Maria Jose Loureiro Ph.D., is a full-time professor in mobility at the ICT Competence Center of the University of Aveiro, part of the Team of Resources and Educational Technology of the General Direction of Education, Portuguese Ministry of Education. As a researcher she is a member of the Research Center on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers She holds a Ph.D. in Didactics and Distant Learning from the University of Aveiro - 2007, a European Master in Sciences Education specialty in Technological Education (University of Valenciennes - France, Mons - Belgium and Aveiro, Portugal - 1994) and a First degree in teaching French and Portuguese by the University of Aveiro in 1983. She is a teachers’ trainer in ICT and a Member of the International Council of Educational Media (ICEM) belonging to this organization’s executive committee. She is also a member of several international projects and research teams in the fields of Digital Education. Her research interests are related to computer-mediated interaction and argumentation, online and academic writing, online/distance learning and teaching, computational thinking and tangible robotics, communities of practice, and integration of digital technology in teaching/training. She took part in different congresses, seminars, conferences, and workshops and was invited speaker in a national and international level. She publishes, since the 90ies, in several journals and books in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. From 1982 to 2002, she was a secondary teacher of French and Portuguese and a pre-service teachers' supervisor. She also was an invited assistant in superior education.
Ana Loureiro has a PhD and a Master's degree in Multimedia in Education, a postgraduate degree in Information Management and a degree in New Communication Technologies from the University of Aveiro. She is currently a Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém (School of Education - Department of Educational Technologies) where she coordinates a master's programme in Digital Resources in Education and a degree in Multimedia Production in Education. She is vice-director of Interacções Journal and was recently elected Chair for Marketing and Communication of the International Council for Educational Media (ICEM). As a researcher she is an integrated member of LE@D - Distance Education and eLearning Laboratory of the Universidade Aberta and member of CIDTFF - Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers of the University of Aveiro. Her internationalization as a Professor has included the University of the People (Instructor of the Online Education Strategies course); and invitations to teach at the West University of Timisoara, Romania; Mustafa Kemal University, Antakya, Turkey; and Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities, Poland, under the ERASMUS Teacher Mobility programme. She is a tutor at the Doctoral Joint European Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning (JTEL) since 2012. Over the last years, she has coordinated and collaborated in several national and international (funded) projects, published a wide variety of articles and belongs to several scientific committees (journals, books, conferences). Research interests: distance education and e-Learning, Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), immersive 3D virtual worlds, social media and web 2.0 tools for collaborative, cooperative, social and lifelong learning, digital and information literacy, online content curation, open digital educational resources, PLE/N (personal learning environments and networks)
Hannah R. Gerber, Ph.D., is a Professor of Literacy at Sam Houston State University and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Language Education, Arts, and Culture at the University of South Africa. Currently, she is the President of the International Council for Educational Media, one of the oldest organizations in the world dedicated to educational media (circa 1950). A former high school English teacher, Gerber’s research focuses on youth culture and digital practices, particularly adolescent videogaming practices and the literacy experiences that are developed within. Gerber’s work has won multiple research awards including the “Divergent Award for Excellence in 21st Century Literacies Research” an award given to “recognize the indelible contributions of educators and scholars who have dedicated their careers to the theoretical and practical study of 21st century literacies”. Additionally she is a two-time recipient for the Sam Houston State University College of Education Faculty Excellence in Research Award (2014 and 2020). Gerber has given over a dozen keynote addresses at national and international conferences across five continents. Additionally, her research has been discussed in mainstream media venues, such as Wired Magazine. With more than 70 published works to date, she has co-authored and edited seven books including, Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces (Sage). Her most recent research can be found in top peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Tech Trends, The Qualitative Report, Educational Media International and English Journal. She is an Associate editor for the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches and a founding co-editor of the Gaming Ecologies and Pedagogies book series. She is passionate about mentoring new academics and burgeoning scholars in the field of digital literacy and she enjoys engaging doctoral students in critical and creative inquiry that will further the field of digital literacies and digital methods.