On the Mark: Dr. Mahnaz Moallem

President Mark Ginsberg sits down with Dr. Mahnaz Moallem, professor and chair of Towson University’s Department of Learning Technologies, Design and School Library Media. Together, they explore how learning sciences and emerging technologies—especially immersive virtual reality—are transforming teaching, motivation, and student engagement across P–12 and higher education. Dr. Moallem also shares groundbreaking work on using VR to build cultural sensitivity, the growing role of AI and adaptive learning, and her innovative Girls Computing & Cybersecurity Club, which is inspiring the next generation of women in STEM.

Transcript

00:00:00:19 - 00:00:08:04
Speaker 1
You're listening to a Towson University podcast.

00:00:08:06 - 00:00:34:20
President Ginsberg
Welcome to on the Mark, where we have candid conversations about meaningful and consequential work happening here at Towson University. I'm Mark Ginsberg. It's my honor to serve as president of Towson University located, of course, in Towson, Maryland. And on this podcast, we're introducing you to members of our university community who are engaged in high impact teaching, research and student success practices.

00:00:34:22 - 00:00:58:15
President Ginsberg
Today, we're joined by a scholar, an educator, and an innovator whose work sits at the intersection of learning, science and real world classroom impact. Pleased to be joined by Doctor Mahnaz Moallem, Mehnaz serves as professor and also chair of our Department of Learning, Technologies, Design and School Library Media here in the College of Education at Towson University.

00:00:58:17 - 00:01:24:23
President Ginsberg
Her research explores how we can intentionally use emerging technology as well as immersive virtual reality to create better learning environments, especially in the STEM fields. She has, more than three decades of experience preparing P-12 educators, holds a PhD in Instructional System Design and Learning Systems from Florida State University. Mahnaz, thank you for joining me today. A pleasure to have you with us and pleasure to be On The Mark with you.

00:01:25:01 - 00:01:37:05
President Ginsberg
So tell us a little bit first about what drew you to this really exciting and innovative field. Learning technologies is exploding. And you were there right near the beginning of it. So tell us a little bit about how you you gravitated into this particular field.

00:01:37:09 - 00:02:10:05
Mahnaz Moallem
I came to the learning design and learning sciences, from an experience of an educator and a special education teacher, and then becoming, educators in teacher education program. It provided me, a very good exposure to, learning sciences, theories and principles that could be easily translate into developing, enhance learning environment for, for a student.

00:02:10:05 - 00:02:44:02
Mahnaz Moallem
So it provided me with, a lot of opportunities. And then, obviously lately more into technology, emerging technology mediated learning. So at the beginning, technology was more specific, with the techniques that we use, with regard to improving learning. But as, as the technology, advanced, then learning technologies became a, a mediated, environment for improving education.

00:02:44:05 - 00:03:07:04
President Ginsberg
But the technologies not only of learning, but generally the technologies that we use every day are just exploding in their their range as well as their impact. And also really what they are. And so as you define this concept of learning design, how do you see it in this context of the rapidly changing, both educational landscape but also technological landscape?

00:03:07:06 - 00:03:48:18
Mahnaz Moallem
I think that that a learning science side of it is foundational. So we learn how learning happens. How a student respond to different things? And what are the components of, of learning, including, cognitive, social, emotional, and, all aspects of learning there, affective domain motivation and other issues. So those stay pretty much based on the evidence that we gather, as the research obviously expands, the narrow, science, included in learning sciences.

00:03:49:00 - 00:04:10:16
Mahnaz Moallem
So we basically use a lot of learning principles. And then we translate them, into how learning environment, excuse me, can be developed so that we would improve learning. For example, the issue of cognitive load is a principle in learning sciences.

00:04:10:19 - 00:04:11:22
President Ginsberg
Cognitive load.

00:04:12:00 - 00:04:12:14
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes.

00:04:12:16 - 00:04:14:05
President Ginsberg
Tell us what cognitive load is.

00:04:14:10 - 00:04:45:18
Mahnaz Moallem
Cognitive load is when you use too many different things during the learning process. And many of them are extraneous, not necessarily directly related to learning. And that loads the human mind so that they cannot specifically focus on the component that is required for learning. So if that's the principle within the cognitive science, how do you translate that to the learning environment?

