Why Blog? The Digital Domain

  
Why blog at all? I have to say that throughout my life journaling  has always been something I have done in school and in my personal life. So when approaching blogging for the LRNT 502 MALAT program I had this sudden wave of fear move over me. I had to sit back and take a moment to think about it. What was so scary about this process? I then realized I was already doing this exercise of blogging, just not online, and that it is an essential part of academia to reflect and share ideas and have the necessary conversations with peers and faculty. 

 "Students who had maintained blogs for two or more years posted an average of 1.8 reflective entries, and students who had maintained blogs for more than four years posted an average of 1.94reflective entries. This information can be interpreted in different ways, but it does lead us to at least ask if the habit of blogging itself leads to more reflective writing." (Nackerud & Scaletta, 2008)

Blogging to me is just a natural exercise that I use to self-reflect and brainstorm ideas. When I read and experience my classmates' blogs I am overjoyed with the amount of awesome and critical information. It gets the wheels turning in my mind...

I then reflected on the fact that my daughter has had a blog documenting her progress from her very first day of pre-school/daycare. I mean this is something that I hold of high value as a parent, and allows me to connect with her teachers and the school, it is a great communication piece.  I am going to miss this aspect of a peek into her daily life at school, as she is leaving pre-school and embarking upon Kindergarten this fall.

Here is a sample of Katara's awesome blogs:

Katara enjoyed practicing writing letters in a tray with salt. 

"Look teacher, I wrote my name in the salt"!

Katara and her friends started learning about farm vehicles the next week. After talking about how hay comes from grass they decided to make some of their own. 

Katara got to touch feel and smell the grass the first day and then over the next few days she got to see how it changed!

As Katara and her friends explored dirt outside they realized all the bugs and worms coming out. They caught a few so we decided to start a dirt farm!

Why aren't we implementing more blogging in the classroom from a very young age? The upcoming generation is engrossed at technology, and it is like second nature to them. Implementation of a digital portfolio would be such an asset for their learning experience. A digital domain or online journal is a place to document, reflect, connect and learn -  no matter what your path may be. 

"At the simplest level, a Domain of One’s Own helps students build their own digital portfolio. They can be used in a classroom setting in order for students to demonstrate their learning. These portfolios can contain text, images, video and audio recordings, giving students opportunities to express themselves in a variety of ways beyond the traditional pen-and-paper test or essay." (Watters, 2015)

 For me that is precisely what this LRNT 502 blog has taught me, this is my digital academic journal and it is of great value in my journey through my Master's program.


References:
Nackerud, S., & Scaletta, K. (2008). Blogging in the academy.  New Directions for Student   Services (124), 71-87.  DOI: 10.1002/ss.296

Watters, A. (2015). The Web We Need to Give Our Students. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/bright/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713

How to Read Academic Papers Without Losing Your Mind

Retrieved from: http://www.nextscientist.com/writers-block-phd-students/

I have to say that with assignment 4 and the critical critique of articles, going through the material was quite frustrating for me. Reading academic articles for research papers is always something that has been a part of school, and something I have become accustomed to doing. For some reason these six articles felt like a blockade in the road for me this time round. I was losing my mind! I had to take a deep breath, grab my mug full of coffee and tackle them one at a time....

This video I found tweeted to the MALAT group on reading academic articles saved me:

 

It allowed me to break down the article into pieces and pick apart the data without feeling overwhelmed. 

1) Do not start off by reading them from beginning to end like a typical article or newspaper article

  

2) As you skim through, seek out section headings and any tables or diagrams. Underline any unfamilar words or language that is unfamiliar

3) Read through the paper from start to finish:

 - what is the point or thesis of the paper?

 - what are the main arguments?

 - importance?

 - contributions?

 - other questions?

4) At the end of your first pass, try and summarize the article in a sentence or two 

5) Second read through - to really dig in and extract information

  - pay close attention to the beginning and end of each paragraph   section

  - look up words or phrases you do not understand

6) Third pass - take notes as you read/make conclusions

  - charting in your own words 

  - arguments good and logical? assumptions made?

