Reality bites. Project planning and back to the drawing board.

We are now in week 6 of the module and at the final, crucial stages of thinking about our project plans and preparing for our first assignments. In true Sam fashion I had loads of ideas and thought about lots of different topics. Part of this module is about thinking and creating out loud, so here's some of the thoughts and processes that I have been through so far.

Phase 1: Initial thoughts (aka: lots of excitement and creativity but all over the place)

Originally I was focused on inclusion as a theme, mainly because a lot of the work I do is based around inclusion - and how we help people become a part of something, or make sure that we don't exclude. 

Power: In particular I am fascinated by power. So I thought about doing something that focused on power and inclusion. I talk alot about power dynamics in training especially as many of the topics I deliver are sensitive, and I work with volunteers and young people, so power is important. Power is about making the language we use accessible and the way we approach our relationships. but it's also about giving people power to take action in their own right.  I think openness and power has some links to identity but also acceptance, whether it's academic/non-academic/age/gender/experience/disciplines

Changing relationships:I also had thoughts around creating a new discipline (innovation) and whether there were ways that the informal (non-academic) can influence the formal (academic). This has a direct link to something I want to do, and also links to implementation. In the charity/youth work field, there is no such thing as trainer training or qualifications in many of the subject areas we become experts in. So for example, my peer network and I talk to each other a lot about values based training especially in safeguarding. I would love to create a kind of open studio for us to develop resources together and share our expertise more widely and openly. Thus not only helping other practitioners, but also changing culture and teh way that people think about the subject area. I think our approach is already innovative, but by creating something open and online. Does a discipline/education/field have to start in academia?

The journey:Journeys through openness started to fascinate me too following a couple of tweets with George Veletsianos (the author of one of the papers I read whom I exchanged some tweets with.) and some of discussions about what we do, I started thinking about journeys. So here I am thinking about are there routes to openness, and do different disciplines afford different routes? Therefore how do decide on the best approach? So just like doing needs and people analysis in training, can we tailor an approach for different people?

Phase 2: 3 potentials topics.... (28th October and thought I was doing well!)

I then shared with my tutor group three potentials areas where I had ideas, in order to ask comments and get some feedback in what direction to go (below is the exert from the forum)

1. Bursting the bubble: Building digital networks that improve professional practice. Here I was thinking about how networks actually inform and develop practice. In particular I wanted to focus on this idea of making sure you have diversity of voice (filter bubble) and so your network has many voices, or at least you know how to chose the ones that will actively challenge and help you develop. There might also be something about how you measure that effectiveness (I am not sure that you can 100%, but so far there is a lot of anecdotal evidence about this but I am not sure there is so much research on outcomes/outputs). (As Louise is doing something about communities of practice then I might move this down my list

2. Seeing the tree from the woods: discoverability of non-academic Open educational resources. In this I was thinking about inclusion as welll as innovation and implementation. In my professional life I am non-academic, and I think that when you look for resources, then academic resources trump non-academic. This is probably because this is not a priority for, for example, charitable organisations. So this one was about recognising the dominance of academia, and considering how to get heard. There are a few ways that this could be honed to be more specific too.

3. Journeying the open landscape : can blogging lead to academic publishing for the non-academic scholar. Back on my non-academic thing again. I am really interested in the different journeys that digital scholars take, and also how people develop. I found a blog post as a starting point, and this is something that I think that I want to do as a practitioner....I think again this could have links to inclusion innovation and implementation

I had pretty much settled on the third option, as it linked to this idea of journeys, and my creative part of my brain was thinking about the imagery of journeys and how it would make a great little project artefact, with things like 'what to wear' for identity, 'what to pack' for tools, 'travelling companions' for building your network etc.

Phase 3: journeys of a digital scholar (or trying to go around the world in 84 days)  

So is started to flesh out my ideas, and considered my approach.

Postcards from a digital scholar"  From theory to practice:Blogging as a foundation for digital scholarship .My theme would be implementation, and basically my plan is to blog my way through the project/module, picking up on each of the themes that are suggested along the way in the module, with a particular focus on blogging and my practice/experience of blogging. My initial thoughts are that there is a lot of information out there about blogging, and this approach is not necessarily new, but if I want to improve my own practice then I need to review the research and practice there is, and reflect on what that means for my own practice and actually do it.

Therefore my artifact would probably be a 'journey planner' of some of the key considerations of using and implementing blogging, (for a practitioner who is not connected to a learning institution)  and I am thinking of a multimedia approach. (4th November 2014)

Now hear, let this be a lesson to you.....

I started to look at potential research and resources, and had got a few good suggestions and ideas from my fellow students. However I was starting to find it difficult to find exactly what I wanted. I then sat down on the 6th November and did a project timetable, with key dates and the actual number of days that I would be able to commit to the module and complete assignments. I realised that I was probably aiming too high, trying too hard and potential not going to have the time to cover what I wanted to. The module materials are quite good in suggesting that you think 'realistically' about what you can accomplish. Although I was still interested in my area, I just didn't have the time to learn and research a whole new subject area. 

I contacted my tutor and had a discussion about this and my proposal for a new idea, based on existing knowledge and an area of work that would also benefit from my final artifact. It was really important at this stage to make that decision and to be aware that my intended project was way out of scope for what could be realistically completed. 

So here's me telling my fellow students...and I will talk about my new project shortly.