Sampo Kellomaki, Symlabs (Portugal)

Sampo Kellomäki is the chief architect of Symlabs Federated Identity Access Manager , Directory Extender 3.0 and co-founder of Symlabs. He is the main driving force behind the creation of Directory Extender 3.0 and the suite of solutions built around it. Prior to founding Symlabs, he held various positions such as chief software engineer, network security administrator, as well as independent consultancy to telcos, financial and academic institutions, OEMs, and to the national newspaper publishing industry.

Mr. Kellomäki's extraordinary understanding of network architecture, his experience in system and software development and his passion for innovative, new technologies enabled him to play a critical role in directory provisioning system deployments at several major international telcos.

Paul Trevithick, Higgins project, USA

Paul Trevithick, inventor, engineer and entrepreneur, is co-founder of Azigo. He initiated and is the technical leader of the work that is now the Eclipse Foundation's Higgins project. Supporting this effort, he also co-founded SocialPhysics.org, the IdentityGang.org (now part of Identity Commons), Identity Schemas. In 2008 Trevithick founded the Information Card Foundation and currently serves as its chair. In 2009 he co-founded and is co-chair[3] of the Kantara Universal Login User Experience Working Group. Trevithick is a member of the Kantara Leadership Council and a steward of Identity Commons.

Since 2003, Trevithick's work has focused on creating open source identity infrastructure that give people more control, convenience, and privacy with respect to their digital identities and social networks on the internet. A key focus has been the development of active client software. He co-authored the paper Identity and Resilience[4] that was one of the 100 papers cited as informing the 2009 White House CyberPolicy Review.

Before Azigo, Paul was president of Bitstream Inc.. He was CEO and co-founder in 1985 of Archetype, Inc. In 1981, he co-founded Lightspeed Computers. Paul has participated W3C, PODI, OASIS, and ITU-T standards efforts. He was granted the Seybold Industry Vision award in 1999. He was a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab in 1981-1982, and graduated from MIT with an EECS in 1981.

Graham Sadd, PAOGA Ltd (UK)

Graham Sadd  Graham is Founder and Chairman of PAOGA Ltd. (www.paoga.com) providing Personal Information Management Services (PIMS), ‘Your digital safe deposit box to securely store your valuable information, identity & documents’, and the Personal Information Exchange (PIE) managing the ‘rules of engagement’ between organisations and individuals. VRM (Vendor Relationship Management), the reciprocal to CRM, allows 2-way conversations and data exchanges between buyers and sellers.

Graham was involved in raising the initial VC investment, floatation on AIM and subsequent move to LSE involving an international offering of £130m taking the business into the FTSE 250 with a market cap of £2bn. Infobank was rebranded Izodia Plc. and Graham stood down in April 2001.

Prior to Infobank Graham had over 20 years experience founding and managing a number of businesses in the communications and publishing industries spanning graphic design, advertising, marketing, international book publishing (acquired by Time-Life Books International), early electronic publishing (NAPLPS), software development (Personal Presentation System for Olivetti and DataBase Publisher for IBM and Ventura) and international software publishing (acquired by Ventura Software Inc. a division of Xerox Corp.) where Graham was Managing Director and VP EMEA.

Throughout his working life Graham (http://blog.grahamsadd.com) has been exploiting technology to automate repetitive tasks on the principle that People Are Our Greatest Asset.

Dr. Helen Barrett, International Researcher and Consultant (USA)

Helen Barrett recently retired from the faculty of the College of Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage and is living in the Seattle area. She has been researching strategies and technologies for electronic portfolios since 1991, publishing a website (http://electronicportfolios.org), an Apple Learning Interchange exhibit (http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000156/), chapters in several books on Electronic Portfolios, and numerous articles.

She was on loan to the International Society for Technology in Education between 2001 and early 2005, working as the Assessment Coordinator for ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards and providing training and technical assistance on electronic portfolios for teacher education programs throughout the U.S.under a federal PT3 grant. In 2005, Dr. Barrett became the Research Project Director for The REFLECT Initiative, an international research project, underwritten by TaskStream, to assess the impact of electronic portfolios on student learning, motivation and engagement in secondary schools. She is currently working on several book projects on electronic portfolios. She is also an Apple Distinguished Educator and a George Lucas Educational Foundation Faculty Associate.

