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Catalytic Sessions (TECH): 10-12 December, 2019

TECH 2019 will bring thought leaders and pioneers from the EdTech World under one roof in the Coastal City of Vizag, Andhra Pradesh.

Back to the TECH 2019 Official Page

Catalytic Session 1: The social and emotional brain and its role in learning

Accumulating neuroscience research now shows that in order to learn, it is necessary for the brain for ‘socially connected’ and ‘emotionally engaged’. It is therefore critical that this new knowledge on how children learn inform both the content and processes of learning in both formal and informal spaces and guide classroom practices.In this session, we invite speakers from the field of neuroscience, developmental psychology and content creators to share research and discuss the relation between the social and emotional brain and learning across different ages.

Bhismadev Chakrabati

Professor of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Reading

Bhismadev Chakrabarti is Professor of Neuroscience & Mental Health, and Research Director of the Centre for Autism at the University of Reading. His neuroscience research focusses on the social cognitive aspects of the autistic phenotype. In a parallel applied strand of work, his research focuses on autism in low-resource settings and the use of mobile health (mHealth) technology.

Find more about Bhismadev

Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

Applied Developmental Psychologist and a Professor in the Human Development, Learning, and Culture area in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC)

Dr. Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl is an Applied Developmental Psychologist and a Professor in the Human Development, Learning, and Culture area in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is also the Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), an interdisciplinary research unit focused on child development in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.

Find more about Kimberly

Nandini Chatterjee Singh

Senior National Program Officer

Nandini Chatterjee Singh is a cognitive neuroscientist and leads Rethinking Learning at UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development) in New Delhi, India. She seeks to reimagine education for whole brain learning and ensure holistic development. She designs courses that combine social and emotional learning with cognition using interactive pedagogies such as digital games, and digital dialogue. Nandini also conducts cross-cultural research to assess the efficacy of these courses in cultivating emotional resilience.

Olivier Houde

Houdé received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Paris at The Sorbonne, where he has been a professor since 1995. Using experimental psychology and brain imaging techniques, he studies cognitive development and learning in children and adults (specifically, the role of cognitive inhibition in strategy selection). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Dictionary of Cognitive Science (London and New York, Routledge, 2004), the author of 3-System Theory of the Cognitive Brain. A Post-Piagetian Approach (Routledge, 2019), co-Editor-in-Chief of The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development (to appear in 2021). He is the hon. Director of the Laboratory for the Psychology of Child Development and Education (CNRS) in Paris and the Administrator of Institut Universitaire de France.

Catalytic Session 2: Rethinking Assessment of Learning for Human Flourishing

Given the accelerating demographic, geopolitical, technological and environmental changes and their associated risks and opportunities, there is an increasing consensus today on the need to rethink education in all its dimensions. However, the indicators of educational quality, especially in developing countries, continue to be driven by a utilitarian human capital ideology. Assessment is an important determinant to the overall learning experience for both learners and teachers. This session invites speakers to share their experience of devising innovative ways to assess learning of content and skills.

Matthew Farber

Assistant Professor

Matthew Farber, Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor of Technology, Innovation, and Pedagogy at the University of Northern Colorado. He is the author of several books about game-based learning, as well as blogs for Edutopia on digital learning. Dr. Farber has been invited to the White House and has been interviewed about games and learning by NPR, Fox News Radio, EdSurge, The Denver Post, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. He studies the intersection of digital games and pedagogies with social-emotional learning and teacher education.

Find more about Matthew

Tobias Krantz

Head of Education, Research and Innovation Confederation of Swedish Enterprise

Tobias Krantz is Head of Department and Director of Education, Research and Innovation Policy at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. He was a Member of Parliament and Minister of Higher Education and Research in Sweden between from 2009 till 2010. During his term, he presided over European Ministers of higher education and research when Sweden held the presidency of the European Union the second half of 2009. Tobias Krantz holds a PhD degree in political science from Uppsala University. He was born in Jönköping in the southern part of Sweden but now lives with his family (wife and two children) in Stockholm.

Vishnuteerth Agnihotri

Co-founder of Genwise

Vishnu is the Co-founder of Genwise (www.genwise.in), an organization that offers programs that try to bridge the gap between the formal curriculum and the needs of the world of the future. He has worked in the areas of assessment, personalized learning, teacher development and gifted education with both private and government school systems, for nearly 15 years. Vishnu has a BTech degree from IIT Madras.

