Monday, August 30, 2010

Another Academic Year Begins

How many jobs are there where you get a fresh start twice a year. You get to start over again, fix your mistakes and put more effort into the things that worked. Well, there are not many jobs like that but being an academic is one of them. We get two fresh starts every year. We call them semesters. This really is one of the best things about being an academic. Every time a semester ends you can review it and see what did not work out as well as you would have liked. And every time a semester begins you have a chance to try again.

Fortunately, I am happy to say, most of the things I am working on are working well. I have three major classes which are my teaching focus and they are all advancing nicely. I used to teach way more classes and did not do nearly as good of a job. But, I am pleased to say that my classes are going well.

My research is not going as well as it has in the past. But, there are several reasons for that which are not really important enough to get into here. But, with my new interest in imagination I will be slowly getting that back on track again.

I have invested heavily, time wise, over the past five years in virtual worlds. Sadly, all that effort did not pay off as well as I thought it would. There are many reasons for that and they are probably not important enough to elaborate on. This is also one of the reasons why my research lagged. I was hoping for some productive new veins of research   in virtual worlds. That did not come about.

However, I am turning my attention from virtual worlds to social interaction technologies. Hopefully, this will pan out a little better.

A new semester begins to today. And with it begins new initiatives, new ideas, new hopes and new directions. What more could one ask for?

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