Thank you!

Yep, it’s time for the annual ‘Eddies’ ritual of nominating peers for this year’s Edublog Awards (nominations close on 8 December!). This is so hard!

I think of the people mentioned below not as ‘winners’ but rather as a particularly skewed list of people and connections that shape and help me think, learn and … be.

Best individual blog – Ira Socol’s SpeEd change

I stumbled upon Ira’s work about mid-year and never left. You will just have to read his excellent insights laced with hope and guidance. We have hit it off personally too and editing the “Why is everyone an expert on education?” post series right here on ‘Human’ has been a highlight in my own professional career. Thank you Ira. I know you don’t care much about awards but here is a tip of a hat to you and your work!

Best individual tweeter – Alec Couros (blog)

This is an ‘impossible’ nomination but this friendly Canuck’s tweets are simply a great mixture of links, insights, personal moments, humour and tweeting style, his blog a must to subscribe for edu-things ‘Open’. Thanks Alec!

PS How’s the #hamster going?

Best new blog – Simon Carabetta’s West Coast Left

Simon is a blogging champ at our school, running and managing our school blog (College eVoice) and his own. His enthusiasm is contagious around the school and, importantly, among the kids! Simon’s blog is a healthy bunch of insights of a living, breathing classroom teacher growing and changing by the day. To many more Simon!

Best resource sharing blog – Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day

Larry, if you read this I got a question for you: When do you sleep? You are bloody amazing with your posts, lists, links, advice, comments, tweets, insights. If you can sustain this pace by all means – you are making the world a better place! A sincere thank you from myself and dozens of kids and staff around here who have benefited from your hard work.

Most influential blog post – Marion Brady at Truthout.org ‘Education reform: Wrong Diagnosis, So Wrong Cure‘

Another ‘impossible’ one. I have read many great posts this year, many of them linger, this one is to quote and act upon. Often. Go and read it…   Thank you Marion.

Best teacher blog – Darcy Moore’s Blog

OK, he is an administrator/teacher … but that just doesn’t matter. Last year I think I called him a leader who leaps over 30ft chasm with one 40ft leap, not two ten-footers like many in his position. After all his work this year, particularly on developing professional learning networks, 1:1 programmes, connectivism etc (etc etc etc) he is still one of the people I’d have a beer anytime, anyplace and we wouldn’t be out of time or out of place. Thanks Darcy, can we clone you?

Best librarian / library blog – Jenny Luca’s Lucacept

More than a librarian! Master of Nings, literacy and engagement of kids from Melbourne – here is tip of a hat to you from across the Nullarbor. Our rapid-fire tweet-distractions when writing reports are turning into a personal folklore Thanks Jenny, you rock!

Best elearning / corporate education blog – Global Classroom

The tireless Joe Thibault and his team run a blog full of stories to tickle every moodler’s heart. I love dropping by and checking what fellow moodlers come up with and make a difference where it matters most – on the ground! Thank you.

Best educational use of audio – Podkids by Paul Fuller

He is not the winner of 2009 Australian Innovative Teaching Awards for nothing. Podkids bring the world into their Year 4 and 5 classroom and make things that many adults would be proud of. Here is to them and their wonderful, humble and very clever, passionate teacher and a friend. Cheers Paul!

Best educational use of video / visual – Dave Cormier’s “Presenting With Live Slides”

I share so many things and interests with this fella I wish I could share the desk with him one day. I often drop by his blog for a dose of his take on things open, rhizomy, messy yet wonderfully raw and clear of hype. You will just have to read/view his ‘Presenting with live slides’ post and the video. If that’s the future…sign me up! Cheers Dave and thanks for all your ’stuff’. An assemblage to connect to

Best educational wiki – Indispensible Tools (Drew Buddie & “the crowd”)

Yes, lists and collections of tools abound but I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve dipped into this one. It’s the clarity, brevity and the fact it is all ‘crowd sourced’ that keeps me coming back. Drew ‘Digitalmaverick’ Buddie, take a bow across the oceans! Thanks mate.

Best educational use of a social networking service – Classroom 2.0

As Nings and networks come, Classroom 2.0 takes the cake for things ed-te(a)chy. Steve Hargadon’s (whom I had a great pleasure of sharing a meal with last month in Perth when visiting with another favourite and friend Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach) project is just a stunning example of collaboration and technological, pedagogical and, often, emotional support across the globe. Well done Steve and the team!

