Organisation/Company:
IT Education Unit, University of Glasgow

Position:
Now retired, formerly Director

Born in Glasgow, Allan has degrees in Sociology, Folklore and Education. He taught in secondary schools for ten years, then moved into teacher education, at St. Andrews College, Bearsden, and then at the University of Leeds, where he trained IT teachers. He returned to Glasgow in 1995 to develop the University’s IT Literacy Programme, which he led until his retirement in September 2007. His research interests are in digital literacy and education, and he has been involved in a number of funded projects in this area. He has published in this and related areas, most recently, with Dan Madigan, Literacies for Learning in the Digital Age (London. Facet Publishing 2006), and was editor of the open-access peer-reviewed online Journal of eLiteracy. He is currently a member of the European Commission Informal Expert Group on Digital Literacy, and becoming more involved in issues of digital literacy for older citizens. He is a consultant for the project, Digital Literacy in Irish Primary Schools, funded by the Government of Ireland.