Change in 2010

Today is my first day back at work in the new year and I’m taking stock of where I am, who am, where I’m beginning, and where I’ve left off.

A whole lot happened for me in 2009. A lot of upheaval and change; a number of old systems and structures gained, lost, or cast off; some relationships strengthened, some weakened; some new and exciting opportunities to explore and some difficult obstacles to overcome.

It was an extraordinary year, and an overwhelming one at that.

I’m in a much different place now – professionally, intellectually, personally – than I was six months or even one month ago and trying to identify what I want this year to look like. As many positive aspects as there were in last year, it was too full-on and too stressful. So I want to make some changes moving forward.

First and foremost, I vow to spend less time working and more time living. By this I don’t mean bludging at work and pulling less than my fair share of the load. Rather, not spending so much of my mental energy to stress and planning when I’m not at work.

Last year ended with me devoting virtually every waking moment to professional considerations, and it wore on me tremendously. It was necessary at the time, people appreciated all the hours I was putting in, and I don’t have any regrets about it; but it wasn’t sustainable. So I want to ease back into some semblence of normality and work-life balance.

Secondly, I’ve lost interest – at least temporarily – in the topics I’d been researching in my free time. I’ve lived and breathed emerging technology, educational change and open education for as long as I can remember, but have begun to grow cynical and jaded about certain aspects of the conversation.

To me that’s a sure sign of burnout and the need for change. This change will affect the spaces and nature in which I interact online.

I’ve decided, for instance, to take a break from Twitter until further notice. I stopped short of deleting my account outright and starting anew upon my return, but I know so many wonderful people through my @mbogle profile it would be too far great a loss. So it’s merely going to lay dormant for now.

I’ve also let my Flickr Pro account lapse and revert to the free version. I just wasn’t using it much and didn’t see much point in paying for an unused service.

Likewise my YouTube account hasn’t seen much activity for some time now.

Perhaps most importantly, this draws into question what will be happening here. In that sense I don’t know, because if ‘m not researching emerging techology much I won’t be writing about it much; and I’d just as soon not see this space erode into a rambling channel for pictures of my chickens or some such thing.

So in all likelihood my offerings here will be fewer and farther in between. But again, I have no intention of retiring the space completely. Just leaving it as is for a while as I do other things.

What I am hoping to do is creative writing, which I haven’t done for two decades or more. I find the prospect of engaging in a sphere of thought completely apart from my profession to be really refreshing, whereas posting on edtec matters had begun to feel more and more like work, or some sort of obligation. I want to embrace the creative, the fictional and the fantasy for a while.

I’ve even created another blog specifically for the activity, though sorry, I won’t be sharing the link here.

My focus for the next while will be an experiment as well as a creative outlet. I’ve created a space to publish fictional narratives where my true identity is intentionally obscured. I want to see what happens to the questions of digital identity, social structures and relationships, and network dynamics when the identity of the author is replaced with a fictional character – and the readers are aware that the "I" and "me" in the blog entries refer to someone who does not actually exist.

By necessity then the project must begin without any existing network ties to influence the dynamics. The character must be the only person known to exist.

I will be reflecting on the process and the project here though. So watch this space for ocassonal updates.

All that being said, I’m not disappearing. I’ll still be around…

Posted via email from Mike Bogle