...the Nominations are...

I was both surprised and delighted to see that I am in the running for yet another edublogger award as we hurtle towards 2009. Over in the US, Scott Merrick on his blog 'Oh! Virtual Learning!' has posted 5 nominations for January's blog-o-the-month, sponsored by Second Life's ISTE Island Blogger's Hut. All the nominations are non-US, he says.

It's nice to see that the list includes James Clay's e-Learning Stuff blog and Daniel Livingstone's Learning Games blog and that we Brits are making an impact in the blogosphere. So go and vote, because apparently the current voting is close....very close.

The Archaeology of Drivel

Have you ever tried to read a post-modernist paper by say, Lyotard, Derrida, or Foucault, and thought 'what the hell was that all about'? Characteristically, post-modernist essays are verbose and full of dense vocabulary, but tend to say very little.

I keep a copy of Foucault's 'Archaeology of Knowledge' on my shelf for one reason only - to show my students how not to write if they want their reader to understand. Below is an extract from a post-modernist essay. See if you can understand it:

If one examines the capitalist paradigm of context, one is faced with a choice: either reject surrealism or conclude that consciousness is capable of intent. If prematerial sublimation holds, we have to choose between semantic theory and Derridaist reading.
In a sense, Debord uses the term ‘capitalist capitalism’ to denote the dialectic, and therefore the failure, of postconstructive sexual identity. “Society is intrinsically dead,” says Lacan; however, according to Hanfkopf, it is not so much society that is intrinsically dead, but rather the stasis, and subsequent absurdity, of society. Lyotard’s analysis of semantic theory states that government is part of the defining characteristic of sexuality. It could be said that Sartre promotes the use of the neocapitalist paradigm of discourse to analyse and modify consciousness. If one examines semantic theory, one is faced with a choice: either accept the neocapitalist paradigm of discourse or conclude that society, perhaps surprisingly, has objective value, but only if reality is interchangeable with language; otherwise, Lacan’s model of the materialist paradigm of narrative is one of “Debordist situation”, and thus fundamentally used in the service of maintaining the status quo. The main theme of the works of Burroughs is the bridge between class and sexuality. However, the subject is contextualised involving reality as a paradox.
The primary theme of McElwaine’s critique of Lyotardist narrative is not, in fact, discourse, but subdiscourse. In a sense, Foucault suggests the use of the neocapitalist paradigm of discourse to deconstruct hierarchy. The main theme of the works of Burroughs is a self-supporting totality. Therefore, the subject is interpolated into a means to include language as a reality.
The premise of structuralist deconstruction implies that the purpose of the observer is social comment. In a sense, the subject is contextualised in that it includes consciousness as a totality.

Well, did you understand any of that? If you did, you are (in the words of the post-modernist) 'dissembling'. You see, the abstract above is completely meaningless and was generated by a computer program called the Post Modernism Generator. The program takes stock phrases and sentences at random and simply strings them together. Have a go yourself at generating your own nonsense post-modernist essay. I guarantee you won't be able to tell it apart from the real thing!

What do you meme?

That arch funster Mark Hawker has tagged me in a random act of meming and I am now required by common law to pass the baton on to seven more unsuspecting plonkers just like me.

I wrote about memes in a previous blog but it's so far back in the mists of time, I can't remember where I left it. Something about 'Passion Quilts' springs to mind, but it's too much effort. Anyway, the rules apparently, are as follows:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.


• Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.


• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.


• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Here are 7 things about me you probably didn't know (or were too scared to ask):

1. I nearly drowned when I was five years old while we were living in Gibraltar. I was pushed over into the dock by a pack of friendly little homicidal maniacs (they may have been rock apes), and yet somehow still managed to clamber back up onto dry land, just to spite them. I have never learned to swim, which is mad as I live in a seaside town.

2. I used to run an independent record label called Broken Records, back in the 80's when vinyl was king and CDs were a mere twinkle in someone's eye.

3. I play several instruments including guitar, keyboards, bass and mandolin to concert standard, but my voice is my most versatile instrument. Mostly though, I like to sing rock, the harder and louder the better, and I was part of the punk/new wave scene in the late 70's and early 80's. (Perhaps that's where my 'edupunk' rebellious streak has its roots)

4. I first met my wife Dawn on the day of her wedding (she had run away from the madman she was due to marry the week before, and had been staying right next door to me, but I failed to notice her). We were married a year later and now have three teenaged children.

5. I am a chocoholic (recovering). I have not eaten chocolate since the first week of August 2008. (er, not in the real sense, where a giant half pound bar of Cadbury's Milk Chocolate could disappear in less than an hour).

6. There is one word that I know in 26 languages, but I'm not telling. You can guess if you like, or try to bribe me, or tie me to the kitchen chair, break my throne or cut my hair, but you will never, ever find out (and it's not hallelujah).

7. I'm allergic to penicillin. If I ingest it, my eyes turn green, my head revolves and my kneecaps fall off. Seriously, if I take penicillin, I tend to become quite ill.

I'm tagging James Clay, Kath Trinder, Stephen Fry, Tara Alexander, Cristina Costa, Andy Black and Sigi Jakob-Kuhn as my unsuspecting victims in the next phase of this dreadfully Random 7 meme.... (they'll all thank me one day)

The New Mii

What is so fascinating about avatars? How is it that our digital identity can be so fluid and flexible, and yet it can become something that is so vitally important to us when we venture into a digital environment?

