What is your role in the Centre for Research in Digital Education?
I am a postdoctoral researcher on the Move2Learn project. I have been part of the Move2Learn project since 2017, and I was previously based at the Institute of Education, UCL. I am very happy to have the opportunity to continue my work on this project and to join this exciting centre.
The Move2Learn project is an international collaboration between practitioners working in science museums/centres and learning scientists. The aim of the project is to investigate how the particular actions children engage in through science exhibits might shape and support their ideas and the communication of these ideas (through gesture). As well as how we can use embodied learning theory to better support early years science experiences. As the project approaches its end we are excited to share our findings and to translate these into practice both for museum educators, and for educators more broadly.
How do you see Digital Education and why do you think it’s important?
From the perspective of Move2Learn, science museums and centres are incorporating more and more digital exhibits into their sites. These offer amazing opportunities to allow visitors to interact with concepts which could not be achieved through other means. For example, in Miami families can experience a day-night cycle in the everglades in the space of 15 minutes and can explore how this influences the wildlife in this habitat. However, these experiences also open up new challenges for educators. In an exhibit such as the one in Miami, which is controlled through gesture, how do we ensure these gestures meaningfully support children’s meaning making around science? These are the kinds of questions which Move2Learn has been exploring.
What piece of work are you most proud of (to date)?
Together with Professor Sara Price and the charity Learning through Landscapes we designed activities which gave children between four and six years-of-age physical experiences of air resistance (drawing on theories of embodied learning), for example running with differently sized resistance parachutes or cardboard ‘sails’. We then explored whether these experiences fostered meaningful action in relation to the ideas of air resistance and whether these in turn supported children’s meaning making and communication. We engaged in a process of iterative design to shape the experiences and the context which they were presented in. I am particularly proud of this work as it gave us the opportunity to truly translate research into practice, using theories of embodied learning to shape the activities children engaged in, and in turn to feedback into these theories. It was so exciting to design the experiences and to see first-hand that not only did children love engaging in the activities, but also drew on these experiences to support their thinking around the complex concept of air resistance. Our paper on this process won a Best Paper Award HCI international 2020, which was the cherry on top of this experience.
If you had a time machine for a day when would you visit and why?
I think I would use it to take a sneak peek into my future, maybe 10 years from now. I’m the kind of person that can’t resist peeking through the wrapping on a present so if I had the opportunity I don’t think I would be able to stop myself.