Simon Thomson

s.thomson@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
Leeds Beckett University
UK
Experience in online courses and tools

Lots of experience

Web Site: http://flippedacademic.ac.uk
Bio

An educational practitioner – working in academia and flipping experiences for a wide range of students in Higher Education. Simon Thomson is a “flipped academic” (Bruton 2012), an academic Head of E-Learning at Leeds Beckett University (formerly Leeds Metropolitan University). “Flipping” experiences for a wide range of staff and students he endeavours to make a practical difference to the staff and student experiences.

He has led on a number of externally funded projects including a JISC/HEA funded OER project as part of the Phase 1 UKOER programme, an institution-wide pilot of tablet devices as part of funded research into the impact of 1to1 tablet device deployment and the effects that has on learning & teaching and more importantly the learners and teachers. He has presented and published his work at a number of national and international conferences, predominantly in the areas of learning technology and open education.

A passionate advocate of open education almost all of his work is available under a creative commons license (where he is permitted to do so).

His current research focusses on the development of a conversational framework for e-learning. The purpose of the framework is to humanise the use of technology and to begin to seek to establish the use of technology as a solution to a task or problem rather than a “must have” activity. The “4E Framework” can be attributed to questioning the use of e-learning in the following ways:
• What can technology “enable” us to do?
• How can technology “enhance” what we already do?
• How can technology “enrich” our learning experiences?
• How can technology “empower” learners & teachers?

Simon is an National Teaching Fellow, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, SEDA accredited in Embedding Learning Technologies and an Apple Distinguished Educator.

What connected/open course or courses are you teaching or plan to teach?
Teach on-line connected course on open education (internally to the University) as part of Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. In development is an extended version of the internal course to be fully open and on-line. The course is specifically designed for academics who are entirely new to the concept of open on-line courses. One aspect of the course is that it is a facilitated learning experience, designed where possible to have a local facilitator who can meet and support staff face-to-face but with the added benefit of connecting on-line beyond the local facilitation..
Are you participating in connected courses as an individual or with a local group of learners?

Individual

Would you like to connect with smaller groups over specific subjects?

Yes

Would you like to connect with a buddy?

Yes

How do you prefer to be contacted by others with similar interests?
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