Thanks for the memories

There is an old saying that you shouldn't look back when you are ploughing a field. Hmmm.... It's a good job that I'm not ploughing a field then, isn't it...? So at the top end of the year I can look back on 2007 with some fondness and think, wow, how good a year was that? So here are just a few of my highlights:

Best conference of the year: Without doubt it would have to be Online Educa Berlin, where I learnt so much, heard so many good papers and keynotes, and met so many great people. Second prize is shared by ALT-C (Nottingham) and Bazaar (Utrecht).

Best keynote of the year: Had to be that of Teemu Arina, the Finnish wunderkind, who regaled us with his clear thinking and prescience at EDEN in Naples.

Best device of the year: The iPhone of course - a gadget that I am not getting tired of.... and I've had it for almost a week now!

Best new buddy for the year: Well, I have made several new friends, all of whom I met this year, and all of whom I am now working with/collaborating with in some way. So let's see ... Marco Kalz (met him at ICL in Austria), Helen Keegan (on a bus going to the Eden conference, Italy), Gorg Mallia (ICICTE Heraklion and cartoonist extraordinaire), David Guralnick (ICL Austria), Graham Attwell (ALT-C Nottingham and all over the place ever since!), Josie Fraser (ALT-C Nottingham), Piers MacLean (ICICTE) and Cristina Costa (ALT-C Nottingham) all spring to my mind as people who have enhanced my year and given me much food for thought and a lot of laughter.

Flop of the year: Had to be ICODL in Athens, which proved to be a bit of a disappointment in many ways.

City of the year: Stockholm was great (for one night only) in April, Utrecht was great to wander around in the dark, and Frankfurt was ace (in October), but the prize for this year has to go to..... Bella Napoli!

Best food: Again, sorry all you other cities - you did your best, but it's Napoli that has the best food and restaurants.

Best experience of the year: Speaking to almost 300 people on the topic of Second Life at Online Educa in November. Large screen technology and safety in numbers comes to mind (there were 6 of us on the panel). Second prize goes to the visit I made with my mate Palitha Edirisingha to Pompeii in June, just prior to the opening reception at the EDEN conference.

Funniest event of the year: The ALT-C social event at Jongluers Comedy Club in Nottingham. We laughed until we got thrown out. Second prize goes to the farce of a speech by Andrew Keen at Online Educa. Never heard such crap.

Best group of the year: The prize goes to the Bazaar bunch who are the most intellectually stimulating group of people I have come across. That's us pictured above. Glad to know you all guys! (And Freefolio is a cool idea! - Thanks)

Sounds bazaar

I am featured on a podcast this month which is hosted by one of the busiest men in e-learning: Graham Attwell. It's called Sounds of the Bazaar and it looks like it's been going for a while, because this is edition number 14. The podcast lasts approximately one hour and is reminiscent of a vox pop radio show. My interview is about 7 minutes long, and is one I did with Graham about the University of Plymouth's Sexual Health SIM in Second Life while we were at the ICL conference in Austria last month. You can even hear the coffee machines in the background...

There are some interesting features from other speakers on this podcast, including interviews with Stephen Downes and Ruth Rominger and reports from conferences. Graham does a good job as host of the show, and draws you into the content with his easy going, westcountry burr. Have a listen - the entire contents are also featured on the British Institute BILD site. Graham and I will also be speaking on a specialist panel called 'No Life in Second Life?' at Online Educa Berlin next month. With us will be Dai Griffiths, David White, Helen Keegan and Steven Warburton. Hope you can make it...

Diamonds in the mud

They saved the best 'til last... The papers on the final day really cut the mustard for me. I chaired a session entitled 'pedagogical and psychological issues' (on my own request to the conference organisers) and I wasn't disappointed. An all female crew of 4 presenters took us through a fast-paced spectrum of ideas and research around e-learning. Maja Snyder (University of Maribor, Slovenia) evaluated several e-learning courses from a student perspective. Next up was Erika Pigliapoco (University of Urbino, Italy) who discussed the 'psychological sense of community' needed for all distance courses to succeed. Hot on her heels was Hiba Mustafa (University of Massey, New Zealand) who regaled us with a content superb offering entitled: 'Computer-based Meta Cognitive Training' in which she outlined a new web based tool for supporting problem solving for post-graduate students in medicine, vetrinary services, etc. Finally, in this truly global community of presenters, came Marissa Wettasinghe (National Institute of Education, Singapore) who presented a paper on how ICT has been used to support slow learners. And......I pronounced all their names perfectly.

