509 About the Contributors Martin Ebner is currently head of the Department for Social Learning of Computer and Informa- tion Services at Graz University of Technology. He is responsible for all e-Learning activities of the University. His research focuses strongly on the use of Web 2.0 for teaching and learning purposes. Martin has delivered a number of lectures and seminars around the topic of e-Learning and the use of computers in educational settings. He studied civil engineering from 1995–2000 and got his M.Sc. from the Institute of Structural Concrete. Afterwards Martin worked as scientific assistant at the Institute of Structural Concrete and wrote his Ph.D. thesis about e-Learning in structural engineering. Since 2005 he holds a Ph.D. in technical sciences from Graz University of Technology. From 2005 to 2006 he worked at the Institute for Building Informatics as Assistant Professor. Since September 2006 Martin is head of the Department for Social Learning at the Computing and Information Services. He wrote not only an amount of international publications and gave a number of presentations about e-Learning, he is also member of various national and international research groups and scientific boards. Martin is one of the biggest EduBlogger in the German speaking area and conducts the e-Learning Blog (http:// elearningblog.tugraz.at). Mandy Schiefner is vice head at the center for university teaching and learning at University of Zurich. She studied educational science, information science and art history at Saarland University in Germany. After assistant activities at the chair of educational science at Saarland University, she worked at University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. In different projects she imple- ment e-learning in further education in companies. From 2006 she worked at the E-Learning Center at University of Zurich and supported university lecturers in implementing e-learning technologies. Since 2007 she works at the University teaching and learning center. Mandy publicates primarly in media education and teacher education. She’s also a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Media Education, University of Augsburg. Her research interests include teaching and learning in higher education and teacher education, especially with digital media.” * * * Catherine Adams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Secondary Education at the Uni- versity of Alberta, Canada. Dr. Adams’ primary research interests concern the pervasive integration of digital technologies in education. Her main approach to inquiry is phenomenology, which she sometimes augments with complementary qualitative research methods such as human environmental aesthetics, media ecology, and Actor-Network-Theory. There are strong historical links between phenomenology, Copyright © 2010, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. About the Contributors philosophy of technology, and media scholarship, and these convergences of understandings and insights form the basis of her approach to a pedagogy of technology. Dr. Adams’ other research interests extend into the following areas: ethical, pedagogical, and curricular issues provoked by information and com- munication technology (ICT) integration in schools; philosophy of technology, critical media studies, and media ecology; Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) studies; aesthetics of human environments, particularly educational software architectures; and computer science teacher education. Dietrich Albert is professor of psychology at University of Graz, senior scientist at Graz University of Technology, Knowledge Management Institute and key researcher at the Know-Center Graz. Since 1993 Dietrich is the head of the Cognitive Science Section at the University of Graz, the Department of Psychology’s largest working group. In the preceding years he was with the Universities of Göttingen, Marburg, Heidelberg, and Hiroshima. His research topics cover several areas, including learning and memory, psychometrics, anxiety and performance, psychological decision theory, computer based tuto- rial systems, values and behaviour. Dietrich’s actual focus is on knowledge and competence structures, their applications, and empirical research. By working with psychologists, computer scientists, and mathematicians several academic disciplines are represented within his research team. Beside national activities, his expertise in European research and development projects is documented by several suc- cessful European projects. Thomas Bernhardt is research assistant and PhD student at the University of Bremen / Germany in the Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences. His main focus lies in Web 2.0 especial the ef- fects of social software on education. In this connection he designs implementations of social media for classroom and university teachings (E-Learning 2.0). Furthermore he is interested in the developement of personal learning enviroments (PLE) by learners for their lerning management. He is one of the co- founders and organisators of the German EduCamps. Adriaan (Adrie) J. M. Beulens graduated in mathematics and informatics at the Technical University Eindhoven (TUE), NL in 1972. Presently he is full professor of Information Systems at Social Sciences Group of Wageningen University (WU) and chair of the Information Technology Group. He is member of a wide range of councils and boards in organizations that rely on ICT and information management. With respect to ICT the following positions are relevant. He is Dutch representative in the IFIP - TC7 council and member of the TC7.6 task group. He is member of the advisory council of the Professional University INHOLLAND, Delft, NL and member of the board of EDICT, a foundation aimed to sup- port education with information and communication technology. He is member of the advisory board of the Maastricht School of Management. He is (co-) author of a large number of papers of which most in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Martha Burkle is the CISCO Research Chair in e-Learning at SAIT Polytechnic. A pioneer in the research field of the use of technologies for development, her research examines the role of technologies in the knowledge society, and the impact of e-Learning within the Knowledge economy. After completing her PhD on Technology Policies and Higher Education at the University of Sussex, Dr. Burkle moved to Mexico where she was Associate Professor at the Doctoral Program in Humanities at the Monterrey Institute of Technologies University. In 2006 she moved to Calgary and assumed the CISCO Research Chair position at SAIT, where she has been doing research on the impact of information technologies in 510 About the Contributors teaching and learning. Her research interests include the impact of mobile technologies in just in time training, the use of Second Life to facilitate hands on learning, and students’ e-readiness in Canada. She is a Board Member for a number of higher education institutions, an author of numerous research papers, case studies and research reports, and has presented her work at a number of conferences around the world. Lisa Carrington is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong. Lisa’s PhD utilises a comparative case study approach focusing on the experiences of first and final year pre- service teachers enrolled in an undergraduate education degree who engaged with a virtual learning environment provided by an online classroom simulation (ClassSim). Lisa Carrington expects to submit her PhD thesis late 2009. Lisa is currently teaching in the area of ICT education and research methods and is completing a Graduate Certificate in Research Commercialisation at the University of Wollongong. Weiqin Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Science and Media Stud- ies, University of Bergen. She received her Ph.D in Computer Science (AI) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Before moving to Bergen she worked first as a researcher at Osaka University in Japan, then as researcher and project leader at an Internet start-up company in Tokyo. She has participated in several national and international projects in technology-enhanced learning including DOCTA-NSS (Design and use of Collaborative Telelearning Artefacts –Natural Science Studio) and EU Network of Excellence, Kaleidoscope. She is currently leading UiB’s participation in EU 7th framework project SCY (Science Created by You). Her current research focuses on intelligent support for learning, emerging learning objects, and multimedia learning. Her work has been published in major conferences, books and journals dealing with advanced research in learning and intelligent systems for education. Grainne Conole is Professor of E-Learning in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK. Her research interests include the use, integration and evaluation of Information and Communication Technologies and e-learning and the impact of technologies on organisational change. Two of her current areas of interest are how learning design can help in creating more engaging learn- ing activities and on Open Educational Resources research. She has published and presented over 300 conference proceedings, workshops and articles, including over 100 publications on a range of topics, including the use and evaluation of learning technologies. She is co-editor of the the RoutledgeFalmer book ëContemporary perspectives on e-learning research. Thomas