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Prof. Cliff Beevers, Heriot-Watt University, Chair
Dr Janet Brown, Chief Executive, SQA - Keynote address
Dr Helen Ashton, Head of Pass-IT
Andrew Brown, Learning and Teaching Scotland
Duncan Gillespie and Robert Brown, Dumfries and Galloway College
Bob Gomersall, BTL
Veronica Harris, SQA
Prof Richard Kimbell,. Goldsmiths University of London
Iain Lowson, HMIe Scotland
Gerry Toner, Scholar Project
Martyn Ware, SQA
Matt Wingfield , TAG Learning
John Winkley, AlphaPlus
Professor Cliff Beevers has taught Mathematics for over thirty years at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and was granted the title Professor Emeritus in 2005. Cliff has worked for over two decades in the area of Computer Aided Assessment mainly in the field of Mathematics. Through projects like CALM, MathWise, Interactive PastPapers and SCHOLAR he has sought to enhance the student experience in both secondary and tertiary education. In 2003 he was awarded an OBE for his contributions to Scottish Education
Dr Helen Ashton is Head of e-Assessment for the SCHOLAR programme where she is involved in the development of e-assessment technologies and supporting those writing assessments. Prior to this Helen was a Lecturer in Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University. Helen has a strong interest in supporting feedback and reflection in learning (both online and otherwise), and in the use of technology in education. She has worked on a number of projects in this area including PASS-IT (http://www.pass-it.org.uk) and to deliver e-NABs in Mathematics and Computing in conjunction with SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority, http://www.sqa.org.uk). Current work in the area of online assessment includes research into the usage of such systems, the development of questions and specifications, and the development of delivery and reporting systems
Duncan Gillespie – Dumfries and Galloway College
Duncan Gillespie joined further education in 1999 as a lecturer in computing having previously worked in both commercial and public sector environments. In 2003 he was appointed e-Learning Coordinator having been Project Leader for a SFEU funded project on producing e-learning materials. He was a key member of the college team which took the radical step of using Web 2.0 technologies to provide student e-Portfolios. The e-Portfolios are being continually developed while being rolled out to greater numbers of students; they are now also a support mechanism for many student groups both internal and external to the College. Duncan is currently part of the cross college team (Dumfries and Galloway, Borders and Barony) for the SFC funded project Blend2Learn.
Robert Brown – Dumfries and Galloway College
Robert Brown has a remit in Hospitality, Employability and Numeracy within the college and in 2008 was appointed to the post of Curriculum Leader. He joined the e-Portfolio team in 2006 and immediately saw the potential of using e-Portfolios to help students realise and showcase their evidence of employability skills that businesses require from their employees. Following on from his work in 2006 Robert developed and delivered a staff development event for staff delivering employability and e-Portfolio’s in the college. His work has also been showcased at SFEU, SQA and during an HMIe inspection.
Andrew Brown is a Development Manager for Learning and Teaching Scotland. He has spent the last 10 years working in a variety of roles in education in Scotland, from classroom teacher to education officer. He most recently moved from the role of Future Technologies Research Practitioner to work on Glow, the Scottish Schools Digital Network – potentially connecting every pupil, teacher and parent in the country. In this session, Andrew will cover what Glow hopes to achieve as a national initiative, and how far it has got in its rollout across the country. He will show how Glow is being used by practitioners in a variety of settings and learning contexts. He will also address use of new technologies in education and their role in engaging students in learning.
Dr I R Gomersall B.Sc., Ph.D., C.Phys., M.Inst.P., FRSA. Bob Gomersall is Chairman and founder of BTL Group Ltd. (set up in 1985) and Virtual College Group plc (set up in 1995). The focus of BTL’s work is on Learning and Assessment Systems and Content. Virtual College specialises in work based and online training. Bob is also Chairman of the Advanced Digital Institute, which he started developing in 2002, Chairman of the Yorkshire Forward Digital Cluster Board, and a member of the Airedale Partnership Board. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and the universities of Durham and Bristol. He has worked as a Theoretical Physicist (at the Max Planck Institut, Stuttgart) and as a teacher of physics (at Manchester and Bradford Grammar Schools). He was Head of Physics at Bradford Grammar School before going full-time into business. He and his wife (who is a Medical General Practitioner in Bradford) have four children, 3 boys and a girl, ranging in age from 15 to 27 years old.
