Blogs and Podcasts…revisioning
I’ve changed direction, again, on my dissertation. If you’ve been reading along you know that I dropped the blogs and wikis from my research fearing that the science would be messy. Not only that but the environment would also be messy and hard to isolate which factor would be superseding the others. The decision was not an easy one and it came with the cost of continuing to stew about the course change.
Admittedly, this has been a bit disabling. It is not easy to wonder if you made the right decision all the time and more difficult to separate the legitimate rationale for making another change from the invalid second guessing. I finally took some time away from my job to focus on myself and my work vs. them and their work (been feeling a little like they’re leeches lately). My reflections led me to recall an interview I gave recently about Web 2.0 and working environments. I don’t claim to be as much an expert as the few who are but I do consider myself a student of the phenomenon.
During the interview I remarked that blogs and podcasts are often seen together and rarely will you see a podcast without some sort of blogging component. I’ve never heard or used the phrase someone podcasted me back but have talked about people leaving comments or linkbacks to my posts. At the time I didn’t give it much thought but as the month wore on I really thought about that quip. Was there something to that? Could I combine the two and drop, what felt like a third wheel even at the beginning, wikis?
I inquired to my mentor. Our discussions led us to the conclusions that yes I could do anything I like and that the results will simply report what happens when you use blogs and podcasts together. I felt better about that. As such, I revisioned my dissertation to include blogs with podcasting. Now, I am writing up the thinking into a draft form so I can move forward.
The problem statement might need to change too. I am feeling that the problem might not be the ineffectiveness of classroom learning (although I feel that is a problem) but instead be the adoption of blogs and podcasts in corporate learning and no measurement on learning when using these technologies. I see a lot in terms of Kirkpatrick’s Level 1 and little in terms of measuring learning (Level 2), transfer (Level 3), or ROI (Level 4). All of this means, that I will be looking for some evidence to support what I feel is a problem (and of course, weighing the contrary evidence saying it is not a problem).
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