Harry Owen, Flinders University (Australia)

Harry Owen is Professor of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine at Flinders University and also the Director of the School of Medicine Clinical Skills and Simulation Unit (CSSU) based in Adelaide and the Rural Clinical School Simulation Unit based in Renmark.

Harry Owen has been developing a comprehensive simulation training facility and has been very active in research and teaching using simulation. The major strengths of the CSSU are its core of skilled health professionals trained to use simulation for training and an extensive inventory of patient simulators and associated more than 40 airway simulators!

Harry has published research in medical education and clinical discipline journals and presented at several national and international meeting including the annual meetings of the International Society for Simulation in Healthcare (ISSH), the Society in Europe for Simulation applied to Medicine SESAM), the Australian Society for Simulation in Healthcare (ASSH) and Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference series. Harry’s work is widely recognised and he was asked to contribute chapters to both the simulation textbooks published in 2008.

He has received several research grants, awards and prizes (local, national and international) for teaching and research and has been invited to simulation meetings and to teach in the US, UK, China, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia and New Zealand.

Harry has an active simulation research and development program that has 5 research higher degree students undertaking research related to simulation with 3 of the PhD students working on new simulator technologies and international collaborations with researchers in Spain and Northern Island. Two simulators from this research work have been developed commercially and two more are being trialled.

Harry has been asked to advise several organisations seeking to develop or expand simulation training. Those organisations range from universities and hospitals in Australia (including NT, Victoria, NSW and Queensland) to national bodies including the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the major combat medic training facility (91w) at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio TX.

Harry’s current R&D activity covers development of new simulation technology, improving transfer of training from simulation to clinical practice and an e-Portfolio for tracking training needs of medical students and performance assessment. The goal of this work is to ensure that every medical graduate can perform effective life saving in a range of pre-hospital and in-hospital settings.

Trent Batson, AAEEBL, USA

Trent Batson, Ph.D. is Executive Director of The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning, AAEEBL.org. Trent Batson is an ICT pioneer in higher education. He has three degrees in different fields, bachelors in business, masters in English, and a Ph.D in Cultural Studies, with post-doc work in discourse analysis and has taught at or worked at 8 different institutions of higher learning in the U. S., the last of which was MIT. He has also worked in the ICT industry and for the U. S. Army Instructional Methods Division. His first work with ICT and learning was in 1986. For this work, Batson received the EDUCOM (now EDUCAUSE) award for best application for under-prepared students. Other awards and grants followed as Batson moved from professional staff appointments to administrative positions.

In 2003, he was named Chair of the Board of the Open Source Portfolio Initiative, a Mellon Foundation-funded software development project for the Sakai electronic portfolio, OSP. In 2009, he founded The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning, along with the strong support of Helen Chen at Stanford, Helen Barrett, Darren Cambridge at George Mason University, and many other

Rob Arntsen, MKM (UK)

Rob formed MyKnowledgeMap in March 2000 after working at IBM for 22 years. During his time at IBM he held a number of senior management positions, including UK Manager of New Markets, Northern Region Manager for General Business Division, and Learning Technologies Solutions Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. This extensive career has given him expertise in both general management and the learning technology industry and continues to guide the progression and success of MyKnowledgeMap today.

Rob was appointed as a member of the government's National Advisory Council for Continuous Education and Lifelong Learning, Technology Working Group and served as a member of the Working Group on Widening Participation by the Council for Industry and Higher Education. He was a member of the original IPPR group that produced the proposal for the University for Industry. He also previously served as a member of the CBI Regional Council for Yorkshire & Humberside.

In 2005, Rob was part of the LSDA national steering group on Innovation in Teaching and Learning. He served as governor and Chair of Audit for a large FE college for many years and was recently appointed as a member of the new regional council for the LSC for Yorkshire and Humber.

