IAFOR > The IAFOR International Conference on Education in Hawaii (IICE) > IICEHawaii2021

IICEHawaii2021

IICEHawaii2021

January 06-10, 2021 | Held online from Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

The 6th IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii (IICEHawaii2021)

Hosted online due to coronavirus travel restrictions, The 6th IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii (IICEHawaii2021) was held alongside The 5th IAFOR International Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment – Hawaii (IICSEEHawaii2021), and many of the sessions concentrated on areas at the intersection of education and sustainability.

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Speakers

Keynote Speakers

  • Som Naidu
    Som Naidu
    University of the South Pacific, Fiji
  • Lowell Sheppard
    Lowell Sheppard
    Pacific Solo & HOPE International Development Agency Japan
  • Christine R. Yano
    Christine R. Yano
    University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States

Featured Speakers

  • Ariana Eichelberger
    Ariana Eichelberger
    University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States
  • Mary Hattori
    Mary Hattori
    East-West Center, United States
  • Daniel Hoffman
    Daniel Hoffman
    University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
  • Veronica Howard
    Veronica Howard
    University of Alaska Anchorage, United States
  • Peter Leong
    Peter Leong
    University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States
  • Amber Strong Makaiau
    Amber Strong Makaiau
    University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States
  • Paul McKimmy
    Paul McKimmy
    University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Billy Meinke-Lau
    Billy Meinke-Lau
    University of Hawai'i, United States
  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States
  • Sela V. Panapasa
    Sela V. Panapasa
    University of Michigan, USA
  • Beth H. Tillinghast
    Beth H. Tillinghast
    University of Hawaii, United States

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Programme

  • Resilience: One Man’s Journey Across the World
    Resilience: One Man’s Journey Across the World
    Keynote Presentation: Lowell Sheppard
  • Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
    Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
    Panel Presentation: Michael Menchaca, Ariana Eichelberger, Peter Leong, Paul McKimmy & Daniel Hoffman (Moderator)
  • Cultural Resilience
    Cultural Resilience
    Panel Presentation: Amber Strong Makaiau, Mary Therese Hattori, James W. McNally & Sela Panapasa
  • The Development, Use, and Exploration of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education
    The Development, Use, and Exploration of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education
    Panel Presentation: Beth Tillinghast, Billy Meinke & Veronica Howard
  • Critical Empathy: The Role of Education Amidst Xenophobic Pandemonium
    Critical Empathy: The Role of Education Amidst Xenophobic Pandemonium
    Keynote Presentation: Christine R. Yano
  • Recalibrating Educational and Institutional Choreographies to Lead Learning for Tomorrow
    Recalibrating Educational and Institutional Choreographies to Lead Learning for Tomorrow
    Keynote Presentation: Som Naidu

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Organising Committee

  • Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio
    Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio
    University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, USA
  • Xu Di
    Xu Di
    University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Curtis Ho
    Curtis Ho
    University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA
  • Barbara Lockee
    Barbara Lockee
    Virginia Tech, USA
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Alex Means
    Alex Means
    University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA
  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States
  • Sela V. Panapasa
    Sela V. Panapasa
    University of Michigan, USA
  • Hiagi M. Wesley
    Hiagi M. Wesley
    Brigham Young University – Hawaii, USA

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Review Committee

  • Dr Dolapo Adeniji-Neill, Adelphi University, United States
  • Dr Mohamed Askar, Southern Utah University, United States
  • Dr Balamuralithara Balakrishnan, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia
  • Dr Hungche Chen, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
  • Professor Heeseon Jang, Pyeongtaek University, South Korea
  • Professor Cláudia Lima, ID+ / FBAUP / University Lusófona do Porto, Portugal
  • Dr Matthew Motyka, University of San Francisco, United States
  • Dr Esther Ntuli, Idaho State University, United States
  • Dr Lillian Nyamizi, Institute of Finance Management (IFM), Tanzania
  • Dr Reynold Padagas, Jose Rizal University, Philippines
  • Dr Kristin Palmer, University of Virginia, United States
  • Dr Sherrye Smith, University of Phoenix, United States
  • Dr Miguel Varela, Academic Bridge Program, Qatar
  • Dr Maria Luz Villarante, University of Perpetual Help Philippines, Philippines
  • Dr Shinichi Yamazaki, J.F. Oberlin University, Japan
  • Dr Yifeng Yuan, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

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IAFOR Academic Grant & Scholarship Recipients

Our warmest congratulations go to Blessing Dwumah Manu and Christina Brown, who have been selected by the conference Organising Committee to receive grants and scholarships to present their research at the conference.

