Derek Robertson’s career in education has seen him work as a primary school teacher, an ICT staff tutor in a council education department, a lecturer at the University of Dundee, as the National Adviser for Emerging Technologies and Learning with Scottish Government’s educational agencies and now back at the University of Dundee as a member of the lecturing/research team at the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law. 
A major aspect of Derek’s work has been involved with exploring and articulating just how commercial off the shelf (COTS) computer game-based learning can have a positive impact on children’s learning experiences. This interest began due to a serendipitous moment when he watched two of his pupils play a Super Nintendo game in his classroom. To this end he established Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium initiative, which was aimed at exploring how the challenging, demanding and culturally relevant and appealing world of the computer game could play a valid and worthwhile part in the educational experiences of teachers and learners. His work is recognised as something that has helped change the discourse around the purpose and place of COTS games in education. He is also interested in the way that other digital technologies can impact on the practice and culture of teaching and learning.
He is currently in the final phase of working on his PhD study, a study that is centred around the use of Minecraft in a design based challenge in primary classrooms in Dundee.