Sep 15
SLM Research
Stars
Wear your sunglasses and prepare to be starstruck!
9:00-9:45
Internship
session
Room A1930
9:45
Set up for Round 1 of Stars
in a different room (look for note on door of A1930)
Stars Schedule for all day
(tentative)
10:00-10:45 (approx.)
Round 1
, SLM Research Stars
10:45-11:00
Break/setup for Round
2
11:00-11:45
Round 2
11:45-12:30
Lunch and setup for
Round 3
12:30-1:15
Round 3
1:15-1:30
Large group closure
Children's Lit Trivia
Wrap-up questions
Last Word
1:30 Launch of Problem Project
followed by Groupwork (see below)
6900's need to choose their problems
Allow 1 hour
Process:
Phase 1: Choose a problem.
Find one or more problems that commonly occur
in the administration of media centers. You can do this by
reading
library media journals, or by interviewing a practicing media
specialist.
Problems should be directly related to media center administration, but
the scope of possibilities is extremely wide. Topics included in the
syllabus
are acceptable.
This was done during
the SLMS Interview.
Bring your problem to
class on the chosen date (9/15),
and be prepared to share. We will formally list these, and
provide
a method for everyone to choose one AND to set up collaborative
groups.
You may choose the same problem you brought to class, or any
other. No two groups should pursue exactly the same problem.
Sept
29
Why is this parrot on the agenda? (a researchable question!)
Hint: It's not National Parrot Appreciation Day!
Room A1930
9:00 - 12:00
due:
Researchable Question
(RQ)
Stay longer if you like - credit for
corresponding lesson
possible
9:00
- Make a time plan for the morning
- A few minutes to add finishing touches to RQ if you need it
Topic:
Synthesizing Literature
- The best time to do a lit review and why to do one in the first
place
- Levels of lit reviews:
- "exhaustive" (no such thing) or exhaustive
as possible
- justifying the study
- framing the study
- none
- Everyone should include lit review methodology
- the story of your search
- What kinds of things should you include?
- Studies - always
- Conceptual or theoretical pieces - sometimes
- Prescriptive pieces, models for "how to do
x" - sometimes
- Anecdotal pieces - less so
- Figuring out what topics to look
for (covered in Framing Problem
lesson)
- Venn diagram
- Use class examples?
- How do you begin to organize, make
sense,
and synthesize them?
- Highlighting and annotating
- Coding
- Thematic organization
- Handling quotes and citations
(keeping track
of them)
- Outline
- Thematic organization is better than
"beads
on a string" (where you report study after study with only a rough
attempt
to organize them). Diagramming, sticky note organization very helpful
here.
- I would rather read a
well-synthesized, thematically
organized review of three studies than a string of 100 beaded studies
- Write or otherwise package for readers
- Narrative: the good and the bad
- Outlines with complete-thought bullets
- Presentation
- Graphic organizer with audio
- Technical aids: word processor;
EndNote, Zotero, or the like; Inspiration;
folders, GoogleDocs, spreadsheets, highlighters, piles, sticky notes,
whiteboard, mirror with erasable marker, red folder method....
Critiquing along the way:
- Use Leedy's checklist (see WebCT,
6900, Readings, Leedy & Ormrod Chap 1)
- Analyze first (what kind of a source is this? purpose? method?
results?)
- Do results overreach? over-generalize? Are recommendations
grounded? (common problem!)
- Are assumptions warranted or reasonable? (common problem!)
- Follow through on any negative reactions you experience
- Usefulness? Was this study worth its resources? (another common
problem!)
- OK to applaud the value you find as well
- The Critique assignment
If time, Group Time
by 11:30: Wrap Up
Homework (below)
Looking Ahead:
- We will set up Discussion Board for each team.
- We will have your RQs graded by 10/13.
- Oct 13 is Methodology Day: I plan to assign prep readings for
that by Oct 6.
Children's Lit Trivia
Last Word
- Read Muddy
Points material, Episodes 1-6: audience for this was very
open-ended, so you must judge relevance as you go along. This will
flesh out some of what we discussed today.
