Colin Harrison was a high school English teacher for seven years, then worked as a reading researcher and lecturer in education. His early research was in readability, cross-curricular literacy, family literacy and assessment, but since 1990 his major focus has been on digital literacy. He has directed over 50 research projects, including six national projects for Becta, the UK agency for ICT, from 1998-2011. These included the ImpaCT2 study of the impact of ICT on learning (2002-4), the national e-portfolios evaluation (2006), the Web2.0 evaluation (2007), and the Impact2009 follow-up study of six award-winning high-ICT schools. He has been the major supervisor of 24 doctoral students.

 

University of Leeds: B.A. Philosophy and English (1966)

University of Nottingham: M.Phil. (Educational Psychology, 1972); Ph.D. (Readability and Pupil Response, 1980)

University of Nottingham: Lecturer (1976-92), Reader in Education (1992-94); Professor of Literacy Studies in Education (1994-2010); Emeritus Professor of Literacy Studies in Education (2010-present)

Virginia Tech: Visiting Professor (September -December, 1986)

University of Texas at Austin: Visiting Professor (January-April, 2007)

 

English (native)

French B1 (reasonable standard of communicative competence)

Spanish B1 (some competence)

 

Chair of the Schools Council Evaluators’ Group (1975-6)

Founder editor, Editor in Chief, Co-editor, Journal of Research in Reading (1979-94)

Invited by Nigerian government to represent the UK at the inaugural meeting of the Nigerian Reading Association, Zaria, Nigeria (1982)

Editorial Advisory Group member, Reading Research Quarterly (1986-2005)

National Council member and Press Officer, National Association for the Teaching of English (1987-95)

President, United Kingdom Reading Association (1990-91)

Consultant to Scottish Office Education Department on the development of national assessment procedures (1993)

Member of the Research Consultative Group of the National Council for Educational Technology (1994-5)

Plenary presenter at the French government funded ‘Motoricite et la Lecture’ colloquium, University of Paris (1987)

Represented the UK at the Council of Europe colloquium Interactive Learning and the New Technologies (Eindhoven, 1987)

Appointed by the International Reading Association to represent over twenty European reading associations on a five-year international Commission on Family Literacy (1991-6)

Represented the UK at the French government funded colloquium on socio-cultural perspectives on Reading (Paris, 1993)

Field Council Representative representing Europe for the National Reading Conference (Chicago, USA; 1994-7)

UK representative to OECD on design and methodology of a 24-nation study of the impact of educational technology (Paris, 1999-2000)

Elected to the Reading Hall of Fame (2003)

Given the Albert J. Kingston Award of the National Reading Conference in San Antonio TX, for distinguished service.

Awarded the International Citation of Merit of the International Reading Association (Chicago, 2010)

Other