Part 8 Review and Planning
Review of significant learning
Theory, technology, practice
Peer review process
A brief look at connectivism
Evidence of a critical friend
Planning the next phase
Review of Significant Learning
Method
The informal use of a web service for social goal setting has become ingrained into my learning practice such that I can review goals to which I have assigned the tag 'm2' for module two.
43things goals tagged "m2" http://www.43things.com/people/tag/aroberts/m2
Andy Roberts's 12 goals tagged m2 (in no discernible order)
1. learn how to record sound onto my computer, process and podcast
2. install wordpress
3. Find a few people willing to view my online Pilot Exhibition
4. do research that I can be proud of
5. live upgrade from mediawiki 1.3 to 1.5
6. write a statement of personal philosophy and a personal statement of research ethics
7. Register a new domain name
8. plan my pilot exhibition
9. write up my methodology
10. install multiple blogs on one database
11. install an offline pop3 email client and newsgroup reader on my Mac
12. Plan my third year exhibition
A blow by blow account of the tackling of some of these learning tasks can be traced by digging down deeper into the individual entries and comments. Similarly, there is an 'm2' tag for entries on my new DAR blog which can be used to retrieve relevant entries from http://distributedresearch.net/blog/?cat=8
Review of significant learning
Theory, technology, practice
Peer review process
A brief look at connectivism
Evidence of a critical friend
Planning the next phase
Review of Significant Learning
Method
The informal use of a web service for social goal setting has become ingrained into my learning practice such that I can review goals to which I have assigned the tag 'm2' for module two.
43things goals tagged "m2" http://www.43things.com/people/tag/aroberts/m2
Andy Roberts's 12 goals tagged m2 (in no discernible order)
1. learn how to record sound onto my computer, process and podcast
2. install wordpress
3. Find a few people willing to view my online Pilot Exhibition
4. do research that I can be proud of
5. live upgrade from mediawiki 1.3 to 1.5
6. write a statement of personal philosophy and a personal statement of research ethics
7. Register a new domain name
8. plan my pilot exhibition
9. write up my methodology
10. install multiple blogs on one database
11. install an offline pop3 email client and newsgroup reader on my Mac
12. Plan my third year exhibition
A blow by blow account of the tackling of some of these learning tasks can be traced by digging down deeper into the individual entries and comments. Similarly, there is an 'm2' tag for entries on my new DAR blog which can be used to retrieve relevant entries from http://distributedresearch.net/blog/?cat=8
Second small cycle - November 5th, 2005
approaching the action research methodology - November 14th, 2005
Planning a pilot exhibition - November 22nd
Access problems? - November 24th, 2005
Thanks to all - December 2nd
First Draft - methodology/ethics/literature - December 7th
Theory
I feel that the study of Action Research while employing it and also researching it has brought me up to speed more rapidly than pursuing just one of those alone as I explained on November 14th.
"Having completed 2 small cycles of the research I am now appreciating the advantage of using an emergent and iterative approach to the methodology itself. By starting with a plan which is loose and flexible, as I learn more about action research methodology and the practical implications for my own research project, I can refine each of the small cycles in turn so that they approach further and further towards my own developing understanding of how action research should ideally be conducted."
The construction of a personal statement of philosophy was an illuminating experience and while it appears extra to the specified learning outcomes, it helped with the analysis of and justification of methodology.
Technology
learning and adapting technology just to keep up with the hectic pace of change is a daily task for me but installing the wordpress blog and updated mediawiki represents a milestone after which a course is set which may well see me through the rest of the academic year without further major changes.
I'm beginning to conclude that shifting the authoring process from out of Dreamweaver and into Vodoopad might turn out to be a breakthrough as well. Not only is it a more appropriate use of the correct tool to match a purpose but it also throws up some interesting integration potential with drag and drop images, links and applications and export to CSS.
The podcast was a completely new communication strategy to me and therefore provides a steep learning curve. I learned that an audio supplement is much appreciated by many online visitors but that unscripted ramblings may not be suitable for an exhibition.
Practice
The creation of a statement of research ethics was suggested by one of my audience and served as a valuable learning scaffold as well as being an essential practical artifact for the future.
I've learned through practice to appreciate the benefit of having a plan to work from, mainly as a means of stiffening my own resolve to proceed in the direction of my own vision without being waylaid by well meant but less informed advice.
