Handheld Learning 2009

Andy Black has worked in the Education sector for more than 20 years, primarily in the land based college sector. Major interests are the how the use of ICT can overcome barriers to learning among disengaged and disadvantaged learners. He has worked remote rural communities on this, changing staff attitudes to e-learning. He has written extensively on the subject and role of emerging technologies He has developed a sideline demonstrating gadgets and gizmo's, such as 40 gadgets in 40 minutes. He lives on line via his blog http://andysblackhole.blogspot.com.

Andy joined British Educational Communication Technology Agency (Becta) in July 2003 and was involved in supporting the Learning and Skills Sector. His current focus is as a Technology Research Manager.

He is most proud of a project involving an ICT terms glossary in British Sign Language on the web http://www.slcresources4ict.net. The project and a proof of concept mobile device version was show cased in October 2006 at Mlearn in Canada. He has attended all three previous HandHeld Learning conferences and is regular contributor to the HHL and GBL forum's.

His raison d'être is "don't forget the learners" and "flexibility is the key to the future". He intends to write a book titled "What do when the kit doesn't work", apart from tell jokes.