Kevin Thompson's Profile

Kevin's  background is in teaching at secondary level in Scotland:  initially in Chemistry and Biology and then Computing 

He set up and ran the Computing Studies department in a large secondary school for many years with spells with the (now) SQA and SCOTVEC as subject marker, examiner and assessor.  Several secondments to local industry and one to the Scottish Executive also happened during this time.  He co-authored several books too including the Leckie and Leckie Computing Studies Series - see here

After a short time in secondary senior management working on school timetabling, he was seconded to the Tesco Schoolnet 2000 project - now schoolnet global -  working with over 200 schools in the North of Scotland. This gave an  opportunity to work with the primary sector; both staff and pupils.   From there he joined the lab full time in 2000 as an action researcher, initially working on the  Online Community project "Talking Heads" now run by NCSL, and on the interview panel for appointing new team members.

Kevin was the Scottish contact for "notschool" - a research project investigating  reintroducing  long term absentees to learning.

He  was then  invited by SEED to set up and manage the "Heads Together" project - an online community for school leaders in Scotland - which is now run very successfully by LTScotland although he remains on board in a consultative role and on the advisory group.

He currently  works on the Ultraversity project - an action research into online degrees for (mostly) mature people -as admissions tutor, recruiting students throughout the UK and beyond - and module leader. He also has involvement in several other lab projects including mGBL.

He presents at conferences currently on the theme of 'Collaboration in an Online Environment'  - details below.

He completed the independent evaluation of LTScotland's pilot PDA project - ICTSMAD  available  http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/professionaldevelopment/management/whatisictsmad/index.asp

 He holds a BSc in Chemistry and a Diploma in Education, a Teaching Qualification in Computer Education and a Masters in Education but is more recently experienced in all aspects of online community facilitation and management and in elearning at tertiary level.

On a personal note he is involved in the music and culture of Scotland especially Robert Burns- delivering talks and recitations - and  has performed and taught music to adult learners for many years on both guitar and mandolin.

He is delighted to represent the lab and talk about any or all of these things anywhere, anytime.

He is a member of the University of Stirling Alumni Executive Committee and ICT consultant and reviewer for a local community newspaper.
COS profile available here myprofile.cos.com/keltickev
Current Research Focus

Effects of platform change on Facilitation for Online Communities

Retention rates for Online degrees

Papers and Presentations


Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation at the University of Edinburgh Star Gazing Conference- 24/11/06 - see http://www.itfutures.ed.ac.uk/agenda.shtml
Or to download the presentation click http://ww3.ultralab.net/Members/kthompson/edinburgh stargazing.ppt

Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation at the North West Education Technology Show (Reaching Teaching)  15/11/06  - see http://www.reachingteaching.com/registration.php?eventID=16&dayID=26&themeID=14&rID=&redirect=/nwet/visitor_registration_ok.html
Or to download the presentation click here for Bolton ppt 15/11/06

Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Presentation at the Scottish Education Show (SETT)  20/9/06  - see http://ww3.ultralab.net/Members/kthompson/sett06a.ppt
or listen to the actual presentation here http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/audio/sett/sett2006/ltscotland-sett2006-D1C.mp3

Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment" Closing Keynote Presentation for UCISA - User Support Conference - Cambridge University 7/7/06. details here:- http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/tlig/conf/userserv06/plenary-sessions#collab

Thompson, K - 2006 - "Collaboration in an Online Environment"  Presentation for the Scottish Further Education Unit: ICT Community of Practice Annual Conference: Cumbernauld  28/2/06:  details here:- http://www.sfeu.ac.uk/defaultpage131bcd0.aspx?pageID=1711

Thompson, K - 2005 -"Collaboration in an Online Environment"  Presentation for the  Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association Annual Conference: Newcastle  2/11/05 : Available at http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/cisg/misgevents/Conference2005/CISG2005Programme

Thompson, K-  2005 - ICT for School Management and Administration: Independent evaluation of PDA project for Learning Teaching Scotland: Available from - http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/management/index.asp

Thompson, K and Hartley, M - 2002, 2003, 2004 - Initial, interim and Final reports to SEED and Learning Teaching Scotland on Heads Together - an online community for school leaders.

Russell, A and Thompson, K - 2002 - Talking Heads, It's Progress, transfer to Wales and Scotland and Relevance to the Republic of Ireland.  Presented to ITTE at Trinity College Dublin July 2002  Available  at http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/papers/

Jones, S., Lang, G., Terrell, I., Thompson, K., Ramondt, L. and ULTRLAB associates. Establishing On-line Communities for School Leaders: An Interim Report. Presented at BERA Conference: 2001.  Available  at http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/papers/