Lifetime achievement – Stephen Downes

Lucid, insightful, tireless, respected … I stop before inflating superlatives. If you know/read him, you are probably nodding now. Enough said – thank you Stephen!

There are sooooooo many more people to mention here but I will save it for the “Christmas special” post.

Now, I beat the deadline for nominations. Have you? Here is that link to 2009 Eddies again …

This morning I had a meeting with Dr Jan Herrington, Professor of Education at Murdoch University here in Perth, Western Australia. It was a very friendly, honest, open, productive and, as tweeted straight afterwards, a “frightfully successful” meeting about the potential of me starting to work towards a PhD degree, supervised by Dr Herrington. Her research interests read much like an awesomely researched, thoughtful academic version of my passionate scribbles here (on my blog). In conversation, we have traversed so much of edu(tech) territory with an amazing ease and understanding of two people ‘in the field’. Within an hour, we have mapped out a rough outline of the project, theoretical framework and possible methodology (freakish! – more on that another time). Dr Herrington’s methodical approach to completing a thesis project and her philosophy on writing were music to my ears after the six years (or seven, forgot it myself) part-time effort of an arduous Masters research thesis. Over Twitter, I even got high recommendations about Dr Herrington by one of her former PhD students. Not to mention I would probably be working closely with my best friend Dr Greg Thompson, who actually introduced me to Dr Herrington. And more. It all looks so seductively ready to go…

My modus operandi has long been “why not?” in many things. But this one is a big chunk, big enough to ask: “Why do it?” (My wife asked me the same question, rightly so.). Here are my top reasons, all with their positive spin and endless question marks not stated but assumed:

• I am curious and love learning, thinking and doing what I believe in.
• I love pushing the boundaries.
• I am passionate about technology being the catalyst for not just how we learn but what we (never cease to) become as a result of using it.
• I am uncomfortable with the prevalent mainstream, myopic schooling system mired in technicalities that change nothing that really matters.
• I like creative yet disciplined, logical, thoughtful effort that makes sense to people and ends up being significant.
• I am slightly mad (a necessary pre-condition many PhD/EdD candidates tell me…   )
• I know I can do it.
• I would have an excellent supervisor and mentor.

Yes, the title and job prospects and all that are nothing to be sneezed at and I don’t pretend I would not like them but I recognise the foolishness of it. Because there will always be more …

And while I ask myself ‘can I endure the endless hours of research, painstaking editing, drafting, re-shaping and processing things, can our bank balance cope with such a project, can I sacrifice hundreds of hours I would otherwise spend with my family, are there alternatives etc etc …’, please feel free to either advise me with a reasonable encouragement or a sobering kick in the butt, or generally share your views on the question: To PhD or Not To PhD?

Thank you. Sincerely.

PS. Our “Why is everyone an expert in education?” series will continue very soon. Last two weeks have been crazy for the three of us writing. Coming up!

Here is very briefly what Seth Godin and Tom Peters think about blogging. And it rings true…

PS. If you are an educator and haven’t started a blog – have a go. You may want to start with Edublogs. The name says it all (no, I don’t get paid by Edublogs).

Before going back to school tomorrow, here are a few of my professional aims for the year.

• Continue to try, question, reflect on how digital technology (DT) can enhance and/or threaten the purpose of education (not schooling!) as it see it: to extend the understanding of the world beyond our immediate experiences while respecting those experiences, and through that learn how to function as individuals together in ever-changing societies.

• Continue my “deliberate practice” and get as many colleagues, students, friends as possible to enjoy DT for the humanity it can enable and enhance.

• Write a book on Moodle (yep, working on it!) and continue to teach and learn (with) this phenomenal resource.

• Work on EVICTS becoming a useful point for collaboration between teachers.

• Run a Philosophy & Ethics course for which I have worked hard to get into our school.

• Attend and/or present at a MoodleMoot somewhere.

• (Continue to) love serendipity afforded by social media but say ‘no’ when sleep and rest are needed.

May another Antipodean school year begin!

A couple of fellow bloggers tagged me into this meme-game of “7 Things You Don’t Know About Me’. Memetics is actually quite a fascinating, if controversial and bickering, field of human interest you may wish to be ‘infected with’. I have read Susan Blackmore’s The Meme Machine not long after it came out in 1999 and have held a loose interest to many of her ideas since. Well, let me spread some pretty innocuous memes.

