IAFOR > The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research & Innovation (ERI) > ERI2023 Overview

ERI2023 Overview

ERI2023

April 21–24, 2023 | Virginia Tech, Arlington, Virginia (Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area)

Welcome to The 3rd IAFOR Conference on Education, Research & Innovation (ERI2023), held in partnership with Virginia Tech, and sponsored by the School of Education, and held on the wonderful Virginia Tech Washington DC Arlington Campus.

ERI2023 encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in an international forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

"Learning Beyond Boundaries"

The United States of America with its democratic principles and individual freedoms has historically attracted and provided refuge for individuals and their ideals. A diverse country with a population of more than 350 million people, the U.S. has long served as a symbol of power, resilience, and prestige. Symbols of America’s prominence and independence are proudly on display in its capital of Washington DC: The White House, Capitol Building, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. But these iconic symbols are not beyond scrutiny, and the city’s museums, like the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, offer a more nuanced understanding of the United States. These complex symbols represent the nation’s histories and also the ways people have come to understand modern challenges related to social inequities.

One of these enduring challenges is American schooling. The U.S. is home to top-tier universities–some are household names known around the world as cultural and intellectual powerhouses. And, yet, there are deep, intransigent challenges related to public school funding where young people lack equitable access and opportunities too often rely on wealth and geography and not necessarily on academic merit. It is in this context, with an eye toward equity and equality, that we hold our conference on Education, Research and Innovation, and look at how cutting-edge technologies and innovative practices both ameliorate and exacerbate these challenges, both within the United States and globally.

How can we resist boundaries to allow for greater access to educational systems and opportunities? How can educational innovation, research, and resilience serve as the new symbols for social equity? With the additional lens of the coronavirus pandemic, this international conference will offer an extraordinary opportunity for the exchange of ideas and presentation of research, as well as the comparative and contrastive discussions across borders of nation and discipline.

In conjunction with IAFOR's Global Partners, we look forward to welcoming you to Virginia Tech!

– The ERI2023 Programme Committee

IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus Indexed Journal)

This conference is associated with the Scopus and DOAJ listed IAFOR Journal of Education.
 

Key Information

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

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Programme

  • Embracing the Digital Shift: Unleashing the Potential of Flexible Learning
    Embracing the Digital Shift: Unleashing the Potential of Flexible Learning
    Keynote Presentation: Dale Pike
  • Existential Questions in Education: Research and Innovation
    Existential Questions in Education: Research and Innovation
    Keynote Presentation: Michael Menchaca
  • State or “State”?: The Innovations of the Hawaiian Kingdom
    State or “State”?: The Innovations of the Hawaiian Kingdom
    Keynote Presentation: Kālewa Correa
  • Learning Beyond Boundaries, Learning Beyond Borders
    Learning Beyond Boundaries, Learning Beyond Borders
    Featured Interview: Tomoaki Ishigaki

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Speakers

  • Dale Pike
    Dale Pike
    Virginia Tech, United States
  • Kālewa Correa
    Kālewa Correa
    Smithsonian Institution, United States
  • Tomoaki Ishigaki
    Tomoaki Ishigaki
    Embassy of Japan in the United States of America, United States
  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States

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Conference Committees

Global Programme Committee

Dr Joseph Haldane, Chairman and CEO, IAFOR
His Excellency Professor Toshiya Hoshino, Osaka University, Japan
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., United States
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Professor Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan
Dr Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Professor Dexter Da Silva, Keisen University, Japan
Professor Gary Swanson, University of Northern Colorado, United States
Professor Baden Offord, Curtin University, Australia
Professor Frank Ravitch, Michigan State University, United States
Professor William Baber, Kyoto University, Japan

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Conference Programme Committee

Dr Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., United States

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IAFOR International Academic Advisory Board

General Education Section

Professor Shingo Ashizawa, Kansai University of International Studies, Japan
Dr Tzu-Bin Lin, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Professor David McLoughlin, Meiji University, Japan
Dr Keiichi Ogawa, Kobe University, Japan
Professor Mark Pegrum, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr Cynthia Northington Purdie, William Patterson University, United States
Dr Thanassis Rikakis, University of Southern California, United States
Dr Rachel Lam, Independent consultant, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Distinguished Professor Tien-Hui Chiang, Zhengzhou University, China
Dr Linda Schwartz, Ambrose University, Canada
Dr Justin Sanders, Minerva Project
Professor Svetlana Ter-Minasova, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Professor Joshua Mok, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Dr Yvonne Masters, Independent Researcher, Australia
Dr Bernard Montoneri, Independent Researcher, Taiwan
Professor Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan

