After studying English and Philosophy at the University of Bristol, I spent the 1980s teaching in Nigeria and Italy. I still muse about the experience in Nigeria and continue to miss the food and general conviviality of life in Parma. Most of my work during those years was in language and linguistics applying some of the wisdom passed on by Antony Cowie during the year I spent studying at the University of Leeds. It was also a time which saw the beginnings of networked learning. In the 1980s I started playing around with Macintosh computers and hypercard applications for language learning and early midi/sequencers for making music. I was hooked.

A yearning for … change found me in Cuba in the 1990s, working at the University of Havana. Hypercard became a distant memory as the lack of pens and paper became the problem and the country sank into a ‘special period’ from which it still struggles to emerge. Continued visits, now to see family as well as friends and colleagues, mean that my connection to the island remains very much alive. Professional collaboration with colleagues at the University also drives some more recent research interests as digital networks on the island begin to pose questions about the nature and impact of internet use there.

After a Masters degree in educational technology and work at the then University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, I became a Senior Lecturer in Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University. In the here-and-now I teach on the Social Change programme in the Faculty of Health, Psyschology and Social Care.