Ehsan Akbari is an artist, educator, and educational researcher. Currently, he is working as a lecturer and coordinator in digital pedagogy and literacies at the University of Regina. A central theme of his research is the role of the senses in how we perceive and interact with technology, our surroundings and each other. Sensory awareness can be a valuable educational tool for encouraging and deepening awareness of both physical and online spaces. This awareness is a critical component of digital citizenship, and citizenship in general, in the twenty-first century. Akbari’s doctoral dissertation, “Spatial and Collective Learning through Mobile Photography and Creative Cartography,” involved using a design-based research methodology to investigate how the mobility, networking, sensory, and mapping capabilities of smartphones could be utilized in art and media classrooms to encourage high school students to attend to their everyday surroundings. Akbari’s Master’s thesis, “Soundscape Compositions for Art Classrooms,” explored ways in which the process of listening, recording, and editing everyday soundscapes can be incorporated into art education to expand students’ awareness of their surroundings and allow them to experience quotidian environments in different ways.
More information can be found at ehsanakbari.com (and https://uregina.academia.edu/
Ehsan defended his thesis, entitled “Spatial and Collective Learning through Mobile Sensory Photography and Creative Cartography” in November 2020, and will graduate at the Spring Convocation in June 2021.
