December 2020
by #SocMedHE20
Category: PhD
This is a category for posts that are directly related to my PhD Research
Unravelling the theoretical/ conceptual framework conundrum …
by https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/theory This is such a really helpful guide if you are struggling to get your head around the difference between the two things …
PhD Working Title
Current Working Title Exploring educators’ lived experiences of social support and the impact on wellbeing in private social network sites: A Heuristic Inquiry Baff 2022 (In progress) Previous Iterations Date Title Sept2020 PhD Proposal Oct 2020 Emotional Support through Open Educational Practices : A Heuristic Inquiry Nov 2020 Emotional Support through Open Educational Practices : Exploring Educator Experiences through Heuristic Inquiry Jan 2022 Exploring educators’ lived experiences of social support and the impact on wellbeing in private social network sites: A Heuristic Inquiry
Blog / Conferences / PhD
#OEGlobal20
Thanks to funding from the amazing folks at GO-GN I have been able to attend OE Global conference this week. I have always wanted to go to this conference but have been unable so this is a great opportunity. I appreciate that others would not have had this opportunity so I hope that by blogging about it that it might be of some interest. Big Conference : Big Choices It is a BIG conference, on all week with pretty much what seemed to me like 24 hour sessions with all the various time zones. There has clearly been a LOT of planning and effort behind the scenes to pull it all together. They have paid a great deal of attention to the online networking aspect with an area called OE Global Connect based on Discourse. I even got to earn badges for doing stuff ( gaining a badge is always …
Referencing and Citations
This causes me such a flipping headache. I’ve done both a MA and an MSc and for the MSc dissertation I did all of my referencing manually, rendering me with a completely irrational hatred of full stops and brackets. I discovered Menderley during my MA and fell in love with the idea of a Reference Manager. Fast forward to the PhD Days and I find myself falling out of love with Menderley sadly. Over the last couple of months I have ended up starting new Menderley accounts to try and cope with the fact that it kept crashing on me. Over the last week it has crashed at least four times on me when I have tried to use the find duplicates function.
Reflective Writing
I find reflective writing really hard. I have been rummaging around for some help and so far have come across these :- Guide from Birmingham Library This is quite helpful, covers various models of reflection including Schon 1983 (Before , During and After) and Gibbs Reflective Cycle 1988 (Describe, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action Plan) Reflective Writing – Guidance for Students – Jenny Moon University of Exeter Haven’t read this one yet but on first glance looks really helpful – mentions a series of prompts to help with reflection. Will read this later !
Part Time PhD
I love coming across blog posts that are about the experience of doing Part Time PhDs. I have just stumbled across the ‘PhD Women’s Group’ Blog ( which looks like a great initiative by the way ) & in turn found an article that immediately caught my eye called ‘Journey of a part time PhD student’ by Liesbeth Tip. I loved the part where Liesbeth talked about overcoming her ‘irrational fear of doing statistics’ and then eventually going on to teach it ! As someone who absolutely hated statistics when doing my Masters that made me smile. Liesbeth has a lovely writing style that is informative but she keeps it real with funny anecdotes and pertinent insights into life as a part timer.
Ninja Organisation Skills
Wow I came across this amazing blog post from Alan Batt this evening ! Talk about a whole other level of ninja organisation skills … I’m so envious ! I’m not sure I will ever get to this level of cleverness but this does give me some inspiration that I might just manage to get some stuff sorted out ! Really interesting to see that Alan drafts stuff in Scrivener and then moves across into word when he is pretty much there (sometimes after 7 drafts) and then put a references in. Having experimented with Scrivener this week I have found the whole references aspect a bit of a pain.
Peer support (taking the penguin pledge)
So a couple of weeks ago some of the folks from GO-GN got together informally for some much needed peer support aka PhD therapy with virtual hugs as I like to call it. We met in response to an open invite from a Gabi who wanted a way of ‘kick starting’ her PhD again. A few of us contributed to a shard google doc to outline how we thought the get together could work and then met online via zoom.
Blog / Conferences / PhD / Sketchnotes
Digital Creations
I’ve just made a quick biteable video for our #SocMedHE20 Tweetposium (I’m on the Conference Committee). I love doing this sort of stuff and have a wee collection on this padlet.
