Empowering Early Education With Computational Thinking, AI, and STEM

Dr Stamatios Papadakis has been an assistant professor in educational technology with an emphasis on mobile learning at the Department of Preschool Education at the University of Crete, Greece. He has worked on several international and national pedagogy projects for pre-K to 16th grade education. His scientific and research interests include the study of mobile learning, especially on using smart mobile devices and their accompanying mobile applications (apps) in Preschool and Primary Education, focusing on developing Computational Thinking and students’ understanding of numbers. Furthermore, he currently investigates how a STEM learning approach influences learning achievement through a context-aware mobile learning environment in the preschool classroom and explains the effects on preschoolers' learning outcomes. He has published and book chapters in scientific peer-reviewed journals and international conferences (including Computers & Education, Education and Information Technologies, and Early Childhood Education Journal).

Michail Kalogiannakisis an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Thessaly and Associate Tutor at School of Humanities at the Hellenic Open University in Greece. He graduated from the Physics Department of the University of Crete and continued his postgraduate studies at the University Paris 7-Denis Diderot (D.E.A. in Didactic of Physics), University Paris 5-René Descartes-Sorbonne (D.E.A. in Science Education) and received his PhD degree at the University Paris 5-René Descartes-Sorbonne (PhD in Science Education). His research interests include science education in the early childhood, science teaching and learning, e-learning, the use of ICT in education, distant and adult education. He has published many articles in international conferences and journals and has served on the program committees of numerous international conferences.