In no particular order, seven things about me (most of) you probably did not know:

1. In the mid-1990’s I became the first person in the world to have played at the senior international level of water polo for 3 (yes, three) countries – Yugoslavia, Slovenia and Australia. I ended my elite level water polo career after the third stunningly bizarre missing out on Olympic Games (Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney) but I am happy to have played (and won) European Champions League (2x), World Championships, World Cups & many other -ips, -ups and -es.

2. I now play much less serious water polo for a beer or two after the game.

3. I translate poetry of Vlado Kreslin, a Slovenian musician from Slovene to English. If you have a chance – the guy is a genius with a heart and soul to match.

4. Despite spending just about half of my waking life in water, I have a deep water phobia. I want to see that bottom!

5. Closet Star Trek fan – but only “The Next Generation” and no others! If Jean-Luc Piccard were alive, I’d have him over for dinner anytime.

6. Will forever regret not writing down the 5 rules of “what makes a sport” after a heated discussion with my wife and best friend.

7. Last one….huh, hard to think. My three favourite -ies: serendipty, humility, humanity.  (Maybe ‘brewery’ ?

There you go… And since this is a kind of ‘world tag’ game I am compelled to tag a few people like a bad Nigerian money scam (except this one’s got no money in it). If you are one of the poor few, please excuse – I’m on holidays and it was 38 degrees outside today!

My ‘tags’ are all female and sprinkled around the world – a feeble attempt to redress my 7 pretty ‘male’ things and my Eddies 08 nominations gender (and geographical) myopia.

Mary Cooch

Tabitha Roder

Lesley Coe

Jean Anning

Jenny Luca

A. T. Wyatt

Marie @ The Learning Curve

Diana Dell

Have a good 2009.

This morning I found out that ‘Human’ came second in the “Best New Blog” category at the 2008 Edublogs Awards. The quick, competitive part of me went “oh bugger, a handful of votes and I’d have won it” but then the wiser part of me thanked again, firstly the thousands (!) of people who have taken their time to read and engage with my blog since May this year, secondly a number of people around the world who nominated ‘Human’ for 2008 Eddie and thirdly, the people who clicked next to my blog’s name on the voting card. It really is an honour.

Is this starting to sound like “show-me-a-good-loser-and-I’ll-show-you-a-loser” script right now? Someone bitter to have come second going all phoney philosophical? Not quite I’d say…

I have competed many times and at the highest level as a water polo player (and other sports and roles). There the competition was necessary, prepared and called for. The whole point was to win that game, cup, league, championship etc. In each case, the prize was scarce, reserved for the winner, not for the trail of losers. There was adrenaline, we pushed hard and did as best as we could. Sometimes competition is truly wonderful and exhilarating. And I have always loved winning, you bet! This is where this morning’s immediate “oh bugger” comes from – but it didn’t last long.

I quickly refused to worship the ‘false God’ of competition this morning and feel like ‘the first loser’. Why? Because I have not written a single word in my blog with the intention of winning a(ny) prizes or awards. I am owed absolutely nothing, yet I have gained so much by writing ‘Human’. In fact, to be nominated by peers was probably a bigger thrill than voting and (not) winning and/or coming second (to Angela who has done a great job). But there is another part of me that has sat uncomfortably with the idea of competition.

Every day I see the havoc the ‘false God’ of competition wreaks in the game of education many of us are a part of. The zero-sum mentality of winning and losing that pits students, schools, districts, indeed the whole countries is like junk food. Nicely packaged, addictive, brilliantly marketed, quick to consume – but it is bloating, fattening crap that is kinda good sometimes (yes, I do enjoy the odd drive-through burger) but you would not want to live on it. Yet it continues to ruin so many of them, while shortchanging the future and potential of so many brilliant (young) minds.

If you pause and think for a moment – when you set something against ‘the other’, the winning (grades, awards, prizes, scores…), rather than doing well (learning, improving understanding, acting ethically…), becomes the focus. Yet the winning is relative. You can win by actually doing worse than before, as long as others are worse than you. Does that sit comfortably with you? Would you teach like that in your class? Would you tell the maxim “it’s OK as long as there is someone worse than you…” to your grandchildren as a wise old (wo)man one day?

This year I have been irrevocably drawn by some of the wonderful antidotes to unhelpful competition. Blogging, Web 2.0, Moodle, Open Source software, social networking, to mention a few, are not about competition but all about collaboration between real people freely sharing, learning, critiquing (we need more of it in the blogworld!, not to be confused with criticising) each other’s work. In short, they transcend rivalry.

