VLEs: pedagogy and implementation
 
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Presenters

These appear in alphabetical order.

 

Simon Bates

Simon BatesSimon Bates is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Physics at the University of Edinburgh. In recent years he has begun to make excursions into the area of creation, management and delivery of e-learning courseware to support on-campus teaching. The introductory first-year course for which he is Course Organiser now comprises a blended learning experience, where the face-to-face delivery is supported by a diverse collection of some 1300 learning objects, including formative self-tests and interactive lecture notes which facilitate a personalised route through the course material. Tracking of student use of these materials is utilised to inform future course design. Current projects that he is working on within the framework of this particular course include the delivery of a browseable question bank of formative MCQ questions in introductory Physics and the use of Personal Response systems as a tool for interactive engagement in large lectures.

Andy Black

Andy BlackAndy Black has worked in the Learning & Skills sector for 17 years, primarily in the land based college sector. Before getting fully sucked into technology he has taught Environmental Conservation from pre foundation to degree level. In his later years in college he was primarily involved in staff training and development and developing and implementing the college's e learning strategy; and the role of e-learning Development Manager/Coordinator at his college. His major interests are the use of ICT to overcome barriers to learning in disengaged and disadvantaged learners. He has worked with rural communities in this and changing staff attitudes to e learning. He has written extensively on these subjects and role of emerging technologies and especially M learning. He is a active blogger @ www.andysblackhole.blogspot.com
Andy joined British Educational Communication Technology Agency (Becta) in July 2003 and was involved in supporting senior managers in Learning and Skills Sector. He is currently ICT Frameworks Manager working on the Self Review Framework for schools
He regular "performs" Gadgets and Gizmo's presentation to audiences at conferences. This is first time such a session has been run virtually.

His raison d'être is "don't forget the learners" and "flexibility is the key to the future" He wants to write a book titled "what do when the kit doesn't work apart from tell jokes".

Philip Butler

Philip ButlerPhilip Butler has 25 years' experience in community and further education. He currently works as the Senior e-Learning Adviser for JISC Regional Support Centre for London, and is responsible for supporting the effective development and use of VLEs and e-Learning. More recently he has been seconded as a part-time consultant for University of London Computing Centre's Moodle Service working to support projects for NIACE and the Adult Community Learning sector. He has given presentations for JISC and ULCC at major conferences and events across the UK and is involved with several projects with X4L and the British Library.

Ian Chowcat

Ian ChowcatIan Chowcat has been Director of the South Yorkshire e-Learning Project since June 2005. He came to e-learning in 1994 when asked to participate in a pilot project teaching philosophy online with the Open University. Since then he has been involved in e-learning in various ways, including teaching humanities and technology courses online with the OU. He is currently as a member of the course team delivering a philosophy MA completely online, and has been running staff development on e-learning for the OU 1998-2000. He has also been involved in developing online learner support and e-tutoring for Ufi/learndirect 2000-2003.

Ian is also part of the National College of School Leadership's Online Team 2003-2005, with a particular responsibility for developing e-learning within their programmes for prospective and new head teachers

As Director of the South Yorkshire e-Learning Project he leads a partnership of four local authorities in a European-funded project that is harnessing e-learning to promote the economic regeneration of the sub-region, with participation from schools, colleges, communities and businesses.

His particular interests include the nature and role of online learning communities, about which he is somewhat of a sceptic, and trying to develop an understanding of the proposition that e-learning is a project of cultural change and educational transformation.

James Clay

James ClayJames Clay has been Director of the Western Colleges Consortium since 2001. He is responsible for the management, strategic direction and development of e-learning using a shared MLE across the four partner FE Colleges of the WCC. He also works with colleges at a strategic level to develop ILT throughout the curriculum through a staff development programme and online delivery and support. The WCC also evaluates and monitors use of ILT and VLE across the consortium colleges.

One of James’ current interests is in learning on the handheld devices that learners have. So how can we create learning activities which work on mobile phones, iPods, PSPs, PDAs, digital cameras, PVRs and others...

