More great places, awesome people

In my last post I recalled some of the great places I went to this year and some of the awesome people I met. Continuing my review of the year, here are my top five places and some more great people of 2011.

5. Mombasa, Kenya. As a part of the International Federation for Information Processing event calendar (IFIP Education Committee) I was invited to keynote a conference in Mombasa in August. I have heard so much about Kenya, but had never been to East Africa before this excursion. I arrived tired after two flights totaling almost 10 hours, and stepped out into the sauna. Mombasa is south of the equator, and in August is supposed to be in winter, but at 28 degrees with 90 percent humidity, you could have fooled me. Mombasa is an island city of almost 1 million souls, and is surrounded by water, so I went equipped with malaria tablets and insect repellent, and believe me, they were needed. And yet, in spite of the personal discomfort, I found the city to be charming, colourful, fascinating. We were warned that there was always a chance of trouble with a huge number of refugees entering the country just to the north of us, and because Somali pirates were operating along the coast, kidnapping and hijacking were real threats. We noticed that there were armed guards outside our hotel, and also guards on every floor inside the hotel. The Kalashnikov rifles were a dead give-away. I still managed to take a tuk-tuk into the old part of Mombasa though, and with my old friend Torsten Brinda, where we wandered around virtually unmolested, taking in the sights, sounds and aromas of authentic Mombasa. The experience of Kenya was made deeply poignant for me when I talked to these young people (pictured) outside some school gates during one of our visits. Some of them are too young to go to school, so they hang around outside gazing in each day, waiting for the time when they will be able to go to school to hopefully better their own lives and those of their families. Full story in Out of Africa.

4. Dublin, Ireland. I had the privilege of visiting the fair city of Dublin twice in 2011, the first time to keynote the 14th Irish National IT Training Conference in April, and the second time in June to speak at the Annual EDEN Conference. On both occasions, I met President Mary McAleese, and got to shake her hand. Ireland is a great country (I have Irish ancestory which helps) and Dublin is a fun city to spend some time in, especially when it's with my old friends Graham Attwell, Deborah Arnold, Philip Wilkinson-Blake, Mark Brown, Eileen Brennan-Freeman and Sally Reynolds, and new friends including Eamon McAteer and John Heffernan. Both trips to Dublin were memorable, not just because of the great experiences of attending two major conferences, but also because of the welcome the city gives, and here's a tip: Temple Bar and the Guinness Factory are a must for any visitors to the city. Full story in Feel the burn and EDEN comes of age.

3. Barcelona, Spain. I always enjoy my visits to Barcelona. It is quite simply one of the most attractive cities you can imagine and in terms of its eclectic and outrageous architecture, it is second to none. The influence of Gaudi, Picasso, Miro and a host of other avant garde artists is evident wherever you turn, and the opportunities to sample the culture and atmosphere of this iconic city are endless. On this occasion, in October, with the weather mild and bearable (I was last in Barcelona in July 2010 when the temperature was extreme) I was invited to keynote the Open University of Barcelona's 8th international conference on teacher training. I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with Doug Thomas, who with John Seely-Brown, co-authored the book 'A new culture of learning', and also had dinner with legendary author Manuel Castells. It was wonderful talking to these great thinkers, and hoping that at least some of their wisdom and intelligence might rub off on to me! Full story in Slightly dangerous and In the same boat.

2. Wellington, New Zealand. This was my first visit to New Zealand's capital city, 'the coolest little capital in the world,' courtesy of Massey University's Mark Brown. I was invited by Mark to keynote two conferences for the university, and then to stay over in Wellington for the weekend before providing the international keynote for the Tertiary Education Summit. During the weekend I met up with old friends Jo Fothergill and Jedd Bartlett and met Karen Melhuish for the first time down at the offices of Core Ed. Wellington is packed full of things to do and places to see, including the spectacular harbour, Mount Victoria, and of course the Wellywood movie industry scene (Miramar district is where the famous Weta Workshop is located). Going on the Movie tour and visiting some of the location sites for the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was one of the most memorable experiences of my time in New Zealand. In doing so I reflected on the art of film making to the extent that I eventually wrote this piece on attention to detail. I was also delighted to meet Dermot Donnelly on the tour, and I hope to keep in touch with him, given that we are both deeply involved in research into social media in teacher education. The national museum at Te Papa was just across the road from my hotel, so I spent a fun afternoon in there soaking up the kiwi culture and learning more about the history of the islands. Full story of my New Zealand lecture tour in Aotearoa.

1. Melbourne, Australia. This year, the city that has left the best impression has to be Melbourne. I really don't have enough room here to do justice to the seven days I spent in this cosmopolitan, wonderfully laid-back Australian city. Hooking up again with old friends John Sandler, Colin Warren and Joyce Seitzinger really helped to cement my welcome, and meeting new friends such as Mark Smithers and Dave Cummings added to the sheer enjoyment of the city. I was in town to keynote the inaugural technology for teaching and learning summit at the famous Rendezvous hotel, and was glad to share the spotlight with AUT's Thomas Cochrane with whom I spent some down time chatting about mobile learning and life in general. Thanks to all who looked after me so well in #Melb - it was a great pleasure, and very comforting to be in the company of such good friends, so far away from home. My time in Melbourne reached its zenith in a great tweetup gathering down on the riverside underneath St Kilda Bridge where Stephen Heppell and Claire Brooks joined us for drinks, and I was delighted to spend some time talking to Shelley Gibb, Jenny Ashby and Pam Kamande. The Melbourne skyline at night is spectacular, as under floodlights is the iconic Flinders Street Railway station. There is much to see and do in Melbourne; Victoria Market is bustling and colourful, the sporting scene is well represented with multiple world class stadia (including the MCG and Rod Laver Arena) on the edge of the city, and I spent an excellent day out with Joyce and Mark at the Victorian State Museum, learning much about the history of science fiction film making. Full story in The Melbourne set.


More great places, awesome people by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.