IAFOR's grants and scholarships programme provides financial support to PhD students and early career academics, with the aim of helping them pursue research excellence and achieve their academic goals through interdisciplinary study and interaction. Awards are based on the appropriateness of the educational opportunity in relation to the applicant's field of study, financial need, and contributions to their community and to IAFOR's mission of interdisciplinarity. Scholarships are awarded based on availability of funds from IAFOR and vary with each conference.

Click here to find out more about IAFOR grants and scholarships.

Blessing Dwumah Manu | IAFOR Scholarship Recipient

School Management Functions and Students’ Academic Performance Nexus: An Empirical EvidenceFrom Public Senior High School in Ashanti Region of Ghana
Blessing Dwumah Manu, Jiangsu University, China

Mr Blessing Dwumah Manu is currently a postgraduate student at Jiangsu University, China. Originally from the Ashanti Region of Ghana, Blessing graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Education from the University for Development Studies in Ghana. After graduation, he spent two years as a researcher and teaching Assistant in the university before going to Jiangsu University, China for postgraduate studies. Mr. Blessing Dwumah Manu is also the secretary to the School of Management President and part of the invigilation team. He is also a member of the National
Research Association for Education in China.

Christina Brown | IAFOR Scholarship Recipient

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone: Externalization in Architecture to Increase Social and Environmental Connectivity
Christina Brown, Carnegie Mellon University, United States

Christina Brown is a Master of Science in Sustainable Design student at Carnegie Mellon University. Originally from Tianjin China, she lived in Bangalore India for two years before moving to Raleigh North Carolina. By living in so many vastly different locations all around the world, she has come to recognize and appreciate the role of nature on a person's well-being. This sparked her interests in sustainable architecture and ecological thinking, as she continued to pursue education in these areas throughout my undergraduate career. Crucial experiences such as working on a governmentsponsored project for a 6 Ha Master Plan in Singapore during her study abroad and participating in the EcoDistrict Summit in Pittsburgh have led her to her current research in externalization of building programming, a paradigm shift in how we approach architectural design to design in social and environmental resiliency.

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Som Naidu
University of the South Pacific, Fiji

Biography

Som Naidu is currently Pro-Vice Chancellor and Director, Center for Flexible Learning, at the University of the South Pacific. He has previously served in a variety of roles in the enhancement of learning and teaching at several Australian universities. Som Naidu possesses doctoral qualifications in Educational Technology from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. A former president of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, Som has served as executive editor of its journal Distance Education since 1997. In May 2014 the Open University of Sri Lanka awarded Som Naidu a D.Litt. (Honoris Causa), in recognition of his extensive contribution to the field of open, flexible, distance and e-learning both regionally and internationally. In addition, in July 2020, Advance Higher Education, UK, admitted Som Naidu as Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy for his commitment, contribution and strategic leadership in the scholarship of learning and teaching.

Keynote Presentation (2021) | Recalibrating Educational and Institutional Choreographies to Lead Learning for Tomorrow
Lowell Sheppard
Pacific Solo & HOPE International Development Agency Japan

Biography

Rookie Sailor Lowell Sheppard is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime – sailing solo across the Pacific Ocean, through the Garbage Patch, via a place he is calling Nemo North and onwards to see his mother who is isolated in a Canadian Care Facility.

Lowell Sheppard is an author, speaker, social entrepreneur, former minister, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, husband, father, long-distance cyclist, and aspiring sailor. Lowell has spent his entire adult life working with established non-government organisations (also known as non-profit societies) and in several NGO start-ups. As Founder of HOPE International Development Agency Japan and Asia Pacific twenty years ago, Lowell has seen the growth of HOPE to be in the top 2% of charitable organisations in Japan with the coveted “nintei” certified tax-deductible status.