Before the WCC he worked for at-Bristol, a Millennium project within the Harbourside of central Bristol - a job which involved delivering hands-on science education and designing educational websites on subjects as diverse as handheld learning experiences, via Antiguan racer snakes, through space science to the mummification process of ancient Egyptians.

Prior to the above, James spent ten years in Further Education as a lecturer in Business & Economics, employing learning technologies. His resources and websites were used extensively by students and were praised by verifiers and inspectors

Stephen Clarke

Stephen ClarkeStephen is the Head of eLearning at the University of Birmingham, and leads on the University of Birmingham eLearning Strategy. He has been working with educational technology in Secondary (including post-16) and Higher Education for 18 years. He has led a number of ICT projects, both on physical learning spaces and learning technology. In 2000 Stephen was a key member of the project team that designed and implemented the University of Birmingham's Learning Centre. In 2001 Stephen was responsible for setting-up and managing the institutional Virtual Learning Environment (iVLE) at the University of Birmingham, this service now provides 2,000 courses to around 30,000 students across the University. Stephen also led the successful bidding process and setup the JISC funded Altis consortium, the consortium, including members from HE, FE and the commercial sector, which provided the ALTIS Internet Guide to Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism (part of the Resource Discovery Network).

He has been a guest speaker at a number of learning and teaching events and has delivered a number of conference papers on e-learning. He is also a co-author of the chapter on change management for the book "Supporting E Learning: A Guide for Library and Information Managers", and is on the UK Heads of eLearning Forum (HeLF) steering committee and is an active member of regional and national e-learning groups, including the RSC West Midlands WebCT user group which includes membership from FE and HE in the West Midlands region.

Jay Deeble

Jay DeebleI work at the University of Winchester, in the School of Performing Arts and in the Faculty of Education. My main areas of expertise are music and music technology and primary education. I have recently joined the ICT for the faculty and as such lead a team who deliver across ITT and CPD programmes. An experienced primary teacher, with a national reputation in music education, I have been actively involved in the development and reviews of the National Curriculum for music and ICT. Therefore I found the challenge of developing ICT expertise to be extremely good for the character. It helps me empathise with my students!

Martin Dougiamas

Martin DougiamasMartin Dougiamas is the founder and lead developer of the Moodle open source learning management system. His interest in technology in distance education began during childhood when he attended School of the Air via CB radio from a remote location in the central deserts of Australia over 1000km away. He has post-graduate degrees in both Computer Science and Education, as well as years of experience in teaching students and supporting University academics in the use of technology for education. This background placed him in an ideal position to create and lead the Moodle project, which is a fusion of computer science and educational pedagogy, with a vibrant self-supporting community. Martin's research focussed on the development and use of a social constructionist referent to construct tools for creating communities. The Moodle community was deliberately formed with many of the same tools and ideals that he would like to see teachers using when creating learning communities of their classrooms. Martin is also the managing director of Moodle Pty Ltd, the company at the centre of the commercial side of Moodle, with six employees based in Perth, Western Australia. Moodle Pty Ltd manages the Moodle brand and helps Moodle Partner companies around the world provide commercial services to clients such as institutions. The company is also responsible for the maintenance and quality assurance of the Moodle open source software and ongoing development of its core functionality and design. When not absorbed in Moodle, Martin spends all his time with his wife Sarah-Janet (an opera singer) and their two young children, Tui and Thomas.


Judy Hardy

Judy HardyJudy Hardy is a project manager at EPCC, the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, at the University of Edinburgh. She teaches on a number of University courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and is responsible for the provision of specialist training in high performance computing. She has been involved in a range of e-learning projects over a number of years; currently these include the tracking of online student activity for the evaluation of e-learning resources and the provision of online training material to support researchers across a number of European academic institutions.

 

James Harris

James HarrisI am currently Assistant Headteacher at St Wilfrid’s CE High School and Technology College in Blackburn where I have responsibility for the development for e-learning. My academic background is in Physics and my teaching experience has included science teaching in north London, developing the use of ICT in a rural school in Zimbabwe, lecturing in ICT and Computing in a large FE college and being head of the ICT department in my current school. I have also spent 3 or 4 years as a commercial software developer and project manager.

