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Carl Simmons

PGCE Secondary Computer Science and IT with QTS* Course Leader

Secondary, Further Education & Training

Department: Secondary, Further Education & Training

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Profile

Biography

Carl is Senior Learning and Teaching Fellowship Lead in the Faculty of Education and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. For more than a decade he has worked with teachers at all levels to develop subject knowledge, computing pedagogy and encourage teaching innovation.  His current role includes secondary computing subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) module lead, computing subject network lead and primary phase computing lecturer.

 

Carl has significant project management expertise, particularly in the area of initiating, planning, delivering and managing computing training for teachers. He has secured funding, led projects and exceeded key performance indicators on computing related initiatives on behalf of the university. These include:-

  • CAS Network of Excellence Regional coordination (2014-18)
  • Barefoot Computing regional partner (2014-15)
  • “Change the World” DfE Match Funded Computing programme (2014-15)
  • Master Teacher Level 1 CAS funded training programme (2013-2015)

 

All of these projects demonstrated Carl’s commitment to computing education alongside his ability to project plan, recruit and manage diverse teams, effectively manage a budget and deliver high quality outcomes for a range of participants all within a deadline.

 

Carl is co-author of the widely used teacher training text “Teaching Computing (Developing as a Reflective Secondary Teacher)”, 2014, Sage Publications and the programming textbook “Hello App Inventor!: Android programming for kids and the rest of us”, 2014, Manning Publications. He is a board member of Liverpool Makefest, director of Wigan STEAM, CREATE Education Ambassador and co-founder of Makernoise the National Maker Education Conference UK.

 

Since 2005 Carl has worked with Edge Hill Computing Education students to construct learning experiences that build academic and personal skills and extend their aspirations. His approach to teaching and learning is largely pragmatic – taking a mixture of research evidence about what’s likely to “work”, observing and talking with colleagues, taking risks to try to new approaches and reflecting on student feedback and outcomes. In particular he has been successful in trialling many forms of e-learning informed by a background in computer science, former roles leading E-learning in an FE college and an MSc in E-Learning and subsequent research.

Carl’s current research and pedagogy interests include the impact of technology enhanced formative assessment, particularly the development and use of screencast feedback rather than traditional written feedback comments. This appears to have a substantial impact on the quality of tutor feedback, an improvement in trainees use of tutor comments and their perception of the course overall.

Carl’s main curriculum areas are Education and Computing and he is co-author of the textbooks Hello App Inventor!: Android programming for kids and he rest of us (2014) and Teaching Computing (2014).