The Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) is a new, public university founded in 2003.  The University aspires to become a pioneering university, offering high level training and research in popular fields, which today offer great economic, technical, and scientific output.  With an applied research orientation, the Cyprus University of Technology aims in providing important aid to the local society to help it cope with problems that it faces in all the fields of science, technology and knowledge while contributing to the international research community.  CUT currently has five faculties (Geotechnical Sciences and Environmental Management, Economics and Management, Applied Arts and Communications, Engineering and Technology, and Health Sciences) with plans to expand its faculties to ten in the next few years.  The Department of Communication and Internet Studies, in the Faculty of Applied Arts and Communications, aims in the education of high level scientists and the promotion of research and relative applications in the scientific fields of Education, Communications, Mass Media and the Internet. The focus of the degree and of the scientific research is the effect of new technologies on learning, the economy, politics, culture and society.  The Cyprus University of Technology is actively engaged in research at local and European level and in spite its newly founded status, is participating in numerous research projects.  More recently, Dr. Kyza is the coordinator of the FP7, Science in Society project titled “Digital support for Inquiry, Collaboration, and Reflection on Socio-Scientific Debates” (CoReflect, Grant No:277792, www.coreflect.org).  One of the CoReflect project emphases is the investigation of the collaboration between teachers and researchers in designing and empirically validating inquiry-based learning environments.

 

The CUT team is led by Dr. Eleni A. Kyza, an Assistant Professor in Information Society in the Department of Communication and Internet Studies.  Collectively, the team has extensive experience in working with teachers and developing reform-based learning materials.  Dr. Kyza has been involved in research related to inquiry-based science education for the last ten years.  Her professional interests include the design and empirical evaluation of web-based environments to promote learning and teaching, with an emphasis on inquiry-based science.   Dr.  Kyza holds a Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences from Northwestern University, with a specialization in Cognitive Science, a master’s degree in Technology in Education, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a B.Sc. in Education, with a concentration in Educational Media & Technology from Boston University.  She also has a teacher’s diploma and has taught at the elementary, high school and university levels.  She has experience in developing and researching web-based learning materials for science learning, integrating a variety of technological tools in the learning process.   Dr. Kyza has participated in a number of interdisciplinary and multi-university research groups, as well as professional and research networks in the United States, Europe, and Cyprus.  She has also participated as a project manager in several EU-funded projects.  For the past few years she has served as a consultant for the Ministry of Education and Culture and has organized in-service training seminars for science teachers.

 

Dr. Andri Ioannou is a Lecturer in the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts. She has a Ph.D. in Educational Technology from the University of Connecticut (USA) and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Cyprus. Her research interests include the design and evaluation of computer-supported collaborative learning environments, the use of web 2.0 technologies to promote student collaboration and knowledge construction, and the integration of technology in education. Andri has been extensively involved in research related to these topics. In her dissertation work -- funded by the Cyprus Promotion Foundation -- Andri investigated the complex interactions that take place among collaborators in wiki and threaded discussion environments and the affordances of these technologies to promote student collaboration and knowledge construction in asynchronous courses at the university level. For four years, Andri worked on the GlobalEd project designed to examine how educational technologies, currently available in most middle/high schools, can be used to support problem-based learning activities and engage students in critical thinking and decision making. As a research assistant on the project, Andri participated in teacher preparation through workshops, designed instructional materials, developed questionnaires and interview protocols for evaluation purposes, analyzed quantitative and qualitative data, and generated technical and research reports.

 

Yiannis Georgiou is a researcher with the Cyprus PROFILES team.  He has a Master’s degree in “Learning in Natural Sciences” and a BA in Primary Education from the University of Cyprus. He was a member of the Learning in Science Group (LSG) at the University of Cyprus between 2007-2010. He has been working at the Cyprus Center of Environmental Research and Education (2010-today).  He participated in the development and evaluation of learning materials for the enrichment of the Cyprus Science Curriculum in the framework of the FLORA research project. As part of this research, he got a distinction in the competition of the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (RPF) “Students in Research 2008-2009”. His research interests include the design, development and evaluation of curriculum materials, and the integration of new learning technologies within the field of natural sciences.  As of September 2011, Yiannis is also a Ph.D. student at the Cyprus University of Technology. 

 

Dr. Christothea Herodotou has a Ph.D. degree in Digital Games and Psychology from the Institute of Education, University of London. Her doctoral research concerned the process of game appropriation with an emphasis on factors motivating game use particularly gamers’ psychological characteristics. Christothea holds an MSc in Education, Technology and Society, University of Bristol and a BA in Primary Education, University of Cyprus. As a member of the Cyprus Educational Mission, she had been teaching at the Greek community schools in London for five years. As from September 2010, she is a research associate of the CoReflect and PROFILES project at the Cyprus University of Technology. Her research interests include the use of new information and communication technologies, especially digital games, and their relation to behaviour, self-identity, and daily practices. In respect of the PROFILES programme, she is particularly interested in issues of IBSE using innovative technologies.

Local website of the PROFILES group of theCyprus University of Technology