Michael Thomas (linguist)

Michael Thomas, (born 1969) in the northeast of England, is a university academic working primarily in the field of digital education. His other research interests include online and distance education, digitally mediated communication and higher education policy. He is currently Professor in Higher Education and Online Learning at the University of Central Lancashire.[1]

Thomas attended Collingwood Junior School, Norham High School and Tynemouth Sixth Form College and has studied at Newcastle University, the University of Manchester, Lancaster University, Cardiff University, Wales, the University of the West of England, and the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and Cornell University in the US. He holds a Ph.D. in Critical and Cultural Theory from Newcastle University focusing on the work of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, deconstructionism and post-modernism and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Lancaster University which explored technology-mediated project-based learning. He was previously a lecturer at the University of Heidelberg in Germany (1998), Associate Professor (2002) and then Professor (2009) in English Communication at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Japan, before moving to the University of Central Lancashire in 2010.[2] He has also held visiting or affiliated positions at Stuttgart University and Mannheim University in Germany, and Harvard University in the US.

Thomas has published over 20 authored and edited books in these fields and is founding and lead editor of two international book series, Digital Education and Learning (Palgrave) and Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching (Bloomsbury). He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Scopus indexed International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments and since 2014 has been a member of the journal's International Advisory Board.

He is director of the Language, Literacy and Digital Education Research Group. He is also a member of the Research Unit for Speech and Language.[3]

Thomas was project coordinator and principal investigator of the EU-funded CAMELOT Project on language learning with machinima, a two-year project consisting of nine EU partners that ran from December 2013 until November 2015; a partner in the Erasums+ VITAL project on learning analytics and online learning (2015–17; and coordinator of the EU GUINEVERE project (KA2 Strategic Partnership in Schools) on digital gaming in immersive environments (2017–19).

Outside of academia he has published articles in The Times Higher Educational Supplement on the use of iPods and podcasting, and The Guardian as a contributor in a debate about massive open online courses and the future of higher education, and been interviewed by the French language publication Regards Sur Le Numerique on the subject of digital natives, among others. Thomas is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Society of Arts.

Selected books

  • The Reception of Derrida: Translation and Transformation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).[2]
  • Online Learning: IV Volumes (Sage Publications, 2010).
  • Interactive Whiteboards for Education: Theory, Research and Practice (IGI Global, 2010) (edited with Euline Cutrim Schmid).
  • Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching With Technology (Continuum, 2010) (edited with Hayo Reinders).
  • Technology Enhanced Learning: Quality of Teaching and Educational Reform. Series: Communications in Computer and Information Science (Springer, 2010).
  • Deconstructing Digital Natives: Young People, Technology, and the New Literacies (Routledge, 2011).[4]
  • Digital Education: Opportunities for Social Collaboration (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
  • Contemporary Computer-Assisted Language Learning (Bloomsbury, 2012).
  • Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Virtual Learning Environments (IGI, 2012).
  • Contemporary Task-Based Language Teaching in Asia (Bloomsbury, 2015) (edited with Hayo Reinders).
  • Researching Language Learner Interaction Online: From Social Media to MOOCs (CALICO, 2015) (edited with Ed Dixon).
  • E-Research in Educational Contexts (Routledge, 2017) (edited with Jocelyn Wishart).
  • Digital Language Learning and Teaching: IV Volumes (Bloomsbury, 2017) (edited with Julie Sykes, Hayo Reinders and Mark Peterson).
  • Project-based Language Learning with Technology (Routledge, 2017).
  • Handbook of Research on Integrating Technology into Contemporary Language Learning and Teaching (IGI, 2018) (edited with Bin Zou)

References

  1. ↑ https://www.uclan.ac.uk/staff_profiles/michael_thomas.php
  2. 1 2 "The Reception of Derrida". MacMillan. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "Dr. Michael Thomas". University of Central Lancashire. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Deconstructing Digital Natives". Routledge. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
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