Blog three: where am I so far?
Having completed one individual assignment and two group assignments so far, I am beginning to see connections between this program and my own professional career. The various cultures of inquiry and their applications, as discovered in our most recent assignment, have me thinking with more rigour about which path I will choose for research, thesis or research paper, and I am moving closer to what my research topic will be.
Given that this blog is part of this MALAT program, my next steps should be to seek out other blogs from students who have completed this program and also to investigate my own institution's Applied Research criteria, in an effort to perhaps apply my own research path directly to my work environment and have the results of my research utilized by the institution. This could serve as a driving motivation when selecting the topic and culture of inquiry. In other words, let the tail wag the dog!
I have many interests outside of music and education and I am struggling somewhat with whether or not I should stay within the boundaries of these two areas or stretch out to more peripheral areas for my source when deciding on my research topic and the question or questions I will need to apply to it.
I am interested to see how the remainder of this Introduction to Research course and subsequent courses between now and January, 2015 will assist me in making my choices. I am realizing that, although the adjustment to student life has not been easy at my age, the process is illuminating and I find myself eager to continue with my studies. I will take this as a good sign and it also helps me to realize that I truly am learning from this program. There are connections between the content and my real life and career that are motivating me to continue. And the affect it is having on me as an educator is monumental. Nothing makes a teacher a better teacher than becoming a student! I think it should be a requirement of employment: take at least one course of some kind every year or two.
So, until my next inspiration to write something here, I will head back to my schoolwork and my potential decision regarding research. Hopefully by the next time I write here, I will be one, or maybe even two, steps closer to deciding.
Saturday 26 July 2014
Thursday 10 July 2014
Blog entry number two of what will be many!
I've been reflecting on the textbook for LRNT502, Mindful Research in Social Research, and I find that I am quite interested in the various approaches to research. Having not ever really done any true, long-term research (longer than a few days surfing the web for something! lol!), it is cool to think that there are many ways that I can tackle a research question and that formulating the question properly is so important in terms of taking the correct research path.
Of course, some of these "cultures of inquiry" would be fairly obvious to most, such as doing quantitative research. How many people do X while they are in Y situation while striving to achieve Z, etc.? Numbers and stats are where most people's minds head to when thinking about research, I believe. But, clearly, there is more to it that that and for many types of pressing questions, such an approach to researching a topic would fail right out of the gate. So I am feeling compelled to be certain to get as much as I can from this course, as I feel it will form the foundation for much of what is to come throughout this Masters program.
Some days, I have my doubts about being able to compete on the level required to do strong work for this program but then I hear that many are feeling similar and that feeling fades away and becomes something more akin to excitement. What will my research area be? Will I enjoy it? Will it contribute in some way to the world or will it simply contribute to my personal growth? Will it enhance my professional career? Will it be, like, hard and stuff? (lol!)
Only time will tell, I guess, but as I settle in to my studies I am feeling more like this is where I should be right now; i.e. I made the right choice. And if I've learned anything in my years on this rock it's that life is ALL about the choices one makes, good or bad.
So tonight (yes tonight for me as I'm 4.5 hours ahead of most everyone, except for Michelle R. who is in Qatar and literally on the other side of the clock!), we have a guest speaker, one of the authors of the text. I am very interested to see what he brings to us in this session. It has been a while since the publication of this text so surely he has progressed in his field and will have some new insights for the cohort. It should be interesting and informative.
Until next time, I leave you with this little quote from a famous little green dude of Star Wars fame:
"[Luke:] I can't believe it! [Yoda:] That is why you fail."
I try to make this my mantra as I continue my studies and my life. Might work for you, too! :-)
I've been reflecting on the textbook for LRNT502, Mindful Research in Social Research, and I find that I am quite interested in the various approaches to research. Having not ever really done any true, long-term research (longer than a few days surfing the web for something! lol!), it is cool to think that there are many ways that I can tackle a research question and that formulating the question properly is so important in terms of taking the correct research path.
Of course, some of these "cultures of inquiry" would be fairly obvious to most, such as doing quantitative research. How many people do X while they are in Y situation while striving to achieve Z, etc.? Numbers and stats are where most people's minds head to when thinking about research, I believe. But, clearly, there is more to it that that and for many types of pressing questions, such an approach to researching a topic would fail right out of the gate. So I am feeling compelled to be certain to get as much as I can from this course, as I feel it will form the foundation for much of what is to come throughout this Masters program.
