Dr Mike Johnson

Biography

My current role began in 2001, combining proficiency in information technology and teaching (PGCE with Bath Spa in 1998) to support the school, its staff and students develop enhanced use of IT. From 2002 I studied part time with Lancaster University for an MSc in Advanced Learning Technology and became affiliated with the networked learning conference. After a year seconded as a Lecturer in Medical Education, in 2014 I again joined Lancaster for a part-time doctorate in e-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning, graduating in December 2019, just before the pandemic. 

I maintain an interest in eAssessment and a recent major strand of work has been to digitise clinical placement assessment documentation and processes, in partnership with colleagues and the developers of MyProgress^TM, MyKnowledgeMaps Ltd. In 2019, Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) awarded us ~£100k to develop a bilingual interface with automatic translation between English and Welsh for free text input. 

Memberships and responsibilities:

• Alumni member of Lancaster's Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning
• Reviewer and editorial board member for the open access journal Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning
• Co-chair of hanfod.NL
• Reviewer for the Networked Learning Conference 
• Reviewer for Joanna Briggs Institute
• Member of BERA, ALT, and the British Phenomenology Society

In 'my own time' I am happy to help asylum seekers and refugees adjust to life in Wales. I enjoy classical music and curating my photos, for example, of Pembrokeshire skies on flickr. 

Publications

Teaching

My teaching responsibilities include staff and students and primarily lie along the interface between knowledge work and information technology. This can surface in design and delivery of sessions to support learning particular applications (e.g. MS PowerPoint) or it could be subsumed within 'study skills' or 'evidence based practice'. I seek to promote meaningful and critically reflective adoption of information technologies where appropriate, recognising that an authentic context is vital for learning. This may not entail (much) explicit 'IT Teaching' per se although there is a place for that. To some extent, individuals must find their own path through to adopting the knowledge work practices which are effective and sustainable. Technological determinism may draw us into abandoning tried and tested technologies and practices, wasting time and effort better spend on the pursuit of deeper scholarship. I am as happy inducting freshers into University knowledge work as I am supervising systematic review dissertations (I undertook the JBI Comprehensive Training Course in Nottingham in 2015). 

Having studied leadership and management topics in Aberdeen University as an undergraduate, in 2012 I helped develop and still continue to teach and assess a Masters module on leadership in healthcare which has run along networked learning priciples from the start.

In 2021 I took on the role of Student Representative Co-Ordinator for the School. Students are full members of the University and it is my privilege to encourage their vital input to our work.

My primary field is educational research, and, within that, networked learning. During doctoral studies with Lancaster University (2014-2019 link to thesis), I began to explore phenomenology within networked learning and continue this through reading Gadamer's Truth and Method and Heidegger's Being and Time. In 2020 I began a Wikiversity framework of open notes on Truth and Method and hanfod.NL with Felicity Healey-Benson. 

Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

• Networked Learning
• Phenomenology of Practice (in relation to networked learning)
• Technology Enhanced Learning

Please review the School's research programme Web page. If you wish to discuss undertaking a programme of postgraduate research within the School of Healthcare Sciences please first contact the School's Research Office by email to hcarephdenquiries@cardiff.ac.uk 

Past projects