Lowell has served for the last twenty years as an informal advisor to companies and boards in the area of ethical decision making and thought leadership with a focus on community legacy. He has dedicated much of his life to social and environmental improvement projects.

Lowell’s PACIFIC SOLO expedition is under the umbrella of Navigate22, a sustainability and education consultancy. Pacific Solo will serve as a motif for exploration, sustainability, goal setting, and achievement.

Keynote Presentation (2021) | Resilience: One Man’s Journey Across the World
Christine R. Yano
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States

Biography

Christine R. Yano, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai'i, has conducted research on Japan and Japanese Americans with a focus on popular culture. Beginning in March 2020 she serves as the President of the Association for Asian Studies. Her publications include Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song (Harvard, 2002), Crowning the Nice Girl; Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture in Hawaii’s Cherry Blossom Festival (Hawaii, 2006), Airborne Dreams: "Nisei" Stewardesses and Pan American World Airways (Duke, 2011), and Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty and its Trek Across the Pacific (Duke, 2013). She has also co-edited a number of volumes: Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Contemporary Japan with Alisa Freedman and Laura Miller (Stanford, 2013), Making Waves: Travelling Musics in Hawai'i, Asia, and the Pacific with Fred Lau (Hawaii, 2018), and Straight A’s: Asian American College Students in Their Own Words with Neal Akatsuka (Duke, 2018).

Keynote Presentation (2021) | Critical Empathy: The Role of Education Amidst Xenophobic Pandemonium
Ariana Eichelberger
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States

Biography

Ariana Eichelberger is an Associate Specialist and Instructional Designer in the University of Hawai'i at Manoa’s College of Education. Ari manages the Instructional Support Group of the College and coordinates the College’s faculty professional development program. As a faculty member of the Department of Learning Design and Technology, Ari teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in instructional design and technology integration. She is also an instructional designer with the COE's Distance Course Design and Consulting group (DCDC).

Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Mary Hattori
East-West Center, United States

Biography

Dr Mary Therese Perez Hattori is a daughter of Guåhan (Guam), of the clan Familian Titang, born to Paul Mitsuo Hattori† of Kalihi, O’ahu, Hawaii and Fermina Leon Guerrero Perez† of the village of Chalan Pago, Guam. She currently serves as Director of the Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) with the East-West Center and previously enjoyed a long career in various technology and education-related positions. PIDP is a regional organisation, a founding member of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific and secretariat of the Pacific Islands Council of Leaders.

Dr Hattori is also affiliate graduate faculty in Pacific Studies, Learning Design and Technology, and several Educational Doctorate programs, a community organiser, advocate for Pacific Islanders in the United States, public speaker, author, and poet. She is co-founder and co-organizer of cultural events such as the Cultural Animation Film Festival and the Celebrate Micronesia Festival, both held annually in Honolulu. She serves the state of Hawaii as a member of the Board of Education and Associate Member of the Consular Corps of Honolulu.

Keynote Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Daniel Hoffman
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

Biography

Daniel L. Hoffman is an Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Dan earned his doctorate in Instructional Technology and Media from Teachers College, Columbia University. His research focuses on the design of interactive experiences and their impact on learning and engagement. This interdisciplinary work is situated at the intersection of cognitive science, computer science, and learning science. He is a graduate of the New York City Teaching Fellows program and has designed and evaluated educational software for Intel and the Games for Learning Institute.

Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Veronica Howard
University of Alaska Anchorage, United States

Biography

Dr Veronica Howard is an associate professor of Psychology, and co-coordinator of the Textbook Affordability Committee and Alaska Open Education Initiative at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Their research and service interests include open educational resources, evaluating pedagogical interventions, the intersection of technology and education, and organizational behavior management. As a first-generation college student, Veronica believes passionately that openly licensed and free-to-access course materials, combined with engaged teaching and mentorship, are critical for the success of historically underserved students in higher education. Veronica has been an OpenEd Group OER Research Fellow and has completed the Harvard CopyrightX program.