My primary interest is in teaching and learning and this includes looking at the ways in which our professional practice can be improved through the use of new technology. The nature of St Wilfrid’s is such that many of our students travel a considerable distance to school, but there is a high level of home internet access. It has seemed to me, therefore, that a VLE enables us to structure teaching and learning beyond the boundaries of our classrooms and to improve the quality of learning that takes place outside school. We are on a journey to transform teaching and learning and the VLE is a major part of these developments. I cannot claim that we have been entirely successful so far, butI would hope that others can learn from our successes and mistakes!

Peter Jackson

Peter JacksonPeter was part of the original FERL team, and developed early work on MLEs, including the first FERL features, case studies, conferences and events, as well as work for the early development of the NLN and JISC MLE pilots. He then m oved on to become the JISC FE Content Coordinator, including negotiating JISC's most successful licence agreement for InfoTrac

Following his work at the JISC, he became Senior Information Officer at Warwickshire LEA, and the Content Manager for Virtual Workspace, a PFI funded VLE development.

He is now an independent e-Learning and Information Management consultant. Key work includes:

  • Managing the development of the Learning Platform Functional Requirements and Technical Specifications, underpinning the forthcoming national Learning Platform Framework
  • Managing the development of the Information Management (MIS) Functional Requirements and Technical Specifications
  • Development of SIF for UK
  • Work on various specifications and standards, including UKLeaP, COL Metadata Schema, SIF data models
  • Wider development work and consultancy in MIS, learning platforms, and interoperability

Jennifer Jackson-Hall

Jennifer Jackson-HallJennifer Jackson-Hall currently works in Auckland, New Zealand, at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) as a Resource Coordinator for students with disabilities and Deaf students. AUT currently has 17 Deaf students enrolled in full time programmes and 15 students who attend Saturday classes. AUT has the largest group of tertiary Deaf students in the country. Jennifer is on the advisory board of an organisation called The Advance Centre for hearing impaired and Deaf students as a representative for the disability co-ordinators for the Auckland region. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Applied Science (Disability Studies), Adult Education and Training qualification and currently she is undertaking a Post Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation. Jennifer learnt to sign in Australia and has utilised these skills while working in New Zealand over the last 5 years.

Mark Johnson

Mark JohnsonMark Johnson combines working for CETIS on a number of projects with his role as senior lecturer in the Department of Computing and Electronic Technology at the University of Bolton. He has a varied background, having graduated initially in music, and worked in the computer industry for several years. This diversity has been a useful attribute for his most recent work on Personal Learning Environments. Mark’s contribution to the work on the PLE has been to deepen understanding of the concepts behind the technological and social transformations implicated in it, drawing on philosophy, phenomenology and cybernetics as tools to establish a clearer direction for the future coordination of learning technology.

Mark writes and presents on e-learning, cybernetics and philosophy. He has a particular interest in social ontology and the impact of technology. He is also active as a software developer, writing software for e-portfolio, innovative games-based approaches to learning and classroom interactivity.

Stuart Jones

Stuart JonesStuart is the Assistant Director; Learning and Teaching at Becta.

His main role is to work with Government and key strategic partners to create policy frameworks which support and sustain change in teaching and learning. He provides support and influence for the embedding of ICT and e-learning within existing and future policy. This includes supporting ICT in schools; sixth forms, further education colleges, work based and adult community based learning programmes.

Stuart coordinates and leads Becta's strategic advice to government on the e-strategy's Knowledge Architecture, and Becta's coordination roles for e-portfolios and e-assessment.

Stuart has a varied career background in both the private and public sectors. He started work as a gardener, taught computer science in Sixth Form Schools and FE, Human Resource and Quality Management in Colleges and owned and ran a very successful industry training and consultancy business, specialising in leadership and change management.

Peter Kilcoyne

Peter KilcoynePeter is currently the ILT Curriculum Advisor for the RSC West Midlands. His role at the RSC includes providing advice, support and training on VLEs. Prior to that he has spent 13 years teaching Psychology in FE and HE, including one year as Head of Curriculum Development and IT at Coventry Technical College, where, amongst other things, he developed considerable experience of working with Virtual Learning Environments. Peter is moving from the RSC to take up a role as Director of ILT at Worcester College of Technology in September.

