Preparing for Oral Defense

Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map from beginning to end written by Linda Dale Bloomberg and Marie Volpe (2012) is an excellent resource for graduate students while writing a qualitative (or combination of qualitative quantitative) dissertation. This resource is also useful as a review or checklist following the completion of the first draft or preparing for the oral examination. The contents of the book are organized into three sections. The first section is about choosing your approach and writing your proposal. The second section is a chapter-by-chapter guide and the third section includes suggestions for preparing for completion. Many chapters include annotated bibliographies for additional sources and writing samples.

An entire chapter is devoted to defense preparation. Bloomberg and Volpe (2012) describe the purpose of the oral defense examination as an opportunity:

(a) To publicly discuss what you have researched and what you have discovered in the process; and

(b) To evaluate the acceptability of the study as a scholarly piece of research in your area of specialization, and to make a collective decision about recommendations for revisions. (p.233)

Some helpful suggestions in preparing for the oral defense:

• be prepared to summarize your research problem and key findings (if permitted, put together a brief presentation with slides/visuals as part of your opening remarks)
• be prepared to defend your choice of research tradition, data collection methods, sample selection procedures, data analysis
• be prepared to explain any figures or tables

A few days before the oral defense:

• reflect on the value and contributions of the study
• recall relevant literature and authors
• probe yourself about how your study contributes to the literature and practice
• try to anticipate possible questions and try to identify strengths and weaknesses of the study (theoretical components of the conceptual framework, gaps in the literature, major theorists informing your work, conflicting issues in the field, unanticipated outcomes, insights, assumptions, limitations, suggestions for researchers, policy makers, practitioners, etc.)
• try to get lots of sleep leading up to the defense as you might not sleep the night before

Day of oral defense:

• arrive early so you can review your notes and opening remarks
• have a copy of your dissertation with you so you can refer to sections when the examiners ask specific questions and provide page numbers
• be prepared to make jot notes while the examiners ask questions to make sure you answer all parts of the questions
• ask for questions to be rephrased if you are uncertain
• avoid overlong or off-topic answers and keep answers focussed on your study and the literature (i.e. focus on your dot)

Reference:

Bloomberg, L. D. & Volpe, M. (2012). Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map from beginning to end. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

What do you see?

Innovators, Designers and Researchers: Leading a New Knowledge Network Conference

I attended the Innovators, Designers and Researchers: Leading a New Knowledge Network Conference this week sponsored by the Galileo Educational Network (http://galileo.org/) and the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary.  I was part of a panel of six graduate students that were asked to attend different conference sessions and keynotes during the three day conference. We gathered information in relation to the conference themes and priorities:

• What are the key innovative practices or ideas presented?
• What research aspects were highlighted as informing those practices?
• How does this innovative practice live in the teaching and learning in the classroom?

The following is copy of the words I used to express the big ideas identified and how I addressed why visible learning and courage are critical for today's learners and learning environments.

I will begin with a phrase from a popular children’s book published in 1967 – “Brown Bear, Bear What Do You See?” written by Bill Martin and illustrated by Eric Carle.

What do you see? We all see and sense different IMAGES as part of the bigger picture. I believe this was demonstrated by the confluence of ideas presented by my peers on this panel.  We leave this conference with inspiration and courage to change our lens and reframe thinking.

What do you see? A re-occurring theme emerging from the conference is that learning is visible or in John Hattie’s (2009) words – in his book Visible Learning – “excellence is attainable” and “there are many instances of excellence” (p. ix). We saw instances of excellence.

Learning is VISIBLE, we see.  We see VISIBLE learning.

We see evidence of exploration, empowerment and engagement in rich inquiry.

We see evidence of creating. For instance, numerous examples presented interconnecting theory and practice to foster knowledge-building.

We see evidence of openness for sharing and publicly celebrating provocative artifacts in technology enhanced learning environments.

We see evidence of collaboration and trusting partnerships for rich inquiry and innovative practice in the company peers.

We see evidence of collective action in service of authentic, trans-disciplinary and creative work.

We see teachers, students, school leaders, parents, community members and researchers passionate about their work; taking risks and at the same time incorporating play and messy learning. We had the opportunity to engage in professional dialogue and networking; we had the opportunity to discuss VISIBLE LEARNING.