Find more about Vishnuteerth

Paul Darvasi

Educator, Writer, Game Designer

Dr. Paul Darvasi is an educator and researcher who keynotes, lectures, writes and consults on the intersection of digital games, simulations, narrative, social justice, culture and learning. Paul is a founding member of the Play Lab at the University of Toronto, and he has worked with the Canadian Royal Military College, the US Department of Education, UNESCO, foundry10, Consumers International, iThrive, and Connected Camps and has participated in several international research projects. His work has been featured on PBS, NPR, CBC, the Huffington Post, Polygon, Killscreen, Gamasutra, Sterne, Endgadget, Edsurge, Edutopia, and MindShift.

Find more about Paul

Catalytic Session 3: Individualized Learning at Scale ---Oxymoronic or Utopian Reality (Computer Human Interaction)

Individualized learning in itself is a complex task. It presents even greater challenges when we intend to scale globally. The only way till now scaling has been achieved is through standardization and the same seemingly is paradoxical to individualization. To create truly inclusive learning environments, ability to acknowledge and express learner’s individuality in a virtual environment is paramount. Adapting virtual environments to the learning needs of an individual has traditionally been the domain of experts, making it expensive and logistically challenging to do at scale. The same in the past has led to inequity in educational outcomes. This session invites speakers to share role of emerging technologies like reinforcement learning, semi-supervised learning, natural language processing, computer vision etc. that may be critical to provide personalized education at scale. The session would include sharing of real-world scenarios where this gap between seemingly paradoxical concepts has been bridged leveraging technology.

Harri Ketamo

Founder & Chairman, Headai

Harri Ketamo, Ph.D. is an entrepreneur with 20 years experience in learning sciences and artificial intelligence as science and as business. Currently he is founder & chairman of Headai, a jobTech company solving global talent mismatch and workforce re-skilling challenges with AI.

Find more about Harri

Cathleen Norris

Professor & Chairperson, Department of Learning Technologies, University of North Texas

Cathleen Norris is a Regents Professor & Chairperson, in the Department of Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas, Denton, TX.

Find more about Cathleen

Christopher Piech

Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, USA

Chris Piech, Ph.D. is a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University who specializes is the use of deep learning techniques to better understand education. He has developed several algorithms which are used in some of the worlds largest education platforms (including Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, Code.org, among others) as well as Generative Grading which can provide autonomous human-level feedback to open-ended student work. For his research contributions he was named the 2018 David Morgenthaler II Faculty Fellow. Before Stanford, Chris lived for 18 years in Nairobi, Kenya and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ehsan Hoque

Ehsan Hoque is an Asaro-Biggar Family Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester where he leads the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction (ROC HCI) Group. Hoque works on developing computational systems to recognize the subtle nuances of human communication towards improving human ability.
Ehsan earned his Ph.D. from MIT in 2013, where his dissertation was highlighted by the MIT Museum as one of MIT’s most unconventional inventions. Ehsan has received an MIT TR35 award (2016), a commendation in Science News as one of ten early- to mid-career scientists to watch (2017), and an NSF CAREER Award (2018).

Catalytic Session 4: SEL for teachers – empowering teachers with SEL for self and the classroom.

One of the most complex jobs in the world is that of a classroom teacher which can only be compared to a medical staff inside an emergency room during a natural disaster. This is an observation made by Lee S. Shulman, an educational psychologist. In addition to training an inquiring young mind, there are multitude of stressors in a teacher’s life, ranging from the less talked administrative roles like marking attendance or invigilating an examination; to more managerial ones like designing and executing effective lessons; to leadership roles like mentoring new teachers and providing expertise. This range of responsibilities and the constant narrative to create life-long learners leads to more anxious and stressed out teachers with low self-efficacy and poor work life balance. Rightfully said, their own social-emotional competence and well-being is compromised. It is then very natural for this stress and aggression to transcend to classroom spaces where students are the receiver of this burnout. In this session, we invite speakers from the field of neuroscience, SEL and learning spaces to share classroom practices and research that advocates the need for teachers with SEL attitudes for self and the classroom..

Elliot Soloway

Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Michigan

Elliot Soloway is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. In 2001, the UMich undergraduates selected him to receive the “Golden Apple Award” as the Outstanding Teacher of the Year at the University of Michigan. In 2004 and in 2011, students in the College of Engineering HKN Honor Society selected Dr. Soloway to receive the “Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award.” Soloway’s educational vision is that mobile, low-cost, networked devices are the only way to truly achieve universal 1:1 in schools – all across the globe.

