Helen Beetham
When searching for an individual who has contributed to the education technology field, it was important to me to find a woman. Women are underrepresented in educational research, and seeing that representation is significant as a woman. I decided to explore the contributions of UK-based digital education researcher and consultant Helen Beetham, who has worked in higher education for over 20 years (Beetham, n.d.). I was first introduced to Helen’s work when I read her blog in JISC, focusing on digital capabilities. Helen has written many textbooks and articles for peer-reviewed publications on various subjects, including e-learning, digital literacy, digital organizations, and open education. She co-authored Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for 21st century learning, a book that assesses a variety of perspectives on how to create and deliver learning activities effectively, ensuring that future development focuses on the needs of the learner and is pedagogically sound (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013). There also appears to be a third edition coming. In addition, Helen Beetham’s most significant contribution to the field was the framework she developed on digital capabilities, which is widely used in the UK and other places (Beetham, 2022). She is currently a researcher for the University of Wolverhampton and a regular keynote speaker. Helen spoke recently about critical digital literacies in a post-digital world, which shows her long-continued commitment to education technology. Digital literacy is essential in our digital world, which is why Helen’s digital capabilities framework and ongoing focus on the matter are so important.
Keep up with Helen…
via Twitter
via LinkedIn
References
Beetham, H. (n.d.). Profile. [LinkedIn profile]. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-beetham/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&originalSubdomain=uk
Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (2013). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for 21st century learning (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis Group.
Beetham, H. [Disruptive Media Learning Lab]. (2022, August 3). Teaching and learning in the post-digital world: Helen Beetham on critical digital literacies [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grQ5W5ElNkY
September 21, 2022 at 11:25 am
Hi Giulia,
Many thanks for your thoughtful blog post introducing Helen Beetham and her work. She recently was part of a panel at the ALTC Conference 2022 https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2022/programme/ entitled “How are profession is changing”. I thought I would share a link to the annual survey report done by ALT in 2021 on the same topic in case folks would find it interesting to get a sense of how folks in the UK and beyond answered that question. Enjoy!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ibhXazv82s6MrXgN0StgXwDo-tAWrhpKc4SiT1w4UTQ/edit#slide=id.g120c3d9f440_0_0
September 21, 2022 at 5:24 pm
Thank you so much for sharing! I will be sure to check it out.