Peer review process
It may be mostly explained by the pressure of time, but it strikes me that current peer review practice has another problem, namely that people seem to much prefer commenting on writing style and presentation method rather than engage with ideas, which of course is much harder. That's not to say that having the occasional proofreading error corrected isn't welcome, it just feels sometimes that a flow of ideas is being constantly derailed by paying attention to the medium rather than the message. Even when I turned to audio (podcast) to explore a new way of communicating ideas, people made comments about the sound of my voice more than what I said. Rather than quote my long suffering peers, I found a comparison.
Glogowski(2005) is a language teacher who asked his students to critique each others writing and noted that
"They focused on pointing out spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. They talked about sentence structure and commented on punctuation.
Needless to say, I was initially a bit disappointed. I wanted them to engage with ideas, to respond as readers. Instead, it occurred to me, they responded as teachers."
So have we perhaps absorbed models of teachers as "nit-picking criticism"?
He then manages to begin to improve the situation through discussing with his students the deeper aspects of creative writing. I am not a teacher but my role can be to try to model the discussion of ideas by offering a peer critique of my own which attempts to do so. (see appendix 15)
A brief look at connectivism
Siemens(2005) proposes 'connectivism' as a new learning theory in which "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe". The great plumber in the sky has chosen to connect me to members of a learning set with implications which are now dawning. Although our research topics are widely varying, the sharing of 'good finds' during the search for literature may bring some convergence. As significant nodes in each other's networks, we contribute our own individual networks into the group and are inevitably affected to some extent. Eve cites Linda in her methodology section. The '4 myths' document shows up in more than one report, and so some our conclusions about the choice of methodology, emergence, grounded theory, ethics and other significant factors will have arisen out of the group network in a way which would have happened differently with another set of connections. Having been plumbed with a much larger outflow pipe than inflow (many more people can read our learning set than we can read of others) provides the conditions under which it becomes necessary to concentrate more on building connections outside of the Ultraversity.
Evidence of a critical friend's review in appendix 4
Planning the next phase - where next?
My peer review partners are curious to know what will happen next:
"I don’t get any sense of where you are thinking of going next with the 3rd cycle." - Sarah
"My question would be 'where next?' " - Eve
In the shape of things as I have designed them, cycle 3 is not an immediate concern for this project since the pilot exhibition marks the start of phase two. As Salena remarked about the pilot study presented:
"it is not a “small area” of your AE but the whole of it to date"
and the feedback from the target audience is far more than is necessary just to prove that the mechanism for collecting it works. It is a valuable source of guidance for the emerging direction of the project.
Therefore I am intending as the first cycle in Phase two, an appraisal of each of the individual suggestions made, a response or discussion, and implementation of ensuing changes. This plan also follows the structure indicated in the research proposal:
Ensuing changes are very likely to include:
*Changes to the working definition of DAR to emphasize action - Lydia
*Changes to the Wiki to give practical examples and suggest contributions - Marcus
*The adoption of a personal statement of ethics (begun) - Rosanna
*Follow up lots of leads - Rosanna
Further to this I plan to:
*continue to expand and improve the DAR wiki and present it to potential audiences.
*seek out and join any existing related communities or loose groupings
*find and review more relevant literature.
*continue with several more 'small cycles' to broaden my experience, improve my practice and provide more and better content for the wiki.
*collect rich qualitative data from collaborative DAR practitioners
*plan an exhibition along similar lines to the successful pilot but much improved and to a wider audience.
[back to index ]
approaching the action research methodology - November 14th, 2005
Planning a pilot exhibition - November 22nd
Access problems? - November 24th, 2005
Thanks to all - December 2nd
First Draft - methodology/ethics/literature - December 7th
Theory
I feel that the study of Action Research while employing it and also researching it has brought me up to speed more rapidly than pursuing just one of those alone as I explained on November 14th.
"Having completed 2 small cycles of the research I am now appreciating the advantage of using an emergent and iterative approach to the methodology itself. By starting with a plan which is loose and flexible, as I learn more about action research methodology and the practical implications for my own research project, I can refine each of the small cycles in turn so that they approach further and further towards my own developing understanding of how action research should ideally be conducted."
The construction of a personal statement of philosophy was an illuminating experience and while it appears extra to the specified learning outcomes, it helped with the analysis of and justification of methodology.
