It's been a long time, but I'm back here on the blog. It's interesting to return to campus and to teaching after a whirlwind week in Washington, DC playing lobbyist and legislative fancypants. I'm glad I have a diverse skill set and a flexible persona.
So, I've been visiting your blogs today and am noticing that blog posting is somewhat erratic. I can't blame you, since I haven't set a very good model. But, I hope we can always think about improving our practice, and this week, as we reconvene after a long absence, may be the best time to do it.
So, if you're still out there and reading, please consider writing a blog post, before Friday's class (2:00-4:00, don't forget!), that addresses one of the following ideas or topics:
1. Progress report: tell us where you are in your process of coming up with a coherent research question and designing a research study or project. What obstacles are in your way at the moment? What leads have you found recently? what are your next steps, concretely and specifically?
2. Present a discrete idea: Explain to us a key idea from your research interest and discuss it. Include hyperlinks and article excerpts and videos, if you want. Ericka might present the idea of "access to health care." What does this phrase, which gets tossed around a lot in the media and in government, really mean to real people? Are there people in your family or community without access to healthcare? Why or why not? Is this something we talk about with people? Why or why not? Likewise, Travis could continue exploring the depths of his research interests and questions, provoking us to examine our own beliefs as he examines his, and collecting data in the form of our responses on his blog. By providing us with a slice of your research interest, you have the luxury of delving deeply into a topic without having the fear of not knowing where you're heading and why. It's the "wild west" post in that way.
3. Author's choice
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Honors 351 Blogs and Stuff
Welcome. Please bookmark this blog. It's our home away from home in Honors 351.
Your blogs are linked on the list to the right ------------------------------------>>>>>>>
For this week:
1. Post on your blog--mimic the "mind mapping" we did in class on Friday. Try to "crack open" your research interest by breaking it into constituent parts (that is, moving from the general to the specific) OR figure out what fields of study and branches of inquiry might be connected to your research question or topic (moving from the specific, the micro, to issues, questions, and ideas that others find relevant, the macro).
2. Visit at least THREE of your classmates' blogs and respond to their ideas/post.
3. Stop by Craig Lee 353 to pick up the reading for class. The chapters delve into issues of forming research questions and thinking about research methods. Now is a good time for me to share this golden nugget of research with you: Your research methods FOLLOW your research question. You cannot know the methods until you know the question, which is why we'll be spending lots of time figuring out and honing our questions.
4. I will not be able to attend class next Friday (Feb 7), but that doesn't mean that you smart people cannot still have class without me. I wonder if you want to gather on Friday anyway, in our little crow's nest in Gaige 301, to do more of what we did together last Friday: using the white board to "think out loud" and to talk your way through your interests. As we saw on Friday, our Brain Trust is already quite a reliable think tank and helpful when it comes to divergent thinking and "sayback." Think it over and organize yourselves!
Your blogs are linked on the list to the right ------------------------------------>>>>>>>
For this week:
1. Post on your blog--mimic the "mind mapping" we did in class on Friday. Try to "crack open" your research interest by breaking it into constituent parts (that is, moving from the general to the specific) OR figure out what fields of study and branches of inquiry might be connected to your research question or topic (moving from the specific, the micro, to issues, questions, and ideas that others find relevant, the macro).
2. Visit at least THREE of your classmates' blogs and respond to their ideas/post.
3. Stop by Craig Lee 353 to pick up the reading for class. The chapters delve into issues of forming research questions and thinking about research methods. Now is a good time for me to share this golden nugget of research with you: Your research methods FOLLOW your research question. You cannot know the methods until you know the question, which is why we'll be spending lots of time figuring out and honing our questions.
4. I will not be able to attend class next Friday (Feb 7), but that doesn't mean that you smart people cannot still have class without me. I wonder if you want to gather on Friday anyway, in our little crow's nest in Gaige 301, to do more of what we did together last Friday: using the white board to "think out loud" and to talk your way through your interests. As we saw on Friday, our Brain Trust is already quite a reliable think tank and helpful when it comes to divergent thinking and "sayback." Think it over and organize yourselves!
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