blog + summer + thesis =....
I just finished reading Katie's last post on blogging that is better that you already have a dialog established with someone. If we knew about each others interests, research, etc.. we might be more inclined to and have better postings. That made me think of the suggestion made for us to keep in touch over the summer with a "Thesis Support Group". I am up for that idea as I could probably use external motivation to progress with my writing. Perhaps if we kept up with each other and gathered for wine, er...I mean coffee and an exchange of ideas and suggestions???? I had two additional thoughts... What if the graduates who are not yet writing, but defining their topic, join in for a spell? They can provide unbiased perspective and learn about the process. I was also trying to figure out a way to use this blog or another technology to promote this collaboration and camaraderie. Any thoughts on this? Can we keep this blog up over the summer?
Comments
It would be easy to make a blog on bloglines or blogger.com that all of us had the userid and password for.
But we'd have to get into the habit of posting our names on each post so that it didn't get confusing.
I'm fine with meeting, I just want it to not be a waste of time as get togethers can some times end up leading us down the garden path instead of keeping us on track and focused on the conversation. I think we'd need to be really clear about what our goals for the meetings would be and what we would need from each other.
If the students who aren't writing yet wanted to join I think that would be fine too.
Posted by: katie | April 26, 2007 1:31 PM
I wonder if I could set up an art ed research blog and then give everyone who is interested permission to use it. It could be a way for you to organize together and then people who want to participate can and those who want to get skin cancer by spending their summers in the sun can do that instead of working on their thesis.
Let me know if you want me to set up a blog and have them give multiple people permission to post on it. Another thought is that someone could send a message to the listserv and ask for names and VCU usernames and passwords for any of the people who are interested. Then, if there are any off campus folks who are interested, they could participate on the blog or possibly come to Richmond during the summer.
Posted by: Melanie | April 27, 2007 10:00 PM
Either of those options sound fine to me.
Posted by: katie | April 28, 2007 12:43 PM
I like blog idea. If we can continue to think about our thesis or interests and to communicate each other, it would be helpful for meeing our goals.
Also, if we think about the meeting, like Katie said, it is important that each person should have a clear goal and shows or shares the ideas with others at meetings.
Posted by: soh | May 3, 2007 10:27 AM
I too, like the blog idea, but was thinking an actually F2F meeting might be good. At these meetings we would read one section of one person's work and comment? would this be helpful? Each meeting would have a theme. IE: "Today's readings & comments will center around the conclusion or the methodology or citations?"
Is this too specific?
Another thing to think about is that we could all participate in this experiment and then all work to turn it into a paper or presentation? How far off base am I????
What do ya'll think if these suggestions?
Posted by: jan | May 4, 2007 1:44 PM
Just sent an email to see about starting a research blog for you all. I will let you know when I hear back about that. I think you should organize some f2f meetings around topics that you need to know more about. I may be able to host "thesis writing boot camp" during July. You would have to come with a laptop and be quiet and work all day. NO TALKING! More details will come via an email.
Posted by: Melanie | May 7, 2007 7:13 PM