When we look back. . .

. . .we will wonder "What the heck were we thinking?" When we look back and see how tentative we were about social media use in schools, we may compare our short-sightedness with the hesitation some felt about the radio's use, the television's ability to entertain, and the ridiculousness of making a computer for personal use. Sure, there are reasons to be fearful, and yes social media can be misused, but the possibilities are truly, madly, deeply endless! How many adults "sneak a peek" into Facebook/Twitter during the school day? At work? Even while driving? Why punish students for the same addiction we all have? The addiction we all have to connect with others, to find information is a good, healthy addiction! Students simply need guidance; they do not need prohibitions! I, for one, want to look back in the future (maybe as little as 2 years from now)and say "I tried!" Now, I'm going to sign off of my blog (social media), and check on my Facebook (social media) and Twitter (social media) accounts! Au revoir! D.

Successfully defended the dissertation on 4/18/12

The dissertation defense process was quite an interesting experience. Being greeted by my major professor as "Dr. Gooch" at the end of their discussion was one of the highlights of my life! What a relief. It was incredible experience. Next, I hope to share the research with as many school leaders and educators as I can get to listen. My hope is that staff members and school leaders will see the need to use social media appropriately, and to use it in the ways that help students engage in their learning. Pretty excited to take it to the next step.

IRB is a go!

Received the "go ahead" from the IRb to proceed with my research. My language arts friend is looking over my resource guide, and then I am going to get it sent out to six people as part of the preliminary field testing. Thanks to Mike Ribble, I will be sending the guide to social media experts in Alaska and Australia, along with teachers, building leaders and district-level leaders. Hopefully I will get some great responses.

At Panera with my friend, "Diss!"

Been at Panera for about five hours working on my "diss" and visiting with Karen while she enjoys the writing experience, too. I've made about 90% of the recommended changes to my first three chapters, and I am now moving into actually writing the resource guide. I received some wonderful needs assessment information from Dr. Gerald Bailey, Donna Whiteman, and Ginger Lewman. They all were quite helpful! My goal is to keep the actual content of the resource guide between 25-30 pages. May take some doing, but I am pretty sure that a building leader would appreciate brevity. I like that word, brevity :).

Back at it!

Been a few months since I posted. Survived the proposal meeting. I worked several hours today (literally, several hours) on making recommended changes. Using an R&D methodology makes sense to me, but I did not do the best job writing about it. Though I get a bit perturbed at the whole diss process I am learning SO much! Still hoping to finish and graduate this May, 2012 :). God be with me!

Back at it!

Spent a few more hours doing a little "diss" work. Visited with Dr. Shoop at KSU last week, and it looks as though if I keep my nose to the proverbial grind stone that I should be able to defend my proposal in September. And more importantly, I could be on schedule to defend my dissertation in March. Woohoo!

I'm super pumped to get moving with the proposal so that I can put my energies in developing a resource guide. The more I learn, the more necessary I believe it to be. I would love to help districts be proactive in helping all their staff members use social media appropriately.

I love the idea of blogging, but after working for hours researching sometimes I need to make myself post a blog entry.

1st Amendment continues..

Spent some time yesterday and today looking over more 1st Amendment "stuff" concernng free speech interpretations...and I do mean interpretations (by courts)! It's amazing to see how free speech and privacy can conflict, and even more confusing how one decision at one level will say free speech has the upper hand, and then the next decision I find shows that privacy trumps. Argh! Guess the message is that there may continue to be this variation, and that people need to know where the boundaries are (if they really do want to stay out of trouble).

Took a break to get my "American Idol" fix. Hate to even admit I am into this show so much. Love how people have a chance to be discoverd who might have never been noticed. Cool stuff!