Introducing myself

I'm new to this so please bear with me. I guess the best place to start is to introduce myself properly. My name is Marc Richardson and I'm currently a Teaching and Learning Advisor - ICT, working for Walsall Children's Services-Serco. My colleague Lucy Jayes (@lj101) and I support around 80 Primary, Nursery and Special schools in the Walsall borough with any/all use of ICT in the curriculum, as well as with the use of It's Learning, the Walsall preferred Learning Platform.

I have, and have always had, an interest in the use of ICT in engaging pupils and enhancing teaching  In that regard I have used social networking and blogging as a professional development tool, but normally as what I would call, a 'lurker', constantly inspired by what I read, but rarely contributing to discussions. I have recently been lucky enough to be accepted on the Google Teacher Academy in April (will write more in a future post) and having seen the fantastic people who were also accepted and the amazing people that weren't successful this time round, has inspired me to try and become a lot more proactive and contribute more to a community that I have benefitted so much from.

This blog is part of that intention and I am going to try and be much more active in social networking on Twitter (@ictmarc) and Google+ (ictmarc1@gmail.com). Hopefully, I can make a positive contribution in these areas and through even greater collaboration, will develop personally and maybe even inspire or support someone else in the way I have been so many times previously.