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John Connell

Lauder, Scotland

John Connell is an Education Strategist and Business Development Manager working for Cisco in the Emerging Markets, covering Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia/CIS. He worked for 25 years in the public sector in Scotland, at all levels of education from teacher and head teacher to national policy adviser and national project Director. For 6 years, John led the world-class Scottish Schools Digital Network project, now known as Glow (see www.glowscotland.org.uk). Glow is the national schools intranet, digitally linking Scotland's 800,000 educators and pupils, and comprises a national broadband network, national content delivery network and a national learning platform. The learning platform is entirely web-based and includes a virtual learning environment, collaborative environment and national identity management system. John has spoken at many events and conferences across the world about the conjunction of education and technology. Most recently, he spoke in Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Costa Rica, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, and the UK. He is also a well-known voice in the world of educational blogging (see: www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/). John has an MBA and an MA (Politics) from Edinburgh University and an M.Ed (Educational & Information Technology) from Aberdeen University. John is also a qualified teacher with a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from Craigie College, Scotland.

John Connell is at home at http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog .

Recently, John Connell...

  • commented on Beautiful Pictures of the Blogosphere over 3 years ago.

    Meant to add the URl for my own blog post:   http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=1085  

  • commented on Beautiful Pictures of the Blogosphere over 3 years ago.

    These look so good, Paul, I've blogged them too. Thanks for the link to a very interesting blog - some good stuff in there to look through and get you thinking. John Connell

  • commented on The City as the Platform over 3 years ago.

    I wonder, Martin, to what extent that 'sustained experimentation' you speak of might be most effectively carried out, not in the mega-cities of the world, but in smaller, perhaps more agile, urban units (I think they still call them towns)?

  • created Collaboration as 'Productive Disputatiousness' over 3 years ago.

    [This is a slightly amended version of a post also published on my own blog at http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=102] Given the ubiquity of its use, I cannot be the only person who wonders what people really mean when they write or speak about collaboration. I was reminded of the question during a recent talk from a colleague on the developing notion of Government 2.0, during which he indicated that consensus should be seen as a key aspiration of modern, collaborative, democratic modes of...

  • commented on A New Vision for the Welfare State over 3 years ago.

    I have not read the manifesto yet, Paul - I will certainly do that on the basis of your post - but in terms of your description of its key points I believe that this is one of the most important debates needing to be held and engaged with in Britain today. I like the notion of shifting focus to "...what the individual is trying to achieve...", and I feel that the answer to your question ("what right does the state have to ask me what my dreams are") is that so long as the state asks rather th...

  • created The Road Not Traveled: Education in MENA over 4 years ago.

    Anyone with an interest in education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) should download and read a recent report from the World Bank entitled: The Road Not Traveled - Education Reform in the Middle East and Africa. Indeed, anyone with an interest in the development of education globally will find much to think about here.Like any report from the World Bank, this paper is replete with an incredibly rich and fascinating mass of statistics as well as formidable analysis of social and eco...