Charles Fadel, CISC0 (USA)

Charles Fadel is Global Education Research Lead at Cisco Systems, and the Cisco board member at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (of which Cisco was a founding member) and Innovate/Educate (an organization dedicated to advocacy of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)). He is vice-chair of the Education committee of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and actively works with three committees of the OECD – CERI, AHELO, and TALIS. He has consulted with a wide variety of education ministries/boards including Massachusetts, France, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Tunisia, and the Dominican Republic, to name a few, and has worked on education projects with more than thirty countries and states. Charles has co-authored a book titled “21st Century Skills – Learning for Life in our Times” http://www.21stcenturyskillsbook.com/index.php , and frequently lectures on this topic, as well as STEM, and Education Technology.
He is presently advising two non-profit organizations, and an innovative school system in Chile (Innova100). He is also incubating a non-profit organization addressing the convergence of 21st Century Skills and STEM to better teach Statistics and Probabilities. He is a visiting scholar at Wharton/UPenn where he recently taught a class on Technologies for Learning. He has recently served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Readiness Project as well as its 21st Century Skills task force.

He has contributed many articles or has been interviewed in publications such as Technology & Learning, New Media Consortium, Massachusetts Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, eSchool News, Education Week, University Business, EETimes, and others. He has presented at numerous education conferences, including the Consortium for School Networking (COSN), the National School Boards Association (NSBA), the National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI), and the Masie Center’s learning conferences.
Charles has been awarded five patents on video, content, and communication technologies.

Serge Ravet, EIfEL (France)

Serge Ravet Chief Executive of the European Institute for E-Learning (EIfEL), a cross-sectoral professional body whose mission is to support the development of a knowledge and learning society. EIfEL is at the forefront of the ePortfolio movement in Europe, setting as objective that in 2010, every citizen will have access to an ePortfolio. He is also Vice-President of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQUEL). Combining both technological and pedagogical expertise (20 years experience in training and human resources development) with working experience in Europe and the US, he is retained as an expert and a consultant in learning technology projects. He has published books and articles on eLearning, competencies, quality, learning technologies and ePortfolios - "Technology-based Training" (Kogan Page, 1997) "Valider les Compétences avec les NVQs" (DEMOS, 1999); a Guide to e-learning Solutions (2001).

Serge is the author of the Internet of Subjects Manifesto and at the origin of the creation of the Internet of Subjects Forum with the goal to provide everybody with the means to fully control their personal data.

Mauri Ahlberg, University of Helsinki (Finland)

Mauri Ahlberg was nominated as Full Professor of Education at University of Helsinki in 2004. Earlier he was a Professor of Education at University of Joensuu for 25 years (1989 – 2004). Mauri is a Visiting Professor of the University of Exeter, Graduate School of Education, 2003 - 2013, http://education.exeter.ac.uk/pages.php?id=598
His main research interests include:

(1) International NatureGate® R&D program, providing an online learning environment for lifelong biodiversity education at species level, http://www.naturegate.net The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) writes about this project: http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/cec/?2614/

(2) Research on collaborative knowledge building using ICT. We have used mainly Knowledge Forum as a platform. Ours is a multi-method approach. We use both qualitative and quantitative research methods, mostly multi-case study approach. One of our papers was published in the British Journal of Educational Technology in 2010.

(3) Research on Education for Sustainable Development. In my research group, we have concentrated mainly on teachers as researchers. Several doctoral theses have been done and several are under construction.

(4) Research and development of quality of learning, integrating theories and methods. In particular, I have researched and developed improved concept mapping and Vee heuristics.

Mauri has been from 1960s deeply interested in integrating lifelong learning theories in which the whole person is learning and developing, also emotionally. This work is continually under construction as an integrating personal learning theory.
He has been involved in many European and international R&D projects from 1980s. The most prestigious program for Environmental Education and Sustainability Education, ENSI program. Based on his merits he has been nominated as Senior Advisor of ENSI, http://www.ensi.org/Members/Senior_Advisors/

Igor Balaban, Faculty of Organization and Informatics (Hungary)

Igor Balaban works at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics(FOI) in Varazdin as a teaching asisstant / novice researcher. He is member of the Strategic planning of e-learning team at FOI. In last two years he has introduced ePortfolio in several courses at his Faculty and most of his research is currently associated with ePortfolio.

His area of interests are learning technologies, especially LMS and ePortfolio systems; his PhD thesis will be based on ePortfolio and its connection towards Information Systems.

 Joe Booth, Royal College of Physicians (UK)

Joe managed the development and implementation of the e-portfolio for postgraduate physician training, currently used by 5000 trainees across the UK. He chairs a user group for all royal colleges and faculties using the same system and is a member of other UK national e-portfolio committees for postgraduate medical education. He has also been responsible for a range of educational projects, particularly in the areas of curriculum development, assessment and e-learning.

