Les Watson

Les Watson has provided valuable advice that has helped CPU understand the dynamics of the education sector and recent changes in the education landscape whilst helping design the insurance products for LOTM. Les is a valuable contributor to CPU thinking and has proved to be a very good sounding board in developing our new approaches and processes designed especially for the education sector.

Les Watson is a freelance educational consultant who has worked in education for 40 years as a teacher, senior lecturer, Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor. Les has a wealth of experience in computers in education in schools and higher education. Since 2006  he has worked with Universities, Colleges and Schools advising on innovative learning space development, undertaking reviews of IT strategies and Library provision and providing keynote speeches to conferences and staff development events (see here for a list of clients).

Les is a supporter of Learning on the Move having been one of the first to adopt the programme whilst Pro Vice Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University early this century.

 Les worked as interim Director of Information Services at Royal Holloway University of London on a part-time basis in 2007/08 and developed the new learning space in the Bedford Library called TLC@Bedford. He has also been an expert consultant to the Joint Information Systems Committee e-learning programme on Technology Enhanced Learning Environments. As a consultant Les provides advice to schools, colleges and Universities on all aspects of IT strategy and technology enhanced learning. He sees cloud computing as an important development for educational institutions and believes that Learning on the Move provides an innovative hardware strategy to complement cloud based services.

In 2007 Les was an invited keynote speaker at a series of seminars on Places and Spaces for Learning organised by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in Australia and also gave an address to the Universities Australia Vice Chancellors conference in 2010. He is also currently a visiting Professor of Learning Environment Development at the University of Lincoln.

Before taking up consultancy I was Pro Vice-Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University (1999 to 2006) with responsibility for library, C&IT Services, student services, e-learning, the Caledonian Degree and work based learning all of which were integrated into a University wide Learning Service. During my time at Caledonian (2001) I led the development of the Learning Café, REAL@Caledonian which received international recognition as an innovative learning space and in 2006 I opened the award winning Saltire Centre.

There is further information on Les and his consultancy services here and here. You can see some of his projects here and visit his blog reading list here.