Panel Presentation (2021) | The Development, Use, and Exploration of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education
Peter Leong
University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States

Biography

Dr Peter Leong is an Associate Professor with the Department of Learning Design & Technology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He has extensive experience in the development and delivery of online courses and distance education. Dr Leong currently serves on the Executive Board of the International Council of Educational Media and the Teaching, Colleges & Community (TCC) conference advisory panel. His research interests include student satisfaction with online learning, faculty support for technology integration, technologies for distance education and teaching and learning in virtual worlds.

Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Amber Strong Makaiau
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States

Biography

Dr Amber Strong Makaiau is a Specialist at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM) College of Education Institute for Teacher Education Secondary Program, the Director of the Hanahau’oli School Professional Development Center, and the Director of Curriculum and Research at the UHM Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education. She has a BA in Psychology and Education from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Masters in Education and Teaching from UHM, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from UHM. She is a dedicated practitioner of philosophy for children of Hawai'i who achieved National Board Certification while teaching secondary social studies in the Hawaii State Department of Education for over ten years. She is also an award-winning educator who achieved the Hawaii International Education Week Honolulu Advertiser 2004 Outstanding Global Educator Award, the 2005 Oceanic Outstanding Educator Award, the 2011 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching, the 2016 C3 Teachers Inquiry Design Model Challenge Award, and the 2017 National Council for the Social Studies College and University Faculty Assembly Kipchoge Neftali Kirkland Social Justice Paper Award. Her current projects apply progressive, multicultural, culturally responsive, social justice, and democratic approaches to education to the creation of a better future society. This includes a brand new Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd Interdisciplinary Education, Curriculum Studies Program at UHM.

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Paul McKimmy
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, United States

Biography

Paul McKimmy is Director of Technology and Distance Programs at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa’s College of Education and a faculty Specialist in Learning Design and Technology. Dr McKimmy oversees instructional and technical support teams, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses, works with faculty to develop online and hybrid programs and is responsible for supporting instructional technology within the College. Dr McKimmy received his bachelors in Business and Computer Science at Hope College and Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan University.

Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. James W. McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Dr James W. McNally is a Vice-President of IAFOR. He is Chair of the Social Sciences & Sustainability division of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Featured Presentation (2017) | Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Billy Meinke-Lau
University of Hawai'i, United States

Biography

Billy Meinke-Lau is the Open Educational Resources (OER) Technologist for the University of Hawaii, supporting a system-wide effort to leverage OER for student success, equity, and cost reduction. Billy completed an MEd in educational technology from UH Manoa and worked for Creative Commons before taking his current leadership role with UH. He is also a doctoral student of Political Science, investigating the politics of collaborative scholarship in higher education. He lives in Honolulu with his family.

Panel Presentation (2021) | The Development, Use, and Exploration of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education
Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States

Biography

Michael Menchaca is Chair of the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He serves as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technology in Education Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.

Featured Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2024) | Practical Approaches to AI in Academia
Panel Presentation (2022) | Reimagining General Education Across Hawaii’s 10-Campus System: Process, Product, and Lessons Learned
Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Sela V. Panapasa
University of Michigan, USA

Biography

Dr Sela V. Panapasa studies family support and intergenerational exchanges among aged Pacific Islanders living in the US and Pacific region. Her work examines changes in elderly living arrangements and headship status in response to demographic and socioeconomic change. Her interests include family demography, race and ethnicity, measuring health disparities and comparative studies.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Independence & Interdependence
Keynote Presentation (2018) | Anticipating Educational Needs That Ensure a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workforce for a Changing U.S. Population
Beth H. Tillinghast
University of Hawaii, United States

Biography

Dr Beth H. Tillinghast has a PhD in Learning Design and Technology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She also holds an MS in Library Science and an MA in Educational Technology. She has worked in education for over four decades, living and working in countries in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. She has recently retired from the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library as a librarian working in the area of scholarly communication. Beth has been an Open Education Group Research Fellow, and her research interests include areas of open educational practices with a focus on Open Access and Open Educational Resources.

