Worthy IT educator recognised for leadership and service

 Deputy Chair of Education at Swinburne, Dr Therese Keane, has been awarded an Australian Council for Education Leaders (ACEL) Victorian State Fellowship.

The fellowship honours educational leaders who have made a significant contribution to education, educational leadership and the improvement of student and organisational outcomes.

For more than 20 years Dr Keane has taught IT in a variety of school settings. Her Doctorate in Education focuses on ICT Leadership in schools.

At a national level, she is the Chair of Australian Computer Society’s ICT Educators Committee, a member of the ACS Professional Advisory Board and a board member of the Australian Council of Computers in Education.

Internationally, she is the Australian representative for the International Federation of Information Processing Technical Committee on Education.

“I am enormously surprised, very gratified and humbled to receive this award,” Dr Keane says.

Dr Keane is currently part of a team researching the use of humanoid robotics in education. The team has been tracking the success of two humanoid robots being shared by independent schools in South Australia; how each school integrates them into the curriculum, how teachers work with them and how the students interact.

She is also the Victorian Tournament Director for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League. Hosted at Swinburne, this event attracts more than 300 students.

As a passionate advocate empowering girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), Dr Keane is a lead mentor with the RoboCats – an all-girl team of secondary school students who built an industrial robot for the international FIRST Robotics Competition.

The RoboCats won the 2017 South Pacific Championships and went on to compete in Houston, Texas, in April this year.

Digital Disruptor Award

Dr Keane was also a member of the Humanoid Robot Project Team that this week won the Not for Profit category of the Australian Computer Society Digital Disruptor awards in the area of service transformation for the digital consumer.

Now in their third year, these awards honour ICT professionals who are at the forefront of digital disruption in Australia across the government, education, research and business sectors.

Dr Keane’s ACEL fellowship award was presented at a celebration on 13 November 2017.

Read more about Dr Keane’s work with humanoid robots.

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