- By Oct 6: post one message from your team to your Team
Discussion
Board. Contents:
- Restate your RQ (one question, no more)
- Report progress made since RQ was submitted (and there should
be some!) Purpose: to help you move along and not get stuck here
at the
beginning of the search/synthesis phase.
- Be brief! No more than one screen!
- Include any burning questions, muddy points, or problems that
are getting in your way.
- If it seems necessary, we will follow up with advice, etc.
6900 can leave at lunch or stay for Ethics
7340 beginning at 12:30, end by 3p (
their
agenda)
- Ethics (definitely appropriate for 6900)
- Design moving into Development (probably not appropriate for 6900)
no Aimee J.
Oct
13
Methodology Day
both classes, all day
Data collection techniques are like recipes
- you need several in your box.
9:00-9:30
Advisement - Dr. Janette Hill and Dr. Greg
Clinton
(advisors will be available for individual advisement)
9:30-10:20
Purpose of Today - MAF
Meaning of "methodology," "method," and "technique"
Documents/Content Analysis - Beth Friese (Cohort 4 Alum,
Ph.D. Student
- Children's Lit)
10:20-10:30
Break
10:30-11:20
Survey - Kristi Leonard (COE Senior Information Technology
Manager;
Ph.D. Student - Instructional Technology)
(Handout available in WebCT/6900/Readings)
11:20 - 12:10
Interview - Stephanie Jones (Ph.D. Candidate - Instructional
Technology/SLM)
Her presentation is in WebCT/6900/Readings.
12:10-12:40
Lunch
12:40 - 1:30
Putting it All Together -
Buffy
Hamilton (M.Ed. and Ed.S.
Alum, Cohort 1; Media Specialist, Creekview High School, Cherokee
County)
Her
Applied Project presentation
1:30
Wrap up
- Midterm
Feedback and Evaluation of Methodology Day - brief,
optional questionnaire
- Homework
- Looking Ahead
- Trivia
- Last Word
- Brief afterword with EDIT 6900 re: PPP no. of references:
decided to go back to a minimum of 10, trusting you to do more if
necessary
2:00-3:00
- Group work for EDIT 6900
- Individual conferencing for EDIT 7340
Royalty-free image from
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/781602
Found via PicFindr (www.picfindr.com)
Nov
10
PPP Drafts due
Late-breaking news!
I've
decided that the best way to return your Drafts to you is US Mail.
Please compress your submission (with
rubric) into as few a number of pages as possible. Bring an envelope of
a matching size. Address it to the team member chosen to receive it.
Attach postage if you can. (If you can't
get this done, don't panic - the more people who can, the better.) I
will mail from a reliable post office (not UGA - therefore we will have
to fund the postage ourselves). One submission package per team.
Proposed Schedule
9:00: EDIT 6900 only
- Open Q&A, focused on upcoming assignments (see Planner; scroll down to see Schedule for
remainder of semester)
- No more readings or lessons - unless you ask for specific topics
(no more deliverables beyond the Assignments)
- Format for Presentation Day
- Links to the remaining assignments: Design
Idea; PPP
- Design Idea feedback not needed for PPP.
- A few verbal pointers about the Notebook and the Reflection:
- Do not worry about making the Notebook "pretty."
- Reflections should individually answer these questions:
- What did you learn from this experience about action
research, and how will you apply it on the job?
- What were your contributions to the group effort, and was the
collaborative experience a satisfactory one?
- Audience for each: Design idea: MAF; PPP: other SLMSs; Notebook:
yourself; Reflection: MAF.
10:00: EDIT 7340 joins us
Business
- Discuss dates for 7460, Spring 2008 (3 short meetings are
traditional).
- Decision: Dates for intern meetings: we agreed on 9a-11a
Jan 19, Feb 2, Mar 15, Apr 5
- Personality
quiz: TypeFocus
- careers.typefocus.com
- password: uga4400
Topics:
Applying
what is known to problems
- brief (if there are
questions)
- Farmer pp 37-38
- Midterm feedback suggested the following: "Don't want to know
about technique I won't be using." But: you need to know because ...
