The question everybody asks

Ultimately, family members and friends want to know what I plan to do when I go to Australia. Here is what I can say about that.

We (Heather, the kids, and I) are going to Australia to start the next phase of our lives. Korea has been very important to me for many reasons, but we want the kids to go to school in an English-speaking country. So why not Canada? Well, it comes down to what I want to do. I want to get into a career that involves technology. At first, I was sure that I wanted to be a professor of instructional technology; now, though, that is just one option I am looking at. The other option is to go into industry doing things like developing e-learning solutions.

Canada is kind of funny in this regard. It is a high-tech country to be sure, but the education system isn't really behind it (as far as I can tell). No doctoral programs in instructional technology can be found at any of the major universities that I have researched. If I want to do a program in digital technology, all I've found thus far are college diploma programs. So I just don't see Canada being the answer to get me where I want to go.

Australia, on the other hand, offers exactly the kind of graduate school programs that interest me. I can do a master's degree and gain industry contacts at the same time. Then I can go on and do a PhD in instructional technology if I so desire. So that explains why I am more interested in Australia than Canada at this time.

Beyond school, what do I plan to do? Well, like I said, I think industry is a good starting point. By this, I mean that I might try to get into a company that is working on educational products for computers or portable electronic devices, or I could try to do my own start-up company for this purpose. If that goes well, then I will see how busy I am. I would love to complete a PhD program, as well, since this would then make academia a distinct possibility, but I'd have to see if I had the time to do it.

I have many ideas in my head for developing multimedia solutions for the educational market place, but it doesn't end there. I could also see myself working on things like interactive travel guides that work on portable devices.

It IS possible that we might return to Canada some day. If the right opportunity arises, we will always be ready to make the move. But Heather and I agree that we have to do what is right for us, and we just hope to be successful at it so that we can enable ourselves to travel, visit our home countries, and maybe even some day return home for good. Time will tell.