00:04:45:19 - 00:05:15:08
Mahnaz Moallem
For example, if we are improving a student's understanding of a specific concept that has to happen and and then other extraneous issues should be removed so that student can pay direct attention to the item that is the focus of learning. So and then there are very many principles similar to that that we would use. And then we translate them into designing an environment that is more appropriate for learning.

00:05:15:08 - 00:05:23:04
President Ginsberg
So it also though it sounds like it's attentive to not just the cognitive side of learning, the intellectual side of learning, but also, as you're saying, the social and emotional side.

00:05:23:05 - 00:05:23:14
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes.

00:05:23:14 - 00:05:27:16
President Ginsberg
And maybe some of the other elements that are taking things are going on in a person's life that can either

00:05:27:16 - 00:05:28:13
Mahnaz Moallem
Exactly

00:05:28:15 - 00:05:30:10
President Ginsberg
maximize or interfere with learning.

00:05:30:10 - 00:05:32:18
Mahnaz Moallem
Exactly. Particularly motivation,

00:05:32:21 - 00:05:33:07
President Ginsberg
Motivation for sure

00:05:33:07 - 00:05:35:03
Mahnaz Moallem
Empathy, emotion.

00:05:35:03 - 00:05:35:09
President Ginsberg
Yeah, yeah.

00:05:35:15 - 00:06:00:23
Mahnaz Moallem
Because they are not separated from cognition. So at least learning sciences showed us that different aspects of learning cognitive, social and emotional, you know, they're all intertwined and you cannot separate one from the other. So we have to include those into the process of learning. For example, we know that student interests and emotion impacts learning.

00:06:01:01 - 00:06:22:03
Mahnaz Moallem
So that's why when we set up the learning environment, we ensure that student motivation is explored ahead of time so that we are matching the learning environment with the area of other student interests, their motivation, their value system even, to ensure that that learning occurs.

00:06:22:05 - 00:06:23:19
President Ginsberg
Motivation is fundamental.

00:06:23:20 - 00:06:24:07
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes,

00:06:24:08 - 00:06:51:22
President Ginsberg
it would seem to effective learning. And it would seem that by inference that effective teaching also is related to trying to understand motivational theory and and being good motivating practices, in a sense. So it sounds like and I'm just wanting to kind of infer this from what you're saying, that the, the mesh or if you will, or the blend of learning technologies and learning science is a particularly powerful combination.

00:06:52:00 - 00:07:26:18
Mahnaz Moallem
Did, you know that, for example, motivation, when you bring that to the, technology mediated learning environment? Yeah, I think that can help us think technology can help us improve that. For example, you can provide immediate feedback to a student that increases student motivation level, or you can use scenario simulations. Yes. In, an environment that is student will be interested and be engaged more.

00:07:26:23 - 00:07:44:18
Mahnaz Moallem
So technology can provide some opportunities that otherwise it would be difficult, to, to create, for example, in the immersive learning environment that I've been studying and talk about that. Yeah, that's, that's the technology.

00:07:44:20 - 00:07:46:09
President Ginsberg
highly motivating, highly motivating environment.

00:07:46:11 - 00:08:15:06
Mahnaz Moallem
Right? I think within that environment, creating, a space that a student will immerse in an environment that otherwise would be very difficult to, to create and then learning that environment. So I think technology provides that, that opportunity or online learning, for example, that provides another opportunity for students to have self-directed, environment for learning.

00:08:15:06 - 00:08:24:17
President Ginsberg
So you're really shifting the context, if you will. You're providing a context that's both motivating at the same time, informative and engaging. That that's the other piece

00:08:24:17 - 00:08:40:13
Mahnaz Moallem
I think engagement is, is a main issue. We know that the learning science came to the point that engagement is a key to learning. Yeah. So to improve engagement, then we have to think of what would we offer to students so that they would be engaged more.

00:08:40:13 - 00:09:03:21
President Ginsberg
Engagement is a topic that I'm really interested in. And I wonder what you're thinking is that when we think about, contemporary education, when we think about pedagogy in today's both our P-12 environment, also in our higher education environment, but frankly, also in our corporate environments where we are training or retraining or skill development or professional development, how do you see this balance between between cognitive learning?

00:09:03:21 - 00:09:13:00
President Ginsberg
By hearing versus learning, by doing the active problem, project based learning and the pedagogies that might be considered part of that domain.

00:09:13:02 - 00:09:44:12
Mahnaz Moallem
That's exactly how I landed in the, a pedagogy of problem based learning and critical thinking. And that's my specific area of of research. Because I figured out that, until you put a student in a situation that they need to solve a problem, and the problem is connected to the real world environment, it would be hard to engage them because then the interest is not necessarily established for them.