Veronica Harris, Project Manager with SQA, working in the eAssessment and Learning Team. Veronica holds a teaching qualification although most of her career has been spent working for central government, latterly in software development. Prior to joining SQA, she worked in private industry for several years as a Project Manager. She finds the work with the eAssessment and Learning Team is very varied and interesting. Veronica is involved in various projects, e.g e-Portfolios for Skills for Work courses and Item Bank Development. She serves on several internal teams involving a variety of different subjects such as Continuous Improvement
Richard Kimbell was the first professor of Technology Education in London University. He has taught technology in schools and been course director for undergraduate and postgraduate courses of teacher education. In 1990, he founded the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) at Goldsmiths College London as the base from which to manage an expanding research portfolio. In the subsequent period, research sponsors include research councils (eg ESRC, NSF [USA]), industry (eg LEGO, BP), government departments (eg DfES, DfID), as well as professional and charitable organisations (eg Engineering Council, Royal Society of Arts, Design Museum). His current research is centred on an e-assessment project for the DCSF/Becta and QCA that involves the use of hand-held digital tools to support 15 yr old learners to create virtual design portfolios. Kimbell has published widely in the field including three single-authored books, several books in which he edited contributions, as well as reports commissioned by UK Government Departments, the Congress of the United States, UNESCO and NATO. He has written and presented television programmes and regularly lectures internationally. He is a consultant to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Science Foundation in the USA, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Stockholm. His latest book “Researching Design Learning”, (with Prof Kay Stables) has just been published by Kluwer/Springer.
Iain Lowson joined HM Inspectorate of Education in 2002. Prior to that he taught and managed for 27 years in the secondary and college sectors in Scotland. Within HMIE, Iain has lead responsibility for evaluating and advising on the use of ICT for learning and teaching. He authored the recent HMIE report on ICT in Scottish education and is a member of the European SchoolNet programme that developed a common framework for evaluating the use of ICT in education. He is a member of the Colleges E-activity Steering Group and chairs the SQA SOLAR project reference group
Gerry Toner is the Director of the SCHOLAR Programme. He worked as a maths teacher and in promoted posts in Scottish schools and local authority Advisory Services for many years. He has worked on the SCHOLAR programme since its inception in 1999. In addition to being involved in the development of the materials and the pedagogic model, he put together the consultation and management structures of the SCHOLAR Forum and was the inaugural Forum Coordinator. He had extensive involvement with SQA for many years in mathematics including 5 years on the paper-setting team. He maintains an interest in mathematics organising the English-speaking section of the international maths competition Mathematiques sans Frontières. He also organises a number of European projects and was awarded Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the French government for his work in supporting French teaching.
Matt Wingfield, Business Development Director, TAG Learning Ltd.,: Matt's background is as a qualified teacher with 7 years teaching experience at primary school level and 9 years further experience within the education ICT market. Prior to joining TAG Learning in 1997, Matt worked as a Centre Director and Director of Education for the Kingswood ICT Study Centre Group where he was tasked with both establishing and running a busy residential study centre in Norfolk, catering for over 19,000 visiting pupils per year, and implementing the ICT curricula taught at each of the Kingswood Centres around the UK. It was in this capacity that Matt was first introduced to TAG Learning, building a close strategic relationship between the companies, so as to facilitate the use of TAG software products within the courses offered by Kingswood. Matt is committed to continuing to helping TAG to develop and grow their range of innovative online assessment and moderation systems, software tools and peripheral products, so that TAG can continue helping teachers and pupils to gain the most out of using ICT as an integral part of education.
Martyn Ware is SQA’s Business Manager for CAA, a position he has held since SQA first established a dedicated CAA team in May 2003. Prior to this Martyn has worked in a number of areas of SQA’s operations including most recently managing some of its international activities. Martyn has an MBA from the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business.
John Winkley is an experienced e-learning and e-assessment business manager with a track record of business growth in new media learning technologies. He has specialised in developing innovative systems for education and assessment, working with a range of public and private sector clients through the four companies he has helped to build over the last 12 years: BTL Group Ltd, The Virtual College plc, and AlphaPlus. His consultancy work includes e-strategy projects for SQA (e-strategy, item banking, on-screen Higher Exams, the SOLAR project) BECTA (e-Portfolios, SCORM and IMS Content Tools), JISC (Standing Expert Consultant – e-assessment), QCA (various e-assessment development, delivery and regulation projects), TDA and LLUK (trainee teacher assessment) as well as numerous awarding bodies. John leads the e-assessment consultancy function for AlphaPlus
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