I’m Thinking About

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So today, as I come down from the intense focus of the SSHRC grant proposal, I’m thinking about other things. After I delivered the package to the Purolator station, I was relieved of another step accomplished. One step at a time. The next step is ahead – many more steps yet to come, but this was the first one I’ve made into this direction as a PhD student. Working on my research proposal was difficult because I had to let go of what I thought I’d be doing and shape the proposal into what I need to be doing. The framing of a question had me spinning for days, and even now eludes me with shifts and nuances among the words. Here’s what I mean.

  • How might Canadian faculties of education become global leaders of digital and media literacy teacher education by engaging in open educational practices?
  • How might Canadian faculties of education prepare teacher candidates to participate in global educational contexts by engaging in open educational practices using digital and media literacies?
  • How might open educational practices in Canadian faculties of education be supported by instruction of digital and media literacies in order to respond to global demands for digitally and media literate educators?
  • How might open educational practices, and digital and media literacy instruction in Canadian faculties of education, be supported by instruction of digital and media literacies, to respond to global demands for modern educators?

So how do I make sense of these, or even make them make sense to others. These are not the same questions yet they focus on the same key ingredients. These are not looking at the issues from the same stance, nor are they narrowing the focus with the same specific lens. Each question dramatically shifts the work that would need to be done (methods) and how I would go about that work (methodology). It was while I was doing this narrow thinking, thanks to feedback from a critical reviewer, that my thinking was put to the question. I couldn’t stop thinking about all of this – swirling around the words.

I’m thinking about being acknowledged and recognized by trusted colleagues, as exemplified in their letters of appraisal, as an academic writer and thinker. Then receiving feedback on my latest assignment submission for the PhD course with high praise from my instructor about the work I’d completed. There is something to be said about thinking I’m an academic, yet even more from hearing others recognize me as an academic.

And then I randomly and serendipitously come across this video by Eckart Tolle with some cautions about the addiction to thinking – this will be something I need to consider and manage.