Next steps

I know that lately (well, since Fall of 2014) Patrick has been doing most of the writing here.  Today you get to hear about the work that I'm doing...

Last week was definitely stressful, I had finally set a date for my dissertation proposal - Friday, September 16th.

What is a Dissertation Proposal?

This is when I present the design of my research, prove that I've thoroughly searched the literature (and no one else has done what I've designed) and get permission from a committee of 5 people (who will also decide at my dissertation defense if I get to graduate) to move forward and start collecting data.  This is the second biggest (and almost the last) presentation for my degree. I've written more about some of the details about this on my other blog.

There were questions - which were addressed, and some points and ideas that need to be made more clear in chapters 1-3 (this is common). And, one of the committee commented that my PowerPoint presentation did not look like PowerPoint - I guess some of the design research I've done is paying off.

End result, I have permission to move forward.

What is Next?

I'm currently waiting on the permission from the Human Subjects Committee.  Once I receive that email I can begin advertising, and hopefully be able to schedule 36 participants to come spend an hour in the computer lab. It is a bit unreal at the moment as I have been focused on this end goal (which is not really the end) for quite some time.

Once I have collected the data, I can do the analysis, write chapters 4 and 5 and the plan is to graduate in May 2017!

In the Meantime...

In the Work/School Arena

• It was pointed out to me yesterday that I made a list of "100 Educators in Idaho to Follow on Twitter."  I honestly haven't posted anything on Twitter lately - but there will be more towards the end of October as I tend to post more when I'm at conferences. Which brings me to the other upcoming things...
• At the AECT Conference my schedule will be busy as I was awarded one of the Cochran Internships.  I am excited for this opportunity, but I'm told it will definitely keep me busy.  In addition I'm also doing a round table about my dissertation research - which won't really be ready for a full presentation, but will provide an opportunity to talk about it.  I will also be helping with the Three Minute Thesis Competition as I won last year.  (That was like a mini-dissertation proposal - a 3 minute version of the 40 minute presentation I did on Friday.  You can get the overall idea of the research watching that video.)  I will say that this competition really helped me focus my writing.
• Then there is the Quality Matters Conference where I'm participating in 3 presentations with colleagues from across the nation.  I really enjoy associating with all these people and look forward to our conversations this year.
• This morning I also got a notice that my chapter from last year has been cited again (according to Google Scholar) - which means with two publications I'm up to 15 citations!  I find it amazing that people are actually reading stuff I wrote.
• Patrick is the real writer. He has several projects in the works, as usual, and is making amazing progress in spite of having to deal with a very stressed Lisa last week.

In Other Arenas

• I continue to knit to keep me sane.
• Patrick is using more E6000 - perhaps he will share some of those creations next week.
• And the planning has begun for the Layne Family Reunion 2017

I got drafted... or... Taking a shot!

It's been a busy couple of weeks in our little corner of the universe. And, both parts of the title are accurate within the last week!

Last week I got drafted to help out with a young men's activity. I helped out because our young men's leadership is down to... um... ONE GUY. We took the boys out shooting and had a really good time at it. One of our boys (all of 12 and not exactly buff) was a bit apprehensive (it was his first time holding a gun). By the end of the day he'd actually fired the biggest rifle we had out there (a .45-70).

As for myself I have confirmed that I have mixed feelings about certain Russian made semi-autos. Aaannd, being me, it just wouldn't be a trip out into the wild without bringing something home...

Yes, it's junk (or it looks like junk), but that seriously thick glass (left can) will get used in some upcoming projects. The right can holds some casings I recovered. Yes, I know that steel cases and rim fires can't be reloaded effectively, but... brass melts and steel can be recycled... Just for reference the casing in the glass can is a 7.62x39 that I put in there for scale...

I'm not going to talk about what I'm planning on doing with any of that stuff at this time because there's more immediate coolness.

Moving on with our theme of taking a shot...
I finished a project this week, my chainmail messenger bag. That one will be featured in an upcoming post too. Getting it finished cleared the way for a brand new project using mailing techniques I haven't played with before...

As you can see it took me a couple of shots to get the ring sizes right (the one on the right...), but I'm on my way to making new cool stuff so it was worth it.

Writing is still going on of course, but I'm not going to talk too much about that...
Instead I'd like to announce the best interruption to my writing schedule in a long time!
Lisa will be doing the official proposal meeting for her dissertation on Sept 16th!
After the meeting the real fun begins...
She'll be collecting a bunch of data; analyzing it with some big scary equations and software; and then writing up a big old honking paper that she then has to defend in front of her committee.

It's a pretty major step and I'm proud of her.

I'm really not going to say much about my writing at this point, but...

I will say...

If you'd like to find out how to get your hands on this, and other bits of shiny, stay tuned for future posts! That's right! I may be drafting you...

That's it for this one. I'll probably have Lisa write one in two...
Until then...

This just seems to be the right way to end this one... (thanks and credit to Peter Gabriel)