00:09:44:12 - 00:10:05:15
Mahnaz Moallem
So, that's how I, so they're looking at the pedagogy or problem based learning, project based learning, particularly in the STEM field, to engage your student more in, in their learning environment. So it’s starting with the scenario that is very similar to the real world environment.

00:10:05:19 - 00:10:34:19
President Ginsberg
I think some of the data in, in pedagogy, in the field of learning, science is telling us that, that these kinds of active learning approaches are really beneficial for students learning. And in fact, one of the foremost educators that I've read recently, Richard Meyer, was recently quoted saying the design of learning experiences must begin, not be can begin, but must begin with understanding how people learn and with the capabilities of the latest technology then being blended with that.

00:10:34:19 - 00:10:46:13
President Ginsberg
But it's, that's what Meyer is saying, I think. And and you're amplifying in your comments is that we need to first to understand how it is that people acquire knowledge and learn how to use that knowledge.

00:10:46:15 - 00:11:14:22
Mahnaz Moallem
I think when the students engage in a problem. Indeed, it would help them by exploring, the problem’s space. They could come to the areas that they do not know enough, so it would prompt them to engage in prior knowledge that they are missing. So. But but at the same time, I think the issue of is scaffolding or guided practice is becoming critical.

00:11:14:22 - 00:11:45:13
Mahnaz Moallem
And that's the area that I spend quality time on. Looking at scaffolding and self-regulation, within students, practice. So, so that they can start looking and seeing what is it that they are missing that they need to learn. And then as a as a teacher with a scaffold, a student or guide is student. By asking more questions, they become more aware of the areas that they would have to go and explore.

00:11:45:13 - 00:12:11:04
Mahnaz Moallem
But of course, the critical issue is how you prepare our educators to be able to ask questions rather than providing answers? So I think that's a critical skill set that teachers need to have to be able to prompt a student with more questions and helping them explore more. So that requires a lot of scaffolding and guiding.

00:12:11:04 - 00:12:33:08
President Ginsberg
Inquiry based learning. And my belief is that teaching from that perspective, as you say, requires not only a different set of skills, but a very well refined set of skills to be able to ask those kinds of questions. Here in our College of Education, where you've been a teacher, educator for many years, that's one of the models that you're teaching your students to be able to implement in their classrooms.

00:12:33:09 - 00:12:57:03
President Ginsberg
Talk a little bit about technology, because that's an area of your research an area of your practice and technology has, has, I guess, accelerated some of the ways that we're doing problem based learning or engaged inquiry based approaches that what are some of the latest and some of the technologies that have the most promise? And in, in, in adapting the learning experience to be more inquiry based?

00:12:57:05 - 00:13:30:23
Mahnaz Moallem
I think, primarily the, technology within the computing environment that has impacted our, our learning environment. Pretty pretty much, you know, the, providing all the, learning materials that are scaffolded and personalized to learners, you know, capabilities and, and interest and motivation so that they can explore things on their own. That technology afforded us to do that.

00:13:31:01 - 00:13:56:23
Mahnaz Moallem
Now with the, with the learning analytics. Yes. We are capable of analyzing the, the learners ahead of time or through many different data to have a better understanding of who the learners are so that we can adapt or, learning and instruction to their needs. So I think that's the technology that's helped us greatly.

00:13:56:23 - 00:14:28:01
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes. Adaptive adaptive learning environment. For example, once a student is started doing, and experiencing, then we have to be able to adapt our, assessment of their learning to where they are rather than, you know, just focusing on a and or summative price something. Yeah. So I think that's also technology is making us, very much, capable of doing that.

00:14:28:03 - 00:14:33:08
Mahnaz Moallem
And now with the, artificial intelligence that brings computing. Yeah.

00:14:33:09 - 00:14:35:19
President Ginsberg
I’m glad you raises that. Yes. I was going to ask about AI and how that relates to all this.

00:14:35:19 - 00:15:03:17
Mahnaz Moallem
I think that the computing environment in general, for a student to understand what the computing environment is, I think that needs to be part of the, basic skills that are our, educators should have, for example, where where the data is coming from, what is data science and how artificial intelligence is gaining its understanding of data.

