Caroline Kuhn is from Venezuela where she has been concerned with the profound and increasing social inequality. This concern inspired her to pursue a career as a mathematics teacher, so she could engage with and support socially disadvantaged students in their journey into university. Her master’s thesis focused on cognitive tools to improve students’ mathematical knowledge. Political and ethical reasons brought her out of Venezuela and into Europe in 2011. Short research experiences at the Complutense University (Madrid) and the the Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (Utrecht University) led to her current PhD research at Bath Spa University. Her thesis explores how, why and to what extent undergraduates engage/don’t engage with digital tools and platforms. She challenges deterministic assumptions such as young people being ‘digital natives’ by looking beyond the obvious to shed light on the complex and nuanced reality of students’ (open/closed) digital practices. She aim at uncovering the hidden mechanisms that more often than not constrain student’s agency, in particular, in their (open) educaional practices. Educational technology use must be addressed in relation with the social setting students operate in so that the interplay between students’ agency and social structures can be explored, opening possibilities for social change. Currently she is a senior lecturer in education and technology at Bath Spa University leading a new award in education, technology and innovation. Website: https://carolinekuhn.net/

Other work:

Kühn H., C. (2019). Whose interest is educational technology serving? Who is included and who is excluded? RIED. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 22(1), pp. 207-220. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ried.22.1.22293

Dr. Judith Pete is a passionate and innovative professional with passion for continuous learning and professional development. She is an open education practitioner and champion, who has achieved excellent academic prowess, with the most recent being a PhD in Management, Science and Technology from the Open University in Netherlands. She also studied for an MBA in Financial management and a Bachelors of Arts in Sustainable Human Development. She is actively involved in open research, training, leadership and management, policy formulation, fund raising and humanitarian support to the marginalized groups in society. She is very passionate about Climate Change having recently enrolled for an online course on Climate Change: from Science to Lived Experiences. A part from being a reliable team leader, she has admirable public relations skills, which has built strategic partnerships from within and outside the organizations she has interacted with. She is currently a senior lecturer and research coordinator at Tangaza University College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. Twitter: @judyphalet; Facebook: judiambu1

Taskeen Adam is a Cambridge-Africa scholar pursuing doctoral research at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD on ‘Addressing injustices through MOOCs’ specifically focuses on digital neo-colonialism and epistemic violence. Her journey to this topic started when she, as an engineer, founded Solar Powered Learning, with the idea that technology alone could improve education. Recognising this flawed logic led her to pursue her masters on the Sustainable Implementation of the One Laptop per Child project in Rwanda, alongside pioneering the Mobile Education for Smart Technology project in India, which both focused on the sociological rather than technical aspects of implementation. These projects highlighted that historical injustices, cultural imposition, and economic dependence continue to play a pivotal role in education.

Other works:

Between Social Justice and Decolonisation: Exploring South African MOOC Designers’ Conceptualisations and Approaches to Addressing Injustices

Digital neocolonialism and massive open online courses (MOOCs): colonial pasts and neoliberal futures

Open educational practices of MOOC designers: embodiment and epistemic location