What do the blind see?  One group provoked all of our senses and shared an inspiring experience of color and inquiry, and taking action to make a difference for the blind in our community.

What do you see? One presenter reminded us that “kids can hit any target they can see.”

Another presenter, one of our keynotes - Punya Mishra, shared an example of being out at a soccer game and observing a coach standing on the sidelines.  Impressed by the strategy used by the coach, he later approached him to share his observation.  He told the coach that he particularly liked the phrase he kept repeating to the players during the heated action of the game.  Instead of telling the players who they should pass the ball to or what they should do next, he continually coached the children by repeating “what do you see?” encouraging them to see the bigger picture. LEARNING IS VISIBLE.

We need courage to be part of the dialogue. We need courage to innovate, design, and research.

We need courage to be part of the non-scripted path towards possibilities. A quote shared in a session from a participant involved in a research study suggests we need courage: “It’s not thinking about what is. It’s thinking about what could be. It’s about what’s next.”

We need the courage to be shouting “what do you see?”

Disruption to Standardized Testing

Alberta is revisiting the notion of standardized testing, known as provincial achievement tests, in grades 3, 6, and 9.  According the Edmonton Journal on March 24,2013 (http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Alberta+standardized+school+tests+will+emphasize+competency+over+content/8146027/story.html) it appears there is interest in shifting the exams from content based to competency based. I am pleased to hear there is less emphasis on regurgitating facts and increased emphasis on application. However, I was really hoping for a complete disruption to standardized tests.

Similar to other educators, I have typical questions about standardized testing.  I recognize that simply asking these questions will not cause a disruption to standardized testing.   

•    Is it necessary to continue testing ALL students in particular grades across the entire province or could sample testing provide similar results?
• A teacher already informs the parents about student progress (with much more detail than one exam can provide), so what is the purpose of the standardized test?
• An increasing amount of students are using personally owned devices regularly for learning and demonstrating their learning. Will contemporary standardized tests continue to demand students use old technologies (paper/pen, CD, etc.)?
• What are some strategies to help alleviate the increased anxiety for students writing standardized tests?
• What format will be used to test application of learning?
• Are there also changes for the high school diploma exams (weighted 50% of grade) on the horizon?

I will offer an uncommon testing scenario to stimulate discussion about disrupting standardized testing.

A middle school child was extremely excited to be nominated to write an exam.  The child prepared for the exam individually and in discussion with a teacher at the school providing mentorship.  Preparation for the exam involved practicing the competencies at school and engaging in some self-directed time at home reviewing the related content.  The exam was scheduled on a non-instructional day.  The parent dropped off the child at school for the exam and the child was beyond excitement to have this opportunity to write the exam.  When the parent returned to the school, two hours later, the child came beaming out of the school with a grin ear-to-ear and proudly carrying a type written sheet.  The child immediately read the letter that was written as part of the exam process.  

This is a true story about my child when he was nominated to write an exam in order to receive a patrol award.  How often are kids asked to write a letter about themselves providing evidence of their competencies as part of an exam? How often are kids this excited about writing exams?  

What are your ideas for disrupting standardized tests?

Cursive vs. Digital Dilemma

Cursive vs. Digital Dilemma

When writing a keepsake letter to your child in the digital age, is it important to pull out the ink pen and hand write the letter in cursive writing or use a digital option?  This is a question I asked other parents engaging in a similar task.  Some thought it might be more meaningful for the child to receive a written-by-hand letter.  Imagine the child opening the letter years later and saying, “Wow, this letter was written by mom” or “This is in mom’s handwriting.”  Some parents also believe it needs to be hand written to prove the authenticity of the author.  In contrast, other parents wondered if the child would even be able to read their handwriting.  I look at my own handwriting and I can barely read it!  Would a child get so frustrated trying to decipher and read the handwriting and the letter would not get completely read or the message would be lost? 

