{"id":5822,"date":"2025-07-01T12:43:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T10:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/?p=5822"},"modified":"2025-07-01T12:43:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T10:43:32","slug":"anna-is-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/anna-is-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna is 20"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m ambivalent about working from home. It&#8217;s precarious not having a regular salary and unpredictable, especially with no long-term contracts. We are not a trust fund couple. The choices we have made have been possible because of textbook royalties. Unlike many fathers, I&#8217;ve also had the privilege of watching my children grow up and being a greater part of their life journey\u2014a privilege that many fathers don&#8217;t share. But you do get to work in a garage or a freezing outside shed.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After Jean and I returned from teaching in Slough and Eton CE School in 2002,  we knew that a family was the next step. Weblearning was still getting started in Pietermaritzburg, but we decided that we wanted to focus on children. In June 2005, along came Anna (two weeks late).  I got to spend 5 precious years (June 2005 to June 2010) co-parenting with Jean, watching this little girl grow up. They were precious times and <a href=\"https:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/weblearning\">Flickr<\/a> is probably the best place to see a few of these lovely moments. Below are birthday photos from ages 2-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-id=\"5823\" src=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/695451048_cc86592ef3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Jean and Derek pose next to Anna, who is far more interested in Cake \" class=\"wp-image-5823\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/695451048_cc86592ef3_c.jpg 800w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/695451048_cc86592ef3_c-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/695451048_cc86592ef3_c-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Second birthday 2007<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-id=\"5824\" src=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2621018861_5315ccebc6_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5824\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2621018861_5315ccebc6_c.jpg 800w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2621018861_5315ccebc6_c-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2621018861_5315ccebc6_c-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Third birthday 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" data-id=\"5825\" src=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3689740276_16dc72b0a7_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3689740276_16dc72b0a7_c.jpg 600w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3689740276_16dc72b0a7_c-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fourth birthday 2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-id=\"5826\" src=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4750257322_7abc14161e_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5826\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4750257322_7abc14161e_c.jpg 800w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4750257322_7abc14161e_c-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4750257322_7abc14161e_c-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">5th Birthday 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Economic realities also took their toll. The 2008 financial crisis, higher education &#8220;transformation&#8221;, MOOCs and Twitter offered both challenges and opportunities. When Anna turned 5, I took the plunge and landed up at Wits, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/my-first-week-in-jozi\/\">elearning support and innovationo<\/a> (eLSI) unit trying to make a go of ed technology in higher education.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">June 2010 to Nov 2015 were salaried. The decision to return back to consulting wasn&#8217;t much of a choice. If you want to see what&#8217;s really important to me. It&#8217;s not the ed tech profession (although it does consume much of my time). It&#8217;s these three immediate people and my trusted family and friends. Here&#8217;s Anna and her 11th Birthday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"11th Birthday Morning Wake Up\" width=\"540\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GkjLqp8yukQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">11 the Birthday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yesterday Anna turned 20, and economics is again taking its toll. It&#8217;s probably time to re-enter the marketplace. If you do know of anyone looking for a mentor \/ capacity builder. Whether on Wikipedia  \/ e\/learning or scholarly communication.  Please shout. I&#8217;d love to chat further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m ambivalent about working from home. It&#8217;s precarious not having a regular salary and unpredictable, especially with no long-term contracts. We are not a trust fund couple. The choices we have made have been possible because of textbook royalties. Unlike many fathers, I&#8217;ve also had the privilege of watching my children grow up and being &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/anna-is-20\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Anna is 20&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-file","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5828,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions\/5828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}