LKL PhD Students Seminar

In this session of the current seminar series, we have two presentations, details as follows:

Taciana Pontual Falcao

Title: The role of tangible technologies in promoting special education inclusion

Abstract:
The current tendency in Education regarding children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is to include them in mainstream classrooms. However, more than simply placing those children in regular schools, inclusion is about providing effective learning opportunities for all pupils and responding to diverse learning needs. In this sense, one of the main aspects of inclusion is the necessary collaboration between children with and without learning difficulties.
In preliminary interviews with teachers, concrete materials were pointed out as fundamental resources in special needs education. In addition, the use of computers was also mentioned as a good way to stimulate students through different senses. Tangible interfaces put together the advantages of the concrete and the dynamics and interactivity provided by technology. In addition to this, tangible environments naturally lend themselves to collaborative use. Considering those as aspects of interest for special education, we want to investigate how tangibles could help the inclusion of SEN children in mainstream schools.

Bio:
Taciana is a PhD student at the Insitute of Education and a Research Associate on the Designing Tangibles for Learning project.

Martin O'Shea 

Title: Data-centric social networking

Abstract:
Recent years have seen a growth in social networking on the internet. Sites like MySpace, FaceBook and many others, allow users to upload personal content and to use various facilities for social connection. And much has also been made about social networking characteristics and the reasons for its success.
There is another type of social networking that might be called 'data-centric' where users upload data not about themselves, but rather about subjects of interest, topical issues and more. And I would like to say something of what these sites offer people in terms of how that data can beused.
I would like to conclude by saying a few words about bringing together both of the above into a system which I am writing and researching and which will hopefully merge both people and data into one entity and which will allow research to be carried out on such 'data-centricity'.

Bio:
Martin O'Shea is currently a doctoral student at SCSIS, Birkbeck, University of London under the supervision of Prof Mark Levene.