Steve Lacey

I'm a freelance web developer based in Bristol, England and currently studying Web Design at the University of West England. I enjoy experimenting with new designing methods and playing with the latest technologies, I'm becoming a big fan of 'Flickr-Style Hyperlinks' and have 135 followers on Twitter.

I have been working freelance in the industry for about 6 years and have a lot of experience working with both client & server-side technologies. I refuse to code in anything less than the upmost standards of XHTML, CSS & JavaScript. You'll usually find me scripting in PHP, but I am moving towards upgrading my skill set with newer languages and frameworks such as Rails and Django.

My aims in web development are to create beautiful, clean web applications. I love Web 2.0 design and I am currently doing a lot of work using API's as well as creation and manipulation of XML. Should you be an individual, a business or a web agency- it would be great to hear from you.

Peer Assisted Learning

Through the entirety of my second year studying at UWE I've worked for the university as part of the Peer Assisted Learning scheme. The programme basically has a team of PAL Leaders such as myself who run sessions for first year students who are studying modules that we studied in our first year. I run two 1 hour sessions a week on the 'Introduction to the Web' module which covers XHTML, CSS & JavaScript. I also branch off in these sessions additionally covering PHP basics which help them in other modules such as 'Systems Development' and as of the start of this year ('09) an introduction to usage of the Twitter and Flickr API's of which integrating into assignment work always incurs extra marks for innovation.

I feel that I've learnt so much from being part of PAL. Planning and running two sessions every week with 10-15 different students attending each one has made a clear increase in my confidence as well as helping me learn so much. In addition to the sessions I have also participated in training which has been a definite help in the transition from just a student, to a PAL Leader, subjects of which include:

Body Posture & Voice Training.
Assertiveness in your PAL sessions.

Engaging your group to make your message memorable.
PAL in Semester 2: Reminders, Updates & Scheme Promotion.

People say things like

We're proud to have Steve on our scheme as he's shown committment, responsibility and pro-activity. No doubt he'll be an invaluable asset to any organisation.

- Fiorella Bettin (PAL Co-ordinator)

Great to work with - Steve relates well to people, not just technology

- Paul Hulbert (Senior Lecturer)

To take a look at the content covered in some of my PAL sessions, check out the PAL page, this is mainly for use by my students and incorporates a rating and commenting system so they can ask questions, discuss the topic and leave feedback.

Attribution

All of my work unless otherwise stated is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales.

Other works

There are original and derivative works that feature on my website including: