I needed to take a break from my paper (with its final version due this Monday), so I decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art,  my favorite museum that happens to be right here in New York.

What a surprise when I stumbled across one of the best (small) exhibits I have ever encountered, The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy. This exhibit is the first time these sculptures have been separated from the tomb in Burgundy they have been mourning for hundreds of years. Arranged in 2 rows, they walk and mourn in silence, doing what people have done for thousands of years–remember those who have come before. They are carved in amazing detail, only 16 inches tall, and arranged in the Medieval sculpture hall in a solemn and thought-provoking manner that stopped me in my tracks.

I love Medieval art. I love France. What a find to invite me to be as introspective as these fellows are.

In our own ways, and in mine in particular, I find myself reflecting on my past, much as these statues do. I constantly replay images from the past, thinking, from different perspectives, about how to live the present and prepare for a better future while being informed by what has gone on before. It is not that often that I get overwhelmed with an entire art display, though this one, as if walking toward the doorway through which I entered, greeted me as if personally and solemnly.

Do I mourn? Will others mourn me? I wonder to what extent anything of mine will even be remembered after I finish my journey?

While this can immediately be seen as a lament, I will instead take this as an invitation to make the remainder of my life memorable. I want to leave the world a better place, be part of something greater than myself.

What better response to have to works of art, than to want to take positive action?

What do you want people to remember about you?

Tags: art, France, Met Museum

There is a Pre-Conference sessions that was just posted for the Networked Learning Conference 2010:

PhD course on ‘Networked Learning and the Net Generation’ 1-2 May, in Aalborg, Denmark

This looks like a wonderful event, and as I just emailed to one of the organizers, I wish this would have been communicated earlier, as those of us coming from a distance (I am in New York traveling to Denmark) have most likely already made travel plans. Wish I can attend this, but it was announced too near the conference to make flight changes.

Somewhat ironic, given the topic of the event.

Tags: NLC2010

The preliminary PDF program for the 6th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (QI2010) is available on their website. If you take a look at it, you will see my 2 abstracts that were accepted:

The Design and Initial Development of an eLearning Course to Organize and Frame a Qualitative Research Design: The Learning Qualitative Project, Jeffrey M. Keefer, Lancaster University

Learning Goals and Personal Learning in Practitioner Autoethnographic Inquiry: A Case Study, Jeffrey M. Keefer, Lancaster University

 I am flying into Indianapolis and then driving the distance. Anybody want to split the ride?

Tags: Autoethnography, elearning, QI2010

Early registration for the Networked Learning Conference 2010, #NLC2010, in Aalborg, Denmark, in May is about to end (early-bird registration ends 26 February). As this conference is already a little pricy (and outright expensive from the US), every little savings helps.

As this conference is subtitled A research-based conference on networked learning in higher education and lifelong learning, I am really looking forward to learning together. It will be great to see some of my colleagues (again) there and getting feedback on my paper, Autoethnographer Communities of Practice, as well!

Tags: Autoethnography, NLC2010, Research

I just ordered my copy of Switch, the new book by Chip and Dan Heath (best-selling authors of Made to Stick). I thought the brothers’ earlier work was wonderful, and am looking forward to reading their follow-up work.

Not sure when I will have time to read it; perhaps need to find (or create?) an online book discussion for this???

In the middle of my research and work projects, I found myself all tangled up in the nearly ubiquitous wires of a connected life. That is until yesterday, when I was running some errands at Bed Bath and Beyond and saw the Powermat, a recharger that eliminated most of the wiring on my desk. It is a little costly (about $100 for the mat and $30-$40 for each of the specific charging door attachements), but compared to limited desk space and countless cords, adapters, and extensions, I found this cost and the resulting simplicity of recharging (both a BlackBerry and an iPhone) to be well worth it. The company seemed highly rated, and after only a day of use, my entire perspective of using multiple devices has changed.

If only I can get the same efficiency with my research!

Tags: Powermat

Yesterday, I submitted the draft of my Public Transformations paper. It will now be reviewed by 2 of my peers in my program, and briefly reviewed by the course tutor (faculty), after which I will revise it and resubmit.

Exhausted and drained are both understatements after pulling all this together over 6 weeks; this was the most ambitious research project I have attempted completed thus far. However, as the we were requested to add a final paragraph to our paper to discuss what we learned, I wanted to share it here. Please be mindful, I wrote this after 3 solid days of writing (with little sleep), and it was the last thing written before being submitted last night at 9:56pm.

I learned that using a different methodology for each of my module research projects makes for a tremendous amount of extra work, though it helps me to learn about the implications for how different problems in practice require different designs and methods. Furthermore, I realized that direct exposure with this variety will enable me to become more sensitive to the nuances in different academic traditions, while increasing the critical readings I am increasingly equipped to do when I consume and process other completed research. Finally, I am learning that there are so many generous people who are willing to share very personal stories in the name of research, and in the process, it was common for the participants to tell me how much they appreciated the opportunity to share and further process their experiences. I never understood that research could be beneficial for more than just the researcher; this is consistent with the topic of my project, and I now believe I am more informed and have the wider worldview that Mezirow focuses upon.

While I may clean this up a bit in my revision, the sentiments will remain the same.

I am nearly finished with the DRAFT of my Public Transformations paper, which is due tomorrow. I do feel confident that my Introduction (with the research problem, significance, and purpose statement) is clear and concise.This is among the more important parts of the paper, and I think I was finally able to articulate it in an interesting and inviting way.

I have been increasingly anxious about the due date, how long the paper is taking, and how a lot of loose ends will simply not get resolved by tomorrow. Nevertheless, I started telling myself over and over that this is a draft, and I will get feedback from two of my peers, after which I will revise for the faculty review and assessment (as well as for a conference abstract I am thinking about). So, while I must submit this by tomorrow, I will still be working on it over the next few weeks (with the FINAL version due on March 8).

So, exhausted and with achy (from typing) arms, I am about to submit the result of all my efforts. Wonder if this is what the thesis (UK) / dissertation (US) is like? Will see THAT one soon enough.

Tags: online identity, Research, research design

I have worked in educational practice for as long as I can remember (or, more precisely, ever since the second year after college), and have often heard about (and even taught the importance of) the elevator speech. This is the short (30 seconds or so) answer to the question, “So, what do you do?” It is a mechanism for networking and searching for work, activities I know are important though have not been especially skilled at (at least not in the F2F modality, that is).

I have never really considered this before for research projects, especially for the dissertation / thesis. This idea originated from Cristina Costa’s recent blog post, where she discussed her PhD in  minutes. What a healthy idea to help focus the idea, to try on the idea and feel how it fits, to help to make the process real by speaking it and bringing it into a dimension of reality.

I am sharing this as I want to try this when I work on articulating my doctoral thesis (dissertation back here in the US) later this year. I believe my current research project, Public Transformations: Adult Learners Who Use Social Media to Express and Understand Their Identities as Developing Researchers, will help me in the direction for my work. As I will want people to know about, offer suggestions for, and agree to participate in my research, I will need to be able to clearly articulate the ideas for my work, what I want to find, why I want to find it, and why you should care. Just can’t get away from the WIIFM!

Come to think of it, this process may be useful for every research project . . . .  If a research project cannot be simply and clearly stated, then how well can we really engage in it?

Tags: elevator speech, Research