The proposal – some reflections

Now that you are busy putting final touches to your proposals I though I would share a comment written by a Level III student this time last year. In effect, it’s a checklist of dos and donts which this student was able to take on into the project itself.

What would your checklist look like?

I have submitted by proposal and there are certain reflections that I have made about the whole process of writing the proposal:

• Do not let stress prevent me from writing a piece of work, even if it is only 100 words.
• If I allow myself enough time, I will be able to have days where I may not be able to write and it will be fine to walk away from the piece of work and return to it on another day or at a later time.
• Place the deadline several days or a week before it has to be handed in, this will give me time to have people read over my piece and I can improve and make changes before the final deadline.
• Everything I read or every thought that comes to mind, make sure I write down and if it is a quote make sure that I reference properly where the source is from so that I have all references to hand when I come to write up my proposal.
• Do not be afraid to become creative in my writing. For instance creating appendices, seperating my writing into headings to allow for the piece to be organised and formal.

I was pleased with my proposal, yet I would want to control my time more effeciently next time, to gain not only all the help I possibly can, but for my stress levels to remain at a healthy state!!!

workshop session reminder

Just a reminder that there will be a workshop meeting tomorrow October 11th at 9.30 in Media Suite Room 8.

The title of the session is ‘Reflecting into the Future’ and one of the activities I plan to do involves you looking at work you produced in Level 2. Some of you did collect that work at enrolment in September. If you did, please bring it with you tomorrow. If you didn’t, I will bring it with me for you.

Independent Study Proposal

The hand in date for the Independent Study proposal remains fixed for the 19th October.

However, those students who were actively engaged with either David Davies or Simone Burrows and who are most likely to work with Wendy Moran (prospective new member of staff) should:

1. continue to seek guidance from core members of staff in support of making progress with research
2. wait for further announcement on arrangements for contacting Wendy directly, and revised proposal submission deadline.

Choosing a Supervisor

It has been decided that Associate Lecturers will not be available as Independent Study supervisors this year. Any student who has made initial contact with either Simone Burrows, David Davies, Eimer Birkbeck or George Dearsley will need to re-direct themselves towards the core programme team. Supervisors available from that team are: Clive McGoun, Neil Carey, Annette Balmpied, Eric Northey, and Paul Wilkins. A new member of staff, Wendy Moran, will be joining us in November and will also be available. Her areas of expertise are in Corporate/Organisational Communication including Marketing and PR.

workshop dates

I’ve now updated webct with the dates for workshops this year together with the slides from this morning’s session.

Also, feel free to use the comment feature on this blog to give feedback, ask questions, and/or express a view – that’s what it’s for.

Online Style Guide

Here’s an excellent guide to an increasingly perplexing area for all of us – how to cite the materials we come across serendipitously (or find after actively searching) online:

The Columbia Guide to Online Style 2nd Edition

It’s clear and succinct. Now that’s a recipe for stylistic success!

to change is difficult but not to change is fatal

to change is difficult but not to change is fatal

Originally uploaded by lynetter.

Using Google effectively

Google offers some interesting features that makes searching more effective. One of these is called left-hand search navigation and can be found on their experimental lab.

I tried this with the search term ‘binge drinking uk’ and this is what I got:

Notice that on the left I now have quick routes to filter my ongoing search. If I filter for books, I get:

and then for articles:

So it’s a quick and effective way of filtering. Explore it as you begin to narrow down your searches – and remember to record and reflect (preferably through your blog) on your results.

Wikipedia accounts for 1 in 200 page views

 

wikipedia accounts for 1 in 200 page views

Originally uploaded by lynetter.

There is still a lot of fairly arid discussion about the use (particularly by students) of wikipedia. Much more interesting is the notion that wikipedia has become a testing ground for theories of distributed knowledge and collective intelligence.

Read the article from the New York Times.

All the News that’s fit to print out

Teaching & learning conference

Here are the slides from yesterday’s talk together with a link to a ‘playlist’ which gives the websites I referred in the order I referred to them. This last is a really useful tool.

Best way to learn a new language? … Hang out with the natives! So sign-up with anything you think has potential, play around, ‘tinker’, participate, have fun … and then reflect.

Informal Learning in the Blended Mix (.pdf)

Playlist