Par for the Course

An Overview of My Time in Inquiry-Based Research Methods

DRIVING FOR DISTANCE

This semester was a first for me, where I decided to try taking two courses while still working full time. The previous semester was during the summer, where as an educator I was off for about 3 months, so two courses was not as demanding and I was able to manage my time quite easily. This semester was a bit different. The last 8 weeks have required much more attention, but this course brought an interest out of me I did not know I had. Research was something I thought was boring and wasn't necessarily worth much of my time, and through graduate school I developed a mediocre skill of skimming through articles to gather the info needed for work so that I could back up my arguments with facts. However, this course changed all of that for me over the first 4 to 5 weeks. I have a newfound appreciation and intrigue for research and how it is written. I expect the love of actual research is soon to follow.

PITCHING OUT OF THE ROUGH

I will be honest, I was NOT looking forward to all of the reading and taking quizzes over assigned readings in a book about how research is formatted and why. I knew this would be a challenge for me because I struggle with reading monotonous information, and then having to complete a quiz caused a bit of anxiety for me. Fortunately I have the mentality of completing tasks placed before me for the betterment of the future of my family and myself, mostly developed from my time in the military. Another challenge for me was writing in formats I have no experience in, but because I enjoy writing, I was somewhat looking forward to it. Through all of that, I was able to overcome my anxieties by being able to research and write about a topic I am passionate about: Digital Citizenship. After gaining an understanding of research methods and analyzing research articles through a topic I find interest in, I was able to overcome the anxiousness I previously felt.

SINKING THE PUTT

Three of the many outcomes I took from this course all involve writing and research. The first of which comes from assignments that tasked me with analyzing research articles. Through this I found an understanding with how to develop an analysis on research and understand the types of research conducted based on the hypothesis and topics being studied. It helped me find new ways of looking at the information, and looking forward to analyzing research. The second outcome is writing a literature review and what all it entails. Having experienced the process of writing a literature review, I have a new respect for researchers, because there is so much work and time that goes into it. Not only that, but the impact it has for future development can be enormous. The last outcome I will mention is the encouragement I now have for developing my own research, which I am looking forward to completing. I never imagined for myself wanting to conduct research, but I am excited to conduct research on topics such as digital citizenship and its impact on political events like elections, and the bridging of the digital divide.

LOOKING FORE-WARD

Having learned new skills from this course and gaining a better understanding of research, I plan to conduct future research for the study of impacts on elections and the bridging of the digital divide through digital citizenship. Not only do I find these topics intriguing, but I am passionate about them, and I hope to impact these areas of study for the development and understanding of today's digital society.

Below is my first conducted literature review

literature review capstone FINAL.docx

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