Sparks flying

It's even busier, now that the marking is done. Each day I have a plan for tasks to complete and then I 'flow' into digital spaces, stopping to read and reflect. My current flow is streaming from Virtually connecting.

The Virtually Connecting conference schedule, with five conference events being organized, has been the focus for me in the past few days, and will continue into the next few weeks. I've created two blog posts for two conferences [Creative Commons Global Summit, OER18] and will begin the post for the OEGlobal conference in Delft. I will be actively participating in one capacity or another and supporting others to take on some new roles in the community. This NodeXL visual graphic shows the connections and my space/place in the open framework for the Creative Commons Global Summit and Virtually connecting.

I've also blogged a bit for the Ontario Extend activity bank

• Extending My Reach
• Bank Deposit
• I'm an Experimenter - a Lab Report

Only now I realize that some of the links are dropping and the pathway to my new Extending Thinking blog site, through Domain of One's Own is 'dead'. I'll need to put this onto my learning list and become better at managing my own domain through CPanel and Reclaim Hosting. 

I've added a blog post to the VoicEd.ca blog with some thoughts about nurturing The Reluctant Voice.

I've tweeted each day for the Daily Extend.

In reflection - I'm wondering how these are going to impact my 'SoTL' research for this eCampus open education fellowship. Something to think about this week as we dig into the SoTL module.

SoTL - what is it ... really?

Just reading a bit more about what this action research project is and how I should conduct this work. A colleague in the faculty shared her reflection on the process and outcomes of some work she had done while quilt making. She wrote "I kept a journal of my reflections while quilt-making. I analyzed my journal entries and developed themes that communicate what I think are important about the process and outcomes". I'll need to talk to her further about this project and how she conducted the analysis of her journal entries. (analyzying - interrogating, selecting, deconstructing). 

Reading about the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), I came across a description that clarifies the difference between good teaching, scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching & learning (see reference below, page 38). This one statement caught my attention "Teachers engaged in SoTL projects frame research questions, systematically gather and explore evidence, reflect on and refine new ideas, and craft the results in a form that is suitable for public presentation and peer review (Cambridge, 2001; Christensen Hughes, 2005)." This helps me reframe my thinking about what I'm going to do, but I need to carefully rethink the research question to make sure it leads my data gathering, not the other way around. This particular document is a good one to come back to for re-reading. Lots of great information here. (analyzing - interrogating; meaning making - reading)

I'm also reading and locating resources about research methodologies to clarify the steps I'll need to take in this action research project. Since I want to focus on my own teaching practice, I'll need to be aware of data management and analysis methodologies that will apply to this form of research. The document linked below has some descriptions as well as links to resources and books that can be helpful.

Reference:

Elgie, S., Childs, R., Fenton, N., Levy, B. A., Lopes, V., Szala-Meneok, K., & Wiggers, R. D. (2012). Researching Teaching and Student Outcomes in Postsecondary Education: A Guide. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. Retrieved from http://www.heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/HEQCO%20Researching_Student_Outcomes%20ENG.pdf