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York employee wins 2014 Technician of the Year Award

York employee wins 2014 Technician of the Year Award

Posted on 18 June 2014

An employee at the University of York has won one of the first Higher Education Academy’s (HEA) Health and Social Care Technician of the Year awards.

Matt Cornock, Web and VLE (virtual learning environment) Coordinator in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, is one of five winners of the award. He will receive £250 in recognition of his contribution to social work and social policy education.

Since 2009, he has improved the quality of blended learning by supporting the professional development of staff. Producing ‘preparing to study’ sites featuring videos of staff to inform incoming students, he has also launched an extracurricular social media project for social science students to improve their employability. Matt Cornock has recently co-developed a website, readingonscreen.com, providing advice on choosing a device for learning, digital annotation and supporting paper-less and collaborative study.

He said: “I am thrilled to receive this award and grateful to my colleagues and students who supported my nomination. Collaboration is key to my role and this award reflects upon all those who I have worked with to improve the student experience at York. I’ve been lucky enough to work with excellent academic staff in the Department, who recognise how technology can play a fundamental role in supporting students and offering new opportunities for learning.”

Geoff Glover, Assistant Director and Head of Health and Social Care at the HEA, said: “The support of technical staff within health and social care provides a valuable contribution to the creation of high quality learning and teaching for students and commissioners. Their creativity and contribution to innovative pedagogies within educational technology assures student learning has relevance to practice and pertinence to effective patient/client care.

“I congratulate all our successful Technicians of the Year and wish them every success in their future learning and teaching experiences.”

In July 2014, Matt Cornock will be moving to a new role within the University's E-learning Development Team, co-ordinating York's lecture recording service and advising colleagues across the university in their use of learning technologies.