Blended Learning: Research Perspectives, Volume 2 by Anthony G. PiccianoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting read. It's the next volume in the series on Blended learning.  This one was easier to find, but I still got it via ILL - same research project as I mentioned in my blog post yesterday.  I've often wondered why books like this exist in this day and age. Each chapter is basically

Blended Learning: Research Perspectives Vol. 1 by Anthony G. PiccianoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars Not a bad read if you want some historical info on Blended learning.  I had a hard time finding this book, so I got it via interlibrary loan. It may seem a little dated, but I think it's useful for setting the scene for Blended learning.  I went through this with a specific research topic

Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology by D. Jean ClandininMy rating: 5 of 5 stars While I didn't read this book cover-to-cover I did find quite a few chapters quite useful in thinking about and designing my narrative inquiry project. View all my reviews

Narrative Inquiry: A Dynamic Approach by Colette DaiuteMy rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars. Not a bad book, and not bad in structuring a methodology for researching a narrative inquiry. The approach given, however, makes me a little perplexed as to what separates this type of narrative inquiry from something like Discourse Analysis. View all my reviews

Thinking Collaboratively: Learning in a Community of Inquiry by D. Randy GarrisonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting book to read, especially the section on Leadership as it connects to the community of inquiry framework. When the CoI was recommended to me (for my dissertation), I didn't really think a ton about it because the only context that I had encountered it in was classroom communities. 

E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Community of Inquiry Framework for Research and Practice by D Randy GarrisonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars A nice, short, overview of the community of inquiry framework for those who are new to it. The book basically breaks down to 1/2 being about the CoI (discussing each part in details, and encompassing recent research), and 1/2 being application. It was an

Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research by John W. CreswellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars A good primer on mixed methods research. I wish I had made this part of my original reading list last summer when I was conceiving of my (current version for my) dissertation proposal plan.  Mixed methods fits well with one of the reasons  I am using case study research as my approach. 

Learning Together: Peer Tutoring in Higher Education by Nancy FalchikovMy rating: 3 of 5 stars Not a bad book. "Tutoring" in this book means anything between an the work that an "more knowledgeable other" (Vygotsky) does, to teaching assistants. There is quite a broad range to work with, and an interesting book to consult when thinking both about course design and program-level design.

Well, after almost 2 months, 8 drafts, and a lot of work, I've arrived at my update dissertation proposal. This thing grew about 15 pages since my last draft.  Yes, some pages are blanks by virtue of needed to start something on a next page, or to not break-up a table, but I did end up having to explain some things a bit more based on the literature.  Hopefully I can form a committee soon,

MOOCs by Jonathan HaberMy rating: 4 of 5 stars While the book is a bit out of date (MOOCs have moved along since it was published) I still found it to be a good introduction to the phenomenon of the (albeit without really looking too in-depth at research done in MOOCs).I did have an opportunity to hear the author speak back in 2012 (?) at the Campus Technology conference in Boston. At the

Today we're looking at my year in review at Publons (a site which helps you track the academic peer reviews you've done).  This site is a little more interactive (you have to mouseOver in order to see some stats.. Here are some of the MouseOver stats:Total citations of reviewed manuscripts --> 3 (average for field 7.4)Total citations of authored manuscripts -->2 (average for field

It's been a very reading-heavy few weekends.  I've been trying to go through the massive amount of articles that I downloaded for my dissertation proposal so I can start writing the final section (the lit review) that's been on my mind since the summer.  I was looking for an article on one of the Sage databases, and I thought that an author & keyword combination would do its magic (especially

MOOCs and Educational Challenges around Asia and Europe by Bowon KimMy rating: 3 of 5 stars This was an interesting overview of MOOC (and some about OER) initiatives in selected Asian countries. It's interesting to see the role that MOOCs and OER take on in different contexts. I did find some issues with some chapters (naming things MOOCs which aren't really MOOCs), but I guess this was