Eileen E. Brennan, Mercy College, NY (USA)

Dr. Eileen E. Brennan, Ph.D. PsyA., is an Assistant Professor of Education at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry New York. As a member of the School of Education, Department of Early Childhood, and the College’s e-Portfolio cohort, she works to “Embed e-portfolios into Early Childhood Certification Courses”. Dr. Brennan serves on the Executive Board of the New York State Council for Exceptional Child and is an active member of the New York City Task Force for Inclusive.

Dr. Brennan’s interest in e-Portfolios, as an assessment tool ‘of’ learning and ‘for’ learning, is rooted in her work inside and outside the classroom. During her nine years (three terms) an elected member of a New York City Community School Board and as Chair of its Special Education Committee, she searched for ‘valid and reliable’ tools for alternative assessment. Her on-going psychoanalytic single case studies in Autism drives Dr. Brennan’s to better understand how e-portfolios best support learning across the intelligences.

Chi-Cheng Chang, National Taiwan Normal University (Rep. of China)

Chi-Cheng Chang is a professor of e-learning technology at the Department of Technological Application and Human Resource Development (Formally Industrial Technology Education), National Taiwan Normal University. He gained his PhD in Workforce Education and Development from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research interests are focused on e-portfolio and portfolio assessment. So far, he has conducted many researches regarding web-based portfolio assessment and published these research outcomes on some international journals. These research outcomes have practically been promoted and applied at some universities and high schools and are turned out to be an essential element for their teaching excellence pursuance. He is currently sustaining to research advanced issues of e-portfolio and web-based portfolio assessment. He is now a chair of the Discipline of Applied Science Education, Division of Science Education, National Science Council, Taiwan, Republic of China.

Kirstie Coolin, University of Nottingham (UK)

Kirstie Coolin works for the Centre for International ePortfolio Development at the University of Nottingham, primarily focussing on technical work for the Lifelong Learning Network project (a regional network of educational institutions and employers) which mainly involves rolling out hosted ePortfolio trials with these partners in a work-based setting as well as pulling together regional data sharing projects using XCRI standards. She is also involved in other JISC related work in the areas of post graduate work placements, ePortfolio standards and IAG.
Kirstie's background is mainly in Further Education and Higher Education in a range of areas including database driven application/web development, VLE rollout, eLearning, design and management of intranets, websites and business systems and project and team management. She has also been involved in teaching and training.

Frank de Jong, STOAS University of Applied Science and Teacher Education (The Netherlands)

Professor of Education (lector) at Stoas Professional University and CAH Dronten in the domain of ‘improving learning and teacher development’ ) http://www.stoashogeschool.nl/default_english.htm ; www.kenniskring.eu ; www.4cyourway.nl . His background is in Educational Psychology and Experimental psychology. He did his PhD (1992) at the Tilburg University (the Netherlands) on the topic of ‘self regulated learning’. His fields of expertise are: ‘(self regulated) learning’; computer supported collaborative learning (social constructivism); idea centred education (e.g. Knowledge creation); workplace learning and development of professionals; Developmental Work Research and Communities of Practice.

He is chair of the division Learning and Instruction of the Dutch Educational Research Association (VOR) http://www.vorsite.nl/ and chair elect of the European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning http://www.eapril.org/ .

- 1991-2006 Radboud University Nijmegen Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen: Senior researcher/senior university teacher at the Department of Educational Science, faculty of Behavioral Sciences. Fields: Self regulated learning; multimedia and constructivist learning; computer supported collaborative learning; Knowledge Building
- 2000- 2006: NS-Opleidingen (Dutch Railways): Manager Educational and HRD Advisory group (also e-learning). Fields: Knowledge Magement & professional development/HRD; e-learning, workplace learning; developmental educational design; Developmental Work Research and Cultural Historical Activity Theory.
- 199-2002 Landelijk Selectie en Opleidingsinstituut Politie (Dutch Police Education): Manager departement Learning and e-learning. Fields: Competence directed learning; workplace learning and e-learning;
- 1996-1999 Wageningen Agricultural University, Department of Agricultural Educational Science: Assistent Professor and research coordinator. Fields: Self-regulated and active learning. Master course development.
- 1986-1992 Tilburg University: Researcher at the department of Educational Sciences, faculty of Social Sciences. Field: Self-regulated learning; internal and external regulation of learning processes.