The amount of new insights, collections of resources etc. freely available has certainly enriched breadth and depth of my knowledge and experience in many fields and ways this year. In all of this, I have strongly felt a growing sense of a supportive community instead of the market mentality.

Or as A. Kohn puts it “the bottom line is not victory for some, it is learning for all”.

OK, here come my Christmas “thank you”s…

To all my readers and particularly the contributors/ commentators a massive THANK YOU (honestly, I would mention every one of you and link to your blogs and sites but I DO have to sleep !).

I knew only a handful of you before starting ‘Human’ this year. Seven months later, I feel like we have known each other for years.

I’m (b)logging off for a few weeks to spend more time with my family and enjoy the summer holidays, recharge my batteries, then hopefully make ‘Human’ an even better place to share and learn in 2009.

Best wishes to all !

PS Congrats to Angela Maiers for winning the Best New Blog Eddie 2008! Some great stuff there, go and visit. Well done!

Over the last 24 hours, I connected a person from Ireland and a company in Pittsburgh to help each other out. This morning, I shared a pile of resources with a person in Bendigo like we were sitting a foot apart. This afternoon, my son showed his new fire engine to his excited, doting grandmother in Slovenia over a webcam. Tonight, I had chat with a person from Birmingham (with our regular third person from Sydney missing but whose excuse I could see on Flickr – happy birth day little Caitlyn). As I write this I am getting teased from Adelaide over Twitter. And that’s definitely a list of all the (inter)national connections I have been directly a part of today and just about every day recently.

WOW :-O !!!

As the pace and width of tools and gadgetry grows, we often don’t have time to stop and ponder the fact that all these things are now possible (and quite cheaply and easily too). We are too busy chasing the next flashy ‘must have’ and getting all worked up about the now ‘old and cranky’ present we loved so much around last Christmas. But let’s not get negative here

Here is a short and funny take by the comedian CK Lewis on attitude and gratitude for all our tech stuff. Enjoy the 4 minutes and remember the clip next time you complain about (lack of) some technical gear.

Here are my ‘picks of the year’.

Best individual blog – Darcy Moore’s ‘Darcy’s Blog’ is at times wonderfully eclectic work of a school administrator with vision and passion that makes him jump the 40ft chasm not in two 20ft steps (like many others in his position) but with one leap and lots of room to spare. I have often said to Darcy “your staff are lucky to have you”.

Best new blog – Rob Abbey’s ‘Journeys on the Road’ (recently changed to ‘Life and Learning’, the link here is live). And I only started to read this a couple of weeks ago! This is a thinker’s blog that starts to go beyond the obvious and the often superficial hype. It is a thoughtful mesh of critical thinking and experience I would recommend to anyone with a bend for educational philosophy.

Most influential blog post -Chris Betcher’s ‘The Truth is Out There’ The stirrer from Sydney. This post generated much excellent discussion among my colleagues and my senior students and I am grateful to Chris for elaborating many of my own views.

Best Ed-Tech support – Julian Ridden’s ‘Moodleman Blog’ The Moodle wizard I have not yet met in person yet but I feel we have known each other for years through some wonderful collaboration. While Moodle is in his bloodstream, there is much more to Julian’s writing than just that. Thank you for all the tips and eye-openers.

Best teacher blog – Tony Searl’s ‘Sliced bread’ Now here is another bloke I could have a beer with tomorrow and it would be like we have known each other for years. His reply to one of my own posts (My f*%$#ing goosebump story) is a classic to treasure. Cheers!

(Hmmm, just noticed – all my nominees are male, please don’t read into this much )

The special mention list is long…

Sue Waters, the wonderful, choc-loving and ever helpful Twitter fiend

Bryn Jones, the tireless (and priceless) local “wise guy” from Fremantle

Kathry Greenhill, a fellow Murdoch University alumni and Emerging Tech guru

Mary Cooch, the thoughtful Moodle hot potato from the UK

Rhys Moult, the Adelaide ‘jack of all trades’, social networker par excellence and the best practical joker in this group

Mark Callagher, the right-on Kiwi targeting secondary schools

Jenny Millea, a dynamo of thought and action

… and more (this is a bit unfair to a stack of other people but I am sure they’ll live ) !

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and efforts throughout the year.

To a newbie to the world of blogging like me, this has been truly a memorable (first) year and in no small part thanks to your writing, comments, reactions and arguments.

Best wishes to all.

Tomaz