So, I asked my child – “Would you prefer to receive a letter from your mom written-by-hand in cursive writing or in digital format? “ With no hesitation, the response was DIGITAL.  The following reasons were provided for selecting a digital letter versus handwritten letter:

• -        Looks like you put more time and effort into it
• -        Easier to read
• -        You can send the file to me right away
• -        You could embed media into the file so it’s not just words
• -        The content of the letter is what makes it “written by mom” not the handwriting and not the signature at the bottom.

Why would you choose digital or handwritten format to write a keepsake letter?

MOOC Introduction

This week I enrolled in a massive open online course (MOOC) - http://etmooc.org/ on educational technology and media. The first task is for participants to create an introductory post. This is my first experience in a MOOC, so I plan to share my experiences in my blog posts over the next few weeks.  Since this is my reflective space that I use for educational technology, I thought it would be appropriate to include my MOOC experience in this blog space and use the tag  #etmooc for the associated posts. One of the learner expectations in the course is to maintain a personal blog for continuous reflection, creativity and resource sharing.

I reviewed the welcome and introductory session for the MOOC  facilitated by Alec Couros and he shared a site called about.me (http://about.me) for creating a personal biography page.  The site is really easy to use and quickly allows users to add background images, text information, and options to add links to social networking tools.  I was looking for a tool to create a personal infographic but decided the about.me page would be perfect for using during presentations as well.  So I created a page and it is now active and at http://about.me/barb.brown    Thanks for the inspiration to do this Alec!     

I’m currently putting together a presentation for new teachers learning how about blogging and plan to share my newly created about.me page during the session.  It will be much easier to provide one short link to participants instead of providing various contact options or a business card (do people still do that?).

Here’s some information about my upcoming blogging presentation …

Learning Together in the Blogosphere

Session Description: Empower learners to create, share, interact and collaborate online through blogging.  What are the principles of design in creating a rich multimedia educational blog? What are some pedagogical considerations for blogging and micro-blogging in K-12 learning environments?  In this session we will discuss how to set up and manage an easy to use class blog or your own professional learning blog while considering issues of copyright and intellectual property.  Take away some tips and tricks to support an engaging and collaborative learning journey in the blogosphere!

I will admit, I’m not an active blogger and definitely not an expert in blogging.  I look forward to viewing the recorded session - Introduction to blogging in education by Sue Waters in the MOOC - http://etmooc.org/ for more ideas. I'm planning to share both my successes and challenges in keeping up with blogging but will also share how experts in the field are suggesting blogs can support collaborative knowledge building. 

For instance, I previously blogged about Wes Fryer and how he inspired me to use blogging with graduate students in an online class through his book - Playing with Media: Simple ideas for powerful sharing (2011), Chapter two. Fryer discusses many ways blogs can be used with students (pp. 58-62) and argues that we need to create and share multimedia messages effectively:

Level 1: Broadcast sharing or homework blog for informational purposes

Level 2: Professional reflection blog

Level 3: A collaborative class blog

During the session, I will share how Posterous Spaces (https://posterous.com/) [NOTE: POSTEROUS is NO LONGER ACTIVE] can be used to easily set up a collaborative class blog with students. What do teachers need to consider when using blogging or micro blogging in the classroom?   What are copyright and intellectual property considerations in the blogosphere? How can we promote creating and sharing for collaborative knowledge building with students?

Another resource – The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the new media age by William Kist (2010) will also be shared during the session.  On p. 58, Kist (2010) offers rubrics for blog assignments; on p.73,  Bud Hunt’s guidelines for blogging with students;  and on p.85, examples are provided for teaching about online etiquette and characteristics of good blog comments.  There is also a discussion on p. 120 about the common issues expressed by teachers, such as the issue of not having enough time for social networking . 

Personal Learning Networks: Using the power of connections to transform education by Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli (2011) is another great resource for teachers. The authors argue personal learning networks can transform schools and “our schools need to harness each student’s natural propensity for participating in online spaces and funnel that energy into building powerful networks for learning that are used in every class almost every day” (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011, p. 7).The authors discuss research supporting the use of blogs and positive impact on writing fluency and motivation on p. 50. The text also offers strategies for empowering students in networked classrooms as a combination of:

• Connecting students and teachers inside the classroom;
• Publishing student and teacher work locally and globally;
• Connecting students and teachers outside the classroom;
•  Connecting with experts around the world; and
• Collaborating with others to create and share knowledge. (p.71)

Any suggestions for other resources related to blogging or advice for the session are welcome! 

