ASU Continuing Education and Community Outreach to present “Reducing the Distance with Virtual Worlds”
JONESBORO, Ark. — Liz Falconer, professor of Technology Enhanced Learning from the University of Western England, will present a lecture entitled, “Distance Learning: Reducing the Distance with Virtual Worlds,” Thursday, March 28, at 2:30 p.m. in Arkansas State’s Wilson Hall Auditorium.
Falconer, who also serves as director of the Education Innovation Center at Western England, will focus on the design and running of the master of arts degree in Education in virtual world and how it fits into a university technology enhanced learning strategy and global university partnerships.
The lecture by Falconer is another part on an ongoing project at ASU designed by director of Distance Education Danny Kopp and adjunct professor of History Dr. Simon Hosken to bring school communities from around the world together. The group will be at Nettleton High School in Jonesboro to introduce their virtual world project to Dr. Falconer’s team. A similar experiment was done last November when Kopp and Hosken introduced students to a classroom in Australia via virtual world.
“We are working to develop projects that can be utilized by class teachers and students across the globe to interact in real-time by utilizing the virtual world,” said Dr. Hosken.
Falconer began her career in 1978 as a local environmental health officer in Cheshire. In 1987 she joined University College Salford, lecturing in occupational safety and health. Her interest in distance and online learning developed as the designer and course director of the Masters in Science degree program in Occupational Safety and Health, a flexible, multi-mode program that used Blackboard 5TM as the Virtual Learning Environment platform.
In 2001 she moved to the University of Bath as director of the Centre for Distance Education, and then joined Western England in July 2003. She completed her Masters in Philosophy at Manchester Polytechnic in 1992 and her PhD at Salford University in 2001. Falconer is now professor of Technology Enhanced Learning at UWE.
For additional information, contact Dr. Hosken or Kopp at (870) 972-2532.
