Vanessa Pittard
Director of Evidence and Evaluation, BECTA
Vanessa Pittard joined Becta in May 2004 as Director of Evidence and Evaluation after having spent the previous two years as Principal Research Officer in the Department for Education and Skills, leading the ICT Research and Evaluation team in Sheffield. Her remit included ensuring that DfES ICT policy was properly informed by research and evidence.
Vanessa developed and managed a programme of national ICT studies; including evaluations of Curriculum Online, Wired up Communities, and UK Online Centres, and research studies of ICT and teacher workload and the institutional leadership of ICT. She supported the development of the DfES e-learning strategy, ICT in Schools policy and post-16 e-learning policy and developed an ICT research strategy within the DfES.
Prior to joining the DfES, Vanessa was the Principal Lecturer in Psychology and Communication Studies at Sheffield Hallam University, leading the Department of Communication Studies. She researched and taught Communication Technologies, Cognition and Literacy and Quantitative Research Methods.