For the uninitiated, The word Avatar comes from the ancient Hindu (Sanskrit) word 'avatara', of which the original meaning is 'incarnation'. In recent years (ever since it was first repurposed in 1985 from the Ultima Games set) the word avatar has become synonymous with the digital representation of an individual's identity. The avatar is now 'you' in another, technology mediated format. It can take the form of a 'buddy pic' on Twitter for example, or can be a sophisticated 3D rendering of your persona.

I was reminded of the function and purpose of the avatar when we recently introduced the Ninetendo Wii to our family over Christmas. The kids love it. We adults love it. It can become addictive if you let it. The Wii is quite simply a revolution in home entertainment and gaming experience. And the Wii demands that you create your Mii - your Wii avatar - so you can start playing the excellent 3D games it supports. Many discussion groups and web pages have sprung up to inform this activity (see for example the YouTube video on how to create a Penguin Mii) and it can be quite a creative process.

So you create your Mii based on how you want to appear on the screen as you play games. What choices do you have? Well, they are very wide. Similarly to other 3D virtual environments such as Second Life, you can create facial shapes and expressions, features, genders, ages, heights, body shapes, and adornments. You can of course, also have several avatars, for different purposes. Your first impulse is to create an avatar that represents you accurately. That's what I did, and then I soon got bored. So just for fun, my wife and I created a 'little old lady' avatar with her hair in a grey bun, whom we named 'Hilda'. It was hilarious to watch Hilda beating the tar out of other computer generated avatars half her age during a Wimbledon tennis match. I also have another avatar called 'Fat Barry' who is overweight, unfit, balding, and completely useless at just about everything. He is my complete antithesis of course! I always use his avatar to play my wife at golf, because if she doesn't win, my life is over.

But putting the entertainment and fun to one side for a minute (I know - these are important components in learning!) there is a serious side to avatar creation. Your avatar, according to some theorists, is an extension of you. So perhaps this is why so many people treat it so seriously. I have encountered some extremely impressive and elaborate avatars in Second Life, most of whom bear no resemblence whatsoever to their real life creators. It is of course a licence for pure fantasy, but there is a serious purpose behind it. I have posted previous blog posts on this subject including It's only me, and Multi-me, and I am increasingly interested in the issues faced when we 'distribute' our presence across several media and virtual environments simultaneously. I will write more about my own thoughts on avatars and digital identity over the coming year, and would appreciate any comments and dialogue with those of you who are interested in developing this subject further in the context of education and training.

Digistraction and action

Over in Germany, Sigi Jakob-Kuhn (Twitter: @Networking_Lady) has alerted me to another excellent buzz word which belongs to 2008 - Digistraction. The word was coined by Jochen Lueders, Munich and is the 'capability of digital media, particularly the Internet, to draw someone’s attention away from something by making them look at something else, often a succession of other things, e.g. web sites'. Reading this definition reminds me of a superb book I read earlier this year by Mark Curtis entitled 'Distraction: Being Human in the Digital Age', which tackles the same issues from a slightly different perspective.

Curtis writes: 'The explosion of new communications technology - the internet and mobile phones - means we've reached a social tipping point of no return: for we are becoming 'always on'. Not only connected all the time to the 'network', but distributing ourselves to others through it'.

On Twitter just a few hours ago Nergiz Kern (Twitter: @NergizK) who is in Turkey remarked that 'Twitter is such a distraction :-) I want to get some work done but always get side-tracked. I still love you all ;)' She seemed mindful (as should we all) that although Twitter was distracting her from her work, she did not wish to alienate herself from her 'network' of friends. I suppose that all of us in the coming year who are distributing ourselves across social networks will need to discover that fine balance between digistraction and action.

Buzz words of 2008

With the year drawing to a close, and with 2009 breathing down our necks, one interesting thing I like to do in the holiday downtime is to look back on the year. This time last year I revisited some of the tech buzz words of 2007. Here we go again with 2008.... Although some of these words (or phrases) are not strictly '2008' words, or are just emerging, they have begun to rise in prominence or are perhaps being used to describe things that weren't really available or widely known about, this time last year. If you have other buzz words you think should be added to this list, please use the comments box below. Here are my 12 in alphabetical order:

Blog groveling: This is the practice of certain companies to try to court popular bloggers and influencers to test, sample or endorse their new product or service. It extends to blog posting too. I have been approached several times by those who wanted to write ‘guest posts’ on my blog. When I vetted the posts some could best be described as 'product placement.' I don’t know whether I should be flattered or depressed.

Cloud Computing: Distributing your files away from your desktop and/or accessing programs and services across the Internet using large networks of remote servers. Used to be called distributed computing, but I think cloud computing sounds a little more friendly. Makes sense, I suppose.

Digital Cliff: No, nothing to do with the Peter Pan of Pop going virtual. It describes a sharp degradation of a digital broadcast signal if receivers are beyond a certain distance. This 'digital cliff' could be encountered when broadcasters stop transmitting analogue signals early in 2009. Viewers who received clear analogue signals may find that the new digital signals don’t work.

DWT: Not so much a new word as a new acronym. Driving While Texting – not only downright dangerous, but also stupid.

Edupunk: The philosophy that we should all ‘do it ourselves’, by spurning commercialism and rejecting large corporate products such as PowerPoint and BlackBoard in education (notice I'm not linking to them, so I must be an edupunk!). A word originally coined by so called Edupunk ‘Poster Boy’ Jim Groom. I have blogged about this several times over the year and even gave a presentation on Edupunk at the ALT-C Fringe this year in Leeds.

Friendiligence: This is the amount of your time you spend managing friend requests on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LInkedIn, etc, etc…. ‘Friendiligence’ reflects the oversaturation of the social networking sphere and the need to ask what your criteria are for ‘friending’ people. Are they real or is it actually spam? Do I actually want 2 million friends on Facebook, or will a paltry 1 million be enough?

