Sebastian Foti

As I did an overhaul of the Surfaquarium in preparation for 2010, I reviewed each recipient of my Top Online Educator award to update information and place them in the new cleaner format. As I came to Sebastian Foti, I could not find his faculty pages at the University of North Florida. As I dug deeper I was saddened to learn we lost Sebastian last year. I had first met Sebastian online reading his "The Rise and Fall of Educational Technology: Did We Miss the Point?" in THE Journal back in 2005. His was such a clear voice of experience among the many pressures and competing interests for school technology dollars, I immediately reached out to him. Over the months we talked. And within the year I had flown him up to Boston to speak as Keynote for our MassCUE Technology Leadership Symposium.

Meeting Sebastian was a treat in itself. Tall and frumpy, gentle yet determined in his ideas, he spent much of the day tagging along with individuals at the conference sharing ideas, listening intently, and showing a truly human, loving personality. As he left to head back to FLorida, he promised to send several games and applications he had developed to those of us who were caught up in his vision to return technology back into the hands of studnets. Thereafter we shared an occassional email, but when things got quiet this past year I had no thought that we had lost this important ed tech leader at the age of 59.

Sebastian I am still affected by your thoughts and outlook. I miss being able to shoot you an email or pick up the phone and expect an answer, but I am so grateful I had the opportunity to know you and meet you. You have truly made a difference in those of us who met you, and your influence continues to impact the ongoing dialogue on the role of technology in public education. A job well done, my friend. Rest well. And thanks.