Campus Liaison Spotlight: Meet Mamta Shah!

Hello everyone,

It’s time to meet our next liaison in our campus liaison spotlight series. Meet Mamta Shah from Drexel University!

Name: Mamta Shah

Hometown: Mumbai, India

Current University: Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

Program: PhD in Educational Leadership Development and Learning Technologies

Advisor: Dr. Aroutis Foster

Q. How did you decide to go to graduate school?

A. After I completed my Masters in Human Development, I knew I wanted to pursue a PhD. The decision that I had to make was about the area of concentration. My personal interest in digital technologies naturally led me to Drexel’s program and a major in Learning Technologies.

Q. What did you do before going to graduate school?

A. I worked as an Assistant Director at Muktangan, a not-for-profit educational program that offers alternatives to orthodox educational practices in India. Broadly, my experiences included: Mentoring preschool and elementary level teachers in child centered pedagogy; Facilitating curriculum planning meetings based on teachers’ daily observations and students’ key experiences; Supporting teachers in developing formative progress reports for children; Conducting professional development sessions for teachers; Networking with educational institutions and teacher training programs; and Assisting Muktangan in its advocacy program.

Q. What do you like best about your program/school?

A. The encouragement and guidance that I received to build my proficiency as an emerging scholar in terms of teaching and research opportunities, presenting at premier conferences and authoring journal articles, networking with leading scholars and mentoring students.

Q. What are your current research interests?

A. Currently, my professional work focuses on the integration of immersive and interdisciplinary digital technologies such as games in educational settings. I concentrate on developing teacher competence in adopting digital technologies through situated professional development. In addition, my work focuses on human cognition and learning through the development of models for technology use in classrooms and design of transformational educational experiences for aiding student knowledge construction.

Q. What career do you want upon graduation (Faculty or other)?

A. As long as I can pursue my interest in learning technologies, I am open to a career in academia, non-profit sector, or industry.

Q. If you could change anything about education, what would it be?

A. I would like to contribute to the effective integration of learning technologies for teaching, learning, and assessment across the K-Adult Education spectrum. I have started working towards this goal by developing in- and pre-service teacher competency in adopting game-based learning. Since I approach this goal in an ecological manner, I hope to catalyze sustainable technology integration practices.

Q. What is your favorite research article and why?

A. Too many to list. However, I like learning about developments in the fields of situated learning and game-based learning,

Q. What was your proudest moment or greatest accomplishment?

A. Working towards my professional niche and being recognized for it through (a) an Excellence in Research Award at Drexel in 2012, (b) AERA 2013 Best Paper nomination in the Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning (TACTL) SIG, (c) and receiving acceptance for my first journal article.

Thank you for participating, Mamta!