Steve Wheeler

Steve Wheeler (born 16 June 1957) is a British academic, author, speaker and learning technologist.

Early life

Wheeler was born in Devonport, a suburb of Plymouth, England. His father was in the Royal Air Force, and due to constant travelling, Wheeler attended a number of schools across Europe, including St George's School in Gibraltar; Sandwick School in the Shetland Isles, Scotland; Wellington Grammar School in Telford, England; and the AFCENT International School in Brunssum, the Netherlands. He also attended Hereford College of Art and Design, where he studied fine arts, graphic design and photography.

Academic career

Wheeler is an Associate Professor of Learning Technology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Plymouth where he teaches on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes. He is a visiting professor at the Technical University of Liberec, in the Czech Republic. Prior to joining the University he worked in the National Health Service and as a lecturer in Education at City College Plymouth. Wheeler researches into the uses of Web 2.0 in all education sectors, and has published more than 150 scholarly articles in the field of e-learning. Wheeler has also published 4 books and numerous monograms related to the use of learning technology. Wheeler earned his Cert Ed teaching qualification at Polytechnic Southwest, his first degree in Psychology via part-time study at the British Open University and later completed a Master of Philosophy degree at the University of Plymouth. In 2008 Wheeler was awarded a Fellowship by the European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) for his services to European educational research^[1] Wheeler is an active edublogger and his writings regularly appear on his blog Learning with 'e's.^[2]

Between 2008-2011 Wheeler was co-editor of the journal Interactive Learning Environments, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of other academic journals including ALT-J - Research in Learning Technology, the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, and Digital Culture and Education. Wheeler was elected as Chair of the IFIP Technical Committee Group 3.6 (Distance Education) in 2008. He is also the chair of the Plymouth e-Learning Conference,^[3] rebranded in 2012 as 'PELeCON'^[4] at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom; an international event held around Easter every year on the University of Plymouth campus.

Controversy

In 2011 Larry Sanger used a blog post by Steve Wheeler as an example of what he termed "educational anti-intellectualism.^[5] Wheeler's response^[6] cast doubt on the academic and intellectual standing of Dr Sanger whilst situating his own argument concerning the declining relevance of declarative knowledge alongside other educational ideologues such as Ken Robinson (educationalist). The ongoing discussion and controversy was picked up by numerous others with standing in the Education Research community.^[7][8][9]

Bibliography

Toward the Virtual University (2003) ISBN 1-931576-92-0

Transforming Primary ICT (2005) ISBN 1-84445-024-4

The Digital Classroom: Harnessing Technology for the Future (2008) ISBN 978-1-84312-445-0

Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures: Cybercultures in Online Learning (2009) ISBN 978-1-60752-015-3

Learning with 'e's: Educational Theory and Practice in the Digital Age (2015) ISBN 978-1-84590-939-0

References

External links

Steve Wheeler's Learning Technology Blog Learning with 'e's

• Steve Wheeler Homepage