Find more about Elliot

Shelja Sen

Therapist, writer, story weaver, co-founder of Children First Institute of Child & Adolescent Mental Health

Dr Shelja Sen (MPhil, DClinPysh) is a therapist, a writer, a story weaver and co-founder of Children First Institute of Child & Adolescent Mental Health. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books, All You Need is Love: The Art of Mindful Parenting, Imagine: No Child Left Invisible and Reclaim Your Life: Going Beyond Silence, Stigma And Shame In Mental Health. Shelja is a TED speaker and a columnist with Indian Express. She aligns herself with collaborative practices that honour the dignity of the person and work at developing richer narratives. She believes that we need to work at building ecosystems that nurture emotionally safe spaces for children and youth at home, schools and the larger community.

Find more about Shelja

Tyralynn Frazier

Ph.D., Research Scientist, Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion- Based Ethics, Emory University

Tyralynn Frazier is lead Research Scientist with the SEE Learning Program. In this capacity, she works on the strategic development of implementation and evaluation goals and objectives that support evidence-based program planning. Her background is in the study of emotional self-regulation, and the importance of emotional regulation in the relationship between stressors experienced over the life course such as discrimination, violence, and trauma. Tyralynn’s primary objective is to focus the SEE Learning research program on developing an effective educational intervention that has the potential to have a lifelong positive impact on both educators and students. She holds an MPH in epidemiology from Emory University, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Anthropology from Emory University.

Emiliana Rodriguez

Co-Founder and Education Director, AttentaMente, Mexico

Emiliana is the co-founder and Education Director of AtentaMente, that has helped more than 15,000 teachers to cultivate emotional wellbeing and indirectly benefited more than 23 million students through a social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum implemented nationwide in Mexico. Emiliana’s expertise is in intersection between Neuroscience, Education and Contemplative practices. She has a background in Physics, more than 15 years of training on contemplative practices with renowned meditation teachers from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and a Master’s degree in Mind, Brain and Education from Harvard University. She has co-authored six books on SEL skills, developed four curriculums for the Ministry of Education in Mexico, delivered more than 200 conferences and served as a consultant for national and international organizations.

Catalytic Session 5: Redesigning Learning Spaces

Spaces affect the quality of relationships, interactions, participation and power dynamics that are an integral part of the learning experience. The structure and design of learning space influences the quality and nature of the relationships between learners and educators, learning experience as well as peer-to-peer learning. It could either reinforce or redefine power structure within the learning spaces, the quality of democratic practices and participation within the classroom, as well as address the ‘hidden curriculum’ that is perpetuated through traditional classroom structures. Transformative learning demands a new way of designing and engaging with learning spaces. This session invites speakers to share innovative ways to shape learning spaces—both physical and virtual.

Vipul Reddy

Vipul Reddy, Head of School Enablement, Khan Academy

Vipul helps schools to make the most of Khan Academy's online learning resources in their classrooms, mainly by training their teachers. As a CXO at Global Discovery Schools and Director of Academics at Pearson Schools India, he designed the daily classroom experience of thousands of students nationally. Vipul previously worked at Cisco, managing a large part of their global multi-million dollar IT training and professional certifications portfolio. He is a TED-Ed Innovative Educator, a TEDx Colombo speaker, and an alumnus of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

Kavita Rao

Professor of Special Education at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa

Kavita's work focuses on instructional and assistive technology, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and online learning. She has worked extensively with schools and teachers in Asia and the Pacific, supporting efforts to integrate technology and create inclusive learning environments. She is interested in exploring ways that digital tools can help to reduce learning barriers and support student achievement in the classroom. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on technology and UDL, most recently the book UDL for Language Learners.

Find more about Kavita

Santhya Vikram

Yellow Train School

Santhya Vikram is the founder of the alternative school The Yellow Train in Tamil Nadu, India.

Catalytic Session 6: Technology with Emotions - But we are talking about Bots right?

In this new world, a combination of human and computing intelligence has the potential to deliver a higher quality education, where human responses and emotions are pivotal. Thus, understanding a learner's affect throughout the learning process is crucial for understanding motivation. New developments in cognitive science are unravelling the mysteries of emotions; the findings have much to teach us about how students do—or do not—learn.
The session aims to understand the role of affective computing in the context of virtual learning environments. This would also delve into some practical considerations to alleviate concerns over how technologists can prove efficacy and safeguard student privacy.

