Abha SHARMA
Professor Abha SHARMA is Principal, B.Ed. at SCERT, New Delhi, India. Prior to this she was Professor and Assistant Dean at School of Education, and Head, Planning and Monitoring at GD Goenka University, Gurgaon, India.
Professor Abha Sharma is an expert in the area of Teacher Education, Stress Management, Test and Measurement, Educational Technology and Science Education. Abha is Gold medallist in both B.Ed. and M.Ed. and a recipient of National merit scholarship for doing M. Ed. She has more than 22 years of experience in academic and academic leadership roles in various Universities and Institutes in India. Abha holds a PhD in Education (Educational Psychology/ Educational Technology), M. Ed., M.Sc. (Organic Chemistry) and MBA (HR). She has qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) in Education and was awarded Junior Research Fellowship from UGC, (India).
She has more than 50 papers/ articles/ book chapters published in National and International Journals of repute. Abha has participated and presented papers in more than 50 National/ International workshops/ conferences etc. and she has more than 22 years’ experience in conducting interactive sessions as Keynote speaker, Resource person and chairing National and International Conferences/ Seminars/ workshops/ FDP’s. She was an Academic Expert (Education) for Tuning India Project with University of Deusto, Bilbao (Spain) and Research expert for RISHII Project with University of Deusto, Bilbao (Spain) cofounded by the Erasmus + programme of the European Union, Resource person for developing and delivering video content of SWAYAMPRABHA educational channel of MHRD, Government of India for B. Ed. Programme. She is a District Nodal Officer for Vidyanjali, A School Volunteer Programme of MOE, government of India. She is a Nodal Academic Authority at District Level (South East) for School Transformation and Enrichment Programme of SCERT.
She received the Best National Paper award in International conference in 2017 and 2018 and was awarded Goodwill ambassador from IHRO, New Delhi in 2018. Prof. Sharma received an Inspirational Leadership Award from Global Talk education Foundation in 2021. She won the award of Excellence in Social Service in the state of Haryana by Navjyoti India Foundation, in 2021. Prof. Sharma also received an Education Icon Award in the Star Rating Annual Conference in 2022.
Title of Speech: Reforming Lives Through Education and Technology Hand in Hand
The world is developing at an accelerated pace and is facing constant challenges like economic, technological, environmental and social, driven by escalating new age technological changes and globalization. Educational institutions are pushing hard to match the increasing demands to prepare students to be ready for facing social and economic disruptions, for jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve social and practical problems that have not yet been anticipated as per 21st century needs. Students should be trained to work together with technology and embody human skills to extend their physical capabilities. Moreover, transformation of education through cybernation/ automation and digitalization is the new initiative that we can propose along with development of holistic skills. Education and technology needs to go hand in hand in order to bring change and progress in this demanding world. The final three decades of the 20th century, education systems in many parts of the world made considerable, sometimes spectacular, advances. Previously, a high level of education was provided only for a small minority, while the majority had little to show for their limited years of education. But by the early years of the 21st century, a majority of young people in OECD countries achieved some level of qualification by the time they left school and large numbers, a majority in some countries, went on to some form of higher education. OECD’s Project 2030 has brought a number of countries together to undertake an analysis and common definition of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that countries are seeking to impart to their students, together with a curriculum mapping exercise to examine to what extent these key concepts are present in their curricula. Unquestionably, studies have proven that there is a move toward incorporating 21st century competencies into countries’ curricula, primarily through embedding new skills and habits of mind into traditional subject domains. In this conference we will be focusing on the most probable solutions, new initiatives to overcome the gaps in education, the testing challenging times for education and how we can reform lives with the help of Education and Technology in a more significant way.
Ramesh SHARMA
Dr. Ramesh Sharma is Director of Human Resource Development Centre and a faculty for Instructional Design and Chairperson of the Committee to facilitate adoption of MOOCs for SWAYAM MOOCs platform of the Government of India, at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi.
Earlier he has taught Educational Technology and Learning Resources at Wawasan Open University, Malaysia. He is an expert in open and distance and technology mediated learning and has served as a visiting Professor at Universidade do Estado da Bahia, UNEB, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, visiting Professor at University of Fiji, Fiji, Commonwealth of Learning as Director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, New Delhi, Regional Director of Indira Gandhi National Open University, India and Director of Distance Education at University of Guyana, Guyana, South America.
He has been a member of Advisory Group on Human Resources Development for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). While at University of Guyana he also collaborated with UNDP for its Enhanced Public Trust, Security and Inclusion (EPTSI) project, Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) and United Nations Volunteer (UNV) to develop suitable educational opportunities for communities and youth.
He is the Editor of Asian Journal of Distance Education (launched in 2003) and has been associated with several other peer reviewed journals including SSCI / SCOPUS Journals as Reviewer, Editor and Editorial Advisory Board member in the field of Open and Distance Learning. An author/editor of several books and research papers on educational technology, educational multimedia and eLearning, Dr. Sharma is a practitioner promoting Open Educational Resources (OER). He has been a trainer and capacity builder in the field of educational technology, and has supervised doctoral research in the field. He has conducted workshops and evaluation activities for Indira Gandhi National Open University; Commonwealth of Learning, Canada; Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, New Delhi; United Nations Conference on Trade and Commerce (UNCTAD), Geneva; and Aga Khan Foundation, amongst others.
Title of Speech: Metaverse as the Foundational Technology Underpinning Learning: Policies, Risks and Opportunities in Education
Metaverse, although, is not a new term/concept, however, its growth has been very rapid for personal and financial transactions. Metaverse as a digital universe combines the power and potential of augmented reality and virtual reality as an immersive 3D collaborative space. With much of the business happening on blockchain platforms, it is opening new avenues for gaming, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) and cryptocurrencies or real estate. It potential in education is yet to be realised, some projects and researches have been commissioned. Metaverse offers promise for boosting authentic learning by co-creating learning scenarios using gamification. Another potential benefit of this medium is faculty and learners onboarding and training using digital avatars. What kind of assessment practices this medium can support? Much progress has happened for artificial intelligence to 'learn' and 'mature'. Would Metaverse gain self-awareness? How the educators and administrators can build support services for learners? This presentation would critically examine the policies being framed for adoption of augmented reality, virtual reality and metaverse in education while identifying the risks and the opportunities in education.
Soner YILDIRIM
Prof. Soner Yıldırım received his bachelor’s degree from Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Division of Curriculum and Instruction in 1990. He completed his master program at Michigan State University in 1993 and then his doctorate program at University of Southern California in 1997 in the field of Instructional Technology. He has been working at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Faculty of Education as a faculty member since 1998.
Prof. Yıldırım has been serving as international ICT consultant in various international organizations. He worked for the World Bank as an Internernatiol Expert in several Educational Technology projects. Between 2002-2006, he was the leading expert at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg for the project “Teaching & Learning in the Communication Society”. He has also been working as the National Expert for the European Training Foundation (ETF) for Vocational Education and Training (VET) projects.
Prof. Yıldırım’s research interest includes cognition, technology use in education, instructional design and feedback design, learning analytics and nomophobia.
Title of Speech: 4.5 million years journey of learning
Learning is one of the most important achievements of Homa Sapiens - intelligent creatures- in the evolutionary process. The swift progress in science and technology in the last 100 years has brought the concept of learning back to the top of our agenda. How this ability will evolve in the future has become one of the biggest areas of curiosity. This talk is a 45-minute summary of the 4.5 years journey of learning.
