Stephen Heppell: Contemporary learning spaces, online education and why we must keep ”eyes on the horizon and feet on the ground”

Stephen Heppell is an English educator who specialises in the use of ICT in education. He is a Professor at Bournemouth University and holds a number of other academic positions around the world.  He is probably best known for his work Ultralab, and has worked on education projects such as “Learning in the New Millennium”, “Schools OnLine”, development of “Think.com” and “Talking Heads”. Stephen is retained by a number of organisations to help with future policy and direction, including the BBC, as an Associate of KPMG, and is retained by the UK government in Horizon Scanning work to advise of future directions for educational policy.   Stephen is executive chairman of  LP+ who are currently developing a Chinese language learning community for 20 million Chinese school students, in partnership with China’s Sun New Media corporation. Here is some commentary on Professor Stephen's work:  "Professor Stephen Heppell is a world expert on contemporary learning, specialising in online education and learning spaces" Bournemouth University, 2017. "Digital Education Leader and learning futurist Prof Stephen Heppell is one of the most influential academics in the field of technology and education globally" CI TV, 2016 "Stephen Heppell is somewhat of a guru when it comes to learning space design and the move to what he terms agile learning environments". Open Learning Spaces 2011 "Europe's leading expert on online education and learning spaces" EduTech Future Schools, Australia, 2014 "Europe's leading online education expert" Microsoft 2006 "Stephen has a vast portfolio of successful, large scale, learning projects behind him". JISC 2006 "Professor Stephen Heppell, world renowned expert in education, media, technology and learning environments". Macmillan Education 2017 "one the world's foremost experts on contemporary learning", Queensland Courier 2011 "In a career that spans academic research, teaching, policy development, public and private sector collaboration, development of educational applications, politics, radical thinking and leftfield innovation, it is hardly surprising that the recipient of this evening's award is often referred to as the "funkiest on-line guru on the scene". Royal Television Society 2006 "the most influential academic of recent years in the fields of technology and education" Department for Education and Skills (DfES), UK, 2006