Journal

Friday, June 1st 2012

Added the new section heading '5.12 Summary of research methodology' to Research methodology. (This section was subsequently deleted nine days later on June 10th 2012).

Saturday, June 2nd 2012

Today I moved the discussion about revaluating the concrete from '3.1 Introduction to the literature review' to give it a separate entry as '8.3 Revaluating the concrete' in the Discussion section.

Sunday, June 3rd 2012

I am starting to think that Vygotsky's dual stimulation method needs to be discussed in the Literature review even though it is a methodological issue which will be mentioned in the Research methodology.

Monday, June 4th 2012

The Literature review has changed again as follows:

3.1 Introduction to the literature review
3.2 Knowledge representation and animation
3.3 Multiliteracies, multimedia and multimodality
3.4 Approaches and methods for researching conceptual consolidation
3.5 Conceptual models
3.6 Metaphor and the transmission of meaning
3.7 ICT in education

The dual stimulation method etc. will be incorporated into 'Conceptual consolidation' in the Literature review which is now '3.4 Approaches and methods for researching conceptual consolidation'. The order has also changed as 'Multiliteracies, multimedia and multimodality' now follows on from 'Knowledge representation and animation'.

I have now amended the introductory remarks in section '3.4 Approaches and methods for researching conceptual consolidation' to discuss the difficulties in finding an established definition of 'concept' as a researcher's notion of a concept will determine their approach.

Wednesday, June 6th 2012

I've been exploring an analogy between a Literature review and music in terms of understanding influences etc. This analogy is only being considered for my own benefit as I am quite familiar with how musical influences (i.e. people, recordings, concerts, experiences, etc.) have a profound impact on a person's musical understanding. There are probably more differences than similarities but the main point for me is that both musical influences and a literature review can easily expose ignorance. For example, a bass player who had never heard of Jaco Pastorius or James Jamerson would be as ignorant as an educational researcher who had never heard of Piaget or Vygotsky. Both musicians and researchers also pride themselves on the depth of their knowledge as demonstrated by their familiarity with more obscure influences.

Thursday, June 7th 2012

(Continuing the musical influences / literature review analogy from yesterday). Maybe another difference is that direct musical influences are more of a personal choice whereas a literature review is more about being familiar with what has been written whether you agree with it or not.

Another similarity is that obscure or older influences can also have a secondary influence because they can influence other influencers.

Friday, June 8th 2012

I have seen many of the Storyboard case study participants around at school (if they were in Grade 5 in 2011) or around the neighbourhood (if they were in Grade 6 in 2011). Either way I don't feel the need to ask them anything informally about the study because I felt that I gathered sufficient data during the operation of the case study.

Saturday, June 9th 2012

Today I received an email from Deakin University regarding the Activity theory discussion group.

Sunday, June 10th 2012

I decided to deleted the recently created section '5.12 Summary of research methodology' from the Research methodology as this is probably redundant.

Monday, June 11th 2012

Today I thought of two additional uses for assessment rubrics:

1. As a checklist rather than a continuum. e.g., For our Short Film Festival some of the children have multiple roles such as director and location manager.
2. As a grid where the same rubric is added to as cumulative total. For this use I imagined the achievement badges which some organisation such as Boy's Brigade issue for the recipients to sew onto their arm bands.

Tuesday, June 12th 2012

Today I completed my 730 school reports today so now I can resume my focus on Storyboard. These reports were rubric based which helps contextualise yesterday's entry about alternative uses of assessment rubrics.

Wednesday, June 13th 2012

I've included a new section in the Literature review called 'The use of director's commentaries in educational research'. (This was subsequently merged into the data analysis on June 26th).

Thursday, June 14th 2012

I was reflecting today about Vygotsky and Sakharov's dual stimulation method. The dual nature of the method does not imply that each of the two variables (i.e. the task and the goal) has equal importance in terms of cause and effect. In the Storyboard project, one of the rationales for the case study was that you can't make an effective explanatory animation without understanding the content. This is obviously not the same as saying that you can't achieve conceptual consolidation without making an explanatory animation.

Friday, June 15th 2012

During my reading on symbolic interactionism I came across a connection between Herbert Blumer and Anselm Strauss. This got me thinking about the Grounded theory research methodology which Strauss went on to develop with Barney Glaser. I initially considered grounded theory when I started my research but found that some elements didn't seem relevant such as the coding of data. I had a system of archiving files but it wasn't a system designed to observe patterns.