What is a desirable type of education?

In Zhao’s (2012) book, World class learners: Educating creative and entrepreneurial students, he firmly argues for a high quality education where students are prepared for the future as creative, entrepreneurial, and globally competent. Zhao describes a globalized world as one that is “constantly changing and rapidly transformed by technology” (p. 15). Unquestionably students deserve a high quality education and should be prepared for a globalized world.

In a globalized world, it is alarming to think about the continuous decline of creativity as our children get older as described by Zhao (2012, p.11).

It is equally disturbing to note the impact of declining creativity in students to the levels of entrepreneurship. Zhao (2012) defines entrepreneurship as the “desire to solve problems creatively” (p. 9). So, creativity and entrepreneurship are interconnected which means that a decline in creativity would result in a similar decline in entrepreneurship. It is imperative we continue to question why there such a significant drop in creativity when comparing levels of creativity of students beginning school to students progressing in school with several years of schooling background?

Zhao (2012) also discusses the inverse relationship of entrepreneurship to performance on international tests (p.11). Consequently some countries seem to have more creative and entrepreneurial talents and also have lower results on international tests.  Similarly, low levels of entrepreneurship correlate to high performance on international tests.

We have to ask ourselves, do we want high levels of entrepreneurship for our students or improved results on standardized tests? Does an increased emphasis on testing have a relationship on the decreased emphasis on innovative pedagogies fostering creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit for a positive contribution to a globalized society?

What is a desirable type of education? Zhao’s (2012) book is about the “why” and “how” of the most desirable education.  

As listed on the author’s website at - http://zhaolearning.com, this book presents ideas for teachers, administrators or parents in: 

·       understanding the entrepreneurial spirit and harnessing it

·       fostering student autonomy and leadership

·       championing inventive learners with necessary resources

·       developing global partners and resources

Reference

Zhao, Y. (2012). World class learners: Educating creative and entrepreneurial students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Playing with Media by Wesley Fryer - Book Review

Fryer, W. (2011). Playing with media: Simple ideas for powerful sharing.  Edmond, OK: Wesley A. Fryer.

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/ebooks/

As I’m preparing to work with graduate students studying inquiry into digital content, I continue to search for appropriate readings and activities for the online education course.  One of the optional texts I’m recommending is Fryer’s (2011) self-published “Playing with media: Simple ideas for powerful sharing,” which can be accessed in either electronic or printed versions. The electronic versions are interactive with a wealth of additional resources.  The author’s weblog - http://www.speedofcreativity.org/ebooks/  provides links to the ebook versions and additional resources.

The book offers excellent teaching ideas and detail about incorporating digital media, including digital text, audio, images, and video.  Fryer (2011) supports all the ideas with compelling examples that can be easily accessed online.  The illustrations in the book are provided by his daughter and many of the examples used in the book to support ideas are ones provided by his children and numerous professional collaborators.  Fryer (2011) also references many of the authors I have included in the reading list for the inquiry into digital content course – which also makes the book an excellent supporting document for students who may want more detail in “how to” incorporate digital media in teaching and learning activities.  

The sections of the book are organized and clearly labeled which allows readers to access appropriate sections as needed instead of reading the whole text from cover to cover.  However, there are common messages interwoven in all the chapters and I would like to highlight four of the key ideas discussed throughout the book: 1) the need to be media creators and share multimedia messages effectively; 2) the need to empower students to become fully literate which includes digital communications fluency; 3) the need to create and share quantity in order to lead to quality; and 4) the need to consider the ethic of minimal clicks when integrating technology.

Media Creation and Media Sharing

The primary focus of the book is to inspire educators to use a variety of media and share with others.  It is commonly argued that teachers need to foster a constructivist learning environment whereby the teacher is more of a coach and supports learning by providing engaging and stimulating learning activities.  Fryer (2011) takes this argument a step further and contends educators need to get hands-on and play with media in order to effectively integrate technology in teaching and learning and engage students versus entrall students with media.  We should not substitute ongoing professional learning for educators on the reliance that today’s students come equipped with the prerequisite technological skills necessary for learning or that students will automatically be engaged by simply integrating media in the classroom.  For example, creating a video and showing the video to students in the classroom may be construed as technology integration in a lesson but without careful attention to appropriate use of the video, we may enthrall students with the video instead of engage them in learning and promote creativity.

