John Connell: The CV
Appointment to new post with Learning and Teaching Scotland

After 5 years as head of the Scottish Schools Digital Network programme, I have been asked to take on the role of Learning Futures Strategist by LT Scotland. See my blog for details - "In Good Heart and Good Health" (http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=77)
I have been, at progressive points in my career, a teacher, headteacher, local government officer, national policy analyst, project-manager, and latterly Director of the ambitious Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN). 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.
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 here 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

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 (outline)

Cisco Public Service Summit - December 2005 - STOCKHOLM & OSLO (held in parallel with Nobel Awards)

......21st Century Education - defining excellence (programme)

SETT - The Scottish Learning Festival - September 2005 - GLASGOW

......SPOTLIGHT - "SSDN - Inventing our own ICT Future"

British Council, Thailand - April 2005 - BANGKOK

......South East Asia Online Education - 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
2004            Director, Scottish Schools Digital Network 
2001            Broadband Team Leader/Head of SSDN 
1997            Professional Services Manager  s
1995            Professional Adviser (f/t secondment)
1993            Headteacher 
1990            Depute Headteacher 
1985            Headteacher 
1980            Classroom Teacher 

Learning and Teaching Scotland
Learning and Teaching Scotland
New Educational Developments, Scottish Executive
West Lothian Education Service
West Lothian Education Service
Uphall Primary School (roll 450)
Juniper Green Primary School (roll 500+)
Slains School (roll 35)
Echline and Queensferry Primary Schools
Education

2000            MBA 
1990            M.Ed (Educational & Information Technology)
1980            Post-Graduate Certificate in Educationr
1979            MA(Hons) Politics

Edinburgh University Management School
Aberdeen University
Craigie College, Ayr
Edinburgh University
Professional Training

2003            Prince 2 Practitioner
2003            Top Management Programme

QA Associates
UK National School of Government
CONTACT ME
Email:

(home) redpathjohn@mac.com

(office) j.connell@ltscotland.org.uk

 Skype:

Skype me here

Telephone:

(home) 07791 002 659

(office) 07917 461 639