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what? why?

just how did this all come about?

what & why

introduction just in case anyone is curious how I got this boondoggle

the proposal Project ideas written in November 1999... (more)

.az = Arizona It's my home state, but I'll relocate to a different part for July-August... (more)

.nz = New Zealand Off to the home of "kiwis" for September - October ... (more)

.au = Australia "G'day, mate!" will be my vocabulary after spending November-December down under... (more)

the goods So what actually came out of this? ... (more)

It is part of the job...
The whole reason for this trip (and web site) is because of the professional growth opportunity offered by my employer, the Maricopa Community Colleges, which offers sabbaticals not only for the faculty, but also the manegement positions.

Since 1992, I have worked as Instructional Technologist for the Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction, housed at Maricopa's District Support Services Center in Tempe, Arizona. My job involves a wide range of activities and projects that help our faculty make effective use of technology.

When the opportunity for a sabbatical became available, I chose to devise a series of activities that would enable me to expand my technical skills and to visit a number of colleges and businesses to better understand how they are developing learning materials that have a high degree of interactivity.

The first part of this project (".az") includes working with colleagues at Northern Arizona University on multimedia development. This also allows me to escape the wrath of a summer in Phoenix! (more details...)

For the second and third phases I decided to visit two countries, New Zealand and Australia, that have institutions similar to our community colleges and places that use technology to deal with teaching at a distance. I also chose places that I have always wanted to visit because of their scenery! (more about New Zealand and Australia...