Stephen Molyneux (born 24 February 1955) is a British

educational technologist Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

whose work as

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

Professor of Advanced Learning Technology and Apple Distinguished Educator has led to him influencing the use of technologies across the British School system. After spending 16 years in the multimedia and education industry working for ATARI,

Ariolasoft Ariolasoft GmbH, later known as United Software, was a German video game developer, publisher and distributor. It started in 1983 as the software subsidiary of Ariola Records, itself the record division of Germany's large Bertelsmann empire. ...

and the German Ministry of Education and Science, Molyneux returned to the UK in 1991 to take up the position of Professor of Multimedia at the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mechanics' Institute found ...

where he was responsible for the Interactive Multimedia Communications undergraduate programme. During this time Molyneux was responsible for project BroadNet, a network designed to deliver training materials online to Small Business across England's

West Midlands region The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level for Statistics, statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area traditio ...

. For this pioneering work, in 1994 he was appointed a Fellow of the British computer giant

ICL ICL may refer to: Companies and organizations * Idaho Conservation League * Imperial College London, a UK university * Indian Confederation of Labour * Indian Cricket League * Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford * Israel Ch ...

alongside other distinguished

ICL Fellows The ICL Fellows scheme celebrated the very highest levels of pioneering achievement in the field of computing at International Computers Limited, a British IT company. ICL Fellows were appointed on the basis of their technical excellence and peer ...

In 1995, whilst holding the Microsoft Chair of Advanced Learning Technologies at the

, he developed one of the first Virtual Learning Environments in the UK. In 1996, as a

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Ch ...

media fellow he developed with Ed Briffa, Editor of the BBC Science programme

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...

,a first real-time online science magazines to report live from the Annual Festival of Science held at

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

. In 2002 he was appointed by

Estelle Morris Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, (born 17 June 1952), is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2001 to 2002. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) ...

, the then Secretary of Education as a member of the Post-16 eLearning Strategy Taskforce. The taskforce was chaired by Steve Morrison, CEO of ITV. The report was published in July 2002 under the title "Getting on with IT". In 2003 he proposed and attracted funding for an "e-Innovation Centre" at Wolverhampton University which could combine the research and development skills of the higher education sector with that of industry to promote Internet-based start-up companies. In 2005 he was appointed advisor to the UK Deputy Chief of Defence Staff to monitor the evaluation of the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

Defence Training Review The Defence Training Review was established by the then Defence Secretary, Lord Robertson, on 22 July 1999 to examine all individual training and education, Service and civilian, in the British armed forces. The review report, ''Modernising Defe ...

initiative. In 2012 he founded the Tablet Academy as an education consultancy, teacher training, and student engagement organisation focusing on the use of technology to transform education. In 2014, he became an adjunct professor in educational innovation at

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2021, t ...

. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1994, but on 25 April 2009 he resigned as a Magistrate due to his refusal to stop reporting the outcome of public criminal hearings on Twitter. As a former serving member of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

he is an active member of the Royal Air Force Association and works closely with the RAF STEM Ambassadors Education outreach programme at

RAF Cosford Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford (formerly DCAE Cosford) is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton. History Origins RAF Cosford opened in 1938 as a joint aircraf ...

and

RAF Waddington Royal Air Force Waddington otherwise known as RAF Waddington is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located beside the village of Waddington, south of Lincoln, Lincolnshire in England. The station is the RAF's Intelligence Surveillance Target ...

. He is a former patron of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

Young Enterprise and from 2003-2007 was Mayor of

Oakengates Oakengates is a constituent town and civil parish in Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. The towns parish population was recorded as 8,517 in the 2001 census. Etymology The name is not derived from "oak" or "gates" but is derived from the ...

, in

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an estim ...

where he lived until 2012 when he relocated to

Fuerteventura Fuerteventura () is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the North Africa region, and politically part of Spain. It is located away from the northwestern coast of Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNES ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...

. Today he works as Chairman of Tablet Academy International remotely from his home in Fuerteventura and is engaged in a number of projects, including working with the Ministry of Education to transform education in Guyana.$174m Online Initiative Launched in Guyana
21 April 2021

References

External links

"Prof. Molyneux to run ADL Partnership lab in UK"
US Government ADL Lab Announcement, 2001
"Prof. Steve Molyneux to advise Singapore Government"
Press Release, ''The Learning Lab'', November 2001
"Top Professor appointed to Education Taskforce"
University of Wolverhampton, 2002
"Senior academic calls for UK e-Learning standard"
Computing, August 2002
"Broadband Visions in Education and Training"
Broadband Stakeholders Group, 2004
"Leading UK Academic speaks out on UKeU"
Computing Magazine, March 2004
"Public sector e-Learning back in the limelight"
Computing Press, Aug 2004
"Implementing 3D Based Games in UK Secondary Schools"
White Paper, 2005

Hansard, House of Commons, Jan 2007
"£45 Billion Schools IT Plan Fails to impress"
Computing Magazine, April 2008
"Renowned society reporter and international blogger Janie Davies reveals her Top 10 Cool IT People"
May 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Molyneux, Stephen (technologist) 1955 births Living people Academics from Liverpool Academics of the University of Wolverhampton International Computers Limited people ICL Fellows People in educational technology Atari people