00:15:03:20 - 00:15:36:15
Mahnaz Moallem
So I think these are the issues that that have not been in our field before. But technology making it possible because of what are now gathering data from many different sources. Now we have to see where these data are coming from, what are the biases associated with them? So that the specific use of it is appropriate and ethical and, and it's addressing all kinds of security issues, privacy issues.

00:15:36:17 - 00:15:49:14
Mahnaz Moallem
So a lot of new areas are coming to the field of learning design that has not been before. Both with the possibilities and at the same time challenges.

00:15:49:16 - 00:16:02:00
President Ginsberg
Yet and AI has the opportunity to amplify. But I think what you're saying is a good teacher won't be replaced by AI, but will be able to be augmented or their work leveraged.

00:16:02:00 - 00:16:08:01
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes, we translate that into human centered. AI so yeah.

00:16:08:03 - 00:16:09:13
President Ginsberg
How do you tell us about that?

00:16:09:14 - 00:16:36:09
Mahnaz Moallem
It's take we leave all the judgment and evaluation to the human and then you say AI as a, as a augmented tool to help the human instructor to achieve what they need to achieve. So, in other words, if a students are supposed to use a specific tool, this is a human who decide how, when and at what point they're going to have to use it to to inform them.

00:16:36:09 - 00:17:03:15
Mahnaz Moallem
For example, if they're using an intelligent tutoring system, it's not that we're pushing a student to do that on their own, but the human, instructor would decide how they should be using this tutoring so that they would help them by indicating what what issues they need to focus on, by looking at the analytic data, pushing them to, specific personalized learning strategies.

00:17:03:19 - 00:17:13:21
Mahnaz Moallem
So, we believe that, at any point human instructor would have to be in charge of judgment and decision.

00:17:13:23 - 00:17:21:17
President Ginsberg
So using technology, not hiding it, but also not marginalizing the importance of the teacher.

00:17:21:19 - 00:17:22:22
Mahnaz Moallem
Exactly. Yeah.

00:17:23:00 - 00:17:40:06
President Ginsberg
Teacher. So let's talk about another area that I know you've been involved in and you're very passionate about. And in some of the emerging technologies, I'm really curious. I've, I heard that you're doing some work in the VR space and the virtual reality space. Tell us about that in teacher education and how that fits with with all of what we've been talking about so far.

00:17:40:06 - 00:18:15:06
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes, we we establish a, virtual reality innovative, learning virtual reality at the College of Education, in, in 2022. So, I think that same with the new, technologies within the immersive, virtual reality and, and the pricing, being so, available and affordable now, the environment is, providing a promising environment for, for many different areas.

00:18:15:10 - 00:18:47:04
Mahnaz Moallem
I think, I don't get into other areas that have been has been shown to be very effective. Like training or health or other areas. But, in education, what I specifically focused on to, to test environment was this immersive, virtual reality to improve cultural sensitivity. Because cultural sensitivity has a big component in empathy and affective learning.

00:18:47:04 - 00:18:47:07
President Ginsberg
Empathy and Affective learning

00:18:47:07 - 00:18:48:20
Mahnaz Moallem
Affective learning.

00:18:48:22 - 00:18:49:21
President Ginsberg
The feeling state.

00:18:50:00 - 00:19:02:09
Mahnaz Moallem
Exactly. Because cognitive side of it. We've been able to address that in teacher education because we can give a student information, we can have them look at different cases if

00:19:02:10 - 00:19:04:05
President Ginsberg
But but that's the easy part.

00:19:04:05 - 00:19:34:19
Mahnaz Moallem
But yes, but the increasing empathy and passion and understanding of various perspective, and individual beliefs and norms, and very difficult to establish. Of course, we've had strategies, such as student abroad. So we took a student to different places. Differenr culture, but they are costly, and not all students can experience that.

00:19:34:21 - 00:20:13:02
Mahnaz Moallem
But virtual reality is a tool that can easily reproduce, this, real world environment or even imaginary environment in a 3D, you know, space that once you put the headset on, you would basically blocking the physical environment, and then the brain thinks that they are in that virtual environment and, and separated from, from physical. So whatever they see, it's they are with it.

00:20:13:04 - 00:20:47:10
Mahnaz Moallem
They are in it. So creating that environment with the different cultural perspective would help a student to see and feel what person with a different cultural background would feel and see. So that improves their empathy, openness, understanding in addition to all those cognitive areas. So I think that was my focus. I wanted to see if we can improve that side of, the teacher educate education student.

