Contextual Statement

I have been working in the Education Sector for the past 25+ years and have progressed in becoming a Technology-Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TELT) Professional in the past 15 years. 

The vast majority of my experience on Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) administration, instructional technologies, eContent rapid authoring tools, learning design and educational development came from undertaking multiple, short to medium-term entry/graduate roles (usually a maximum of 2 years) in various reputable UK Universities. Despite this, during the past 7 years, I was fortunate enough to undertake senior roles in meritocratic private sector entities, were I was able to successfully deploy both Agile and Waterfall Project Management Techniques and thus merged my background in Technology and 'traditional' classroom teaching.  

Over the past decade, my principal role as an English for Academic Purposes Lecturer (EAP) at the University of Warwick, Coventry University and the University of Southampton empowered me to engage in rigorous research in and around the area that underpins the use of technology for Academic Learning and Teaching Purposes and considerably assisted me in producing multiple publications. (Evidence 1 - Books)

My 'innovative' teaching style that successfully merged simple tech solutions that seemed to add value, managed to secure me a presenter slot in the monthly CPD Teacher meeting in those universities and eventually led to being offered the position of Digital Learning Developer at Bishop Grosseteste University, a small, niche, teacher training university in Lincoln UK. My desire to further my career, led me to gravitate in London and undertake the role of Learning Technologist/Content Developer and later, Associate Lecturer of Digital Pedagogy at London Metropolitan University. These 2 first experiences, allowed me to delve in, into the challenging, but rewarding field of supporting teams, academics, staff, students and SMEs, embed more technology into their everyday practice.

My third role as a Learning Technologist at Save the Children UK, gave me the honour to lead my first 2 large scale projects. The "Transformation of Training (ToT) project and the "Humanitarian Curriculum" project. By developing the content for and leading all the "train the trainer" online sessions, I had the unique gift to come into contact with a global community of education specialists, which still to this day - and at the time of writing this reflection portfolio -are contacting me on LinkedIn. (evidence 2 -LinkedIn msg PPT presentation) 

My natural predisposition to obtain more friction in my field led me to set up Global Online Learning and Development ltd UK, a company that offered short term contract consultancy work. One of these contracts was for the University of Law, where I was involved in the initial conception, setup, deployment, implementation, monitoring and follow up processes for global online exams for all Legal Practice Courses (LPCs). Through my UK-based ltd, I was also responsible for building 5 new FutureLearn short online courses for UCL, as well as, work for the faculty of Medicine at Imperial College, London. Another short term project involved training and assisting the members of the Faculty of Economics and Politics at Kings College London to rapidly shift – within the course of 6 weeks - their face-2-face provision, online, in a fully immersive, interactive, adult-self-directed learning environment via the use of Kaltura, Echo360 and MS Teams. 

All this experience culminated in me undertaking my first senior leadership role at Prime Press Ltd. This one year contract found me in charge of training, coordinating and project managing 2 medium size teams (Egypt/Cairo had 20+ members of staff and Greece/Athens had 10 members of staff). These teams were responsible for developing a series of interactive activities that were embedded in a free new service platform (Moodle) for all of our existing and new customers. (English Language Teaching books). By successfully merging Articulate Rise, H5P, Moodle Quizzes and Blogs and Camtasia, Doodly, Toonly, Screencastomatic and other 3rd party tools, my teams were able to build interactive video quizzes, and automatically graded summary quizzes that coupled pre-existing printed content (Books). 

It wasn't long until a second senior role emerged when I undertook the duties of Global Manager for eLearning and Resources at Diversey SA. My role involved overseeing all operations within our VLE, Docebo, but also involved the review and redevelopment of existing content and the creation of new courses. 

At the time of writing this Senior CMALT reflection, I am occupying the post of Technology-Enhanced Learning Advisor for the College of Engineering, Design and Physical Spaces (CEDPS) at Brunel University London. This Senior CMALT portfolio will really help 'bind' this broad and diverse experience by finding ways to creatively merge my theoretical, technical, hands-on and supervisory experience into one, coherent practice and to perhaps increase my chances of occupying a senior role at Brunel University London as our team is in the process of restructuring. 

By engaging in deep reflection, self-assessment and by 'journaling' my career path these past 20+ years, I deeply desire to strengthen my delivery and build better working environments for me and my colleagues, as well as, further develop the spirit of meritocracy and respect for equality and diversity in all its forms.  

This offered renewed focus and spherical approach on TELT matters that the Senior CMALT offers, will really act as 'ad valorem' to any projects that me and my colleagues undertake in light of the rapid transition into hybrid learning and teaching. More specifically, my focus on the use of video for learning and teaching purposes, will be further refined and - I can only hope further welcomed - by other members of the team, support staff and academics. 

The recent transition from Blackboard to Brightspace that Brunel University London, has partaken in the past year, has really contributed decisively towards the emergence of a vast array of small scale projects with a potentially large scope. The very nature of these "mini-max" projects (minimum intrusion - maximum results) will require a more "hands-on", "water-fall" type project management approach on behalf of most members of staff. The aforementioned - combined with the recent re-structuring of our team and the introduction of 3 new senior roles - will most likely trigger the engagement levels of all members of staff in these small projects that will generally aim to further introduce and further define the use of our new Virtual Learning Environment.  

To conclude, the Senior CMALT route, will actively encourage me to engage in more reflection by creating the workspace necessary to for me to focus my thoughts on the broader perspective that all of our team interventions will bring forth in the coming months. More specifically, it will create the perfect preconditions for me to renew my focus on creatively merging my past experience in providing senior guidance in technical support, instructional design and project management to deliver on-time, rigorous and "digestible", first grade service not only to our primary focus groups - which is our academics and our staff support services - but to my team members.    

My Senior CMALT portfolio makes an active effort to underpin my devotion to the four ALT core values and in an attempt to celebrate my 25-year long commitment to adding value to any learning and teaching context via the use of technology.