Some days, I have my doubts about being able to compete on the level required to do strong work for this program but then I hear that many are feeling similar and that feeling fades away and becomes something more akin to excitement. What will my research area be? Will I enjoy it? Will it contribute in some way to the world or will it simply contribute to my personal growth? Will it enhance my professional career? Will it be, like, hard and stuff? (lol!)
Only time will tell, I guess, but as I settle in to my studies I am feeling more like this is where I should be right now; i.e. I made the right choice. And if I've learned anything in my years on this rock it's that life is ALL about the choices one makes, good or bad.
So tonight (yes tonight for me as I'm 4.5 hours ahead of most everyone, except for Michelle R. who is in Qatar and literally on the other side of the clock!), we have a guest speaker, one of the authors of the text. I am very interested to see what he brings to us in this session. It has been a while since the publication of this text so surely he has progressed in his field and will have some new insights for the cohort. It should be interesting and informative.
Until next time, I leave you with this little quote from a famous little green dude of Star Wars fame:
"[Luke:] I can't believe it! [Yoda:] That is why you fail."
I try to make this my mantra as I continue my studies and my life. Might work for you, too! :-)
Sunday 6 July 2014
7.6.2014
So this is my first blog ever and I'm supposed to use it to connect my Masters in Learning and Technology (MALAT) from Royal Roads University to my real life and passions. So where to begin? Hmmm...Ok, so I'll start with what brought me to this course of study: music and technology.
I'm a professional keyboardist and music educator and I have been using music software technology since it hit the market back in the early 1980s. I worked for many years as a Keyboard Product Specialist in a large music store and, strangely enough, in all the bands I have worked with through my many years of performing, all my band mates simply assumed that I would know the tech stuff because I was the keyboardist. If there was ever any technical issue at all, they turned to me. So there really was no escape from technology for me. I learned by doing at a time when no-one was teaching it.
I started a music teaching studio in 1983 complete with a digital piano, a music computer, and drum machine, and several sound modules. I could create MIDI recordings of my students' lessons, have software notate what they played right there in front of them, and have little kids play the same piece over and over but with a different timbre on each pass. I worked as well as a music teacher at a private music school, complete with multiple keyboards and headsets in a lab, where I could tap into any of the individuals, listen to them play, converse with them and give them pointers privately over headsets, then move on to another in the group. It should be no wonder that I found the connection between technology and education so fascinating.
My teaching experience, performing experience, and formal music education eventually led me to an opportunity to start up a Music Industry and Performance program at College of the North Atlantic, in Newfoundland and Labrador. I incorporated as much technology as I could into the lab/classroom environment but after many years of teaching music at the college level, and using technology on a daily basis in order to do it, I decided that I wanted more than to just use it; I wanted to better understand WHY we use it, HOW others are using it, and WHERE the future might bring it. That led me to to Royal Roads University and the MALAT program.
So this is where I will start my first blog, by looking back to see where this interest in tech and education started for me. Let's see where it will eventually take me...
So this is my first blog ever and I'm supposed to use it to connect my Masters in Learning and Technology (MALAT) from Royal Roads University to my real life and passions. So where to begin? Hmmm...Ok, so I'll start with what brought me to this course of study: music and technology.
I'm a professional keyboardist and music educator and I have been using music software technology since it hit the market back in the early 1980s. I worked for many years as a Keyboard Product Specialist in a large music store and, strangely enough, in all the bands I have worked with through my many years of performing, all my band mates simply assumed that I would know the tech stuff because I was the keyboardist. If there was ever any technical issue at all, they turned to me. So there really was no escape from technology for me. I learned by doing at a time when no-one was teaching it.
I started a music teaching studio in 1983 complete with a digital piano, a music computer, and drum machine, and several sound modules. I could create MIDI recordings of my students' lessons, have software notate what they played right there in front of them, and have little kids play the same piece over and over but with a different timbre on each pass. I worked as well as a music teacher at a private music school, complete with multiple keyboards and headsets in a lab, where I could tap into any of the individuals, listen to them play, converse with them and give them pointers privately over headsets, then move on to another in the group. It should be no wonder that I found the connection between technology and education so fascinating.
My teaching experience, performing experience, and formal music education eventually led me to an opportunity to start up a Music Industry and Performance program at College of the North Atlantic, in Newfoundland and Labrador. I incorporated as much technology as I could into the lab/classroom environment but after many years of teaching music at the college level, and using technology on a daily basis in order to do it, I decided that I wanted more than to just use it; I wanted to better understand WHY we use it, HOW others are using it, and WHERE the future might bring it. That led me to to Royal Roads University and the MALAT program.
So this is where I will start my first blog, by looking back to see where this interest in tech and education started for me. Let's see where it will eventually take me...
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