It's hard to believe, but this week we are commencing unit 4 (of 5) in EDDE 802 - which is all about data collection, thus leaving behind the research methodology unit.   This past week has been particularly difficult due to the amount of reading.  Now, I should say that my MA in Applied Linguistics has prepared me for a lot for the amount of reading an MA and a PhD student should be doing each week.  In Linguistics we normally had anywhere from 60 to 80 pages per week to read and be able to discuss.  What's particularly difficult about this particular week was that most cohort-mates opted to present Assignment 2 this coming week which means preparatory readings for six different research methods in advance of the presentations (comparatively we had 3 presentations two weeks ago).

On the plus side some methods (case studies, ethnography, DBR, and action research) I have read about before.  I am the only weirdo I know who read about research methods after I was done with my MA because I wanted to know more. However,  I feel like I am missing something if I don't do all the readings assigned by classmates. The intent of the assignment is to be fun and to work as a jigsaw activity, so that we can all teach one another, so in theory if I don't get to read everything it should be OK, but I can't shake this feeling of missing something!  I could certainly use a few more snowdays ;-)

One of the things I am thinking of recommending is adding additional dates for presentations and enforcing a spread over 4 days instead of having 2 and completely student choice.  I like student choice, but some decisions may lead to cognitive overload, which seems counter-productive.

I have a feeling that I will be doing some more work over the summer with  Cohen, Manion, and Morrison as my co-pilots. OK, enough blogging. Time to work on assignment 3, and read, prep for the presentation, prep for 684, and provide feedback.  Maybe even Experience Bij, LOL :p


NOTES:
in case you are curious about "Experience Bij" there is an explanation in the urban dictionary. If you want to see people playing the board game (while having beer), have a look at this video which gives you more context. Viewer Discretion advised (language used can be potentially deemed offensive)