 


Linda Lafferty

Linda LaffertyHaving worked for over 20 years in the areas of training, education, development and management across both public and private sector organisations, Linda now finds herself in the role of CPD Development Officer within the University of Paisley's School of Education.

She has worked for the University since 1998 and has been involved in the development and implementation of a number of elearning initiatives since 2001 covering the full spectrum of design, management, facilitation and evaluation using a variety of elearning models.

In addition to working within the School of Education, she has also contributed at a more strategic level via the eLearning Strategy Working Group and is a member of the University's ePractitioner Network. Linda has also published articles with Learning and Teaching Scotland, Learn Direct Scotland and a case study with the Higher Education Academy.

Practising what she preaches by way of CPD, Linda is currently completing a Masters in Education (eLearning) with Hull University and maintains membership of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), the British Psychological Society (as a qualified practitioner) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

When she manages a life outside of work, she has a horse, a cat, a dog and a husband (with attention dispensed in that order) and although she has lived "north of the border" for over 20 years, is originally from Manchester via Liverpool where she spent her formative years.

Niki Lambropoulos

Niki LambropoulosNiki Lambropoulos was born in Ancient Olympia, Greece. She holds two BAs and a Diploma in Education from the University of Athens, Greece and an MA in ICT in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. She started working as a Greek language teacher in Greece in 1989. In 1999 she moved to London where she worked as an ICT teacher and ICT coordinator in primary and secondary schools. In 2002 she started working as a Project Manager for the Greek Education Office in London responsible for the UK and Ireland. Then, she decided to do a PhD combining knowledgeability and practicality. Now, she is a Research Student in Human-Human and Human-Computer Interaction for Online Education at the Centre for Interactive Systems Engineering, London South Bank University, with Dr Xristine Faulkner and Professor Fintan Culwin. Additionally, she is the Director of Intelligenesis, a consultancy company specialised in Online Education.

She lives and works in London.

Arthur Loughran

Arthur LoughranArthur is a Senior Lecturer, Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of Paisley.

After completing an engineering apprenticeship I attended the University of Strathclyde from which I graduated with a BSc (Hons) and PhD. In addition to working in industry I have worked as a Rehabilitation Engineer and Lecturer in clinical settings in the UK and USA. I joined the University of Paisley 1980, teaching in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering until 1996. After a period of 3 years as Deputy Director of the Distance Learning Unit I joined CLT in 1999. Since that time I have been engaged in the development of online learning within the University, in particular with the introduction, implementation and development of the Blackboard Learning System as a teaching and learning support tool.

Currently, my primary role is to lead, on behalf of CLT, the development of all aspects of the new Blackboard Academic Suite in collaboration with academic and technical personnel from University Schools and Units. The development of a Teaching and Learning Portal system and the introduction of Blackboard Content System associated with the promotion of ePortfolios to support student and academic staff PDP activities will be of immediate importance in this work.

Staff training and development are integral elements of my role and as such I will be contributing to the new elearning programme that will offer face-to-face and online learning opportunities for staff to enhance their use of elearning and elearning technologies. This work will be complemented by organising and supporting activities that will help staff focus their use of elearning towards specific academic goals, eg the enhancement of design, delivery and quality of online learning.

Pam Maunders

Pam MaundersI work in the Faculty of Education, University of Winchester, as a Learning Technologist. I work across the ITT and CPD programmes. My role is to teach and demonstrate to students and staff alike. I have a wide experience of working with primary teachers and their schools' learning technologies. I manage our ICT labs and coax teaching colleagues to try new techniques, software, hardware and peripherals.

 

 

David McKain

David McKainDavid is an e-learning developer in the School of Physics at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently involved in a number of development projects including Aardvark, the School of Physics' system for authoring and managing single-sourced multiple output media learning objects which powers a number of flagship undergraduate courses and the COSMaP Project, a cross-School collaboration aimed at improving core maths skills by flavouring the material according to students' degree interests. Smaller projects currently underway include developing an interface to a large bank of formative self test questions that educators can browse, aggregate, package and integrate with their existing e-learning materials with minimal effort.

