Ben Hinton
Ben Hinton
Xuéfǔ Yuàn Apartments
Apt 1202, Building 9,
124 Xuéfǔ Road
315012 Yingzhou
CHINA
+86 156-5822-6882
bahinton@gmail.com
EDUCATION
2014 Master’s in Applied Linguistics (TESOL specialisation), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
As part of my Master’s program I studied Teaching English for Academic Purposes under Jean Brick. I
am familiar with study skills, general purpose and specific purpose EAP approaches to advanced
tertiary literacy as well as pedagogical issues of course design, materials selection, evaluation and
assessment. In my own daily praxis I am commited to deploying various strategies to cultivate in
students a sense of belonging to their academic community (however defined). For me this often
starts in the classroom – helping students to develop their writing voice, technical skills and how
transgressive intertextuality (plagiarism) undermines the Academy.
2012 TEFL Basic Certificate (teflonline.com).
2004 Graduate Diploma of Library & Information Studies, Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
2003 Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training.
2000 Honours in Critical Theory/Thinking & Semiotics, University of Sydney (USYD).
1999 Bachelor of Arts, University of Sydney (Majoring in Australian & English Literature, Semiotics and
Philosophy).
1995 Higher School Certificate, Glenaeon Rudolph Steiner School, Sydney.
RECENT EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE
Organisation: British Council, China, Shanghai
Position:
IELTS Speaking & Writing Examiner
Dates:
August 2014 –
On weekends and holidays I work as a speaking and writing examiner for IELTS. I have been told by my
speaking supervisor (who listens and checks samples of my interviews as part of the standard IELTS quality
control process) that I deliver a professional, calming and positive atmosphere to the interview interactions.
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Organisation: University of Nottingham (Ningbo Campus) Business School
Position:
Contract Teacher English Writing & Speaking
Dates:
March 2014 - Ongoing
On a casual, part-time basis, I teach English writing and speaking to classes of business executives in the NUBS
International Talent Development Program. I enjoy illumining structured curriculum with energy and life in the
classroom. At the University of Nottingham I consistently get student feedback ratings of between 4.84 and
4.86 (on a scale where 1=poor and 5=very good) and my teaching style is described by the Dean of the
Business School as ‘stimulating and engaging’.
Organisation: Fortune Cookie Education Consulting
Position:
IT (Moodle) Consultant
Dates:
January 2014 – December 2014
For Fortune Cookie Education Consulting I developed a Moodle LMS. In collaboration with Moodle hosting
company Moonami.com the project explored unconventional ways to design Moodle courses and
demonstrated successful PayPal/Union Pay integration, Youku embedding and Language Pack switching.
This work has led to the development of my own personal Moodle at www.8teeth.com from which I develop
and deploy online assessment for my students at ZJUNIT. Assessment items include speaking tests (recording
speaking samples using Moodle) a large-scale question bank (over 5000 individual questions) listening tests
coded in Moodle XML and related to my Corpus 5050 project (see below).
Organisation: Zhejiang University Ningbo Institute of Technology (ZJUNIT)
Position:
Teacher - English & Related Courses
Dates:
August 2013 - Present
At NIT I teach Oral English (pronunciation and conversation) as well as Writing (English for General Academic
Purposes) to students preparing for overseas exchange with the University of Indianapolis. At the request of
the Department of Foreign Languages I also teach a special evening program for children of staff members 3-5
years old as well as academic preparation classes for staff who will participate in the scholar exchange
program with the University of Indianapolis. In addition to these programs I have coached two candidates for
the China Daily 21st Century Coca-cola Cup National English Speaking Competition. One of the candidates
received first prize.
Organisation: Zhejiang Business Technology Institute (ZBTI)
Position:
Teacher - English & Related Courses
Dates:
March 2011 – July 2013
At ZBTI I taught mainly spoken English to lower-level students and discovered many ways to re-negotiate
student resistance to learning in the context of mainland China. During my time at ZBTI I began a personal
long-term Corpus Linguistics project called 'Corpus 5000’ based on the Corpus of Contemporary American
English. The goal of the project is to find ways for students to swiftly repair any gaps in their English
vocabulary acquisition and re-locate high frequency English words and collocations from their Explicit
Knowledge faculty (where it resides for most L2 English learners) to their Implicit Knowledge faculty (colocated with their mother tongue).
Organisation: Encourage English International College
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Position:
Dates:
English Teacher
July 2010 – February 2011
In this fast paced English Training Centre, I had the pleasure of teaching English to all ages of students – from
3-5 year olds to final year highschool students. In addition to creating and delivering new classroom materials,
I enjoyed training students in pronunciation.
Organisation: Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Helpdesk
Position:
Helpdesk Operator
Dates:
March 2010 – May 2010
At QEH I worked alongside other colleagues to assist medical staff and administration with desktop
applications, hardware faults and legacy software systems and databases.
Organisation: Mouse & Mammoth Pty Ltd
Position:
System Administrator & Co-owner
Dates:
March 2008 – February 2010
Mouse & Mammoth was a tight knit unified web development team. In my areas of responsibility I:
- Identified best of breed Open Source web based software and created working prototypes. Moodle,
MediaWiki (the Wikipedia.org software), WordPress Multi User (now a part of WordPress), Magento
Commerce and Sugar CRM.
- Managed a CentOS Linux VPS web server where client projects are hosted.
- Kept physical and digital (surrogate) financial records.
- Carried out book keeping and management of accounts.
- Assisted other team members to implement in code (CSS, XHTML, JS and PHP) themes for different
Open Source web based software.
- Prepared government grants and business plans.
