Yesterday evening I presented where I currently am in my dissertation proposal.  I am not sure if Susan was joking or not about 2, 3, 4 years being the 'in process' time to get a dissertation done and defended, but I certainly hope that it's not that long!  I am aiming for May 2019 at the latest for mine.

That said, earlier this week I did a few dry runs for the presentation I did last evening, and one of them I recorded.  From a timing perspective it's in the ballpark of what I was aiming for (23 minutes).  I have heard that dissertation proposal defenses and dissertation defenses (the presentation portion) are about 20-30 minutes so I wanted to keep that in mind.  This recorded version is a little rough (it was a try out after all), but it gives you an idea of what my current thoughts are on the matter.

What do you think?  I know it's just a window into the mind of this project, but any thoughts would be helpful as I am drafting this beast :)

As an aside, one lesson learned last night is this: hound your advisor, hound your committee, keep on them.  If you are waiting for feedback, go after it like there is no tomorrow ;-)

Part II of January documenting.  This one is the virtually connecting panel on scholarly networking.

A little self-documenting for this post.  A few weeks ago (was it really that long?) I was in a couple of virtually connecting sessions.  Considering that the winter symposium was at URI I could have gone in person!  Maybe next time :-)  This one is a hallway convo w Renee Hobbs & Natasha Casey.

Young Spock at school

And we're off!

The semester has begun, and this time I am "official" in EDDE 806, which means this is my last credit-bearing semester (after that I guess I will be an academic vagabond looking for completion of my own research).

Last night none of our cohort presented (although that would have been an achievement if someone brave enough wanted to do it!).  Instead, a more seasoned EdD student, Lynne Rabak (Cohort 6?) presented on what she is working on as part of her dissertation proposal. The title of Lynne's presentation was "Cognitive and emotional presence: learning effects," and she is looking (or proposing to look) at the interaction and interplay between cognitive presence and emotional presence.

I have to say that I am skeptical of the foundation of the research because I don't fully buy into emotional presence.  I think that affect is an aspect that goes into learning, but I don't know if it warrants its own presence.  From my own readings on emotional presence (albeit limited readings) I don't know why it would warrant its own presence and I am not sure how much of an impact it really has in learning (in a generalizable way; not that I am aiming for generalization in my own dissertation proposal).  Perhaps it's my inner Vulcan not putting as much stock in emotions in the learning process.

Plutchik was mentioned as an influential researcher and thinker in the field of emotion in the learning, so I've added a mental post-it to look into this researcher sometime in the not so distant future (after I am a little further in my own dissertation work).

Clevelland-Innes and Campbell's work is cited as well. One of the things that jumped out at me was a quote from these two scholars: "emotion must be considered, if not a central factor, at least a ubiquitous, influential part of learning - online and otherwise...In common practice, emotions are examined, seemingly visceral and unconsciously. This is not appropriate in reflective pedagogy designed to bring cognition to consciousness" (2012, p. 285).  I don't disagree (it makes sense, actually), but at what part do we consider emotion?  Do we consider it part of the social? As in, emotion generated because of our interactions with others?  Emotion as part of the cognitive? As in, my frustration at my slow progress in Calculus II in college?  Emotion as part of Actor Network Theory?

What this small trip down the rabbit hole brought to the forefront for me was the limits of Venn Diagrams, and 2D representations of complex processes. The Original CoI Model "works" as a Venn Diagram because each Presence is given equal weight and equal interaction with the other presences.  As soon as you start adding presences you have to think of the interrelationships and the interactions between the different elements; and more importantly for our purposes: how do you demonstrate this on paper, to a committee of experts who are vetting you to be a scholar peer (i.e. graduate with your EdD or PhD)? So one aspect is the theory, the other is the explanation of such theory.

Interestingly enough Norine (who I don't think I've met before) mentioned some research done previously, which she was a part of,  with an n of approximately 1200 students (over a period of three years).  The results of this (unpublished) research seemed to indicate that Cognitive Presence and Emotional Presence could stand on their own, whereas Social Presence and Teaching Presence could not.  Social Presence was hypothesized to be a subset of the other three.  Emotional and Cognitive Presences seemed to be about the same level of significance whereas Teaching Presence smaller seemed to be smaller.  This ties in neatly with the limits of 2D diagrams to explain complex processes.  This was quite an interesting discussion (and it would have been nice to have seen the findings of this study published somewhere).  Tonight's session, and Lynne's topic, definitely got me thinking (despite not quite buying fully into Emotional Presence).

Thoughts?

Happy new year to all!

This Doctoral seminar course is designed to provide informal support and opportunities for presentation and peer review of activities associated with completion of the doctoral dissertation.  Completion of the course is required prior to graduation for all doctoral students. Students may register in the course only after passing the candidacy exam. The course is seminar based and will consist of registered students who are actively working on their dissertation.  Other EdD students may participate in the course as guests on a voluntary basis and are encouraged to do so. The format is real time web conferencing seminars held every two weeks during the fall and winter terms. Besides student presentations, faculty and guest presentations will be scheduled. The seminar is designed to allow participation and build networks among all EdD cohorts and graduates.