Week 5

Is this the start? Is it the end? Or is it somewhere in between?

In some ways it is all three. It is the end of my required posting for this class. But I think I'm going to continue this if only as a form of journaling or maybe, just maybe it might help somebody out who is going down the same path.

I'm going to reflect on what we've done so far. In a matter of a few short weeks I have gone from a scotch-taped idea of problem-based learning in medical education to a now completed 23 page lit review of the subject which I might present at a conference next February. That's just amazing and pretty cool! Dr. Weaver has been great throughout the process and encouraged all of us to develop new insights and ideas.

Some things I wish I would have known at the beginning. 

When starting my annotated bibliography I wish I would have labelled each entry with the question stem (s) I thought I would use the citation for. This could have been done with tags as well.

I am not an outline kinda person but I need to be especially going forward with my dissertation as I think it will help me stay afloat while I try to work full-time, be a dad, husband, and have some sense of life.

Have more of a concrete idea as to what my dissertation is going to be? Do other's do it this way? That is to say, have an idea of what you are interested in,  research that area, create a lit review, and then figure out a dissertation? Just wondering....

What I found useful: 

I used Papers for Mac as my citation manager which I highly recommend. It's built in search engine, tagging, and annotation were key for me. There is more to the program that I need to learn but for  this part of my project it was helpful and the learning curve wasn't that bad. If you want a more detailed review let me know via a comment.

For writing and organizing I use Scrivener and it is simply the best writing software on the market and I can't say enough about it. Again this could be a separate blog post so if you are interested let me know, via comments.

I would also highly recommend OmniOrganizer 2 for keeping me on task and organizing what needs to be done.

 Thanks for a great class Dr. Weaver.

I will be keeping this going as it seems there is someone in Alaska who is reading this or maybe that's just Russian hackers.... who knows?

The Second Draft..... and why my brain can't see "is is"

6/29/14

I can say I have a sense of accomplishment. My lit review is well on its way to being finished. It just needs a few touchups here and there and then it's ready to be dissected by my advisor and then my committee! 

Fortunately the class that is requiring me to write in this blog also required me to complete my lit review in a shortened summer semester. Without it I can, without hesitation, say I would have NEVER gotten this done on my own. I have way to many distractions in my life so I'm super fortunate that I was forced to do this! 

So I'm writing with the reflection of "What was important about what I did?" And the answer is obvious. I just completed a chapter of my dissertation. I have a publishable or presentable document that adds to the body of work I'm interested in, and I've completed another course towards my doctorate degree! Yeah Baby! 

I'm under no illusions that this is a brilliant piece of work but it's a start and I have a lot more ideas now than before I started the project and this course. I also have significantly more blisters on my fingers and a numb butt! But's that a whole different story :) 

Thanks for reading! 

PJ

Do you feel a draft?

June 21st 4th Entry

Now we enter the period of putting the figurative pen to the paper. Our latest assignment was creating our first draft of the literature review. I took a somewhat different method but one in which some of my classmates found useful. While writing the first draft I began editing towards the second draft. I know weird... but stay with me. The reason being is that we had to have something to turn in and so I wanted to meet the requirements of the assignment and I also didn't want to forget the ideas I was having as I typed and edited and re-read.

While writing I had my annotated bibliography on the screen as well and I was cross-referencing the bib with my first draft and color coding what I noticed I needed in my draft. This will allow me to quickly go back to those areas and began to fill in what I need to. I also had additional ideas that I wanted to add to my draft and some research ideas as well.

Journal articles everywhere..... And I mean everywhere

Image from: www.iihr.uiowa.edu

Journals Journals, everywhere,
And all the brain cells did shrink;
Journals, Journals, everywhere,
Nor any time to think

Or something like that. Okay I repackaged that from,  "Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" but it fits. 

We are having to review at least 60 articles and create an annotated bibliography from these and submit 20 articles a week. Actually I'm grateful that we are "forced" to do this because most normal humans wouldn't submit themselves to torture like this on a voluntary basis! Oh that's right I signed up for this... well I never said I was normal! 

One of the most relevant things I've discovered is the feature on Google Scholar and other databases where you can see who cited the article you were reading and also what articles those people were looking at it as well. It stands to reason that there are likely shared interests among people reading the same articles and also enough divergence to allow some new avenues of research and/or ideas to occur. 

This is extremely beneficial to me as my area of interest, which is in exploring curriculum development and non-traditional teaching methods in Physician Assistant Education is a limited area and I can get fresh ideas and insights into what others in medical education are doing. 

So I've got 20 down and at least 40 more to go in the next 2 weeks. 

Post #2

6/2/15

Writing a literature review is daunting, time consuming, and I'm sure I'm supposed to mention how fulfilling it is, but I will likely get to that part when I'm done. Right now it's task. And I like to get tasks done with so I can move on to more important things, like playing Mine Craft with my kids (Because that's where the big bucks are!) 

One must have a plan when tackling a big project so here is my "Roadmap" if you will towards tackling my literature review. 

As always I appreciate your stepping down this path with me. Your comments and thoughts are always appreciated.

Sincerely,
PJ

Day One

6/1/15

I think a good journal should be both reflective and imaginative as well. Also it should be personal to some degree so I've decided to include the above selfie I took this morning. This way when you read these words of wisdom and walk the path of knowledge I'm clearing out of the forest of ignorance you will not have to wonder, "Hey, what does this guy look like" Now you know. 

As this journal progresses I will share with you insights and thoughts of the journey of my literature review and progression towards finishing my doctorate degree. My interest lies heavily in looking at ways to incorporate educational research, psychology, technology into physician assistant education. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

PJ

Special thanks to Peter Pappas's blog! 
Peter's blog