Sal Cooke

Director of JISC Techdis

Sal came to the Director’s post at the JISC TechDis Service from a very wide background in Technology Enhanced Learning including the embedding of ICT, ILT and e-learning.

Having worked in industry and returning to teach in Schools and Colleges of Further Education and the University Sector, Sal was seconded in the early 1980s to work as the Curriculum Development Officer responsible for the integration of IT in post-16 education in Yorkshire and the Humber. From this post Sal was further seconded to various national agencies such as Ferl, Becta, JISC and the then Department for Education and Skills, working on the e-learning programmes and the Harnessing Technology Strategy.

Sal’s vision for the Service which is shared passionately by her team, is to ensure that the focus and direction of JISC TechDis remains being the pragmatic voice of inclusion, accessibility in the innovative use of technologies to support learning and teaching across the Education Sectors in all countries and regions across the UK This has evolved into a wide variety of audiences for the work of JISC TechDis including the many facets of the Further Education and Wider Skills sectors, Higher Education and Sal is personally particularly involved with e-learning programmes of the Independent Specialist Colleges sector. Recently Sal has been delighted to steer the Service to becoming central to many of the large national initiatives to raise the standards of teaching in both FE and Skills and the HE sectors, (e-guides and e-CPD within FE with Professional Recognition in HE). Sal has also taken the lead in ensuring the JISC TechDis is thought integral to the world of work, employability and Business and Community Engagement programmes, work Based learning, recently lead by JISC.

In order to bring the voice of inclusion to the National Agendas, Sal is involved in numerous programmes and initiatives and as such sits on Programme Boards, Advisory Committees and Steering Groups for many external organisations. These are:

• Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
• Association of Learning Providers (ALP)
• Association of University Administrators (AUA)
• British Broadcast Corporation (BBC)
• British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA)
• Centre for Excellence in Leadership 
• Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
• Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS)
• Equality Challenge Unit (ECU)
• Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
• Learning and Skills Network (LSN)
• Learning Skills and Improvement Service (LSIS)
• National Association of Independent Schools and Non-Maintained Special Schools (NASS)
• National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE)
• Open University (OU)
• Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
• Scottish Funding Council (SFC)
• The association of national specialist colleges (Natspec)
• The Higher Education Academy 
• Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA)

She has previously chaired the UK Board for the JISC Regional Support Centres, and is still an active member of steering groups in some of the 13 regions.

Contact Sal

Sal Cooke
Director of JISC TechDis

JISC TechDis
c/o The Higher Education Academy Building
York Science Park
YORK
YO10 5BR

E-mail: sal@techdis.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1904 717580
Mobile: +44 (0)7966 200979
Skype: saltechdis