This statement gives an overview of my career path to date, including my employment and periods of study. You can also see an overview of this on my CV. Like many people working with learning technology I originally started on a different career path. After leaving school I spent two years studying Art and Design at FE colleges in Edinburgh. I then completed a BA (Hons) in Fine Art (specialising in Painting) from Grays School of Art in Aberdeen in 1998. After graduation I worked as a self employed artist for nearly 3 years. This was an interesting time involving balancing painting and exhibiting with part time jobs to make ends meet. I loved the creativity of being a practising Artist and enjoyed being my own boss but did struggle with the isolation and cash flow problems. I decided that I needed to expand my skills so that I could move into secure employment. The part-time jobs I'd had during this time included private art tuition and working in an art shop, which frequently included advising customers. So I'd started to realise how rewarding it was to share knowledge and experience with interested people.

In 2001 I returned to University as a full time student at Napier University on the PG/Dip Multimedia Technology course. Like many who have completed a conversion Masters course I found this course had a huge learning curve, but I think my time in self employment had taught me to be strategic and to manage my time well and so I really enjoyed the pace and excitement of that year of study. After completing the taught PG Diploma part of the course I got my first related job as a Learning Developer for The Interactive University (IU), which was a spin off company from Heriot-Watt University. I worked in the publishing and production team, drawing illustrations and creating animations for paper based and online learning materials. It was during this job that I first learned about learning technology and my interest in education more generally started to develop. During the time I was there the company moved from the HW campus to offices on a business park and I really missed the contact with the University staff and students, so started to look for jobs in Higher Education.

At the start of 2005 I moved to a new role at Queen Margaret University College (now University) as a Learning Development Officer (Flexible Learning) in the Centre for Academic Practice. Just before taking up this post I completed the my MSc project for Napier University, and gain the now re-named qualification 'MSc Multimedia and Interactive Systems'. The title of my MSc project was ‘The development of a framework for evaluation based on the W3C accessibility guidelines and suitable for developers of arts organisation websites’. I had a really interesting few years at QM, during this time the institution gained University Status and moved to a new campus in Musselburgh. I learned a great deal in this post as I was part of a small team and was given plenty of opportunities to work with staff and students using several systems, including WebCT and PebblePad.

While in this post I studied part-time to completed a PG Certificate in Professional Education in 2007.

In September 2007 I moved to current post as an eLearning Advisor in the eLearning and IS Skills development team within Information Services at the University of Edinburgh.

I am applying for CMALT as I anticipate that putting this portfolio together will help me evaluate of my career so far. I plan to examine my skills and reflect on my experiences to date. By taking this overview of my work experience I hope to plan for my future career more effectively. The career paths in this sector are not always clearly defined and I hope that this process will help me focus on the skills I need to develop in my current roles and to look at where I could develop longer term.