Many days and many ways

It has been many days since my last post, with some time to retract from the PhD work and thinking. Sometimes this is a healthy way to refresh. Taking time to step back from an intensive task, such as a PhD research project, can help gain perspective and make new connections. In farming practice, this is a time to let the land lay fallow. While it may appear that nothing is happening, the land takes time to heal and renew. That is/was the case here.

While it may appear that nothing was happening, there were many layers beneath the visible stream, where new connections were being made. Here are a few that may lead to new thinking and new research directions.

• I wrote an application to present at the OEGlobal conference, with my OE4BW colleagues Dr. Rekha Chavhan and Dr. Sanjivani Mahale. This proposal was accepted, so now we will begin work on our presentation, which will be done asynchronously, with engagement through a variety of digital tools.

“This presentation is the result of several of these mentor/protégé partnerships from the 2019 and 2020 OE4BW cohort projects. The presenters are two teacher educators from India and one from Canada. The purpose of this presentation is to focus on the mentor’s role as facilitator, catalyst and guide for project development with an emphasis on open educational practices (OEPr).”

proposal to present at the OEGlobal Conference

• I wrote a proposal for a book chapter, with Dr. Rekha Chavhan, which was accepted. We are not in the initial stages of writing this chapter with a refocusing on our mentoring experiences with OE4BW and Bandura’s notion of perceived self-efficacy with the view that mentoring is a means of gaining professional learning.

• I wrote a proposal for an article, with Dr. Verena Roberts, which was accepted. We are in the reading and rethinking how Freire’s thinking about learning impacts current assessment practices, with a view to using blogging as an open assessment practice.

“This is a theoretical and conceptual exploration of how Freire’s principles of evaluation, as explored by Patton (2017), are reflected in practical applications of formative, open, and online assessment practices. When the art of assessment and evaluation in online and distributed learning are grounded on these Freirian principles, instructors can craft a nuanced and layered learning environment where critical consciousness is the result of assessment and evaluation strategies. Five core principles of evaluation, as evident in Freire’s writing and examined by Patton (2017) will be used to frame and illuminate practical assessment strategies that can humanize the online learning experience and shape the shift toward open pedagogical practices in online learning. The theory to practice strategies explored in this paper will be particularly helpful in designing assessment beyond traditional forms or for those new to designing online assessment strategies as a response to the COVID-19 global pandemic.”

article proposal

• I wrote a proposal for a book chapter, with Dr. Angela VanBarneveld, about our practice of using pre-course surveys to help in the design of online courses. This was accepted so the writing will begin shortly.

So, in many ways and over many days, the research will emerge from these writing tasks, the conversations I have with these significant others in my academic network, and the readings I will conduct as part of this writing. It may not be specific work on my research proposal, but it is definitely research in action.