Conference

Context Matters: Contextualising Smart Technologies and STEM Outreach in Technical and Vocational Education

In debates on smart technologies and education, context is often invoked but rarely unpacked. This keynote presentation will argue that the way in which we conceptualise and design 'context' is fundamental to fostering interest, deep understanding, and professional identity in technical and vocational education, as well as to establishing sustainable STEM pathways from school to university and into the workplace.

Drawing on research and design-based development in technical education, I will first distinguish between the various layers of context, including authentic work and life situations in smart and sustainable industries; disciplinary and technological structures in engineering and vocational domains; and institutional contexts, such as curricula, outreach structures, and university teaching formats. I will then demonstrate how these layers can be deliberately connected through contextualisation in learning environments across educational stages.

Empirical examples will include STEM outreach activities in school laboratories and student research centres. These environments make smart technologies and engineering visible and tangible from an early stage, thereby supporting informed study and career choices in STEM and technical vocational fields.

Drawing on different university projects, I will derive design principles for contextualised learning in technical education, such as aligning present learning with plausible future work, integrating outreach with formal curricula and co-constructing meaningful contexts with learners, teachers, and industry and STEM ecosystem partners.

Finally, I will outline open research questions on how contextualisation can be theorised, operationalised, and assessed in the era of smart technologies.

The speaker

Professor Dr Katrin Temmen is a professor of the Didactics of Technology at Paderborn University, where she has led the Department of Didactics of Technology since 2010. Since 2023, she has also served as Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics. From 2027 onwards, she will take over as chair of the German Faculty Council for Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (Fakultätentag Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik).

Temmen studied electrical engineering at TU Dortmund, where she completed her doctorate in high-voltage engineering and worked as a research assistant and senior engineer for several years.

At Paderborn, she plays a central role in STEM outreach and recruitment. Her department runs the coolMINT.paderborn school laboratory and the coolMINT.forscht student research centre, where pupils can explore engineering and technology through hands-on experiments. She also heads the long-standing “Frauen gestalten die Informationsgesellschaft” project (“Women Shaping the Information Society”), which offers mentoring, taster courses, and “Spring” and “Autumn University” programmes to encourage girls to consider STEM subjects at university.

Temmen has received multiple teaching awards at both TU Dortmund and Paderborn University. In 2025, she and her colleague Mesut Alptekin received first place in the GOLC Online Laboratory Award (Virtual and Augmented Reality Experiments category) for PEARL (Paderborn Electrical Engineering AR Laboratory), an augmented-reality learning environment that prepares students for practical electrical engineering lab work.

The research focus of her group lies at the intersection of technical education, digitalisation, and STEM outreach. Key themes in her numerous externally funded projects include contextualised learning in engineering and technical teacher education; designing and evaluating innovative learning environments, such as lecture-hall and online/AR laboratories; using digital tools to support self-regulated learning in engineering; and developing learning concepts for universities, schools, and out-of-school learning venues using innovative media.

Reconciling Generative AI with Academic Ethics in Classrooms: Conflict or Collaboration?

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has profoundly reshaped academia. With students increasingly engaging with these technologies, upholding academic integrity has become a growing concern. The talk examines the tension and potential harmony between student use of GenAI and the principles of academic ethics. It explores whether these technologies compromise genuine learning and honest authorship, or whether they can be ethically integrated to support creativity, critical thinking, and academic growth. The discussion offers practical guidelines for responsible and meaningful student use of GenAI while maximising its educational advantages. The talk argues that harmonising generative AI with academic ethics is crucial to fostering both integrity and innovation in student scholarship.

The speaker

Oscar Karnalim is an associate professor and the dean of the Faculty of Smart Technology and Engineering, Maranatha Christian University, Indonesia. He completed his PhD at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He serves as Editor in Chief of Sage’s Journal of Educational Technology Systems and as an editorial board member of four Scopus-indexed journals. His research interests include software engineering, learning technologies, and artificial intelligence. He is continuously developing automated technologies to maintain academic integrity. Oscar has published over 120 academic papers, with more than 1,400 citations. His Google Scholar H-Index is 21, while his Scopus H-Index is 16.

Oscar has been involved in many international research and community service collaborations. His collaborators are from Australia, Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, and the UK. He received several awards, including the Michael E. Auer Young Scientists Award (IETI, 2025) and the Best Dissertation Award in the Field of Engineering Education (IEEE Education Society, 2024). He is also an IEEE senior member and a fellow of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.