Dr Bex Lewis
University Technology Enhanced Learning Fellow
Bex.Lewis@winchester.ac.uk
+44 (0) 1962 826455
MB116, King Alfred Campus
University of Winchester
SO22 4NR
Biography
Bex Lewis has wide ranging interests and expertise, having taught in HE since 1998, in the subject areas of History, Media Studies, Design for Digital Media, American Studies, Film Studies and Journalism, and is the University of Winchester's Technology Enhanced Learning Fellow.
Bex is a social media 'resident', and has developed a strong Community of Practice through a combination of social media and conference/workshop attendance. Her diverse background as a lecturer across a range of disciplines has helped her to understand the range of responses to technology among colleagues, and to have credibility as an education developer in this exponentially growing field. Her training as a life coach and mentor has equipped her with a set of skills and theoretical tools about change which she brings to promoting digital literacies. Her theory of change stems from an action research model “that for change to be effective it… must be a participative and collaborative process that involves all those concerned.” (Cheung-Judge, M. & Holbeche, L)
Dr Bex Lewis is the leading expert on Second World War propaganda posters.The history behind the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster was documented in her University of Winchester PhD, and her blog gets many hits about the phenomenon (with press coverage on the BBC, New York Times, The Independent and Daily Express). Her PhD (2004) was entitled"The planning, design and reception of British Home Front propaganda posters of the Second World War", passed without corrections, with the viva conducted by Lord Asa Briggs and Dr Adrian Smith (Soton). Bex Lewis gained her first degree in History and Education Studies at King Alfred's College.
Expertise
As the TEL Fellow, Bex promotes the use of all aspects of e-learning across the university. She has responsibility for embedding digital literacies among academic colleagues, seeks technological solutions to pedagogical problems, and has responsibility for the 'Innovation in IT' module on the PGCLTHE.
Since 2010 Bex has worked on an innovative Media Studies module specifically built around Web 2.0 tools: Manipulating Media, which developed in response to TESTA findings.
In roles beyond the University, Bex is Director of Digital Fingerprint, a social media consultancy that works particularly within the HE and Christian sectors (she first put her PhD online in1997). She runs The Big Bible Project for the University of Durham (for which she has gained extensive press coverage), and has a growing profile as an international speaker.
Committee Memberships
Learning and Teaching Committee
Learning Network (Moodle) Working Group
Technology Enhanced Learning Working Group
Social Media
Skype (drbexl); Twitter ; Blog; Facebook; LinkedIn; Slideshare; Google +; Audioboo; Flickr; Digg; Delicious; Academia.Edu; YouTube; Pinterest.
Publications
Book Chapters:
'Posters as Propaganda' (with David Bownes), Green, O. and Bownes, D. (eds), London Transport Posters: A Century of Art and Design,Lund Humphries, 2008
'Docs on the Box - TV Medical Dramas',Watkins, T.,Playing God: Ethics and Technology in Medical Dramas, Damaris Culturewatch, May 2006
Journal Articles:
'Keep Calm and Carry On', The Poster, Vol 2:1 (forthcoming)
(With Rush, D.) 'Experience of Developing Twitter-based Communities of Practice in Higher Education' (submitted for review)
'Developing a Community of Practice in Blended Learning: Theory, Practice and Reflection', Capture, April 2011, pp.29-38
'The Ministry of Food The Imperial War Museum, 12 February 2010–3 January 2011', The Poster, Vol 1:2, January 2011, pp.215-230
'Icon of the Month: Keep Calm and Carry On', Third Way Magazine, September 2010, p.34
(With Jessop, T. and Edwards, S.) ‘Disabled Student Perspectives on Web Accessibility, Capture, November 2009, pp50-57
"'Careless Talk Costs Lives': The Government's Information Security Campaign on the Home Front",Everyone's War: The Journal of the Second World War Experience Centre (No.15, Spring/Summer 2007)
Electronic:
Film Reviews for Damaris Culturewatch (editorially reviewed): 'My Sister's Keeper'(July 2009); 'Easy Virtue'(May 2009); 'Challenging a fast food culture' (September 2006); Hitch (July 2005); Struggling to Achieve: 'The Games' (April 2005)
Book Review:
Toni Birdsog & Tami Heim '@StickyJesus' (2010) Journal of Religion, Media & Digital Cutlure (forthcoming)
Elizabeth Drescher 'Tweet If You Heart Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation' (2011) Journal of Religion, Media & Digital Culture (forthcoming)
Lucy Noakes 'Women and the British Army: War and the Gentle Sex 1907-1948' (2006), Journal of Contemporary British History (March 2008)
Conference Papers (from 2009):
'Digitising Programme by Programme', PeleCon (April 2012)
'Super-delegate', Innovating e-Learning 2011 Online Conference (October 2011)
'Getting in on the Twitter Action? Using Social Media to Build Your Professional Network', Association for Learning Technologists, September 2011 (With David Rush)
D-ICE for Change: Applying Organisational Development Guidance to IT Projects‘, Association for Learning Technologists, September 2011 (with Andrew Wilson and Marina Janetsky)
'The future’s bright, the future’s social? The future’s here!', Greenbelt Festival, August 2011 (with Sara Batts and Simon Jenkins)
'Social Media: A Conversation', Church and Media Network, June 2011 (with Pete Phillips and James Poulter)
'Social Media develops academic literacy skills', Plymouth E-Learning Conference, April 2011 (with Marcus Leaning)
'Super-delegate', Innovating e-Learning 2010 Online Conference, October 2010
Online: A Theology, Christian New Media Conference, October 2010 (Keynote with Maggi Dawn)
'Twitter for Communities of Practice', International Blended Learning Conference, June 2010 (with David Rush)
‘Death at War’, Death Day, University of Winchester (May 2010)
'Floods? Snow? Swine Flu? Terrorist Threats? Keep Calm and Carry On‘, Plymouth E-Learning Conference, April 2010, (with James Clay & Carolin Esser)
‘Collaborative Enhancement in Teaching’ Lunch on ‘The 21st Century Learner‘ (March 2010)
'Twitter in Higher Education', Webinar for JISC (March 2010)
Why I Study History, Modern History Seminar, University of Winchester, October 2009
“Men at Work: Visible and Invisible Men in Second World War Posters”, Men at War: Masculinities, Identities, Cultures, University of Swansea, September 2009
'‘Selling a Healthy War’: propaganda posters and public information films produced by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War', Framing Film, University of Winchester, September 2009
Bex also regularly speaks on behalf of The Big Bible Project, and Digital Fingerprint.
Journal Editorship
Associate Editor, The Poster (from 2010)
Co-Editor Capture (2009 Edition)
Co-Editor Alfred (2009 Edition)
Research Interests
Digital literacies, the social media toolkit (particularly Twitter), organisational development, engagement, communities of practice, visual culture, digitisation, communications, interdisciplinarity, propaganda posters, popular culture, ephemera, public history, 20th Century British culture (particularly World War II).
Funding Awards and Professional Membership
Funded Projects:
Organisational Development in HE Digital Literacies Project with JISC (August 2011-July 2013)
FASTECH (Feedback and Assessment for Students with Technology), JISC (August 2011-July 2013)
BODGIT (Bringing Organisational Development Guidance into IT), part of 'Embedding work with IT', JISC (June 2010-January 2011)
SkillsNet, L&T Project Funding (June 2009-June 2011)
Membership:
Currently applying for Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
Member of JISC Learning & Teaching Practice Experts Committee
Member of Institute of Historical Research
Member of The Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association