April+6

Every day gives us the opportunity to look into possible dissertation topics we had probably not even though about before. I was very impressed by the fact that Nicholas Eastham, our guest speaker, shared with us that he had had several topics until he finally found “the one”. I guess the best analogy I can come up with is that of marrying Mr. Right. I also attended Douglas Merrill’s presentation about getting organized in the Google era. What an opportunity that was to brainstorm possibilities as well. He went over cognitive load, short term memory, long term memory, etc. I could relate to his examples about filing papers and then not even remembering exactly what was in each of the manila folders. He also shared tips on how to effectively search for information in a digital era. What an educational moment that was. I see how I can use that information in two ways, first as a student and then as a teacher. I think that applying different colors to different information you find in articles is a great way to search for the right information when you study. Additionally, I can encourage my students to do the same when they have to read in a foreign language. SEARCH is a word that got stuck in my brain after last night’s presentation. I will definitely use a lot of the tips I learned this week and put them into practice when it is time for me to think about a dissertation topic. Regarding our project I am very glad that things worked out and we are going to come up with a single project. Since we are trying to model what happens in the corporate world, I came up with the idea of hiring our own project manager, Shari. I can’t wait to see what the finished product will look like. I am positive that unifying the project will absolutely take the best of our combined efforts and the finished product will be a valuable resource for TAs and faculty who supervise them.