Nico Baird, a son of Kimberley, was one of the first graduates in South Africa to complete his B Tech degree in Language Practice at the Central University of Technology, Free State.

After completion of his studies, Nico specialised in communicative media, including graphic design and video production. Focusing on effective academic communication in both poster design and instructional video production.
Nico started his professional academic career as Director of Multimedia at the University of the Free State’s, Faculty of Health Sciences. During this period he completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Professions Education.

After joining the CUT eLearning and Educational Technology team in 2004 he started as Instructional Designer at this institution. He returned to his alma mater to train the trainers in the use of technology in teaching.

During this period he did not rest on his laurels, but specialised in the integration an utilisation of the web as educational medium/platform, investigating new innovations in Learning and Teaching, paying special attention to the Web 2.0 and Learning 2.0 movement. His current presentations and research revolves around collaboration in education.

During the past five years he has become a regular on the education and technology conference circuit with innovative and pioneering talks. He, inter alia, expanded his vision online by establishing a number of Internet based companies.

Nico also writes a weekly technology column in the BloemNews (in the Free State )and the Eden Express (in the Western Cape), which is also at times republished in a number of regional community newspapers across South Africa.

His aims for the next few years is to provide each person with the knowledge and ability to expand their horisons online.

Through the innovative work and his dedication to learning and especially learning in a changing world he was selected as one of South Africa’s first Apple Distinguished Educators in 2007.

Nico is a Director of Dreamagineers International.

Specialties:

Instructional Design, Graphic Design, Photography, Videography, Educational Innovation, Podcasting, Learning 2.0 and Web 2.0