MGSE Seminars in June

AI in Primary Education

Date: 6 June 2023

Time: 4.00pm

Venue: Conference Room Level 9

To registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-in-primary-education-tickets-631262833127

In the “new era of automation,” there is growing interest in the potential of machine learning (ML) and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in primary education. Teaching aids with integrated Learning Analytics (LA) and powered by AI and ML are increasingly being introduced into K-12 classrooms
globally often underpinned by the ideas of automation and personalization. While these technologies are said to transform education, there are also concerns about their impact on teachers, students, and the broader social and cultural contexts in which they operate.
This presentation draws on ethnographic fieldwork as part of a PhD project to provide some preliminary findings and insights into how these emergent technologies are being introduced in Swedish schools.
By examining the complex social and material factors that shape the adoption and use of AI and ML in
education, the talk sheds light on the implications for teachers and teaching.

Katarina Sperling
Katarina Sperling is a PhD candidate in Pedagogical Work at Linköping University in Sweden, where she focuses her research on the intersection of data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) and teacher practices. In particular, Katarina is investigating the use of AI-based educational technologies in K-12 classrooms and how they interact with teachers. She is also involved in two major projects on AI literacy in Swedish K-12 education and teacher education funded by the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software Program – Humanities and Society (WASP-HS) and the Swedish Research Council.
In addition to her research work, Katarina works as a strategist at the Research and Development Department at the Education Office in Norrköping, Sweden since 2016. In this role, she has initiated and managed several EU-funded projects focused on the digitalization of schools. Examples include projects on computational thinking in primary education and preschool, as well as personalized learning. Prior to her current position, Katarina served as a production manager for Norrköping’s Visualization
Center C, a science center and meeting place that promotes visualization in research, business, the public, and schools.

Multiple competitions: How universities compete for resources, talent, and reputation in different arenas

Date: 15 June 2023

Time: 3.00 – 4.30pm

Venue: Conference Room Level 9

RSVP: pwoelert@unimelb.edu.au

Abstract:

This background to this presentation is a large German Research Foundation (DfG)-funded research project examining multiple forms and manifestations of competition in the field of higher education. The project brings together a group of researchers from sociology, economics, and business administration. Multiple competitions in higher education means that key individual and collective actors are simultaneously embedded in and nested within several interconnected competitions. The relationship between these various competitions leads to a complex setting of requirements which these actors have to navigate. The project aims to answer the following major questions: How do actors position themselves when facing multiple competitions? What dynamics unfold and what consequences result from multiple competitions? To answer these questions, the project is divided into several subprojects aiming to analyse a specific set of characteristics of multiple competitions as well as the interrelations between different competitions. By linking together results from (at least) two projects of the research group, in our presentation we reconstruct relevant frames of how multiple competition takes place in higher education, and which will be used in across the research group to develop a theory of multiple competitions in higher education.

Speaker bios:

Dr Tim Seidenschnur is a researcher in the research group “Multiple competitions in higher education” funded by the German Research Foundation at the International Centre for Higher Education Research at the University of Kassel (INCHER). Before joining the research group, Tim was coordinator of the thematic area “Governance and Organization” at INCHER. He has published on issues such as competition in higher education, consequences of political crises such as Brexit, and business consulting in the academic field.

Leonie Buschkamp is a sociologist located at Leibniz Center for Science and Society in Hanover, Germany. She is a research assistant in a research project founded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) which investigates the interrelations of the competitive orientations of researchers with the competitive positioning of universities. This project belongs to the research group “Multiple competitions in higher education“. Before joining the research group, Leonie was a research assistant at the Institute of Management and Organizational Behavior at Leibniz University Hannover.