2008 Friends Retro

I have made many new friends in 2008 (picture left: with Paul Kirschner, Paul Walsh and Debby Notts in Barcelona). Here is an alphabetic list of 20, including links to their splendid blogs and excellent websites, but it is by no means exhaustive. There are many other great folks I simply haven't had time to post up here - if you are one of those I have missed, forgive me. Thanks to all of you - you have made my year interesting and stimulating and the conversations I have had with each of you have been fabulous.

Have a peaceful and prosperous new year!

• Tara Alexander (University of Plymouth) - only met Tara @blueocean47 a few weeks back when she joined us from the great state of Texas, but already we are working together on some research around Web 2.0. Tara has a lot of energy and learns fast - it's great to work with her.
• Andy Black (Handheld Learning, London and Online Educa, Berlin) Andy's Black Hole was known to me long before I bumped into him. Andy @andyjb is a dynamo and you need to stand well clear when he gets going...
• danah boyd (Handheld Learning, London) What a pleasure, after reading her work for so long, to finally talk to danah, and then to have the whole conversation recorded and posted to the web.
• Mark Bullen (Open EduTech, Barcelona) Another academic whose work I was familiar with long before I met him. A foil to Prensky and a great all round guy.
• Dianne Conrad (EDEN, Lisbon) We met at breakfast and spent a great deal of time during the conference. It was a pleasure to share ideas and discuss distance education for a few days in the sun of colourful Lisbon.
• Jay Cross (Edumedia, Salzburg) Jay is the informal learning guy, and a great image maker too. He spent the evening before the conference taking pictures of us all, and then when he gave his keynote, there we all were - on his first slide
• Ulf-Daniel Ehlers (EDEN, Lisbon and Online Educa, Berlin) - the gentle giant - full of ideas and well respected in the field of e-learning. Ulf is an inspiration and a real encouragement to all.
• Philippa Gerbic (IFIP, Kuala Lumpur) - I met Philippa in Kuala Lumpur for the first time after plenty of e-mails. This kiwi and I worked together with Elizabeth Stacey on a new volume on blended learning which is published in the new year.
• Mirjam Hauck (EDEN, Lisbon) - another dynamo, this time of the feminine variety. Mirjam and I were partners in crime as we blogged our way through the EDEN conference together.
• Wolf Hilzensauer (Edumedia, Salzburg and ICL, Villach) - Wolfie has a sense of humour that is wicked and ironic. He is also one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the subject of e-portfolios.
• Sigi Jakob-Kühn (Edumedia, Salzburg) - Sigi is a bundle of fun - we spent quite some time together touring around Salzburg, and we have followed each other ever since through each other's blogs.
• Paul Kirschner (Open EduTech, Barcelona) - I simply need to say 'digital scaffolding' because it was our idea and a joint effort. We are fellow psychologists with a lot more in common, and I hope we can work together again in the near future.
• Debby Knotts (Open EduTech, Barcelona) - it was nice to spend some time with Debby and to work with her in the awesome team 'D' at Open EduTech, in the wonderful, outrageous city of Barcelona.
• Peter Micheuz (IFIP, Kuala Lumpur, and ICL, Villach) - The man who bought my book straight off the shelf in Kuala Lumpur and asked me to sign it on the bus home. I met Peter again when he presented at ICL - and I learned a lot from him.
• Marc Prensky (Handheld Learning, London) - Marc sidled up to danah and I as we discussed digital identity under the unblinking eye of Kramer's camera. I didn't know who he was and he certainly didn't know me. We do now though.
• John Sanders (ICL, Villach) - @greyrab my new Aussie mate with whom I spent a lot of time at ICL. Several meals and drinks, and a day trip to Venice later, we are still in contact through Twitter, even though we are separated by 12 time zones.
• Dirk Schneckenberg (EDEN, Lisbon) - Dirk is a very creative individual, and I look forward to working with Dirk and Ulf on their new edited volume around the idea of Web 2.0 technologies in education next year.
• Kath Trinder (Handheld Learning, London) - @ktrinder Twitter buddy extraordinaire. Nice to finally meet her face to face after all those tweets.
• Jon Trinder (Handheld Learning, London) - @jont - husband of the above, and a jolly decent guy. Rarely laugh so hard as I do when I read some of Jon's tweets.
• Joss Winn (ALT-C, Leeds) - together with James Clay, we created the video 'It's not for girls!' about gender and technology, at ALT-C in Leeds.