I am currently completing my PhD in the Faculty of Education at the University of Canberra. The focus of my research is drawing in education. My thesis topic is “Drawing for Learning: Investigating Pedagogical Frameworks and Teacher Practice in STEM Education.”
Projects
STEM Education: Digital Play
ELSA (Early Learning STEM Australia) Preschool Pilot ($8,800,000)
Federal Department of Education, Training, Skills and Employment. Early learning play-based digital program to engage young children in STEM.
The commercial program is now available: https://elsaprogram.com.au
ELSA (Early Learning STEM Australia) F-2 RCT/Pilot ($5,400,000)
Federal Department of Education, Training, Skills and Employment. A Foundation to Year-2 digital program to increase participation and learning in STEM.
ELSA F-2 Project site: https://elsaschools.edu.au/
Augmented Reality
ARstudio: Creating Opportunities for Multimodal Layered Learning through Augmented Reality ($224,000) Office of Learning and Teaching Funded Awards: Investigating new modes of mobile learning and augmented reality and their application to higher education.
AR Studio: https://sites.google.com/view/arstudio/home
Presentations and Workshops
Design Thinking 2016 Conference, 26th June SYDNEY
I was invited to talk on Design Thinking in Education & Research at the Sydney Design Thinking Conference. Using case studies from my work at the Inspire Centre for Education and Training to present the design methodologies underlying our work in learning spaces, augmented reality, and ICT in education.
ARC – Designing for Location Based Educational Services
I co-led four design workshops as part of the ARC linkage grant working with Questacon and the National Portrait Gallery to discover how information technology can augment the visitor experience. Using an iterative, design-based approach, the workshops brought multiple stakeholders together and showed how location-based educational services, coupled with mobile apps, could be designed to enrich the experience for school students visiting the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.
Higher Education Learning Space Design Conference 2016, 6th Sep, Sydney
I was invited to give a keynote presentation on learning space design and how deign thinking works to build collaboration and innovation with stakeholders particularly in higher education.
Next Generation Learning Spaces (Singapore)
As part of the Inspire Centre team we were invited to the Next Generation Learning Space conference in Singapore to run a design thinking workshop on identyfiying needs and solutions for technology-enhanced innovative learning spaces.
ELSA Presentations
NISA – Federal Department of Education Digital Technologies Steering Committee Mini-conference
Presenting the work and impact of ELSA to Federal Govenment Departments as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) projects. October 2018.
AUSTRADE ACT Showcase (2022)
Invited to present the work of ELSA to the Austrade Malaysian Trade and Investment Commissioner (Melanie Harris) as part of the ACT’s showcase of entrepreneurial businesses which have possibilities for international export.
Papers
Munnerley, D., Bacon, M., Wilson, A., Steele, J., Hedberg, J., & Fitzgerald, R. (2012). Confronting an augmented reality. Research in Learning Technology, 20(Suppl.), 39-48.
Munnerley, D., Bacon, M., Fitzgerald, R., Wilson, A., Hedberg, J., Steele, J., & Standley, A. (2014). Augmented Reality: Application in higher education. Office for Learning and Teaching, 10(1), 3121-7445.
Munnerley, D., Bacon, M., Fitzgerald, R., Wilson, A., Hedberg, J., & Steele, J. (2015). Augmented Reality: Application in Higher Education: Final Report 2014. Office for Learning and Teaching, Department of Education and Training.
Leonard, S. N., Fitzgerald, R. N., & Bacon, M. (2016). Fold-back: Using emerging technologies to move from quality assurance to quality enhancement. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 32(2).
Leonard, S. N., Fitzgerald, R. N., Bacon, M., & Munnerley, D. (2017). Mapping next generation learning spaces as a designed quality enhancement process. Quality in Higher Education, 23(2), 168-182.