Happy St. Patty's Day!

We have finally gotten to week 10 and our Executive Weekend. I always enjoy these meetings with our professors and the cohort. It is convenient to have a blended format for our coursework, but the occasional face-to-face meeting is always fun and interesting. There is a greater interaction and synergy than discussion boards and Wimbas. An old fashioned class - how refreshing!

BTW - Today is St. Patrick's Day. I am expecting a lot of traffic downtown due to early partiers, so I will be heading out soon for school to avoid any crowds.

For all that celebrate - Have a Happy Holiday and May the Luck of the Irish Be With You!

And Another Thing...

What an Exciting Experience

As I mentioned earlier today, Philadelphia Cohort #1 participated in a poster presentation session that highlighted our research project work.

There were so many wonderful presentations - congratulations everyone for doing such a fantastic job. It was amazing to see how well developed everyone's research has become. I found it heartening to hear that others were also in the process of revising their original project to incorporate newer, more innovative ideas and concepts that they had found as they did more research into their topic.

This truly is a "process".  One that evolves as we become more experienced and knowledgeable about our research subjects.

Today was energizing! I want to dive right back in there and refine my work. It is still a long road ahead but I am ready for the rest of this adventure!

Pat Markey and Dr. Joyce Pittman discuss poster details.

Today is Poster Day!

The semester is almost over and we have reached an important day in both our writing class (EDUC815) and in our doctoral studies.

Our cohort is presenting posters that represent much of the work we have completed in our program so far. We have a choice of providing a visual representation of our Spencer Grant Proposal or our Chapter 2 - Literature Review.

I am looking forward to seeing my colleagues' work. There are some exciting research projects going on!

Week Ten!

I always find Week 10 to be exciting, stressful, exhausting, and energizing - I know, a weird and conflicting set of adjectives to describe my feelings about a time period.

Week 10 is always a flurry of activity. Trying to complete last minute projects, finish discussion board entries, blog entries, take tests (when required), redo those "drafts" that need to be corrected and polished up, etc.

It is always a long week of work. Which is followed by our Executive Weekend meeting where it is always refreshing to see and hear from members of our wonderful cohort.

And when that last assignment is completed and submitted - I am ready to jump for joy because we are that much closer to our final goal AND it also means that we have a couple of weeks to enjoy with our families and friends!

Kinkos Here I Come

While working on the poster for our presentation next week, many of us took advantage of the downloadable templates that are available free online. Some of the links to these sites were provided by our professor, Dr. Joyce Pittman. (Thank you!)

The next step - after completing the template - was to figure out the best way to have these printed and ready for hanging next Wednesday.

I was leaning towards using Poster Presentations, one of the companies supplying free template downloads. I did speak to someone about the deadlines for submitting our files and was assured by a customer service rep that if my poster had not arrived (from California) by Tuesday afternoon, they would FedEx it out for delivery by 10:30 Wednesday morning, free of charge. Sounded good, but I don't want to be standing there with an empty board behind me next week, so I looked for other options.

D. Rahn, A. Edwards and a few others in our cohort told me about Drexel's printing services. I think they charge $3.00 a square foot, but they want a week's lead time, and I couldn't make that. Some people on campus may be able to get theirs done there with less time needed.

I finally started calling around and found that FedEx/Kinkos has a 24 hour turn-around time - perfect for the last minute person. They charge $7.25 a square foot, but that eliminates shipping costs I would have paid with Poster Presentations - and the charge for the poster itself was about the same amount.

So, Drexel is the most reasonably priced, but Kinko's is the most convenient for me.

Getting Ready for the Poster Presentation

Hashing out the poster presentation work and finding myself having to make a lot of decisions about what belongs on the poster.

These decisions also drive the decision on what size to make the poster. I started out with a 3'x4' template downloaded from an Internet site. This size was the minimum size recommended for the presentation and I did not think I needed anything bigger to display my work.

Once I got started, I realized that I needed more room for what I wanted to include so I downloaded another, larger size. Well, long story, short - I am working on my third poster size and I am sticking with this one. It isn't that hard changing the sizes, but I do have to copy and paste information from the old one to the new one and this is just not an efficient use of my time. I am now sticking with a 3 1/2'x5' template and I am sure it will be more than adequate.

Heading into the Home Stretch

There are only a few weeks left in the semester. It is amazing how ten weeks fly by.

Some people had mentioned that this would be a very busy semester with a lot of writing assignments. They were right! I have spent every weekend glued to my computer pounding out homework - for both my Research Writing class and my Autism class.

I am learning a lot and getting lots of practice in refining my skills. I realize after consulting with both Dr. Pittman and Dr. Miller, my dissertation chair, that I have to make a great deal of revisions to my Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Even though that means a lot of writing and rework, I now know the process and am confident that I can make the changes needed to provide greater depth and substance to my research work.

This is a good feeling! Can't wait to get this done.

The Spencer Grant Proposal

Our assignment for completing the Spencer Grant Proposal was due on Sunday night. I was, like many members of my cohort, working on this project for many hours for the last couple of weeks and especially last weekend.  It was a good exercise that made me take a more critical look at my research/dissertation writing up to this point.

