Past ⟶ Academia
I was a Senior Lecturer in Multimedia Design Between 2005 – 2009.
This was a perspective changing and challenging role where I worked as a full time Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield’s School of Art, Design and Architecture.
I was fortunate enough to teach and mentor students who now work for some of the most worlds most prestigious agencies and exciting start-ups. In my four fruitful years there, I learnt some extremely valuable life and business lessons, which I used as a great basis for starting a design business.
Essentially what academics do is manage expectations and communicate and conduct very thorough research, in business I’m doing that every day.
My teaching ranged from teaching programming to students from artistic /creative backgrounds, to running a final year studio and appropriating the use of technology in my own research practice.
I documented my first year of teaching, as part of a professional teaching qualification, quite frankly the only use that had was to serve as a memento.. it had little bearing on reflective teaching.. as it was an officially accredited course, that made me a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Although my life as an academic wasn’t massively glamorous, I got an incredible buzz and satisfaction from teaching students and worked on lots of exciting projects. I did go to a few key conferences and workshops. I interviewed almost all the intake of students for over 3 years (close to 250 students), and got to work with the most hardworking people I know. During my term of teaching, I was also elected as Teaching & Learning representative, for the School, which meant gaining insight into how the system works on a more intimate level.
As an academic my areas of research were mostly concerning:
- Glitch Aesthetics (started 2003)
- Socio-digital Systems in Libraries (started 2005)
- Games in the Academic Library (started 2006)
- Game based learning (est. 2007)
Shiny Qualifications from the University of Huddersfield.
PG Cert. in Higher Education Practice. 2008
@ School of Education
MA in Smart Design, with Distinction. 2005
@ Centre of Excellence in Digital Design.
First Class BA (hons) in Multimedia Design, . 2004.
@ Dept of Creative Technologies, School of Art, Design & Architecture.