Academic Information

Ph.D. in Educational Sciences, with Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, National University of Distance Education (UNED), 2008. B.A. in English Philology, Complutense University of Madrid, 1994. B.A. in Hispanic Philology, National University of Distance Education (UNED), 1998. B.A. in Romance Philology, Complutense University of Madrid, 2003.

Academic positions held

Associate Dean for Students, Internationalization, and Social Education, Faculty of Education, National University of Distance Education (UNED), 2017–2020.

Director of the Continuing Education Master’s Program in Educational Inspection and Supervision, National University of Distance Education (UNED), 2014–present.

Research activity

His primary research areas include mobile and ubiquitous learning, educational organization and supervision, and curriculum design and programming. He has published more than 300 scholarly contributions in these fields, including over 100 articles indexed in JCR and Scopus, as well as more than 40 books as author or editor. He has supervised 15 doctoral dissertations, presented at more than 80 national and international conferences, and served on the scientific committees of 91 international conferences held in the United States, Canada, China, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and other countries. He has also participated as an invited speaker in more than 30 conferences and academic events.

He is currently listed among the world’s top 2% most-cited researchers in the field of Education, according to Stanford University. He is ranked 24th among the most-cited Spanish researchers in the field of Didactics and School Organization in Dialnet.

He leads the RADTE Research Group: Methodological Strategies for Building an Educational Technology Network (Grup.123), and coordinates the Teaching Innovation Group MAPE-TIC: Instructional Models for Personalized and Scalable Learning through Emerging Technologies in Ubiquitous and Mobile Contexts (GID2016-24). He also coordinates Futuro Docente, a professional development space for teachers.

Over the past 15 years, he has participated continuously in R&D&I projects as both a member of research teams and as Principal Investigator. He was Principal Investigator of the R&D&I project Gamification and Ubiquitous Learning in Primary Education: Development of a Competency and Resource Map for Teachers, Students, and Families (GAUBI) (RTI2018-099764-B-100). He was also Principal Investigator of the proof-of-concept project GAUBI-ORTO: Evaluation of a Sustainable, Ubiquitous, and Gamified Digital Model and Application for Learning Spanish Spelling in Primary Education (PDC2022-133185-I00). He served as UNED Principal Investigator for the project European SLPs for Continuous Professional Development and Lifelong Learning (Agreement 2017-3351/001-001; 590202-EPP-1NL-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD). He is also Co-Principal Investigator of the R&D&I project Creative Programming in Primary Education: Development of Materials and Proposals for Block-Based Coding, Game Engines, Machine Learning, and Robotics (PID2022-136442OB-I00).

Academic Chairs

Ex officio member of the Chair in Education and Emerging Technologies, Gamification, and Artificial Intelligence (EduEmer), Pablo de Olavide University.

Member of the Academic Council of the UNESCO Chair in Distance Education at UNED (CUED).

Professional experience

Full Professor of Didactics and School Organization in the Department of Didactics, School Organization, and Specific Didactics, Faculty of Education. He has served as a secondary education teacher, career civil servant, ranked first in the competitive examination; currently on leave of absence, visiting teacher in the United States (Illinois), member of administrative leadership teams in several educational institutions, Educational Inspector, UNED tutor since 2003, and faculty member in the Faculty of Education at the University of Castilla-La Mancha from 2008 to 2011, where he taught in the Early Childhood Education and Primary Education degree programs. He has completed research and teaching stays in the United States, Sweden, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Over more than twenty years as a teacher of Spanish Language and Literature in several Spanish and American educational institutions, he has held a range of positions that have provided him with a broad, open, and multifaceted understanding of the education system. Among other roles, he has served as Head of the Department of Spanish Language and Literature, Head of the Department of Extracurricular Activities, Head of Studies, Secretary, Acting Principal, homeroom tutor, mentor for preservice university students in teacher education and secondary education programs, elected member of school councils in various educational institutions, teacher and instructional advisor in Illinois-Cicero District 99 (United States), professional development coordinator and ICT advisor in secondary schools, and coordinator of teaching innovation projects and Erasmus programs. Later, as an Educational Inspector, he visited and supervised numerous primary and secondary schools and delivered training courses for inspectors and teachers across all educational stages. He has also prepared candidates for competitive examinations for secondary education teaching positions in several academies in Extremadura and Madrid.

Without question, however, his most important professional experience has been teaching more than 3,500 adolescents seated behind a desk —although not always— during more than 16,000 hours of face-to-face instruction. Everything he knows about education he owes to them.

Educational management experience

Associate Dean for Students, Internationalization, and Social Education, Faculty of Education, National University of Distance Education (UNED), 2017–2020.

Mobility Coordinator, Faculty of Education, Erasmus+ Program, National University of Distance Education (UNED), 2017–2020.

Coordinator of the Erasmus+ Mobility Program with Croatia, UNIRI — University of Rijeka.