Week Ten: Threads 2 & 3

I was a bit confused with our in-class activity this week. However, class was good overall. I am feeling better about research now that we are nearing the end of the semester. I am confident that I have a strong research proposal and I am ready to share it with the class.

Thread 2: We brain-stormed the research skills we have gained and/or improved, and had to provide evidence. I understood this part. The research skill I have gained is being able to create a solid literature review. The evidence is the lit review I have written for my research proposal. I started the class not knowing how to look up articles or what a lit review really entailed. Now, I have a lit review with 50+ sources and I feel a confident argument for my research.

Thread 3 is where I got lost: what thinking skills have you used to learn about research and your topic? I really wasn't sure what this meant and what "thinking skills" are. I have learned to organize my materials by topic so that I can easily access them and so that I know which areas I need to research more to "beef up" my lit review. I have also used the skill of deciding whether a reference is of good quality or not. I'm not sure if that's what we were supposed to do for this thread or not...

Recent Progress (Thread 3)

Spring Break was quite a productive time for me. I used the time I would have normally been in class to get a lot of work done on my Research Proposal. I am now on my fifth version of the paper and it is looking better and better every day. I have even received feedback from a professional...he said it was a good paper and I was going a great job! Yay! It was nice to hear that from someone who has directed master's thesis level work and has published many, many articles. I'm working on updating the paper to include his feedback. Then I plan to have three more people read it and supply feedback. It's getting there and it's feeling good! Seeing the product of my work thus far for this class is making me feel so much better about the time I have spent searching for articles and struggling with what to do and how to do it. There is a bright light at the end of this long, dark tunnel...I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!!! :-)

Methodology - Thread 2

Briefly describe your methodological choice & Give at least 3 sound reasons for your methodological choice.
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For this research project, I will use a qualitative, interactive research method. This will allow me to get a descriptive understanding of how parents are using the web during their child’s college selection process. It will describe the experience of these people. I plan to conduct semi-structured interviews of parents to understand how they are using the web.

3 reasons for my methodological choice:

1. This is a fairly new area of research. Because of this, the important variables that could be used to test relationships have not been identified for this research area. This study would help identify some important variables for others in the future to study.
2. With this study I am trying to describe how parents use the web. In order to reach this description, I need to talk with parents and have them tell me, in their own words, how they use the web.
3. This methodology choice logically fits with how to gather information about how parents are using the web.

Good/Bad Article - Thread 1

Find a really good or really bad research article on your research topic.
Blog your initial thoughts on what made it really good or really bad.
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I found a really good article on my research topic:
Poock, M. & LeFond, D. (2001). How college-bound prospects perceive university web sites: Findings, implications, and turning browsers into applicants. College and University, 77 (1), 15-21.

This article is an example of a good article because...

• it gives an in-depth discussion of this topic to help the reader understand what has gone on in this area of research already, and focuses the readers into the area the authors are looking at.
• it uses both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to gather data...a survey and focus groups. This allows both numerical data and verbal, descriptive data to answer the research questions.
• the authors recognize the limitations of the study and suggest good alternatives for future research...which helped me narrow down my research area!

Professional Contact - Thread 1

If you have not done so, establish a connection with a professional on your topic of research.
Blog a brief entry on your experience.
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I discussed contacting a professional in a previous blog entry, but I'll review it again:
I contacted, via email, an author of an article that I found. He emailed me back within a day or two. He doesn't work in the specific area of research I am now focusing on, but he said he has a colleague that is more familiar with the area and he will keep me in mind if he hears anything interesting. I also emailed a graduate student at another university that did her thesis in an area similar to mine. She is going to send me her data and presentation information as soon as her computer is up and running again.
Both of these were simple contacts to make. I don't expect to do anything further with either person, as my project will be laid to rest as soon as I turn in my research proposal for Research Methods, and I don't have a need to take up more of their time. Even though I may not use these connections further, it was a good experience to decide who and how to contact a "professional."