Educational Technology Section

Professor Curtis Ho, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States
Professor Mark Pegrum, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr Thanassis Rikakis, University of Southern California, United States
Daniel Kjellsson, Future Talent Council, Sweden
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., United States
Professor Keith W. Miller, The University of Missouri, United States
Dr Jo Mynard, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan
Mr Matthew Kay, Nature Publishing, United Kingdom
Professor Robert Logie, Osaka Gakuin University, Japan
Dr Amanda Müller, Flinders University, Australia

Language Learning Section

Professor Kay Irie, Gakushuin University, Japan
Professor David McLoughlin, Meiji University, Japan
Dr Shamim Ali, Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan
Dr Christine Coombe, Dubai Men's College, United Arab Emirates
Professor Jean-Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
Professor Stephen J. Hall, Sunway University, Malaysia
Professor José McClanahan, Creighton University, United States
Professor Svetlana Ter-Minasova, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Dr Sufian Abu-Rmaileh, UAE University, United Arab Emirates
Professor Michiko Nakano, Waseda University, Japan
Dr Amanda Müller, Flinders University, Australia

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Conference Review Committee

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ERI2023 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

Apply to Join the Review Committee

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Embracing the Digital Shift: Unleashing the Potential of Flexible Learning
Keynote Presentation: Dale Pike

Higher education faces challenges and opportunities across the globe. In addition to environmental and political challenges, we face specific issues such as shifts in the demographic composition of university students and the potential impact of technologies like AI on education and the workforce. To respond to these challenges, we must become more flexible, both in what we deliver and how we deliver it. To collectively prepare for this required flexibility, I propose a focus on building capacity in three key areas: faculty digital fluency, flexible learning modalities, and emerging technologies.

Enhancing faculty digital fluency is vital for navigating technological and societal changes. We’ll define digital fluency and share specific strategies for faculty development, including training programs, peer mentoring, and augmenting resource accessibility. Through facilitation of continuous learning and adaptation, we enable educators to confidently navigate the ever-changing digital landscape.

Developing flexible learning modalities is essential for delivering learning experiences effectively. Traditional instructional methods may be too rigid to meet future needs. Through the application of learner-centered principles and leveraging adaptive learning technologies, we can tailor curricular offerings to more flexible modalities, ensuring success.

Consistently improving the adoption of emerging technologies requires a systematic approach to exploring and implementing them. This presentation will suggest strategies for identifying, evaluating, and integrating these technologies into teaching and learning, while overcoming adoption barriers. Examples of successful technology integration will offer insights into harnessing the potential of innovation.

By enhancing faculty digital fluency, developing flexible learning modalities, and consistently improving adoption of emerging technologies, we can deliver effective, boundaryless learning experiences that empower learners and redefine education.

Read presenter's biography
Existential Questions in Education: Research and Innovation
Keynote Presentation: Michael Menchaca

Research and innovation play significant roles for progress. With progress, debate follows. Major innovations throughout history, while often beneficial, also cause concern and disruption, whether military innovations like the atom bomb, economic innovations such as the free market, or work innovations like the assembly line. Usually, debates surrounding concerns are confined to academics or industrialists. However, the recent eruption of the progress of artificial intelligence has caused almost universal consternation. Universities, corporations, military institutions, banks, and even K-12 schools express concern and debate the challenges of AI. We’ve heard stories about AI systems lying to get humans to do their work, or suggesting one researcher leave his wife for the system, and recently Elon Musk and other scientists have called for a halt to the “AI race”. This almost universal reaction has led us to ask deep, existential questions about the role of research, innovation, and technology, about its effects on knowledge and education, and about an inconceivably changed future.

To further discussion, this presentation will showcase two perspectives on current research and innovation and the important questions they raise. First, I will provide insight regarding the AI discussion in my field, design and technology, and how we might reframe our perspective. Then, Kālewa Correa will discuss how reimagined historical research can counter deep-seated inaccuracies to staid narratives and refine cultural understanding. Finally, we will engage in a discussion with you as you bring your perspective from diverse fields.

Read presenter's biography
State or “State”?: The Innovations of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Keynote Presentation: Kālewa Correa

In 1843, the Hawaiian Kingdom was the first non-European country recognised as an independent state via the Anglo-Franco Proclamation. By 1893, that same country had over 21 treaties and 90 embassies operating worldwide; yet, this pre-United States rich history is often not widely known or presented in American education. Is this a coincidence or a matter of purpose? When information boundaries and patriotic-serving narratives are applied to historical truths, entire generations of progress can be swiftly obliterated in the blink of an eye. Nevertheless, through rediscovered histories unearthed in newspapers and archives, we are finding that it was 1800’s Hawai'i that was a true leader of democracy in the world. Listeners will be introduced to newly understood political concepts and innovations from historical Hawai'i that are not widely accessible or taught.

