robert fitzgerald, phd

Dr Robert Fitzgerald
ICT Research Fellow
Australian Institute for Sustainable Communities
Faculty of Education - Building 5, Room C33, University of Canberra
Belconnen, 2601, ACT, AUSTRALIA

+61 2 6201 2658 (Office)
robert.fitzgerald [AT] canberra.edu.au
rnfitzgerald [AT] gmail.com

CURRICULUM VITAE (full pdf version)

Academic Qualifications

• PhD - Social Pyschology, University of Sydney (2002).
• MEd (Honours) - Educational Psychology with thesis by research, University of New England (1991).
• BEd (Secondary)-Major in Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Victoria College (1987).
• BEd (Primary)- Major in Computer Programming & Information Systems, CCAE (1984).

Academic Appointments

• 2007: Director, ACIAR Cambodian Research Project, University of Canberra.
• 2006-07: Director, Digital Learning Communities Research Project, University of Canberra, QUT & RMIT.
• 2005-07: ICT Research Fellow, School of Education/School of Information Systems, University of Canberra.
• 2004: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Divisional Research Institute, University of Canberra.
• 2002–04: Assistant Professor/Lecturer, Department of Information and Applied Technology, Hong Kong Institute of Education, China, SAR.
• 2001: Head of School Education (Acting), Australian Catholic University.
• 1999-02: Senior Lecturer in Information Technology & Postgraduate Studies Coordinator, Australian Catholic University.
• 1997–02: Senior Lecturer in Information Technology & Educational Foundations, Australian Catholic University, ACT.
• 1990–96: Lecturer in Curriculum Studies Australian Catholic University, ACT.
• 1989: Lecturer in Mathematics & Computing, Department of Mathematics, Science & Technology University of New England, NSW.
• 1988: Mathematics Faculty Head, Edenhope Secondary College, Victoria.
• 1985–88: High School Mathematics, Computing and Science Teacher, Edenhope Secondary College, Victoria.

Selected Awards & Invitations

• Expert of International Standing & ARC Assessor (INTREADER)
• Who's Who of Instructional Technology
• Editorial Advisory Board and Reviewer for Scientific Journals International (SJI).
• Commonwealth Institute (Australia) Scientific Steering Committee.
• Program committee for the 2007 International Conference on ICT in Teaching and Learning, Hong Kong.
• 2006 Finalist Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Regional Contribution

Affiliations

• Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR).
• Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG – http://ierg.org).
• Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE).
• Australian College of Education.
• International Free and Open Source Software Foundation (iFOSSF).
• Australian e-Learning Research Roundtable (UNSW@ADFA).
• Educause Peer Directory.
• dgCommunities (Internet in Developing Countries Network).
• Open Source Software Research Directory.
• FOSSEd.org – Free and Opensource Software in Education .
• Citizendium Editor (http://en.citizendium) – This is project led by Larry Sanger to provide a ‘better’ alternative to Wikipedia.
• Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT).
• International Study Group for Research on Learning Probability and Statistics.

Media Impact

• ABC 702 Sydney (Sydney). “Virtual games”, Interview with James O’Loghlin, 8:30 PM, 17 October 2006.
• Canberra Times, “Higher learning”, Meagre Bytes, 11 September, 2006.
• Rasmei Kampuchea Daily, Kingdom of Cambodia, “Short Message System (SMS) for improving the marketing of maize and soybean in Cambodia”, 27 September, 2006.
• UC Press Release, “University researchers to explore new technologies to connect students”, 5 September, 2006.
• UC Press Release, “University of Canberra researchers put technology in the hands of the learners”, 14 August, 2006.
• ABC Radio (Western Plains), Interview with Alison Manning, “Computer games and addiction”, 2:15pm, 21 February, 2006.
• ABC Radio (Western Plains), Interview with Alison Manning, “Computer games and double lives”, 2:45 pm, 15 February, 2006.
• Canberra Times, “Schools must tune in to the new technologies”, Page 1, 28 September 2005.
• Canberra Times, “Kids’ computer games not all bad: academics”, Education Section, 24 September, 2005.

Institutional Contributions (Selected)

University of Canberra

• Learning Communities Research Area Executive committee (2005-07)
• Library Learning Object Management System RFI committee (2006)
• Library Management System RFI committee (2006)
• TEDS Emerging Technologies working group (2006)
• Presenter, CELTS Higher Education Forum (2006)
• Education & Innovation Executive Committee (2004-2005)

Hong Kong Institute of Education

• Information and Applied Technology Research Committee (2002-2004)
• BEd (Language) Program Committee (2002-2004)
• BEd (Secondary) Program Review committee (2003-2004)
• Departmental nominee for various internal & external committee meetings, student-staff consultative meetings and academic review processes
• ICT research consultant to Creative Arts Alliance Educational Innovation Project (2002)

Australian Catholic University

• Convener and Coordinator of Postgraduate Studies (1999-2002)
• Chair, Education School Committee (2000-2002)
• President, National Tertiary Education Union-Signadou sub-branch (1999-2001)
• IT Technical Evaluation Committee- Voice-over-IP & WAN-LAN (2000)
• WWW and Electronic Publishing Sub-committee of ICTC (1995)
• Information Technology Working Party (1995)
• ACUNet Technical Tender Evaluation Committee (1993)
• Education School Committee (1992-2002)
• Sexual Harassment Officer (1995-2002)
• Information and Communication Technology Committee (ICTC) (1992-1995)
• Student Admissions Committee (1990-92)
• Master of Education Working Party (1991)
• Chair, Computer Users Committee (1992)
• Chair, Staff Development Committee (1992-94)
• AARNet Network Infrastructure Committee (1992)

I am a Research Fellow (RFCD 330107; 280100) in the Australian Institute for Sustainable Communities at the University of Canberra and Director of an ACIAR-funded research project based in Cambodia. I have 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 me as an 'expert of international standing' and I serve as an Assessor (INTREADER) for their National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). I have published over thirty-five research and conference papers and in the last ten years have attracted over $560 000 in competitive grant funding. I am a highly-regarded teacher and an active researcher (UC Researcher Level 4) who has successfully undertaken funded research in the areas of learning, literacy and information technologies. I have held a research fellowship at the University of Canberra since 2004 and have over sixteen years experience in research, teaching and administration in higher education. My 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.

Recent Conference/Media Bio
Dr Robert Fitzgerald is a Research Fellow in the Australian Institute
for Sustainable Communities at the University of Canberra. His research and
consultancy work explores the role of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) in learning particularly as it relates to ICT
integration, information literacy and building online communities. His
current work involves the application of social software and Web2.0
technologies to the development of collaborative systems for research
and learning. His funded projects, "Developing Digital Learning
Communities with Social Software" (Carrick Institute for Learning and
Teaching in Higher Education) and "Using SMS to Develop an Electronic
Marketing Communication System in Cambodia" (Australian Centre for
International Agricultural Research), are leading-edge projects
attracting international interest and involvement.

On a personal note, I was born in Champagne-Urbana, Illinois and have lived in the USA, Canada, England, Hawaii, Hong Kong and Australia. I am an Australian citizen and an eligible resident of Hong Kong, United Kingdom and United States of America. I now live in Canberra with my partner Jennifer and my four children Thomas (17), Geordie (14), Benjamin (11), Felix (9) and our lovely Australian Cattle dog, Halle (a Red Heeler).