00:20:47:12 - 00:20:48:06
Mahnaz Moallem


00:20:48:08 - 00:21:07:13
President Ginsberg
I can say from a personal experience, having experienced virtual reality of, of a classroom environment, that you're absolutely right. It takes literally a matter of seconds until you feel like you're in the environment. And, you know, in some ways, education's come a little bit quote late to the party that other fields have used simulated environments for a long time.

00:21:07:13 - 00:21:19:04
President Ginsberg
It strikes me it's also a safe context that you don't have to be perfect. You can learn from the experience without creating difficulty or problems. For others, it's it's safe.

00:21:19:06 - 00:21:19:19
Mahnaz Moallem
Exactly.

00:21:19:22 - 00:21:28:00
President Ginsberg
My guess is for classroom a teacher preparation. That too is the case. It's a safe environment to be be practicing and to be learning.

00:21:28:04 - 00:21:31:07
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes, I think it's a very low stakes environment because

00:21:31:07 - 00:21:31:15
President Ginsberg
Low stakes

00:21:31:18 - 00:21:41:05
Mahnaz Moallem
student, can practice, can respond to and then come back and reflect on what happened to them and what they feel,

00:21:41:07 - 00:21:50:08
President Ginsberg
And you can process it with them as an educator with without having the the direct human contact, but having the simulated human contact. Yes. Which feels very real, as you said.

00:21:50:09 - 00:22:09:19
Mahnaz Moallem
And that's exactly what the students who experienced that, intervention said that they, it was safe for them to be in a place of another individual with a different culture to see where they are coming from. It was amazing the, we collected both quantitative and quality data.

00:22:09:19 - 00:22:10:07
President Ginsberg
Yeah, I’m wondering what your data nd research is telling us.

00:22:10:09 - 00:22:39:01
Mahnaz Moallem
It was a systematic approach, and, but we created, environment that we would collect quantitative data with the scales, that we used to assess their cultural sensitivity. The quantitative data showed that they definitely improved their significantly, improved their openness, their empathy, their passion, their understanding. So and then the qualitative data was amazing.

00:22:39:03 - 00:23:12:16
Mahnaz Moallem
How a student because it was an intervention that we had about seven lessons that they had to go through to look at different culture in the 3D environment. We were putting headset on and, and that it showed how they started thinking very differently from the beginning to the end. So at the end, they they placed themself very much in the, in the other people experience, they, they showed that they understand at the much deeper level what everyone felt.

00:23:12:16 - 00:23:24:14
Mahnaz Moallem
So, definitely our experiment shows promise, for using this technology to improve areas that we have a hard time improving.

00:23:24:16 - 00:23:54:18
President Ginsberg
You know, I was going to ask you that about how students are responding to it. It sounds like they respond very positively. Yes, but even their positive personal response is almost transcended by their learning experience. Yeah. It's interesting how how is, you know, these technologies and you've been involved with it for really from its start almost it it would almost seem as if they have not only emerged, but the sophistication and the, I guess the, the way in which they're taking place has gotten better and better and better.

00:23:54:20 - 00:23:57:19
President Ginsberg
What's the trend line, what's happening in that field and where is it headed?

00:23:57:19 - 00:24:27:04
Mahnaz Moallem
I think they started with the really expensive headset and not not much, you know, obviously material to experience with. So it was limitation of both equipment and, and, you know, the content that, you needed to have within this environment. But as we moved, through the advancement of it, the headsets are now very sophisticated.

00:24:27:06 - 00:24:56:16
Mahnaz Moallem
We're using, Meta Quest, which is a very, you know, usable kind of headset. So it's not too bulky. It's very focused. And the 3D environment is, from a, you know, a user experience, perspective is much, much, real, compared to what they had before. In addition to that, the pricing, dropped, you know, tremendously.

00:24:56:20 - 00:25:15:13
Mahnaz Moallem
So now everyone is able to afford that. So and indeed the schools have been using it, but or at least acquiring it. But whether the teachers were trained or, provided support to be able to use it appropriately does it. That's a different issue.

00:25:15:19 - 00:25:18:04
President Ginsberg
So it sounds like it's become more accessible to people. Yes.

00:25:18:06 - 00:25:18:17
Mahnaz Moallem
Definitely.