Organisation: Good Blokes Pty Ltd
Position:
IT & Knowledge Management Consultant
Dates:
March 2008 – March 2009
With Good Blokes I was able to successfully deliver a range of projects as an individual IT Consultant:
- Open Source website website development.
o Social Networking platforms for community organisations.
o Online Customer Relationship Management software for the not-for-profit sector.
- DVD Production for a commercial education publisher.
o Overseeing the production of Adobe Flash animations.
o Developing pipelines for production from Adobe Flash to Adobe After Effects/Encore DVD.
- Information Resource Procurement.
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o Researching, comparing and recommending Business Intelligence tools.
- Systems Analysis and Design
o Systematic ICT appraisals and needs analysis.
OTHER EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE
Organisation: Government of South Australia, Department of Trade & Economic Development
Position:
Project Officer, Interactive Marketing
Dates:
March 2007 to February 2008
In my role with the Government of South Australia I:
- Co-ordinated publishing of all content on departmental intranet.
o Ensured content was up to date by liaising with content owners.
o Prepared and published W3 compliant markup.
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Managed all records on the SA Funding & Grants Register online.
o Checked existing entries in the register with listing organisations.
o Encouraged organisations to list future grant opportunities in the register.
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Developed the Top 50 Exporters Database.
o Wrote speaking scripts for telephone market research campaign.
o Created Microsoft Access database for storage and reporting of data as requested by Export
Council of SA.
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Co-ordinated the production of departmental public-facing mass e-mail campaigns
o Designed eye-catching templates.
o Administered pre-send and post-send contact list management.
-
Developed departmental forms for intranet content update requests.
Mapped entire intranet and researched alternative database-driven intranet software.
Fostered a culture of updating the departmental intranet.
Established and grew direct contact lists for departmental e-mail campaigns.
Organisation: Ethics Centre of South Australia
Position:
Executive Officer
Dates:
January 2006 to February 2007
The Ethics Centre of South Australia is a collaborative enterprise funded by Flinders University, UniSA,
Adelaide University and the State Government of South Australia. As the only full time employee of this
startup research centre (the Director was part time), I was responsible for establishing and taking care of its
day-to-day operations.
For the Ethics Centre of South Australia I:
-
Arranged feasible meeting times for the academic administration board, prepared agendas and
took official minutes.
Organised the official launch of the Ethics Centre at the Art Gallery of South Australia, which
involved live music, cocktails and a keynote address by Julian Burnside QC.
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Developed an online Encyclopaedia of Ethics using MediaWiki (the software that powers
Wikipedia.org) and gathered information from preliminary user focus groups.
Designed and organised publication of corporate pamphlets and business cards.
Organisation: City of Playford Information Technology Unit, South Australia
Position:
Information Technology Officer
Dates:
October 2005 to December 2005 (Contract)
In my practical role at the City of Playford Information Technology Unit I:
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Managed Help Desk enquiries.
Resolved problems by e-mail, remote login or face-to-face contact.
Rolled out IT hardware across multiple office locations within Playford Council.
Prepared computers with clean Operating System images to a set schedule.
Assisted in IT asset management.
Developed friendly and professional liaisons with colleagues at all levels of the organisation.
Organisation: City of Playford Library Service, South Australia
Position:
Inter-Library Loans Officer
Dates:
January 2005 to September 2005 (Contract)
For the City of Playford Library Service I:
-
Processed requests for inter-library loans from clients.
Managed staff and library at Smithfield and Playford branches on a roster basis.
Assisted Children’s Librarian with preparation and delivery of Children’s Story Telling Program.
Mentored immediate colleagues in IT, reducing the work load for my colleagues in the Information
Technology Unit.
Developed customer service skills and reputation as the “go-to” person for dealing with and
turning around difficult clients.
Organisation: Caboolture Shire (now Moreton Bay) Council Library Service
Position:
Young People’s Librarian (Permanent Part Time)
Dates:
June 2004 to December 2004
For the Caboolture Shire Council Library Service I:
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Worked on making the library Young People Friendly.
Increased the number of visitors to the library in the 13 – 30 age bracket.
Developed and researched a workable copyright friendly proposal for a library-hosted Young
People’s Film Club.
Organisation: Caboolture Shire (now Moreton Bay) Council Library Service
Position:
Branch Manager, Deception Bay (Casual)
Dates:
June 2004 to December 2004
In my role as Branch Manager I:
-
Managed team of 4 staff including trainees and volunteers.
Opened up and closed the library.
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Ensured all books were shelved by close of business.
Oversaw close checking of book order as part of stocktake preparation.
Prepared financial and statistical reports for the main branch.
Assisted a harmonious team to continue its already good work.
Organisation: Caboolture Shire (now Moreton Bay) Council Library Service
Position:
Children’s Program Coordinator & Casual Library Assistant, Deception Bay
Dates:
January 2004 to June 2004
The Children’s Program was a fortnightly afternoon of story telling as well as story reading, craft and singing. I
had a shoestring budget, cardboard boxes and paint. And so I:
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Wrote, prepared and performed stories and songs.
Designed colourful sets to decorate the library.
Opened up and closed the library.
Ensured all books were shelved by close of business.
Oversaw close checking of book order as part of stocktake preparation.
Prepared financial and statistical reports for the main branch.
Assisted a harmonious team to continue its already good work.
ABILITIES, INTERESTS AND PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
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In Australia I was an active member of Kent Town Rotary Club, South Australia.
Associate member (Librarian), Australian Library and Information Association.
Lifetime Member, Golden Key International Honour Society.
I enjoy public speaking (especially corporate Toastmasters clubs), experimenting with new and old
computer software/hardware (an inventor in a former life?), walking, dancing, making homemade
pizza and volunteering my professional skills to charities.
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