Thursday, September 6, 2012

Writing a Dissertation

So I've decided to blog about writing my dissertation and some of my thoughts, not for the world, but for me.  Nine months into this and I still don't really know what my question is or what I'm doing.  I've written at least a hundred drafts of my proposal, and I feel like I'm still asking the same exact questions and getting the same feedback I got on Day 1. It starts to make a person wonder if they have any passion left at all or if they could ever possibly make a contribution to the world, not to mention wondering if you'll ever be marketable (see Butterfly Circus video).

But guess what?  I have a lot of passion about lots of things related to IP&T. And one of them is my dissertation topic.

Most of what I feel like my classes told me about teaching and learning was really focusing on teaching, changing how people teach and designing instruction.  And while teaching helps a TON, and I LOVE designing courses and making visuals, I am genuinely curious to understand how the learner affects their own learning--choices, attitudes, things they like, fears, etc.

My brother sent me a scripture this morning that sums up my graduate experience:

D&C 25:8
" ... thy time shall be given to writing, and to learning much."

See also, The Fellowship of the Unashamed

So let's do this.

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