Ellen Ennever, University of Tasmania (Australia)

Ellen Ennever spent twenty years working in libraries in Australia before graduating in the Bachelor of Adult and Vocational Education (BAVE) at the University of Tasmania in 2001. From there Ellen became an Instructional Designer with the University Department of Rural Health and subsequently moved to the School of Medicine to work with the team that developed the new 5-year medical curriculum for the University of Tasmania in 2005. In 2006 she began to lecture in the BAVE program as well. Ellen has a continuing interest in multi-literacies, including health literacy. She lives in southern Tasmania with her family and is currently completing her Master of Education studies.

Luke Feeney, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Institute of Leadership, Ireland, Bahrain & the United Arab Emirates

Luke joined the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Institute of Leadership in September 2006 as a Knowledge & Information Management and Quality Consultant from the Dublin Dental School and Hospital where he was the Information Systems Manager for 61/2 years. During that time he was also on secondment as the Director of Dental Computing, Software and Training in Southern Illinois University, Alton, Illinois, USA. Luke has a first class honours MSc in Quality & Safety in Healthcare and is currently studying for his professional doctorate with the University of Sunderland, UK.

He has lectured on all aspects of knowledge & information management and quality management and systems in the Royal College of Surgeons, Trinity College Dublin, the USA and the Middle East and has extensive consultancy experience of quality management having implemented and worked to ISO 9001, IHSAB, JCI, Excellence Ireland, UAE MOHESR CAA and ISO 27001 quality standards. Luke is also a certified ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems Auditor, a certified PRINCE2 Practitioner (Project Management) and in November 2008 he became a council member of the Irish Society for Quality & Safety in Healthcare.

Dean Fisher, English Language Centre, City University of Hong Kong

Dean Fisher is an Associate Head in the English Language Centre at City University of Hong Kong. He has taught English in France, the UK, Japan, Turkey, Singapore and Argentina. In 2008 he was presented with City University’s Teaching Excellence Award.

His professional interests include self-directed learning, curriculum design, creative and critical thinking, teacher education and research.

He is Co-Principal Investigator of a university project entitled “ePortfolios for All: A Roadmap for Success” and works closely with CityU’s Office of Education Development and General Education (EDGE) to research, promote and facilitate the implementation of ePortfolios across the University.

Cyri Jones (Canada)

Cyri Jones, B.Sc., M.B.A., PMP, (http://zenportfolios.com/cyrijones/)  has over 20 years of business experience specializing in marketing, information technology, entrepreneurship, project management, and e-portfolios. He is currently involved with teaching, consulting and a start-up company developing a social media platform for lifelong learning.

Mary Ann Kernan, City University London (UK)

Mary Ann has been Course Director of this MA since 2006, having previous taught the Book Commissioning module. In her teaching, she draws on a long career as a successful commercial publisher as well as a variety of achievements as a consultant since 1991.

Early in her career, Mary Ann was a commissioning editor in academic and professional publishing with highly regarded lists in Geography, Psychology and Management. She was a Director of Methuen & Co Ltd and Deputy Publisher at Routledge. Since then, she has worked as a consultant in e-learning, publishing, training and product development. In addition to the Programme Director role at City University, she currently teaches at Kingston University, and as taught previously for the School of Management, University of Surrey, the Open University and Midlesex University.
She also works as a consultant, both for commercial publishers and as a mangement training analyst, designer and deliverer. A 2008 project took her to India to advise HarperCollins’ educational and reference divisions.

In early 2006, Mary Ann was awarded an MSc (with Distinction) in Research Methods from the University of Surrey. In 2008, she was one of three City University Technology Champions in recognition of her innovations in teaching, and visited to India and China to meet with publishers and prospective students. She is a member of executive board for the University’s Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice, to be launched in 2009.

Sandra Kingstone, Nottingham University (UK)

Following a first Degree in Music, Sandra has had a portfolio career spanning academic and commercial non-fiction publishing (including two years as an Open Learning Managing Editor at the Open College), an MSc in Computer Science, time as an analyst/programmer with British Rail Business Systems Computing and a period as a primary school teacher. She has worked on ePortfolio projects led by the University of Nottingham Centre for International ePortfolio Development since 2003, which has allowed her to combine interests in technology and education. She was project manager for the successful JISC-funded ePortfolio Reference Model (eP4LL) and Nottingham regional pilot (RIPPLL) projects and is currently managing two projects in the area of eAdmissions to Higher Education as well as the JOSEPH project.

