Team Members
Ms Argiri Argyro | AKTO
Argyro Argyri is in charge of the AKTO Institute of Vocational Training in Greece. She is a philosophy and social care graduate and she is currently attending an MA in Schools Management and Lifelong Learning. She has been a VET administrator and an adult trainer for more than eight years, often offering training to valuable groups, like imprisoned and disabled.
Dr. Sebastian Honert | FAU (Friedrich Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Sebastian has been working as a Research Assistant at ILI for the past 5 years. His main activities are in the field of web development, app development, and project management. He has over 10 years experience in web and application development, and his set of skills include HTML5/CSS3, PHP/MySQL, JavaScript, React, React Native, NodeJS and several related domains such as User Interface Design, UX, SEO, and WordPress. Among his more recent projects are FAU’s official study information platform (FAU MeinStudium, https://meinstudium.fau.de) and the FAU Welcome App (http://www.ili.fau.de/projekte/fau-welcome/).
Prof. Judit Kormos | Lancaster University
Member of the Linguistics and English Language Department, she is the Director of Studies for the MA TESOL Distance programme. She teaches a Masters module on Teaching Languages to Students with Specific Learning Differences (e.g. dyslexia). She regularly delivers a MOOC on “Dyslexia for English as a Foreign Language Teachers” and has participated in two Erasmus projects that focus on dyslexia: dysTEFL (http://www.dystefl.eu/) and dystefl2 (http://dystefl2.uni.lodz.pl/). DysTEFL won a British Council ELTons innovation award for course innovation. She has published research articles and 2 books on the effects of dyslexia on acquiring additional languages.
Dr. Natasa Lackovic | Lancaster University
Natasa is an experienced teacher and researcher in visual communication and learning. She is a Lecturer in Higher Education and a Co-Director of Lancaster University’s graphic novels and comics network, ReOPeN. Her research has recently focused almost entirely on graphic novels and comics as learning, research, methodological, outreach and communication tools.
Eleni Nikiforou | University of Cyprus
Eleni holds a BA in English Language and Literature (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and a MA in Educational Technology and English Language Teaching (University of Manchester). She is a PhD candidate at the University of Lancaster. She currently holds the position of Special Teaching Staff at the Language Centre of the University of Cyprus, where she teaches English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes. Her research interests include Instructional Technology and English Language Teaching, Blended Learning, Online Learning, Teacher training, and English for Specific Academic Purposes.
Evelyn Schlenk | FAU
Evelyn is senior researcher at the Innovation in Learning Institute (ILI) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. She is psychologist with focus on educational and developmental psychology and has got about 20 years of experience in technology-enhanced lifelong learning systems for different target groups in various professional fields. In more than 30 regional, national, and European projects, she has been responsible for conceptualization, development, management, implementation and evaluation of technology-enhanced learning and training environments. From 2013-2016 she has put a special focus on the topic of dyslexia (LLP Comenius Project: iSmart – Smart Technology Solutions for Children with Dyslexia). She is speaker at national and international conferences.
Dr. Chryssa Themelis | Lancaster University
Chryssa has been working, researching and learning in the field of technology enhanced learning for the last 15 years. She owns a language centre in Greece and has been a researcher on European funded projects. She was the conference coordinator of the vocational technology enhanced learning conference in Athens 2015, organised by the voctel project. She has a doctorate in Technology Enhanced Learning and is currently a researcher on the visual/video literacies project. She has developed (with Dr. Julie-Ann Sime) a MOOC for educators to enhance their awareness and knowledge of visual learning in their teaching.
Eleni Tsampra | AKTO
A strong passion in design and an interest in all forms of visual communication, led Eleni to complete a BA in Graphic Design and Traditional Animation and a Master’s Degree in Computer-Generated Images. Since graduation, she has worked as an illustrator and animator, designing projects ranging from comics, illustrated books, character designs, storyboards to short animations and motion graphics for various services and contexts (educational, cultural, advertising, corporate). Since 2009, she has combined her professional career as an illustrator and animator with teaching in several universities: TEI Department of Graphic Design (Athens / Greece), AKTO Middlesex University (Athens /Greece), Faculty of Architecture (Alghero / Italy), ΜΜU (Manchester Metropolitan University / UK). Her courses focus on topics such as illustration and comics, character development, storyboard and visual narrative, as well as animation principles and techniques. She helps students to understand and execute concepts being taught, by encouraging them to use materials and techniques of their choice in order to communicate graphically their ideas, assisting them with various design and animation software. Each assignment she plans, aim to develop different areas of learning such as drawing, colour, composition, as well as problem-solving and presentation skills. Her instructional methods involve research, group discussions and critiques, lectures and technical demonstrations. Her scholarly interests range widely from narratology, myths and pop culture to structuralism and information design. As a result, during the last years she wrote several articles and conference papers focused on the above themes.