Campus Session
So here we are, third and final module!! How exiting! But I must say I didn't feel too excited this time Monday morning. Seeing all this work in front of me and not being as prepared as I'd of hoped made me panic...a lot. A few months off and I felt a bit lost. That's why I decided to make the trip from Liverpool and get myself to the first campus session. Well it's definitely helped as I hoped it would :)! Helping me get back in the zone and make it clear in my head what needs to be done.
So here we are, third and final module!! How exiting! But I must say I didn't feel too excited this time Monday morning. Seeing all this work in front of me and not being as prepared as I'd of hoped made me panic...a lot. A few months off and I felt a bit lost. That's why I decided to make the trip from Liverpool and get myself to the first campus session. Well it's definitely helped as I hoped it would :)! Helping me get back in the zone and make it clear in my head what needs to be done.
Paula asked us to explain to the others what our inquiry question was and what point we felt we were at at the moment. I felt vocalising it helped me myself make more sense of where I was at and I also find it really interesting hearing other people's proposals and subjects. It was so nice to see the passion behind it all.
After Paula reminding us how to navigate our way around summon, I am now exploring more literature. I found quite a lot of extracts, blogs and articles last module surrounding networking but I am keen to find deeper and more educational theories written by more accredited people.
We did a few fun exercises during the session. One of which we had to create something visually on a piece of paper, showing what that word meant to us. You could create any shape but you couldn't draw pictures. For example 'growth', I created a vertical line of circles which gradually got bigger from the bottom to the top, with arrows pointing upwards at each side. This exercise demonstrated a good way of getting your thoughts from your head down on to the page. Sometimes we find it hard to put in to words what exactly is in our heads. This is what we must accomplish in our inquiry and so this exercise is a great way of achieving this.
We spoke about how strong the communication and social side of this course is. Peers, SIGS and advisors are constantly at our fingertips and we must utilise these sources to help us through this process; whether it be to ask a silly question about something you are stuck on or to just talk about your inquiry, asking questions and getting advice.
Hi Melanie, a really interesting read thank you!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on using 'focus groups'. In the previous module, I decided that I would not use them. Like you say, they are quite time consuming. For my inquiry, a group session wouldn't be relevant anyway but with one to one interviews (or questionnaires in my case), you will gather the information needed from a variety of sources.
I particularly like where you talk about questioning everything we read and not letting our own thoughts and ideas take control, blinding us from the other views and questions that are out there. I shall bear this all in mind. It is so easy to get so wrapped up in your own study and thinking, you forget to sometimes 'think outside the box' to allow more information and opinions in.
I hope all is going well so far, the end is in sight but still a long way off! Look forward to reading more!
Emily
thanks for the Campus Session run -down Melanie - helpful - they are good for thinking things through Bw
ReplyDeleteHi Emily & Paula,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog 'Wise Words' and both Sarah and Paula's comments, I believe that as well as opening up our thoughts and looking outside the box with other theories and research, it is also vital that we stay strong in our own thoughts and opinions to give a personal approach. I agree strongly with the comment Sarah Robinson makes 'I can be open-minded enough to engage in the unknown aspect of my research, i.e. not drawing conclusions in advance or 'fitting the evidence to the theory' (CSI, ????) but, by its very creation, my inquiry is personally connected to how I think, feel, experience and practice. Isn't it?' (Sarah Robinson blogspot 14/10/2013) I believe being both open minded to research and also staying strong to my own experiences and beliefs is a great combination for my inquiry. We can then look to see if there are conflicting arguments or even similarities between all our data. That's when it gets interesting because we have looked from as many angles as well can!
thanks for the comments :)!