Self Reflection

My point with this blog post is that, in writing about the last 31 years of technology, it is writing about my history of being an edutech professional. I have been a learning technologist (and more, I hope) for that entire time, and for pretty much all of it I have a pretty good feeling that I knew what I was doing. I hope I have made the world a better place, bringing learning opportunities to hundreds of people, and touched in the most human way possible, the lives of countless individuals.

My first experience of online learning was in 1993 when the students in a class I took at Siemens Summer Science School at Melbourne Uni, where they had a text/console based discussion board (called Phorum from memory) to argue course topics back and forth. We used Lynx browser on a SGI machine and was expected of us to reply to another student’s comment and write one of our own.

In 1995, I remember buying my first book on HTML, was super thick and started my first site using GeoCities using Mosiac. It was brilliantly engineered; I learned tons by reading and digging through the sources of others, learning how all the Javascript worked, and adapting it for my own purposes. Like so many things, it was acquired by Yahoo and destroyed.

While at TAFE (studying Cert 4 in IT) we had access to the PCAnywhere and Cisco conferencing application, but I hated it. Really hated it. We also had access to UseNet but I was never a UseNet person. I used to say at the time that there are two types of internet users: those who like dynamic content, such as Yahoo games and email, and those who like static content, like Usenet and conferencing. Finally, around this time I also started using instant messaging, and to be specific, an application called ICQ. ICQ was eventually run into the ground by America Online, and people migrated to things like MSN messenger and AOL. It’s easy to forget the importance of the early instant messaging services, because they played such a significant role in developing a lot of the thinking that would eventually result on social networks and more. By 1996, I was also a regular user of email mailing lists.

In the web world, 1998 was the year of XML, RSS and content syndication. I did a lot of work with XML, RSS and web databases combining it with content management systems (CMS). For one of my clients after graduating, I wrote my own LMS from scratch using Perl/CGI, however, a number of bulletin board services had evolved into LMSs and were being used for courses and such around the internet.

1999, eLearning became popular and although most of the stuff educational I made was using CDROM based technologies, like MTropolis, Macromedia Director and Authorware, the advent of SCORM was on the horizon. I was fortunate that I was doing a Bachelor of Multimedia (Swinburne Uni) at the time and got exposed to things like editing of audio and videos and advanced coding (Object Oriented in Java and C++), supposedly the first degree of the kind in Australia.

Then, after graduating in 2001, I got my first real web dev role at a printing company (Lane Print Group) and got to use ColdFusion, Classic ASP, MSSQL, taught myself PHP and C# and learnt how databases could be the way to create awesome systems. I got to work on many cool bill procurement and presentment systems and other web database based programs will be the future. By that stage I was using a platform called LiveJournal for my website/forum/social media on the side. I totally forgot about the use of web for educational purposes but still had a thirst for knowing more about web stuff.

By 2004, social networks burst onto the scene with the launch of sites MySpace, LinkedIn and Flickr. These were arguably an outgrowth of CMSs. YouTube launched in 2005 and I remember going to a conference (Web Directions South) in Sydney with my cousin (a fellow web dev) and we learnt what was coined Web 2.0. By this stage SCORM and Skype was very much big things.

Then in 2007, I played with Second Life, and the advent of VRML came popular but mainly in military and I did not have access to that stuff. Also by that stage, Moodle was born, ePortfolios and Screen Simulations were becoming the latest things. So I jumped on that bandwagon and learnt a program called Captivate. I also helped work on another custom LMS for one of my clients (Bayer CropScience). This woke me up and thought, this is a missing market in the web area.

By 2009, I was such a pro with Captivate and Storyline and knew SCORM inside and out, I won a tender to create all the training for the state’s transport department (VicRoads) Employee Self Service system they rolled out. As well as the screen simulation approach, I also used integrated Virtual agents (like Microsoft Clippy) to assist in BAU activities instead of relying on manuals.

Then from 2009 to 2016, I had many contracts creating custom SCORM packages, using web databases and other cool tech, I was in my element. I was even fortunate in 2011 to land another state government role to do the simulation work for a new (at the time) medical “whole of health” system rolled out to 12 hospitals state wide. And in 2013, got to work with Apple and assist in the creation of the iBooks platform for a global educational publisher (Cengage). 2014, I worked as a consultant for 7-Eleven Australia on their eLearning offerings.

By 2016, AI was the new buzz word like today, but the the potential of ‘deep learning’ was all the rage back then. This is an approach based on neural networks, and hence, the connectivism of old. What makes the networks ‘deep’ is the use of multiple ‘hidden’ layers. On reflection, it paved the way to what it is now but I think the main purpose for it was for data-gathering, to feel the algorithms with the input it would learn and recommend that would gradually lead people to more and more extreme content.

I enjoyed freelance consulting with various companies and creating SCORMS and other custom scripting for various LMS platforms working with the likes of OfficeWorks, KMart, The Good Guys, RMIT, World Vision, Ambulance Victoria, Metro Trains, Life Education, JetStar, McDonalds, Westpac, SAI Global, Reece Plumbing but thought I want more work/life balance and security for my family.

2021, I decided to go to teach at TAFE, give back on a grass roots level. I enjoyed teaching in some ways. Knowledge sharing and giving young people the chance to learn things I was good and passionate at.

Now, I am still working in the eLearning scene with a great deal of knowledge and skills in what I do, but yet to find a company that sees me as an asset, if you do, please call me and hire me.