In keeping with my resolution to be better about documenting what I am learning, here is my first reflection for the semester.
This semester is meant to be the beginning of getting one's head wrapped around understanding research paradigms as preparation for getting a research proposal done in Semester 3/4. From the very superficial level understanding that I have of the 4 paradigms, the most logical one for me appears to be pragmatic. The problem is that I probably won't be able to do a complete pragmatic research study in the timeframe of the 3 years. So, I will probably end up with a constructivist study that depends only on qualitative data. This is not what I want to end up doing as it will not meet my personal requirements. I don't want to only know what the learners' impressions are, I want to have quantitative proof that one method over the others works best in a give scenario.
The other really big aspect of this semester is to work on narrowing the scope of my research. The lit review is going to be a real challenge as I feel that I lost the entire semester 1 chasing down the "brain research" alley only to figure out that it's not going to be where I end up. On the upside, I have subscribed to the Downes blog and so am tracking what is going on with connectivism. I just ran across a new term, 3P, that I will be reading about this week. If I am going to keep on task for getting my annotations and lit review done, I am going to need to go through my annotations/sources from last semester to see what I can carry over to this semester (not much I presume). I think that the collaborative learning, social constructivism, and coginitive load theory will carry over from a historical perspective. I will need to put a stake in the ground about when I will begin the historical perspective...should it be computer-based training, web-based traingin, or web 2.0? Food for thought...
On a positive note, I think that I will be able to use the Instructional Technology Certificate program as the program I will be evaluating for Program Evaluation. I'm having lunch with Judith and Fran to discuss on Tuesday.