The highlight of the day was found in two papers that shone out like diamonds in the mud in an afternoon of mediocrity. Lief Martin Hokstad (whom I had previously session-chaired in EDEN, Naples - the guy's a Steely Dan fan!) and his colleague Carl Fredrik Dons from the University of Trondheim, Norway, presented a paper about digital literacies which challenged and illuminated. Why is it that all Norwegians need three names? I don't know, but in conversation afterwards, we agreed that our research interests were so similar we probably need to do some work together...

Finally, last session of the conference....Mark Kramer (Pictured: University of Saltzberg, Austria) didn't disappoint us with a rip-roaring presentation full of hand-held technologies. His talk, entitled 'Learning in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing' was refreshing, providing the audience with new ideas to go away with. He took a picture of the audience and uploaded it to Flickr in under 10 seconds during the presentation just to prove a point. I'm the guy waving at the back...

Well, we were waving goodbye to each other soon afterwards, as we each made out weary way home. I have made some good new friends, and hope to work with some of them in the future. As for Villach and Ljubljana - these stunning cities with their breath-taking vistas of Alpine scenery will not go forgotten.

Dark clouds and peanut butter sandwiches

Well, it´s the final day of the ICL conference here in Villach, Austria. It´s clouding over again, and there is a rumour of rain. It pelted down last night, and I was glad that all the events, including the splendid conference dinner (sponsored by the Mayor of Villach, who failed to appear) were located in the same silubrious venue of the Congress Centre and Holiday Inn Complex. They certainly know how to treat you well here - the staff are superb, helpful and friendly, and the rooms are soooooo luxurious.

There are delegates from over 45 countries represented here, and many are milling around the wireless zone, or sitting tapping away at their laptops as I write this blog. Much of the conference content has been highly technical, which pleases the physicists and hard science bods who are much in evidence, but irrates the hell out of people like me. A lot of it goes over old ground I´m afraid to say. I have overheard comments such as ´where are the students in all this?´and ´what about the learning?´ I won´t bore you with some of the titles, as they certainly bore me.... and for me at least, dark clouds are gathering over the conference as it draws to a close. However, here are some of the more interesting titles which I have either sat in on, or plan to sit in on, during this final day: Towards an architecture of participation, The impact of graphics on wiki use, The human side of e-learning, and one to really get your teeth into ... Make a free wiki as easily as a peanut butter sandwich!

Overall, as with many conferences of this nature, there seems to be a shortfall in quality and innovation within the presentations. I´m not disappointed though... I have made several new contacts with some excellent people. It´s been a great networking experience.

Finally, there is one particularly Teutonic title: ´Make engineering students collaborate!´ We leave tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 0600 to catch our train back down to Ljubjlana and thence outwards to Stansted via the big white and orange bird. More reflections later when I have had time to reflect...

All things bright and dutiful....

I´m looking out over the river Drau, here in Villach, Austria. We´re in the Congress Centre for ICL 2007 - an impressive international conference focusing on all aspects of computer based/supported education and training. Villach is a beautiful little town in the South of Austria, and is nestled in between the mountains. Some of the papers so far have been challenging, others have been a little lacklustre, and one or two have been fairly dutiful in their presentation if not content. It is still death by powerpoint, but yesterday, Graham Attwell refreshingly came up with an image laden presentation which was laced with wit and incisive ideas. I did a podcast interview with him this morning in which he asked me about my current Second Life project. I will be meeting up with him and colleagues later in November, to present a panel about SL for Online Educa in Berlin.

Today the highlight was undoubtedly the keynote address by Nicholas Balacheff, who guided us through a tortuous journey (similar to the one by train yesterday that took us two hours up into the mountains from Ljubljana, Slovenia up to Villach) in which he covered formal and informal learning, computer aided didactics, computational intelligence, and a general overview of all that is currently live and kicking in eLearning. The situated contexts of learning are important, he argued, as we cannot learn complex ideas without first ´knowing´. Hmmm... interesting, when you put this into the context of problem solving, choice making and negotiation of meaning. With theorists like Nic Balacheff around, the future of eLearning, although somewhat uncertain, is as bright as the sun that is currently shining through the windows of this wireless zone.

More from the conference tomorrow.... for now, auf wiedersehn.