Longphoto: This is a video clip of 90 seconds or less. It’s a term used by the photo-sharing Web service Flickr, which began allowing videos to be posted to its site in 2008. Go Pro for $25 a year and you get this facility. Longphotos are not long enough to capture an Obama speech, but long enough to show someone throwing their shoes at Dubya.

MicroTubing: Happening as a kind of ‘atomisation’ of popular media such as television. New forms of content are rapidly proliferating on the social web and many of these appeal to increasingly smaller and more specialised audiences. YouTube has snatched away the initiative from many previously established content producers, and the DVD and satellite TV revolution is also causing MicroTubing to gain pace. Odds on, if you ask someone in work 'did you watch ... last night' - they probably didn't.

Nomophobia: No Mo Phobia (geddit?) Fear of being out of mobile phone contact for a significant period of time. Strikes me that it had to come eventually, although for a while now we have probably been describing this condition as ‘mobile phone addiction’ or tech-dependency.

Photobombing: Inserting an image of yourself in the background of someone else’s photograph. Not sure why people would want to do this, but I suppose it takes all kinds. Photoshop has a lot to answer for.

Swipeout: This occurs when the magnetic strip on your credit card has worn out due to overuse. Not sure whether this word will continue to be in use when the credit crunch and recession really begin to bite in the coming month. Like many workers, it may become redundant...

Anything with Tw- in front of it! ...all these words are inspired by the very popular micro-blogging service Twitter. It allows you to share what you are thinking or doing in just 140 characters per message, by ‘tweeting’ your message to those who ‘follow you’ by subscribing to your stream. Twitter has been so popular in 2008 it has inspired new words and related Web sites. Twitter users (Tweeple or Twits) can now meet up (Tweet-up) and can even check out how successful their tweeting is on Twittergrader. Twemes, Tweetdeck and Twittergroups are just a few other examples of the growing plethora of allied services that have recently appeared – watch out for many more in 2009.

World War 2.0: There's a battle raging out there between those who are committed to the idea of a democratic, open and socially rich web, and those who want to maintain strict control over it, content and concept. The polemic between Andrew Keen (who famously compared bloggers to ‘monkeys with typewriters’) and Web 2.0 champions such as Donald Clarke and Don Tapscott will continue, and we may even witness the outbreak of World War 3.0.

e-Vampire: This is a derogatory term referring to electrical equipment that consumes electricity while in standby mode. It’s symptomatic of our society’s new conscience on going green and saving energy.

I wish you a peaceful Christmas and a very happy and successful new year!

2008 Milestones Retro

The end of each year is an ideal time to reflect upon personal progress and look back at the milestones, the achievements, the events that have made the year. It's a time to consolidate, to be thankful, and in the act of looking back, to also look forward to what the new year might bring. It's a time to make plans in the light of past successes (and failures) and to celebrate and take stock. Here are my top ten milestones of 2008.

The no 10. achievement of the year is presenting papers in one year at each of what I consider to be the four most influential e-learning conferences in Europe. EDEN (Lisbon, Portugal), ALT-C (Leeds, England), ICL (Villach, Austria) and Online Educa (Berlin, Germany). I attended all of these and another dozen or so conferences this year, and have met some incredibly smart and passionate academics and professionals, all of whom have inspired me to push forward myself to extend the boundaries of e-learning. I'm very grateful to all of them for their enthusiasm and energy.

My no 9. achievement for 2008 was an invitation for me to edit the proceedings for the ICT and Learning for the Net Generation IFIP conference which was held in Kuala Lumpur in July this year. Working with so many excellent and well known researchers and writers was stimulating and rewarding, and the finished product, complete with ISBN will be a part of the archive of accumulated knowledge in the field of computer based learning.

At no. 8 was a personal honour for me - an invitation to participate in the inaugral Open EduTech Summit which was held in Barcelona in October. Being numbered as one of 40 worldwide experts on open learning and distance education, was indeed an honour for me, particularly when the complete list of those invited is reviewed. I was fortunate to meet with and work alongside some real luminaries in the field such as Mark Bullen, Vijay Kumar and Sugata Mitra.

My no. 7 this year represents another personal honour. This month I was delighted to hear I had been nominated in two categories of the Twitter 'Shorty' Awards - the #education and #nonprofit categories. I don't stand a cat's chance of winning but just being nominated for one award, let alone two, is humbling - but shows that there are people out there who value what I write when I am on Twitter. Whatever the outcome of the awards, I will continue to be a twit for the forseeable future!

No. 6 was the news in September of my promotion within the Faculty of Education to co-ordinate all Education Development and Technology Mediated Learning activities, here at the University of Plymouth. I already convene the University's e-learning research network, but this role now gives me the opportunities to explore new and emerging technologies and how they can be applied to support and enhance learning across an entire faculty. I also now chair the Faculty of Education's Information Technology Committee.

At no 5. is the imminent publication of my fourth book, an edited volume entitled 'Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures', which will be in the bookstores for the first week of 2009. The cover of the book can be seen (above) for the very first time. This book is the second I have published with the US based Information Age publishing house, and my fourth on e-learning to date. It is an achievement for me on a number of levels, including the honour of working with great writers such as Howard Rheingold, John Traxler and Palitha Edirisingha.

At no. 4 was a very recent achievement. I was delighted to be nominated in 2 categories in the prestigious Edublog Awards (the 'Eddies') - best individual blog and most influential blog post. When I look at the competition for these awards, I realise that there is little chance of me winning, but as I have already said, the nomination means a great deal to me personally and professionally. I try to write blog posts that are both entertaining and informative.

