SATU-MAARIT KORTE (formerly Frangou)

Ph.D., MA (Media Education), MCA (Education Entrepreneurship)

I am a University Lecturer in Changing Education and Associate Professor (Title of Docent) of Learning Environments and Technology at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. My research is situated at the intersection of the digital sociology of education, technology-mediated learning, and educational inequality. I examine how digital infrastructures, artificial intelligence, platforms, and sociotechnical systems reshape learning, participation, communication, and educational opportunity across diverse educational and cultural contexts.

My teaching focuses on contemporary issues in education, learning environments, digital technologies in education, and research methodology. Across my research and teaching, I am particularly interested in how technological transformation intersects with inequality, wellbeing, participation, ethics, and culturally diverse educational environments.

Previously, at the University of Lapland, I worked as a Media Education University Lecturer and Project Manager of Virtual Production Studio Technologies (VTST) -project (in collaboration with the Lapland University of Applied Sciences and Frostbit Game development lab (the lead). The project explored virtual production technologies, immersive learning environments, and sociotechnical innovation across educational and creative contexts. 

I also worked in several international interdisciplinary research projects. In the Resilient Experiences and Agency of Youth and Children During the Pandemic: Re-visioning Education through (Digital) Storytelling (REAP)- research project, conducted in collaboration with Memorial University, Canada (the lead) and Leeds Beckett University, I examined youth experiences, agency, and digitally mediated storytelling during the pandemic. In the HEI-SAMI - Sami language in higher Education in suburban areas -project, I contributed to Nordic collaboration supporting Sámi language education and the development of a VR-based Sámi language learning game. In the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assisted Language Learning -project I investigated teachers' readiness to use AI in educational contexts across Finland, Hong Kong, Brazil, and South Korea, while contributing to the development of AI-supported teaching materials for language education.

My broader research interests include AI literacy, algorithmic infrastructures in education, multimodal learning environments, human–AI interaction, media use and psychosocial wellbeing, embodied cognition, intercultural and comparative education, and digitally mediated participation in peripheral and underrepresented educational contexts. 

I am a member of the planning group of UArctic Thematic Network on Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity in Education, and I lead the Online & Rural Education Group in the UNITWIN/UNESCO Network on Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity in Education. In the Global Reseach Institute for Finnish Education (GRIFE) at the Education University of Hong Kong I co-lead the Special Interest Group on Media Education and Digital Technologies together with Professor Lixun Wang.

I also serve on the Finnish Scientific Publication Forum (JUFO) panel for Education and Psychology, which evaluates domestic and international academic publication channels.