Panel Presentation (2021) | The Development, Use, and Exploration of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education
Resilience: One Man’s Journey Across the World
Keynote Presentation: Lowell Sheppard

Lowell Sheppard will address us from his 40 foot Sailboat currently in Tokyo Bay. His talk will focus on what he is learning about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and how he is involving students in the Pacific Solo expedition. During the last twelve months, he has successfully launched a YouTube Channel and drawn the interest of History Channel and other media outlets. His is a timely mission as we seek to educate and motivate future generations to have high regard for water generally and the world's oceans particularly in order to ensure a safe and sustainable future.

Read presenters' biography
Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Panel Presentation: Michael Menchaca, Ariana Eichelberger, Peter Leong, Paul McKimmy & Daniel Hoffman (Moderator)

While the global pandemic has had a wide impact, education has been particularly affected. UNESCO estimated over 1.5 billion learners impacted worldwide by April 2021. As of December 2020, over 200 million students were still out of school. Even those that are back in school are still learning mostly via distance education. This crisis-based learning has had profound influence on teachers, students, parents, as well as administrators. Early research indicates a lack of appropriate access coupled with poorly implemented emergency instruction will have long lasting adverse effects on global learners. Key to combating this discouraging trend is to provide optimal online experiences such as retooling traditional orientation and graduation functions and providing overworked instructors with appropriate skills and training for distance settings. To begin to address such areas, the Department of Learning Design and Technology (LTEC) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa engaged in innovative practices ranging from providing professional development training to redesigning non-classroom experiences for digital spaces. In this panel, LTEC faculty will briefly describe their specific projects and the outcomes. In addition, panel members will take questions and share their vision for optimal distance education in the future.

Read presenters' biography
Cultural Resilience
Panel Presentation: Amber Strong Makaiau, Mary Therese Hattori, James W. McNally & Sela Panapasa

Presentation information will be provided here shortly.

Read presenters' biography
The Development, Use, and Exploration of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education
Panel Presentation: Beth Tillinghast, Billy Meinke & Veronica Howard

This panel presentation will provide an overview of Open Educational Resources (OER), highlighting the publishing and collaboration efforts of the OER initiative at UH Manoa. It will also highlight the faculty experience of adopting, adapting, and involving students in the curation and development of new OER. Finally, it will provide an overview of research conducted on this topic, touching on local, national, and international research. Resources in support of further OER research will also be outlined.

Read presenters' biographies
Critical Empathy: The Role of Education Amidst Xenophobic Pandemonium
Keynote Presentation: Christine R. Yano

How does race shape some of the responses to the ongoing global pandemic? How does the pandemic shape the experience of race – in politics and in everyday lives? How might education play a role in strategizing answers to these fraught conditions? These questions structure my approach to discussing anti-Asian racism amid the pandemic with the goal of developing strategies of action for the targets of such racism, as well as for others for whom race-based violence is anathema. I argue that education must take responsibility for developing leadership based in critical empathy – that is, reaching out to others with both hearts and minds. In doing so, we teach not only tolerance and respect, but also actions of engagement. Through critical empathy we commit ourselves and future generations to embrace the full humanity of the community.

Read presenters' biography
Recalibrating Educational and Institutional Choreographies to Lead Learning for Tomorrow
Keynote Presentation: Som Naidu

Contemporary educational institutions are experiencing disruptions to their modus operandi from a variety of sources—COVID-19 notwithstanding. A changing student demographic across the higher education sector, along with their changing educational needs is driving much of this disruption. Other drivers are the need for different kinds of skill sets required in the contemporary workplace, the need for alternative methods of credentialing and a demand for flexibility in the education space. How prepared are contemporary educational institutions for leading learning for the future? A recent Ernst Young report on the University of the Future in the Australian context suggests that, “Australia’s universities are monolithic institutions that control all aspects of their teaching and research activities, anchored by physical spaces and time-bound schedule”. This is a rather harsh indictment, but not an incorrect reflection of the contemporary higher education space broadly. While educational institutions are willing to experiment with new models and approaches on the peripheries of their core business, most are not bold enough to rethink and reconfigure their mainstream operations. It is rare to find enterprise-wide operations that are appropriately aligned to lead learning and teaching for tomorrow. Why is this so, and what can be done about a rethink and recalibration of how universities create, capture and offer value.

