Michael Thomas BA (Hons) Cert. TESOL M.Ed. MBA Ph.D. (Newcastle) Ph.D. (Lancaster) FHEA FRSA has held academic positions at universities in the UK, Germany and Japan. He is currently a Reader in Digital Education and Learning at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. His research interests are in computer-assisted learning, project-baesd learning, online and distance education, digital discourse analysis and the future of higher education in the age of neoliberalism. He is the lead commissioning editor of two world-leading book series, "Digital Education and Learning" (Palgrave) and "Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching" (Bloomsbury).Among his other 18 book publications are Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language Learning (2009), Interactive Whiteboards for Education: Theory, Research and Practice (with Euline Cutrim Schmid) (2010), Task-Based Language Learning & Teaching with Technology (with Hayo Reinders) (Continuum, 2010), Digital Education: Opportunities for Social Collaboration (Palgrave, 2011), Deconstructing Digital Natives: Young People, Technology and the New Literacies (Routledge, 2011), Online Learning (Sage, 2011) and The Reception of Derrida: Translation and Transformation (Palgrave, 2006). He was the founding editor of the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, and is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal of Computer Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, General Editor of Journal of Second Language Teaching & Research, and has guest edited special editions of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, the International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society, the CALICO Journal, the CALL Journal and Digital Education and Culture. He has organized over thirty international conferences on the role of digital technologies in education and coordinated in partnered in numerous UK and EU projects.