After reading the book and paying close attention to the ideas about media creation and media sharing, I decided to move some of the course assignments for the graduate students to public spaces instead of keeping everything contained and password protected in the course learning management environment as I have previously done for courses.  Students will post public blogs during the course and will share media creations through Posterous, one of the new (to me) technology tools discussed in the book.  I’m also considering using Posterous for a 12 week photo build with students.  Each week two students will add a photo with caption to the Posterous site depicting one or two ideas they would like to share with classmates regarding the weekly assigned readings.  For example, the ideas can include key concepts, new questions that arose from the readings, connections to professional practice and research or memorable quotes. This will help build a synthesis of the major themes and concepts highlighted in the course.    One of the benefits in using Posterous is that students can directly contribute to the blog by sending an email message with the attached media.  Posterous automatically embeds and formats the media on the site using the accompanying text provided in the body of the email message.

Digital Communication Fluency

Communication is an integral component in learning and in today’s world communication involves multiple forms of media. Fryer (2011) states “we should not mistake digital use for digital understanding or communications fluency” (p.22).  How do we build digital communication fluency in schools?  Everyone needs to practice communication and practice in the art of media creation and media sharing, including teachers and students.  Developing and sharing media artifacts can empower learners to demonstrate their knowledge and skills and communicate understandings in new ways not possible using traditional communication methods.  Media creation and media sharing can empower teachers to design creative learning and inquiry experiences with differentiated assessments and amplify learning through sharing.

Quantity leads to Quality

In previous presentations I have used the Dr. Tae’s example (Ted Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY) of skateboarding where he promotes the idea that learning should be more like skateboarding and that you need to work hard and practice over and over in order to learn something new which is similar to the perseverance required when learning a new skateboarding trick.  Fryer (2011) shares similar examples demonstrating that it is important to create a lot of media and increasing the quantity created may in fact lead to creating quality media.  Conversely, in school it is common for media creation to end or culminate a large project where students use media to share their understandings or display their final product.  Educators need to consider designing learning tasks with more no-edit or quick-edit assignments instead of deferring technology integration to final-one-time edited products. There needs to be more emphasis on the creating and sharing media on a daily basis in schools to increase the likelihood of creating and sharing quality media.

Ethic of Minimal Clicks

In working with educators for professional development, Fryer (2011) noticed that reducing the number of clicks or steps required to accomplish a task using technology increases the probability the technology will regularly be used.  It is recommended to design learning activities using new technologies with careful attention to using minimal clicks in order to increase the percentage of adopters for that new technology.  One of the reasons I decided to use Posterous for the 12-week photo build is due to the minimal clicks needed in setting up the site and the minimal clicks required for the students when adding their photos.  It is important to keep the ethic of minimal clicks in mind if we want to increase media creation and media sharing.

Lastly, I will discuss two areas that would be helpful in extending the content of the book, that is, creating and sharing media for research purposes and the need for more information regarding Canadian fair use/copyright.

I believe the content of the book could be extended with a discussion on the use of media for research purposes.  It would be interesting to see examples and share resources on how media and technologies could be used by researchers for purposes of gathering data and stimulating dialogue with participants.  Many researchers would also benefit from ideas of how collecting media as artifacts would support qualitative data collection.  

The chapter on copyright and fair use is necessary when promoting the idea of media creation and media sharing.  Fryer (2011) emphasizes the importance of proper attribution and discusses the guidelines for media creation and media sharing in four distinct categories: homegrown, public domain, creative commons and fair use.  He also notes that laws are not the same in each country and it is important to learn about copyright and fair use in your own area.  Canadian educators would definitely benefit from a section on copyright and fair use with attention to Canadian laws. 

I would highly recommend this book for educators interested in media creation and media sharing.  This would be a great resource to support professional development for teachers and leaders!