Technology
learning and adapting technology just to keep up with the hectic pace of change is a daily task for me but installing the wordpress blog and updated mediawiki represents a milestone after which a course is set which may well see me through the rest of the academic year without further major changes.
I'm beginning to conclude that shifting the authoring process from out of Dreamweaver and into Vodoopad might turn out to be a breakthrough as well. Not only is it a more appropriate use of the correct tool to match a purpose but it also throws up some interesting integration potential with drag and drop images, links and applications and export to CSS.
The podcast was a completely new communication strategy to me and therefore provides a steep learning curve. I learned that an audio supplement is much appreciated by many online visitors but that unscripted ramblings may not be suitable for an exhibition.
Practice
The creation of a statement of research ethics was suggested by one of my audience and served as a valuable learning scaffold as well as being an essential practical artifact for the future.
I've learned through practice to appreciate the benefit of having a plan to work from, mainly as a means of stiffening my own resolve to proceed in the direction of my own vision without being waylaid by well meant but less informed advice.
Peer review process
It may be mostly explained by the pressure of time, but it strikes me that current peer review practice has another problem, namely that people seem to much prefer commenting on writing style and presentation method rather than engage with ideas, which of course is much harder. That's not to say that having the occasional proofreading error corrected isn't welcome, it just feels sometimes that a flow of ideas is being constantly derailed by paying attention to the medium rather than the message. Even when I turned to audio (podcast) to explore a new way of communicating ideas, people made comments about the sound of my voice more than what I said. Rather than quote my long suffering peers, I found a comparison.
Glogowski(2005) is a language teacher who asked his students to critique each others writing and noted that
"They focused on pointing out spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. They talked about sentence structure and commented on punctuation.
Needless to say, I was initially a bit disappointed. I wanted them to engage with ideas, to respond as readers. Instead, it occurred to me, they responded as teachers."
So have we perhaps absorbed models of teachers as "nit-picking criticism"?
He then manages to begin to improve the situation through discussing with his students the deeper aspects of creative writing. I am not a teacher but my role can be to try to model the discussion of ideas by offering a peer critique of my own which attempts to do so. (see appendix 15)
A brief look at connectivism
Siemens(2005) proposes 'connectivism' as a new learning theory in which "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe". The great plumber in the sky has chosen to connect me to members of a learning set with implications which are now dawning. Although our research topics are widely varying, the sharing of 'good finds' during the search for literature may bring some convergence. As significant nodes in each other's networks, we contribute our own individual networks into the group and are inevitably affected to some extent. Eve cites Linda in her methodology section. The '4 myths' document shows up in more than one report, and so some our conclusions about the choice of methodology, emergence, grounded theory, ethics and other significant factors will have arisen out of the group network in a way which would have happened differently with another set of connections. Having been plumbed with a much larger outflow pipe than inflow (many more people can read our learning set than we can read of others) provides the conditions under which it becomes necessary to concentrate more on building connections outside of the Ultraversity.
Evidence of a critical friend's review in appendix 4
Planning the next phase - where next?
My peer review partners are curious to know what will happen next:
"I don’t get any sense of where you are thinking of going next with the 3rd cycle." - Sarah
"My question would be 'where next?' " - Eve
In the shape of things as I have designed them, cycle 3 is not an immediate concern for this project since the pilot exhibition marks the start of phase two. As Salena remarked about the pilot study presented:
"it is not a “small area” of your AE but the whole of it to date"
and the feedback from the target audience is far more than is necessary just to prove that the mechanism for collecting it works. It is a valuable source of guidance for the emerging direction of the project.
Therefore I am intending as the first cycle in Phase two, an appraisal of each of the individual suggestions made, a response or discussion, and implementation of ensuing changes. This plan also follows the structure indicated in the research proposal:
Ensuing changes are very likely to include:
*Changes to the working definition of DAR to emphasize action - Lydia
*Changes to the Wiki to give practical examples and suggest contributions - Marcus
*The adoption of a personal statement of ethics (begun) - Rosanna
*Follow up lots of leads - Rosanna
Further to this I plan to:
*continue to expand and improve the DAR wiki and present it to potential audiences.
*seek out and join any existing related communities or loose groupings
*find and review more relevant literature.
*continue with several more 'small cycles' to broaden my experience, improve my practice and provide more and better content for the wiki.
*collect rich qualitative data from collaborative DAR practitioners
*plan an exhibition along similar lines to the successful pilot but much improved and to a wider audience.
[back to index ]