A whistle stop tour to how I got to do what I do now.After gaining a first in Creative Arts in 1988 (community arts in Newcastle Upon Tyne), I spent 10 years working under various guises in community education and community arts in and around South Yorkshire, UK. I dabbled in old school photography, early multimedia production (VHS 3 machine editing and live video arts project), taught IT and Internet skills to adults and managed various community media and ICT projects. Whilst developing online courses and ICT curricula for further and higher education, I picked up a MEd in 'Telematics Learning'. Actually, it was a bit harder than just picking it up, it dominated my life for 2 years!
In 1998 I was offered a secondment to the BBC to look at the feasibility of using BBC Online’s content for online learning and accreditation. A BBC Online Learning pilot followed and I went freelance to work with the BBC on a variety of projects that were to influence the BBC's ‘learning journeys’ adult learning strategy.
As my freelance work grew, I set up DESQ, with a vision to combine new media and learning in innovative ways. As Creative Director, I now oversee a fantastic team (don't tell 'em I said that) creating award winning e-learning materials and learning games for clients such as the BBC, UK National Learning Network (NLN), UfI Learndirect, Oxford University Press, Channel 4 and QIA.