Roy Saurabh

Chief Technology Officer

Roy Saurabh has 13+ years global experience in Technology & Strategy Consulting. Roy has a proved track record in Large-scale Project Management (Budget > USD 2M), Entrepreneurship (past 3 successful exits), and Technology Consulting (Business Impact > 3M Registered Users). Previously, he was the Head of Technology for the National Skill Development Mission, impacting more than 3 million lives, Director for Oracle’s leading Europe Partner, Cedar Consulting UK, and Founder/CEO of Zosher. Roy has in-depth knowledge of different client/server architectures based on various frameworks, Various Data visualization tools, classification & regression models and other popular as well as advanced Artificial Intelligence / NLP and Machine Learning algorithms.

Shane O' Connor

Shane has over two decades of working in the area of Peace Education and Global Awareness and has worked for local human rights organisations as well are within larger International NGO's and Educational Institutions in the Global North and South. Versatile facilitator, trainer and educator trained in everything from private coaching for adult professionals to teacher training workshops or outdoor movement-based activities.

Ehsan Hoque

Ehsan Hoque is an Asaro-Biggar Family Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester where he leads the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction (ROC HCI) Group. Hoque works on developing computational systems to recognize the subtle nuances of human communication towards improving human ability.
Ehsan earned his Ph.D. from MIT in 2013, where his dissertation was highlighted by the MIT Museum as one of MIT’s most unconventional inventions. Ehsan has received an MIT TR35 award (2016), a commendation in Science News as one of ten early- to mid-career scientists to watch (2017), and an NSF CAREER Award (2018).

Jacob Sherson

Founder & director of ScienceAtHome and \Center for Hybrid Intelligence Aarhus University


Professor Jacob Friis Sherson is founder & director of the citizen science project ScienceAtHome and the Center for Hybrid Intelligence, Aarhus University, in which complex research challenges are posed as engaging computer games. Sherson introduced the educational paradigm, Research-Enabling Game-Based Education (ReGAME), in which citizen science games have been used in hundreds of classrooms to illustrate the importance of the core curriculum of the students. Additionally, Sherson is a member of the ATV Think Tank, advisor to both Danish government and EU parliament on AI, and has been a TedX speaker (+150k views). Among other accolades, he was the winner of 2019 Bold Award on AI, 2018 Grundfos Prize and 2017 Ministerial Research Communication Prize.

Catalytic Session 7: Gamestorming Curricula

Research has shown that digital game-based learning in the classroom fosters broad based competencies like collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. The highly contextualized, first-hand and interactive nature of digital games makes them effective tools to inculcate social-emotional learning skills like empathy, critical thinking, compassion, negotiation and decision-making. In this session, we invite the MGIEP Games for Learning team comprising of educators, designers and researchers to share the process, intent and challenges behind designing digital learning experiences based on commercial games. The Gaming team will also engage with the audience for inputs on these curricula. All the games will be available at the Games Bar throughout 2019.

Catalytic Session 8: Fostering Learner Agency

Human flourishing implies holistic development of individuals—in their intellectual, affective, moral and spiritual dimensions. It recognises the interdependence of each individual upon other beings and the environment. In order for education to contribute to human flourishing and empower agency, it must allow people to critically understand their reality, the underlying causes and multiple consequence, and armed with this knowledge, to collectively engage in the act of transforming this reality. In education that means students directing their own learning, based on their interest and goal, and taking an active role in seeking and internalizing new knowledge. This session invites speakers to share ways of fostering agency in students.

Monisha Bajaj

Professor, International & Multicultural Education, University of San Francisco

Dr. Bajaj is the editor and author of six books, including, most recently, Human Rights Education: Theory, Research, Praxis (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), as well as numerous articles. She created the International Journal of Human Rights Education, and the Encyclopedia of Peace Education, both online, open-access platforms dedicated to global dissemination of knowledge in these fields. Dr. Bajaj has developed curriculum and reports—particularly related to peace education, human rights, anti-bullying efforts and sustainability—for non-profit organizations and inter-governmental organizations, such as UNICEF and UNESCO.

