Teaching ourselves

I am all for learning by doing, Being thrown in the deep end to figure out processes the hard way... But this is usually after the learning experience has occurred! Particularly when the concept is such an abstract one and not something you can quickly work out by doing some research. Definitely feeling challenged by this assignment (EER500: Introduction to Educational Research, Assignment 1B).

I have to say though, that venting here is making me remember those assignments I've done in the past where at the time it is frustrating and hard to see the logic of not having more support, but later you realise that it was a very rewarding learning experience. I am also realising that my automatic response is to ask someone for help, when I CAN do some research myself - there will be resources out there that help me to understand the concepts I am struggling with. If there weren't then our lecturer wouldn't have told us to find them. She has given us a starting point, and we are to find more to expand upon and back up what we already have.

Sounds like a familiar concept - something I will do in the future as a teacher librarian perhaps? Support students in the beginning and give them a starting point, but encourage them to use their own skills to extend their research.

Sounds like learning for life. Life long learning. Time to (re)embrace it for myself, not just my students.

Time to remember how little time I have to get this assignment done... better get back on task!

  by  Jinx! 

Jumping the first hurdle.

EER500 Assignment 1, Part A has been submitted (via wiki). I must say, I am fairly pleased with myself for once - it is not due until tomorrow!

Then draft research question that I eventually formulated was as follows:
"What can a teacher librarian do to have the biggest possible positive impact on student learning, and to make this impact clear to everyone?"

The next step will be to decide which other student's response I will use for Part B of the assignment. There were some interesting posts, in a whole range of areas. The ones that have caught my eye so far are about teacher preparation for teaching reading, impact of IWBs (Interactive Whiteboards), and Asperger's/Autism Spectrum. IWBs and NAPLAN seem to be popular topics.

I will let you know what I decide to go with. So many options :) So much time spent reading at the moment! At least I am mostly reading things that interest me.

Speaking of reading, I had better go and catch up on my ETL523 readings...

"Recent and relevant evidence-based research articles"

I am struggling with the activity steps for EER500. Mainly because step 2 (which is where I am currently treading water) involved finding relevant articles. To be specific: "Recent and relevant evidence-based research articles". Every time I read what I am supposed to be doing, I once again start to wonder if I am on the right track. What is evidence-based research? I am worried that some of the articles I have found are not research as such, rather discussions or sharing of knowledge, or based on what others have said... not research. And what is relevant? How broad am I thinking? I think I am making it worse for myself by starting to think about step 3 - starting to formulate my research question.

I think the best thing to do right now is to focus on step 2, find as many articles as I can (I will give myself a time limit) that relate to the initial article I found, then tomorrow I will look at what I have collected and narrow it down to three.

Once that is done, I will worry about whether the question I thought of is too broad, and if so how I can narrow it down.

Typing it out helps me to think :)

Slow progress

I am not sure how to feel so far this week. Overall I am getting more anxious/edgy each day as I do not complete my quota of study hours (4 per day to begin with). I am keeping a tally on the wall so that I can keep track of the hours spent on each subject each week. I am not sure if this will be a positive tool in the long run or not - I will keep you posted. It does not help that Mondays and Saturdays are my regular work days - would be nice to have a good start to the study week... I am sure I will get a system going eventually!

On a positive note, I spoke to Judy, my ETL523 lecturer tonight on Neatchat, and she is lovely. I feel like I am going to have the support I need in that subject, and that it might even be much more interesting than the impression I got from the outline given when I was umming and ahhing about which subject to choose - it's looking like I have made the right decision after all. She also introduced me to Meebo, which she as embedded into the blog (which is embedded into Interact, our study platform) - very clever. Learning about new things every time I sit down and focus it seems.

I managed to do a little bit of work following the study schedule for EER500, completing steps 4 and 5 of the library tutorial, and learned how to use EBSCOhost and Informit (libary databases) more effectively through the CSU library - this page in particular will be very useful in the future (I wish I had known about it earlier).

But for now I am going to have to leave further exploration of these exciting new pieces of knowledge until tomorrow, as it is I am going to be sleep deprived...

(PS - sentence structure: should I have phrased the clause, 'as it is I am going to be sleep deprived' like I did, or: 'I am going to be sleep deprived as it is'? The emphasis is on 'as it is' when you read it (if that makes sense).

Oh the irony of spending time wondering about a clause about sleep deprivation...

I found this article by following the process outlined in the EER500 study schedule.

I brainstormed a topic idea, narrowed down the key words, came up with some words that could be used in place of my original ones (teacher librarian, role, importance) using my brain and then expanding these using thesaurus.com

I tried searching on Google and Google Scholar, using advanced searches, but did not come up with anything useful quickly enough for my liking. Trying a different tack, I searched the CSU Library site for a journal that I have found useful articles in before. This took me to the Informit website, where I performed a similar search. This search came up with an article that covers the topic of my interest:

Combes, B. (2009). Challenges for teacher librarianship in the 21st century: Part 3 - Status and Role, in Connections (68). Retrieved online from http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/connections/an_introduction_to_the_australian_curriculum.html