My how time seems to fly. It seems that I wrote that last posting just a few months instead of over a year ago. I’m still in school, plugging away. But the “Big D” is much closer now. I take my last required class this fall and then, it’s Comps, Proposal & Proposal Defense — boom, boom, boom!
But I haven’t forgotten about this virtual space and how I can best use it to help me move towards my goal of authentic and useful research in the field of educational technology. My dad’s a PhD and he keeps telling me — KISS! Choose a simple topic, make sure you know your boundaries, don’t get lost in the research maze, collect your data & write it up. Sounds pretty straight-forward, huh? However, my dad got his PhD almost 40 years ago and, although a lot is the same in academia, a lot has changed, too. I do value his advice and he has my best interests at heart, but … sometimes I think we aren’t speaking the same language, or at least the terminology means something entirely different in my world.
So what to do with this space?? I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and since it’s summer (and supposedly, I have more ‘free’ time), I thought it might be a good place to write and reflect on what I have been reading (articles and books) related to my research interests. Along the way, I wanted to document some of the tools & tricks (hacks) I’ve discovered that are making this journey a little easier for me. Who knows, my discoveries and reflections might be useful to another fellow traveler.
In conjunction with this focus, I thought to change the name of my blog to The Reflexive Researcher. However, this is not an easy thing to do. Living on the Steppes is the name of my WordPress website and I’ve printed it on my business card, therefore, the name change can only be internal. But that’s ok — I really don’t want to muddy the waters and I like the original name I chose for my blog.
Look for more postings soon … not a year from now!
Living on the Steppes 