Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Day Three


                Today, we began our class by discussing the recent initiative by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the former president of Teachers College at Columbia University, Dr. Arthur Levine. This collaborative project plans to develop online courses which will enable teachers to learn hands-on skills and be involved in mentoring relationships with highly qualified teachers. The courses will be open source so that all institutions offering degrees in education can employ the lectures and supplementary materials.
                We then discussed Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) programs such as QSR NVivo and the importance of analyzing not only the words spoken by participants interviewed but also the overall structure of multi-person conversations such as the competitive bragging discourse evinced in The Four Yorkshiremen skit by Monty Python. Subsequently, we reviewed the dissertation review process, including the defense and noted that an online presentation of a defense is available on the SharePoint website under the category, “Doctoral Support Videos.” I mentioned that a list of the dissertations which receive  the best quantitative and best qualitative awards be placed on the digital commons so as site to assist students in locating appropriate role models for their own dissertations.
                We also discussed resources available to students such as PsychInfo, which allows users to limit fields by “empirical studies,” and Microsoft Access Database software, through which researchers can collect and analyze survey Information.  An exceptionally tech savvy classmate noted that Google Forms provides similar capabilities. I retrieved two YouTube videos which will enable me to review the process of using these programs:

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