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.