At no. 3 is my election as chair of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 3.6 on distance education. I was honoured and thrilled to be elected to lead this reputable and highly respected group of researchers and academics. I hope I live up to expectations of the group to contribute toward IFIP's continued success.

At no. 2, I was very pleased to be invited to take over the editorship of a very highly respected journal, Interactive Learning Environments, after serving as Book Reviews editor for two years. I am daunted but excited at the prospect of steering the journal over the next few years, but I have an excellent team of associate editors and a stirling editorial board behind me to help me to ensure that ILE continues its success story.

At no. 1, and my most valued achievement of 2008, is my award of a lifetime EDEN fellowship. I was notified of the award earlier in the year and had to keep it fairly quiet until it was presented at the annual EDEN conference in Lisbon, in June. As one of the awarding committee remarked to me later, 'Someone can be president of EDEN for a short time, but a fellowship is for life'.

It has certainly been a very busy and rewarding year, with plenty of great events to remember, wonderful people to recall meeting for the first time, and excellent things to reflect upon. Here's to a successful and fulfilling year for all of us in 2009! Happy New Year everyone!

2008 Places Retro (2)

Continuing my top ten favourite places visited during 2008. Here are my top five cities in reverse order:

5 - Salzburg, Austria. Flying into the tiny airport at Salzburg in early June, I was treated to a breathtaking Alpine vista as we disembarked from the orange and white bird and trudged through the heat across the apron to the terminal building. The short taxi ride into Salzburg was full of superb views, and once through the town, and across the river I was soon in the tranquil St Virgil Christian retreat where my cell, sorry, room for four nights had been reserved for me. The conference was also held at St Virgil, and whichever way you looked out, there were majestic purple mountains, many of them snow capped. Salzburg itself is an urbane and classy city, with buildings that have seen centuries of culture. The birthplace of Mozart, Salzburg is classical music mad. Many people also visit the Mirabell Gardens, famous as one of the locations for the film musical Sound of Music. The gardens were amazing and there was plenty for the visitor to see. The only thing missing was a Julie Andrews shooting range. The old part of Salzburg is a wonderful place to simply stroll around in, and there are many small alleyways and tiny alcoves where you can sit down and enjoy sachertort and coffee. I went to a Beer Garden and enjoyed an enjoyable couple of hours (I think it was two hours but I lost track) sampling the local Austrian fayre in the shade of the trees.

4 - One week later I flew into Lisbon, Portugal. What can I say about beautiful Lisbon? It is a wonderful place to have a conference, but you may not want to stay in the conference venue for long, no matter how interesting it is, because Lisbon beckons, and Lisbon is seductive and captivating. I was there in June this year, at the height of the season, where the weather was warm, the sea was glittering and the buildings were gleaming in the sunshine. I stayed in the Campo Piqueno (= 'small field' - but there wasn't a field anywhere in sight) area of town where there is a magnificent bull ring and undergound shopping mall. This was some distance from the Belem Cultural Centre where the EDEN conference was held. Each day I endured a hot and sweaty 30 minute bus ride to get to the centre, but (providing you held your nose) there was so much to see on the journey that it really wasn't that arduous. I managed to find some time to visit the Jeronimos Monastery, as well as several other churches and made a long, steep climb up to the Castle of St George, to find some oxygen and enjoy the views out over the sea and the Atlantic. We enjoyed several good evening meals and great views in the Biarro Alto area of Lisbon. On one occasion I was out with a group of German colleagues. A seedy looking man sidled up to me and asked solicitously 'cocaine?' 'I'm sorry', I replied airily, 'I don't have any I can sell you'. He glared at me in surprise and then stalked off back into the shadows. My German colleagues thought I was serious until I explained British irony to them. (Smart Alec - Editor)

Speaking of Germans .... 3 - Berlin, Germany. City of glittering lights and high technology, Berlin is simply urban alchemy. Another brief visit this year to speak at Online Educa saw me staying once again at the Hotel Am Zoo, in Ku-Dam. Kurfurstendamm Strasse is full of boutiques, trendy clothing stores, cafes and bars and of course during the winter, is home to some of the best Christmas markets. Although I have visited Berlin many times, it never ceases to enthrall me. When I first visited Berlin back in 1997, it was the largest construction site in Europe, with the entire Potsdamerplatz area being completely redeveloped following reunification and the fall of the Wall. Now it is more settled, and there are less cranes on the cityscape. There are many places to visit in Berlin, including Alexanderplatz, the excellent Berlin Zoo in Budapesterstrasse, the Reichstag building, The Brandenburg Gate, Unter-den-Linden and of course, the Checkpoint Charlie museum.

My no. 2 is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Such a long way from home, in deepest Asia, Kuala Lumpur still maintains an immaculate air of Western collonialism amidst its truly Asian ambience (Flowery journalistic crap. Cut it out - Editor). It is truly alien yet familiar at the same time. The heady mix of ethnic groups, chinese, indian, malay, arabic and western makes KL a cosmopolitan city with plenty to offer for everyone. I was impressed by the massive building projects that have been completed over the last decade or so, and a visit to the central downtown area and a gaze up in awe at the incredibly high twin Petronas Towers was an experience I recommend to anyone. Malaysia was oppressively hot for much of the time I was there, but there is so much to see and do, and everywhere is air conditioned, it doesn't really matter that much. A guided tour through some of the jungle around the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur was an eye opener - the place is teeming with a vast diversity of wild life, some of which is very dangerous. The largest species of python in the world (and probably the only true 'man-eating snake' - the reticulated python, makes its home here). The people are friendly and the food is an eclectic fusion of indian, chinese, malay and thai, with a western influence too. It was truly worth the 17 hours of air travel to get there.

