Retirement is a good time for reflection.

After teaching, consulting, and in-house assignments, I’ve retired from full-time employment. My first position was in 1971 at the School of Extended Studies, Portland State University. I taught students all over the world for three decades, enjoying every day of it. Being off-site and away from faculty meetings and other administrative tasks allowed me time to work as a semi-professional musician on the side, and then to complete coursework in the new database software systems of the time.

In those days, we developed correspondence courses based on the instructional design of programmed learning: if you passed a module you moved onto the next topic. If not, you went back to the beginning until you got it right. That approach to distance learning evolved into creating CD’s with a textbook and additional readings plus video and now online learning with even more compelling ways of delivering content. (For several years, universities, corporations and government agencies have been offering Web-based courses on a wide variety of useful topics. I think the best elearning is designed to grab your attention and show what you will learn for yourself in the first few minutes; otherwise, you can click to something else.)

While I was teaching distance learning courses, a few universities hired me as a consultant, and from there I branched out to government and corporate clients: the extra money and business experience was great.

In 2001, I retired from teaching and outside consulting, to become as the first eLearning Specialist at Regence, a Blue and Blue Shield Association Affiliate. Here I became a consultant to internal clients. My roles and responsibilities included analysis of needs and opportunities and recommending, designing and implementing:

• elearning, 
• surveys/assessments/evaluations,
• and database management systems to support users.

After seven happy and productive years, I retired from Regence to spend more time with Marj, consult part-time, resume my piano studies, and volunteer. Now I have more time to ponder where we are all going.

This week President-elect Obama emphasized the need for modernizing -  medical IT - our health care system through, for example, electronic medical records to save money and improve our nation’s health. Secure online medical records are a change we need. Another change we need is transparency in financing our health care. Finally, as a certified senior citizen who took post-grad gerontology seminars, I appreciate the profound issues experienced by boomers dealing with their retirement and aged parents.