User:Leeming

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David Leeming, Honiara, Solomon Islands, South Pacific
























I am a consultant in ICT for development and education based in Honiara, Solomon Islands. I am most associated with the People First Network. Most recently I have been providing technical advice to the Solomon Islands Ministry of Education regarding the EU-funded Distance Learning Centres Project and consulting for the Commonwealth of Learning, coordinating a Community Media project in Isabel Province. I have also recently worked for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) as coordinator of their One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) trials in eight countries in the Pacific. I am one of a small team who brought the OLPC programme to the region, and have been involved in start ups in Solomons, PNG, Nauru, Tuvalu and Kosrae (FSM). My most recent OLPC work was in PNG with a programme of 13 schools in Western Province, Telefomin and Highlands funded by PNG Sustainable Development Ltd and for Tuvalu, funded by ITU/SPC), assisting with teacher training, curriculum integration, deployment planning and content development, and advising on their strategy for an OLPC country programme. I'm also working with UNESCO on an exciting indigenous knowledge project in Solomon Islands, and a provincial government broadband project for Solomon Islands government under an [www.spc.int SPC] programme PACRICS.

Contact me: david AT leeming-consulting.com Tel: +677 7476396

See also my company website Leeming International Consulting

[[Media:CV-David-Leeming-Dec-2011.pdf|Download my CV (Dec 2011)]]

A list of my conference presentations and publications can be found here. You will find literature on my work and on ICT for development in the Pacific at this page.

Contact me :

I am a UK citizen and have been living and working in the Pacific Islands since Januaray 1996. I am a specialist in ICT for development (ICT4D). My focus is on ICT for education, educational technology and sustainable rural development. I am also an experienced project manager and workshop facilitator. I have recently registered my own consulting company Leeming Consulting here in Solomon Islands, and can offer a range of services in addition to consulting, including full-cycle project management, research, information management and supply of appropriate technology.

I am best known as the Technical Advisor to the Solomon Islands People First Network, and more lately for a focus on the delivery of education services to remote areas, as manager of the DLCP project establishing distance learning centres connected with VSAT broadband Internet in Solomon Islands.

PFnet is a rural connectivity project consisting of an HF radio email network of "email stations" managed by remote and rural communities. Applications of information sharing and knowledge building are run over the network, including distance learning, financial and commodities, government, health and other information.

Video of a PFnet email station by UN TV in 2002

DLCP, the European Union-funded Distance Learning Centres Project in Solomon Islands, is an evolution of PFnet in that the distance learning centres are built on partnerships with the rural communities. The centres are providing a full spectrum of learning opportunities, including teacher training and upgrading, literacy training, technical and vocational training, financial literacy, civic education and continuing education. From Dec 2004 to Dec 2007, I was Manager of the DLCP.

A recent evolution of this work involves a wide area wireless network connecting schools around Marovo Lagoon. This work has been assisted by Rural Link of New Zealand, and I now have an arrangement to act as their agent in Solomon Islands. For more information on the Marovo Learning Network.

Video of Marovo Learning Network

I have also been a key member of a small group of regional experts, now championed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, to design an Oceania implementation of the “One Laptop per Child” (OLPC, popularly known as the “$100 laptop”) programme. Click here for more details - and see the PNG and Solomon Islands pages for the most recent work. I am, as of June 2008, contracted by the SPC to coordinate OLPC trials in eight countries in the Pacific (see the previous link for details).

My key experience is in the fields of ICT for Development; ICT for education, distance learning an eLearning; educational technology and distance learning; in particular concerning access for remote rural communities, eGovernment and ICT strategy and participatory methods in rural development. My work in Solomon Islands and PNG is replicable across the region and in other regions such as Africa.

I have consulted for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, EU, UNDP and AusAid, and the Commonwealth of Learning.

In 2008 I facilitated workshops in COL's Learning4Content series in four Pacific Islands countries.

In a recent consultancy for UNDP I have advised on a strategy for an integrated ICT network in one of the Solomon Island's nine provinces, consisting of rural email stations, FM community radio broadcasting stations and VSAT-connected learning centres. Programming linkages were identified in each of the sectors including education, health, agriculture, disaster management, rural finance, youth and women's development, church and commerce. I also advised on the application of these rural networks in e-governance, including for participatory planning, the electoral process and civic education.

In other work with UNDP I have facilitated workshops on national ICT strategy building, working with stakeholders in Solomon Islands and PNG.

I am a research scientist by training; before coming to the Pacific I worked in the research laboratories of the Health and Safety Executive in Sheffield, England, researching major industrial hazards and developing computerised quantified risk assessment models and tools.

I am a member of the Pacific Islands Internet Society (PICISOC) and as a founder memeber of their Special Interest Group on Education, organised an ICT in Education theme for their 2007 PacINET conference in Honiara, August 2007. I also have more general experience in the deployment of appropriate technology, including solar power for remote schools and communities.

I have also worked in collaborative activities in the region, for instance the regional consultations for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and am a member of the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).

I live in Honiara with my wife Brenda Ma'ea (from Bellona Island) and family.

I am originally from Kendal, Cumbria in the UK, where I worked for 6 years as a Senior Scientific Officer at the Health and Safety Executive research laboratories (HSL) in Sheffield.

David Leeming,

Director, Leeming Consulting,

Technical Advisor, People First Network (PFnet)

P.O. Box 652, Honiara, Solomon Islands

Tel: +677 76396 (m) 24419 (h) 26358 (w)