Name: Dr Simon Paul Atkinson

Title: Director

Organisation: Sijen Education

Journal of Open Flexible and Distance Learning Editorial Boards: Journal of Interactive Media in Education (OU) Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2015), having become a Fellow in 2004. Treasurer of the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand.

Simon is currently the Head of Learning and Development at Independent Schools of New Zealand and an independent educational consultant. He is the former Learning Design Practice Lead at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, the national distance learning tertiary provider. Previous roles have included Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching at BPP University (2011-18), Educational Developer at LSE (2010-11), Director of Teaching and Learning at Massey University NZ’s College of Education (2008-2010), Head of Centre for Learning Development at University of Hull (2003-2008) and Project Officer at the Institute for Educational Technology at the OU (2001-2003).

Simon holds a PhD in Museum Studies from Leicester University (2019), a Master in Western European Studies from Exeter University (1991), and a BA(Hons) in Religious Studies with Education from West Sussex Institute of Higher Education (now Chichester University) awarded in 1988. In addition, he has a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education from the Open University (2004). Besides having worked on a range of EU and JISC-funded projects, he also undertakes consultancy engagements.

Consultancy support includes reviews of blended (2019) and distance (2022) for Arden University. He has been an Expert on the Croatian e-learning project EQUIBET (2006-2009), based on previous engagement with Croatia’s CARNET (2004-2005). He has also worked in Kenya for the British Council on e-learning capacity building (2005).

He has delivered workshops on the theme of e-learning capacity building in Estonia, Chile, Mexico, and the United States. Simon has been a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at a range of European conferences and has published in the field of educational technology and its impact on the Academy since 1999.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Educational Leadership!

I hope Dr. Simon's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as an Educational Leader?

Two things. People and keeping abreast of ‘trends’. As I have had the mantel of leadership pressed on me, and then accepted it, I have found the need to continuously check my ‘emotional quotient’. Some personality types require more work than others and when one has a team of 60 (the largest team I’ve ever had to manage) there are inevitably going to be some challenging people in the mix.

In terms of keeping up with ‘trends’, simply saying that education can get ‘faddish’ and having a historical perspective (grounded in the literature) is helpful. I have never been ‘all in’ on anything, whether it was the virtual learning system, interactive whiteboards, wikis, social media, or whatever latest educational technology trend was the rage of that year’s conference round.

2. How did you become an Educational Leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Arguably it started when I was 8. I was given the opportunity to help a child in my class to read. I found it satisfying and intriguing that although he was a couple of years older, he couldn’t read as well as I could. I led him through his journey. My first formal ‘leadership’ role was as Head of e-Learning but by that stage, I had assumed leadership roles for large and small projects in many different contexts. My sense of myself as a leader has come less from job titles and roles than engaging with colleagues are projects that I have run, models I’ve developed, and frameworks I have deployed.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Work-life balance matters to me. Don’t have breakfast. The working day starts with a review of emails in the local coffee shop over a strong flat white and a croissant. Then I walk to the office and handle any emails that couldn’t be handled through the iPad. My days vary tremendously. There are times of the year when, as a team, we are reviewing partnership arrangements and there are back-to-back web meetings, other times I might be traveling to a different city to facilitate a day workshop, and yet other days when I spend the best part of my day reading research.

In my current role, I have no direct line reports, so the pattern of my days is largely determined by myself. Most days I take 45 minutes for lunch and usually leave the office. I leave work and often do a quick food shop for fresh protein. Logging on at home in the evening or on weekends is an exception, unless there are editorial duties for the Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning of which I am an Editor.

4. What's a recent lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of as an Educational Leader?

It has been a reminder rather than some new revelation. It is simply that one is never too old (or experienced) to not be able to learn new things or see things from a different perspective, and that sometimes old ideas have value in new contexts. This is prompted by a recent engagement about providing online learning support in a conflict zone.

Most of the contributors were imposing ‘solutions’ that, whilst comprehensive and undoubtedly impressive, were wholly impractical. My contributions were based on “what have you already got in place”. I learned so much by listening to the staff who had already found ingenious ways of making resources available to isolated communities.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your journey as an Educational Leader so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted you?

It is a challenge to identify a single volume but one that I have referred to over and over again has nothing directly to do with leadership, but rather with learning design, was Preparing Materials for Open, Distance & Flexible Learning: An Action Guide for Teachers and Trainers by Derek Rowntree (1993) ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0749411596 edited by Fred Lockwood. I never met Derek, but had the pleasure of meeting Fred when he moved to Manchester. Both had been members of the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University (UK) a few years before I joined in 2001.

There was a cupboard with multiple copies of this book and as we were moving into the world of online facilitation many appeared to regard this volume to be ‘out of date’ already. I disagreed! I regard it as a manifesto for effective course design. In fact, I structured my eight Stage Learning Design Framework (8-SLDF) around it and it has underpinned all of the workshops, seminars, and webinars I have run around course and program design for the last 20 years.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young educator who aspires to be an Educational Leader, what would you say to them?

Find people to disagree with you, challenge your assumptions, and learn from your mistakes.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as an Educational Leader, so far?

I ran a weeklong workshop for a Kenyan University nearly twenty years ago now that was aimed at ‘E-Learning Development’. I was struck by their desire to get into the fast lane of online provision when the infrastructure could barely sustain email access. And yet, everywhere you looked there were these red and white mobile towers dotted around the countryside.

As the week progressed I kept adjusting the next day's programme to reflect the context. By the end of the week, we were heading for SMS-assisted printed materials and away from learning platforms. That visit made it clear that nothing, and I mean nothing, is as important as context in learning strategy and leadership.