Education, Research and Innovation: Looking Back, Thinking Forward

By Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elizabeth M. Anthony

An international virtual Webinar ‘Education, Research and Innovation: Looking Back, Thinking Forward’ was held via Zoom and FB Live on 30 March 2023.

Convened as part of Centre for Language Studies’ Language for Specific Purposes focus group and Department of Communication, Linguistics & Literature’s partnership in knowledge sharing endeavour, the webinar, spearheaded by Dr. Mimi Nahariah Azwani Mohamed and Assistant Professor Kenneth Opina, brought together academic staff members, researchers and students from across two higher learning institutions in Southeast Asia.

This, first-of-its-kind webinar, was to establish international collaboration between Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and the University of San Carlos, Philippines (USC).

Its ultimate pride was to initiate a platform for research and academic networking between UTHM’s Language Studies Center and the USC’s Department of Communications, Linguistics, and Literature staff. It was indeed a great honour and milestone for UTHM and CLS to be represented in the Philippines. It marked the beginning of a new era in terms of global visibility.

Dr Hope Sabanpan-Yu, the Director of the University of San Carlos Cebuano Studies Centre, a centre of research on all aspects of Cebuano culture who graced the Webinar with her keynote address ‘DCLL in the VUCAD World’ said the programme is more than just a preparation to networking in the current world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

It aims at moving away from traditional and outdated approaches to the holistic development of education, research and innovation in order to build a solid and broad foundation for lifelong sustainability and wellbeing.

She added that the webinar of such nature will provide opportunities to mobilise even greater ambition, commitment and investment in SDG targets.

Immediately after that, the Centre for Language Studies (CLS) Dean, Associate Professor Hj. Dr Azmi Abdul Latiff delivered his keynote entitled ‘From CALL to AI: How Technology has Shaped Research, Innovation and Language Education’.

The essence of the highly interactive knowledge sharing session was exploring the benefits and challenges of integrating technology into language education, and the potential of AI in revolutionising and shaping language learning in the borderless 21^st century digital explosion.

Besides keynote speeches, the webinar, emceed by Ms. Fazita and Ms. Kyle Anne Blanco included four presentation sessions.

The sessions represented by faculty and postgraduate student delegates from both the universities were mediated by four esteemed moderators; Professor Dr Charity T. Turano, Associate Professor Dr. Elizabeth M. Anthony, Assistant Professor Ms. Joseleanor M. Magno and Zainal Abidin Sayadi.

The presenters, amongst others, were Dr. Bea Martinez-Lastimosa, Suzilla Jamari, Genesis Bedio, Azizi Basar, Melojie Lauron, Yva Dy, Shagufta Khurram, Dagmar Uy and Muhammad Taimoor Ali who shared their works across diversed topics ranging from culture, literature to artificial intelligence.

The mind provoking presentations were very well received by the audience comprising the director, dean, deputy deans, HoDs, faculty members and students from both the institutions and ignited series of questions.

Consequently, it kindled the audience to seek opportunity for further engagement in UTHM.

The culmination of the webinar was the closing remarks by the USC Department of Communications, Linguistics, and Literature Chair, Assistant Professor Kenneth Opina who very eloquently summarised and hoped this collaboration will be the first of many more to come.

In a nutshell, the very successful webinar provided a forum to discuss challenges and inovations in the 21^st century to cultivate a community of language researchers as we continue to advance and promote the value of humanities in our constantly evolving world today.

In addition, it has served as a platform to establish linkage and partnerships between UTHM in general and the Center for Language Studies in particular.