Presenters
These appear in alphabetical order.
Simon Bates
Simon
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
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
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
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
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
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
I
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
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
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
I
am currently Assistant Headteacher at St Wilfrids 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 Wilfrids
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
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-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
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. Marks
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
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
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
Having
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
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
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
I
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
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
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
Iain
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
Dr
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
With
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
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
I
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
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
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
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.
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