Professor Tim O'Shea (Profile)
"Ten design challenges for the next generation of electronic universities"

Professor Elliot Soloway (Profile)
"Towards A Learner-Centered Design Process"

Professor Tim O'Shea

Timothy O'Shea has a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Experimental Psychology from the University of Sussex and a Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Leeds. He has carried out research on the educational applications of computers at the universities of Texas at Austin and Edinburgh. He joined the Open University in 1978 where he founded the Computer Assisted Learning Research Group and worked on a range of educational technology research and development projects.

His best know publication is "Learning and Teaching with Computers"' co-authored with John Self which has been translated into various languages including Japanese and German. His other publications include eight books, more than 100 articles and the six part BBC series 'The Learning Machine'.

He is past Chair of AISB, the Artificial Intelligence Society and past President of the Psychology section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The Open University awarded him a Personal Chair in Information Technology and Education in 1987 and in 1994 appointed him Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Quality Assurance and Research.

His current research projects include work on portable computing in education, the use of very large electronic whiteboards in group decision-making, ordering effects in human learning and the design of interactive learning environments for hard mathematical and scientific concepts.

In 1997 he was elected Master of Birkbeck College and was awarded a Chair in Information and Communication Technologies by the University of London. He took up his new office in Bloomsbury on 1st January 1998. He also holds a visiting Research Professorship in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning at the Open University.

He is a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Standing Committee on Equal Opportunities, Access and Lifelong Learning. He is also a Trustee of EduServ and Chairman of the Board of the London Metropolitan Area Network. On 1 January 2000 he was appointed as Provost of Gresham College, a post he holds concurrently with that as Master of Birkbeck.

Professor Elliot Soloway

Elliot Soloway is on the faculty at the University of Michigan; he is a Professor in College of Engineering, School of Education, and School of Information.

For the past 10 years, Soloway and his colleagues in the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education (Hi-CE) - now composed of over 60 undergraduate and graduate students - have been exploring the ways in which computing and communications technologies can be the catalyst in bringing a constructivist, project-based pedagogy to science classrooms.

The Hi-CE group is developing science curricula that embeds technology into the everyday experiences of students and teachers. As well, the Hi-CE group is developing professional development workshops and materials that support teachers in carrying out these project-based, technology-pervasive curricula in their classrooms.

Attempting to integrate theory and practice in public schools, Hi-CE now works in over 20 schools in cities such as Detroit MI and towns such as Pleasantville NJ.

There is an opportunity now for making major changes in education, with technology as the Trojan Mouse. He and his colleagues are working full-tilt to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.