Find more about Monisha

Paul Darvasi

Educator, Writer, Game Designer

Dr. Paul Darvasi is an educator and researcher who keynotes, lectures, writes and consults on the intersection of digital games, simulations, narrative, social justice, culture and learning. Paul is a founding member of the Play Lab at the University of Toronto, and he has worked with the Canadian Royal Military College, the US Department of Education, UNESCO, foundry10, Consumers International, iThrive, and Connected Camps and has participated in several international research projects. His work has been featured on PBS, NPR, CBC, the Huffington Post, Polygon, Killscreen, Gamasutra, Sterne, Endgadget, Edsurge, Edutopia, and MindShift.

Find more about Paul

Narendra Mehrotra

Senior Consultant

Narendra is a passionate international educator committed to student learning with a solid foundation for learning independently and collaboratively. Before moving to Canada in 1988, he taught for six years at The Doon School in Dehradun. He performed various roles at the Pearson United World College (UWC), Victoria, Canada for 16 years. He also worked at the United World College in Italy for two years. He moved to Dubai International Academy as Secondary Principal in 2006. From 2008 to 2013, he was an MYP Curriculum Leader and Vice-Principal at Bonn International School, Germany. His last assignment was Curriculum Director and then Secondary Principal at Stonehill International School, Bangalore until 2019.

Tyralynn Frazier

Ph.D., Research Scientist, Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion- Based Ethics, Emory University

Tyralynn Frazier is lead Research Scientist with the SEE Learning Program. In this capacity, she works on the strategic development of implementation and evaluation goals and objectives that support evidence-based program planning. Her background is in the study of emotional self-regulation, and the importance of emotional regulation in the relationship between stressors experienced over the life course such as discrimination, violence, and trauma. Tyralynn’s primary objective is to focus the SEE Learning research program on developing an effective educational intervention that has the potential to have a lifelong positive impact on both educators and students. She holds an MPH in epidemiology from Emory University, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Anthropology from Emory University.

Catalytic Session 9: Big Entry Barriers - Battle of Perceptions (Data Privacy & Ownership)

It’s impossible to determine the success of technology in the learning context until it is finally integrated and used effectively in the classroom. The root cause of the same is less of a technical issue than it being an issue of perception. Technology giants too haven’t helped their case by blatantly violating basic user data privacy, as recent media coverage suggests. This has resulted in educators being hesitant in incorporating technology into their teaching plans, demonstrating that technology integration is still facing a great deal of resistance. Without utilizing these excellent tools to their maximum capabilities, educators can’t be sure what technology, especially AI, can offer to learners or where it truly falls short.
This session aims to bring into light and discuss in detail, the various non-technology factors that are affecting the adoption of technology within the education ecosystem. We wish to explore the factors like Data ownership, Data privacy, Data localization, Transparency in monitoring competency and performance from both educator and learner’s point of views to ensure that technology can be leveraged to reduce our mechanical workload and makes us think deeply as to what makes us truly ‘human’.

Dan Shefet

Lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal (France)

Dan Shefet is a frequent speaker at international conferences and academic venues on IT Law, Data Privacy Content Regulation and Human Rights on the Internet.

Find more about Dan

Amit Goyal

Amit Goyal is currently heading edX for India & South East Asia. edX is the world’s largest non-profit E-Learning portal founded by MIT & Harvard University. Amit manages strategic relationship and business development for India & S.E. Asia region.
Prior to edX, Amit has headed Education Solutions Business for Samsung India and has launched various education mobility products, being used by large educational groups and businesses around the world today such as Byju Tab Learning.
Amit Goyal holds a Master’s Degree from Oxford Brookes University – Oxford, and has led various executive roles in leading Technology companies globally. He is a firm believer of frugal innovation and was also known as the man behind launching the worlds’ cheapest Tablet PC ‘Aakash’ – A project commissioned by Government of India.

Stuart McNaughton

Stuart is Professor of Education at the University of Auckland and Director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre/ Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu. He is also New Zealand’s Chief Education Scientific Advisor. He has published extensively on children’s development, the design of effective educational programmes for culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and cultural processes in development. His centre is currently designing and testing digital tools to promote social and cognitive skills. He is a recipient of national and international research prizes, consults on curricula and educational interventions nationally and internationally, is a member of a number of academic bodies, and is a Senior Research Fellow at East China Normal University (Shanghai). In 2011 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of merit.

