Koula CharitonosThe Open University (UK) · Institute of Educational Technology
Koula Charitonos
About
27
Publications
6,666
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236
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Educational Technology in the Open University UK . Research interests: mobile learning; refugee education; professional learning; formal and informal learning; museums see http://www.open.ac.uk/people/kc4683.
Additional affiliations
November 2015 - February 2017
Education
October 2009 - December 2015
October 2008 - September 2009
October 2006 - September 2007
Publications
Publications (27)
Key to introducing information and communication technologies in museums is to support meaning making activity in encounters with artefacts. The study presented in this paper is exploratory in nature and investigates the use of social and mobile technologies in school field trips as a means of enhancing the visitor experience. It is anchored in soc...
Changing work practice is critical when addressing global challenges. The expansion of work is mediated by a range of tensions inherent in the complex systems within which global challenges exist. This study examines tensions that inhibit the expansion of work practices contextualized within the global health challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance (...
The rising numbers of forcibly displaced peoples on the move globally, and the challenges with providing access to education, reflect the shifting and complex times that we live in. Even though there has been a proliferation in educational research in the context of forced migration, in line with the increasing number of forced migrants, there has...
Britain’s asylum system fails the most vulnerable; it cannot ensure that people who are least able to protect themselves are provided with the legal assistance that they require to cope with the challenges with which they are inevitably faced. Against this background, the charity Refugee Action developed the Frontline Immigration Advice Programme (...
This chapter considers the potential of social and mobile technologies to support connecting formal aspects of learning with informal learning experiences that occur during museum visits with an aim to address one specific challenge, namely the need to understand and promote learning across school and out-of-school contexts. It draws on the concept...
This is the tenth report in a series of reports exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment. It proposes ten promising innovations for a post-pandemic world of education: hybrid models, dual learning scenarios, pedagogies of microcredentials, pedagogy of autonomy, watch parties, influencer-led education, pedagogies of the home, pedagog...
Studies using co-design methods require the meaningful involvement of stakeholders in creating new knowledge and harnessing, mobilising, and transferring existing knowledge to support comprehensive and long-term solutions. In the health sector, co-design methodology is seen as a way of supporting and engaging local communities in critical decision-...
Purpose:
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a huge global challenge calling for changes in learning and working in health-care settings. The purpose of this study is to examine tensions expressed by professionals involved in AMR in three low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in Asia and Africa.
Design/methodology/approach:
The qualitative study w...
This article examines tensions that professionals in healthcare settings in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs) face in the evolving field around surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Few public health problems are of greater global importance today than AMR, that poses a threat to our ability to treat infections. In this context, the...
This paper presents recent research projects carried out at The Open University UK that involved work with migrant learners. Across these projects the aim was to understand the use of mobile technologies, to create and evaluate a number of mobile applications for informal learning scenarios, and to design learning activities with an aim to support...
The paper gives an overview of the development, deployment and evaluation of ImparApp, a location-based game to support teaching and learning of Italian Language. It draws on a project currently developed at Coventry University, which examines pervasive approaches to learning and exploits game-based techniques in contextualising language learning i...
Heritage language education is distinct from the field of second language acquisition due to having the concept of identity always at its core (Leeman et al., 2012). This paper draws on this concept and presents an action research study focusing on teaching and learning of Greek as a heritage language in the context of Supplementary Education in th...
Language learning increasingly takes place beyond the language classroom in learners’ own environments. Alongside this the recent technological developments and widespread use of mobile technologies challenge traditional knowledge and skills. The paper presents the ImparApp study that focuses on a pervasive and gamified approach to language teachin...
Supplementary Schools in the UK offer educational opportunities for children and young people outside mainstream school provision. The paper reports an enquiry undertaken by practitioners in Greek Supplementary Schools in the UK to explore how features of mobile technologies may be leveraged to foster heritage language learning. It draws on the vie...
Several community schools across the UK provide young people of Greek heritage the opportunity to learn their heritage language and to enhance their knowledge of Greek culture and history. Anecdotal evidence indicates that a concern shared among teachers in Greek schools is to encourage learner engagement and motivation. Mobile technologies are vie...
This paper explores the use of social and mobile technologies on school field trips as means of enhancing the visitor experience. It employs the notion of a ‘trajectory’ (Ludvigsen et al. 2010; Pierroux et al., 2010; Littleton & Kerawalla, 2012) as appropriate means of connecting learners temporal experiences with informal and formal learning conte...
Optical measurement systems were originally developed for industrial applications. Due to their versatility of use and "touchless" non-invasive method of working they have also been employed for many years in the field of restoration, conservation and ...
