In the run up to Future Facing Learning: The Education Revolution Conference, we will be posting a series of blog posts to share information about our panellists. In this blog, we will be sharing the profile of the panellists for the ‘Reimagining Learning Environments’ theme – Dr Joel Armando, Clare Fletcher, Amrita Narang, Professor Mark Simpson, Dr Matthew Wheeler and Dr Jonathan Eaton.
Dr Joel Armando
Joel is the Product Manager Director for Blackboard’s educational services. She has over 20 years of experience in Higher Education, fulfilling different roles in online and blended projects: leadership, curriculum and learning design, research, and teaching. Prior to Blackboard, Joel led the Educational Technology Department at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina), was the Learning Innovation Manager at London Business School (UK) and an Educational Technologist at Cass Business School (UK). Joel holds a Ph.D. in Design and Innovation in Education.
Clare Fletcher
Clare is Associate Dean for Learning & Teaching at Teesside University. She spent 15 years in senior leadership roles in news publishing, developing and leading digital strategies for a number of UK national and regional news brands, launching new digital products, developing the digital capabilities of staff and working with key industry partners. Since moving into HE 8 years ago Clare has focused on developing students digital literacy and employability skills through her teaching practice. More recently she completed her MA which explored how HE practitioners from within the creative arts viewed the application of technology to pedagogy.
Amrita Narang
Amrita works with Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in her capacity as Quality Enhancement and Standards Specialist. In her role, she supports HEIs in matters of quality enhancements. Her focus of interest lies in assessment and feedback practices, creating inclusive subject learning communities, and student engagement. She has worked to develop QAA’s recent publication – Hallmarks of Success Playbook series – that encapsulates high level principles guiding success within digital and hybrid learning environments. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Global Education with a focus on decolonisation of curriculum.
Professor Mark Simpson
Professor Simpson is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning & Teaching) at Teesside University. He graduated from Teesside University with a degree in Politics and a PhD in Criminology. He has written and researched in the fields of Youth Crime, Criminal Justice and Drug Use. Professor Simpson was previously Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Business & Law at Teesside University, and for a period of 9 years was a Director of the British Society of Criminology. Professor Simpson has a national reputation for teaching & learning and is known for his work in educational digital transformation. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (FRSA).
Dr Matthew Wheeler
Matthew is part of the Senior Management Team at Solutionpath. He has a range of experience of learning technologies from working in academia and technical roles at several universities, and more recently having spent twelve years supporting the growth of the Learning Journey platform PebblePad. Matthew has a great passion and energy for impacting student success and helping to fulfil Solutionpath’s mission to help every student reach their full potential and empower their universities to deliver great individualised learning.
Dr Jonathan Eaton
Jonathan is Director of Student Learning & Academic Registrar. He graduated with a PhD from Queen’s University, Belfast in 2010. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (FRSA). Jonathan has a particular interest in the development of staff digital capabilities at institutional scale.
Register to attend the 2022 Future Facing Learning Conference.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Learning and Teaching national conference on 30th June 2022.