Romy Lawson, University of Technology Sydney (Australia)

Romy is the Teaching and Learning Coordinator for the Faculty of Business at the University of Technology Sydney. This work has led to this current work which is focused on using e portfolios to integrate across a business degree program. Previously she worked at the University of Wales, Bangor where she was the Director of the Teaching in Higher Education Masters Certificate and lectured on the Bachelor and Master of Education Programmes. During this time she was also involved with the Centre for Recording Achievement and some HEA projects centred on assessment and benchmarking e learning. Her research, looking at creating effective learning environments in HE, focuses on the effects of assessment and feedback on students’ learning and motivation, constructive alignment and academic professional development for university lecturers. Romy has also managed a number of funded projects looking at personal development skills in both students and employers in small businesses, this work has led her to delivering programmes in Italy, Romania, Lithuania and Greece.

Allison Miller, Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Australia)

Allison Miller is the Business Manager for the E-portfolio – Managing Learner Information Business Activity, for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. Her other Framework roles have included being the South Australian E-learning Innovations Co-ordinator, and the Project Manager for the Inclusive e-Learning (Youth) Project.Allison has been the Co-ordinator of South Australia’s premier 2-dayz e-learning event, e-dayz, for the past two years, and she was the E-Learning Development Co-ordinator for TAFE SA, Adelaide North in 2006.
Allison has been involved in the VET sector for more than 7 years as a Lecturer in areas of Business Finance, Administration and Small Business Management and has over 5 years experience in creating e-learning environments for students and staff.

Delia Muir, University of Leeds (UK)

Christopher Murray, University of Leeds (UK)

Christopher Murray is currrently a Projects Officer at the University of Leeds. He is leading the development,implementation and launch of a new e-portfolio to support student learning and personal development planning on both the medicine and dentistry degree programmes. He is also investiagting the use of e-portfolios on the School of Medicine's taught post-graduate programmes and is involved in the implementation and research of digital storytelling as a method of enhancing reflective and transformative learning.

He is currently researching how the MBChB prepares students for the job application and interview process.

Julia O’Sullivan , Royal College of Surgeons (UK)

Julia O’Sullivan is Head of Education in the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, appointed in November 2008. She is a qualified adult teacher, holds an MSc in continuing professional development (CPD) which was undertaken through work-based learning and research and has a background in postgraduate education. Julia is responsible for the education strategy of the Faculty for both General Dental Practitioners and Dental Care Professionals. She is the project manager for the online portfolio project which started in Autumn 2009 to develop an e-portfolio for members of the dental team. She has developed the quality assurance processes for FGDP(UK) postgraduate programmes and is also the lead for revalidation. Julia previously worked at the University of Hertfordshire and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and has lectured and published on CPD.

Steve Pitman Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Institute of Leadership, Ireland, Bahrain & the United Arab Emirates

Steve is a Registered Psychologist of the Psychological Society of Ireland and a Registered General Nurse. He joined the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2004. His current post is Programme Director and Lecturer for the MSc Healthcare Management and MSc Quality & Safety programmes in the RCSI Institute of Leadership covering Ireland, Dubai and Bahrain. His teaching responsibilities include leadership, change & development and research methods.

Steve has worked previously as a Project Manager for the Eastern Regional Health Authority, Ireland exploring the reasons why midwives and nurses were leaving the Dublin maternity hospitals. He also has extensive experience working as an Assistant Director of Nursing with responsibility for Nurse Practice Development at the Adelaide & Meath Hospital, Dublin.

He has a first class honours MSc in Work & Organisational Psychology and is registered as a PhD student at Dublin City University Business School. In addition he holds an MSc in the Psychology of Health (University of Bristol) and a primary degree in Social Psychology (Loughborough University). His area of interest is positive organisational behaviour and work engagement.

Lex Polman, Kenteq (The Netherlands)

Lex Polman is Manager of DIGIteq, the department for innovation and internet applications of Kenteq since 2006. Kenteq is the Centre of Expertise for Vocational Education, Training and Labour Market the technical domains. Until 2006 Lex had a career as Project manager learning materials and Manager Examination. As participant in the EU TAS3 FP-7 project Polman is responsible for use-cases, scenarios, pilots and demonstrations that involves both users and professionals.

