Dave Whittington lives in Victoria with his wife Tammy Dewar. They moved here from Glasgow, Scotland after he was granted Canadian Permanent Residence in 2004.
Dave grew up in the UK and spent his childhood in the Midlands of England. He always enjoyed being outside and exploring, something that is still with him today. Ask him about geocaching if you want to know more. Tammy and Dave do their best to keep themselves fit and enjoy walking and cycling in this beautiful part of world.
Dave studied/played/worked at a number of universities in the UK: Southampton, Birmingham, the Open University, Strathclyde and Glasgow. The Learn, Play, Lead values have always been important to him.
Originally, Dave’s background was in science, engineering and education. With time, he became more interested in why various projects he was involved in had a mixed success rate. It became to clear to him that human factors such as open communication, team work, and leadership were critical.
Dave’s first involvement with Royal Roads University was in January 2000. This was a research project around how personality type impacts online learners. This research has since been published in the Journal of Educational Computing Research, has led to further research, and is being used to inform how future MA in Leadership learners transition from intense residential learning to online learning.
From 2000 to 2005, Dave spent a month each summer at RRU working in residencies and he has facilitated two of the three online courses that make up the MA in Leadership. He has also supervised many major projects.
During this time, his "day job" was at the University of Glasgow where he was Director of Research at the Robert Clark Centre for Technological Education. Incidentally, the University of Glasgow celebrated its 550th birthday (that’s right, 550) at the about the same time that RRU celebrated its 5th!
Dave now works with Tammy as an independent consultant helping organizations, teams and individuals develop their leadership and learning. They specialize in particular in leadership development and coaching for technology sector in Greater Victoria.
Dave likes to add a personal note, “I don’t sound like a Glaswegian and you should be able to understand most of what I say ... although I have been known to wear a kilt every now and again”. He has a keen interest in travelling and cooking.