This Blog

What is this blog for?

I’ve set up this blog in order to fulfil the requirements for Assignment 2 for unit CMP03305-Organisation and Technology in Research, which is due on Friday 17 Monday 27 April 2009. I’m taking this unit as part of the Graduate Certificate course in Research Management, run by the Graduate College of Management at Southern Cross University, NSW Australia. This blog is meant to document a reflective journal of my learning experiences in this unit, which has largely dealt with applying new and improved strategies to conduct more effective and efficient research.

Why a blog?

Because, why not? … Really, in all seriousness, blogging is something I had never ever considered and wasn’t something I really thought of as an educational or learning tool until I began this unit – in many ways, it has changed the way I view  blogs.  In fact, the original format of my assignment 2 – the Reflective Journal – was just a word-processed document with a title page, table of contents, and the journal itself. But it looked rather bland and I wasn’t entirely happy with it. I found that blogging created a more ‘organic’ environment in which to document thoughts and experiences in a more informal manner,  much more than a structured document would – at least that was my conclusion for going for a blog.  So here I’m, trying a out a new medium in which to express and document my learning experiences.

How is this blog structured?

The blog contains a mix of thoughts and reflections based on new software tools used and strategies for organisation, feedback and ideas from the unit’s convener and fellow classmates in this unit, as well as my experiences in improving on existing strategies I’ve adopted as part of my PhD research process.

I’ve tried to transfer what was on that original assignment document, as a series of individual journal (or post) entries. These are listed in reverse chronological order (i.e. from most recent to oldest), found under the link “BLOG ENTRIES” on the right-hand side navigation panel. There is also a search function, and a calendar with the dates highlighted for dates with blog entries. There is also a Tag Cloud, which I’ve used to tag each blog entry – the bigger the tag, the more that particular tag got used.

Feedback on this blog most welcomed! – only starting out on this, and would love to see if this is a useful reflective tool for my writing (so far, I think it is!)