Play with Learning

Merry Christmas!

christmas tree

This will be my last post of the year: I’m looking forward to spending a few work-free days with my family over Christmas.  I hope that you will be having a break too.

Play with Learning is one year old and I am delighted with how things have turned out over the last twelve months. I’ve enjoyed some really interesting and varied work – it’s precisely the mix that I’d hoped for when I set the company up –  a combination of theory and practice, research and production.

This year I’ve been happily working with:

• the BBC (helping them define a strategy for their learning games)
• the United Nations (developing a blended learning leadership program for head teachers in Palestinian schools)
• DESQ and Glasshead (for BBC Webwise)
• Numiko (for the forthcoming BBC Primary Art and Primary Geography websites)
• Tyneside Cinema (on the soon-to-be launched  News That Defined Us website for news media literacy)
• the University of Bradford (writing a Masters course on digital media production and delivering a final year module on Creative Media Enterprise)
• Channel 4, the National Film and Television School and Skillset (providing professional multiplatform production and Transmedia storytelling training)

It’s been a blissfully busy time! I’ve made lots of new friends and contacts.  I’ve played a lot and I’ve learnt a great deal.

I’m excited about the opportunities in 2012.  I know that some of the production pieces will launch in the next couple of months and there are lots of exciting projects in the pipeline.  Having said that, I’m always interested in new opportunities so maybe, just maybe there’s something that you and I could collaborate on?

maybe there’s something that you and I could collaborate on?

In the meantime, let me wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Hello world!

Sometimes in life, something happens that provides the kick you need. Today, Rob Wilmot and Chris Brogan gave me that kick. (Thank you both).

I’ve been umming and ahhhing about a new blog for some time. My previous blog seemed to have run its course, describing the first few years of my little girl, Scarlett, and concluding at the birth of my boy, Jacob. A whimsical account. Almost entirely true. Almost entirely separate from my professional life.

This blog is different. It’s driven by my desire to think about learning, play and behaviour. It recognises that the more I learn, the less I know – not in a dispiriting way but in an eager, curious and wonder-filled way. Concepts, experiences and emotions where getting things wrong is a chance to try something else. I know: I sound a little tipsy. I do feel a little giddy. I might just have a little lie down.

This space gives me the chance to throw some ideas into the air and with your help, I hope, make a little more sense of them when they land.