One of the challenges for museums in the Web era is to complement, enhance and extend on-site learning with on-line learning. Web statistics often indicate a high number of users of schools resources in museums’ Web sites; however, these numbers do not reveal how the resources are being used in the classroom. This paper seeks to gain a better under...
Advances in Web technologies provide the means for museums to create a new audience of active cultural participants. In the web-era, museums can “reconstruct the value of their authentic experiences” (Peacock and Russo, 2009) and complement, enhance and extend on-site learning with online learning. Museums are valued by teachers as they provide acc...
Projects
Projects (7)
The Fleming Fund is a UK Government Aid programme to help low and middle-income countries (LMICs) address priorities in tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), through a diverse range of projects that are delivered through a number of key partners. We are exploring how professional learning can strengthen surveillance of drug resistance and laboratory capacity. The Open University UK is working with Mott MacDonald to identify needs and to design, implement and test a series of learning events to support capacity building. This work takes place over the period 2018-2022 in Low-Middle Income Countries worldwide.
Our work contributes to Global Actions to address the global challenge of rising drug resistance by providing and testing educational approaches to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Education.
Antibiotics have transformed the lives of people who have access to them. In the UK alone the number of people who die from infectious diseases has reduced from 40% to 7% over the past century due to a combination of factors including improved public health and sanitation as well as antibiotic treatments. However, bacteria have proved highly adaptable and resistant and, as new forms of antibiotics are developed, microbes are responding through a broad range of resistance strategies. As bacteria become more resistant to treatments, more people are at risk. 1.5 million people worldwide die each year from forms of infection that are resistant to antibiotic treatments. This problem is getting worse at an alarming rate and immediate global action is needed to minimise the impact of AMR.
Antimicrobial resistance can be described through biological terms and mechanisms, but it is shaped by social, cultural, political and economic drivers. Understanding how healthcare professionals understand, value and use antimicrobials, as well as the context in which health professionals develop work practices related to AMR are key to our research. We view learning for work as a critical component of innovation and the adoption of new and contemporary work practices. We are also interested in developments in technologies and digital networks and how these are stimulating the evolution of systemic new work practices while automating others, especially by examining changes in the professional practice of people who work in areas relevant to AMR.
The research questions are as following:
RQ1: What are the major influencers that shape antimicrobial resistance in LMICs? (Phase 1, April – June 2018). This work is based on interviews with over 20 international experts in AMR and desk-based review.
RQ2: How do the influencers (identified in RQ1) impact on ways of working within primary care workplaces in LMICs? (Phase 2, June-Sept 2018)
In Phase 3 (Oct 2018 – March 2019) we will design, implement and test a range of interventions as learning events and examine:
RQ3: How do outcomes from Phase 1 Phase 2 inform the design of learning events supported by technology that strengthen AMR surveillance?
RQ4: To what extent do learning events from Phase 3 improve awareness, attitudes and practices regarding AMR in LMICs?
RQ5: Do these learning events engender or reinforce positive organisational culture to strengthen AMR surveillance?
The evaluation examines the Frontline Immigration Advice Project, one of Refugee Action’s flagship projects. The Frontline Immigration Advice project (FIAP) was introduced in 2016 as a response to drastic changes in Legal Aid provision in the UK that were enforced by major policy changes. The FIAP aims to widen early access to free, good quality and appropriately regulated legal advice for migrants and refugees in order to understand their options and make informed decisions about their futures.
The FIAP introduces a new model of community-based legal advice provision that involves strategic work with frontline organisations to strengthen their service capability to provide immigration advice, tailored to their specific context and needs, and linking them with immigration advice practice networks to sustain their provision of this service. As part of this, the FIAP also includes a professional development programme for practitioners in the charitable sector (i.e. caseworkers, advisors, volunteers) that builds upon the possibilities offered by online technologies.
The evaluation of the Frontline Immigration Advice Project (FIAP) will demonstrate the impact and development options of the FIAP and will provide strategic insight to Refugee Action. The aims of the evaluation are as follows:
To assess the FIAP’s online provision and provide short-term development options for the FIAP programme, by considering the wider Community-based Legal Advice context within which the FIAP is operating.
To provide baseline data on existing provision of immigration legal advice to vulnerable people in the UK.
To assess the impact of the FIAP on advisors and their organisations.
To identify tools and systems to support access to quality immigration advice through a robust monitoring and evaluation framework.
To provide concise and informative insight reports to Refugee Action, with evidence-based indications of successes, issues and lessons learnt.
To provide recommendations to Refugee Action on how to embed and deliver high-quality services that are scalable and sustainable in an environment of reduced funding.
