Greetings from Plan, Act, Reflect & Eportfolio (PARE) from ePortfolios Australia. The idea is a group meet, in this case virtually, via Zoom. After introductions, you silently work on your portfolio, then discuss what you have written. This gives you permission to focus on your own writing, without interruption from other tasks. Some are working on their CVs for promotion, or applications for fellowships. In my case I decided to start on an idea I had for a second volume of writings, to follow Net Traveler, from 1999. I started to write a new introduction, but it is not very good. Then I asked Copilot to slect 20 articles, and make that a book.
My manual attempt:
Introduction
This is a sequel to my 1999 book “Net Traveller”, which was about how the Internet and the World Wide Web became a part of my everyday life. The Internet came to prominence at the end of my 19 year career working in government agencies on computer systems. I had come up through the ranks programming, ending up writing government tech policy. Wanting a new challenge, I left government to become an independent consultant, and part time academic. It did not quite work out that way, as I will relate in this selection of items. These consist, as with volume one, of edited versions of published material, during my last 26 years, helping companies, government agencies and universities.
During these decades I helped set the direction technology has taken. Rather than by writing policy, as previously, but by teaching, and helping with the direction of education in my profession. Along the way there was a pandemic, and upheaval in the university sector. While much was everyday routine, there were times it felt something momentous. An example was when if I was asked if I was coming to the emergency staff meeting (which I know nothing about). We were told the university faced an “existential threat”: a pandemic might kill us all, or put us out of business. We were asked could we immediately switch to teaching online. I hesitantly put up my hand and said “Yes. I have been trained to do that. I have a degree in it”.
As I write these words AI looms large. We have had an AI boom, and we are waiting to see if it is, as I suspect, a bubble. As in the past there is perhaps over optimism about technology, and a failure to understand the social factors.
This book, in large part, looks at how we can do university education better, not from theory, but from having done it.
Copilots's version, from the prompt 'Select 20 items I have written in the last 26 years and compile a book "Net Traveller 2: Exploring Higher Education"':
Based on your publicly available material, I would curate Net Traveller 2: Exploring Higher Education as a retrospective collection tracing your transition from Internet policy and educational technology into higher education course design, online learning, student employability, and AI in education. The selection below draws on works listed on your publications page, Google Scholar profile, Higher Education Whisperer, and higher education posts from Net Traveller. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au], [scholar.google.com], [blog.highe...sperer.com], [blog.tomw.net.au]
Net Traveller 2: Exploring Higher Education
Selected Writings by Tom Worthington
Preface
Over a quarter of a century, Tom Worthington moved from exploring the Internet's impact on society to examining how digital technology transforms teaching, learning, and universities. This collection brings together twenty representative works spanning educational technology, blended learning, online assessment, student employability, sustainability, mobile learning, and artificial intelligence in higher education. [tomw.net.au], [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
Part I: Entering Higher Education
1. Blended Learning: Using a Learning Management System Live in the Classroom (2008)
Early practical work on integrating online systems with face-to-face teaching. [scholar.google.com], [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
2. A Green Computing Professional Education Course Online (2012)
Design and delivery of an online sustainability course for ICT professionals. [scholar.google.com], [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
3. Synchronizing Asynchronous Learning: Combining Synchronous and Asynchronous Techniques (2013)
Exploration of techniques that later became commonplace in online learning. [scholar.google.com]
4. Post-nominals for Qualifications (2013)
Reflections on academic credentials, assessment and university administration. [blog.tomw.net.au]
Part II: Designing Digital Learning
5. Digital Teaching in Higher Education (2017)
Book chapter on designing e-learning for international technology students. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
6. ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future (selected chapter)
Shows the intersection of curriculum design and sustainability education. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au], [scholar.google.com]
7. Engaging Students in the Online Environment (2021)
Guidance developed for tertiary educators during rapid digital transformation. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
8. Projects and Internships for Student Employability (2023)
Strategies linking higher education with professional practice. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
Part III: Learning During and After COVID
9. A Collaborative Design Model to Support Hybrid Learning Environments During COVID-19 (2020)
Collaborative approaches to emergency online teaching. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au], [scholar.google.com]
10. Designing Hybrid Practice-Based Learning Environments to Facilitate Distributed Learning Communities (2020)
Frameworks for distributed higher education. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
11. A Mobile Ecology of Resources for COVID-19 Learning (2020)
The role of mobile technologies in resilient education. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
12. Back to the Future: Post-Pandemic Socially Constructed Blended Synchronous Learning (2021)
Lessons from pandemic teaching for future university practice. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
Part IV: Mobile and Flexible Learning
13. Mobile Learning and Socially Constructed Blended Learning Through the Lens of Activity Theory (2021)
Theoretical foundations for contemporary learning design. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
14. Analysing Mobile Learning Designs: A Framework for Transforming Learning Post-COVID (2022)
One of the most cited works associated with your higher education research. [scholar.google.com], [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
15. Selected Higher Education Whisperer Essays on Course Design
A representative chapter drawn from the blog's course design posts. [blog.highe...sperer.com]
16. Selected Higher Education Whisperer Essays on Assessment and Feedback
Practical approaches to learning design and student support. [blog.highe...sperer.com]
Part V: Universities, Innovation and the Future
17. The Rosie Effect in Canberra (2014)
An example of reflection on research culture, academic life, and public engagement. [blog.tomw.net.au]
18. Selected Essays on Student Employability
Collected posts linking higher education and workforce needs. [blog.highe...sperer.com], [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
19. Rise of the Machine Qualifications with AI for Employability (2026)
Emerging thinking on AI-supported credentials and workforce preparation. [blog.highe...sperer.com]
20. AI for Andragogy (2026)
A forward-looking essay on artificial intelligence and adult learning. [blog.highe...sperer.com]
Proposed Back Cover Blurb
For more than twenty-five years, Tom Worthington has explored how digital technologies change the way people learn, work and communicate. In Net Traveller 2: Exploring Higher Education, he brings together twenty influential papers, essays and reflections covering online learning, blended education, mobile technologies, employability, sustainability, academic life and artificial intelligence.
Drawing on experiences as an educator, educational designer, computer professional and policy adviser, these writings document the transformation of higher education from the early days of learning management systems through to the age of hybrid learning and AI-assisted teaching. The result is both a history of educational innovation and a guide to the university of the future. [tomw.net.au], [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
This selection would yield a manuscript of roughly 250-350 printed pages, comparable in scope to your original Net Traveller: Exploring the Networked Nation. [Tom Worthi...omw.net.au]
If you would like, I can also build the full book manuscript with a detailed table of contents, editor's introduction, section introductions, and exact URLs for each selected article.
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