Don Passey

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY

Profile

Don is a Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, and an Honorary Professor in the Institutes of Information Technology and Education at Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India. He has been a long-standing member of the worldwide federation of computer societies (the International Federation of Information Processing - IFIP), and is the current chair of their Technical Committee on Education (TC3), and the vice-chair of their Technical Assembly (TA).
Don has undertaken and continues to undertake studies for international agencies, government departments in the UK, UK government agencies, and, in a number of countries, commercial and non-commercial groups, educational institutions and schools, to inform both policy and practice. His research work always focuses on links to educational policy and practice.
From 2018 to 2024, Don held the post of Director of International Strategy within the Department. His own research networks have included international organisations (UNESCO, IFIP, I4All), national agencies (Northern Ireland Department of Education Innovation Forum), companies (Squirrel Learning) and individual universities (Sunway University Malaysia, Amity University and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences India, University of the Philippines Open University, University of Waikato New Zealand, Ulster University Northern Ireland, Strathclyde University Scotland, Cardiff Metropolitan University Wales). Across this range of networks, Don has undertaken collaborative research, often leading to joint publication or edited volumes, supporting early years researchers as well as more established researchers. In recent years, Don has engaged with UNESCO (presenting at WSIS 2023), with IFIP (as Chair of the International Programme Committee (IPC) for the IFIP TC3 SAiTE 2016 Conference, Guimarães, Portugal; as Chair of the IPC for the IFIP TC3 WCCE 2017 Conference, Dublin; as Chair of the IPC for the IFIP TC3 OCCE 2020 Conference, Mumbai; as a Member of the IPC for the IFIP TC3 OCCE 2021 Conference; as a Member of the IPC for the IFIP TC3 WCCE 2022 Conference; as a Member of the IPC for the IFIP TC3 OCCE 2024 Conference), with I4All (as a Member of the Board and Working Group on Informatics in Schools), with the Northern Ireland Department of Education Innovation Forum (as research adviser and judge of the ICT Excellence Awards), with the UK Department of Education (providing evidence to POST and the Innovations Team), with Squirrel Learning, and with SMART Technologies (completing consultative research). Don's policy focus has led to outcomes that have been recognised by the groups involved (including the EU Commission), with specific reports supporting identified policy needs in the case of government departments and companies. For his engagement work with IFIP, Don has been awarded both the IFIP Silver Core Award and the IFIP Outstanding Service Award.
Don publishes regularly through a range of routes that focus on more specific research, policy and practice audiences - through journal articles, book chapters, working documents and reports, and guidelines and recommendations. Across his entire academic career, Don has had published 237 single and co-authored outputs, including 45 journal articles and 30 book chapters. Since 2018, Don's outpuits have included 17 journal articles, 3 edited books and 1 journal special issue, 9 book chapters, and 19 reports and working papers. In preparation, there is a special issue, and in planning, there are 2 books.