Read presenters' biography
Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio
University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, USA

Biography

Papalii Dr Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio is the director of the multi national award winning Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) and the executive director of the Honolulu Minority Business Enterprise Center (HMBEC) at the UH Mānoa Shidler College of Business. A former research fellow with the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center, Avegalio is the first native from Oceania to become a professor at the Shidler College of Business. He has consulted extensively for traditional chiefs, village councils, governments, colleges and universities, financial institutions, multi-national corporations and businesses nationally and internationally. He also has been the primary organiser of many events, such as the University of Hawai‘i Stars of Oceania to recognise the contributions of Pacific Islanders to the State, Nation and World inaugurated in 2006 with most recent event in American Samoa in 2017, and Regional & Global Breadfruit Summits in American Samoa (2013), Hawai‘i (2016), and the recent 2017 Breadfruit Summit in Apia, Samoa. Dr Tusi has a doctorate in educational administration from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He is a Polynesian alii and senior heir of the Malietoa warrior king line of Samoa holding the traditional title of ‘Papali’i’ from Savaii, Samoa.

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2018) | "Surviving and Thriving: Education in Times of Change"
Xu Di
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA

Biography

Xu Di (许笛) is a professor in the department of Education Foundations, College of Education, University of Hawai’i-Mānoa. She is a member of the board of examiners for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, now Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation [CAEP]), which has provided national accreditation for teacher education programs in the United States since 2007. Her recent publications focus on bridging Eastern and Western philosophy for educational practices and include Chinese Philosophy on Teaching & Learning: Xueji《学记》 in the Twenty-First Century (2016), The Wisdom from the East: A Holistic Theory and Practice of Health and Wellness (2013), Spiritual Heritage and Education Today (2013), Taoism: Origin, Essence, and Practice (2013), and A Reading of Lao Zi for Educational Philosophers Today (2012). In addition, she published A Comparison of the Educational Ideas and Practices of John Dewey and Mao Zedong in China (1992) and various chapters and articles on teacher education, educational foundations, multicultural education, international education, and ESL education. She worked as an international consultant in teacher education and educational reforms in Central Asia and Africa for the World Bank in 2002 and 2001. She served on the Hawai’i Teacher Standard Board (2005–2008) and as the president of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) Hawai’i Chapter as well as Hawai’i state representative (2006–2008). She was a visiting scholar and research associate at the Philosophy of Educational Research Center at Harvard University (1999–2000), a visiting professor in Peking University (2015, 2011, 2009, and 1997) and in Renmin University (2012, 2014, and 2016), and an exchange professor at National Kaohsiung University in Taiwan (1998). She served as manuscript editor as well as editorial board member for Harvard Educational Review during 1988–1990. She was honored in Who’s Who among American Teachers in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2008.

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Educational Policy: Does the Democratisation of Education in Educational Systems Fuel Economic and Social Inequality?
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Aloha as a Way of Being: Hawaiian Perspectives on Learning

Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the founder, chairman, and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in nineteenth-century French studies (ULIP/RHUL), and has research interests in world history and politics; international education; and governance and decision making. Since 2015, he has been a Guest Professor at Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre since 2017.

In 2020, Dr Haldane was elected Honorary Professor of University College London (UCL) through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, and full Professor in the United Nations Peace University's European Center for Peace and Development in 2022. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for global governance, he holds visiting professorships at Belgrade and Doshisha Universities where he teaches ethics and governance. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Professor Haldane has had full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute (Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas), and the Schools of Journalism of Sciences Po Paris and Moscow State University.

Dr Haldane has been invited to speak at universities and conferences globally, including the UN HQ in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Interview (2024) | Questions of Education, Curation and Artificial Intelligence
Curtis Ho
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA

Biography

Curtis Ho is Professor, Department Chair and Graduate Chair of the Learning Design and Technology department at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He has been a UH faculty member for over 30 years, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in educational media research, interactive multimedia, web-based instruction, distance education, video technology, and computer-based education. He has taught courses in American and Western Samoa and Saipan, and was the first to offer a course statewide over the Hawai’i Interactive Television System.