Data Analysis:
bring any samples you might have to discuss
(Readings: Farmer 16-17, 28-36)
- We could have an entire course on Analysis - such courses do
exist.
- For most people, analysis is characterized by a sense of
"wallowing" and "aimlessness." This is normal and necessary.
- As you work, keep observations and interpretations separate.
Observations go with Results. Interpretations go with Discussion.
- Descriptive statistics: totals, means, percentages; break-downs
by different groups
- Throughout: carefully track your procedures and decisions in
your Researcher's Notebook.
- initial preparation: tally; organize into spreadsheet
(probably)(This is where you learn to love Excel)
- Review research question. Systematically "mine" the data for
answers.
- Farmer, p31-32: good list of easy descriptive statistics
- Often, one procedure will lead to another. Sometimes,
this is in-depth investigation. Other times, it's chasing bunnies down
trails (a waste of time). It's hard to distinguish while you're in the
thick of it. If you sense an additional procedure coming on, write a
note to yourself about it. Wait before pursuing.
- Displays are good! Aim for lots of charts and tables with
captions.
- As you work, you will realize limitations in your data. These
are normal. Collect them into a special section in your Discussion.
- ditto no. 12 below.
- Qualitative thematic analysis:
- Throughout: carefully track your procedures and decisions in
your Researcher's Notebook.
- initial preparation: transcription; basic organization
- coding (modern term would be "tag")
- make a list of your codes
- go back through and code again, using standardized code list
- make a heirarchy of codes: big levels make "themes"
- step back: what is the data telling you? Can you answer
your research question now? Are there patterns?
- if not, go back in and look for answers
- ditto no. 3 above.
- are there two or more things that should be compared to each
other?
- is there a sequence of events to flowchart?
- ditto no. 4 above.
- as you work, jot down interpretations, hunches and possible
conclusions and recommendations; follow up on these to make sure they
hold up.
- ditto no. 5 above.
- Examples from the group
- Things to do with surveys
- Things to do with interviews
- Things to do with student work
- Others...
- More advanced statistics
- Concepts we all should know:
- Populations and sampling
- In action research, we often attempt to describe an entire
small population. Ex: a single class, defined as the population. You
would not try to generalize any results beyond that one class.
- If you can't logistically describe an entire population,
sampling is the procedure to use.
- Sampling is an art unto itself and there is a lot more
written about that.
- Random sampling is a concept you should understand.
- Validity and reliability
- Validity: measurement truly measures what it is meant to
measure
- Reliability: if you test multiple times, you will obtain
the same result each time
- Dependent, independent variables
- Inferential statistics (there are formulas for all kinds of
statistics)
- t-tests: comparing two means to see if there is a difference
- Bottom line here: if you need to perform any statistical
analysis beyond the level of descriptive stats, get some coaching. (Ask
me for pointers.) You are not expected to perform complex statistical
analyses at any level without expert assistance.
Lunch when we get hungry
Wrap Up
Group time, optional - no later than 1p
Dec 8
Everything Due
Problem Project Team Presentations
EDIT 7340 strongly encouraged to attend presentations
Business
- Reflection instructions
(changed from original): please submit hard copy today
- Dates: 7460, 9-11am: Jan19, Feb 2, Mar 15, Apr 5
- Purpose of log/GoogleDoc in 7460
- Marathon
preview - visitors welcome
- Course Evals
(Make sure you're filling out the right one! Once you hit "submit," you
can't take it back.)
- Permission
Forms: please send me an email in WebCT that indicates your
agreement, disagreement, or partial agreement to this form. This is
renewable and/or revocable at any time from now on. It covers all
products, photographs, etc. generated as a part of all of your UGA
classes.
- Advisement Forms: update, date
- Update from Advisory Board meeting Nov 30
Presentations (order by request: first come, first served)
- Aimee G., Naomi, George
- Aimee J., Diane, Jennifer
- Marty, Kate, Laura
Kristen, Allison: no preference about order