Saturday, June 16th 2012

For the Storyboard project I have utilised mixed methods, or rather multiple methods (see Section 5.11 of the Research methodology) but now I'm wondering if it is possible to mix methodologies? I am aware of the issue of not wanting to have contradictory paradigms but there could still be merit in acknowledging that not all data is of the same genre. For instance, this reflexive journal has some of the characteristics of grounded theory as I don't always know what I'm looking for in these writings. In some cases the main insights were made retrospectively during the proofreading stage.

Sunday, June 17th 2012

I went to the library today and borrowed an interesting book about CHAT which was: Van Oers, B., Wardekker, W., Elbers, E. & Van Der Veer, R. (Eds.). (2008). The transformation of learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Monday, June 18th 2012

Today I received my new Mac Book Pro computer.  As a teacher in Victoria we get a cheap lease on laptop computers which are updated every 3 years (although I think now that has been extended to every four years). Ideally, more of my files would be in the cloud in terms of transferring my files from ones machine to another but I have several high resolution source files and videos which constitute over 100GB.

Tuesday, June 19th 2012

Using my new laptop today got me thinking about templates in general. I don't use any templates for this Storyboard thesis as I like to have complete freedom over the look of the pages without fitting into any predetermined themes such as those in iWeb. I used the same approach with the Storyboard participants where they started with blank screens when creating their animations.

Wednesday, June 20th 2012

I have expanded the Literature review to include actual storyboards as follows:

3.1 Introduction to the literature review   

3.5 Approaches and methods for researching conceptual consolidation

3.6 Conceptual models

3.7 Metaphor and the transmission of meaning

3.8 ICT in education

Thursday, June 21st 2012

Today I read and interesting article where Kyle Oliver talked about storyboards in general business terms about how important they are in advertising and other markets where visuals are crucial. Oliver, K. (2009). Storyboards...An unauthorised biography. Retrieved from http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Feature/Storyboards-...-An-Unauthorized-Biography-37787.htm

Friday, June 22nd 2012

Today I scheduled another meeting with my supervisors for 12th July.

Saturday, June 23rd 2012

I'm still reading Hewitt, J. P. (2007). Self and society (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. I found the following point very interesting about how language can actually cover meaning and obscure understanding; "Moreover, much of what we know and understand is effectively hidden from us because it is embedded in the language we speak and therefore in the names we are prepared to attach to objects in our world" (Hewitt 2007, p. 236).

Sunday, June 24th 2012

Today I finished with Self and Society. I have about 10 books out from the library at the moment so my current approach is to finish with a book by typing out possible quotes on a separate document (named accordingly e.g., Hewitt 2007) which I can then chose to use or disregard at a later date.

Monday, June 25th 2012

As I noted last year when finalising my research question, there is a difference between designing and making.  In my context the difference is that a student could design an animation without completing it (i.e. making it).  In terms of a storyboard, can the educational objectives be met without completing the animation?  I believe that they can as the learning occurs through the construction of the content of the animation which is detailed and designed in the storyboard.

Tuesday, June 26th 2012

The new section in the Literature review from June 13th called 'The use of director's commentaries in educational research' has now been merged into the data analysis section under '7.2 Discussion of the 12 data sources'. This was because I could only find literature about director's commentaries in entertainment but nothing about their educational use or potential.

Wednesday, June 27th 2012

I've been attempting to read Langer, S. K. (1957). Philosophy in a new key (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press from cover to cover. This might seem to be an indulgence being a philosophy text but it is actually very helpful.

Thursday, June 28th 2012

I found the following quote from Hewitt to have much relevance to relativism; "When we attempt to create new knowledge in an effort to deal with some problem, we do it by relying on what we already know and understand.  There really is no escape from this fact, for we cannot question everything at once or make everything problematic at once" (Hewitt 2007, p. 236).

Friday, June 29th 2012

Today was the last day of school (i.e., work) so now I can focus on Storyboard for two weeks.  It's actually more than this because I am then back at school for three days and then taking another 2 1/2 weeks as long service leave. This means that I have 4 days of work over the next  5 weeks!

Saturday, June 30th 2012

3.1 Introduction to the literature review   

3.2 Knowledge representation and animation     

3.3 Approaches and methods for researching conceptual consolidation

3.4 The use of storyboards in educational research

3.6 Multiliteracies, multimedia and multimodality

3.7 ICT in education

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