Yeah... so that last update post never got done.
It will.. eventually. The thing about that is, while I'm doing many different things and learning much different stuff, it all sort of contributes to a larger whole. No single thing is monumentally interesting enough to report on and telling about it all would probably be incredibly boring.
I will be looking at periodic updates, interesting anecdotes and happenings and that kind of thing but I think to truly see the synthesis of my experience here, you'd either have to talk to me, see some of my work (when it comes about) or just wait and watch! It's not really something that can be explained.
So yeah... following up on the last post, a couple more ideas have popped up. At this time, I'm considering just doing the technical "teacher training" courses like instruction, assessment, evaluation etc. without going in for the degree. I would link these as electives for my current course and come and do a B.Ed back home... that should work.
Another thing I considered/am considering is switching to a doctoral track. The main reason for this is that doctoral students are studying the same courses as I am, and get a fancier degree. They also get preference for assistantships and thus get waivers etc... so it'd sorta be a free ride. Yet, if I don't get that (right away, at least) - then it's an added expense that's not really required. My (chosen and proposed) line of work doesn't really require a doctorate but it would feel nice to have it and one of my teachers believes that it might be beneficial for certain other plans of the future as well... yet for those plans... keep watching this space.
At the same time, I'm a little too lazy to give it my all and spend four more years here. It's interesting but a thought I had yesterday was "illuminating" - I'm not uncomfortable here. I'm not a sort of person who would be against settling abroad. Nor am I the sort who says I must come back. Yet... with things working out the way they have in these last two years, I currently want to come back and as a result... staying here for too long gives me a sensation of being "not at home." Even with me getting more comfortable about the thought of going to work in corporate settings (talking with my teachers and the application based nature of assignments is making it less stressful - I need to realise that no one will expect perfection right away - if there is such a thing anyway - when I start a job... I will be able to learn on the job as well and there, I shall have someone senior to guide me as well... I just need to breathe!) at this time I find myself looking at corporate settings at home. This also has two reasons:
1) I really want to teach back home and for that, I need to be home... and this could be something I could do part time/after hours.
2) There isn't a lot of professional, technical implementation back home, of the kinds of processes I'm learning about here. People do this sort of thing - no doubt - but they wing it and it would be good to perhaps teach them to be systematic or call myself a Pundit and do it myself... India, not the world, could be my oyster.
Segueing from the applications of the ISD process in coporates, I go to schools and if I wanted to do doctoral work, I could just do it in India for two more reasons.
1) Indian Ph.Ds don't seem as hard core and course based as they do it here - so I could do it at a little more leisure.
2) I would have a framework to base my research upon because what I'd like to do is see how Best Practices of instruction transfer from the western world and prior research to India and the collectivist culture.
It will be a challenge - but a delicious one.
I just need to start talking to people.
And talking to people is sort of a skill or an art I'm learning here. Slowly but surely my shell and reserve that keeps me from piping up, asking questions and just approaching unknown people is falling away. Make no mistake... it will be a while before I'm "debonair" about it and it might well take the rest of my course for me to get there but get there, I shall!
So today, I went to meet two of my teachers - well, one teacher and one advisor (he hasn't taught me yet).
To my advisor, I showed my proposed plan of study. I'm aiming for a major in Performance Improvement and Human Resource Development. Employers in India will feel it's delicious!
However, there were some issues some of the electives I wanted to take but the Boss put my mind to rest about that - for now. Suffice to say I'm a little annoyed that there is one course I might not be able to take due to lack of knowledge and subsequent "poor" planning. However, as of now, all things are a go!
What also came out of this meeting was a potential internship.
We need to have an internship component for our degree and the Boss said that we could do it practically anywhere. How it started out was with me discussing course choices with him and whether I should take one on Computer Courseware or Distance Learning. Distance Learning is not really an area of interest but with virtual organizations and the like, it might be a good skill to have in the kit... and he said, well, we're developing an undergrad course and it has videos and stuff and web pages that need developing - so that would be e-learning.
I like it...I get to work with him, it's curriculum development, it's e-learning AND chance of some money. win win win win. Plus win - looks good on resumés.
The genesis to this was really him thinking that perhaps I should do e-learning, rather than computer courseware because I could teach myself the latter. Well, I can teach myself stuff but unless it's required or a deep interest, I don't. It's not a matter of deep interest here but the pressure and requirement of an internship will help me get it done!