My Number 1 for 2008 - Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is outrageous, astonishing, wild, colourful and filled with people who just want to have fun night and day. It is such a lively city, that just thinking about it makes me feel weary all over again. The first thing that stikes you about this Catalonian city is the scale of the built environment. The architecture is a heady mix of numerous influences, from the grim gothic through to the gaiety of Antonio Gaudi's magnificent masterpieces such as the soaring, iconic Sagrada Familia (it has been under construction since 1882 and is due to be completed in 2025!) and the fairy tale Casa Batilo. Some of the buildings are absolutely staggering to behold - the majestic splendour of the National Palace (Palau Nacionale) is only surpassed by the surprisingly complex colour, light and water combinations of the Magic Fountain (La Fonta Magica). Multicoloured Agbar Tower is another architectural marvel, and is probably twice the size of London's 'Pickle'. Every turn and corner brings you into proximity with another absorbing yet strangely improbable staue, sculpture or landmark. Las Ramblas is worth a long stroll, whether in daytime or at night, because there is always something to do and see down this thoroughfare. They were actually shooting a movie while I was there. The human statues and the buskers are amusing, and the walk eventually takes you downhill past the towering stature of the Navigator (Christopher Columbus) on toward the harbour and the wooden walkways across to the Maremagnum and a huge entertainment and shopping multiplex. Tapas, Paella and Sangria are ubiquitous (not a word you hear everywhere), and the music is live, varied and frentic - Barcelona is the place to go to be entertained. (Stop trying to be funny - it's not working - Editor) Although I spent a mere 3 nights and days there, I saw enough of the city to attract me back again in the not too distant future.

At joint No 1 (Just how many is that now? - Editor) I really must throw a word or two in about bella Venice - I was there in September as a part of the social event of the ICL Conference. I don't think there is any other social event I have attended that compares with it. A day trip to Venice? Arriving by boat? Me, with my reputation? Venice was splendid, ludicrous, frantic (geddit?) and marvellous, all at once. Although I didn't try out the gondolas, I succeeded in hacking off one of the gondoliers, who didn't appreciate having his picture taken I think. Talk about gondolier infelice! I would love to go back to Venice when I have more time, perhaps for a couple of days or so - I only got to see such a small part of one island, and stopped short of the Rialto Bridge because we simply ran out of time. Ah well, maybe next time...

I have several trips already planned for 2009, and some are to places I have never before visited. (....well you won't be getting any funding from me - Editor).

2008 Places Retro (1)

I have had been fortunate to visit some of the most beautiful and exotic destinations in 2008. All have been visited while I was on business, so I have only experienced a short while in these cities, yet even a few short hours have left some indelible impressions. In reverse order, here are numbers 10-6 in my top ten (or eleven) places visited in 2008.

At no. 10 is Liberec, Czech Republic. I spent a week in Liberec in May this year, as I have done for the previous six years. I am a visiting scholar at the Technical University of Liberec, and run a week of study there for the first year students of the European funded University Neisse, made up of Czech, German and Polish students. Liberec is an hour north of Prague near to both the Polish and German borders, in what used to be called the Sudetenland. Liberec is overlooked by the conical Jested mountain, atop of which is a luxury hotel. There is a ski lift there which takes you up to the ski centre - in 2009 Liberec it will host the World Nordic Ski Championships. The architecture in Liberec is in places an almost inappropriate blend of the old and the new, the mundane and the stunning, the gothic and the avant garde - it has a certain je ne sais qua (OK. That's enough of the foreign words - Editor). I don't think I have ever visited a city with so many different mixes of buildings, all standing next to each other, in splendid proximity. The people are very quiet and reserved, but determined, and once you get to know them, they are warm and friendly toward you. Just a few choice Czech words thrown in here and there, and they beam with smiles - and are your friends for life. Liberec has an excellent zoo, some superb restaurants, bars and cafes, and is surrounded by wooded hills, which are ideal for taking the mountain air.

In 10th equal spot is London, England. I have been to London many times, twice to walk around parts of it on day trips, but usually to travel through it to get to somewhere else. On this occasion I was staying in the East End of London, near to the Docklands, in sight of the famous Pickle (Swiss Re Tower pictured). The conference was Handheld Learning, about which I have blogged elsewhere recently. I went out twice with some friends to an excellent Italian restaurant, the Alba, which made my stay in London surprisingly enjoyable. I didn't get to do much else other than the inside of the conference venue, my hotel room, Old Street tube station and Victoria Coach Station. But there are many things to see and do in London which will take up a month of sundays. There is the London Eye, the Tate Modern, The V and A Museum, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben (St Stephen's Tower), Westminster Abbey, the National Art Gallery in Trafalgar Square, Horse Guards Parade, and of course Buck House, to name just a few attractions. Shopping in Oxford Street and eating out in one of the many watering holes after a West End show are all a must. One of the visits I have promised myself on a future occasion is to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which I have heard nothing but good reports about.

No. 8 - Cork, Tralee and the Dingle Peninsula, Ireland. I flew into Cork on a cold and blustery day in February for a five night stay in Tralee, near the Dingle Peninsula in Western Ireland. Ireland in February is a wild, windswept but very green little world. Our hire car took us down winding roads and country lanes, past spectacular mountain ranges and foaming sea scapes. My stay in Tralee was comfortable but a bit chilly, and the visits to the local hosteleries were a welcome distraction with the roaring fires and strong Irish cider and Guinness taking our minds off the weather. To be fair, the weather was fairly kind to us with only a few rainy intervals. We spent one day, along with the staff and students of the Atlantis Project (Irish, German and Polish computer science students) on a trip down around the Dingle peninsula - the most westerly point in Ireland and an area replete with stoneage history. The cliffs and beaches were windswept and bitterly cold, but they had a stark beauty. The highlight of the day out for me was the visit to the neolithic site known as the Beehive. It was 'back to my roots' for me, because Cork is the birthplace of several of my ancestors. Cork is a great place, and I will one day go back there again, er ... when the weather is more favourable, of course.