Curtis Ho received his PhD in Educational Technology from Arizona State University where he served as instructional designer. He has consulted for public and private schools, financial institutions, and higher education. For several years he directed the Office of Faculty Development and Academic Support for the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus. He has presented extensively at national and international conferences at locations including Beijing, Copenhagen, Eskisehir, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Lugano, Rome, Kumamoto, Kyoto, Melbourne, Montreal, Osaka, Panang, Taipei, Takamatsu, Tokyo, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Professor Ho was a Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director for three US Department of Education grants totalling over 9.8 million US dollars. He is a co-organiser of TCC Worldwide Online Conference, an executive committee member of E-Learn, Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education, and is also past-President of the Pan Pacific Distance Learning Association, a chapter of the United States Distance Learning Association and of the Pacific Association for Communications and Technology, a chapter of the national Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

Featured Panel Presentation (2022) | Building Back Better

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Independence & Interdependence
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Educating for Change: Challenging and Preserving Traditional Cultures
Barbara Lockee
Virginia Tech, USA

Biography

Dr Lockee is Professor of Instructional Design and Technology at Virginia Tech, USA, where she is also Associate Director of the School of Education and Associate Director of Educational Research and Outreach. She teaches courses in instructional design, message design, and distance education. Her research interests focus on instructional design issues related to technology-mediated learning. She has published more than 80 papers in academic journals, conferences and books, and has presented her scholarly work at over 90 national and international conferences.

Dr Lockee is Immediate Past President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, an international professional organisation for educational technology researchers and practitioners. She earned her PhD in 1996 from Virginia Tech in Curriculum and Instruction (Instructional Technology), M.A. in 1991 from Appalachian State University in Curriculum and Instruction (Educational Media), and BA in 1986 from Appalachian State University in Communication Arts.

James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. James W. McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Dr James W. McNally is a Vice-President of IAFOR. He is Chair of the Social Sciences & Sustainability division of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Featured Presentation (2017) | Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Alex Means
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA

Biography

Alexander J. Means is Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He is the author most recently of Learning to Save the Future: Rethinking Education and Work in the Era Digital Capitalism (Routledge, 2018); Educational Commons in Theory and Practice: Global Pedagogy and Politics (Palgrave, 2017); and The Wiley Handbook of Global Education Reform (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018). His research examines educational policy and organisation in relation to political, economic, cultural, technological, and social change.

Panel Presentation (2020) | Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States

Biography

Michael Menchaca is Chair of the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He serves as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technology in Education Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.

Featured Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2024) | Practical Approaches to AI in Academia
Panel Presentation (2022) | Reimagining General Education Across Hawaii’s 10-Campus System: Process, Product, and Lessons Learned
Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Sela V. Panapasa
University of Michigan, USA

Biography

Dr Sela V. Panapasa studies family support and intergenerational exchanges among aged Pacific Islanders living in the US and Pacific region. Her work examines changes in elderly living arrangements and headship status in response to demographic and socioeconomic change. Her interests include family demography, race and ethnicity, measuring health disparities and comparative studies.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Independence & Interdependence
Keynote Presentation (2018) | Anticipating Educational Needs That Ensure a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workforce for a Changing U.S. Population
Hiagi M. Wesley
Brigham Young University – Hawaii, USA

Biography

Having been in the classroom at elementary school, junior and senior high school, and university levels, as well as an administrator at all levels, Dr Hiagi M. Wesley is passionate about student learning and academic success. He has a special interest in how different indigenous cultures affect the academic success of students.

His current responsibilities in leadership and teaching have been in the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Studies programs at Brigham Young University – Hawaii, USA. He strives to apply effective pedagogy for student learning, in his role as Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Humanities, as he provides services in the area of curriculum development.

His educational background includes a Master’s degree and Supervisory Certificate in Secondary School Administration as well as a Doctorate of Education in Higher Education Administration. Other training includes an ESL certificate as well as Diversity and Sensitivity credentials.

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Featured Presentation (2018) | Pacific Indigenous Perspectives vs Global Ways of Learning