I am now a Professor of New Media Education at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. I have worked as an independent scholar and have held positions at the Department of Media & Communication, London School of Economics & Political Science and at the University of Oslo working on projects exploring learning and learner identity across formal and informal domains. I have been been an Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK and the Institute of Education, Hong Kong and at The Playful Learning Centre, University of Helsinki, Finland and a visiting professor at the LSE.
I have worked as an Associate Research Professor at the University of South Australia, where I was developing a city-wide initiative to imagine and implement new kinds of spaces for learning. Previously I was the Head of Media Arts and Education at WAC Performing Arts and Media College – a centre for informal training and education – where I directed a range of digital media activities for young people and co-ordinated training for media artists and teachers. I worked as Media Studies teacher in an inner city comprehensive London and in higher education teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses, leading teacher training degrees in media education.
I have researched and written widely on many aspects of media education, new technologies, creativity, digital cultures and informal learning and has authored, co-authored or edited 20 books. Recent volumes include The Class: living and learning in the digital age (New York University Press, 2016), Learning beyond the School: international perspectives on the schooled society (Routledge, 2018) Learning to Live with Datafication educational case studies from around the world (Routledge 2022) and Youthsites: histories of creativity, care and learning in the city (Oxford, 2023. I have directed research projects for the Arts Council of England, the British Film Institute, Creative Partnerships and Nominet Trust, and was one of core members of the MacArthur Funded, Connected Learning Research Network. I am currently a key lead researcher in the Australian Research Council funded Centre of Excellence studying Digital Childhoods and co-director of a 3 year study, funded by The Wallace Foundation, Tracing the Enduring effects of Community Arts participation. I have spoken at over 50 conferences in around 20 different countries.
I now research and develop projects across a range of disciplines and subject specialisms:
– childhood, youth and digital culture
– youth, media and technology
– regeneration, community and education policy
– creativity, learning and arts research
– informal and out-of-school education
Thank you for your insight during the recent webinar series. I am especially interested in learning to code after the last broadcast, even though I will be well out of my depth of knowledge!
I am an artist educator on this side of the pond, teaching as an adjunct at the University of Cincinnati in their art education department. My seminar course (taught online as I live in CA)assists learning and engagement for pre-service teachers as they navigate their student teaching experiences and licensure application processes/testing requirements. I see my role as awakening my students toward new methodologies of art instruction that envelop new technologies and conceptualize innovative ways of making as related to art educational practice. I will certainly be addressing coding this autumn semester!
Your insight and the insights of all your fellow presenters will help guide my research and current project – writing a new curriculum model for art education that seeks to put making at the core of a process of instruction I am calling: “Contemplate, Create, Innovate.” I have a grant proposal nearly ready to submit for this endeavor.
Again, it is a pleasure to learn from you expertise and I look forward to more inspiration in the coming weeks.
My best wishes,
Karen McGarry, MAAE, MFA
Arcadia, CA
PS – Full disclosure…My husband speaks highly of LSE. He is an Imperial grad himself (PhD Eng.) He originally hails from the Newcastle area where we’ll be headed in August to visit family.