So yay!
I talked to my other professor - let's just call him Happy/Crazy/Funny/Silly Panda Bear.
He takes two of my three classes and I went and discussed the possibilities of using my project from the MPM days as a basis for my final projects in his class and that was a productive discussion that led to ideas that, while hypothetical in origin, might actually have real world, real time application. Let's see... that's for when I go back but keep watching for updates on the project and then the final idea. Panda Bear has been talking about the usefulness of a Ph.D in some of my future ventures and that's what led me to the transfer of knowledge/research to India idea and he said that it'd work!
Ph.D is a fair amount of work and Ph.Ds here who teach, need to do a LOT of publishing to keep current and build a reputation. I'm curious. I'm not sure, however, that I'm that interested in publishing. But, if I do transfer the current research from here to India (because I'm curious about the effects) then I should get readily publishable material, I could do a Ph.D on it and since no one is really doing anything of that sort in India, be THE MAN to go to when something like it required. Woo! Power trip! (Don't ask what "that sort of thing" is unless you have an afternoon free and can meet me in person)
After meeting both teachers, I went and met a third one - just went and talked to him about helping with the MAT program and he didn't really have anything in mind with which I could help but he then thought someone else might... so something interesting might work out of that. They haven't started writing... they're still collecting info. So, an insider's view on something I might take. If nothing else, I get more experience from helping, watching and learning on the job!
And again: it looks good on resumés!
All this from just going and talking to someone, asking questions and being prepared to take no for an answer. That's also a skill/requirement sometimes...
And I will continue... it's been interesting. Before I came here, a "boss" in an interesting company said I should go and talk to her if (in her words, I say "when") I came back from the US.
Recently, another "boss" (these are connections through extended family) emailed me and something might happen there... especially on the consultant level, which is great because I want to work in a school for a while!
So yeah... things are working out well. They are not really as confused and rambly as this post was. Believe me... it makes more sense in my head but you just can't jump in to it.
Oh well... excitement (of sorts) and work lies ahead. I should talk to my uncle and my Godfather about a few things as well. *makes note*
That's all for this time... you'll be sure to hear when another surge of excitement passes through!
It will.. eventually. The thing about that is, while I'm doing many different things and learning much different stuff, it all sort of contributes to a larger whole. No single thing is monumentally interesting enough to report on and telling about it all would probably be incredibly boring.
I will be looking at periodic updates, interesting anecdotes and happenings and that kind of thing but I think to truly see the synthesis of my experience here, you'd either have to talk to me, see some of my work (when it comes about) or just wait and watch! It's not really something that can be explained.
So yeah... following up on the last post, a couple more ideas have popped up. At this time, I'm considering just doing the technical "teacher training" courses like instruction, assessment, evaluation etc. without going in for the degree. I would link these as electives for my current course and come and do a B.Ed back home... that should work.
Another thing I considered/am considering is switching to a doctoral track. The main reason for this is that doctoral students are studying the same courses as I am, and get a fancier degree. They also get preference for assistantships and thus get waivers etc... so it'd sorta be a free ride. Yet, if I don't get that (right away, at least) - then it's an added expense that's not really required. My (chosen and proposed) line of work doesn't really require a doctorate but it would feel nice to have it and one of my teachers believes that it might be beneficial for certain other plans of the future as well... yet for those plans... keep watching this space.
At the same time, I'm a little too lazy to give it my all and spend four more years here. It's interesting but a thought I had yesterday was "illuminating" - I'm not uncomfortable here. I'm not a sort of person who would be against settling abroad. Nor am I the sort who says I must come back. Yet... with things working out the way they have in these last two years, I currently want to come back and as a result... staying here for too long gives me a sensation of being "not at home." Even with me getting more comfortable about the thought of going to work in corporate settings (talking with my teachers and the application based nature of assignments is making it less stressful - I need to realise that no one will expect perfection right away - if there is such a thing anyway - when I start a job... I will be able to learn on the job as well and there, I shall have someone senior to guide me as well... I just need to breathe!) at this time I find myself looking at corporate settings at home. This also has two reasons:
1) I really want to teach back home and for that, I need to be home... and this could be something I could do part time/after hours.
