Action Research, you said?

Throughout my current research, I intend to follow principles of Action Research. What does that mean?

I’ll try to synthesise my understanding of AR by focusing on a few main characteristics.

A research project

I previously mentioned in passing that I have started working on a PhD research program.

My old self (or younger self, depending on how you look at the arrow of time), back when I received my previous degree about a decade ago, would have likely been quite incredulous and perhaps even appalled to learn that I would eventually decide to go back to that manipulative institution, that radical monopoly (as Ivan Illich would put it) called the schooling system. And it certainly wasn’t an easy choice.

So what made me decide to invest much of my time and savings into a non-funded PhD program?

The Areol Program – On Action Research, and becoming a better person

This summer, I took part in an online course on Action Research: Areol (short for Action Research and Evaluation On Line). I thought I’d write about it, especially considering I haven’t found that many other blog posts presenting this course.

#EL30 – On the Narrative Identity, and our Obsession with Stats

So, here I am at last, coming out of the digital woodwork (not to anyone’s annoyance, I hope!) as a follower of Stephen Downes’s “E-Learning 3.0” MOOC. I know, the course is already half-way through — but I’ve been rather too overwhelmed by other tasks to actively chip into the fascinating discussions going on around this platform, until today.

This post is my take on this week’s topic: “Identity.” With apologies for being late to the great conversation.

How to improve my own learning? (part 2)

In my previous post, I discussed the reasons impelling me to find better ways to learn, and the notion of Personal Learning Environment (PLE). Here, I’ll go into the nitty-gritty stuff that actually constitutes my learning: the contents, tools, and processes. I’ll also present some ways to possibly shape up and improve that whole mess.

READER, BEWARE: All this might be a little too personal and long-winded for anyone else than me to be interested… but so be it. This blog is an attempt at achieving a little more clarity in my thinking before anything else. However, all thoughtful comments are welcome of course.

How to improve my own learning? (part 1)

Over the past few months, I have grown fairly obsessed with the idea of improving and structuring the way I process, store and make use of information found both online and offline.

There are two main reasons for this. First, although I spend a fair amount of time every day trying to learn about things, out of a sense of curiosity, I have become increasingly dissatisfied with my capacity to retain information. Second, I just enrolled in a PhD program, focusing on how people learn… So it has now become urgent to get my own house in order!