David is particularly interested in the technical challenges that educators working in the mathematical and physical sciences domain face, such as authoring, developing and interacting with mathematical content on the web (and in more traditional media).

In his spare time, David spends far too much time in record shops and takes glee in subjecting unsuspecting crowds of people to improbably bizarre combinations of songs during occasional stints as a so-called DJ.

Alistair McNaught

Alistair McNaughtAlistair McNaught is the Senior Advisor for Further Education with the JISC funded TechDis Service. Alistair has 19 years teaching experience in FE and 5 years in 11-18 education. A geography teacher by background, he has been involved in using e-learning in mainstream teaching since the mid 1990s. He worked part time as ILT co-ordinator at Peter Symonds' College for 3 years, contributing to a wide range of subject based projects. He worked for many years as a freelance author and has been involved in staff development for nearly a decade.

After going part time at Peter Symonds' College, Alistair worked for Becta's FERL team and was involved in the writing and delivery of both the ILT Champions Programme and the Ferl Practitioner's Programme. He also worked with a range of Regional Support Centres on developing subject based interactive materials across a wide range of subjects and levels using simple software tools and techniques. His main interests lie in (i) the use of e-learning to accomodate a range of learning needs (ii) providing teachers with the tools, techniques and confidence to provide flexible, adaptable learning experiences for their students (iii) helping develop pragmatic pedagogically sound approaches to the use of e-learning in supporting disabled learners.

Iain McPhee

Ian McPheeIain McPhee M.Sc. BA (Hons) Pg Dip; Pg. Cert Ed; ILTHE. Iain is currently a lecturer in alcohol and drugs studies with part responsibility for the development and delivery of the Distance Learning programme. This programme supports over 160 students via the VLE 'Blackboard'.


Iain lectures on a M.Sc. degree programme; to undergraduates studying for a Degree in BSc Health Studies; delivers specialist lectures Social Work and Nursing students and at Scottish Police College. Iain is also an expert witness in drugs legal cases in Scotland.

He has completed an evaluation of delivering specialist training to 'Connexions' for Harrow Drug Action Team in London. He has also completed qualitative research titled: An exploration of West of Scotland drug market changes: a factor in assessing the impact of drugs enforcement policy and practices. Ian has written a research paper on evaluating flexible learning (the subject of this conference presentation), and a paper on using enhanced audio feedback as formative assessment on Level 11 postgraduate modules in alcohol and drugs studies. Both are in preparation for publication.

Wassila Naamani Mehanna

Wassila Naamani MehannaDr Mehanna has been in academia for over 25 years.

She has provided high level consultancy for government bodies, agencies, academic institutions and business organisations, at the national and international levels, with regard to e-learning strategies, implementations, and educational reforms.

A leading authority in e-learning and pedagogy, she has observed 2000 students learning online across 5 UK universities and has analysed 6 millions words of online discussions and interactions. Her research, an unprecedented mixed methods enquiry, presented to the field the first empirical model for online teaching and learning.

In 2004, Dr Mehanna earned her doctorate in Technology and Pedagogy from the Faculty of Education at The University of Cambridge, UK

Her Thesis is entitled: “Towards Effective e-Learning in UK Higher Education”

In addition, she has an MPhil in Educational Research - The University of Cambridge, UK and a MEd. in Curriculum Design and Instruction – The University of Nottingham, UK.

Tara Phelan

Tara PhelanWith a degree in textiles and a lot of life experience under my belt, I began my career in further education back in October 2000 at Shipley College. I worked for the Language Development Network (LDN) as an Administrator for a year and a half. LDN is an organisation which pooled together learning materials for use in the FE sector.

I then spent six months in South Africa working and travelling. When I returned to England, I managed to gain employment at Shipley College, once again, working for the Information Learning Technology (ILT) Team as an assistant.

So from January 2003 I have built up my knowledge of current and future IT resources, experience in Staff Development (one to one - whole college presentations), Virtual Learning Environments (Blackboard and Fronter), Student / Staff Intranet, implementing new technologies (e.g. Interactive Whiteboards).

I have also presented at an RSC event focusing on the implementation of VLEs.

