thinkPhD

I’ve been working on my topic selection paper which is supposed to summarize my initial thinking on potential research areas of interest and potential research topics. I have been collecting journal articles on various topics. It’s really been a struggle deciding which direction to go because over time I have accumulated lots of ideas. So I finally narrowed it down to two topics, one of which I could find little information about. Maybe I will save this one for my first book.

The other topic, I found more information around it but not exactly it. For a research degree like the PhD, a dissertation must lead to knowledge creation or expansion. A professional degree like a DBA is a practical response to a problem. My PhD research must add to the community of learning. So its a good thing not to find exact information on my topic. I invented a term to describe the “problem” in the supply chain which I believe exactly identifies what is occurring.

After I receive this paper back from Dr. R., I will begin the Research Problem Statement assignment. While waiting, I will go ahead and collect references for the Annotated Bibliography, which is assignment 3. I plan to turn in my topic selection paper tomorrow morning, after I have allowed it to “cure” overnight. I will wake up tomorrow with fresh eyes and hopefully see and correct any issues.

A big storm blew threw our area last night and knocked out the power. It finally came on at about 5PM today (Saturday). No electricity means no water at our house – we are on a well. So I couldn’t wash clothes or cook. I had a bunch of assignments to grade, too. But of course, none of those things can be done when we don’t have electricity.

So, I took the day to catch up on reading, both in the Creswell text (Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches) and several dissertations. It was good to get in some reading, but I admit that the house was so quiet that I did fall asleep while trudging through a particularly boring dissertation.

I am back online tonight and will dig into those assignments to grade. This GEN/200 class ends on Tuesday. I teach another section at the end of July. Now that I have the lesson plans for this course, my weekly planning should not take so long.

It’s good to have air conditioning, water, and the computer up and running again! Back to work!

I am on Twitter, yes, I admit that. Find and follow me here. Everyone talks about Twitter being a social networking site, a “mini-blog.” But take another look…many use it as a marketing tool. More than half of tweets are related to something someone is selling. I even use it in this way. Here is a recent tweet:  

Become a Lifelong Learner – http://bit.ly/8jLUJ AC#

It’s a link to one of my articles on Associated Content.

I want people to go and read my article! I get a lot of tweets asking me to buy something, or join something. I have lots of followers that I have no idea where they heard of me or why. Some seem to just want to accumulate followers as if it justifies the whole geekiness of the thing. How could anyone read tweets from thousands of people? Wow. I can’t even keep up with my own tweets.

So Twitter is really a marketing tool. I wonder if anyone has determined if it is effective or not. I know it drives traffic to linked sites; but is this simply random?

I’d like to know how my readers are using Twitter: do you use it to keep up with friends or a marketing tool or something else?

I wrote an Examiner article today exploring the possibilities for using the Brain-Twitter technology for distance learning. What an exciting possibility! Individuals with locked-in syndrome could use this technology to take a class or participate in online forums! Those of us who can use various forms of communication often do not consider the frustration experienced by those who are unable to communicate effectively. As a student and professor, learning is something I just naturally do – it’s hard to imagine not being able to take a class or write a paper.

Kudos to the University of Wisconsin and the Brain-Twitter Research team!

You can read the entire article here.