Beyond New Horizons

The title of this blog – Beyond New Horizons – takes its name from an idea that I had when I first started thinking about how I view the world, change and innovation. I have always felt the need to have an “eye on the future” ever since the first headteacher who I worked for said that you should always be anticipating the “next thing” in order to innovate in education. However, I think this is true about innovation in general. During the past sixteen years in the classroom (nineteen, if you include teacher training), I have tried to innovate in new ways, always looking beyond the new horizons of tomorrow. I hope that this blog captures some of my thinking and endeavours in educational, workplace and productivity innovation.

This blog amalgamates different online spaces that I have inhabited over the years and includes curated posts from the different blogs that I have owned. The first blog post was published in 2009, which was at the opening years of my career in education. That was a very different time in my life when I had two years of experience as a full-time class teacher and was in a very different phase of life. The blog was originally part of my multiliteraces website, then became “Changing Horizons”, which then became “Beyond New Horizons.” Both of those names embody some of the changes that I have made to my online presence and the way I use web and social technologies.

I stopped actively blogging in 2017 due to a range of factors, including increasing workload as I took on more responsibility at work, family commitments and changes in how I used social and digital technologies. I also found the additional headspace needed to keep a self-hosted blog up and running while publishing quality content too much.

Additionally, as an advocate for social media in education, I became quite uneasy about the “beasts” that these technologies were becoming and the way they were impacting people’s lives, particularly young people. I also started to notice the ways in which social technologies can be used a toxic manner. I saw the likes of Twitter (now X) slowly change beyond all recognition from when I first started using them. In the beginning, it was an exceptional tool to engage in the education community. Being part of the “Edu” community on Twitter changed my career and approach to teaching and learning forever. I am incredibly thankful for those early days and for meeting some amazing colleagues, a few of whom became, and remain to this day, very good friends with whom I have spent many happy “offline” times in the “real world.” I learnt so much in those early days, but the Twitter experience has changed, and I don’t feel like it is what it once was. The amount of fake news and misinformation I have viewed is a huge concern, and there are so many instances of gaslighting that it has changed beyond all recognition. The cults of celebrities and influencers are also not for me.

I also went through a period of removing myself from all social media to detox and rethink my approach to digital and social technologies. I thought for many years that it would not be possible to live my life without social media, and I realised that this was part of the problem. Over the course of a year, I deactivated and/or removed myself from all social media, and I felt a lot better for it in all aspects of my life. After a period of reflection, I have started to reintroduce these social technologies into my life but with strict boundaries. I am only introducing technologies which I feel add value, which includes this blog.

I will post about various topics as I continue to innovate in work and productivity. This comes at a time when I am becoming a part-time teacher and will be available for limited advisory work and blogging. I do find it really helpful to get things “out of my head” and discuss ideas, so please feel free to comment and engage in discussion if you’d like to.