Layers of openness

So, we are now a month into our new adventure and what a whirlwind it's been.  We are full on into MRes (Masters in Research Skills) assignments, Doctoral Training Workshops, academic communication training, supervisors meetings, and a stream of interesting events being pointed in our direction!  It's up to us to prioritise and make sense of it all.  After working independently for so long and having to provide and plan for every single aspect of my own professional development, it feels like being in a beautifully stimulating garden full of wonderful (free) fruit just there for the picking!  The only challenge is fitting in as much as we can....

Today, we went to an interesting talk by Sheila MacNeill, from Glasgow Caledonian University, known well at the OU.  She came down on the train especially to do a talk for our CALRG (Computers and Learning Research Group). Open Education: Research and Reality was a good title for a topical subject. This question makes me think about the reality of being open in our research as new / trainee researchers, and what that practically means. Sheila used the analogy of a Russian Doll with many possible layers of openness within each of us as individuals, and within our contexts. I do like the idea of of layers of openness.  I think it's good to consider.  We all love to make friendly supportive connections and spark ideas off each other, but how practicable is it to consider opening one's entire research process during the process, as it is being formulated (eg proposal, research questions, literature review, methodology and approach, findings, conclusions?).  Traditionally, this would be done at publication stage, after the process is complete. How feasible is openness as a new researcher?  I think it's an interesting question. I do enjoy the beauty in the colours of food, so here goes with the onion rings.  

The outer layers might be the conversational interactions we use to become part of our research communities - small talk, hints and tips, sharing ideas, resolving small difficulties etc. The inner layers could be our experiences, knowledge, beliefs and values which bring us to our 'core' of our research question - what we are being driven to find out.  The layers in the middle might be the process that we use to arrive at finding answers at the core.  How open should we / can we be with all of our process? What do you think? 

Amongst new found friends

OK so the first video I made was a bit long 4min 40sec and have now done a second one here for the Survive PhD MOOC.  Quite pleased with it. It wasn't too difficult once I thought about everyone else rather than about me.  What a wonderful environment and supportive community is building up amongst like-minded souls, especially in the PhD (wise old) Owls facebook group for those doing the journey that little bit later in life.

Bit more on introduction

Here's a pic of me yesterday in our conservatory.  I'm currently participating in the edX MOOC 'How To Survive Your PhD', run by the Australian National University in Canberra, and am today just starting the Open Research 2015 MOOC run by the OER Research Hub project team at the UK Open University, where I will be starting my MRes/PhD studies in October. I'm very keen to explore open research techniques and also of course to survive and flourish during the whole exercise, so these two MOOCs should prove very helpful. I'm all for making direct connections with people in as many ways as possible, so have made an introductory video which I will load up soon.

Endings and beginnings

So, why the end of a long road and start of a new adventure?

Well, I am very thrilled to say that my formal offer for a 4 year funded studentship from the UK Open University arrived over the summer and I have accepted it.  It is simultaneously my dream come true and the culmination of many long years of developing ideas in my professional life, and creating a sufficiently solid research proposal.  My topic concerns the use of technology-enabled learning networks to achieve practical organisational improvement outcomes, in the not-for-profit sector. That is, how organisations learn collaboratively how to do things better, across different contexts and boundaries. It's very inter-disciplinary. I plan to use some form of technology-enabled action research, and hopefully to be pretty creative about it.

So here we are, at the beginning of the new journey - and yes already feeling on top of the world for having got this far :-)  I can now identify myself as a full time PhD Research Student and feel very fulfilled about that.

Bring it on, been planning it long enough.  Am I in blissful ignorance of the trials ahead or just looking forward to a demanding, exciting, tough and gritty challenge?  Sounds like the rest of life!  If I am a part of a vibrant research community, get to grips with my research process and how to tackle my question, am backed up with necessary resources and have my family behind me, then I trust I should be a pretty good bet. I like this Slideshare from a lady called Jody Martin at the Australian Catholic University to get me going, maybe some others will like it as well :-)

End of a long road and start of a new adventure

Hi everyone - pleased to meet you :-)

This blog will be my personal diary of the PhD that I'm due to be embarking upon with the UK Open University, starting in October.  It follows on from my Postgraduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education for the H800:Technology Enhanced Learning: Practices and Debates fully online course, which I undertook while based in Johannesburg in 2009.

My research is going to bring together many strands of professional and personal development over the years; driven by my passion about technology enabled learning networks and how they can facilitate collaborative learning for practical improvement outcomes.

In case you are not aware the blog title is of course a tribute to the British author Sue Townsend, who died in April 2014 and produced the fabulous Adrian Mole series beginning with the iconic first publication in 1982.

So I plan to tell a very personal narrative or story of my PhD, lasting into my mid life years. I hope to share reflections and insights with others, about the research journey itself and within the landscapes of practice of our interconnected world.  A journey amongst friends. More to come.