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large ship must point small helm into wind to
look smaller than you are
cynical
tactic – one must take the path of least resistance to survive the storm?
eye of the tiger

small helm is the question, succinct and digestable; large ship is the big ideas, the arguments and premises that follow

listening to songs, predicting next note

anxious to go skating despite strained ankle

The research question of your study is the “last note” of your introduction.
Should build, move toward a question inevitably

Little Shop of Horrors works for me because it devours itself, it’s an anti-musical

believable
relevant, important, pertinent
timing, pacing
bait the hook
tension
urgency
dire implication
passion

funnel: start broad, get narrow
(like Dante’s Inferno, it opens to another world on the other side, inverse cone)

Peter and the Wolf
retelling with a heart

what happens during pre-service

teacher quality –> student achievement

Special Ed instruction is poor ?

identifying factors that influence quality in pre-service teacher reading

knowledge skills and dispositions

without research we don’t know what they believe

if we don’t know what they think we don’t know how that affects practice

what are the beliefs?

WHy is it so important that we understand this?

hooks are the fun part, drilling down to the question is cool

As I begin the pilot of our WordPress MU installation for Utah Valley University, questions naturally arise as to expected usage of the system. This led to the idea of running a short survey for students, faculty, and staff that asks if and how they would use such a community publishing platform. I then wondered if students or faculty who already had a blog would use the institutional system as a blog, whether in addition to or as a replacement for their own (even if only to meet a course requirement). This, of course, led me back to the idea of “creepy treehouses“ (A term I have consciously avoided over the past year), and set me to rethink the survey to ask the following primary question:

How do (students’ | faculty | staff) attitudes toward institutional learning and communication systems differ from attitudes toward informal learning and communication systems?

This isn’t nearly as relevant to the WPMU system as originally intended, but I do expect to be able to address the system through this survey without overwhelming participants. Some of the survey questions that pop into mind ask about personal use of social media, perceptions of institutional technology, relevance of both toward learning, perceived efficiency for learning, likelihood of using new institutional technology, etc.

I’m posting this here in case any readers (who I haven’t lost yet through neglect) have ideas on how to keep this useful while maintaining a sharp focus. Suggested questions are, of course, welcome.

Definitions and Assumptions

“solitude”…
…is a neutral or positive state of aloneness (“loneliness” is a negative)
…is a form of disconnecting from others, not from information
…in (post)modern American culture (may be) diminishing (through social media)
…has (some) connection to (some kinds of) learning
…may affect some learners more than others
..may be naturally more attractive to some learners than others
…(may be) related to individualism, creativity, self-reliance, independence
…as a mode for learning can be tested and measured through experimental group(s)

The last assumption is the most tenuous, but I might get around to that yet!

Expansion, Rephrasing, and Refinement

(My brainstorming is far looser that those done in class last week.)

What (impact | affect) does solitude have on (learning | e-learning | creativity | attitudes toward learning, e.g. self-reliance)?
Does e-learning occur in more or less solitude than traditional learning?
Is there a historical trend visible in observations of teaching from solitude toward collective/collaborative learning?
How much solitude do modern learners prefer?
What are teachers’ attitudes toward solitary learning?
Is solitude a common observable element in the lives of high-achievers?
Is solitude a correlative to student achievement?
What are the cognitive processes of individuals in solitude?
(Define “solitude”?)
How is learning different from creating?
Is solitude an advantage or disadvantage for informal learning?
(When | why | how) do (solitary | self) learners seek input from (others | experts | peers)?
How do cycles of solitude and group interaction vary amongst different learners?
(Define “different”?)
What environmental design decisions may support learner solitude?
Does (development of | positive attitudes toward | proclivity to) (self-reliance | solitude) increase learner (interaction with | exploration of) (open) educational resources?
<Your question or variant here>

This was my first foray into any sort of concerted examination of this question, so I’m content that the results are all over the map. I don’t know if I’m closer to anything usable here in any pragmatic sense, but I certainly have more to chew on.

As I write these questions my mind can’t help but leap ahead to the question of support for such a study. Who would be interested in finding out the impact of solitude on learning? Organizations with interest in supporting creativity or the arts might be more interested, and so I may reconsider this question

weakness
know-it-alls
practice affect

recognizing one’s weakness allows one to improve
humility makes one teachable

it doesn’t matter how many times you’re knocked down, it only matters how many times you get up
get up until it becomes automatic

how do virtual world environments impact learning?

compared to a traditional physical classroom?

speculate:
engaging (this question may not be of interest [it may also be too subjective])
convenient
satisfying

identify legitimate teaching/learning applications for virtual worlds

What is a virtual world
immerssive, 3d, avatar, not bound by physics

f2f,

conventional
classical

good luck defining a typical physical classroom

focus on comparing specific teaching/learning activities

what person to person scenarios ( many to one, many to many, one to one, one to many)?

