Wanless UX

user-centered web research, strategy and design

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Getting to the thesis research

Posted on Dec 13th, 2009 :: Filed in learning & education

Here I am, about a third of the way through my thesis year and I’m finally getting to the fun stuff, in that I’m actually doing research interviews as we hit the Christmas season. I’ll admit that, from the end of summer when I was really beginning to finalize my thesis proposal until now, I’ve felt disconnected from most things while doing this.

Grokking the literature review

Posted on Jun 1st, 2009 :: Filed in learning & education

I have to admit that I’m liking the literature review process, the more I understand the right approach. Having said that, I’ve not really done what could be classified as a real literature review yet. I did a very surface one (which could only really be called a minor literature summary) when I did my preliminary thesis proposal a couple months ago to get my topic approved …

Defining thesis research questions

Posted on May 20th, 2009 :: Filed in learning & education

Getting down to the right research topic and asking the right questions to address it is a pretty challenging process. About the only thing I can say for certain is that I’ll be looking at blogs at BCIT …

Pondering the thesis

Posted on May 10th, 2009 :: Filed in learning & education

So, now that I know I’m going to do a thesis for the second year of my Masters degree instead of more coursework and a smaller project, I’m facing a plethora of decisions. I’ve got a very basic concept of what I want to research, but over the course of the next twelve weeks I’ll turn a basic idea into a detailed project proposal …

Learning to write in a changing, digital world

Posted on Mar 23rd, 2009 :: Filed in learning & education

A couple of things I read this past week really struck a chord. It occurs to me that we really don’t seem to be teaching people how to write for the emerging world. Over the past few months I’ve been exposed to academic writing …

Reflection and philosophy

Posted on Feb 13th, 2009 :: Filed in learning & education

The course I’ve just started this week in my MA studies is focused primarily on community-building for online learning. We’ve been posting images that suggest facilitation and community and commenting on them. The literature reading thus far has been – and I’m admittedly only about half way through it – about philosophy of education and developing reflective practice. This got me thinking about a journal post …

When delivery method and subject matter are the same

Posted on Jan 1st, 2009 :: Filed in learning & education, web & technology

The MA I’m pursuing right now is an interesting beast. One thing that has been very engaging about it is that what I’m studying is actually how I’m studying too. That is to say, while the subject matter of many degrees delivered via distance has nothing to do with how they’re delivered, it’s the exact [...]

A vision of students today

Posted on Oct 29th, 2008 :: Filed in learning & education

This isn’t new and doesn’t pretend to answer anything, but it’s got a solid, haunting quality and certainly gives you something to think about. Does information overload scare students today? Are too many things competing for their attention? Will their education deliver what they expect? I know what I’m doing right now can be ovewhelming [...]

Serious barriers to going open

Posted on Oct 28th, 2008 :: Filed in learning & education

While the title of this post sounds gloomy and might make it appear that I don’t favour opening up the web as much as humanly possible, in truth it’s the exact opposite. However, I like to think I’m also a realist and as I read and think about the move toward more open and accessible [...]

Writing collaboratively with Skype chat and Google Docs

Posted on Oct 22nd, 2008 :: Filed in learning & education, web & technology

I’d imagine most people find the benefit of Skype to be that of free long distance calls. As long as the person you’re calling is also on Skype you can save airtime or long distance charges. That’s great, but given I do very little long distance calling and use my cell mostly for family chatter, [...]