Reflections on a Physical, Intellectual, and Personal Journey

As some readers might be aware, I was on sabbatical the past academic year.  Although I briefly thought about using the year to keep up with Oprah and All My Children, that’s not what I was given the time off for.  I was given a year off of teaching and committee assignments to devote myself full-time to research and learning.

In search of learning and new knowledge, I embarked on a year-long journey.  As I prepare for the new academic year to begin—and my return to teaching (against advice, I didn’t really give up the committee work, it’s too much a part of my system)—I’d like to report and reflect on my experiences during the sabbatical.

• The first several posts will focus on some of the highlights of my travels, including descriptions of museums I visited, stores I visited, hotels where I slept, and the experience of traveling to Turkey, Spain, Peru, Germany, and France.  
• The next set of posts describe some of my work projects in the past year, including my projects devising and piloting a governance review process form for nonprofit organizations, revising the certification programs for the Canadian Society for Training and Development, researching the perception of trainers by IT professionals, writing up old research data, and updating the courses that I teach academically and professionally.  
• The next set of posts after attempt to synthesize these experiences to the challenges of information and instructional design.  
• The posts after describe, more broadly, what I learned in the past year, highlighting themes from the literature that I read, conferences I attended, and some project experiences over the course of the year, 

Because I tend to be a macro thinker and a designer, and tend to think of possibilities, I describe possibilities suggested by my experiences for my various home towns, for my university, and for my work environment.

I close this journey of a sabbatical—and of blogging—by describing what I’ve learned from it.

Although the actual journey took several months, this one is condensed into the time between now and the start of the academic year—the day after Labor Day.  Post will appear about once a day and are likely to be interspersed with news—both mine and news from other sources to which I’d like to bring attention.