April_6_Moving_On

This week was heartening. Each of us looked at how to integrate the different components from our small group work, which came in three different forms representing three different approaches to solving a problem. One group, who started from a video, found a way to change their content to reflect the web site theme. One group inserted the video into the web site, and the final group (me), threw everything out (except the concepts) and created something brand new. What was remarkable about the night was that all of us found we have some common ground from which to develop a single unified program.

I appreciate the concerns of everyone that herding 7 Ed Tech doctoral students is akin to herding cats, but I think we have enough work ethic and commitment to find a way to cooperate and bring together this lesson by the end of the month. This collaboration will allow us to draw on the strengths of the entire team from the detailed to the creative, from the strategic to the tactical. Any good collaboration depends on all of these elements and we have them in the people in this class.

I liked listening to Nick Eastham regarding his dissertation proposal. It was nice to have the opportunity to engage in a discussion with someone who is currently working on figuring out what his proposal will look like. I liked being able to ask questions about how he was designing his research and realize that some of the decisions were still yet to be made. With this conversation, I was able to glimpse at the types of conversations and thinking I will have to do during the process. I appreciated very much Nick's willingness to let us ask questions about how he was designing his research so we could understand his thought process.

Like others before him, Nick shared similar sage advice about perseverence and commitment. This common thread through all of the dissertation presentations so far has the effect of making me feel like I am the part of something larger, and especially, I am not alone. This is a good thing.