Jeremy Burton

Jeremy is a Senior Lecturer in Computing Education at the University of Brighton. He acquired a strong interest in digital media and technologies whilst working as a primary school teacher and transitioned into teacher education in 2002. He has led the Computing Subject Team in the School of Education for over a decade, developing our undergraduate and postgraduate provision in this subject area. Over the past twenty years, he has created course modules for both primary and secondary trainee teachers, addressing many areas of subject knowledge, from digital video production to physical computing.

Jeremy facilitates termly network meetings for Computing Subject Leaders from a cluster of local schools and maintains active working relationships with other professionals working locally in formal and informal computing education. He has also run several CPD workshops and short courses for teachers.

Jeremy has led digital technology initiatives within the School of Education, including the Mobile Technologies Project (2012-2015), which saw every member of academic staff equipped with a tablet computer to support the development of their pedagogy and digital skills.

In parallel to his work in teacher education, Jeremy has worked as a designer and developer of web and mobile apps. He was a founder of Numeracy Ready (2013-2020), the web app that helped many aspiring teachers successfully pass the Numeracy Skills Test. He was also a founder of Staffrm (2014-2018), the web platform which introduced many education professionals to the world of blogging. Jeremy currently works part-time as an independent designer and developer of web and mobile apps for education and entertainment. In addition to his full-stack development skills, he has expertise in UI and UX design and has worked as a consultant in this area.

Since developing a passion for the web in the late nineties, Jeremy has maintained many websites and blogs relating to his professional work. Recent projects include Teach the web: a guide for primary teachers and his personal blog site.

Within the broader field of Digital Education, I have particular interests and expertise in the areas of web literacy and instructional design. I have previously written about the former and am currently developing resources to help education professionals improve their practice in relation to the latter.

The recent pandemic has sharpened the focus on the role of digital technologies in supporting learning in compulsory education and the world of work continues to be reshaped by the affordances of digital tools. I am currently exploring the potential development of courses that can equip education and training professionals with the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills to be able to effectively harness the potential of digital media and digital tools to support learning, particularly in online and asynchronous contexts.

I have a strong interest in design fundamentals and helping educators understand the relevance of these to their work. Over the past twenty years, I have acquired considerable knowledge and understanding in relation to user experience (UX) design, user interface (UI) design, web standards, usability and accessibility. In relation to instructional design, I take a keen interest in the debate around Cognitive Load Theory and the implications for the design of effective learning resources.