Day 1: Just got paid/Friday night
The idea for this blog came, as all my great ideas happen, in the shower. I was brainstorming about how great it would be if people could actually see my analysis and the summary of the research I was doing, and what better way to do that than in a blog? The only thing that would be better, I decided, is if they could track the progress of the survey - how many respondents and from how many countries - over the course of a couple of weeks. Well, that naturally degenerated into a number of different musings as to whether or not people would read it, how I was going to disseminate the survey, and all that rot.
So let me back up a little bit here. It's Day 1 of my research project - at least, of my official research project for this course I'm taking. I'm working on my masters degree, and if everything goes right, I'll be graduating with my Masters in Education (fat lot of good that's going to do me, working in high tech) next spring. I'm taking it distance learning, which means that a significant amount of my work is to be done... (that's right) on my own, online.
This semester, the as-of-yet-unnamed university in Southern California (doesn't matter that I tell you that, because I'm taking it distance learning, remember) was nice enough to schedule my two classes (6 units) serially instead of in parallel. For those of you who aren't familiar with the terminology, it means that I finish one course before I start the next one. That's a lovely thing in and of itself, because it means that I theoretically won't have to do homework for the first one by the time the second one starts. That killed me the last time I attempted something like this.
The corollary of it all, however, is that I have to now do a research project for a Research and Statistics class in (now) just under four weeks. I was offered opportunities to work with other people on it, but given my schedule and my own desire to work on a quantitative project instead of a qualitative one (numbers-based survey vs. an essay-based survey), I decided to strike it out on my own.
Actually, Inspiration struck first - and I do mean that in a capital I sense. During the drive home from my class (we meet about twice a semester for the classes, and the rest is done online), I was mulling over one conversation I had with my professor just as he was leaving. It was about technology and its applications in high school. However, it suddenly struck me that my technology education was, for the most part, ad hoc until I hit university. I was privileged by rank and relative wealth to many of my compatriots, most of which couldn't match my 85 wpm typing skills and my ability to take apart a computer at will.
On a side note, please remember that not all the screws come out of the back of a computer. If you take them all out, you might have done damage to your power supply. (Take that from someone who learned it the hard way.)
So this was the basis of my research project. Where has technology education fit into the lives of each generation? That being said, I'm searching for people of many different generations - those currently in school, those recently graduated, those who blush to remember how long ago their university years were, and those who view it through the eyes of their children (and beyond) - to answer an anonymous survey about what technology one needs in the workplace (and has needed) in order to help me better understand the trends in education.
Don't worry, this study will be partnered with many weekends in a neighboring university's education library. I'm not trying to slack off, really.
I called my professor this morning to remind him that he hadn't managed to approve my topic. After a brief conversation, I got my topic approved. So this is why today, Friday, September 1, is Day 1, and why I spent my Friday night (after a payday) at home, working on homework, talking to my boyfriend on the phone and muttering randomly about variables and such.
Oh well, at least I got most of it done.
So let me back up a little bit here. It's Day 1 of my research project - at least, of my official research project for this course I'm taking. I'm working on my masters degree, and if everything goes right, I'll be graduating with my Masters in Education (fat lot of good that's going to do me, working in high tech) next spring. I'm taking it distance learning, which means that a significant amount of my work is to be done... (that's right) on my own, online.
This semester, the as-of-yet-unnamed university in Southern California (doesn't matter that I tell you that, because I'm taking it distance learning, remember) was nice enough to schedule my two classes (6 units) serially instead of in parallel. For those of you who aren't familiar with the terminology, it means that I finish one course before I start the next one. That's a lovely thing in and of itself, because it means that I theoretically won't have to do homework for the first one by the time the second one starts. That killed me the last time I attempted something like this.
The corollary of it all, however, is that I have to now do a research project for a Research and Statistics class in (now) just under four weeks. I was offered opportunities to work with other people on it, but given my schedule and my own desire to work on a quantitative project instead of a qualitative one (numbers-based survey vs. an essay-based survey), I decided to strike it out on my own.
Actually, Inspiration struck first - and I do mean that in a capital I sense. During the drive home from my class (we meet about twice a semester for the classes, and the rest is done online), I was mulling over one conversation I had with my professor just as he was leaving. It was about technology and its applications in high school. However, it suddenly struck me that my technology education was, for the most part, ad hoc until I hit university. I was privileged by rank and relative wealth to many of my compatriots, most of which couldn't match my 85 wpm typing skills and my ability to take apart a computer at will.
On a side note, please remember that not all the screws come out of the back of a computer. If you take them all out, you might have done damage to your power supply. (Take that from someone who learned it the hard way.)
So this was the basis of my research project. Where has technology education fit into the lives of each generation? That being said, I'm searching for people of many different generations - those currently in school, those recently graduated, those who blush to remember how long ago their university years were, and those who view it through the eyes of their children (and beyond) - to answer an anonymous survey about what technology one needs in the workplace (and has needed) in order to help me better understand the trends in education.
Don't worry, this study will be partnered with many weekends in a neighboring university's education library. I'm not trying to slack off, really.
I called my professor this morning to remind him that he hadn't managed to approve my topic. After a brief conversation, I got my topic approved. So this is why today, Friday, September 1, is Day 1, and why I spent my Friday night (after a payday) at home, working on homework, talking to my boyfriend on the phone and muttering randomly about variables and such.
Oh well, at least I got most of it done.
posted by Foxtail at 11:46 PM
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