References:

 Kift, J., 2011. How to Read Academic Papers Without Losing Your Mind, Retreived from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYE1RoVO9oU

 

 

Getting Back to Nature

Natural landscaping and bringing schools and workplaces to a more holistic and natural element is a fast moving trend, "something deep within us responds to the three-dimensional geometry of nature" (Hutchinson, A., 2015). The traditional aspects of the workplace are becoming more so a thing of the past, being replaced by boarder-less work-spaces, that are filled with unique and inventive tools to foster creativity and production. The ability to de-stress and foster more quality and productive work from employees is something that is necessary for businesses to remain competitive. The regular 9 to 5 workday is slowly becoming outdated, and employees have more pull to have a non-fixed workday, even through the use of technology working remotely. 

 

A new study found that an additional ten trees on a given block corresponded to a one-per-cent increase in how healthy nearby residents felt (Hutchinson, A., 2015)

At this school in Tokyo, five-year-olds cause traffic jams and windows are for Santa to climb into. Meet: the world's cutest kindergarten, designed by architect Takaharu Tezuka. In this charming talk, he walks us through a design process that really lets kids be kids. 

My daughter's daycare is one of the only centre's in Alberta with a fully functioning mud-pie kitchen. Moving back to nature even at the early childhood education level is something that will change the scope of learning today. I often find myself learning so much from my own children, as they are so full of live and imagination. It seems so tragic that they often lose the clarity and expression of childhood once they enter a very outdated and obsolete formalized learning environment. We force a learning environment on children that is unnatural and we continue this in the work environment as well.

References:
Hutchinson, A., 2015. How Trees Calm Us Down, New Yorker, Retrieved from: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-is-a-tree-worth?mbid=social_facebook
 
Tesuka, T., 2014. The Best Kindergarten You've Ever Seen Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/takaharu_tezuka_the_best_kindergarten_you_ve_ever_seen

Asking the Right Questions

Learning how to ask research questions seems to be something that would be perceived as an easy task, but is often a crucial step that causes a great deal of trouble for students. Individuals coming from a more traditional rigid learning environment to that of post-secondary where a more collaborative learning approach, takes a major shift in thinking.  

How does one shift thinking in order to ask the right questions, and take ownership for their own learning? 

I believe this takes time and practice, "as students become comfortable sharing ideas, they move on to more reflective reading and writing assignments, which they discuss" (Musante, S., 2010). Instead of inquiring and testing students on specific subject matter a more progressive and collaborative approach is to have them "take the knowledge they have and develop questions about what else they might want to know, and how they might achieve that knowledge" (Musante, S., 2010). 

Quick, J., & Hall, S. (2015) give some basic objectives for research questions:

• Appreciate the importance of a clear and focused research question
• To be able to use criteria such as PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) to frame an answerable question
• Understand the need for primary and secondary questions and the process of refinement
• To understand what a hypothesis is and how it differs from the aims and objectives of a study
• Be aware of over-interpreting the findings, post-hoc assumptions and spurious association
•  Understand the answer and appreciate negative results

References:

Musante, S. (2010).  Learning how to ask research questions.  BioScience, 60(4), 266. doi:10.1525/bio.2010.60.4.4.

Quick, J., & Hall, S. (2015). Part one: An introduction to the research process. Journal of perioperative practice, 25(4), 78-82.

My Name is Petrina and I am an Organizing Junkie

Sometimes I feel like I am drowning in the busyness that is life. My only saving grace is that I am very keen on all things, systems and tools that encourage organization (and all things that go alone with office paraphernalia....OOOooh aaaaAAhhh pens and daytimers!). With my full-time work, my husband, two little children and school on the go, the driving force to keep me on task is my calendar (electronic and paper) and organizational skills. I often take a moment, despite being buried in tasks and due dates, to sit and organize myself and chart my calendar and dates down. One truly needs to take the time to be organized.

