Had to recreate my Julzworld blog...

...and I'm feelin lazy, so most of what was there is here in one long post :( Monday, October 03, 2005 Intelligent Searching I was reading an article about cool search engines and thought that I'd like to have that info in my Pep World Blog. Intelligent' tools lead to smarter searches Links: Cuadra Associates Inc. http://www.cuadra.com Google Inc. http://www.google.com Scirus http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/ Blinkx http://www.blinkx.com Gnooks http://gnooks.com Dashboard http://www.nat.org/dashboard posted by julz @ 11:04 AM0 comments Friday, April 29, 2005 Dissertation Schedule Link Put in your start and end dates for dissertation and this tool helps create a timeline... http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/disscalc/ posted by julz @ 9:30 AM2 comments Monday, April 25, 2005 Matusov, Activity Theory, etc. Matusov complements Wenger and Engestrom http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/publications.htm Activity Theory Sites Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/ CSAT (Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research--http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/sat/default.htm International Society for Cultural Research and Activity Theory--http://www.iscrat.org/ Martin Ryder, Activity Theory--http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/activity.html posted by julz @ 3:01 PM0 comments Mind, Culture, and Activity Journal Resource XMCA is a listserv I used to require my classes to sign up for. It is where the hardcore of the social learning theorist hang out. Usually the convo is carried by the second tier. but the big guns get lured out periodically when the topics get hot. sometimes the group gets political, because as you might guess, they are both international and more left than right. i tend to just blow away the political crud because i just don't need to hear more of that. the theoretical discussions are quite rich however. XMCA is intended to support discussion around the Mind, Culture, and Activity journal, produced out of UCSD. Here's the URL if you want to join. You will see theses folks at AERA, for sure. http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/ posted by julz @ 2:54 PM0 comments A resource Talon is an interesting project. There are some resources here for us to look at as educators as well as some models for what we are looking to do with our mobtech resource. TALON Web Guide for K-12 Teachers ~julz posted by julz @ 2:24 PM0 comments Linda's Informative Email Back when I was a wee grad school lass, I heard Lee Schulman speak about how to find a research topic. This afternoon I was cleaning off my desk and found my notes. (Yeah, kind of an archeological dig thing, but that's how I live). 1. Examine things that don't fit predictions and ask why. Most people see the world as a 2 x 2 table and study the diagonal. 2. Look for gaps in the intersection of problems typically treated separately, e.g., cooperative learning and performance assessment. 3. Examine unexamined analogs, uncritically examined analogies, e.g., teaching is like medical education (clinical). 4. Question the unquestioned, e.g., if you don't know a subject you can't teach it. Blessed Passover to the M.O.T. out there, Lindax posted by julz @ 2:00 PM0 comments Informative Email from Mirwais Hello team, Today I attended a couple of sessions including the Exhibition at the Fairemont (got a couple of freebies). Two of the sessions were very productive for me. Session 1: "Getting Published while in Graduate School" Session 2: "Support Opportunities for Training and Small Grants in Education Research". Jane Klingner from University of Colorado-Boulder was great. The presenters discussed in great detail on how graduate students can go about getting their commentaries, class research papers, book reviews and dissertations published. I thought the presentation was very informative. The reviewing process for submission and critiquing was discussed in great detail. Students were advised to begin the process early, check each journal's web site for submission requirements and have their manuscripts read by several people before submission. APA style was emphasized. Depending on what journal you select, the process can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months or even longer. I took several handouts and copious notes from the presenters. If anyone of you are interested in getting a copy of the handouts, please drop me a line. There was a lot of information to grasp. One of the presenters, Janette Klingner was kind enough to give her office info and was very eager to assist anyone with questions about getting published. If you want additional info, call or email her. Janette Klingner University of Colorado at Boulder School of education 249 UCB Boulder, CO 80309-0249 Telephone: 303-492-0773 The second session was just as informative since here the discussion was on how to get $$$ to do research and how to get that research published eventually. Representatives from AERA, Spencer and NSF were there for the group presentation and discussion. Several tips were given on what these organizations look for in a research proposal. 1. Clarity of the proposal (What is it that you want to do?) 2. Your abstract is very important (Don't copy the first sentences or paragraph of your paper) 3. What methods you are going to use 4. Time-line 5. Outside letters (Not so much on how great you are, but what the research will do - descriptive about the project) 6. Importance of the project on the field (Description) 7. Its affect/significance on education 8. Be creative, clever and unique 9. DON'T GIVE UP if you get rejected !!! We also discussed the various grants that are available to graduate students. These grants can range anywhere from $1000 all the way to $40000. The review process is rigorous, so be creative, well prepared and have your proposal looked at by several people (Professors/Classmates). Most important of all, be patient and keep trying if you get rejected. You can visit the AERA web site as well as Spencer.org for more details about these grants. Again, if you guys need any additional info, please let me know and I will make copies of all the notes and hand-outs that I got from the sessions. Regards, Mirwais posted by julz @ 1:59 PM0 comments