Cisco: Education in the Emerging Markets
I joined Cisco’s Emerging Markets team as a lead educationist in a Business Development role in January 2007. The Emerging Markets theatre, for Cisco, covers South America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia. My role involves the development of a vision for the deployment of technology in education, and then to work with Cisco’s sales teams across this vast theatre, and with customers, to help them develop local solutions to suit local requirements on the basis of the overall vision. I am enjoying the challenge immensely.
I joined Cisco’s Emerging Markets team as a lead educationist in a Business Development role in January 2007. The Emerging Markets theatre, for Cisco, covers South America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia. My role involves the development of a vision for the deployment of technology in education, and then to work with Cisco’s sales teams across this vast theatre, and with customers, to help them develop local solutions to suit local requirements on the basis of the overall vision. I am enjoying the challenge immensely.
Outline of Career
I have been, at progressive points in my career, a teacher, headteacher, local government officer, national policy analyst, project-manager, Director of the ambitious Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN), and latterly a Technology Strategist working in the Web 2.0 arena.
I have been, at progressive points in my career, a teacher, headteacher, local government officer, national policy analyst, project-manager, Director of the ambitious Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN), and latterly a Technology Strategist working in the Web 2.0 arena.
I have worked successfully at every level in Scottish education. Like so many people across this small country, I am committed to promoting a humane and enlightened education system that meets the real needs of our young people today. I recognised the potential of the information and communications technologies the moment the first BBC A ‘microcomputers’ began appearing in Scottish schools in the early 1980s, and I have continued to push the boundaries of the possibilities offered by ICT as the technology itself has developed over the years.
I was offered the chance to initiate the Scottish Schools Digital Network project in late 2001, in the Scottish Executive, and I have managed it - with superb support from great colleagues in the Scottish Executive itself, LT Scotland, the local authorities and the industry - throughout the period since.
SSDN’s far-sighted vision, drawn together at a time when its internal logic was not as obvious as it is today, offers a wholly web-delivered learning platform that combines a massively integrated collaborative environment with a virtual teaching and learning environment, fully-authenticated and delivered to every single school in the country. It’s exploitation of the Web means that it will deliver anywhere, anytime learning to every SSDN user, a reality that begins to ask real questions of the nature of school-based learning as it currently exists.
SSDN is managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland and I am based in their office in the centre of Glasgow.
With the emergence of the so-called ‘Web 2.0′ technologies, I was asked in August 2006 to take on a strategist role within LT Scotland in order to begin to flesh out a development path for the organisation in the use of the emerging technologies in education. I was able to pull together a superb core team of forward-thinking technologists, as well as a wider group of enthusiasts, to begin the process of policy development and engagement with LTS staff and with our stakeholders across the country. One of the aims was also to ensure that Glow would continue to develop in sympathy with the emerging technologies.
Public Speaking
I have been invited to speak at many local, national and international events in recent years. I am a confident and professional public speaker and I am able to combine an ability to explain technology in a comprehensible way with an awareness of the particular audiences I speak to. I am as comfortable speaking to a gathering of networking technologists or web technology experts as I am to an audience of teachers or educational policy makers.
Recent Major Public Speaking Engagements
Please contact me if you would like me to speak at an event
I have been invited to speak at many local, national and international events in recent years. I am a confident and professional public speaker and I am able to combine an ability to explain technology in a comprehensible way with an awareness of the particular audiences I speak to. I am as comfortable speaking to a gathering of networking technologists or web technology experts as I am to an audience of teachers or educational policy makers.
Recent Major Public Speaking Engagements
Please contact me if you would like me to speak at an event
GENIE (Global Exchange of Networks in Education) - Chair: Gerry White - Sydney - 17 October 2006
Global Summit - Sydney - 17-19 October 2006
SETT07 - The Scottish Learning Festival - Glasgow - 20/21 September 2006
……“Straws in the Wind - What does the Future hold for Education and Technology?” -
……“Straws in the Wind - What does the Future hold for Education and Technology?” -
SETT@Aberdeen - May 2006 - ABERDEEN
……“SSDN: Education ICT Comes of Age”
Cisco Expo 2006 - May 2006 - BERLIN
……“Scottish Schools Digital Network - a digital network for all Scottish schools”
Cisco Public Service Summit - December 2005 - STOCKHOLM & OSLO (held in parallel with Nobel Awards)
……“21st Century Education - defining excellence”
SETT - The Scottish Learning Festival - September 2005 - GLASGOW
……SPOTLIGHT - “SSDN - Inventing our own ICT Future”
South-East Asian ICT Summit British Council, Thailand - April 2005 - BANGKOK
Other key speakers included Stephen Heppell (International Consultant), Tim Unwin (Royal Holloway College, University of London) and Gerry White (Federal Government of Australia)
Real Seminar - March 2005 - LONDON
……Video of presentation available here
Career
2006 Learning Futures Strategist - Learning and Teaching Scotland
2004 Director, Scottish Schools Digital Network - Learning and Teaching Scotland
2001 Head of SSDN/Broadband Team Leader - New Educational Developments, Scottish Executive
1997 Professional Services Manager - West Lothian Education Service
1995 Professional Adviser (f/t secondment) - West Lothian Education Service
1993 Headteacher - Uphall Primary School (roll 450)
1990 Depute Headteacher - Juniper Green Primary School (roll 500+)
1985 Headteacher - Slains School (roll 35)
1980 Classroom Teacher - Echline and Queensferry Primary Schools
2006 Learning Futures Strategist - Learning and Teaching Scotland
2004 Director, Scottish Schools Digital Network - Learning and Teaching Scotland
2001 Head of SSDN/Broadband Team Leader - New Educational Developments, Scottish Executive
1997 Professional Services Manager - West Lothian Education Service
1995 Professional Adviser (f/t secondment) - West Lothian Education Service
1993 Headteacher - Uphall Primary School (roll 450)
1990 Depute Headteacher - Juniper Green Primary School (roll 500+)
1985 Headteacher - Slains School (roll 35)
1980 Classroom Teacher - Echline and Queensferry Primary Schools
Education
2000 MBA - Edinburgh University Management School
1990 M.Ed (Educational & Information Technology) - Aberdeen University
1980 PGCE Post-Graduate Certificate in Education - Craigie College, Ayr
1979 MA(Hons) Politics - Edinburgh University
2000 MBA - Edinburgh University Management School
1990 M.Ed (Educational & Information Technology) - Aberdeen University
1980 PGCE Post-Graduate Certificate in Education - Craigie College, Ayr
1979 MA(Hons) Politics - Edinburgh University
Professional Training
2003 Prince 2 Practitioner - QA Associates
2003 Top Management Programme - UK National School of Government
2003 Prince 2 Practitioner - QA Associates
2003 Top Management Programme - UK National School of Government
(office) johncon@cisco.com
Skype:
Skype me here
Skype me here
Telephone:
(home) 07791 002 659
(office) 07917 461 639
