Ali Mohamed

My name is Ali Mohamed, and I completed my PhD in Education [Collective identity formation in social media : Interaction in three Facebook groups] relevant to human-computer interaction at Stockholm University (SU) in 2023. I have experience and expertise in pedagogy, digital learning, interaction design, teaching, and digital accessibility. In my postdoc, I will develop the project "European Centre of Vocational Excellence in Accessibility (AccessCoVE)". AccessCoVE is a major responsibility that requires leading the work package on a digital platform for AccessCoVE. In AccessCoVE I will have a major responsibility in developing a curriculum, pedagogical teaching methods, accessibility certification tools, assessment instruments, and certification of professional competencies in digital accessibility.

My pedagogical research is about collective learning in social media, a study that has inspired me to explore many questions about learning, teaching, inclusion, and emotional and polarizing interaction in a democratic inclusive society. One question I would like to work on further is about the power relations that have emerged through my focus on collective identity formation as learning. This raises questions about which voices make an impact and which are silenced, which interaction never takes shape, and which collective identities are thus never formed. In short, what is the importance of knowledge and power in the interaction that takes place in digital learning environments? Another question that aroused my interest concerns the importance of the framing conditions that enable and limit digital interaction, which is very relevant to questions of accessibility. My study showed that most group members never actively participated. This is something that needs to be explored to better understand what it means that most participants in any digital practice do not actively participate. In today's digitalized society, the conditions for participation in digital practices play an important role in the learning and inclusion of people from a pedagogical and interaction design perspective and a democratic and sustainable perspective.

My doctoral program at SU and my previous work as a lecturer in media technology at Södertörn University (SH) have contributed to my development as a researcher in pedagogy about technology. I have thus developed a skill in ethnographic/netnographic participant observation. I will use this skill in the execution of the research process and the development of AccessCoVE. Participatory observation will be extended through workshops to develop the digital platform in an iterative and user-centred way to pedagogically promote the utilization of research results for the end user. In my research study, I have learned and gained experience in how research projects develop over time by thinking and working in an iterative process involving different actors and positions that may include writing project applications such as ethical review and research funding.