00:25:18:17 - 00:25:19:08
President Ginsberg
People have learned how to use it

00:25:19:08 - 00:25:19:18
Mahnaz Moallem
Very more

00:25:19:23 - 00:25:41:11
President Ginsberg
Not replacing teaching, but augmenting or leveraging teaching. What what are what are barriers that are existing? Because I would I would think to be able to teach using immersive technologies does require, a set of skills that you're teaching your students in your learning design program, but are skills that students and teachers and school systems need to integrate within their systems?

00:25:41:13 - 00:26:06:09
Mahnaz Moallem
I think there is a, you know, the learning curve for our educators, our younger generation. They are kind of comfortable with that. Or for example, when I when we did the teacher education candidate, when we brought them for the experiment, it took them about an hour and a half to completely get comfortable with their headset and the environment.

00:26:06:09 - 00:26:27:18
Mahnaz Moallem
So we but of course, we had the, you know, facilitator to support them. But but they really didn't need that much. We're using now the, virtual reality for our girls coding club with the high school group, and they come in and they are, you know, high school girls. And they didn't have much of the problem.

00:26:27:20 - 00:26:56:07
Mahnaz Moallem
You know, using the equipment and maneuvering in the, in the virtual environment. But for our teacher education faculty, that's a learning curve because they need to get comfortable, with the technology, plus the the need for having the content that is appropriate in that environment. So we're lacking a lot of content that is properly designed for the environment.

00:26:56:10 - 00:27:02:20
Mahnaz Moallem
So that these two are barriers. So they're not much of the development on that. That's the barrier

00:27:02:21 - 00:27:29:11
President Ginsberg
Yeah. And going back to what we talked about earlier about inquiry based approaches, I'm almost sensing that the immersive technologies give you the opportunity to design and create learning environments that are more inquiry based. In other words, I know one of the leading organizations is the emerging learning design community that exist. One of their mottos is that education, the age of immersion, is about designing moments that matter, not just lessons that matters.

00:27:29:11 - 00:27:57:05
Mahnaz Moallem
Exactly. That's what we're trying to help our doctorate student that are focusing on learning design, to learn how to create that environment. Because as you said, the content is not, you know, accessible right now. There are content related to high school biology. For example, we have a lot of, virtual simulation in biology that you could put your had said, and you explore a lot of things.

00:27:57:07 - 00:28:23:02
Mahnaz Moallem
There are virtual laboratories, that are used, for the science environment, even in mathematics, we have acquired some of those applications for, for a Stem in mathematics, physics, these are the areas that are very difficult conceptually, very difficult for the students. But then when they put the headset and actually practice stuff, they have a much better understanding.

00:28:23:04 - 00:28:39:03
Mahnaz Moallem
And, and the lately we also practiced the machine learning. Yes. And had girls really go into it and see how machine learn. So it was, much, more involved.

00:28:39:05 - 00:29:10:06
President Ginsberg
Let me ask you about one of the issues. We only have a few minutes left, but I know it's another area that you've been doing research on. And are interested. It's the issue of gender disparities, particularly in the STEM fields, and how some of the newer learning technologies that you have both researched and designed and applied can, can assist with creating greater, equality, gender equality in some of these emerging fields, particularly the STEM and computer science, cybersecurity and fields that are so important to our future.

00:29:10:08 - 00:29:44:02
Mahnaz Moallem
And so I think, I've always been interested I think I've worked in the field of STEM quite, quite a bit, with improving, both mathematics and science learning, for, K-12 education. So I had interest in that. But, but, research consistently, showing that, the disparity gender disparity in a, some field, particularly in the area of computing, AI and cybersecurity recently.

00:29:44:02 - 00:30:24:19
Mahnaz Moallem
So, the absence of women in these areas is tremendous. Yes. And it, it shows that, there is a, you know, urgent needs, to, to remove this or reduce this, disparity. So, for, for that interest, I the, you know, research shows that there are obviously many solutions, but one of the solution that shows that it reduces this, age disparity, particularly in the area of biases, role model.

00:30:24:21 - 00:30:41:18
Mahnaz Moallem
You know, being able to have this experience. Yeah. The early ages. Yes. Is the enrichment program, after school enrichment program. Yeah. So that shows us that that significantly reduces, the, the age and race disparity.

00:30:41:22 - 00:30:44:08
President Ginsberg
So again, that program is about learning by doing.

00:30:44:08 - 00:31:12:14
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes. So that's why we started creating this, girls computing, AI and cybersecurity club. And we started with the a all support from the two foundation. And then established in the club, we brought kids to campus. But but then I received I was fortunate to receive USM Elkinson Professorship award. Right. That provided more support.

