Tim Gander
Hailing all the way from the UK but based in Gisborne, Tim is a postgraduate director for the Master of Contemporary Education programme. He helps guide learners along their journey, facilitates sessions and inputs to the constantly evolving work we do here at The Mind Lab to reflect the constantly changing world.
Tim is passionate about encouraging staff, students and partners to share practice-based research through his role as editor in chief of He Rourou. This is our interdisciplinary publication that we publish semiannually to bring together work from The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab. His personal research areas of interest are teacher education and professional development, social justice and thoughtful technology integration.
No stranger to learning, Tim has a Bachelor of Education from the University of Exeter, a Master of Education from Massey University, and is also a PhD candidate through the University of Southern Queensland.
In terms of the future of education, Tim believes it will become more virtual as augmented reality and virtual reality technology continues to improve. He sees young people becoming increasingly open to virtual worlds through the adoption of 'play to earn' gaming in the metaverse, and believes education will also be delivered in that way; potentially becoming 'play to learn' on a larger scale than just gamification of learning.
Tim hopes this will reduce hierarchies of knowledge and enable greater diversity, depending on access to technology and who designs the virtual environments, so deep consideration is needed during early adoption stages.
When he’s not pondering deeply about the future of education, you’ll catch Tim out on his board surfing the epic Gisborne breaks. His love for adventure and the outdoors, combined with his willingness to collaborate and work to solve any problem, make him a great member of The Mind Lab team, who always has a good story to tell about his latest escapades.
Publications