Colin Fraser

I grew up in Adelaide, Australia, which is a small place by world standards. Since the 1970s it has become a place that is unlike any I have found elsewhere. We have people here from many different countries that enrich our way of life. They bring colour and energy from their homelands and we are going to benefit from it for generations.

I started work in a factory, but with time and training I began teaching technology at TAFE, eventually completing a Bachelor of Arts at Flinders University. I undertook some post-graduate study to become a teacher. Along the way, I got involved in foster care and for many years provided alternate care for some of Adelaide's children.

Coming into teaching later in life has been a real bonus. I have daily opportunities to meet people, from teenagers to grandparents, to work with a range of different people and be any number of people myself. I am finding that I am learning as much from my students as I am teaching them.

My current digital focus is Moodle and a blog at colinfraser.org. Moodle is an excellent tool for online learning and sharing of resources. In 2011, I met almost the entire Moodle team at the Moodlemoot Sydney, an unforgettable experience.

Since then, I have been working on a number of projects that have proven personally and professionally quite challenging. Much of the dialogue around modern education is proving to be less than accurate. The problem is so many people have invested much of themselves in that dialogue, they identify with it. The question then becomes how can we change the dialogue without it becoming personalized?

I have decided that my current qualifications are insufficient in a modern educational environment, so have embarked on another journey to acquire a Masters or, perhaps, a PhD. This is where the personal challenge really becomes confronting for me. There is very little support for returning to full time study, and it is going to take a long time to complete the necessary work, part-time.