Networked Communities: Strategies for Digital Collaboration by Sylvie AlbertMy rating: 2 of 5 stars It was an OK book. Definitely focuses more on the organizational and managerial aspects of networked communities (which aren't of much use to me at the moment).  There were some interesting nuggets of information buried throughout the book if you looked carefully enough.  I am kind

Group Cognition: Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge by Gerry StahlMy rating: 3 of 5 stars Enlightening but I thought it was a bit imbalanced. The theoretical pieces of the book were very interesting (and dense). I tried getting through these chapters in a manner of days and I don't think I got everything (or at least things seem a little fuzzy at the moment).  That

E-Research Collaboration by Murugan AnandarajanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars An interesting collection of works on collaboration (if my highlights are anything to go by). There were a few elements in this book that deserve attention in my literature review.  The case studies that are presented don't help a ton in my contexts as they tend to be not related to the topic of collaboration as

Collaboration and Networking in Education by Daniel MuijsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars Interesting book on collaboration in education. I was expecting it to focus more on the specific of collaboration, and less on the inter-organizational aspects. As such I found it to be a bit high level for my purposes. Still, this was an interesting book to read, even if I did end up skimming through sections

The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary by Eric S. RaymondMy rating: 4 of 5 stars Quite an interesting collection of essays on open source programming and culture. GoodReads tells me I've read this before, but I wonder if I just read the essay with the same name rather than the whole book (I didn't remember it, or perhaps I see it

Some Sunday humor... I thought it was apropos given that I've been working on getting my methods section polished off and done by August 30th. I am, sort of, there too!  I just need to work on getting my reliability & validity sections done (I've got disjointed fragments I have written already), and my ethics section done (again, disjointed fragments). It's a bit slow-going because I need

42 Rules for Successful Collaboration (2nd Edition): A Practical Approach to Working with People, Processes and Technology by David ColemanMy rating: 2 of 5 stars I guess I forgot to check off this book as read a few days ago. The book was OK, and it was a fairly fast book to read, not weighed down by disciplinary jargon. That said, some of the rules are quite helpful, whereas others

Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences by Irving SeidmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars Quite a good read on conducting interviews as part of educational research. It does seem to focus on phenomenological interviews, where the interview is the one and only approach, but it might be useful for other cases where interviews are one of many

Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach: 41 by Joseph A. MaxwellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars This was quite a short book (in comparison to other methods books I've read) but it was quite good. It's definitely packed with good insight and things to make you think about what you want to consider when it comes to writing your research proposal. At the end of each chapter there are memoing

This is the type of cool stuff I see that makes me want to be an archivist ;-)  That said, this type of hacking (both the hardware and software kind) is way beyond me.  The following video is of someone who is hacking the Sega Saturn (whose optical drives are slowly failing) so that the games can be preserved for future generations to come :-)

Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method by Annette N. MarkhamMy rating: 4 of 5 stars An interesting collection of researched essays on doing qualitative research on the internet. The book is setup in a Question prompt-response-responses to the response manner. In a sense it's a bit like a dialogue, or a panel discussion, but in written form.  It definitely gives you some food

Advances in Research on Networked Learning by Peter GoodyearMy rating: 4 of 5 stars An interesting exploration of Networked Learning - despite it being a little dated (from a technology point of view) the chapters are still relevant today in my opinion 😃. I actually came across a few good nuggets of information that I need to track down for my own dissertation work - serendipity strikes

Something from a recent PhD comics.  From my part... I am working on the research methods section of my dissertation proposal. Working on motivation to finish this draft so I can submit it by Monday...

This has been making the rounds on social media this week: a fictitious article mocking presidential candidate Donald Trump by writing an academic article in Trumpspeak.  We've got the best data. Premium stuff! Pretty funny ;-)

The other day one of my long time friends and colleague posted on Facebook a quick pondering: is LinkedIn the right place for academics? The underlying thought is that LinkedIn is very instrumentalist and positivist in how it represents someone. Essentially what this means is that we setup profiles that represent a reality that we want to market to others, and we want to pass on that reality (our reality)