2) There isn't a lot of professional, technical implementation back home, of the kinds of processes I'm learning about here. People do this sort of thing - no doubt - but they wing it and it would be good to perhaps teach them to be systematic or call myself a Pundit and do it myself... India, not the world, could be my oyster.
Segueing from the applications of the ISD process in coporates, I go to schools and if I wanted to do doctoral work, I could just do it in India for two more reasons.
1) Indian Ph.Ds don't seem as hard core and course based as they do it here - so I could do it at a little more leisure.
2) I would have a framework to base my research upon because what I'd like to do is see how Best Practices of instruction transfer from the western world and prior research to India and the collectivist culture.
It will be a challenge - but a delicious one.
I just need to start talking to people.
And talking to people is sort of a skill or an art I'm learning here. Slowly but surely my shell and reserve that keeps me from piping up, asking questions and just approaching unknown people is falling away. Make no mistake... it will be a while before I'm "debonair" about it and it might well take the rest of my course for me to get there but get there, I shall!
So today, I went to meet two of my teachers - well, one teacher and one advisor (he hasn't taught me yet).
To my advisor, I showed my proposed plan of study. I'm aiming for a major in Performance Improvement and Human Resource Development. Employers in India will feel it's delicious!
However, there were some issues some of the electives I wanted to take but the Boss put my mind to rest about that - for now. Suffice to say I'm a little annoyed that there is one course I might not be able to take due to lack of knowledge and subsequent "poor" planning. However, as of now, all things are a go!
What also came out of this meeting was a potential internship.
We need to have an internship component for our degree and the Boss said that we could do it practically anywhere. How it started out was with me discussing course choices with him and whether I should take one on Computer Courseware or Distance Learning. Distance Learning is not really an area of interest but with virtual organizations and the like, it might be a good skill to have in the kit... and he said, well, we're developing an undergrad course and it has videos and stuff and web pages that need developing - so that would be e-learning.
I like it...I get to work with him, it's curriculum development, it's e-learning AND chance of some money. win win win win. Plus win - looks good on resumés.
The genesis to this was really him thinking that perhaps I should do e-learning, rather than computer courseware because I could teach myself the latter. Well, I can teach myself stuff but unless it's required or a deep interest, I don't. It's not a matter of deep interest here but the pressure and requirement of an internship will help me get it done!
So yay!
I talked to my other professor - let's just call him Happy/Crazy/Funny/Silly Panda Bear.
He takes two of my three classes and I went and discussed the possibilities of using my project from the MPM days as a basis for my final projects in his class and that was a productive discussion that led to ideas that, while hypothetical in origin, might actually have real world, real time application. Let's see... that's for when I go back but keep watching for updates on the project and then the final idea. Panda Bear has been talking about the usefulness of a Ph.D in some of my future ventures and that's what led me to the transfer of knowledge/research to India idea and he said that it'd work!
Ph.D is a fair amount of work and Ph.Ds here who teach, need to do a LOT of publishing to keep current and build a reputation. I'm curious. I'm not sure, however, that I'm that interested in publishing. But, if I do transfer the current research from here to India (because I'm curious about the effects) then I should get readily publishable material, I could do a Ph.D on it and since no one is really doing anything of that sort in India, be THE MAN to go to when something like it required. Woo! Power trip! (Don't ask what "that sort of thing" is unless you have an afternoon free and can meet me in person)
After meeting both teachers, I went and met a third one - just went and talked to him about helping with the MAT program and he didn't really have anything in mind with which I could help but he then thought someone else might... so something interesting might work out of that. They haven't started writing... they're still collecting info. So, an insider's view on something I might take. If nothing else, I get more experience from helping, watching and learning on the job!
And again: it looks good on resumés!
All this from just going and talking to someone, asking questions and being prepared to take no for an answer. That's also a skill/requirement sometimes...
And I will continue... it's been interesting. Before I came here, a "boss" in an interesting company said I should go and talk to her if (in her words, I say "when") I came back from the US.
Recently, another "boss" (these are connections through extended family) emailed me and something might happen there... especially on the consultant level, which is great because I want to work in a school for a while!
So yeah... things are working out well. They are not really as confused and rambly as this post was. Believe me... it makes more sense in my head but you just can't jump in to it.
Oh well... excitement (of sorts) and work lies ahead. I should talk to my uncle and my Godfather about a few things as well. *makes note*
That's all for this time... you'll be sure to hear when another surge of excitement passes through!
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