Simon Buckingham Shum
Professor of Learning Informatics, Transdisciplinary School, University of Technology Sydney
Welcome to my site! I have a career-long fascination with how computers help to make thinking visible in new ways. You’ll find on this site details of how my team has over the years invented a range of digital tools designed to combine human and machine intelligence, typically released open source, researching the sociotechnical factors that influence their effective adoption, and the broader societal implications. [Why “Learning Informatics”?]
I share news and thoughts on this blog, Substack, and previously Medium. I’m a co-founder of the Society for Learning Analytics Research, a Fellow of the RSA, and a DEFI STRIx Researcher, Digital Education Futures Initiative, University of Cambridge.
In more detail…
Partnerships and sectors: I’ve diverse interests, working with a wide range of organisations, all seeking new forms of sensemaking support to tackle wicked problems… analysing best practices in international development for World Vision; curating good practices for the UK health visitors association; mapping HIV prevention programs for the UN’s International Labour Organization; supporting non-violent hostage recovery options for US Joint Forces Command; adding sensemaking tools for the Hewlett Foundation’s open educational resource initiatives; piloting an open peer review journal for BP drilling engineers; science sensemaking support for NASA’s human mission to Mars program.
Academic story in a nutshell: I bring a human-centred computing perspective to technology. This started with a degree in Psychology (York, 1984-87), where I got interested in the emerging field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) thanks to Andrew Monk. Hooked on HCI, this was followed by a Masters in Ergonomics (UCL, 1988) under John Long, plus a dissertation with Phil Barnard developing an expert system for cognitive modelling in HCI, before returning to York for a PhD 1988-91 in HCI and Design Rationale (supervised by Nick Hammond, and Allan MacLean at Rank Xerox EuroPARC). In 1995, I joined The Open University’s new Knowledge Media Institute, the newly launched applied R&D centre to investigate the potential of the World Wide Web, interactive multimedia and AI, for online distance learning. From 2014-Aug. 2016 I directed the UTS Connected Intelligence Centre, a research-informed innovation centre inventing, evaluating and scaling personalised feedback to students, and GenAI apps for teaching, learning and research. I am now at the UTS Transdisciplinary School continuing my work on Learning Analytics/AI in Education, but potentially expanding in new directions (watch this space!).
Invited talks and consulting: I enjoy communicating with diverse audiences [Talks/Media], and do occasional consulting in my ‘spare time’.
Elsewhere… I’m a lifelong learner husband to Jackie, and dad to Tom, Jas and Jo. I played tennis and darts for York University, and I still play a drumkit and cajon from time to time. When I lived in the UK, since my 20s I was an annual pilgrim to Greenbelt Festival and I’m now part of the Meeting Ground community on the Central Coast, who also run the Spiritual Misfits podcast. The way to my heart is very simple: Thai and Tiramisu 😉