Feb. 29th, 2024

 I did so many things for the unique day. It's 2/29, and you just can have it every four years.

Taipei 101 New Year's eve fireworks

 

Finally, I decided to pretend to be young man. My kids and I went to Taipei 101 to join the countdown fireworks party on Dec. 31st, 2023.

A book just read "Atomic habits"

 Cultivating small habits can bring huge changes. 

 

End of summer recess 2023

 Last day (Sep. 10) of 2023 is the end of summer recess.  Weather is bad. It has been raining a lots since typhoon Haikui hit Taiwan last week. My son, Eason, is going to take entrance exam next year. I hope he can put more efforts in his study. In the future, he can go to study at a prestige university, and have a successful career. My daughter, Audrey, becomes a junior high school student.  Hope things go great for her on her new adventure. This picture was taken at swimming pool on Sep. 9th.  

End of Sabbtical

One year sabbatical finally comes to the end. It was good to have free time to do things that I planned to go during past years. In this half year period, I finished some important things. I would like to mention as follows: 

1.  Went to the States to collect research data and visit old friends. 
2.  Took 2 computer classes to update Photoshop and HTML&CSS skills. 
3.  Wrote an journal article (accepted). 
4.  Wrote a book chapter. 
5.  Finished two research reports. 
6. Attended a virtual conference (6th International Conference on New Trends in Teaching and Education, Brussels, Belgium | 26 - 28 May 2023). 
7.  Participated in two days ChatGPT and AI workshop(16 hours). 
8.  Left eye PTK surgery. 
9.  Travel to Japan with two kids (group tour).                                                                                          In addition, I spent more time to arrange after-school classes for my kids. My daughter started to get Orthodontic treatment. Hope things will go well for me when the new semester begins.

 

Photo therapeutic Keratectomy (PTK) Surgery

I had Photo therapeutic Keratectomy (PTK) surgery on my left eye today. My right eye had same procedure 11 years ago (2012). Because of repeated corneal ulcer happening during a year, I decided to solve this issue by a laser surgery. It is an effective way to cure this type of eye problem. My daughter went to the eye clinic with me. It was good to have a family companion while waiting for the operation. I must take care of my eyes after recovery.

On Lok senior center, San Francisco

今天2/22拜訪位於舊金山第30街的On Lok長者中心(Senior Center)，在拜訪前我與中心的Staff on Duty Billy Li聯繫多次，他非常的熱心安排我到訪的時間，我大概在下午三點左右到，一進門就看到On Lok的用餐區，他們提供60歲以上的長者免費的午餐，時間從早上10點到下午一點，週一到週六皆提供(但週六沒有提供熱食，提供冷凍食品)。Billy也提供了當月供應的菜單給我看，我也參觀的用餐區，由菜色的安排可以了解到On Lok非常重視來此中心長者的營養，每餐皆有肉、蔬菜、水果與牛奶。 Billy也帶我參觀位於三樓的教室，其中讓我印象深刻的是編織的教室以及空中花園，他們也有瑜珈、繪畫及電腦教室，並有Game Room(遊戲室)，Billy特別提到On Lok可能在今年引進麻將的活動。此外，我也看到一間大教室有UCSF(加州大學舊金山分校)的醫生來講授大腦認知的課程。 On Lok的活動參與完全免費，包括學習所需之材料與器材費都不用繳。他們提供的課程也部分是以西班牙文與廣東話教授。課程的型態有線上、混成與實體上課。該中心也會安排志工協助，例如管理電腦教室。我看到裡面所有的人員(工作人員、學習者)都還是戴著口罩，顯示美國的高齡教育與服務機構仍非常重視防疫。有一點最讓我驚訝的是，On Lok歡迎LGBTQ+的長者來參加，這也是舊金山多元化的精神表現。On Lok的經費主要是由舊金山Department of Disability and Aging Services贊助。 整體而言，On Lok是一個多功能的長者社區活動中心，由它提供的活動與服務來看，對於長者來說是非常值得去的地方，充分考量長者身心靈的需求，這是值得台灣學習的。

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, UC Berkeley

今天2/21拜訪了位於加州大學柏克萊分校的Osher Lifelong Learning Institute，教室地點位於downtown的Extension programs大樓，位置離BART捷運站很近。我到了OLLI後拜會Business and Operations Manager, Patricia Carvalho。她向我介紹OLLI上課的方式以及收費標準，主要上課有實體課程(in-person lecture)、實體工作坊(in-person seminar or workshop)、同步線上與錄製(livestreamed + recorded)、同步線上(livestreamed only)、錄影課程(Encore)。UC Berkeley OLLI的課程多數偏於靜態討論的課程，議題多元，我在今天就參與了 一門課程The Genocide in California’s Closet，授課教授為Robert Aquinas McNally(是詩人與作家)，該門課是在講加州印地安人被大屠殺的歷史與影響。實體課堂上約有十位學員，男生比女生多，Zoom線上也有四位學員。這類的主題課程在台灣高齡教育機構應該是很難開成，但在社區大學就較有可能。 此次來美國拜訪了四所大學的OLLI，發現他們課程都較偏學術性，可能是這些學員本身的教育程度就較高，且對於此類課程接受度高。我想這是很值得台灣借鏡參考，畢竟很多人參與學習一段時間後，可能會有更高層次的需求，加上線上學習方式的普及，我想未來台灣高齡教育機構，可以仿效美國OLLI，開設學術性的課程，讓想精進的高齡者能夠參與，也能提升高齡教育機構課程的多元性與價值。