Recourse: A new website supporting education professionals

May 29th, 2010  |  Published in Announcements, Design Case Studies

Recourse is the new website for the College & University Support Network to replace the one that had been at cusn.info. The project was more than a website redesign, it was also an endeavor in rebranding the charity which serves post-16 education (adult, further and higher education) professionals in UK. Recourse replaced CUSN as the name of the charity this weekend as it was launched at the University and College Union Congress in Manchester on Monday.

I worked with with Mymedia on branding and design as well as Connect Assist in incorporating the Rightnow CRM used to provide support services to higher education staff and faculty.

The backdrop to the relaunch is an education sector in crisis. Unprecedented funding cuts have led to job losses, increased workloads, financial worries and the complex stresses associated with working within an atmosphere of insecurity. The charity is dedicated to providing financial, emotional and practical support to higher education staff and is part of the Teacher Support Network group of charities. Read the rest of this entry »

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Blogging Nation Week

January 12th, 2010  |  Published in Announcements

As part of the Committee to Protect Bloggers, I teamed up with Wordia.com to promote Blogging Nation Week, during which time we gathered different Web professionals to define words applying to online expression. The week was in part a tribute to the successful relaunch of the Committee to Protect Bloggers as well as highlight the ongoing challenges people face both by governments and business when trying to push online expression forward.

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The Committee to Protect Bloggers

October 7th, 2009  |  Published in Announcements

cpbEarlier this summer I took over managing the Committee To Protect Bloggers website.

I took it offline for a crash redesign during the course of about a week in August and relaunched it with an expanded team and slightly augmented mission. As well as being an information site about bloggers being arrested and intimidated, we’re also focusing on legal issues, technology and tutorials aimed at keeping bloggers from behind bars and worse and partnering with more organisations working on digital rights. Read the rest of this entry »

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StaffWise: A new resource to improve organisational wellbeing in Scottish schools

October 6th, 2009  |  Published in Design Case Studies

staffwiseI worked with Tuna Ltd Internet Solutions and Teacher Support Scotland to create StaffWise, which launched at the Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow.

StaffWise is designed to help Scottish local authorities and schools develop policy and arrange stress risk assessments It provides resources for managers to adopt a ‘whole staff’ approach towards wellbeing in their schools or centres, using a step-by-step review and simple action planning process.

StaffWise’s practical resources, developed in conjunction with Fife and North Lanarkshire councils, include an organisational audit, guides and policy information, which promote good management practice and effective ways of working. The content and format can help Scottish employers and managers fulfil the requirements of the Health and Safety Executive Stress Management Standards with confidence and ease.

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Winner of Charity Times ‘Best Use of the Web’

September 10th, 2009  |  Published in Announcements

Charity Times AwardsThe Teacher Support Network website was awarded ‘Best Use of the Web’ by Charity Times Awards 2009! Our nomination comes as a result of the successes of the charity’s website, which I relaunched in August last year. Read the rest of this entry »

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A starting out guide for new teachers

August 7th, 2009  |  Published in Big Ideas

newteachersOver the summer I created a microsite for Teacher Support Network at newteachers.info called The Starting Out Guide. The goal was to tranform the written document into a website that newly qualified and trainee teachers could access from anyway.

I built the site in Wordpress, and based its design on the theme The Unstandard Remix 1.0 by Jon Gos and Derek Punsalan and The Unstandard by Derek Punsalan for 5thirtyone. It also employs a few plugins, including Customize Your Community, Live Comment Preview, Multi-page Toolkit, ShareThis and WP-Polls.

The comments section was edited to promote users to supply additional advice or suggestions of content to add in an attempt to take advantage of the Web as a setting for living documents. Read the rest of this entry »

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