April 26th

I'm back on track now that I met with Dr. Newberry this week. I've clarified some things and have begun (again) to write the IRB proposal. I've written two surveys but need to complete the third. The IRB proposal should be done for submission on May 4th. This weekend will be crunch time for the lit review. I hope to complete a large part of it. The book has been helpful in wading through so much information. The authors methodical approach is useful. I've also been working on my Chapt 1. It's funny that I can talk so much (too much) but when it comes to writing, it's much more difficult.

Week (weak) 4

I hope everyone is doing well and being productive. I'm struggling this week. We narrowed the focus of my project, which was helpful, but I'm struggling with the lit review subtopics. I have to make changes on the work I've done so far. It's a bit frustrating. I finally got all the books I ordered for the lit review but as we near the end of the school year, I feel stretched thin trying to get everything done. Reading time is at a premium. I'm stressed. Anyone feeling the same? Thanks to all of you who mentioned my really dumb mistake of leaving important personal data on the paper I posted. I have to make revisions now, in light of the lit review changes, before I repost. Thanks again to all of you.

April 16th

I find the textbook to by really helpful. In fact, I read Chapters 4 and 5 even though they weren't required reading. The book explains the process well and illuminates many things that needed clarifiction in my mind. I've ordered three books that were recommended by Dr. Baek a few days ago and expect them soon. I have not done as much as I would have liked with the literature review. :_-(... oh well, there's still time to work on it this evening. I found a meta-analysis that I think will be helpful, as well as several other articles that I think will fit in well with what I am investigating. I do find it difficult to wade through
all these articles. I think this will be the most challenging part of the project.

This week's accomplishments!

I have formally submitted my proposal and have signed up for 699. Because I'm returning after an extensive absence, I had some paperwork to submit to the university, which I accomplished as well. I'm trying to stick to the timeline I created for myself, ambitious as it is.

I sit here, at my computer, on Spring Break from hormonal middle school students, watching four rabbits hopping gleefully around my yard. They are noted to be rather unintelligent animals...so why are they playing in the sunshine while I slave over a hot computer?!

I find the textbook to be well written and easy to read. It seems to be helpful. I also completed the IRB training yesterday. That was not so difficult as I expected. It took a couple of hours. In case you haven't checked it out yet, it has three modules, though the last doesn't require anything but to print out the completion page. Most of it is really common sense.

I continue to add to the Web site I'm creating which includes resources for teachers who would like to implement
videoconferencing into their classrooms. When I have a significant amount done, I will post it, then continue to add to revise and add to it.

Those bunnies are sure having fun...@:-O

Citation Machine

Is everyone familiar with the web site Citation Machine?

http://citationmachine.net/

I love this web site as it assists in putting citations in the correct format...which, without help, is a fate worse than Purgatory in my mind.

If you've not yet discovered it, I hope you'll check it out. It might just become your new, best friend.

Master's Proposal

yay! I did it. I completed my proposal and it was approved...I have to submit it formally but my first reader accepted it.
It wasn't so difficult. For those of you working on it, it's not so overwhelming as I thought it would be. You could actually do it in an hour or two if you have first thought out what you want to do for a project and the steps you need to take to complete it. Brian Newberry's web site was very helpful. He gave an example and some helpful hints. Here's the link. I haven't checked out all the links Dr. Baek gave us but I'm sure there are great ones there too.

http://coe.csusb.edu/newberry/advisement.html#proposal

I hope this is helpful for you all too.

What I've accomplished so far

Last spring, I wrote a grant for videoconferencing equipment which we finally purchased and got up and running in January. We've had several successful videoconferences and it's been really fun and interesting for the students.
I'm designing a web site for teachers to use to assist them in incorporating video conferencing into their classes. As busy as most of us are, adding one more thing to our class preparation is so difficult and time consuming that we would rather avoid new things and continue to use what is most comfortable. I hope my Web site will make the VC experience fun, easy, and facinating for teachers and students.

I've been searching for articles and other materials for my lit review. I've gathered about 10. Time to read them all....ugh. At least I won't have trouble falling asleep.

First Class Meeting

Tonight's class has been very informative and I've received many answers to questions I had. It's also brought up many things I haven't thought about.
I have a lot of work to do in a short period of time. I have already begun writing the Master's proposal, but I can see that I need to do a lot of revising. I need the structure of a class like this, and I need deadlines. I hate stress but I do better under stress.