00:31:12:14 - 00:31:14:15
President Ginsberg
Congratulations that’s a great award. How old are the girls that are coming?

00:31:14:21 - 00:31:46:01
Mahnaz Moallem
We started only with the elementary middle age, but then with the Elkinson, project support. Now we have expanded that to all ages. We, we bring young kids age of 4 to 6. So we have a group of 4 to 6 young girls that are learning about computing, computational thinking, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence. And then we have elementary and middle age group, and they have another faculty that working with them.

00:31:46:06 - 00:31:59:11
Mahnaz Moallem
And then we created age appropriate curriculum in all these three areas. And then we have high school group that we have more advanced computing and and cybersecurity issues.

00:31:59:12 - 00:32:00:18
President Ginsberg
So, it’s across the spectrum

00:32:00:20 - 00:32:26:14
Mahnaz Moallem
So we have three groups. They come on campus every other Saturday from 10 to 12. And we have faculty of the College of Education that are, trained. And we have faculty at the early education who's, pretty much, trained in the area of technology. And then we have another faculty who has computer science background teaching our elementary and, middle grades.

00:32:26:14 - 00:32:32:17
President Ginsberg
Well, that's fabulous. That's fabulous. And a great adaptation of all of what we've been talking about, but also a great community service.

00:32:32:20 - 00:32:33:06
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes.

00:32:33:12 - 00:32:43:10
President Ginsberg
Young students and girls here, they're learning about important topics and becoming interested, potentially in a career path that that many girls have not found access to and opportunities.

00:32:43:14 - 00:33:20:05
Mahnaz Moallem
We specifically focus on girls that otherwise don't have this opportunity. So, lately we would like to, we have received a lot of positive, responses from parents. And, and now we're thinking that parents need to be, also trained in those areas a little bit. We've heard from them that the young kids go home and even teach their parents about cybersecurity and tell them not to do this or do this, or, explaining to them what AI works so that they are very, very impressed by that.

00:33:20:05 - 00:33:39:05
Mahnaz Moallem
And some of them, even volunteered to, to work at the club so that they can learn about that. The other aspect of our club is that we're bringing a teacher education candidate to the club as a teaching assistant. So for each group, we have, three.

00:33:39:06 - 00:33:39:17
President Ginsberg
So it’s a training experience as well.

00:33:39:20 - 00:33:44:11
Mahnaz Moallem
Yes. teacher, education candidate that work as a teaching assistant with the faculty.

00:33:44:15 - 00:34:08:15
Mahnaz Moallem
They not only learn these areas themselves, but they also learn how to teach them. So and also it has become a really research hub for our faculty of the College of Education and also a doctoral student. Many of them are coming to the club to study different aspects of, of learning. So, it's been a it's been a very, fascinating experience.

00:34:08:15 - 00:34:27:15
President Ginsberg
Well that’s fabulous. So the work you're doing and as we conclude the conversation, is both a service to the community, a great experience for these young girls who are participating. It's a training experience for our students and also a laboratory kind of a living learning laboratory for our our faculty and our students conducting research. Well, the work that you're doing is both fascinating.

00:34:27:15 - 00:34:50:05
President Ginsberg
It's of high impact and important consequence, and I'm so pleased to learn about it and know that our students in our College of Education are learning to be educators, not only in the classic sense, but perhaps even more importantly, in the contemporary sense. Yes, learning the newer technologies and you and your colleagues are designing some of those emergent and immersive technologies that are so important to the future of our society.

00:34:50:07 - 00:35:07:08
President Ginsberg
As we know, education is so important for all of our communities. So let me thank you very much for joining us. Doctor Mahnaz Moallem, and here at TU. Your work is fascinating, high impact and important consequence. Thank you for joining us. And thank you for listening to on the Mark.

00:35:07:10 - 00:35:30:07
President Ginsberg
Thank you for listening to On the Mark. If you like what you've heard, please give us a follower. Leave a review. It helps to ensure that we can keep bringing you more candid conversations about the consequential work of higher education. If you have feedback about our podcast, I'd welcome hearing from you. Please feel free to send me a message at onthemark@towson.edu

00:35:30:07 - 00:35:35:23
President Ginsberg


00:35:36:01 - 00:36:08:20
Speaker 1
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00:36:08:20 - 00:36:09:12
Speaker 1