Learn 4 Life

Consultancy/ clients

Present projects and recent activity , clients and consultancy -

Here you can read what I get up to month on month and a list of clients below.

Mar 2010

Working with VITAL.ac.uk

Feb 2010

Training at Academy 360 in virtual worlds

Speaking/ presenting at Wise Kids conference Swansea and Bangor

Jan 2010

Filmed organised Tedx, Amplified and TeachMeet events Bett 2010

Filming at BETT for Open Source Schools -

December 2009

Scripted and filmed content for Petecooper.com

November 2009

Hosted day conference on E-Safety on Learn 4 Life Island in Second Life.

FIlmed/ streamed UK Youth’s Conference

FIlmed / Streamed MIRANDAMOD - Learning Outside the Walls. How do we use ubiquitous technologies? The role of mobile technologies and web based learning in building and sharing new knowledge
October  2009

Streamed / broadcast the Open Source Schools seminar a Bletchley Park

Chaired MC’s one of the Social Media Outreach groups at the HandHeld Learning conference.

September 2009

Finishing off a series of films for Open Source Schools, tagging and disseminating metadata services and getting ready for staggered release mid September onwards.

Filming and documenting Sussex and Kent TeachMeets + the Scottish Learning Festival.

Definitive blog post on using Open Sim Virtual Worlds with all the key players globally. This is a geneiss for a book on the subject due for release early 2010.

Speaking at Bletchley Park LA conference on  Open Video standards.

August 2009

Launch of new Virtual World consultancy with new business partner Julia Blagbrough to deliver and implement Virtual Worlds for the schools, university and corporate sectors.

Working with MirandaMod to run and video document and stream the MirandaMod discussion modules for 2009 -2010.

July 2009

Writing Moodle courseware for the TDA in the UK via Naace for the Free ICT CPD site on Exploring Digital media.

We have just secured some land in Open Sim on ReactionGrid and are using that to showcase what can be done with an Open Source Virtual World. Now ReactionGrid’s main UK evangelist and UK consultant.

Speaking and streaming the media and films for 3D Open Source programs - Open Source Schools Unconference NCSL - July 19th

Sourced resources and made a series of films based on Open Source use in Design and Technology around the UK - for Opensourceschools.org.uk - funded by Becta:

http://blip.tv/file/2373935/

Also working on R&D to do with Virtual Conferencing Systems in Second Life and use of Synchronous media players for training:

May/ June

Speaking at - 3D Virtual Worlds Seminar - June 30th 2009

Pro Bono work for AmpEd  working up proposal from NESTA

MirandaMod seminars - filming and streaming these events 2009 - 2010

April/ May

Consultancy for Academy360 -

Blogging for BBC Open Lab Site

RSA - Online Tookit meetings

March 2009

Writing online Moodle courses for TDA on teachers using Web 2.0

Filming TeachMeet North East London

Workshop on Second Life - Naace strategic conference Blackpool March 2009

Feb 2009

MirandaMod videos at BETT released

Interview with Joe Wilson, Head of New Ventures at the SQA

Editing of two camera shoot of TeachMeet

Blogging for the new BBC Open Learning Site

Jan 2009

Ongoing Second Life Holodeck Project.

Pixel to Person -  Reporting on use of Virtual Worlds - ongoing video project monitoring educational and other allied uses of Second Life for learning and entertainment. I monitor selected events both social and business to chart the progress of Virtual and Augmented realities in education.

Consultancy for a variety of commercial firms encompassing use of web 2.0 and social media.

Researching and writing about 3D Graphics for the new BBC Backstage Open Source Schools site.

Finishing MirandaMod videos at BETT for distribution.

Our most recent initiative was to make a film of the Open Source Schools seminar at BETT 2009. This has been very well received worldwide.

Presenting about Learn 4 Life and International Schools Island in Second Life on Stephen Heppell’s Stand at BETT 2009. (video out soon)

Behind the scenes work at TeachMeet BETT - also helping to establish the new TeachMeet talks channel in conjunction with FutureLab. Videoing - filming, editing and branding the activity for TeachMeet to publicise teacher led activities in the Social Media/ Web 2.0 space in the UK.

December 2008

Training teachers in Second Life as part of BSF in Salford.

Writing Moodle courses for the TDA via Naace based on film rich exemplars of teachers’ practice for dissemination to the teaching community in the UK

Other Up and Coming Activity

Video interview with innovators in ICT education on a monthly basis.

Next four interviewees

- Joe Wilson on Next Generation Skills User Skills Report (Jan 2009),

- Peter Twining of Schome (Jan 2009) as part of the Accelerometer personal project documenting learning journeys in Second Life ,

- Ben WerdMuller  on Elgg and ODD (Feb 2009).

Miles Berry on his use of Open Source Software at Management Level in school;

Clients

Some of our clients over the years have been:

BBC

Teachers TV

TDA - Teacher Development Agency

Naace

Mirandanet

DCSF

University of Hull

txttools

Handheld Learning

Futurelab

The Reading Agency

Independent ICT Consultancy

I am one of the very few independent consultants in the UK. By that I mean I am not allied to any Local Authority or Commercial Firm. I tend to work with highly innovative partners who are passionately dedicated to charting the learning landscape in the UK and its changes through facilitation of new technologies and social networking.

I’m happiest in this environment of steep and constant learning curves. My specialties are the documenting of the gradual innovative change in education in the UK  by using Digital Video and Audio. Tracking documenting and blogging about Open Source and Virtual Worlds.

Learn 4 Life was one of the very first educational podcast broadcasters in the UK - we are also the only independent (and, again, one of the first in the UK)  education Islands in Second Life. Learn 4 Life also pioneered the use of small, portable live video streaming over the internet over 2 years ago.

Leon Cych - CEO of Learn 4 Life - regularly gives talks to professional associations and commercial business on the use of Web 2.0 distributed learning materials. He has written for numerous mainstream and trade education magazines including the TES,  ICT and the Guardian.

He is a regular contributor to the Flux blog at Futurelab and the forthcoming BBC Open Learning site.

He was former editor of ICT in Education for Naace and has given consultancy and advice to BECTA, The DCSF as well as numerous commercial educational firms.

He can be booked to give consultancy to your school, LA or business and showcases, usually with filmed exemplars, the latest in these technologies.

Learn 4 Life was established 7 years ago to highlight and disseminate new and innovative use of ICT by teachers and advisers. It has a history of firsts for use of innovative technologies in the UK.

Please get in touch for rates and availability.

dfee [at] btinternet [dot] com