Digital Tools Blog for 7.12.13

Readings Reflection:

Watt (2007)

I have read the Watt article 3 times now (Intro to Qual, Advanced Qual, and now, Digital Tools).  Each time I read it I take away something new.   This time, I read the article electronically (working on that ‘paperless’ thing) on my Ipad and used Iannotate to highlight some things as I read.  This reading, I was struck by how her use of a reflexive journal really drove her research process.  Yes, it offered her the opportunity to outline her struggles and mistakes along the way, making her more open and trustworthy to her readers, but she also became aware of aspects of the research through writing.  This awareness influenced her choices along the way.  On page 89/90 (p.9 electronically), Watt reflects on a conversation she had with a participant about the possibility of observing her as she home schooled her children.  Through the reflection, Watt decides NOT to do observations, something she had originally planned to do as part of her research study.   Watt also talked about her struggles with data analysis and her lack of connection with writing and using her journal during this time.  She reverted to reading, when using her journal and writing might have helped her through the difficult time with data analysis.  This is particularly important to keep in mind – not just to read, but to write (and you reminded us of this several times in qual class last semester).

Wednesday night in our DP class, we talked a great deal about objectivity/subjectivity and how it is impossible to be completely objective in our research observations.  We bring our experiences with us into the research area.  Watt quotes Reason (as cited in Maxwell, 1996) when she discusses “critical subjectivity” – “a quality of awareness in which we do not suppress our primary experience; nor do we allow ourselves to be swept away and overwhelmed by it; rather we raise it to consciousness and use it as part of the inquiry process. (p. 12).     Keeping a research notebook would be really helpful in this regard, allowing a space to check in on how prior experiences, beliefs, expectations etc. are influencing the researcher.   This popped up for me some last semester when I was working with a professor at a local elementary school.  I have a background in literacy coaching, having been an intermediate (grades 3-5) coach for several years, as well as a district trainer.  One aspect my training stressed was not allowing teachers to be dependent upon the coach, with the ultimate goal being that teachers would take on new practices or refine practices with support.   I could model lessons and demonstrate particular practices, but the eventually “doing” of the teaching needed to be carried out by the teacher I was working with.  It was my job to scaffold the opportunity to allow her/him to be independent in carrying out the action.  While I was at the research site, it bothered me that the teachers were not taking ownership and “doing”.  I saw the professor jumping through hoops to accommodate people (like doing a lesson with 30 minutes’ notice).  I had definite opinions and expectations about “how this should go” that were impacting my perceptions of the research participants.  I felt like some of the teachers were taking advantage of the professor, not taking on the learning, and using her precious time to simply give them a break from working with students.  The professor and I discussed it some, and I wrote about it in my memos in Atlas.  Through journaling, I really thought through this, and decided that maybe this was part of relationship building for the prof and the teachers.  Unlike a literacy coach who is in the building all the time and has many, many opportunities to establish relationships, the prof was at the school for only a day a week.  She also did not have district mandates to support any particular kind of implementation (like the coaches in my district did).  It took me some time, reflecting, and conversing to come to this conclusion about the project.  Through reflection of this sort I was able to reframe what I was witnessing and consider other factors.

PDL – Chapter 2

I like the definition of reflexivity that is offered at the beginning of this chapter – “Reflexivity is the process of intentionally attending to the perspectives, attitudes, and beliefs that shape how you design a research study and make sense of your data.”  In my Watt reflection above, I discussed how my past experiences as a literacy coach were influencing my attitude about some of the teachers we were interacting with and how using my research journal helped me reframe the interactions to make sense in a new setting.

 

Reflexive Practice 2.1 asks, “How might your previous experiences influence how you enter the context of the study you are proposing?”  In both of the research studies I talked about in my initial DT post, I would bring a great deal of experience and expectation.   I have certain notions about what is important in professional development with teachers (that they be active, that they work to bring together theory and practice, that they reflect on their actions, that they take responsibility for their own learning)  and what is important in working with low achieving readers (that they be active in their learning, that they experience success, that they experience genuine accomplishment – solving problems in reading, that they do as much as possible independently).  If I were to do research around either one of those topics, I would have to think about how those expectations were influencing what I was seeing, what I was focusing on, and what conclusions I was drawing.   Keeping a journal and talking with others would help me be aware of how my thoughts and expectations were influencing me as a researcher. 

I think when I am actually working on my dissertation, it will be important for me to have consistent feedback from others.  I think setting up a private blog with a mentor and some colleagues would be helpful.  I liked the idea of video blogging too.  I had never really considered that as an option until this chapter, but see how it might be useful.  I write differently than I speak, and so perhaps video blogging would get to different kinds of thoughts and feelings that writing wouldn’t.   This chapter also talked about using audio recording as part of the process.  I began to consider this last semester, when Dr. Allington talked about how he has to work out (orally) the beginning of a paper or book before he can really get going.  He uses an audio recorder to help get the right feel to the opening of a piece.  Next year, I will be working with a group of teachers in Atlanta.  The weekly car ride to and from ATL would be a good time for me to practice this. 

Lastly, I agree with Markham’s (2006) thoughts on what a researcher should be whether working online or offline – “prepared, reflexive, flexible, adaptive, and honest”.  The goals are to do no harm to the participants and the community.  Working online requires different considerations than working offline, but the goals are ultimately the same.

Class reflections (7.11.12):

I enjoy talking with different classmates each week about the readings.  Tonight, David and Rachel and I were in a group, and we had some interesting conversations. David talked about his experience in research and how most of it had been quantitative.  He had a hard time relating to the Watt article, and we wondered together if the fact that he was doing mostly quantitative research was impacting that.  It reminded me of what you said in DP Wednesday – that people engaged in quantitative data projects often don’t have to think through or justify epistemological concerns because it is the “given”…it is just how it is done and the rest of us (who deviate from the norm) need to do the explaining.

 

I left class last night feeling pretty overwhelmed by all the tools that are out there and overwhelmed by what I might choose to work on.   There is so much out there to explore technologically, but learning these new tools is very time consuming (for me) and some of that cognitive energy to learn the tools is taken up in content courses.  This class feels like a luxury in that it is making me take the time to learn the tools as part of the class, so I can be more efficient in my content work.   I was very tempted by Evernote – I’ve kept journals for years and am obsessed with the Moleskine line – I have journals and calendars and all things Moleskine.  I can see myself really using something like that because it does have “notebooks” and you can pull in all kinds of different kinds of media.   I think I can handle that one on my own though, so I don’t think I will choose it for my skill builder.  I need to do a better job of handling all my citations, so I will definitely go with Mendeley.  I was thinking last night that I could use the Iannotate (because I need to practice going paperless etc.) app to take notes on articles in my field, and I could begin to collect articles in Atlas ti to begin a lit review on professional development with teachers.   I could do a few articles this semester as part of my skill builder, then continue next semester.  These are just my thoughts right now, and are subject to change … I will get started with Mendeley and continue to consider the second skill builder.

 

I thought The Old Reader was pretty cool.  Last semester I didn’t comment on others blogs, though I did read them from time to time.  This summer, I am going to make more of an effort to comment about what others are saying, and I think The Old Reader will help me do that efficiently.   Also, in the reading course that I teach for undergraduates, I have them write reading responses that I respond to.  We have always done this through Blackboard, but now I am wondering if I might have them do blog posts and comment on one another’s blogs.