Purpose in gloom (day 172)

Another day of strategic planning.  Not as exhausting today.  Just like yesterday the facilitator led us through a visualization to get us in the right frame of mind to think about what things might be like in five years.  I came face to face with my pretty gloomy view of the future.  In my vision, the air was more polluted, people were more worried, and there was a general sense of urgency to do something.  The good part is that people were doing something.  So it was gloomy but purposeful.  The new campus had lots of green spaces including gardens, it had big open sunny studios, and there was more interaction between faculty and students as a matter of life on campus.  

Something that came up a lot during discussion is the distinction between research and teaching and how much they can be brought together before each are compromised.  I come from a system where the distinction is quite stark -- research is done by Faculty and graduate students, outside of teaching in sacred research spaces.   Sometimes undergraduate students are brought in as Research Assistants.   Now I'm being nudged to see if things could be different.  The issue is that teaching has to do with breadth and research has to do with depth.  They have different goals.   And there is also the issue of numbers.  There are many more undergraduates than there are Faculty and grads.  It's unclear how they could be integrated without decreasing the quality of the research.   And let's face it, not every undergraduate will want to go into research.  Perhaps the scenario of research in pedagogy is the most obvious one to think about.  This type of research needs a willing student body to experiment with and greatly benefits from their input.

Tomorrow, no strategic planning. 

A song for this post.

Fresh interruptions (day 133)

I popped in to work today for the first time since the break.  I loved it.  There are so many smart, beautiful, interesting people there.   I felt refreshed hearing about new developments from my students, a simulation and modeling project for emergency rooms, and general lab plans for the new year.   It was a constant stream of interruptions and I welcomed each one as a pleasant surprise.  I am grateful to work in a place that is constantly reinventing itself.  There's always a sense of unbalance: just when you where starting to get comfortable, something changes.  There are definitely some less desirable aspects to that state but overall it's kept me feeling alert and interested.

It's hard to remember now how tired I was at the end of term...and hard to believe how tired I'll be at the end of this term.  For now, I relish the freshness in the air.

A song for this post.

Identity maintenance (day 110)

It's getting late for a long post.  I spent a little bit of time tonight updating my page at the new Emily Carr website.  It's actually a pretty cool website that functions sort of like a social network and allows some nice linkages based on tags.    I don't think I've seen any school sites that well integrated.  It'll be great to see how it evolves.   I still have lots of work to do to make my page shine.  It's a start.

A song for this post.