Back at the office!

Post date: Aug 21, 2018 2:26:16 PM

So, I'm back at the office in Tartu University and already overwhelmed by various activities and events (among putting together the syllabus for my master-level course "Introduction to Learning Analytics". I am not complaining though. The past few days have been so informative and enlightening that I wish I could do double as much!

From August 17th to August 19th, we attended the Estonian Doctoral Summer School of Educational Sciences at Lepanina, Estonia. The doctoral students from the University of Tartu, University of Tallinn (TLU) and the University of Helsinki took the stage and blew my mind awaywith their creativity and solid work! I was super lucky to host a discussion of Digital Technologies and Learning Analytics and to have exceptional researchers in the discussion panel, such as Kairit Tammets, Tobias Ley, Katrin Saks and Leo Siiman (among others!) who shared their knowledge and perspective as food for thought.

Then, I attended the IEEE Estonia Section meeting (I'm a new IEEE member andreally happy with this opportunity) at Jäneda, Estonia where I gave a talk about our research line on Learning Analytics in the Centre for Educational Technology. More importantly, I had the opportunity to discuss on critical aspects of the application of Learning Analytics, such as privacy and data ownership, with well-established academics from all over Estonia and also to get familiar with the research trends in this magic country (including trying out the Meta2 AR Glasses)! Last but not least, we had a guided tour in the Jäneda Manor which has apparently a most interesting story to tell: the manor was owned byBaroness Maria Zakrevskaya Benckendorff Budberg (Moura) who was believed to be a double spy (for Russia and UK) and the first (?) Bond Girl (more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4neda).

And now.... now I'm preparing a talk for tomorrow's EduTech August session, in order to welcome our new master students with some Learning Analytics magic ;) Wish me luck