Jacob Sherson

Founder & director of ScienceAtHome and \Center for Hybrid Intelligence Aarhus University


Professor Jacob Friis Sherson is founder & director of the citizen science project ScienceAtHome and the Center for Hybrid Intelligence, Aarhus University, in which complex research challenges are posed as engaging computer games. Sherson introduced the educational paradigm, Research-Enabling Game-Based Education (ReGAME), in which citizen science games have been used in hundreds of classrooms to illustrate the importance of the core curriculum of the students. Additionally, Sherson is a member of the ATV Think Tank, advisor to both Danish government and EU parliament on AI, and has been a TedX speaker (+150k views). Among other accolades, he was the winner of 2019 Bold Award on AI, 2018 Grundfos Prize and 2017 Ministerial Research Communication Prize.

Catalytic Session 10: SEL programs can address anxiety, stress and violence in the classroom – the case for adolescents.

While adolescence is a period of tremendous learning, exploration, and opportunity, it is also a time when vulnerability to behavioral and health problems is at its peak with extended negative consequences that last into adulthood. According to a recent WHO report, nearly 25 million children worldwide have anxiety and stress are at risk for depression. This is fast leading to a distorted reality wherein well-being is compromised. Drawing from the latest research in the laboratory and the field, this session will highlight the role of explicit SEL intervention during adolescence in addressing anxiety and stress inside and outside the classroom.

Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

Applied Developmental Psychologist and a Professor in the Human Development, Learning, and Culture area in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC)

Dr. Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl is an Applied Developmental Psychologist and a Professor in the Human Development, Learning, and Culture area in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is also the Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), an interdisciplinary research unit focused on child development in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.

Find more about Kimberly

Maryse Lassonde

President of Conseil supérieur de l’Éducation (Government of Quebec)

Professor Maryse Lassonde is President of Conseil supérieur de l’Éducation (Government of Quebec). She completed a Ph.D. in neuropsychology at Stanford University and became a professor at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR, 1977-1988) and Université de Montréal (Professor Emeritus in 2013). Professor Lassonde has studied several topics, including neuro-cognitive development in healthy and epileptic children, effects of sports concussions on the brain and published 7 books, and over 300 book chapters and articles in scientific journals. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association (1994), of the Royal Society of Canada (1997), of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2010) and held a Canada Research Chair in Developmental Neuropsychology from 2001 to 2013. Professor Lassonde was named Chevalière, National Order of Quebec in 1999 and Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. From January 2012 to July 2018, Professor Lassonde was the Scientific Director of the Quebec Natural Sciences and Technology granting agency.

RS Mann

Maj Gen (Dr) Rambir Mann, is the Additional Director General National Cadet Corps, Ph.D from IIT Delhi in Policy Studies.

Shelja Sen

Therapist, writer, story weaver, co-founder of Children First Institute of Child & Adolescent Mental Health

Dr Shelja Sen (MPhil, DClinPysh) is a therapist, a writer, a story weaver and co-founder of Children First Institute of Child & Adolescent Mental Health. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books, All You Need is Love: The Art of Mindful Parenting, Imagine: No Child Left Invisible and Reclaim Your Life: Going Beyond Silence, Stigma And Shame In Mental Health. Shelja is a TED speaker and a columnist with Indian Express. She aligns herself with collaborative practices that honour the dignity of the person and work at developing richer narratives. She believes that we need to work at building ecosystems that nurture emotionally safe spaces for children and youth at home, schools and the larger community.

Find more about Shelja

Catalytic Session 11: Innovative pedagogies for SDGs

Gandhi's invocation to 'be the change you wish to see in the world' applies to all of us - with the onus on the adult world beyond the school gates to lead by example. Certain adjustments to pedagogical techniques or the classroom environment (perhaps involving the deployment of new technology) may certainly help to address SDGs. However, to what extent can such technical interventions, taken on their own, achieve a sense of belonging to common humanity? How do our sense of belonging, source of identity, rights and obligations determine our circle of concern? What is the nature of education that might enable us to expand this circle of care and compassion to include beings beyond our immediate time and space? This session aims to capture innovative teaching-learning practices for addressing issues of local and global concerns in the classroom, with the aim of building the learner’s knowledge about the issues, as well as building their agency to ‘talk back’ to hegemonic discourses and effect positive social change. This session also aims to explore ways in which digital technologies can enable students to transform themselves, their communities and the broader world.

Elisa Navarro Chincilla

Educational video games developer

Educational video games developer, Elisa founded Gargamel Studio with more than 20 games for companies and organizations such as United Nations, Televisa, Philharmonic Orchestra of the National University, Children Museum Papalote, amongst others. Convinced of the power of games in collaborative learning and games for unprivileged contexts, she has received several national funds in Mexico to create educational experiences with technology, including rallies with AR and technology disobedience. Her studies are MA in Media and Education at the Institute of Education at UCL, UK, with Gunther Kress as tutor. Her last game, Chuka: break the silence (chukagame.com), is a game to prevent gender violence and to reinforce socioemotional learning.

