I had such grandiose plans to finish my theory paper on Friday night and head off to Disneyland on Saturday morning. Fortunately for me, my 5 yr old had a meltdown of epic proportions at pre-school and made some really unfortunate decisions which led to us calling off the trip.  This was a lifesaver as I'm not really sure how I planned to finish a paper, clean my entire house (that looked like a grenade went off), and pack for four people all in one night!

But back to the paper!  My theory is constructivism.  I have always liked the theory of constructivism and the thought of learning by doing.  This struck a chord with me as I researched my lit review topic of 1:1 computing.  I had a very surface idea of what this theory was all about.  As I got more into my research, I was surprised to find some many different branches of this theory and to find out some really interesting criticisms of the theory.  

When it came to the writing for this paper, I started from a very different point than my lit review.  I knew how I wanted to construct the paper and did a brain dump to create my rough draft.  Then I got stuck.  I wasn't sure how to expand out draft from my original ideas.  I had an amazing brainstorm around Thursday nightish on how to move forward.  I took each of my major topics for the paper and listed them in a word document.  Then I went through each article and wrote down all the important thoughts about each topic that I wanted to cover.  I wrote down some quotes that I liked and made sure to note the page number and author.  Next to each topic heading, I listed my citation for each article so that I could just cut and paste the entire cite of all authors straight into my paper.  This was a HUGE success and help.  I was able to easily construct paragraphs from my thoughts.  As a new topic presented itself, I outlined it and then created a paragraph from the outline.  Novel concept, right!  I was able to create a really strong paper using this method.  I even finished in time to get a peer review from a classmate and do some editing before I submitted it.  I was pretty proud of this paper!

We all commiserated in class tonight over our returned lit reviews.  Of course revisions will need to be made, some of us more than others.  It was a good process to go through and I definitely learned a lot and will make changes for the future.  I didn't do my best work and because of that I will have a lot of revisions in my future.  

For class this week, we had to complete our IRB certification and do a rough draft of our ethics statement.  I completed both along with all of the required reading.  I was very pleased to be on top of all of my assignments!  The IRB certification process wasn't terribly difficult.  It reminded me of some of the online sexual harassment trainings I've had to do for work.  Doing the online training was a good way to learn the information and understand what I'll need to know when I design my research studies.  I need to keep in mind how my research could impact the students that will be involved.  I'll need to get their parents consent as well consent from the students.  I'll also need to work with the local school district to get their approval and ultimately share results with them.  I plan to go back and review the information from the training again when I am closer to doing a study.  


And now it's on to the theoretical framework assignment.  More research, more writing, I can't wait!

Well, I survived my first literature review. It's done and submitted but it's not the quality that I would like. I was hoping I would feel relieved once I turned it in, but I'm still ruminating about it. Since it's still in my head, I decided to get it out in a blog post.

For me, this lit review was about the learning process that went with it. I did learn a lot about my topic but I think the take away for me is how I would do things differently in the future. I'm not terribly proud of the work I turned in. It's garbage and I know it. That being said, I'm a better writer now than I was a few weeks ago. Next time I start writing, it will be from a completely different place than where I started this piece.

I learned a lot about time management. I learned that this kind of writing takes a lot of think time and focus. It can't be done in long sittings a few nights before its due. That was a hard lesson learned. I learned that sitting and writing a little each day is a good way to write. I learned that by writing down some quotes and thoughts it helped me get started and get past my writers block. I learnd that keeping research organized is a whole process in and of itself and is key to writing efficiently. I learned how to research. A few of us were lucky in that we had a library lesson in our other class a few weeks ago. This was the best thing ever. I wished it had come far earlier in the semester. I would have never found the subject guides, or how to pick more than one database or how to limit articles to peer reviewed, or ref works. Without this lesson, I would not have been as successful as I was. I learned that when writing down notes from articles, writing down the authors name, date, and pg number with the note is a critical time saver. Duh! I learned that using the reference page from an article I really liked often leads to finding more useful articles and is more efficient than doing a search on terms. I learned how important the right search terms are. I learned that sometimes the question you are writing about doesn't appear until you are well into the writing. This was a key lesson and a major source of my writing block as I couldn't focus myself because of the enormity and breadth of the research I was looking at. I learned that leaning on friends in my class and in the doctoral program was a huge source of support. Just having someone to commiserate with and have a writing session with for moral support was huge! Reading a peer's writing was helpful as well. It was more helpful than reading published articles as it felt more real to me and it gave me a clearer sense of what I needed to do.

I tried to think about what would have helped me do this better or differently. I think the library class was huge and would've been an eye-opener early on. I think seeing a sample timeline for writing would've been helpful for planning purposes. This style of writing and the time it requires was something that I was inadequately prepared for. I'm not asking for my hand to be held, but I just had no idea the enormity of the task in front of me until I really got into it. I'm not sure what I'm asking for or saying, but looking back now, I wish I had a better understanding of the task. I just didn't get it until I did it. And maybe that's the point. One key thing that I didn't understand until I got into the writing was that you can't research or write in isolation. You have to do them together. You have to write a little, read a little, and then see where the ideas lead you. And I learned that you don't have to start writing with the introduction. That was a major stumbling block. Once I jumped into write and just started doing a brain dump of what was in my head, I was able to start framing my piece. I wrote various parts of the article at different times. I went back and forth between sections as I found new information and research. I learned that ideas pop into your head and the craziest times and you have to jump on them or they get lost. I learned that keeping research organized is a huge process. Having articles spread out everywhere is chaos when you are writing and trying to find the article you want. It's definitely going to be a process to find how I want to organize my research and flag it so I can find the citing info easier. Oh and APA style - there's a learning curve. It's been over 10 years since I've needed APA style. The Owl website was a huge help. I had that at my fingertips and used it a lot. I also learned that I have to block time to write. I can't write with a 3 and 5 yr old running around. I need quiet and that often means waiting until 9:00 at night. I learned that my kitchen counter was my favorite place to write. I did use the library but I was still in my writer's block so it wasn't an efficient use of time and I didn't get the most out of it.

I think I've gotten everything out of my head now and can move on with my week-end!