constraint Programming Newsletter. He was the Program Chair of GCCCE'2007 and the DIGITEL sub-conference of ICCE'2009, Organizing Chair of GCCCE'2004, and Workshop Chair of ICCE'2006. Inspired by his many former good teachers from elementary school to universities, Jimmy's passion for teaching garnered him the Vice-Chancellor's Exemplary Teaching Award in 2005, and the Faculty of Engineering Exemplary Teaching Award in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003.
| Speech Title: | "Education in Games? Or Games in Education?" |
| Speech Abstract: | Digital and computer games are amongst the most favourite past-times of our younger generation, attracting much commercial investment in this money-making endeavor. On the other hand, many educators and game designers believe that computer games can help learning, since children's game "addiction" can be a good source of learning motives which can in turn improve the learning outcomes and effectiveness. While these predictions and claims have yet to be confirmed, we lack agreement within our community on even such simple questions as what exactly educational games are and when a game is educational. Some designers argue that we should inject educational elements in existing games, while others advocate the addition of gaming elements into educational activities. In addition to exploring the above questions/philosophies, we introduce the Game/Pedagogy Codesign approach and delineate the importance of teachers' roles in effective utilization of games in education. We highlight the system and pedagogical design of Farmtasia and Learning Villages, two educational game platforms developed at our research centre. |
 | Tsukasa Hirashima Professor and Leader of Learning-Engineering Research Group Department of Information Engineering Hiroshima University, Japan e-mail: tsukasa@isl.hiroshima-u.ac.jp |
Biography
Tsukasa Hirashima received his B.E., M.E. and PhD from Osaka University, Japan in 1986, 1988, and 1991, respectively. In 1991, Dr. Hirashima joined as a research associate at The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University and continued to work as a lecturer until 1997. During 1997-2003, he worked in Graduate School of Information Engineering at Kyushu Institute of Technology as an Associate Professor. In 2004, Dr. Hirashima joined as a Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Information Engineering, Hiroshima University. Prof. Hirashima's contributions to the Computers for Education par excellence, especially, to the field of artificial intelligence in education including modeling of problem-solving process, error-visualization for error-awareness, information filtering, question/problem generation, learning by problem-posing and design method of learning game. His research activities are rich in creativity and originality, and have high impact to the flow of researches on artificial intelligence in education. In recognition of his innovation to the research on computers in education and outstanding quality of imagination, he has received several awards from major international conferences and academic society on, viz., World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (ED-MEDIA1995, Outstanding Paper Award), International Conference on Computer in Education (ICCE 2001, 2002, Best Paper Awards), Artificial Intelligence and Education (AIED2009, Honorable Mention Award, top 3 papers), and Distinguished Researcher Award from APSCE (Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education).?He has also received number of domestic awards in Japan, from various organizations and societies on, viz., Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence in 1993, SIG Research Award from Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence (SIG Advanced Learning Science and Technology) in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2008, Outstanding Game Award of academic section from Japanese Game Amusement Society in 2003 and 2005, Best Paper Award from Japanese Society for Information and Systems in Education during 2008 and 2010, respectively. He has served as a PC co-chair in ICCE2007, sub-conference PC co-chair in ICCE2009 & 2010, workshop co-chair in ICCE 2005, 2006, & 2010, Poster co-chair in ITS2006 & AIDE2009, and PC member in several international conferences. He is the president-elect of APSCE, at present.
| Speech Title: | "Interactive Environment for Learning by Problem-Posing and Information-Structure Oriented Design" |
| Speech Abstract: | In this talk, an interactive environment for learning by problem-posing in arithmetical word problems and its practical use in several elementary schools for several years are introduced. Then, information-structure oriented design we adopted in this research is also explained. |
 | Beverly Park Woolf Research Professor, Department of Computer Science Director of the Center for Knowledge Communication University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA., USA e-mail: bev@cs.umass.edu |
Biography
Beverly Park Woolf received both a Ph.D. in Computer Science and an Ed.D. in Education from the University of Massachusetts between 1984-1986. Her research work includes developing and deploying intelligent tutors that model student affect and cognition. These tutors have been built in a variety of disciplines (chemistry, psychology, physics, geology, art history, mathematics and economics) and one of them is used by more than 150,000 students yearly across 100 colleges. These systems are based on using artificial intelligence, network technology and multimedia to build learner models, intelligent interfaces and inference mechanisms. The tutors represent the knowledge taught, recognize which skills students have learned, use sensors and machine learning to model student affect, and adjust problems to help individual students. They show significant learning gains (an average 12% improvement) after only a few class periods and enable students to pass state standard exams at a higher rate. Dr. Woolf co-chaired the Program Committee for ITS 2008, won the best paper award for AIED 2009 and AIED 2003 and published the book Building Intelligent Interactive Tutors along with over 200 articles. She has delivered keynote addresses, panels and tutorials in more than 20 countries and is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
| Speech Title: | "Education Technology Roadmap: The GROE Project" |
| Speech Abstract: | Computer technology can support more active, engaged and self-reliant students. Outside of the classroom, a child's world is fast-paced, replete with instantly usable information, and rich with multimedia and powerful tools for creative work. Sadly classrooms often remain boring and based on teacher-centered methods. Technology is often used to duplicate old teaching strategies, using software developed for commerce or recreation (e.g., Powerpoint, social networks). The latest "cool" technology may have little to do with improving learning or engaging students. It is no wonder that students are not excited about classroom learning and technology gets a bad reputation for not making a profound impact on educational policy and practice. |