–

if you can travel… is this an argument about efficiency?

improve low-achieving students

art classroom
constraint: blended

campbell and stanley threats to validity
contamination

–

media comparison study? how do you prevent this from becoming a media comaprison study?

(is orality vs literacy a media comparsion study?)
–

research on design of learning environments
liberty

–

affordances of environments

if you itemize and categorize affordances of SL you might speculate new learning activities

how can we leverage and maximize new or different affordances of the virtual world?

beloit college

what assumptions about “millennial learners”

we need to consider the assumptions we make in order to achieve X

• distance learning
• the Web
• appreciation of the arts (esp. literature)
• expression through the arts (esp. writing)

Isolating any one of these as a subject for “passion” makes sense in a common way, but I doubt that I could sustain such single-mindedness. And yet I do not want to neglect any of my interests for mere lack of time; indeed, I want this list to move beyond the accepted seriousness of these interests. In doing so, I wonder if I might explore new paths that may diverge severely, paths that I may have passed, paths that may lie ahead. I want the paths to recurse, intersect, dive, and rise so that through some reflective and experimental weaving of ideas I might line-by-line produce a cohesive tapestry in my life.

(This tapestry idea sounds nice, but I must criticize it too. This continual weaving of many things may be a sign of avoidance, much as Penelope practiced a weaving not so much to express fidelity for her Odysseus as to reject the real but mundane and imperfect suitors.)

This particular list of interest may change next year. By iteself the items are not too disparate to consider: web and distance learning together is a natch, and they both are general enough that they might apply to the others. However these are what I label my more “serious” interests; there are many others that fit what David Wiley described as the “shower test”. Three of these are:

• skateboarding
• collectible card games
• antiquarian book collecting

These interests are all recreational, not “serious” (with some exception in the latter), and, in the wrong circles, potentially damaging to one’s facia reputation. With respect to their practice, they all involve informal learning almost exclusively. I have been content to keep these distinct from my “professional” interests up until recently, when I began to realize a certain thread that runs through all of them. This potential thread came to while I was skateboarding, and thinking about skateboarding.

Rodney Mullen reflects that the reason skateboarding appealed to him was that (1) it wasn’t a typical sport–it had neither teams nor rules, and (2) skating not only encouraged self-expression, it was defined by self-expression. Mullen’s excellence grew out of his individualism–no other skateboarder in the past fifty years of skating is credited with as many trick inventions, and no other skateboarder has dominated organized competitions as Mullen.

Skating is by nature an individualistic sport, but Mullen’s development as a skater leveraged this ideal of individualism to heighten his creativity. When Mullen stunned judges and fellow skaters with tricks they had never imagined, it was because he had developed those tricks in isolation and through rigorous self-discipline. His creativity was stoked by solitude. This is not to say he did not benefit from the influence of other skaters and sponsors, but his core abilities were not learned through social or networked interactions–at least, not in the way we content ourselves to think about social learning in the late 20th and now early 21st century.

I explain this because when I think of how Mullen mastered his art, I think about self-imposed rigor, hours of solitary practice, and expanding off of one’s past successes. And yet this is informal learning. There may be only limited similar examples, but this model of informal learning, this independent study gets me thinking about distance learning and open education. I wonder about the potential power of studying in isolation, immersing one’s self in one’s own creativity, and maximizing one’s efforts through self-discipline.

I wonder about a formalized model of learning that directs students towards self-reliance and solitary study, then provides milestones that may be comparative and social.

<insert looping diagram, iterating from cycles of isolated study –> cycles of group interaction />

This actually looks familiar, in so much as it resembles what many classes do already with the cycle of individual homework and peer review. It looks a lot like what writers and poets do in their creative practice. But for some individual homework is a(n) (un)necessary evil, and I do not see teaching methods encouraging learner independence, self-discipline, and isolation but incidentally or through decontextualized study skills courses. Perhaps, as William Deresiewicz argues in The End of Solitude, our social media drenched culture is losing its tolerance for solitude and isolation, and with it a connection to a great introspection, an understanding of the “second self”, even, and if only, genius’s “stern friend” (as may have been the case for Mullen).

This suspicion seems not unfounded, as many educators, collectively enrapted with social media (I claim no distinction here), increasingly look to group scenarios to facilitate learning, focus their inquiry on social connections that may have been once only peripheral to learning, portray networked “knowledge” as a panacea, and de-emphasize the value of individual learning–or even wholly deconstruct, then dismiss it. At the same time, or maybe just in time, a handful of researchers and scholars have recently begun to attend to this area of inquiry with something like an urgency–perhaps out of fear of how solitude is demolished by social media.