"Being organized should be a positive feeling in that you are making progress and accomplishing tasks, no matter how small or large they may be" (Rosenhoffer, 2005)

My tools for success - color coded no less! ;)

 

This LRNT 502 course in unit one has challenged me with the many moving parts and due dates on the go. The only way to stay afloat, has been organizing myself and my very limited and precious time for school work, which has made me feel successful with the first few weeks. Not to get completely sidetracked from my theme of research, but I do strongly believe that organizing in research practice is essential to success as well, despite the different epistemological perspectives. Looking at data and field work, the researcher must have project management and tasks organized and plans in place to actually get through the data and secure results. Being able to be credible, produce excellent, understandable and meaningful results as a researcher is something I am going to strive for. I am already looking ahead to my research paper (as time is just whipping by) and what appears to be a daunting task of gathering and organizing data, actually has me excited and curious; I am certainly up for the challenge.

References:
Rosenhoffer, R. (2005). Let's get organized. McLean: National Contract Management Association.
Image retrieved from: http://sweetwaterlibraries.com/sclsblogs/rootsandbranches/?p=780

Insight into Intellectual Property

    Retrieved from: http://memeburn.com/2012/04/
    linked-content-coalition-the-answer-to-online-copyright-law-woes/

Working in post-secondary themes of copyright, FOIP and plagiarism surround me on a daily basis. Though in this LRNT 502 class I learned many new points surrounding copyright, particularly in areas of international copyright, points regarding my thesis and the vast world that is the internet. Copyright has come a long way and adapted to the shifting dynamic that protects intellectual work, "the modern settlement of copyright law derives from the Berne Convention of 1886" (Kretschmer, 2005).

A thought that I had was with an ever changing more global and wireless world, the area of copyright protecting online property is exploding. More and more students from all across the globe are accessing course work from Canada. It was very interesting to me to learn that copyright law stems from where you are physically located. In my past work with international students, an area of development and curiosity for them was related to issues surrounding privacy, FOIP and copyright. As often in their home countries these copyright-laws and what is general common knowledge to us, is often not even an issue or problem for them. Looking at the pros of being able to connect virtually and link so many diverse socio-cultural backgrounds is something that is so tremendous and amazing for learning in today's world. Though I caution that for the foreseeable future copyright law must be able to evolve and adapt to the changing climate that is today. The role that we as individual scholars (this word still feels alien and so fancy to me!) and researchers play in copyright is a large and significant one.

 

"we all have a part to play here: in
archiving our papers on-line; in supporting alternative digital
engagement and distribution schemes; and in alerting policy makers
that copyright rules matter" (Kretschmer, 2005)

Here I am from the comforts of my home accessing learning and networking with a wealth of rich professionals and fellow students. If this is not the changing face of education and learning today, than I do not know what is!

References:
Kretschmer, M. (2005). Trends in global copyright. Global Media and Communication, 1(2), 231-237. doi:10.1177/1742766505054645

Cultures of Inquiry

"The researcher tries to appreciate the culture of groups"(Straub, 2004)

Whew! The last two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind of information and learning. 

Reflecting on unit one, something that stood out to me was the impact and importance of the different social and cultural backgrounds we inhibit as individuals. The completion of assignment one struck a cord in me that made the research possibilities exciting. Particularly evaluation research, as I often am conducting research in this way at my work; looking at a problem, finding data around the issue and then looking at possible solutions to make the situation better. The challenges of each culture of inquiry was fascinating to me, as each resonated with a common theme of removing your personal bias and socio-economic background out of the process. Research can be a daunting and overwhelming task it seems, and the information on each culture of inquiry is vast, however the Mind Map activity opened the Pandora's box for me, and unlocked a great curiosity. As I am an individual that is always seeking change for the betterment of the masses, particularly in the workplace, action research felt like a good fit when I applied it to my scenario. Academically very limited research has always been a part of my learning, however, I can tell it has just been the tip of the iceberg that is true research, and as I move along in my learning journey with RRU, we shall delve even deeper.

  References:

Straub, D., Gefen, D., & Boudreau, M. (2004). Glossary. The ISWorld quantitative, positivist   research methods website (Dennis Galletta ed.).  

Woods, P. (2006). Qualitative research.