The Future of Learning: Emerging Technology and Pedagogical Innovation

Dr. Gloria Tam is a learning strategist and expert in the science of learning, with over two decades of experience designing educational experiences across executive education, higher education, and public sector settings. She is a Professor at Minerva University, an education technology institution known for its active, science-of-learning-based pedagogy. Previously, Tam served as the Director of Online Course Design and Pedagogy at Harvard University's Division of Continuing Education (DCE), where she led DCE's course design strategy and partnered with faculty to embed inclusive pedagogy, learning science, and technology-enhanced approaches into their teaching. She also championed several artificial intelligence (AI)-related initiatives within DCE's teaching and learning unit, guiding the responsible and effective integration of generative AI into instructional practice. Before Harvard, she served as Global Director of BCG U at Boston Consulting Group, where she led the global client upskilling, learning, and enablement unit. In that role, her team developed and launched executive programs on AI in business, climate and sustainability, leadership, and strategic problem solving, working closely with senior leaders across subject domain and expertise to transform organizational learning. She also served as Executive Director of the Center for Customer Insights at Yale School of Management, where she designed and led executive education on behavioral science, decision-making, and consumer insights. Tam holds a PhD in cognitive science/neuroscience from the University of Cambridge.

Katherine Burton Jones has taught in the Museum Studies Program at the Harvard Extension School for the last decade and has served as research advisor for the program since it moved from a certificate program to a masters degree in 2004. She was assistant dean for information technology and media services at the Harvard Divinity School for nine years.

Jones volunteers for non-profits in the New England area. She is a member of the board of directors and chairs the Museum Committee of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum in Newport, RI. She is a member of the board of the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill, MA.

Jones was an assistant director at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 1994 to 2000, where she introduced the importance of websites and multimedia to all of the Harvard museums. She was responsible for raising funds for the various public-facing technology projects, including the virtual exhibit Against the Winds: American Indian Running Traditions. While at the Peabody, she served on the boards of the Museum Computer Network and the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Mildred Morse Allen Center.

Jones edited and contributed to two books on the use of technology in museums, The Wired Museum (American Association of Museums, 1997), and Museum Informatics: People, Information, and Technology in Museums (with Paul F. Marty, Routledge, 2007). In the last two decades she has also authored numerous articles on topics related to museums, and given presentations at national and regional museum conferences.