Linda Castañeda holds a Ph.D. in educational technology and is an Associate Professor in educational technology at the Faculty of Education of the University of Murcia, in Spain. Thanks to her educational background in education, she has a strong interest in making EdTech research more educational. A participant in national and international research projects on the implementation and impact of technology in both formal and non-formal learning contexts, Linda has closely collaborated with different research institutions in Europe and abroad, and continues to work with institutional initiatives as an advisor. Dr. Castañeda has been a Visiting Scholar at KMi at OU, GSE of UCBerkeley, among others. She is an editorial board member of various international academic journals, has published papers and book chapters in both Spanish and English, and is a member of the Association EDUTEC, NOVADORS, and the PLEConf Community. Linda’s current research portfolio includes critical perspectives on educational technology, competencies for the digital era (definition, development and assessment), strategical approaches to teachers’ professional development, socio-material perspectives of emergent pedagogies, and Personal Learning Environments.
Keynote: Transforming learning environments: Beyond education as skill collection and technology as a tool
Abstract
How technology transforms education and how it should help us redefine schooling and educational processes beyond the traditional approaches of using technology as a mere tool, is undoubtedly the next frontier of our work. The next step is about finally deciding to challenge some of our traditional beliefs about Technology Enhanced Learning and truly enrich our research, developments and practices, with conceptions and perspectives which go beyond the mainstream horizons of Educational Technology.
Some of the current perspectives that would be integrated more comprehensive and more efficiently in our work to better answer to the current challenges include: Exploring how systemic approaches about institutions contribute to the improvement of individual competencies; how the assessment would go beyond fulfilling standards; how thinking complexly about data must go beyond machines; how learning environments must be more extensive than learning spaces; as well as how the social commitment about technology could enrich new local approaches to Educational Technology, closer to communities and closer to humans.
This presentation intends to reflect about those perspectives, as well as where we are, what are the missing aspects and the gaps that still exist between research in education and research in TEL, and why they are not always connected.