I feel lucky: though I had inklings of this line of thought before I returned to grad school this year, I have only recently begun to see real possibilities. Yet I know I haven’t really begun. As I (very gradually) move through the program I expect to have many opportunities to consider this area of inquiry, pursue leads, redefine it, narrow my scope, maybe even abandon it entirely. For now, I’ll settle for an overly-broad question which I can explore in a later post:

What impact does solitude have on learning?

sing!?!

“What are you passionate about?”

How to phrase the question

apply passion in the service of others

What is right livelihood?

Not all of us can be so picky about our careers. Those who can, however, should be constantly evaluating the positive impact our efforts may have on others. Those who can’t must focus on the positive impacts their work may have, mindfully support those positive aspects, and create positive impacts in perhaps different ways–whether that’s in making a co-worker smile, making peace where strife exists, or even providing . Work provides at least one chance for positive impacts on people lives: sustaining our families and creating an environment free of need that supports their physical, intellectual, and even spiritual growth.

We should not dismiss the significance of work as a means of supporting our families. If all you do in your life is raise a family well, that is enough.

This line of thinking contributed to my dropping out of grad studies in English Lit. I have sufficient intellect, good health, and enough power over my life’s path that I found cause to worry about the significance of contributions I might be making to the world. There is distinct relative value to becoming a professor of literature, a path through which I may indoctrinate students toward my chosen career and sustain other practitioners in my field. At best, a professor of literature may make some small impact outside of academia, by providing access to the enlightening power of literature to the public. I think Harold Bloom does this well, but few others.

What are you passionate about?

This is a question both facile and incomprehensible. Facile because I could list off any of a number of projects that I’ve been revved up by in the present or recent past. Incomprehnsible because it implies passion for something. In context of the grant writing activities that this course is mapped against, it implies passion for a certain objective that is addressable through a project. Though I am responsible for several right now, I don’t know how much I believe in projects.

I’ve worked just long enough in this field to finally realize, after not getting the hint for many years, that projects come and go and outcomes are unpredictible. Some passions turn out to be mere trends, others turn out to be a lot of trouble for ought or little impact. The most dependable of projects are those that are not projects–at least, not in the sense of termination or deliverables. These are found in the day-to-day, incremental teaching and learning that happens as I help faculty reach more students through distance education.

what great liberty in lonlieness?
amplifying individuals –> tools and communities

Why (research)?
To improve practice
To solve specific problems
Instinct, curiosity – relationship with higher power – awe and wonder connected correlates with humility
To improve theory

Prof in English lit department tried to convince me to stay in English grad studies, justified literary study as godlike-creation of new knowledge, extension of existing knowledge. I didn’t buy it.

“horse race research” — Yanchar says this all the time; a pejorative for comparative or treatment group research. Some valid complaints, but to invalidate a serious practice that arguably can have positive impacts? I need to read up on the debate (if there is one) more…

“designers by assignment” David Merrill (that’s me)

quality of life, security of welfare has increased, our access to leisure is increased. whether or not this is beneficial to spirituality or not.

Dissertation that makes an impact

Project becomes a pilot, small-scale for dissertation
Start small, something to subsist on until the big one comes

ramen profitible – one should not give up the big dreams or be distracted by success “danger of being successful at the wrong thing is you might be locked in for life?”
Degas, “some kinds of success are indistinguishable from panic”

Wiley says “cut the cord”. Reminds me of NYT article, The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/science/26tier.html

Mazlo’s hierarchy

design: purposive choice under constraint

Grant writing and project management

Introductions. Mundane thing about you. Much breakfast talk.
Me: I keep many things in my pockets.
(“What has it got in its pocketssss, precious?” “pen, pencil, phone, mp3 player, keys, coins, note cards, wallet, pencil sharpener, lip balm. Sorry!”)

Grants, research, dissertation. A lot of these guys are ready for dissertation!
Criteria for a successful dissertation
original
contribute knew knowledge to the body, extend conversation
significant (not meaningless)
manageable (scope)

Don’t let service opportunities pass you by.

No one wins a nobel prize for dissertation work.

But how can your dissertation be useful (to others)? How can it be a service to the field?

Small things
We must serve others, no matter how small we are. Some small things confound great things. (examples? Luther? Declaration of Independence?) Jesus worked through small things, i.e. intimate conversations and informal sermons.

develop digital identity
self-form communities
manage information flow

LOok at one of the proposals.