Don Presant, Learning Agents (Canada)

Don Presant is President of Learning Agents (learningagents.ca), a Canadian multimedia production company with a strategic focus on e-learning and ePortfolio. He is also the current Chair of the Manitoba Prior Learning Assessment Network (MPLAN - mbplar.ca).

Don's expertise in multimedia learning resource development is the result of 10 years experience in educational television and over 15 years in computer and Internet technologies. He has developed several successful tools and methods for peer to peer knowledge transfer based on experiential storytelling by practitioners and learners.

Don is the son of a Canadian immigration officer and lived overseas while growing up. His media background began with a BA in Communication Studies at Concordia University. He joined the educational broadcaster TVOntario in 1989 as a video editor and later began writing and directing documentaries. 1n 1993, during a period of fundamental corporate culture change at TVOntario, Don proposed and led the start-up of the Online Group, a self-directed new media "skunk works". In 1994, the Online Group led TVOntario onto the Internet.

Don left TVOntario in 2000 to form Learning Agents, providing multimedia learning resources in English and French for clients and partners such as Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Industry Canada, Manitoba Labour and Immigration, Red River College, the Manitoba Sector Training Network, and TFO, la télévision éducative et culturelle de l’Ontario français. Don currently works out of the Learning Agents eStudios, an innovative community telecentre and podcast facility located in downtown Winnipeg.

Dries Pruis, Kenteq (The Netherlands)

Dries Pruis is Information Architect at Kenteq, the Dutch national centre of expertise on Vocational Education, Training and Labour Market for the engineering industry, since 2005. He translates the employability information and services into internet applications and is involved in innovation projects for vocational education. In this respect, he is engaged in the analysis of the need for information of companies and employees, in the design of business process solutions, and in the start-up and the technical follow-up of vocational training projects. He’s been working on the subject of Education and Labour since 1976, first in the capacity of researcher, then in the capacity of consultant for vocational education in the metal industry, and finally as the manager of SOM Vocational Education and Training in the metal industry.

 Muhammad Safdar, International Islamic University, Islamabad (Pakistan)

Muhammad Safdar works at the International Islamic University, Islamabad, in the field of learning technologies and distance education. Publications include “Facilitating and Empowering Teachers through Information and Communication Technologies”, “Delving into Teachers’ Pedagogical Development and Efffective Learning through Information and Communication Technologies”, “Information Era: Changing Paradigm of ICTs Use in Teacher Training Institutions of Pakistan”, “Delving into the Training Paradigm for Instructors, Supervisors and Managers in Non-Formal Education”, “Barriers to the Effective Use of Infromation and Communication Technologies.”

Willi Schroll, Strategiclabs (Germany)

Willi Schroll has been working as a technology analyst and foresight consultant since 1995. His special focus is on ICT, especially the internet, the mobile and social technologies. He is monitoring and analyzing disruptive innovations and the emerging social patterns around technologies.

Willi has been studying information science and philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin with a focus on the knowledge process and facilitating technologies (“Die Potentiale hypermedialer Systeme für die Wissenskommunikation”, M.A. 1993). Willi started his professionell career at Vision Factory, Karlsruhe and since then was doing trend research and foresight as a free consultant and employee alike. With his strong interest in the web and the unfolding new behavior patterns around it, he has been focussing the (vague) notion of “Web 2.0”. As the main author of the “Web 2.0 Report” (Z_punkt GmbH 2006) he analyzed the impact of the participative web and the economical potential of the new information architectures.

The interest in new forms of knowledge communication lead Willi to observe trends in interface and interaction design holistically facilitating the information and learning process. Today one of his special foci is on Mixed and Augmented Reality technologies. Since he supposes a high potential in AR as a future mass media and as an ubiquitous learning layer he decided to actively take part in organizing the AR Conference ARBcon.europe (Berlin, April 23, 2010) http://www.arbcon.eu/). http://www.willischroll.com/

Ashfaque Ahmad Shah, IREDU, CNRS/Université de Bourgogne (FRANCE)

Ashfaque Ahmad Shah is currently working on the generic competences of the higher education graduates in the international labour market at Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, (FRANCE).

