Biographies

Professor Thomas M Connolly
The original instigator of this conference in 2007, Thomas Connolly is a Professor in the School of Computing at the University of the West of Scotland, having managed the Department of Computing and Information Systems for several years. Thomas worked for over 15 years in industry as a Manager and Technical Director in international software houses before entering academia. His specialisms are games-based learning, online learning and database systems. He has developed three fully online MSc programmes and developed and leads the undergraduate BSc Computer Games Technology programme. He is co-author of the highly successful academic textbooks Database Systems (now in its 4^th edition) and Database Solutions (in its 2^nd edition). He is a reviewer for several international journals and has been on the committee for various international conferences. He is a member of CPHC (Council of Professors and Heads of Computing) and member of the Higher Education Academy.

Thomas Connolly

Dr Mark Stansfield
The founding programme chair for ECGBL, Dr Mark Stansfield is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing at the University of Paisley. He has a PhD in Information Systems and has written and co-written more than 70 refereed papers in areas relating to e-Learning, games-based e-Learning, information systems and e-Business. Journals in which papers have been published include the European Journal of Information Systems, Systems Practice and Action Research, the Journal of Further and Higher Education, the Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, the Journal of IT Education, and Computers and Education. Mark also serves on the editorial boards of several international journals that include the International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Information Systems Education, ALT-J and the Journal of IT Education. Mark was appointed Member of the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED) Technical Committee on Education for the term 2005-2008 and is a Registered Practitioner of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. He has presented papers at international conferences for over 15 years and has won Best Paper Awards at a number of conferences that include the UK Systems Society Conference in 1993 and the Informing Science and IT Education Conferences in 2003 and 2006.

Mark Stansfield

Professor PhD. Birgitte Holm Sørensen
Birgitte has been Research Programme Director of the Research Programme on Media and ICT in a Learning Perspective at the Danish University of Education since 2001. She was Director of the Department of Aesthetic and Media Education, at the Danish University of Education, 1995-97. Together with five other researchers from five universities she has created a virtual Master's programme, MIL, Master in ICT and Learning, which started in 2000. She has initiated and been in the development group of LAB, Language Across Borders, a research-based virtual language platform for foreign language learning in primary and secondary schools. She has been head of the research project "Children Growing up with Interactive Media - in a Future Perspective", supported by the Danish Research Councils as part of the research programme "Children's Living Conditions and Welfare", 1989-2002. Furthermore, she was head of the research project "Children and Computer Games", supported by Danish Ministry of Culture and Media Council for Children and Young People, 1999, and head of a development and research project "Multimedia Didactics and Learning" under the Nordic Council of Ministers, 1996-1999. From 1996-1997 she was a member of a working group on the Danish Board of Technology concerning information technology in primary and lower secondary schools. From 1994-95 she was chair of a commission under the Danish Ministry of Culture investigating research on violence in the media, and from 1994-1996, head of a working group under the Nordic Council of Ministers on media education for teachers in the Nordic countries.

Birgitte Holm Sørensen

Ass. Professor PhD. Bente Meyer
Bente Meyer is an Associate Professor at the Department of Curriculum Studies, School of Education, University of Aarhus and a member of the research programme Media, ICT and learning. Her research interests are second and foreign language education, intercultural and citizenship education as well as computer assisted language learning (CALL). She has edited several books on media, ICT and Learning, including Digital Media and Educational Design (Digitale Medier og Didaktisk Design, The Danish University of Education Press).

Bente Meyer

Professor Suzanne de Castell
Suzanne de Castell is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada), where she teaches courses in qualitative research methods, and in literacy, new media, and educational technologies. Her doctorate is from Senate House at the University of London, and she has published extensively on educational history, philosophy and theory, literacy and new media studies and technology, gender and digital game studies. Concentrating on learning and attention in play-based and non-formal learning environments, her current research involves multimodal analyses of educational interactions, and design-based theory, research and development. With Jen Jenson (York University), she co-edited Worlds in Play: International Perspectives on Digital Games Research, and co-developed an educational videogame on baroque music for the world-famous Toronto-based baroque orchestra, Tafelmusik. Currently she holds a visiting professorship in the Faculty of Education at York University.

Suzanne de Castell

Ass. Professor PhD. Thorkild Hanghøj
Thorkild Hanghøj is an Assistant Professor at The Danish School of Education, which is part of The University of Aarhus, Copenhagen. He has a MA in cultural studies and media studies, and has a PhD on the design and use of ICT-supported debate games within educational settings. Currently, he is studying the role of the teacher in facilitating computer games in a Danish and an international context as a part of the research project “Serious Games on a Global Market Place”.

Thorkild Hanghøj

Dr Thomas Duus Henriksen, PhD, EBA
Thomas is a Business Psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the ICT and Learning programme at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. His research interests are the development, use and evaluation of game-based learning processes with adult, as well as with educational outcomes of the mechanics and didactic design of such learning games. He has published articles on game-based learning and social dynamics of such games in numerous anthologies and is an active learning game designer.

Thomas Duus Henriksen

Dr Patrick Felícia
Patrick Felicia is Lecturer and Researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology. He works within the in the Department of Computing, mathematics and Physics. He earned his PhD in computer science from University College Cork. In WIT his research and teaching focus on the use of creating innovative and engaging educational experiences by combining Gaming Technology and Educational Psychology. His research interests include Game-Based learning, Instructional Design and Technology-Enhanced Education.

Patrick Felicia

Dr Kristian Kiili
Kristian Kiili works as a senior researcher at Tampere University of Technology. He got his M.Ed from the University of Turku in 2001 and his Ph.D. at Tampere University of Technology in 2006. The title of his doctoral thesis was "On Educational Game Design: The Building Blocks of Flow Experience". His research focuses on game based learning, exergaming, user experience and game design issues. Currently, kiili is creating educational game design pattern library and design principles for exergames. Results received from his studies has been published in several scientific journals and conferences as well as applied in commercial e-learning products.

Kristian Killi

Dr Timo Lainema, PhD
Timo is the Development Director in the Institute for Executive Education in Turku School of Economics, Turku, Finland. His research interests are learning through simulation gaming, flow in games, knowledge sharing in virtual working contexts, and decision making under time pressure. He has published articles on gaming topics in Computers and Education, Simulation & Gaming, the International Journal of Advanced Technology for Learning on Games-Based Learning, the Journal of Information Technology Education, and the Journal of Interactive Learning Research. He is also a member of the editorial boards of Simulation & Gaming, and Computers and Education.

Timo Lainema

Elias Pimenidis
Elias is a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London in the UK. He has been the programme leader for the BSc (Hons) Computer Games at UEL from 2003 to 2006 and over the past four years he has been increasingly involved with research in and development of games for educational purposes both in a Higher Education environment and for vocational training. Following the successful implementation of a library induction game for use at UEL in 2008, Elias and his team are currently working on educational games targeting to develop specific work based skills for H.E. students and professionals alike.

Elias Pimenidis