Yet another end of 2019 post

I wasn’t planning on writing an end-of-year post, but I am feeling inspired by Tannis Morgan, Clint Lalonde, D’Arcy Norman, Martin Weller, and Tony Bates. Notice how 4 of these passionate people are Canadian, and even the one who isn’t, is a hockey superfan?

CIRA recently published a few seemingly-serious but funny Canadian-themed photos. I thought that the metrics-focused one shown above was appropriate for end-of-year posts that centre around numbers of reader visits, books read, papers written, and so on.

In no particular order, and resisting to make this post solely about professional matters, these are the areas that come to mind as I reflect back on 2019

• I did a little bit more consulting than other years, and I enjoyed doing so. The highlight was a needs analysis, training, and evaluation to support a University in the Caribbean launch a first-of-its-kind online program.
• I mentored and employed four doctoral students and one post-doctoral researcher. I would not have been able to do this without federal grants.
• I took time off and spent a week in Argentina.
• More and more friends and colleagues have asked me questions about veganism. The surging popularity of and interest in plant-based eating was a trend I followed with excitement in 2019. I transitioned to a vegan lifestyle in 2009, and things have changed a lot since then. I’m excited for what the new decade holds.
• I’ve done a lot of cooking this year, but not enough baking. Yet, I ate more than enough baked goods.
• I joined the 2020 Horizon Report expert panel run by EDUCAUSE (and really enjoyed thinking about future trends with others) and the BC Open Education Advisory Board (and with every meeting, I am more and more appreciative of the work that BCcampus does in our province).
• I continued with a consistent running schedule, then injured myself and had to pause, and now I am running again.
• I didn’t read as many fiction books as I would have liked, and I am hoping to read more near-future speculative work.
• I completed the major writing projects that I had in mind for this year.
• I did not blog as much as I wanted to. I would like to do better next year.
• I spent a few hours with my grandmother in November. It’s very likely that I won’t see her again, but I didn’t know this at the time.

I hope 2020 brings more health, peace, and happiness to you and your families.