Find more about Elisa

Dr. Nirmal Govindaraju

Dr. Nirmal Govindaraju holds a PhD in Materials Science from North Carolina State University and worked for 13 years in the US on research projects dealing with nanomaterials, wide band gap semiconductors, and thermal, electrical and optical property measurements. He moved to India in 2017 and is currently engaged in developing teaching approaches for science and math, in the Indian context, for children at, or below, the poverty line. He is also working on teacher capacity building and teacher trainer capacity building.

Monisha Bajaj

Professor, International & Multicultural Education, University of San Francisco

Dr. Bajaj is the editor and author of six books, including, most recently, Human Rights Education: Theory, Research, Praxis (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), as well as numerous articles. She created the International Journal of Human Rights Education, and the Encyclopedia of Peace Education, both online, open-access platforms dedicated to global dissemination of knowledge in these fields. Dr. Bajaj has developed curriculum and reports—particularly related to peace education, human rights, anti-bullying efforts and sustainability—for non-profit organizations and inter-governmental organizations, such as UNICEF and UNESCO.

Find more about Monisha

Paul Darvasi

Educator, Writer, Game Designer

Dr. Paul Darvasi is an educator and researcher who keynotes, lectures, writes and consults on the intersection of digital games, simulations, narrative, social justice, culture and learning. Paul is a founding member of the Play Lab at the University of Toronto, and he has worked with the Canadian Royal Military College, the US Department of Education, UNESCO, foundry10, Consumers International, iThrive, and Connected Camps and has participated in several international research projects. His work has been featured on PBS, NPR, CBC, the Huffington Post, Polygon, Killscreen, Gamasutra, Sterne, Endgadget, Edsurge, Edutopia, and MindShift.

Find more about Paul

Catalytic Session 12: Is Technology socially, educationally & culturally agnostic?

One of the barriers inhibiting adoption of technology globally is the perceived inability of technological tools and systems to understand contextual nuances like that of culture, geography, language etc. In the highly nuanced world of education, can technology be truly leveraged for in-depth changes in the way learners learn? Can there still be certain best practices that can be shared across various contextual silos that help learners globally learn from each other’s triumphs and failures?
The session would delve into the state of the art technological advancements that hold the promise of doing just that including deep dive in the field of Machine Translation, Natural Language Processing, Universal Design of Learning (UDL) in context of breaking culture, geography and language silos.

Gregoire Borst

Professor of Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience of Education, LaPsyDE, France

Gregoire is a full Professor of Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience of Education at the University Paris Descartes. He is the Adjunct Director of the Laboratory for the study of Child Development and Education (CNRS), a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France, the President of the Association of Research on Neuroeducation and a member of the group of experts on the protection of young audiences at the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA). He obtained is PhD in Cognitive Science in 2005 at the University Paris-Sud.

Find more about Gregoire

Kavita Rao

Professor of Special Education at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa

Kavita's work focuses on instructional and assistive technology, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and online learning. She has worked extensively with schools and teachers in Asia and the Pacific, supporting efforts to integrate technology and create inclusive learning environments. She is interested in exploring ways that digital tools can help to reduce learning barriers and support student achievement in the classroom. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on technology and UDL, most recently the book UDL for Language Learners.

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Julien Mercier

Director of NeuroLab (FCI) at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada

Julien Mercier is the Director of NeuroLab (FCI) at the University of Quebec in Montreal. His career is based on the optimization of human interaction in the service of learning. Specialized in applied cognitive science, he understands the human being as an "architecture" that works through psychophysiological, cognitive and social-cognitive processes that have dynamic links between them. Overall, his research has contributed to the understanding of the opportunities and limits of the learner when he/she is placed, individually or as a team, in learning situations involving complex processes supported by complex knowledge in the areas of statistics, reading and physics. These learning contexts involved, from time to time, the use of educational technologies.

Michael Witbrock

Dr. Witbrock has a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining Cycorp, he was a principal scientist at Terra Lycos, working on integrating statistical and knowledge-based approaches to understanding Web user behavior; he has also been associated with Just Systems Pittsburgh Research Center and the Informedia Digital Library at Carnegie Mellon.