No. 7 - Warsaw, Poland. Parts of Warsaw are places you wouldn't want to visit, but some of the old parts of the town (totally rebuilt in the 1950s as replications of the centuries old buildings that were completely destroyed during the Second World War) look beautiful (pictured). I spent some time with a Polish colleague after I had given my keynote speech to the Polish Virtual Universities Conference. He showed me around some of the royal palaces and botanical gardens near the embassy district of Warsaw. The Royal Castle and the famed Bristol Hotel are grand old buildings, as is the Presidential Palace. Some great restaurants and cafes line the way from the Parliament building area where I was staying, to the Old Town (Stare Miasto - pictured) and I sat in one or two to sample their wares (I bet you did - Editor). There was a rock concert and festival to celebrate Mid-summer day on my last night in Warsaw. I walked for over an hour through the streets to get there and it was very much worth the effort to find the concert - held on the banks of the Vistula river. It was truly spectacular, with a great light show and three excellent live bands. I had heard a lot about the famous Pole dances, but never saw one the whole time I was there.

At No. 6 is Colombo, Sri Lanka. This was an unscheduled stopover, which was paid for by Sri Lankan Air after they totally screwed up my return travel from Kuala Lumpur when they put my flight time forward by over an hour without telling me, and made me miss my plane. They made up for it, by putting me up overnight in a lovely, paradise island style beach hotel (pictured) just outside Colombo, in a place called Nagombo - home of the Tuk Tuk and other strange indiginous beasts. I spent a nice hour or two in the waning heat just before the sun set, walking barefoot across the idyllic golden sands beneath the palm trees, and paddling in the warm Indian Ocean (or more accurately, the Bay of Mannar). I met a wiry little man on the beach who tried to convince me he had been the opening bat (and also the wicket keeper) for the Ceylon national team that toured England during the summer of 1958. He was very knowledgeable about England cricket players such as Freddy Truman and told me all his anecdotes. Then he tried to get hold of my personal banking details so I could 'contribute' to his favourite children's charity. I smelled a rat (not hard to do in certain parts of Sri Lanka - Editor) and beat a hasty retreat. Just shaking his hand convinced me he had never been a wicket keeper. He had tiny soft hands like a small child. Couldn't blame him for trying though. I spent the rest of the evening being amused by the antics of the small lizards, stripy squirrels and other wild life as I ate my evening meal at the hotel.

I have run out of space. No, really I have. I will have to continue this countdown tomorrow. You''ll have to wait for the top five. Same space - different time, depending on when you come back to this blog to view the contents.

2008 Tools and Technologies Retro

There are so many new tools and technologies I have stumbled upon (no that isn't one of them) over the last year, it's almost as if I have just stepped out of a time machine and into the future. There is so much to learn about, and so many new tools to use, there simply isn't enough time for everything. But the tools and technologies I have been introduced to this year have made the year for me. Some have crept up on me slowly and have gradually invaded my time and my thinking. Others have been sudden surprises which have grown quickly in front of me and have impacted on my professional practice. In reverse order, here are my top ten tools and technologies of 2008:

10 - Plurk is a fun tool for microblogging, and is multi-functional. I like the informal nature of the conversations one can enjoy, usually late into the evening with the likes of @Eingang, @nanknits and @misetak. The moving timeline can be useful at times and I appreciate the utility of the chat box that opens for each individual plurk. The animated emoticons are great fun too. I'm not so sure about the 'Karma' status though as it tends to draw users into sending messages for the sake of sending, just so they can get more responses, and therefore raise their Karma points. Well ... whatever it takes....

9 - Crowdvine is a very impressive tool. It is a social space for people to meet and share their resources, but it also acts as a conference/event schedule manager so you can connect face-to-face with others you are interested in meeting, or have similar interests with. It is one of the best aggregators I have seen yet, and will probably prove to be better than No 8. below eventually...

8 - I was first introduced to Twemes at EduMedia in Salzburg in June this year. It is a very useful little aggregator, working on hash tagging, to bring together Twitter tweets, Flickr images and other tags such as Delicious on blogs. Although it is at times a little flakey, Twemes has worked reasonably well at several recent events to draw together all the artefacts, thoughts and memories in one place. Try it. You'll like it.

7 - Slideshare is a very simple, but most effective web service which enables you to load up your complete PowerPoint slide shows (or other files such as pdf files) direct to a webspace and then make them available to others. A hit counter tells you how many times each slideshow has been viewed, and there are also comments boxes and friends tools to create the social connections.

6 - Several times in the last few months I have had a Flip video camera waved in my face, and have given interviews which are subsequently uploaded to the web. It is a simple little camera with a flipout USB drive to interface with your laptop. I am being given one by my wife (steady on) as a Christmas gift this year, so I will start using it in anger soon. I will let you know how I get on with it via this blog.

5 - Blip.fm - I only became a web DJ this week, but I have already discovered that the number of new friends you can make through this service is phenomenal. It has to be the social networking tool of 2008. Blip.fm is a little like Flickr in concept - but instead of making connections through pictures, you do it through playing your favourite music tracks on the web. 'Props' (award points) are given and received when people like the track you are playing. Blip.fm is a superb tool in many ways.