Read presenter's biography
Learning Beyond Boundaries, Learning Beyond Borders
Featured Interview: Tomoaki Ishigaki

Education has long played an important role in expanding people’s minds beyond the places and spaces into which they were born and raised. This includes from the home to the classroom, and from there to trips to local museums, places of interest and beyond. For many, this intellectual curiosity leads students, teachers and academics to travel, study and work abroad, and in doing so, they forge important personal and professional relationships between their home countries and those abroad.

However, as travelling beyond borders of discipline can have its risks, collaborating and colluding across cultural and international borders has its own, not least in times of global unrest. This interview with Japanese diplomat and legal scholar, Tomoaki Ishigaki, Minister at the Japanese embassy, will look at some of the challenges and opportunities faced in international education, research and innovation, drawing on his international experience and knowledge, with a particular focus on Japan and the United States.

Read presenter's biography
Dale Pike
Virginia Tech, United States

Biography

Dale Pike is an accomplished academic technology leader with over 29 years of experience in instructional technology and online learning in higher education. His past roles include serving as the Director of the Instructional Assistance Center at Snow College in Utah, Associate Dean for Instructional and Information Technology at UNC Charlotte, and Director of Academic Technologies at Boise State. He currently serves as the Associate Vice Provost for Technology-enhanced Learning at Virginia Tech.

In his current role, Dale oversees all aspects of institutional support for technology-enhanced learning, including comprehensive support for online and blended programs. Services managed include instructional design and production, support for digital learning platforms (including Canvas and Zoom), and support for faculty digital fluency development. He also has responsibilities for improving the accessibility of learning content and environments and has a strong track record of advocating for, supporting, and delivering successful outcomes in this area.

His professional areas of interest include personalized learning, agile methodologies, and the study of creativity and innovation within organizations. Recently, generative artificial intelligence has dominated his time and attention, from leading workshops and faculty communities of practice to actively exploring the implications of this potentially transformative (and disruptive) technology.

Dale is also passionate about personal creative pursuits such as pottery, watercolors, and calligraphy. He is committed to making a positive impact in his community and is actively involved as a board member of the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership, a local nonprofit organization.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Embracing the Digital Shift: Unleashing the Potential of Flexible Learning
Kālewa Correa
Smithsonian Institution, United States

Biography

Kālewa Correa is the Curator of Hawaii and the Pacific for the Smithsonian Institution's Asian Pacific American Center. He graduated from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Kamakakūʻokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, where he focused on Hawaiian traditional society and politics. He also holds advanced degrees in Information Science and Education Technology. As Curator of Hawaii and the Pacific, Correa's primary program is the Digital Storytelling Initiative called "Our Stories." This initiative aims to elevate the voices of Pacific Islanders on a national and international stage through mixed media formats such as film, podcasting, composition, and mixed reality.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | State or "State"?: The Innovations of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Tomoaki Ishigaki
Embassy of Japan in the United States of America, United States

Biography

Mr Ishigaki is the Minister of Congressional Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, assuming the post in July 2021. This is his third assignment in the US as he has previously served in the Embassy (1997-1999) and the Japanese Mission to the UN in New York (2010-2013).

Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994, he has covered a wide variety of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy including international trade, treaty negotiations at the United Nations, management of the Japan-US Alliance, humanitarian assistance and climate change talks.

Between 2018 and 2020, he served as the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office where he was in charge of international media relations and public diplomacy. In his most recent position as Director of the Economic Policy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, he oversaw Japan’s economic diplomacy which included attending G7 and G20 leaders’ meetings and addressing trade and investment issues at WTO and other forums.

He is a graduate of Amherst College and studied law at the University of Tokyo before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also lectured at the Department of Law at Keio University between 2007 and 2018. Additionally, he has taught International Relations at the University of Tokyo as well as International Environmental Law at the Graduate School of Law at Kyushu University.

Throughout his career, he has published a number of academic papers and contributed to books in the fields of international law, disarmament affairs, trade, and climate change policy.

Featured Interview (2023) | Learning Beyond Boundaries, Learning Beyond Borders
Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States

Biography

Michael Menchaca is Chair of the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He served as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technologies and Education Special Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Existential Questions in Education: Research and Innovation