An Aside for an Introduction#
I was tasked with reflecting on my writing of task 1, and I think I did on task 2. I have am doing this completely out of order, and reflecting on this after having completed task 1, task 2, and the research prospectus for 6220. I have done a considerable amount of writing in approximately 5 days.
Dr. Warren has had to read the amount of writing I’ve done in 5 days. He deserves candy for the number of (incredibly helpful) line edits. During my last degree, I went to my advisor and went “I thought I was a good writer!” and she went “This is fantastic student work… You’re working on making it publishable.” I keep that in mind when I turn things in now. It’s a first (second… third…) try.
On to the reflection.
Reflection#
The short answer:#
It was easier to create the diagram than writing the report.
Long answer:#
I enjoyed the visual thinking portion of the process, and that did help me write the analysis. The research also helped me hone where I put different questions for the systemigram, even if it hurt me to not have things even across rows. It’s very tempting to try to incorporate every bit of nuance you gathered in the process in the visual, and that’s just not possible.
Longer answer:#
This is one of those time where I recognized my over-researching while I was in the midst of it. It’s not that this did not require a significant amount of research, but I have a penchant for wanting to go down each rabbit hole I find, and the task 1 systems analysis provided so many rabbit holes that I found myself in the midst of my research in a Ph.D. horror movie of my own making. The fun side of that is now I have some research on child-computer interaction (UI//UX design for children) and a new entry in my “That’s an academic sentence” file: “Children are not small adults”).
On Writing#
Task 2 was important because I’m using my authentic, lived experience for this semester’s work. My first two semesters were really focused on something I’m passionate about: incorporating neuroscience into the everyday practice of education. This semester I focused on what are work projects that I have going on that, for whatever reason, maybe are suffering from back-burner syndrome at work that I can truly focus on. And I did. I’m excited to share the work I’ve created.
I’m actually delaying turning in my final presentation just so I can actual show the devices and record in my school, instead of the recorded presentation I did for 6220. (I really like making videos, and prefer to stand to present. Presenting sitting has been a challenge for me, as has presenting asynchronously.)
In the future, I’m going to hone my writing practice more. It’s not that my writing is awful (it’s not), but because I don’t have the write-daily habit, I got behind and so what I turned in was good, but I also know that I can be good over time instead of all at once and losing sleep trying to catch up. I did find I developed a different relationship to the concept of what counts as “read.” Do I read whole articles? Yes. Do I now find that I am more targeted in my reading and will read abstracts, intros and conclusions to get to what I need faster, revisiting lit reviews & methods as I want to dig in more later? Yes. I have always been (and still am!) a fiction reader, so I’m a practiced cover-to-cover reader. This is a new approach. I also adjusted my approach and at a certain point when “get ideas down and then you can work on citations in a bit” while I was warming up as a writer.
Which hat?#
At work, we like to ask each other “What’s that look like with our parent hats on?” which is, really, just systems thinking on the small scale. And small scale is where I hang out right now.