4 - Nintendo DS (Dual Screen) Lite. All three of my kids had one already, so I knew what they were capable of, but there is no substitute for hands on experience. I finally managed to get my hands on one when I was given it as a part of the deal when registering early for Handheld Learning 2008. It arrived in a package and I was soon using it for brain training, gaming and of course, testing out the Pictochat capabilities. This is an extremely versatile tool which is only at the very edge of its pedagogical uses. We need to find out a lot more about how we can use the DS in real, creative learning contexts.

3- Wetpaint is quite simply the most versatile wiki I have ever used. I used one for the first time when we set up F-ALT this year. I particularly like the picture clouds it generates as this enables me to track student contributions visually to ensure that all my group stay on board. I will continue to use the ad-free versions as quasi-virtual learning environments for my groups next year. Just you watch me.


2- Here's my No. 2 tool for 2008. I was given an Apple iPhone for Christmas 2007 by my darling wife, and it has travelled with me everywhere (of course) ever since. It is not perfect, but one thing it has over all the other smart phones is its multi-gesture touch screen which has simply got to be the future of handheld technologies. I have not yet upgraded to 3G but it is only a matter of time...


1- My number one new tool for 2008 has to be the magnificent Twitter. This microblogging tool has grown exponentially over the last 12 months, and as I write I have a following of around 600 people, many of whom I respect greatly for their contributions to our understanding of learning technology. Some of my conversations on Twitter over the last few months have been rich and meaningful, and have given me much food for thought. There are so many new Twitter related tools appearing very week it is hard to keep up with them all, so I won't try. But the very fact they are all appearing attest to the rapid rise in popularity of Twitter. I believe that as 2007 was the year of Facebook, so 2008 has been the year of Twitter.


So those are my top ten tools and technologies of 2008. We can of course look forward to many more exciting new tools and technologies in the coming year, because as we all know, the pace of change never slows, and innovation is its child.

2008 Conferences Retro

I spoke at a number of high profile e-learning conferences over the year, and took part in some stimulating discussions and excellent workshops. Half of the joy of attending such events is the possibility of networking with like minded individuals, intelligent people with great ideas, and the chance to engage with them in sharing ideas and collaborating together beyond the event. Here are my top ten learning technology conferences of 2008 (look, I know it's eleven really, but whose blog is this anyway?):

10 = I was invited to keynote the Polish Virtual Universities conference in June and was flown out to Warsaw for a few days. It's a beautiful city, but there are parts of Warsaw, including the accommodation I stayed in, which left a little to be desired. The conference was all in Polish, except for the three keynotes, so I didn't get much from the event. Albert Sangra's presentation (Open University of Catalonia, Spain) was excellent, and we have since become great friends.

10 = I was also invited to keynote the one-day event held in Southampton University in January. The conference, focusing on e-learning for language teaching, was also keynoted by Jon Dron (Athabasca University) and I enjoyed his presentation and learnt a lot.

9 - As with last year, the ICL conference held in Villach, Austria was again an interesting one. Met old friends and made some new ones, and participated in several workshops and paper presentations. I gave a 3 hour pre-conference Web 2.0 workshop which almost 50 people attended. Conversation was lively and long lived. Web 2.0 is obviously still a hot topic amongst the education community. And the social event - a day trip to Venice - was an incredible experience. The 2009 ICL event will again be held in Villach on 23-25 September.

8 - My home conference, the 3rd Plymouth e-Learning Conference, held in April, was only a one day event, but was one not to miss. An excellent keynote by Mark Stiles was followed by many high quality papers from delegates from 20 UK universities, and a stirling demonstration of the Wii hack from our own team of Learning Technologists. And the Devon cream tea was also well received by all! Next year's Plymouth e-Learning Conference is a two day event, and is already shaping up to be bigger and better than 2008's, with as of today, more than 100 delegates already registered from 15 countries.

7 - The EduMedia conference, in the peaceful and majestic Alpine surroundings of St Virgil, Salzburg was a wonderful experience. I met some new friends and made some useful contacts, many of which will be pursued over the coming months. Even found time to make a short trip across the border to Germany for an excellent meal with friends. Next year's event Edumedia 2009 takes place in Salzburg between 2-3 June.

6 - In November, I left the damp and drizzly weather of the UK for a few days in Barecelona for the Open EduTech summit, hosted by the Open University of Catalonia. Not really a conference, more a meeting of minds, I was one of an invited group of 40 e-learning and open learning specialists who were brought together to discuss the future of open learning. A very stimulating event, tapas and drinks with new friends and old, and some great walks around the gothic quarter of Barcelona and up Las Ramblas were highlights of this event.

4 = At 4th equal - Online Educa Berlin is always a great experience. Always held in the crisp and cold pre-Christmas German capital, and is always massive. The presence of the edublogger community was stimulating, and our many informal meetings outside the confines of the main conference were memorable and fruitful. OEB 2009 will be held in December 2-4.

4 = In equal 4th place was the IFIP conference - ICT and Learning for the Net Generation - which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July (pictured above). In the extreme heat and humidity more than 120 delegates from around the globe came together to discuss a variety of digital learning contexts and e-learning methods. Social trips out and about were enjoyed by all, and the silubrious surroundings of the Saujana Hotel were unrivalled - one highlight was a moonlit dinner at the hotel poolside. An unscheduled stopover at a beach hotel in Sri Lanka on the way home capped the experience for me.

