About Jonathan Furness

Jonathan is now the Deputy Head Teacher and ICT co-ordinator at Kings Road Primary School in Chelmsford, Essex. Kings Road Primary School is a large school, serving a mixed socio-economic catchment area. Jonathan's role is to embed creativity and ICT into the curriculum through the use of innovative technologies. This is a role Jonathan is excited to pursue and work has already begun with children reflecting on their learning on the school blog site.Previously, Jonathan led a team at Stepping Stones School in Hindhead, Surrey, in a role which he enjoyed for 2 years . Using his strengths in learning and visionary approaches to using technology in providing an education for children with Hemiplegia, Stepping Stones became a reality and is the only school for children with Hemiplegia, in the UK. Hemiplegia is a condition which affects some 10,000 children across the country. Many have a physical disability, affecting just one side of their body depending upon which side of the brain has been affected. This is an exciting new project, not least because the school is situated in a converted chapel and has subsequently been remodelled in its new guise as a specialist school. The school built its curriculum around the use of technology and creative approaches to learning using computers, and as such, our pupils each have access to a personal laptop computer.Earlier, Jonathan worked at Ultralab, taking on the roles of software developer, and consulted on several projects relating to the design of learning spaces. Ultralab, was a learning technology research centre in Chelmsford, Essex. Jonathan has been affiliated to Ultralab for over a decade, bringing with him his experience in technology and education.Jonathan's background is in teaching, where he trained and subsequently taught for several years at a primary school. Jonathan enjoyed his very rewarding time in the primary classroom, teaching children from 5 to 11 years old. Over the past ten years, much of Jonathan's work has centred around using, supporting and building, online learning communities. Back in 1997, he supported the first pilot of the Online Learning Network (OLN), Learning in the New Millennium, Oracle's Codename Scoop (think.com), and more recently, Ultraversity - Ultralab's online degree course for undergraduates. He has been responsible for developing the online community software and portfolio tools which allows the researchers to share their action research work amongst themselves and facilitators.In addition, Jonathan has written the specification for the Distributed School project, a key opportunity to explore whether children living in small village communities can use technology to bring them together into a much larger community of learners. Imagine a 'node' of say 12 children connected to two other 'nodes' of equal size via video walls that opens the door to discussion and collaboration - sounds interesting? Get in touch.Besides his involvement in many other projects, Jonathan sits on the Royal Television Society jury for Multimedia in Primary and Secondary Education.