I do not have a great deal of experience with grant programs, especially ones that provide large amounts of money. Prior to this experience, I have applied for and received grants though my local school district community. Many of the grants were provided through fund-raising efforts on the part of our Home and School Association. Although most of the grants I received were for $2,500 or less, they provided valuable and much needed resources that were not available though school district budgets.

One thing that is important - whether the grant is a large one or a small one - you MUST follow the criteria for completing the application! Every grant I have seen has a list of required information and all state somewhere (in the fine print) that if the proper documentation is not provided, the application will be rejected.

Because these agencies are bombarded with requests for much needed funds, they have to be rigid in these requirements. It is a good idea to go back and review all of your paperwork before hitting that send button.

Interesting Connections

It is funny how things work out...

I am currently taking a class on the characteristics of individuals with high functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome to help me understand this diagnosis and students I work with. It is an interesting class and is providing me with much needed background for my dissertation research.

I am finding that some of the work I am doing in that class is providing me with additional resources for my annotated bibliography and my literature review for this class. A whole new area of information has opened up for me. Along with leaders in this field, I have found several journals and databases that contain important research studies that will enhance my research.

Annotated Bibliography Update

Luckily, I am not a big fan of football, so I did not mind missing the game while I worked on the Annotated Bibliography last weekend. Stopping only to watch Madonna AND missing M.I.A.’s controversial performance, I was able to complete the assignment with a little time to spare.

I truthfully did not expect this to be as difficult as I found it to be.  I was comfortable in the technical aspects, but realized as I worked that writing annotated bibliographies required much more than simply “writing it up”.  As I sorted through the literature I had found, I discovered that many of the resources I had chosen simply did not meet the requirements or fit into my research.  I ended up rejecting more documents than I added to my assignment. 

Hopefully, by looking at these resources critically and thinking about how each one would/could be beneficial to my research, I will have a better end product.

Mining Bibliographies for Gold...

This week I am scheduled to teach five classes of 8^th graders and 4 classes of 6^th graders how to write citations for projects they have been researching in the school library.

At the beginning of my lesson on writing citations, I always explain why we include a works cited/bibliography with our papers and projects.  Some reasons include giving others credit for their work, avoiding being accused of plagiarism (for not crediting sources), and giving the reader/audience additional sources to look at if they want to find out more about their fascinating topic.

Most students do not think that their works cited page is anything more than a necessary evil that is required by their mean teacher and the picky librarian.  However, I know from experience that bibliographies contain a goldmine of information that can supply valuable resources.

When I find an article, book or website that provides information I am looking for on my topic, I always check to see the resources the author used.  More often than not, these bibliographies lead me to additional articles and sources on my topic.  It also helps me to identify the experts that are publishing and contributing to the research.  When I see the same people and their works being cited over and over, I know that this is another lead that should be investigated.

Some Experts - Part 2

While researching my topic, I have found several prominent people in the Library Science field that have been involved in studying programs and services provided to library patrons with special needs.  Although I am focusing on school library programs in the United States, a great deal of the research on this topic has been conducted by librarians in the public library sector and in other countries, most notably England and Australia.  It is interesting to see that many of the prominent scientists in the field of Autism research also come from these locations.

Lynn Akin

Karen Gavigan

Janet Hopkins

Jami Jones

Stephanie Kurtts

Keith Lance

Donna MacKinney

Janet Murray

Karen Voytecki

Carole Whalen

Alana M. Zambone

Neither list of experts is an exhaustive one.  As I continue my research journey, I am discovering additional experts along the way, which helps to inform my research.  I plan on revisiting this list on a regular basis and adding to the ever-growing number.

Some Experts - Part 1

In my research, I am finding that it is necessary to study two separate areas – I am looking at the work done by experts in both in the field of Library Science and specialists in Autism and Asperger research and education. 

The following is a list of some well-known leaders in the field of Autism research and education:

Dr. Tony Attwood

Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen

Dr. Uta Frith

Dr. Christopher Gillberg

Dr. Temple Grandin

Dr. Stephen Shore

Dr. Lorna Wing

Many of the people on this list have contributed significantly to the field of Autism research.  Others, such as Dr. Temple Grandin and Dr. Stephen Shore, have shared their experiences and the challenges they have faced as persons with AS, and have inspired others with their accomplishments.

This list is by no means complete. As I continue my research, I am discovering additional contributors to this field. The website, Autism Today, provides a resource list of experts and their biographical information.

Getting Started

This is the first post that I am making to my writing journal for EDUC815. I am sure that journaling will help me to organize my thoughts, become more conscience of the importance of the writing process, and help me to stay focused and on schedule with the necessary steps needed to complete the dissertation processes.

However --

I seem to be getting a slow start with this online journaling process. I had some difficulty setting up my account – passwords and email issues. It turns out that I had a long forgotten gmail account that I couldn’t remember the password to. After trying to set up new accounts with my Drexel, work and home email accounts, I finally figured out the “old” gmail password and was able to set up a new blog. I have always felt comfortable using technology, but this was not a fun experience!  This led to a conversation with work friends on how many id/passwords we have for all of the digital resources we use – it is mindboggling and almost impossible to remember them all. Ah, technology!