2 = The EDEN 2008 conference was held at the Belem Cultural Centre in beautiful Lisbon in June. I toured the city on the first day and was impressed by its beauty and majesty. The conference was also stimulating and enjoyable, and several of us introduced live blogging as a mainstream activity at EDEN for the first time. EDEN 2009 will be held in Gdansk, Poland for the first time, on 10-13 June. EDEN is an excellent conference for networking amongst distance education and e-learning professionals. It is fairly non-commercial (no vendors or exhibition to speak of), eclectic and fast moving.

2 = ALT-C 2008 which took place at the University of Leeds in September has my vote for joint second place. Although the accommodation was basic, the venue was great, and there were some memorable papers and workshops, including an inspirational keynote speech by Hans Rosling. Most memorable event was the Web 2.0 Slam workshop where James Clay, Joss Winn and I created a comic YouTube video about gender and the digital divide. Best outcome of the event was the inception of the Fringe (F-ALT) organised by some of the edublogger community. Long may it continue at all future events! ALT-C 2009 will be held in Manchester, 8-10 September.

1 - My number 1! The best conference by a country mile in 2008 was Handheld Learning, which took place in London in October. I attended Handheld as a non-speaking delegate. Doesn't mean I didn't talk to anyone, because there were many very useful conversations. No, I went along with no pressure, because I had no paper to present. The event had something for everyone, including Nintendo Wii games to play, superb staging and lighting, excellent organisation, great catering, friendly crew, a specturm of papers and workshops which ranged from entirely practical to challengingly academic and above all, an extremely eclectic mix of delegates drawn from every single sector of educational practice, and a great venue - The Brewery in the East End of London. Congratulations go to Graham Brown-Martin and his team for organising such a memorable event - I definitely intend returning for Handheld Learning in 2009 (5-7 October).

Edupunk stalks the institution...

There has been much rhetoric over how academics are increasingly disenchanted with institutional VLE provision and are subscribing to a 'doing it yourself' approach. Students are also voting with their feet, with many preferring to use social networking tools such as Facebook to communicate in place of the institutional e-mail system. The adoption of free social software tools has raised questions over corporate branding, security and privacy issues, and legal requirements. The storm is just beginning, and people are now getting worried, for according to this press release from JISC earlier today:

As learners increasingly adopt free third party email providers over their institutional email, further and higher education institutions are faced with whether to follow the crowd by outsourcing their email and data services.

JISC, UCISA and Universities UK recognise this challenge and are today launching two new briefing papers to help institutions understand the implications and opportunities involved in no longer hosting their own email service.

Steve Bailey, Senior Advisor at JISC infoNet, said: "Outsourcing email and data storage facilities is being viewed as an increasingly attractive proposition by many institutions faced with growing user demand for increased storage and functionality.

"However, it is important that institutions enter into such arrangement with their eyes wide open and fully appreciate that outsourcing these services does not also outsource their management responsibilities, liabilities and obligations.

"These papers highlight the experiences of four institutions, the University of Westminster, the University of Oxford, Leeds Metropolitan University and Glasgow Caledonian University on how they considered outsourcing and what solutions worked for them," added Steve.

The opportunities include:

* Enhanced and enriched student learner experience
* Email account with an ac.uk address
* Retain email account beyond leaving education
* Storage of emails in GB rather than MB - greater capacity
* Access calendar and file storage services
* Information sharing.

The implications are:

* Hidden setup costs
* Legal, contractual and procurement processes
* Whether to outsource email services for learners, or learners and staff
* Privacy and confidentiality of data storage
* Compliance with Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts
* Beta status of services - which are constantly changing.

David Harrison, Chair of UCISA, said, "There are many aspects an institution should consider before opting to outsource. These papers highlight the issues and encourage institutions to take a holistic view when considering outsourcing."

So Edupunk is stalking the institution, and has begun to undermine previously secure and structured provision. Where will it all end? Your views and experiences will be welcomed on this blog - post your comments here.

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.

My top 10 of everything

It's the top end of the year once again, and boy, did 2008 fly by ever so fast! 2008 was quite an eventful year in many ways, and quite a successful one for me.

Over the next week or two in the run up to Christmas I'm going to look back over the highlights of a year spent immersed in the world of digital learning and communication technology.

A lot has happened where new ideas and tools have risen to prominence, old ideas have been challenged, and there have been significant events, globally, nationally and personally. I'm going to use the following coding for the next few postings:

• 2008 Conferences Retro is a look back at what in my opinion were the top ten learning technology conferences I attended during the year. It was not difficult this year selecting '10 of the best' because I was fortunate enough to attend several high profile ones in Europe and Asia, and honoured to be invited to speak at a lot more.
  
• 2008 Tools Retro reviews the top ten new tools and technologies I have been introduced to and have become familiar with this past year. Some have crept up on me and have pervaded my life. Others have been more sudden and surprising. Some are already indispensable and others are growing on me.


• 2008 Friends Retro is a tribute to some of the great new friends I have made and especially those who have impressed me in 2008. I will pay tribute to those who have influenced my own thinking for the first time this year through our conversations and personal contact.


• 2008 Places Retro showcases the top ten places I have visited this past year, and highlights their best features and attractions. I hope to reflect upon the sights I have seen, food and drink I have enjoyed and any interesting travel anecdotes I can muster.


• 2008 Achievements Retro will be a reflection on my own top ten personal and professional achievements over the last year. I recommend doing this kind of reflection, as it's good to look back and see where you have come from, if only to determine where you are headed.

I hope you will enjoy reading these memories, views and reflections of 2008, even though they are my own personal (and probably at times highly opinionated) ones! I know it's a tad self indulgent, but flippin' heck, it's Christmas - what's a boy to do?