Kevin Thompson's Profile Description
He set up and ran the Computing Studies department in a large secondary school for many years with spells with the (now) SQA and SCOTVEC as subject marker, examiner and assessor. Several secondments to local industry and one to the Scottish Executive also happened during this time. He co-authored several books too including the Leckie and Leckie Computing Studies Series - see here
After a short time in secondary senior management working on school timetabling, he was seconded to the Tesco Schoolnet 2000 project - now schoolnet global - working with over 200 schools in the North of Scotland. This gave an opportunity to work with the primary sector; both staff and pupils. From there he joined the lab full time in 2000 as an action researcher, initially working on the Online Community project "Talking Heads" now run by NCSL, and on the interview panel for appointing new team members.
Kevin was the Scottish contact for "notschool" - a research project investigating reintroducing long term absentees to learning.
He was then invited by SEED to set up and manage the "Heads Together" project - an online community for school leaders in Scotland - which is now run very successfully by LTScotland although he remains on board in a consultative role and on the advisory group.
He currently works on the Ultraversity project - an action research into online degrees for (mostly) mature people -as admissions tutor, recruiting students throughout the UK and beyond - and module leader. He also has involvement in several other lab projects including mGBL.
He presents at conferences currently on the theme of 'Collaboration in an Online Environment' - details below.
He completed the independent evaluation of LTScotland's pilot PDA project - ICTSMAD available http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/professionaldevelopment/management/whatisictsmad/index.asp
He holds a BSc in Chemistry and a Diploma in Education, a Teaching Qualification in Computer Education and a Masters in Education but is more recently experienced in all aspects of online community facilitation and management and in elearning at tertiary level.
On a personal note he is involved in the music and culture of Scotland especially Robert Burns- delivering talks and recitations - and has performed and taught music to adult learners for many years on both guitar and mandolin.
He is delighted to represent the lab and talk about any or all of these things anywhere, anytime.
He is a member of the University of Stirling Alumni Executive Committee and ICT consultant and reviewer for a local community newspaper.
COS profile available here myprofile.cos.com/keltickev
Current Research Focus
Effects of platform change on Facilitation for Online Communities
Retention rates for Online degrees
Papers and Presentations
Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation at the University of Edinburgh Star Gazing Conference- 24/11/06 - see http://www.itfutures.ed.ac.uk/agenda.shtml
Or to download the presentation click http://ww3.ultralab.net/Members/kthompson/edinburgh stargazing.ppt
Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation at the North West Education Technology Show (Reaching Teaching) 15/11/06 - see http://www.reachingteaching.com/registration.php?eventID=16&dayID=26&themeID=14&rID=&redirect=/nwet/visitor_registration_ok.html
Or to download the presentation click here for Bolton ppt 15/11/06
Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation at the Scottish Education Show (SETT) 20/9/06 - see http://ww3.ultralab.net/Members/kthompson/sett06a.ppt
or listen to the actual presentation here http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/audio/sett/sett2006/ltscotland-sett2006-D1C.mp3
Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Closing Keynote Presentation for UCISA - User Support Conference - Cambridge University 7/7/06. details here:- http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/tlig/conf/userserv06/plenary-sessions#collab
Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation for the Scottish Further Education Unit: ICT Community of Practice Annual Conference: Cumbernauld 28/2/06: details here:- http://www.sfeu.ac.uk/defaultpage131bcd0.aspx?pageID=1711
Thompson, K - 2005 -"Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation for the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association Annual Conference: Newcastle 2/11/05 : Available at http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/cisg/misgevents/Conference2005/CISG2005Programme
Thompson, K- 2005 - ICT for School Management and Administration: Independent evaluation of PDA project for Learning Teaching Scotland: Available from - http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/management/index.asp
Thompson, K and Hartley, M - 2002, 2003, 2004 - Initial, interim and Final reports to SEED and Learning Teaching Scotland on Heads Together - an online community for school leaders.
Russell, A and Thompson, K - 2002 - Talking Heads, It's Progress, transfer to Wales and Scotland and Relevance to the Republic of Ireland. Presented to ITTE at Trinity College Dublin July 2002 Available at http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/papers/
Jones, S., Lang, G., Terrell, I., Thompson, K., Ramondt, L. and ULTRLAB associates. Establishing On-line Communities for School Leaders: An Interim Report. Presented at BERA Conference: 2001. Available at http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/papers/