His research interests include: independent practical experience of research methodology and econometric analyses
Researcher (2004 to 2005) at Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan (PAKISTAN); development of a semi-standardised academic achievement test in the subject of English for secondary school students;
Research Assistant (2002 to 2003) Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan (PAKISTAN) a study of understanding textbook material by the master level students of education of different universities of Punjab under the supervision.

Dave Sowden, Uniersity of Hull (UK)

David Sowden has significant national expertise in learning technology in both higher and further education institutions and has contributed to national and international peer reviewed conferences and publications in this field.  He has led a major eSystems development for the Yorkshire and Humber East Lifelong Learning Network, including management of additional JISC funded projects to support eSystems for lifelong learners. During this time he played a leading role in the LLN National Forum eSystems Workstrand, promoting the use of common data standards, particularly XCRI, and championing usability and accessibility issues. He is currently managing a JISC funded project in the Institutional Innovation projects in lifelong learning and workforce development funding round, at the University of Hull. Developing ‘smart’ ePortfolio aggregator technology for professionals in the engineering, health and social care sectors linking to their programmes of work-based study from FD through to Masters, and also to their requirements as professionals to present their professional CPD profile both to employers, and to their professional body to gain professional status. He has a deep working knowledge of the potential and limitations of technology in supporting teaching, learning and the student experience in further and higher education, and draws perspectives from across the world to inform his work, particularly on usability and accessibility.

Marc van Coillie, EIfEL (France)

 Marc van Coillie has more than 10 years background in Research and Development in the eLearning and KM fields for public and private sectors (CNDP - french national educational institution, AFT-IFTIM - training company, Orange labs - telecom operator, EIFEL - european assocation...)

Marc Van Coillie is an expert in Interoperability and integration of IT systems using SOA for eLearning, HR, KM and digital identity (using specifications such as HR-XML, IMS Global, Liberty Alliance, OpenID, Kantara, Micro-Format, OpenSocial, RDFa...) with a focus on ePortfolio and CV interoperability (CV transcoding web service, LinkedIN to Europass converter) and organising plugfest events to demonstrate conformance and interoperability of softwatea and services regarding eLearning, Human Resources and Identity standards.

Marc Van Coillie is member of IEEE LTSC (Learning Technologies Sub Committee), expert for the CEN/ISSS WS/LT (Workshop on Learning Technologies), leader of the HR-XML Europass CV Interoperability Working Group of the HR-XML consortium, chair of the HR-EDU Special Interest Group of Liberty Alliance.

Joel Voysey, United Response (UK)

Joel has worked for charities and NGO’s since 1997, managing fundraising activity and donor marketing and communications programmes. His current role as Head of Fundraising and Project Development has brought him into contact with EU funding and E-portfolios for the first time. United Response supports adults with learning disabilities, mental health needs or physical disabilities to lead the sort of life they choose. Much of the focus of Joel’s work currently is on finding funding for tools and resources which help disabled people to become more included in their communities. The CODA-online project is designed to help people with learning disabilities to find work and to provide practical support to their carers or support workers and also to prospective employees to help them to make this a reality.

Alexander Warwick, Calibrand (UK)

Alex is responsible for Calibrand’s business development and project management within the UK Medical Sector and for UK Awarding Bodies. He has spearheaded the development of the e-Portfolio project for UK Medical Revalidation. Alex also has international experience, working in countries such as Ireland on turn-key e-Assessment projects. A graduate of De Montfort University, Alex has a rich background in all aspects of the business process from Accountancy through to Sales and Marketing.

Matt Wingfield, Tag Learning (UK)

With over twenty-two years experience within the UK education market including seven years as a primary school teacher and ICT Coordinator and more recently over thirteen years experience working in a variety of roles for TAG Developments, a leading provider of e-Portfolio/evidence based e-assessment solutions for schools, F.E., H.E. and work-place training, and as the membership secretary for the eAssessment Association, Matt has built-up significant understanding of the issues relating to e-portfolios and their use to empower assessment within education.

Matt is dedicated to building close and highly productive partnerships with key stakeholders within the wider education market, so that through promoting greater awareness of the innovative e-assessment and e-verification/moderation systems available, he can continue helping educators and learners to gain the most out of using effective e-assessment as an integral part of teaching and learning.