Les Watson

Les Watson is a freelance educational adviser. He was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Information Services) at Glasgow Caledonian University. He held this post from 1999 to September 2006. During this time he was responsible for Library, C&IT Services, student services, e-learning, the Caledonian Degree and work based learning all of which were integrated into a University wide Learning Service. At Caledonian Les led the development of the Learning Cafe, REAL@Caledonian, and the award winning Saltire Centre.

At Caledonian Les was also the Project Director of the JISC Digital Libraries in the Classroom Spoken Word Project which continues to develop access to streamed digital audio resources and promote their use in the curriculum. The project works with partner Universities in the USA and with BBC Archives.

Les was a regular contributor to Online in the Times Educational Supplement until the paper changed ownership in 2006 and he now writes for Merlin John Online He has produced synopsis papers on aspects of Higher Education for the European Parliament, contributed to a number of books on the use of IT in education, and was the author of ‘Multimedia in Schools – the transition from primary to secondary schools” for the Scientific and Technological Options Assessment Office of the European Parliament.

He is a Fellow of the RSA, a member of the Universities and Colleges Information Services Association (UCISA) executive , chair of the annual UCISA management conference committee, a member of the JISC Board and a registered consultant with the Higher Education Academy. He is currently the lead consultant for the JISC Infonet project that is producing the ‘Developing Technology Rich Spaces for Learning' infokit due to be launched in March 2007.