Geoff Rebbeck

Geoff RebbeckGeoff Rebbeck has been a Health & Social Care Tutor at Thanet College for the last 10 years. Now part of the Quality team in College, he is a Learning Technologist and the College's E-learning Coordinator. Prior to coming into education he worked for 20 years in the NHS in Cumbria and Kent. His e-learning role began as a quarter post ILT champion and has developed over the years to being his major responsibility to develop e-learning across the College. His activities in Moodle have led to him collaborating in VLE projects at eight other colleges across the south and four local secondary schools. He has presented papers at an ALT training day, and JISC meetings in West Midlands, London, Eastern and the South East as well as supporting two experimental modules run on social constructivist lines with four tutors at a College in Germany.

Geoff is currently a student at Greenwich University reading a BSc in e-learning. He is a teacher who uses technology, in that order. He has three articles published by FERL on The FERL Practitioner Programme and Moodle, and recently presented a paper at Greenwich University on Social Constructivism and VLEs. He is a keen but very bad dinghy sailor in Viking Bay, Broadstairs.

Ian Sadler

Ian SadlerI am currently in my 25th year of teaching and have spent the whole of my career at Rawlins Community College. Over the years I have taught Geography, Humanities, Key Skills, CPVE, DVE and latterly General Studies. As a younger teacher I was involved in the “interactive video in schools project” which grew out of the “Doomsday project”, an early manifestation of interactive media. Since then I have had a keen interest in ICT developments and their applicability to students learning. From the early days of “prevocational education” I have explored the use of ICT in the provision of evidence for student portfolios of work and I see our recent adoption of the Moodle e-learning platform as a natural progression from this early starting point.

For at least the last 15 years I have been one of the post-16 coordinators in the College and my present job title is Assistant Director Post-16 / General Studies Coordinator.


John Sewell

John SewellJohn is a engineer who got into accessibility as a volunteer making aids for students at the National Star College. Later he dovetailed a career in local and national politics with working part time for the college making and adapting equipment for individuals. When the political career came to an end he became full time at the college taking up teaching IT as well. Eventually he became the manager of the College's Karten Open Learning Centre and took on responsibility for e-learning and access. He was nominated to sit on the Specialist College ILT group of the LSC which looked at how the sector could improve its provision and use of IT and e-learning. In 2004 he joined TechDis as Senior Advisor for Specialist Colleges.

Ted Walker

Ted WalkerTed is the Director of e-learning at Rawlins Community College, an upper school in Leicestershire with a media arts specialism and a strong community focus. Originally a history graduate, he has previously been a teacher of ICT, head of department and network manager in both the maintained and independent sectors, including a period at a City Technology College. He has always been interested in the development of ICT as a teaching tool across the curriculum, bringing him in to contact with most school curriculum areas, as well its impact on school life, ethos and opportunities.

Since completing his MA in ICT in Education at the Institute of Education in 2002 he has been particularly interested in the application of Virtual Learning Environments in and across secondary schools, initially leading a Bodington based project. Rawlins enthusiastically adopted Moodle in late 2005 and is engaged with the process of embedding its use to foster personalised learning and develop practices beyond the use of a digital filing cabinet. Ted is also the co-ordinator of Rawlins' role as a lead school in the SSAT e-mentoring project.

 

Lee Williamson

Lee WilliamsonLee Williamson is currently Deputy Director of Art, Design & Media at
Bournemouth & Poole College. Lee has also been an 'ILT Champion' at the college for the past two years, involved in designing and delivering staff development programmes, investigating the pedagogocal implications of emergent technologies and creating learning materials using digital media. While working as ILT champion the college won a Beacon award for the integration of e-learning technolgies within the LRCs

Lee also enjoys working as a freelance writer and small time film maker in his spare time. He has recently completed work on his first e-learning book (as a joint author) for Continuum publishers, as part of the 'Essential FE Toolkit' series.

Lee trained in performing arts at Bretton Hall and started teaching in FE in Liverpool in the early 90's. As a course coordinator he was quick
to see the potential that the internet offered in supporting course delivery and has been an advocate of ILT and the use of VLEs for many years.