Praxis Makes Perfect

My first semester in the PhD program is frantically winding down. One of my classes this semester addressed the effects of globalization on education. Up to this point I’ve experienced dialogue concerning globalization in a periphery manner - news snippets here, comments there - and didn’t really understand what globalization was.

People who write about globalization speak a lot about the impact of information technology in facilitating global influence on countries, and consequently education writers took that claim and trumpeted the importance of teaching our kids “technology skills” so they could be a part of the 21st century. What does this mean? I’m not entirely sure, but I’ll attempt to summarize what I’ve learned this semester, and hopefully frame the role of technology in education using a globalization perspective:

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Defining my research interests will be an ongoing theme for me as I progress through my doctorate and future career. In the past few weeks, my interest in computing and education has been nicely bolstered by my advisor and professors. I feel invigorated again concerning the topic; I have to thank my professors for their enthusiasm, and for the timely readings I have worked on in classes.

But, I also need your help (dear reader)!! (more…)

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I haven’t written in a long time. Much has happened in the past few months, but here goes again. In my last post, I questioned how I would develop as an academic in the field of Education. Coincidentally, that has been the theme of my classes in my first semester of PhD studies. I still haven’t answered how I will define myself just yet, but I have been actively thinking about a few things. The current issue on my mind is the state of education research (which I hope will be my chosen profession for the next couple decades).

There are a couple issues: 1) Education as an academic field suffers from low prestige, 2) There is often a disconnect between education research and practice; we (academia) are just not relevant, and 3) There is much pressure for education research to mimic the hard sciences. I’m not very motivated to spend time on Point #1 at the moment. Why? Well, I think if we (academics and practitioners both) can figure out how to make education research more relevant to improving practice (Point #2), prestige will improve over time. And Point #3 is an internal debate among academics that needs a post of its own (maybe my next post).

My hunch is that computing and networks, maybe things like the semantic web or Web 2. concepts, can help improve the research process and communication channels between academia and practice. Actually, I’m really excited about the possibilities and have some possible projects in mind. More on those ideas once they are better formed in my brain. It’s nice to be back.