Future Direction(s)
It has been a big week, a big month or two, I guess...
I have been doing lots and lots of thinking about my future research, for purposes of my dissertation, an alternate to a dissertation, and professional research agenda.
It has been a big week, a big month or two, I guess...
I have been doing lots and lots of thinking about my future research, for purposes of my dissertation, an alternate to a dissertation, and professional research agenda.
Barry came to class tonight. He offered some insights for the dissertation phase of graduate school. I list some of the most helpful below.
AERA was crazy, as usual. It is really exciting and motivating to be there with all the "famous" people. And just to see the enormous numbers of folks who are in the field of educational research -- it was INSANE!
Just wanted to capture some thoughts I have been having in/out of class that I want to store away for future exploration...
Just to be more clear, when I was asked at the end of class last week where I thought I wanted to be, what I wanted to "do," I was not as articulate as I would have liked. Probably because I don't have the answer to that question myself! And I felt a bit on the spot.
After taking so many research courses here, I am fully versed in the epistomological and ontological divides between positivistic and interpretive research folks. I live in two academic worlds: literacy and LT. The work I am familiar with in literacy is primarily interpretive -- where is the interpretive and/or critical science LT research?
Two major topics we explored in class were LS vs. ISD (Kirby, Hoadley, Carr-Chellman, 2005) and the possibilities for technology/computers being used with autistic young people.
This entry is an attempt to shake out my "LT home"... Where do I fit within LT? Where are my allegiances; what do I believe in? How do I frame my thinking? What LT ideas are important to me?
The class discussion on publishing brought me back to thoughts I have been having about the insanity of academia -- I feel like I am a puppet in junior high all over again.
The article by Voithofer (2005) provided me with some hope about how academia and research can change...however, the Zhao and Frank (2003) article prompted me, once again, to be reflective about my academic goals and attitudes towards academia.
My thoughts keep swirling and swirling -- there is not enough time in the day to explore most of them... however, one of the ideas that keeps coming back is possibly conducting a phenomenological study in our class on students' experiences with the class wiki. This study could help inform instructors' pedagogical practices when considering using a wiki in a graduate level course. Phenomenology strives to understand the meaning of experience, so I believe phenomenology is a good fit for what I want to more fully understand by conducting the research.