My friend from Korea had asked me on the phone the other day if it was strange working with Americans (I am American). I had answered that it was not really a fair comparison because Princeton is different than most places. It is the definition of diversity, it is safety, it is all the things I remember lacking from Youngstown, from Korea even. It is just different.
However much I kid myself, I am not settled yet. I have not quite adjusted. I feel aloof and unwieldy at times. I am excited about what is before me, but I suppose equally excited about what I have already gone through, about reliving it mentally thirty times a day in a dream.
I welcome the challenge though. This crossroads, it is me. It is me right now.
My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.
welcome back, mikey- we have missed you!