robert fitzgerald, phd

Robert is Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Education and a Senior Research Fellow in the Australian Institute for Sustainable Communities at the University of Canberra and Director of an ACIAR-funded research project based in Cambodia. He has a strong record of research and publication in information and communications technology (ICT) particularly around its application to learning and capacity-building. The Australian Research Council’s (ARC) College of Experts recognise him as an 'expert of international standing' and he serves as an Assessor (INTREADER) for their National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP).  Robert is a highly-regarded teacher and an active researcher who has successfully undertaken funded research in the areas of learning, literacy and information technologies. He has  held a research fellowship at the University of Canberra since 2004 and has over sixteen years experience in research, teaching and administration in higher education. Robert's two current projects, Digital Learning Communities (Carrick Institute for learning and teaching in Higher Education) and Electronic Marketing Communication Systems in Cambodia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), are leading-edge projects attracting international interest and involvement.

Areas of Interest

• Elearning and the application of Web2.0 and social technologies such as blogs, wikis and folksonomies (tagging) to learning and problem solving.
• ICT integration and the application of collaborative technologies
  to learning and teaching; the development of online communities of
  practice; and the use of team meeting systems such as Zing.
• Application of ICT for development (ICT4D) with recent successful experience working on a rural information and capacity building project in Cambodia.
• Activity Theory (cf Engestrom); Communities of Practice (cf Lave;
  Wenger) and Social Psychology (cf Vygotsky, Luria and Leontiev).
• Active builder-user currently working with Drupal, Moodle, Wordpress, Mediawiki, Elgg, OpenAcademic and other systems built on the LAMP platform.

Past Media Coverage

• $5m centre puts UC at cutting edge of education revolution, Canberra Times, 15/10/09.
• SMS rewards Cambodia’s farmers, Sunday Canberra Times, 21/06/09.
• Mobile phones & Farmers. ABC 666 Canberra (Canberra) Early Breakfast - 19/06/2009 6:48 AM.
• Australian developed SMS network to assist Cambodia's farmers, Global Times (China), 19/06/09.
• Is technology eating our brains? Interview with Peter Munro, Sunday Age, 8/02/09.
• SMS in Cambodia. Interview with Melissa Loudon from MobileActive.org on our use of Frontline SMS Review, 10/30/08.
• Cambodian farmers turn to their phones, Interview with Ken Banks. kiwanja.net, 8/10/08.
• FrontlineSMS: Continues to Foster Change. Featured on the Internet & Democracy Project at Harvard University, 1/08/08.
• Wikis, Interview with Mike Jeffreys Breakfast 1206 2CC, 4/4/08.
• Networking technology making possible new forms of pedagogy, Carrick Communique, 1/3/08.
• Social Software Next in Education, Canberra Times, 3/08.
• Social Networking, Herald Sun, 3/08.
• Digital Text Books, Sunday Mail in Adelaide, 2/08.
• Values teaching works: study, Canberra Times, 2/08
• 6th International Conference on Imagination and Education, Canberra Times, 30/01/08.
• 6th
  International Conference on Imagination and Education, Canberra Times
  interview and photograph with Leung Hui Leng, 01/02/08.
• Virtual games, ABC 702 Sydney (Sydney). Interview with James O’Loghlin, 8:30 PM, 17/10/06.
• Short
  Message System (SMS) for improving the marketing of maize and soybean
  in Cambodia, Rasmei Kampuchea Daily, Kingdom of Cambodia, 27/09/06.
• Higher learning, Meagre Bytes, Canberra Times, 11/9/06.
• Computer games and double lives, Interview with Alison Manning, ABC Radio (Western Plains), 2:45 pm, 15/2/06.
• Schools must tune in to the new technologies, Canberra Times, Page 1, 29/09/05.
• Kids’ computer games not all bad: academics, Canberra Times, Education Section, 24/09/05.