In August I was fortunate enough to be named as one of this year's Learning & Teaching Fellows at BIAD, with a programme that helps Masters degree students in Visual Communication make effective use of Web and online media in their developing creative practices. We'd piloted this earlier in the year, taking 38 students in a range of creative disciplines through a three-week programme to deconstruct their day-to-day practices and think about how they'd rebuild them using available online tools. As you might expect, social media tools featured heavily in students' strategies, and a significant number of them have continued to use their networks effectively after graduation, building reputation in their fields, securing jobs, and developing credibility.

The Fellowship Award is to allow us to develop the strategies for wider application and to make teaching materials available as a resource to other postgraduate and undergraduate courses in BIAD, and potentially further afield. We're also planning to publish a guide in ebook form. If you've experiences to share, or if you're part of a creative academic programme which might benefit from getting involved, get in touch sharl@mac.com.