Professor Lizbeth Goodman (BA, MA, MLitt, PhD)
Lizbeth is Chair of Creative Technology Innovation and Professor of Inclusive Design for Education at University College Dublin, where she is an Executive of the Innovation Academy and Senior Advisor to the Leonardo Group of the Science Gallery. She is Founder/Director of the SMARTlab and the MAGIC (Multimedia and Games Innovation Centre) which was established in its first iteration in 1992 at the Open University BBC, and has developed and delivered an award winning practice-based PhD Programme and many major research projects since. In 2012 she was nominated to Chair the Social Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. She has written and edited 13 books and many peer reviewed articles, has supervised over 40 PhDs to successful completion, and has written and presented many broadcast and media programmes of repute (on television, radio, cd-rom, dvd and convergent media platforms).
Prior to joining UCD, Lizbeth served as Director of Research for Futurelab Education, working with David Puttnam’s team to establish innovative platforms for the future of education in a context of global change. Originally trained in Literature, Drama and Philosophy, she has been active for many years as a professional performer (in theatre, dance, live art and broadcast media) and TV-radio-convergent media researcher/presenter with BBC Interactive Media. In this regard, she co-developed several groundbreaking teaching and learning tools and kinaesthetic games with significant scaled take-up worldwide, which have in turn been used in the foundation of several international charities for women and children at risk, and have also informed the development of the field of ‘technology enhanced learning using open innovation tools’- or what is currently culturally framed as the ‘MOOC’ revolution.
She is one of the co-PIs of the new national Learning Technology Centre for Ireland, with six million euros in funding shared between the host site at TCD and the two UCD partners (SMARTlab and Clarity research centres), Galway and TSSG (funded by Enterprise Ireland and the IDA with industry partners). She also leads the SMART-LIFElab Project with the National Children’s Research Centre, and the public engagement workpackage of the Leonardo Project on Alternative E-Access: creating fully accessible open educational resources and tools in multiple languages. She is PI of the new SMARThelathbook project, and holder of several Enterprise Ireland research grants. She has been appointed Academic Chair of the Doctrid Research Institute’s AssistID Project, due for kick off in the summer of 2013. In the past she has run many major funded projects for the EC, BBC, Futurelab, Microsoft, Nokia INDT, Lego Europe, The Carl Sagan Trust, The Children’s Health Fund NY, the Leverhulme Trust, the Esmee Fairbairn Trust, NESTA, JISC, NTU, NIE, Becta, DCSF et al.
She won the Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer Service to Women and Children in 2003, and has had her technology-performance work for inclusion featured as Best Practice showcase winners at several World Summits since 2003.In 2008, she was awarded the top prizes for Best Woman in the Academic and Public Sectors, and Outstanding Woman in Technology, by Blackberry Rim and their international industry judging panels.
Lizbeth is known as an expert on digital inclusion, assistive technology and lifelong learning: inventing new interfaces and learning models using creative tools and creative engagement strategies to address the different learning styles of all learners, with all levels of intellectual and physical ability, across cultures and languages. She and her teams specialise in developing ground-up technology solutions for people of all levels of cognitive and physical ability, from mainstream learners of all ages to ‘special’ and ‘gifted’ learners and lifelong learners in the developed and developing worlds. In all her work, she applies a universal design method to practice-based innovation to transform lives through providing unlimited access to education and tools for creative expression and learning models for communities at risk. She is an award-winning advocate of community-based ethical learning and teaching models using interactive tools and games to inspire and engage learners of all ages.
She is the founder of the emergent field of Creative Technology Innovation, and is currently working on a Roadmap for Responsible Innovation including a publication on Hippocratic Education and Innovation. She is also co-convenor of the Climate Justice/Future of Education Gathering for Dublin, scheduled for June 2013.
