Author: Karissa Marble-Flint

You are invited for the first speaker event in the Center for Educational Technology to Assist Refugee Learners (CETARL) Speaker Series.

Dr. Hong Tien Vu, associate professor of journalismt at the University of Kansas. will present “Expecting the unexpected: Lessons learned from researching refugees in the United States” at 3 p.m. April 7 via Zoom.

Refugees have become parts of communities across the United States. They are increasingly considered digital migrants, whose technology use plays an important role in their integration process.  In this talk, Vu will share his experience in researching refugees and digital use in the United States. Vu will discuss the challenges that he and his team had in approaching, working with, and conducting a research project on refugee communities in Kansas. What are the practical considerations of accessing refugees? These may include working with gatekeepers, collaborating with agencies/NGOs, and other logistical challenges. Vu will also talk about possible opportunities for interdisciplinary research in the future on this vulnerable population, with regards to their use of digital technology.

For inquiries about the event or to get the Zoom link, contanct Dr. Mythili Menon at mythili.menon@wichita.edu.

A proposal by Drs. Mythili Menon and Karissa Marble-Flint was selected by the United Way of the Plains for the Impact on the Plains Competition in the area of education. Their proposal is one of the top two in the finals for the competition.

Menon is the director of the Center for Educational Technologies to Assist Refugee Learners (CETARL) and assistant professor of Linguistics. Marble-Flint is the co-director of CETARL and assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

As part of the competition, Menon and Marble-Flint will give a “Shark Tank-style” pitch for CETARL’s digital educational platform, LingoLabs, Nov. 15. If successful,  Menon and Marble-Flint will be awarded $25,000 for CETARL to support Wichita area refugee families, children and USD 259 classroom teachers who will beta-test the prototype of the platform.

Dr. Karissa Marble-Flint, assistant professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and her team of students in speech-language pathology are requesting participants who have completed the fourth and fifth grades for a study about typically developed children and children who struggle with writing. The study will help provide information to speech-language pathologists, teachers and parents about writing strategies presented via a video-conferencing platform to help students.

Participants will be required to participate in four writing sessions via Zoom. The total time required for all four sessions will be approximately three and a half hours. Breaks will be provided to participants. Participants will receive a book for their participation, and parents will receive scores from oral and written language assessments.

For more information contact Julia (Schneider) Sitz, undergraduate research assistant, at jmsitz@shockers.wichita.edu. To have your child participate in the study, contact Marble-Flint at 316-978-6356 or karissa.marble-flint@wichita.edu.