This is my last day at work for the year, and being the last day of the work year, it is time to take a look back.

NetWorks webinars were a huge success. Special thanks to Terry Bartelt talking about 10 Tips to Thinking Outside the Box for Technical Recruitment as well as explaining what Learning Objects are and how to use them while Dave Bunnow talked on strategies on how to make them. Thanks to Gordon Synder and Mike Qassannie for volunteering Karl Kapp to do the Second Life in Education webinar – which also lead to Karl doing Transferring Knowledge and Communicating with Today’s Generation webinar. Tom McGlew filled us in about the NSF project eSyst, while Mike Lesiecki, with John Robertson and Roger Melcher, talked about Industry Expectations for Graduates. Celeste Baine discussed Recruiting Women into Technology Programs. All of these were successful webinars and we had many registrants. The webinars all have a long tail since they are recorded and while we have thousands of people using NetWorks resources, the webinars are always popular.

I got to travel to Utica, New York to work on a project at Mohawk Valley Community College and meet in person Bob Decker and Bill Judycki. Lucky for me, the weather in April was nice and it did not snow. I also got to see a friend from college who lived in the next town. It is always good to hook up with friends you talk to every now and then but never get to see.

We also had the SAME-TEC 2008 conference in Austin, Texas. This was the biggest and probably one of the best confernces that we have put on in 14 years. It was a lot of fun and I got to see Gordon and Mike, meet Karl for the first time, Bob Decker, Bill Judycki, Terry Bartelt, Larry Geczy, and many others, including most of the NetWorks Faculty Adivsory Board. My presentations and workshops were some of the best that I have ever done and the whole conference was very enjoyable. This turned out to be the last SAME-TEC; now we are going to be part of the ATE conference – the first of its kind – HI-TEC (High Impact Technology Exchange Conference, the website will be live in January). This will be all 32 ATE centers, many of the projects will gather for four days. For some reason the conference committee picked to do it in Phoenix, Arizona during the summer (it is taking over the SAME-TEC dates in late July). While I am happy because it means I don’t have to travel or leave the family, I am a native Phoenician and getting out of the city to anywhere else is something you do when the weather is 110 degrees. But, I understand, hotels are cheaper at that time than during the winter. I am not sure how many people will want to return to a conference here, but I am sure it will be somewhere else next year.

NetWorks Digital Resource Library, one of my main responsibilities, reached 1000 resources in July. We are actually over 1200 today. We have some serious plans to work with faculty to bring in their resources for next year and if we get the approval of our grant, some really great ideas.

In October I traveled to Washington D.C. for the first time. I didn’t get to see any sights but the area around the hotel – but next year I will. It was great because I got to meet up with Mike, Gordon, Bob, Terry, and Larry again. Because of a mix up on my part, I was not able to go out to dinner with Mike, Gordon, and Terry like we had planned. But the ATE-PI conference was wonderful – it was really nice not to be doing a workshop or presentation. Also in October we turned in the renewal for the NetWorks project to the NSF. Obviously, since NetWorks is my main job, I am hoping they see the good work we have done and continue to let us keep bringing high technology resources to faculty, students, and industry.

And so December is here with January fast approaching. A new president, a new year, and hopefully a new grant. All good things to look forward and looking back, a lot of good work done with a lot of great people. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break and a great new year!