EPI∙STEM PODCAST EPISODE 31

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD welcomes Associate Professor Nicolaas Blom as the special guest. Nicolaas is a Lecturer in Technology Education and Course Director of the International Master’s programme in the School of Education at UL.Here Associate Professor Blom shares how he came to UL in2020 from his former role as a Lecturer in Design Technology in South Africa. Nicolaas was attracted to the education system in Ireland through an education technology conference he attended in 2018, where he was highly impressed by the creativity and modelling in the projects on display.Associate Professor Blom’s research specialism lies in interrogation of where young people’s creative ideas and thinking come from, such as, from the layout of the problem, the role of memory and prior experience, and/or the part played by stimulating learning environments. This was the topic of interest in Nicolaas’s PhD study in Technology Design 2016 and continues to interest him nowadays in relation to the cognitive, metacognitive, including learning from indigenous communities. In this regard, Associate Professor Blom isinterested not only in the complexity of students’ thinking, designing and doing but also in navigating their personal ethical journeys of (human) becoming. Nicolaas invites his students to partake in action research projects while working in teams and navigating what the Celtic philosopher, JohnO’Donohue called ‘the web of betweenness’.As part of public engagement, and aligned with AssociateProfessor Blom’s interest in the notion of social sustainability, Nicolaas works in a cross-national partnership project between transition year students in one school in Ireland (Kanturk, Co. Cork) and a rural resource centre in South Africa, with the aim of designing and manufacturing low cost resources for students with severe disabilities, and for instilling a felt sense of social consciousness, for responsibility and action with and for others.  The music selection is by Sarbik Guha, known by his stage name as Biki, and as Biki and his Buddies. Biki is a 3rd year PhDstudent in Arts Practice in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL. Biki sings an original composition ‘Fly Away to Another Shore’, while playing his acoustic guitar.