Speakers Corner

Since 2007, ICT for Education has had a great variety of speakers at its conferences from all educational sectors within the UK. Our alumni of speakers are listed below. Thanks to all of them for their contributions to our conferences to date and hopefully in years to come.

If you would like to speak at an ICT for Education conference, please contact Sarah Underwood.

Jody Carter

Primary school teacher

I am a primary school teacher and computing leader for a MAT in the south east of England. I have years of experience in computing and IT having spent the best part of a decade as a web developer. I now combine education with computing, looking at how technology can help to reduce workload, and how it can be used to enhance learning across the curriculum.

Julia Elfred

Julia Elfred is the Computing Team Leader at Christ Church C of E Primary School

Julia Elfred is the Computing Team Leader at Christ Church C of E Primary School in Croydon where she has taught for 24 years. She has been teaching computing since 2002 and has a passion for innovating with educational technology. As part of her own professional development she has earned recognition as an Apple Teacher, a Seesaw and CEOPs Ambassador. Julia is an enthusiastic and dedicated member of the Discovery Education global community of teachers and has twice attended their US Summer Institute in Chicago and San Diego.

Karine George

/ (consultant)

Karine George is an experienced consultant and keynote speaker having worked in education for more than 35 years. She was a headteacher for more than 20 years in a large junior school rated as outstanding. She held a number of roles for the local authority and the DfE, including leading headteacher for literacy, headteacher mentor, threshold assessor, primary consultant leader and school improvement partner. She has also represented headteachers as part of the Hampshire executive.
As an active research practitioner, Karine is an ardent advocator of technology to support 21st century learning. As a result, she has won a number of awards including Leadership and Vision for the development of ICT, Third Millennium Learning, Parental Engagement and the Martin Bacon Award for School of the Year for developing a whole education. She was selected to work on the Government task force for Home Access and has reported to the department on the use of technology.
Karine has written many articles on a range of educational issues. She is also co-author of ‘Sustainable School Transformation: An Inside-Out School Led Approach’, which looks at how the rigour of traditional top-down accountability models can be combined with the engagement and buy-in of school led inside-out approaches.

Laura O'hare

Texthelp

Further Education Manager

Laura is the Further Education Manager at Texthelp and passionately champions Texthelp’s student support tools, to help colleges deliver inclusion and accessibility to each and every student. Currently in her seventh year with the company, her role sees her working with colleges and events throughout the UK and Ireland to share the benefits of assistive technologies for student learning and teaching support. She supports colleges in onboarding Texthelp tools, such as Read&Write and EquatIO, to empower students within the areas of literacy, maths, continual assessment and formal exams, and help them to reach their full potential.

Marty Edwards

Freelance editor and journalist

Marty is an ex-GCSE and A-level Computer Science teacher with 14 years of experience of teaching the subject. Marty has a background in software engineering and worked as an IT consultant prior to becoming a teacher. He now works with schools and teachers supporting them in developing their Computer Science knowledge, ability and confidence particularly through the use of Raspberry Pis, Python and electronics. He encourages the use of proven industry techniques in the classroom to enhance the experience of the learner.

Matt Hogan

Alderley Edge School for Girls. / (ICT teacher)

Matt Hogan has been head of ICT and elearning co-ordinator in Cheshire schools for over 17 years, working across five very different schools. He leads training sessions for primary and secondary teachers throughout the UK and is a Pearson National Trainer. Matt is currently working in schools to identify the impact of elearning on students’ engagement and achievement, while also teaching ICT and Computing at Alderley Edge School for Girls. He is an Apple Teacher with Swift Playground recognition alongside being a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator and is an Associate Member of the British Computing Society.

Miles Berry

Computing Education, University of Roehampton

Miles is principal lecturer in Computing Education at the University of Roehampton. Prior to joining Roehampton, he spent 18 years in four schools, much of the time as an ICT coordinator and most recently as a headteacher. His research interests include the pedagogies of computer science education and informal learning. He is a former chair of Naace and continues to serve on its board of management. He is also a member of the management board of Computing At School (CAS) and the UK Forum for Computing Education. He is a fellow of the BCS, RSA and HEA.
Over the years, Miles has contributed to a number of computing related projects including: CAS's computer science curriculum, the national curriculum computing programmes of study, the CAS/Naace guide to the computing curriculum for primary teachers, training of CAS Master Teachers, the Bett award winning Rising Stars Switched on Computing, Barefoot Computing, Code Club Pro's training materials and QuickStart Computing.

Patrick McGrath

Education technology specialist, Texthelp

Patrick is the resident EdTech champion at Texthelp. A passionate educator, Patrick is an accomplished international speaker focusing on engaging sessions on how technology can make a real and meaningful impact on teaching and learning for all. An Apple Education Mentor and Google Certified Educator, Patrick received the UK Digital Leader 100 award in 2016 and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Ulster (School of Education). He’s worked with thousands of schools on areas such as literacy, inclusion, educational vision and planning, leadership, and change management.

Paul Ducklin

Paul Ducklin has been many things at Sophos: programmer, malware analyst, technical supporter, public speaker, security evangelist, and now proselytiser. (That's like an evangelist, but more so.)

These days, Paul spends most of his time writing for Sophos's award-winning community website, Naked Security, where he has built up a global reputation as the go-to guy for explaining even the most technical issues in plain language.

Peter Marshman

Peter is head of Computer Science and ICT at Leighton Park School

Peter is head of Computer Science and ICT at Leighton Park School and an Advanced Skills Teacher and DfE Master Teacher who was recently awarded the ICT Facility of the Year Award for 2018. He recently helped secure £100 million for Computing education in his role on the working group for the Royal Society ‘After the Reboot’ report. He is an advocate of Computer Science in schools and is an advisor for gender and diversity in STEM education, providing teacher training and developing creative Computing resources that focus on unplugged learning such as those promoted on the BBC Cracking the Code series and BBC’s Panorama ‘Could a robot do my job?’