I am a Senior Lecturer in Digital Education at the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE). My research focuses on digital technology's role in the future of education, with an emphasis on design to enhance educational dialogue and address educational disadvantage.

I co-lead the Digital Technologies, Communication and Education Research and Scholarship group at the University of Manchester. I have been an Editor of the British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) since 2020, ranked #7 of all Education and Educational Research journals in 2025 (Impact Factor 8.1). I am also an author of The Theory of Educational Technology: Towards a Dialogic Foundation for Design (Routledge, 2024).

During 2022-25, in partnership with technology experts and the global EdTech Hub, I am Principal Investigator (PI) of three projects exploring AI’s role in personalising learning and assessment. Launched in 2019, the Hub is the world's biggest educational technology research initiative, investigating how culturally appropriate uses of technology can lead to better learning outcomes for children in low-income countries. Integrating design-based research and randomised control trial methodologies, this work involves several thousand learners aged 4–8 years old in Kenya.

Prior to joining MIE, I worked as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Education: 2013-21). I was also Principal Researcher and co-founder of the Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI) established in 2020. Examples of my previous research include as:

• Principal Investigator of the Gaming to Development project (G2D: 2020-21). G2D investigated how a real-time 3D creation platform — the Unreal Engine — can support careers education and enable young people to develop important 'future skills' and competences related to effective dialogue.
• Co-Investigator of the Virtual Internships Project (VIP: 2019-21). Working with industry partners and teachers across England, VIP investigated how technology can enable young people from areas of low social mobility to engage meaningfully with the world of work, in addition to supporting the development of effective teamwork, problem-solving and creativity.
• Lead UK Researcher on the Digitalised Dialogues Across the Curriculum project (DiDiAC: 2016-2020). Working with colleagues at the University of Oslo, and teachers across Norway and the UK, developing and evaluating the impact of a microblogging tool (Talkwall) on classroom dialogue and interaction.

I am particularly interested in educational design-based research as a methodological framework, as well as systematic approaches to synthesising research evidence.

My PhD (Computer Science) involved evaluating the effectiveness of digital tools to support the learning of computer programming. I have also worked as a Research Assistant for the Lifelong Learning Network (based at Staffordshire University: 2009-11) and Sessional Lecturer and Teaching Assistant at Keele University (2009-13).

I am part of the MA Digital Technologies, Communication and Education (DTCE) teaching team at MIE.

During the 2025/26 Academic Year, I will lead teaching on the 'Digital Education Research' units.

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Member
• Association for Learning Technology (ALT), Associate
• British Educational Research Association (BERA), Member & Journal Editor
• Higher Education Academy (HEA), Fellow
• World Education Research Association (WERA), Member

I welcome informal contact from prospective doctoral students with research interests very closely aligned to the areas outlined above, specifically, a strong focus on educational dialogue, educational disadvantage, and/or design-based research. Please send a full CV, proposed research plan, and cover letter outlining clear links to these areas. Unfortunately, I am unable to respond to speculative enquiries that relate more broadly to the educational use of technology, AI, etc.

Information about potential postgraduate research funding at The University of Manchester is available online.