A personal history: 31 – Learning Catalan – and about Catalunya

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I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning. I thought I would share these as there seems to be a growing interest in the history of educational technology.

Note that these posts are NOT meant to be deeply researched historical accounts, but how I saw and encountered developments in my personal life. If you were around at the time of these developments and would like to offer comments or a different view, please use the comment box at the end of each post. (There is already a conversation track on my LinkedIn site). 

Academic collaboration

Although I wasn’t successful at the time in implementing an effective institutional strategy for e-learning research (see my previous post), I did have some other successes at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

I ended up spending a good deal of time matching UOC academics with appropriate Ph.D. supervisors in other universities and informally advising UOC academics on research. One such academic was Albert Sangrà Morer, whose 2008 doctoral thesis was on the integration of information technologies within universities. When I first met him, he was Director of Methodology and Educational Innovation at UOC, in charge of the design and development of the university’s educational model. Although working at UOC, he was registered for his degree at the Universidad de Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, a city about 100 kilometres south-west of Barcelona.  For his thesis, he carried out in-depth interviews in one Italian university and four Spanish universities. I served on his examination panel. He successfully defended his thesis, a European-wide Ph.D., to his international panel in Catalan, Castilian, Italian and English.

In 2000, I had published a book with Jossey-Bass/Wiley on ‘Managing Technological Change: Strategies for College and University Leaders.’ Jossey-Bass was pressing me to update the book, as there had been an increasing adoption of learning technologies over that period. What was striking about Albert’s experience in Europe, and mine in North America, was, despite the considerable other differences between the universities on both continents, how similar were the issues regarding the management of technology in all the cases, so we decided to combine our experiences, and jointly wrote ‘Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning’, drawing on both his experience with the five European universities and my experience with the 20 or so North American universities and colleges I had examined. The book, published in 2011, in both English and Spanish, received excellent reviews and is still being published in 2025.

Learning Catalan – and Catalan independence

Although an integral part of Spain, Catalunya has a long history of independence or semi-independence from the rest of Spain. The Catalan language is ancient, going back almost 2,000 years, and is distinct from either French, or the Spanish used in much of the rest of Spain (Castilian). Several times during its history, there have been attempts to replace the Catalan language with Castilian, and as recently as 1970, under the rule of Franco, efforts were made to suppress the Catalan language. However, most inhabitants of Catalonia now speak Catalan at home, although most are fluent in both Catalan and Castilian – and at UOC, luckily for me, most were also fluent in English.

Since UOC is a creation of the Catalan government, its official language is Catalan, although its programs are offered both in Catalan and Castilian. Much of the documentation and communication at UOC was in Catalan, so it became crucial for me to learn the language as quickly as possible.

As a result, UOC arranged for me to have a personal Catalan language tutor. She was a beautiful young woman named Laia Galdon, who came to the apartment once a week for a 90-minute session. I never missed a lesson – and my wife always seemed to be in the apartment when I had my Catalan lessons.

The grammatical structure of Catalan is closer to French than Spanish, and many of the words are similar in one or other of the two languages, but often it is uniquely distinct, particularly with regard to common expressions and pronunciation. I never really became fluent, although I could read it reasonably well.

I learned in 2005 that UOC was to award me an honorary degree. I would have to give a twenty-minute acceptance speech. When I told Laia, we both agreed that I should deliver it in Catalan, so we worked together feverishly, and, to the astonishment of everyone present, most of whom were not aware that I had been learning Catalan, I staggered through the whole presentation in Catalan.

Catalunya has much in common with Québec. They both have distinct histories, and separate languages and culture from the nation to which they belong, although the Catalans have had periods of much more violent oppression from the majority culture. In recent times, Catalunya had carried a large net deficit in taxes with the central government (more is collected than returned by Madrid). As a result, the Catalan regional government held a referendum on independence in 2017. I happened to be visiting Barcelona at the time, and Diana, the daughter of one of my friends and colleague, Sisco Vallverdu, was a polling station volunteer. Emotions were running so high that he and I spent time with Diana at the polling station, ensuring that she wasn’t harassed by the Federal police or Spanish loyalists (she wasn’t). At the end of the day, 76% voted in favour of independence, but with only a 43% turn-out. Under the Spanish constitution, the Spanish government has to agree to an independence referendum (which it did not), and the result was effectively ignored.

A new management

Gabriel Ferraté, the founding Rector at UOC, retired at the beginning of 2005. He had been Rector for 10 years, since the founding of UOC in 1995. He had much in common with Walter Perry, the founding Vice-Chancellor at the Open University. Ferraté was a visionary who helped create UOC, the first fully online university in the world, at a time when the World Wide Web and public access to the Internet had only recently been launched. He was influenced by the success of the UK Open University, and saw UOC as Catalunya’s response to UNED, the national Spanish open university.

Imma Tubella was appointed the new Rectora at the end of 2005. As is typical in Spain and Latin America, when a Rector is replaced, the whole management team is replaced. Both Paco Rubio and Sisco Vallverdu were replaced as Vice-Rectors. Manuel Castells, who had been working in the USA, and is considered one of the leading experts on the information society, returned to Barcelona to take a more active role in the management of the university.

I had lost my sponsors and the new management team wanted to go in a different direction, so I finished my contracted work at UOC in 2006. I was seen as a legacy of the previous administration. In particular, there were concerns at paying so much to someone who was not Catalan. As a result, my contract was not renewed. I did though get a meeting room at Tibidado named after me in honour of my work for UOC.

It was a wonderful five years. My wife and I fell in love with Barcelona, its culture, its people and its vitality. It was an honour and a privilege to work there and we made some wonderful friends.

Up next

I have a book to review (Handbook of Open Universities) which is nearly 700 pages long. When I have done that, I will cover my extensive and highly enjoyable experience of working in Australia and New Zealand.